Damage Control

by Eric Alan Williams

  A man in a white tux came into the old pub; first, there were a few with him, then seven more, all dressed in white. Xairin watched as Lilith turned her head and uttered. "OH SHIT!" He watched through Damien's memories as she got up first and rushed to the door. He saw through Damien's memories as she ripped two men apart, gutting them with her claws while Damien tossed the briefcase and all the paperwork he had into the fireplace.

  He watched and could feel how Damien felt and moved. He phased to avoid being hit and then returned to deliver his own attacks. Damien leaped up to pull a sword off the mantle above the fireplace and defended the fire until six rushed him. He moved quickly until one of them discharged energy that Xairin had never seen before. It was purple. It flowed from one of the men's hands and stunned Damien but only briefly.

  Lilith began drawing blood through the air. Each man in the room felt that attack. It slowed each of the grand alphas that the most distinguished of the group had brought. Xairin could see one man becoming mummified before his very eyes from her aerial attack. Lilith was killing them all except the leader. He heard Lilith call out, "KILL LUCIFER DRAC!"

  Xairin watched as Lilith did a backflip while holding onto one of the men's arms, twisting it and ripping it off. She ducked as one took a swipe at her. She came up quickly with what looked like an uppercut, but it wasn't. It was a mauling upper swing, gutting the man, from his groin to his chin, and then spinning around and punching through another man's chest, ripping his heart out and tossing it aside.

  One of the men in white began to morph. His white clothing ripping as his gargoyle body emerged. He put his hand out, Xairin could see flames swirling around the man's hand as he manipulated the air atoms round his hand to speed up their vibrations until he manipulated into being, a fireball. He threw it at Lilith. She simply stuck her palm out and sent it back at him with a telekinetic wave. The man was stunned briefly, giving her just enough time to rush over to him. She ran around him, grasping his horns and pulling. She ripped them from his head. She jabbed one down as he reached for the bloody stumps. He was killed by his own horn. The second horn she used as a stake and shoved it into a new arrival's left eye socket, killing him instantly.

  She went into another aerial blood drain attack as others began coming through the door.

  Damien pushed off and began disemboweling the ones resisting her aerial blood drain. Lucifer, however, stood there. The man and vibrated the air atoms around him and was surrounded by a wall of flame, forming into a perfect shield, a bubble.

  One of the men being drained by her attack, in a final act as he was becoming nothing but a dehydrated husk, dropped a small ball onto the ground that exploded into a purple gas.

  Lilith and Damien killed every last man dressed in the white suit, but the gas got them. The humans in the pub fell out quickly, dropping like flies that had been exposed to bug spray. Xairin could tell that the humans there died almost instantly. As for the man in the fire bubble. He could tell that the flame was burning off whatever it was that came out of that metallic sphere. He could feel Damien's concerns over his family.

  Xairin was in a slight state of denial when Helena reported the facts that his mother was still living. Now that he was in Damien's head and seeing the information for himself. That caused quite a different reaction. Realizing that his mother's tomb was empty, and everything else Damien had learned, Xairin felt cheated even more so now, and the fact that his grandmother Sara was alive all this time, and his mother is alive and probably being with her, caused him to fume. It was Damien's feelings of loss, grief, and hoping that he protected that secret by tossing everything he had, into that fireplace that snapped Xairin out of it as he could feel his grandfather passing out from inhaling the gas. He withdrew his pull.

  Xairin took a deep breath and walked over to sit down on the cot. Damien sat in the chair beside him. Having already been on an emotional rollercoaster, Xairin was shaking inside.

  "There is your answer."

  Xairin looked up at him, crying. "My mom might be alive too?"

  Damien nodded. "I found your family crypt."

  Xairin slowly nodded while he wiped tears away. "I saw that in the pull." He was choking up. His throat felt tight as his anxiety, sadness, and anger fought against one another. "If they're alive, why would they just leave me behind like that?"

  Damien wanted to hug him. This was his grandson. A grandchild that he felt cheated in never knowing about. The vampire felt as if time was more precious than ever now. Like he needed to make up for years of lost time. He felt like he needed to feel that sand in the hourglass that he never got to see fall. He was at a loss for saying much. "I guess they were trying to protect you."

  "By fucking abandoning me?"

  Xairin teared up. His heart was breaking as it thudded in his chest. "I had to age out of the fucking foster care system. I had no one, not fucking connection to anyone except a droid. It took me years to get over losing my family, and now, I find out that. OH HEY! YOU GOT TONS OF FUCKING FAMILY AND THE SHIT KICKER! YOUR MOM'S ALIVE!" His tone became increasingly sarcastic. "AND SHE UP AND LEAVES YOU HIGH AND DRY WITHOUT AS MUCH AS A FUCKING… OH yeah, you're part vampire…"

  He wept. "AND I LOST MY DROID. K2. He's with another family now." Xairin felt like he was having a seizure inside his body. His heart was quivering, his lungs were spasming from the news. His blood was rushing till his body felt hot and tingling. He laid back fast. "Everything I have ever been through could have been avoided had my mom taken me with her."

  Damien didn't know what to do. He had five children in his long life. He had four sons. Three that died in combat. A dhampir son that died of old age, and a daughter that he never got to know. The deaths of his three vampire sons strained the relationships with Evette, Lulia, and Helena. All three sisters had given birth to just one child each, the three sons that perished in combat over the years. Damien had trouble being intimate with them after the losses which were part of the reason, they were jealous of Lilith.

  Feeling loss, that was something Damien did know. He reached out and pressed his left hand on Xairin's shoulder. "I know that you're just now meeting me, and I realize this is a lot very quickly, but you are my grandson."

  Xairin looked over at the man. "I felt how you did when you threw that case into the fire. I know that you were trying to do anything you could to keep me a secret. I felt how cheated you feel." Xairin blinked as he wiped away more tears. "The only people I have ever had to keep me going after I thought every member of my family died in that Hovercar crash have been my friends and my droid K2. Finding out that I have had family all this time… It is overwhelming."

  Xairin sat up in his bed and looked over at the man sitting beside him. "I didn't even know I was a dhampling. I have had to find out all this shit on my own." He took a deep breath. Since the beginning, Xairin wished he had his mother, father, or his siblings to talk to, especially with what happened in the sewer. He longed so much for that connection, and someone closer than a friend to confide in. He started crying heavily. "All I wanted the night I woke up to being what I am, was my mom, or my dad, or my brother and sister there with me to talk to."

  Damien looked at his grandson's tears. Damien wanted to cry himself but tried to be strong. Feeling cheated as he did, made seeing his own flesh and blood sobbing like this even harder for him.

  Xairin was sniffling badly. He had wanted to talk to someone so badly about what happened. Sure, he had friends, but it just wasn't the same. He longed for family. Feeling what Damien had felt when he had those papers in his possession, caused a dam to break. "I was drugged and kidnapped the night I was turned. Six men I think beat me and sodomized me with a glass bottle for being gay." He started sobbing heavier. "They stomped my stomach so that bottle would shatter inside me. They were about to cut my head off with a huge ax after they thought I had suffered enough. If it weren't for me bleeding so badly, that bat would have never found me and scared those bastards off." Xairin looked at the b
ottom of the cot and held himself. "All I wanted was my mom, or my dad, or someone there when I woke up in isolation to talk to. I have had to come to terms with all of this on my own while I was there" He looked at Damien. Damien hadn't pulled that part from him. All he could do was sit there with eyes wide open looking at his grandson. "I'm still not over it. I keep having flashbacks at times. Certain things trigger it. Hell, just last night I had a flashback." His crying started to slow to a whimper. "In quarantine I had no one to really talk to, no family to call. I was there on my own, dealing with this in the back of my head." He looked back at Damien. "I had councilors to talk to, but it just isn't the same. I never in my life wanted my family alive so badly until this all happened. Now…" He lost control and couldn't stop crying.

  Damien was cautious. Instinctively, he reached out slowly, and pulled Xairin closer to him, holding his grandson for the first time, under circumstances that he wished were different.

  Damien held tightly as Xairin cried. "Here I am, spilling my guts out to someone I don't even know."

  His great grandfather took a deep breath. "If you will let me, I want to know you."

  Damien tried not to growl, or let his anger get the better of him as he attempted to comfort his great-grandchild for the first time. Lilith, giving up as she did, made him angrier than ever, knowing what had happened to his own flesh and blood.

  Xairin was calming down more. His words were not as shaky. "Do you know where my mom is?"

  Damien shook his head. "Not exactly."

  "Have you met her yet?" Xairin asked.

  "No…"

  Xairin sniffled as he wiped away his tears with his left hand. "I don't think I want to see her when you find her. Leaving me like that, and everything else I have dealt with. I just don't think I am ready for that."

  Damien could understand that, but there was an issue. He wanted to approach the problem with the throne, but Xairin was in no shape for that to be laid on him, not yet.

  "Would you be comfortable coming and staying at my mansion? It is heavily guarded, and I can assure you are safe there."

  Xairin shook his head. "I just met you. I just told you more than I ever expected to tell anyone. I get it. You are related to me, and I could feel how you think you need to make up for all of that lost time, but I have a place. My alpha, Ethan. I'm safe there and when I'm here."

  Damien nodded. "I will honor whatever you wish, but I would like to offer you any protection you need."

  Xairin sighed. "I just want to feel safe and have some semblance of a normal life." He stuttered. "I joined the Sentinel program because some gorgons and gargoyles kept coming after me. I, uh, killed one in quarantine. He attacked and was holding a kid hostage. I guess I let my instincts lead me that night. After that, I've been attacked twice, once in my own apartment which got me evicted, not for defending myself, but for just being what I am, and then again on a date, which ruined my chances with someone, I honestly felt... I felt like it was too good to be true, and then the gargoyle showed up and chased away the first guy to really make me feel like I was special..."

  "You do have friends, though, right?"

  Xairin nodded. "My best friends, Rory, and Topher. I kinda shut them out a little when I got out of quarantine. I was processing so much, I felt guilty laying everything I had been through on them. They thought I was dead until one day I ran into Rory while I was out and about. Being in quarantine, they would only contact the next of kin, so nobody knew I was even alive. So, showing up just felt like a bad idea, you know. Since they didn't know I was alive. It was quite a shock to them, I guess."

  Damien nodded. "I can see where that would be a shock."

  Xairin adjusted his body. Damien let go and slowly went back to sitting across from him. "I know this doesn't sound like much, but had I known about you. Even when you were a dhampling. I have still fought to be in your life."

  Damien looked forward. "Where I come from, a family is everything."

  Damien and Xairin spent several hours talking. Despite just meeting Damien, Xairin felt a sense of relief getting some of his issues off his shoulders. It also felt good having someone that he was related to talk to. It was weird for Xairin in one way, having a great grandfather that looked close to his own age, but at the same time, after pulling from him, he felt a connection that gave Xairin a feeling of belonging.

  Chapter 19

  It had been twelve hours since Peggy had arrived back at the mansion. After a good rest, Ethan, Peggy, and Justin were sitting in a study on the first floor of the estate, gathered around a marble table. The bite siblings were talking about the future while each one was drinking blood. Justin was drinking from a coffee mug, Ethan, a wine glass, while Peggy was drinking straight from the bag as if it were a juice box.

  Lulia entered the room yawning. “Has Sara arrived yet?”

  Peggy shook her head. “No, not yet.”

  “Do you have a way of contacting her? I can’t be waiting around much longer. The council will be convening soon and deliberate on what is to become of Erissa Golidesh.”

  Ethan looked shocked. “As in councilor Golidesh?”

  Lulia nodded. “One in the same.”

  Ethan had to know what was going on. Hoping that the revelation of them being a branch of House Dracul, he hoped she would divulge the details or at least something. “May I inquire what is going on?”

  Lulia shrugged as she sat down at the end of the table. She adjusted herself to appear as proper as she could present herself. “Erissa Golidesh, Lucifer’s sister, has been conspiring with the very sibling we fight against.”

  Ethan gasped. “Are you serious?”

  Lulia nodded. “Several of the grand alphas peered into her mind and confirmed it. Lucifer was to arrange an agent we have yet to identify, place a tracker on Lilith’s personal transport, find her, and capture her, and then have his sister make a move for the throne.”

  Peggy looked at Lulia, “Who’s the agent?”

  Lulia shrugged. “I told you, the agent has yet to be identified. Not even his sister knows. So, there is danger still among the council.”

  The two adjoining metal doors with a phoenix intricately designed into the black metal began to open wide to the study entrance. A radiant redheaded woman wearing black leather pants, combat boots, and a black leather halter top entered the room. She was followed by another redheaded woman, much taller, and appearing to be close to the same age. A young blond man came behind them, each was wearing black. Sara called out as she strode right in. “Or it is an agent working from inside House Ninlil.”

  Lulia slowly stood up. Sara was shorter than Lilith, but she was a dead ringer for Ninlil’s current face. Lulia gasped. Ethan, Peggy, and Justin each looked in awe. They could all smell the power brimming in the three, standing in front of them.

  Cecilia had regained twenty years of youth from her transformation. Her brother looked as if he had regressed to an 18-year-old. Like Xairin, they converted faster than expected, being more vampire than Xairin was, they emerged from the rebirth state in less than four hours after completing the mission they had set off to do. Their father was still at home, turning.

  Peggy looked confused as she reached out with her senses. “They were dhampirs just yesterday?”

  Sara looked at Peggy. “We went hunting after you left and finally managed to track one of the infected bats down in South America. It bit them.”

  Vaughn scoffed. “We tried Mexico, but apparently one of the damage control teams beat us to the nest we heard reports on in the news.”

  Lulia looked at each of them. “Are you saying you were dhampirs?”

  Cecilia crossed her arms. “Now we’re grand alphas.” She looked at her mother. “I guess you could say power runs in the family.”

  Peggy walked over to Lulia, “Sara, this is Lulia Dolenigan, the Grand Adjudicator appointed by the council.”

  Sara acknowledged her with a smug look.

  Sara looked around the room. “W
here’s Xairin?”

  Lulia bowed. She felt compelled to knowing whose daughter Sara was. She looked up slowly. “I have been texting Damien Winters. Your father… He is with Xairin as we speak.”

  Cecilia looked at her mother. “Damien Winters?”

  Sara looked at Lulia. “Why are you bowing?” She then looked at Cecilia. “Vlad Tepes is Damien Winters.” She looked back at Lulia. “Apparently he is my father.”

  Lulia stood up slowly. “You are the heir to three thrones; it is only right to bow to you.”

  Peggy looked at Sara. “You went hunting bats?”

  Sara walked over. The back of her halter top clearly gave a full view of her crescent moon birthmark. Lulia saw it as Sara passed her. Sara crossed her arms. “After your visit and finding out that Xairin had been converted into being a pureblood, my children and I had some rather lengthy discussions and decided to find out if it worked on dhampirs. I need my children to be strong enough to protect themselves.” She eyed everyone individually. “My children rebirthed in less than a few hours after we returned to my home with the bat we captured.”