by C. T. Phipps
Self-hating vampires were the worst.
“I'm sorry, David,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “Forgive me.”
He didn't respond, of course, because he was dead.
Jumping Jack Flash then spoke, the last voice I expected to hear. “Yep, right where I saw him. I hate being right.”
“Shut up and help me get him into the truck,” Kali's voice spoke next.
“As you wish. This isn't going to keep the Network from being destroyed, you realize.”
“Right now, I'm just trying to prove we're better than what Renaud is trying to make us.”
I would have smiled, but I knew Kali was going to take me right to Thoth, which played into Renaud's hands.
“What about the servant?” Jumping Jack Flash asked, surprisingly coherent.
“Him too. I have some questions to ask his ghost.”
His what?
Chapter Eighteen
Vampires don’t dream. When the sun rises, we feel an urge to find some place cold and dark before we die. That’s the only way to describe it. A vampire in the daytime is as dead as a guy in a coffin—no pun intended—although it is possible for a few things to awaken them out of sheer survival instinct. We don't return to life—unlife—until the sun sets. With my blood curdling from the wound I’d received, I was as good as dead.
But I dreamed.
It was yet another one of my insipid flashbacks. I was starting to wonder if they were related to my time-manipulation powers, powers that had conspicuously failed to do jack and shit against Renaud. It was a meeting with Thoth back when I was still a newborn vampire trying to find my way in the world. The two of us were meeting in a back booth of the Apophis's largest restaurant.
Both of us had ordered coffee with an extra mug. The whole “swish and spit” thing was kind of disgusting, but I had to admit the flavors a vampire tongue could pick up on were amazing. I'd once accidentally swallowed, though, and spent an hour dry-heaving. It was enough that I rarely bothered to try and taste what I'd left behind.
“I want you to infiltrate the Network,” Thoth said, his voice casual. “I didn't think that would be a hard concept to understand.”
I shook my head. “I'm just wondering why the hell I would do a thing like that.”
It had been three months since the last of the Network Riots, and the war had settled down. The Network had completely surrendered New Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, and a bunch of other cities to the Vampire Nation. The terms negotiated would provide large amounts of supernatural labor for the building of New Detroit as well as long-term labor contracts for future projects. There were other concessions too, things involving contracts written in blood as well as robed torchlight ceremonies. I hated robed torchlight ceremonies.
“Please tell me you're not still upset about your financial situation,” Thoth said, dismissing me with about the same level of disdain as John Hammond had for Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park. God, I had to stop watching sci-fi movies with my new roommate. David was a cool guy, but he had to realize there were other things than TV in this world. Speaking of which, was that Terrance Howard? Awesome. I needed to go over there and say hello.
I needed to give Thoth the business first, though. “You mean the fact you make me immortal and then fire me? As well as tell no other businesses in Detroit to hire me?”
“I said not to hire you in businesses I run,” Thoth said. “Not to not hire you at all.”
“You run half of New Detroit and the other half is scared of you.”
“You flatter me.”
“Why did you fire me, T?” I asked, genuinely confused. “It's been a pretty hellish three months going from Armani suits to blue jeans and t-shirts again.”
The worst—or best—part of it was the Network had been there for me. Even though it had lost the majority of its funding, hundreds of members, and had been through the ringer financially. It had carried on its mission to help the supernaturals of Detroit.
That had included me.
I'd also met a hot young firebrand named Elisha.
I thought we’d had something.
Thoth looked introspective. “To be honest, I think of it as a sort of test. It's all too easy to come to take for granted the perks of immortality and assume they are rights rather than privileges. Unlike most vampires, I had to build myself up from nothing. I want to give you the opportunity to do the same.”
Great. He'd done it because he'd wanted to teach me a lesson about appreciating what I had. Goddammit. “Then allow me to give you the opportunity of being told to piss off. Oh right, we don't do that anymore. The Network has my back.”
Thoth smiled, which showed he was different from just about every other Old One. “Fond of your Network associates now, are you?”
“Yeah, well, they don't know that. You guys did a real number on them.”
“That was the plan, yes. They wanted to carve an equal society here in New Detroit where every supernatural had his or her own say in the way our businesses and government are run.”
“Yeah, those monsters,” I said, shaking my head. “How awful of them.”
“Yes,” Thoth said. “Because we are not a nation of equals. Every Old One has proven the ability to survive immense changes in history, society, and culture. They have also survived a society built on dog-eat-dog principles. The fact that they had a fortune that appeared large enough to bail out the United States—”
“What do you mean ‘appeared’?”
Thoth ignored that comment. “—is all part of their display. I have seen the tyranny of the majority every bit as well as the tyranny of the few and prefer the latter.”
“Only because you're one of the few.”
“Indeed.” Thoth didn't deny it. “But if a man is going to destroy my life, I want it to be because he personally hates me and not because he wants to sign a bill into law that says all vampires must be staked or all of my assets should be shared with the poor.”
“Even it was made on the backs of the poor,” I said.
“It is easy to rob the poor,” Thoth said. “Less so to work with them, as I have tried to do. It is easy to see the underdog as the hero, but a man who is eaten by starving wolves is no less the victim, especially when they could hunt for food together.”
“I'm leaving. I don't have time for this Obi-Wan crap.”
“The Network is a branch of the Vampire Nation. I fund ninety-percent of its activities in Michigan.”
I stared at him. “You son of a bitch.”
“The Network Riots were necessary.”
“You got hundreds of people killed,” I said, staring at him. “You're dead to me.”
“I am already dead,” Thoth said. “I did not incite the riots, merely took advantage of the fact every dollar they spent came from me as well as the fact that the organization was littered with spies. The Bailout resulted in an unprecedented amount of pressure on the Vampire Nation to bring to heel those who had come out of the coffin.”
“Don't quote True Blood at me.”
“The simple fact was that we needed everyone on the same page for a singular set of laws to apply to us all. The Network was created to direct the voices of the supernatural masses so they could campaign for issues the Old Ones agreed with.”
“They're your Tea Party. There to get the voters all enthused before you vote on the same old shit you want while letting them think you changed everything.”
“Essentially, yes.”
“Then how did we get to the Riots?”
“I was overruled,” Thoth said, frowning. “The Council of Ancients wanted a war to justify killing as many poor and weak-blooded supernaturals as possible.”
“Fuck those assholes.”
“It was to prevent the United States from ordering a general purge of us all.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“We have spent one hundred and twenty years playing the long game,” Thoth said, frowning. “Ever since Vlad came up with the
idea of using his vanity project to make vampires look heroic. Revelation was inevitable from the time the first photographs and voice recordings appeared, so we wanted it to happen on our terms. Even so, when we finally revealed ourselves, the United States government barely voted down a secret measure to test all citizens for supernatural blood, then execute the positives. Regardless of whether they were dangerous forms of supernaturals or not. From psychics to demonkind.”
“You serious?”
“As death, Peter, yes. As so many minorities have learned over the course of history, money is not power. It can certainly make your life easier, but it cannot protect you from the truly committed bigot.”
“This still doesn't explain the Network slaughter.”
“We do not have our own court system and legal code because we want to protect the Vampire Nation's power base,” Thoth said, before correcting himself. “Not entirely, at least. It's to keep the United States from being able to judge us. They are not our peers, let alone a jury of them. To achieve that sort of separate—”
“But equal status?”
“Ha ha,” Thoth said, not at all amused. “We had to make compromises. That included regulating our kind with a firm hand.”
“That was mass murder, not regulation.”
Thoth sighed. “Yes, it was. It was a war the Network couldn't hope to win, but still drew out all of the fools who thought the government was their friend rather their enemy. Things are silent for now, especially with the Network, and will allow us to solidify our position. That includes keeping our numbers low, numbers that exploded when everyone and their uncle was begging their newly revealed vampire friends to be changed.”
“Sounds like we're doing the government's work for it.”
“We are,” Thoth said, baring one of his fangs in distaste. “Don't think for a second I don't loathe each and every one of the actions undertaken. I also think the Council of Ancients betrayed their people by letting the weakest of our kind be fed to the wolves to save their own skins. To make us look like we were their lackeys, which was exactly what we were. I've arranged for the ruination and death of only a quarter of the government officials who voted for the extermination of our kind, but I'm confident I'll eventually get to them all. Patience is the key.”
My eyes widened as I remembered the plane crash that had killed a half-dozen senators along with their staffs, plus the unusually high number of sex scandals that had resulted in the torching of wholesale sections of the Democratic as well as Republican parties.
“Damn,” I said.
“Take your revenge cold,” Thoth said. “It is finer that way.”
“You a Klingon, T?”
Thoth looked at me confused.
“Never mind,” I said. “So you want me to help you lead the Network to slaughter? Screw that.”
“The Network has already been slaughtered,” Thoth said, looking ill. “The Remnant is what concerns us now. There are still many in the City Council alone who would like to see them eradicated to the last and intend to play them off against other gangs.”
“Who?” I said, growling.
A light seemed to dawn past Thoth's eyes. “Ah, this is about a woman … or man.”
“Woman,” I said. “Not that there's anything wrong with the other. I mean, if you're into that. Which I'm not.”
“If you say so.” Thoth gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “I have my preferences as well, albeit everything goes during the Danse Macabre.”
Ah, yes. The yearly vampire social.
Thoth continued. “I do believe we have some responsibility to the Young Bloods and lesser supernatural races.”
“Lesser races?”
“It's not biased if it's accurate,” Thoth said. “I want you to steer them away from conflict if you can and report on them to me. The others will try and manipulate them into war, and I'd like to see them survive until the New Dusk.”
I frowned. “It sounds like you're trying to convince me I'm doing them a favor by spying on them.”
“You are,” Thoth said. “But you'll also be paid for it.”
I was silent. I hated myself for what I asked after about a minute. “How much?”
The number was right.
“So much for earning my way on my own,” I muttered.
“This will be earning it,” Thoth said, coolly. “It requires a special kind of resolve to lie, cheat, and steal from those you care for while still caring for them. It's not a kind of attitude I enjoyed cultivating, but it's helped me survive.”
“At what cost?”
“Too high at times,” Thoth replied. “Are you in or are you out?”
“In,” I muttered, drinking my coffee then spitting it right back out into the mug. “Damn you.”
“Good.”
“Why do you care so much about all this either way?” I asked. “The government, the Network, all of it.”
“That is a story for another time,” Thoth said. “But as much as I hate humans, I also love them. We are the product of their clay. I have suffered unimaginable indignities at their hands and known great loves. I have no cause to love the United States government, let alone the other countries of the world where vampirism is outright banned, but we will need them as well as the Young Bloods in the decades ahead.”
“Something else happening?”
“Perhaps,” Thoth said, a distant look in his eyes. “There have been stirrings in the astral plane and underground. The modern vampire race is only eight thousand years old, starting with Lamia. There are older things than us, though. Ancient horrors that built cities as farms and created genetic bottlenecks with the endlessness of their hungers. If kept propagated, they remain quiescent, but I fear they will not remain so indefinitely. We must be prepared for them.”
“Wow, that got dark.”
“The Elder Gods are a dark topic,” Thoth replied. “At least state-sponsored mass murder is something I have familiarity with. Humanity never seems to get over that one.”
Elisha arrived moments later, wearing a stunning red dress and pumps, a sharp contrast to her usual attire—something she was wearing to impress me. She sat down beside me and did her best to keep her disgust at Thoth's presence from showing on her face.
“Hello,” Elisha said. “So, you're Peter's jerk-ass creator.”
“In the flesh,” Thoth said, not at all perturbed by her.
“What were you two discussing?” Elisha asked.
“How the Vampire Nation is secretly keeping Cthulhu under wraps,” I said, already feeling like a traitor.
Elisha kissed me, I kissed back.
Thoth got up from the table. “I was never a fan of H. P. Lovecraft's writings. Enormous racist. I do have a small fondness for Robert E. Howard, though. If you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to.”
I told Elisha a story about how Thoth was trying to get me to leave her association because it wasn't good for me to be seen hanging with the Network. I also told her I'd told him to take a flying leap into the sun. The lying came easy to me and would continue to do so for the next year or so of our relationship.
I deserved everything Elisha wanted to do to me, but her plan with Renaud, whatever it was, wasn't going to work. They might slaughter all of the city's Old Ones and maybe a couple of Ancient Ones visiting from Romania, but they wouldn't be able to get them all. It would result in the destruction of all the Network in retaliation—probably their families too.
I had to stop it.
That was when I woke up in a room filled with sunlight.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up on the ground in the middle of a room filled with daylight. For a brief second I thought I was going to die, until I realized all of the daylight was streaming down from UV lamps enhanced with magic and formed a perfect square in the center of the room. None of it was directly touching me, but it was still enough to freak me the hell out. I mean, imagine being surrounded in every direction by fire. That's how sunlight felt
to a vampire.
I recognized the Cage of Ra, which is what this particular device was called. It was a device for keeping vampires subdued until they could be transported for judgment on their various crimes. Given there were only a few laws in the Vampire Nation and almost all of them carried the death penalty, this was less a holding cell and more death row.
I remembered all of the events with Renaud in rapid succession, recalling the horror of watching David killed before my eyes and being helpless to do anything about it. Worse, I knew when they interrogated me I would say I was helping Renaud the entire time. I'd say Thoth was involved and probably implicate a bunch of other people I liked.
That was the nature of my command. It was in my head, buried there, an impossible-to-ignore directive like Robocop being unable to arrest a senior employee of OCP. Which doesn't count as a sci-fi movie but as a Detroit movie.
God, I was going to miss David.
I ran my fingers over my chest and found someone had carved the corrupted flesh off my chest. I still felt weak from the Tooth of Azazel's (God, that was a stupid name) touch, but I wasn't starving for blood either. I noted a couple of holes in my arm and I guessed they had given me a few IVs to make sure I recovered.
So they could kill me themselves.
Standing up, I took a deep breath to power my shout. “Hey! I'm awake in here! I need to talk to someone!”
Nothing happened.
Great.
I turned out to be impatient, though, because a door opened in the wall and Jumping Jack Flash walked in. He was wearing a long white trench coat, his fedora with a little red feather, and a white puffy shirt with black leather pants. He had a pair of sunglasses on to protect him from the sunlight he was standing in.
Not a vampire then. Bloodsworn? Shapechanger? What was he?
“Great, another round of absolute insane drivel from the bar fly pimp,” I muttered looking down.