Dark Temptations

by Eric Alan Williams

  Xairin had a walk-in closet that had an escape hatch like the closet on the first floor, and like the rest of the house, the flooring and walls continued to match. Xairin noticed a large mirror in the room, and a walk-in bathroom, with a grey theme. It had black marbled walls around the jacuzzi tub. This one was V-shaped, giving ample room for two to three people to relax comfortably while eight jets above, awaited the owner’s first use for when they took their maiden shower. He noticed a pedestal sink, an LED-lit vanity mirror, toilet, and several shelves built into the walls. “This will do.”

  Jason scoffed. “This will do? This is like a king's bathroom man. The house, wow, is all I can say.”

  “Let's go back downstairs and meet in the kitchen,” Damien said.

  Damien walked off while Jason grabbed Xairin close. “Man, this is pretty extravagant, don’t you think?”

  “Too much?” Xairin asked with a frown.

  Jason nodded. “I’m not used to this, I guess. I guess it's really sinking in that I’m attempting to date a prince is all.”

  Xairin gave him a reassuring look. “I can’t help who I come from. I have to admit, I’m still getting used to all of this too. Do you think you can handle this?”

  Jason nodded. “I want to. I mean, I knew coming here, that you're one of the heirs, I guess just seeing all of this, it's setting in. I want to, I do. Besides, aside from some mind-blowing sex, you make me feel good.”

  Xairin smirked. “I hope it's more than just the sex, sure it’s great, and yeah, I would say the multiple orgasm thing is a bit of a mind blow, but a relationship is more than just being in bed all day.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Jason replied with a warm smile.

  Xairin smiled. “Well then, let's go back downstairs with grandpa monster.”

  Back in the kitchen, Damien was opening the refrigerator, which he had taken the liberty of stocking. He handed Xairin a bottle of “I can’t believe it's not Hemoglobin, B-”

  “I'm pretty sure if I recall, you like B blood types?”

  Xairin nodded. “Sure do, wow, I tried this the other night.”

  Damien smiled. “The walk-in cooler and freezer, both have several cases. I figured we could go that route since it has a longer shelf life than the cloned stuff.”

  “How much property do I have?”

  Damien shrugged with a grin. “Six hundred acres. It is slowly being fenced in with a nano-ant constructed wall. There is a pond on the property, and assault wasps, two hundred of them, hiding in the trees in case you need additional aerial assistance.”

  “Assault Wasps?” Xairin asked.

  Arcaidus spoke through a speaker in the room. “Designed to look like brown wasps roughly three feet in length. They are capable of shooting a concentrated laser beam from the thorax. At close range, the stinger, designed by yours truly, has a retractable six-inch silver curved blade.”

  “They are duel functioning, aside from combat, they are much like nano-ants. They can assist in the repair and expansion process.” The A.I added.

  Xairin frowned. “I guess.”

  “Well, we are supposed to go to the amusement park tonight. We should probably get going.” Xairin added.

  Damien spoke up. “Jason? Right?”

  Jason nodded. “Yes, Mr. Winters.”

  “Would you mind going out on the back porch, I need to speak with Xairin just a moment.”

  Jason nodded and opened a sliding door made of Translumite. Once he was outside, he couldn’t hear anything going on. All he could do was enjoy the enclosed back porch that was part of both the greenhouse and the swimming pool. Jason noticed the pool outline; it was shaped like two ovals conjoined at the tips, along with another hot tub being constructed. He stood there for a moment and then sat down on a black metal chair beside a table.

  “One more thing. Before you go, you do need to pick out some themes on this tablet for me to have delivered and set up to finish furnishing the rooms. Also, there is another matter of additional funds.”

  “Additional funds?” Xairin asked.

  Damien nodded. “You are my great-grandson, and I want to make sure that if the society ever fell, you are more than taken care of. Would you mind logging into your bank account?”

  Damien added. You, your mother, your uncle, and my daughter, have each received funding. A gift, and there is no saying no to it, so do not even try.”

  Xairin logged into his account. His eyes bulged. “WHAT?!”

  A deposit of 2,500,000,000 had been added to his account list, a savings account, with a 1.8% monthly interest rate. Xairin was in disbelief. “I can’t accept this, Damien.”

  “I would like for you to start calling me Grandfather, and you will accept it. It is a gift, as is this home. If our society ever fell, I need to know that my family is taken care of. I would expect even more funding once Lilith is freed.”

  “Okay, fine, grandfather, but I’ve never in my life seen this much currency. I mean, this is way a bit much.”

  Damien rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Xairin I have nine accounts with the Global Alliance Bank, the smallest account I have has sixty-eight billion still in it, living forever gives you the ability to invest and live long enough to see your fortunes triple over and over again. This is a gift, and I will accept no refusals.”

  “Wait, did you say, the monthly percentage rate is 1.8%? Xairin gasped, that’s a monthly roll over, of over forty-five million?”

  Damien smiled. “Yes, I did. It has a monthly percentage rate, when you have this much funding, annual percentage rates no longer apply. Thankfully, since the GA’s creation of a far superior banking market, it makes living of the interest a lot easier.”

  Damien grinned. “I want my family taken care of.” Damien leaned against the counter. “The checking account, I have it fixed to where you can’t touch the principal, only the roll over, which rolls directly into a separate checking account every thirty days.”

  “Why would I ever even need to touch that much money?” Xairin asked.

  Damien smiled. “Just in case, anyways, here is the tablet. Pick out your furniture sets, and I will have them delivered and installed over the next few days. Take your time, while I go outside to get to know, I am assuming, I should refer to him as your boyfriend? It is official?”

  Xairin shrugged. “I would say dating, but yeah, heading towards boyfriend pretty quickly, I guess.”

  Xairin took the tablet from Damien and sat down on a stool along the counter. He started swiping through bedroom suits, starting with those first. “Man, this is going to take longer than I expected.”

  “Arcaidus, there is a basement, right?” Xairin asked.

  Arcaidus appeared. “The receiving room, there was another door Damien had yet to show you. There is a large-sized basement under the house, which is separate from the bomb shelter.”

  “Arcaidus, I want you to order any weightlifting and exercise equipment you think would benefit a vampire, in staying in shape, as well as being able to actually build strength and endurance. Also, I want a holo room added downstairs off from the basement equipped with programs for training, I'm talking training simulations harder than what is currently being offered at the academy on Tenebris island. Can you do that?”

  Arcaidus spoke through the speakers. “I will divert the nano-ants attention to the pool and constructing your holo-room. I will order equipment based on your request.”

  Chapter 9

  Friday, July 15th.

  Ezra was on edge. His heart was breaking. Marine was trying to keep him calm. Yesterday, at a little after four in the evening, he received a call from Raven, K2 never showed up to get her from school. He had rushed to the school, and in the meantime, K2 never replied to any calls or texts. Upon arriving home, Raven and Ezra discovered a heartbreaking scene. Someone had broken into their home while Raven was at school. K2 had been shot in his core processing chips and his data cores. The blast to his chest was made by a fusion cannon, a rare and i
llegal type of weaponry. K2 didn't stand a chance against it. Worried and fearful, Ezra booked them a hotel stay for the time being. Ezra was shaking. If it had been Raven, he knew in his heart, he would have snapped. It being K2, was bad enough, the droid was becoming like family to them.

  He couldn't help but shake the feeling something was connected to somehow. The house had been ransacked, but nothing was missing. Forensics confirmed that the energy residue on K2's chassis had been made by a fusion cannon, one that had to have been at least two decades old, or older. That type of weaponry was rare. The blasts were direct hits to his center chassis and his head. The damage had left K2 rendered deactivated. Aside from a mess, nothing else could be found missing, or any traces of biological residue. The forensic team confirmed a sanitizing beam had been used to wipe the place clean of biological residue. The same type of beam that had been verified to have sanitized each of the murder scenes in Xairin's case.

  Cecilia had made it to Bastion City. She had arrived at precinct five and rode the elevator to the sixty-eighth floor. It wasn't long until Marine Evans noticed her. She had been told by Vet Khan; she would be arriving. Marine walked over. "Princess Thunder?"

  Cecilia nodded. "That would be me."

  Marine escorted her over to a chair in front of her desk. Cecilia sat down. "I can't believe I am meeting a member of the royal family."

  Cecilia smiled, trying to maintain her modesty. "You have already met my son, Xairin."

  "Right, I didn't know he was, royalty then."

  Cecilia broke the ice. "If it helps, my entire family is adjusting to our new status."

  Ezra was sitting beside Marine and scooted over. The look of depression and despair on his face and his bloodshot eyes caught Cecilia's attention as he spoke: "You are Xairin's mother?"

  Cecilia nodded. "I am." She cocked her head as she reached for a briefcase. She pulled it up, opening the black metal case, and started handing Marine papers. Marine noticed the official barcoding at the bottom.

  "What is this?"

  Cecilia spoke loudly. She noticed the fat bastard her husband had dealt with staring at her in pure disbelief. "These are files my husband, Draven Thunder, had kept in a storage locker. I think they may help your case. Along with some data that, to my understanding, K2, being in your possession, may still possess in his secondary data core."

  Ezra lowered his head. "K2 was destroyed last night when someone broke into my home."

  Cecilia looked over Marine's shoulder and eyes Roland, her eyes turned black. The man looked down quickly. She returned her gaze to Ezra. "Do you still have him? I think the Society A.I. might be able to repair my husband's old robotical partner."

  "He is in the evidence room on the 30th floor."

  Cecilia motioned to one of her guards. "Thirtieth floor, find the evidence room, and make sure it remains guarded." She looked at Ezra. "I have been studying your case. There are some similarities, to a case my husband worked on some time ago. You will find that those documents are official, but no records in Interpol's primary database exist. Those papers are originals, I have copies saved just in case. But if you will cross-reference news files, you will find that someone deleted key files into my husband's previous work. A string of sensitive murders, in which four women in Bastion City were murdered in a similar fashion to the gay men being murdered now. Also, I have included this chip. It contains news files from other towns and cities where similar murders took place over a decade ago. The same thing happened. News files can be found, but law enforcement records are non-existent."

  "Are you saying an agent is behind this?" Ezra asked. She looked over Marine's shoulder again.

  "Indeed, I am. I think someone started these murders over twenty years ago and likely has trained some followers to continue his work now. They changed up the targets, for now. And Ironically, my son got caught up in this. On behalf of the Society of Night, we want to help end these murders and bring the killers to, well-deserved justice." She said with a hauntingly undertone voice.

  Marine looked through the files and started scanning the barcodes. Nothing was coming up. "Your right. These are official documents; they have the embedded scanning chip built into the papers. None of these are coming up."

  "You can rescan them into your database and start working from there. You may find particular interest in the fact that Agent Roland Polanski was my husband's partner during these original crimes that were declared cold files. Also, these cases have simply vanished from your database. So, I think Polanski may have some explaining to do, since he, it would seem, withheld similarities that he knew of a previous case that he himself helped work?"

  Marine caught on quickly to what Cecilia was getting at. Ezra started to, while Hammond and Grace, both nearby, looked at each other, then Polanski's desk. He was gone."

  She also pointed out. "The fact that your house was broken into, and K2 was damaged? Well, that is disturbing. I can personally attest to Polanski filing a report to have K2 deactivated, saying he was inefficient." She handed another document from her briefcase. "As you can see, again, an official Interpol letter, with his signature." She frowned. "Here is the document where my husband paid out of pocket and had K2 reassigned and refurbished into a home droid."

  Ezra looked over his shoulder at the empty desk in the corner. He looked back at Cecilia. "Polanski found out yesterday that K2 was still active."

  She smirked. "And today you are telling me someone broke into your home and damaged K2 to the points he is in your evidence room?"

  Marine looked at her computer. She started scanning in the documents and creating files. The computer started to compare; similarities started formulating on her screen. "I need to go speak with the Commander."

  "Where is your bathroom?" Cecilia asked.

  Ezra pointed. "Thank you." She said.

  She went around the corner and chattered her teeth. Polanski was two floors down. Cecilia vibrated her cells, and phased through the floor, and then again until she was on the same floor as Agent Polanski. He was almost to the elevator. She reached him, tapping his shoulder. The man turned around, and his heart rate sped up. She could hear it. It was like a beating drum in her ears. She smiled. "Long time no see Roland. How you been?"

  "Cecilia, I thought you were?"

  She sighed while tossing a deadly grin at him. Her fangs fully exposed, and her eyes dark as midnight. "What can I say, I'm a vampire, Draven kept it a secret."

  She leaned against the wall. "I saw you upstairs, I wanted to say hello, but I turned around, and you were gone."

  "I was going to check on something."

  "I bet you were." She said slyly. "K2?" She said with a devious grin.

  "Huh?" He said.

  "Oh, Roland… You look like you've seen a ghost." She said.

  "I, uh, thought you were…" He mumbled.

  "Had to fake my death unfortunately since we vampires weren't out of the bat cave, so to speak."

  "What do you want?" He asked with a slight tremble to his voice.

  She turned around and walked over to the wall to his left and leaned against it, crossing his arms. "Let's talk about blood Roland, you could say it's precious to me." She pushed off the wall and grinned. "Xairin Thunder, you interviewed him, did you even put together that he was Draven and I's son?"

  Roland's eyes widened. She spoke in a taunting manner. "The bat bite woke up his vampiric genes. Anyhow. I'm like any mother whose child has been a victim of violence. I just want justice, Roland." She looked at him with a hateful glare. "I want justice for him, and those four women, the four sensitive women that were murdered not quite two decades ago, a case that my husband was working on. With you no less." She continued her hateful stare. "I'm surprised that you didn't mention that case to the four agents working my son's case?" She grinned, "Or a few other cases you have the privilege of knowing about… Cases where you used to work before you moved to Bastion City? So, I checked and realized that all of Draven's work on that case, was de
leted from the mainframe." She smiled, wagging her finger. "Don't worry, Draven saved hard copies of all of his cases, and as luck would have it, I had them." She smiled at him. "I gave those hard copies to your friends upstairs. I am sure that they will find them quite useful."

  She could hear his heart beating louder, prompting her to grin. "I did some more digging too. You see, I found out that you have lived and worked in several law enforcement divisions in other municipalities, and you know what I found Roland?"