The Fifth Clan

by Ryan T. Nelson

  "Threntü, that son-of-a-bitch planned this."

  Ghost gave me a look, the kind of look that you give to someone when you're starting to wonder about their mental capacity. "Ummm... yeah, we had kinda figured that from the beginning hadn't we?" he asked.

  "No. Not this. Not today. He's been planning, something for centuries."

  "Threntü is a planner, and a plotter and you've known that for a really long time," Ghost muttered, "and you're only now finally understanding that?"

  "Shut up, Ghost." I know I said it. He told me I said it later, but at the time I hardly noticed that the words were coming from my mouth as I eyed the strange cell that surrounded us.

  "He doesn't really want to capture us. He's not trying to kill us or torture us. He's not after information or ransom or loyalty or anything else that might possibly be of value, so why is he doing this to us?" I asked.

  "Sheer perverse enjoyment?"

  "Come on Ghost think, who in this room is different from anyone else in the world?"

  "Well aren't we all different and unique in our own- ow!" Ghost started to respond in a sarcastic tone that abruptly cut off as I reached out and smacked him across the back of the head.

  "Me, Ghost. I'm an unusual vampire, even by vampiric standards, right?"

  "True enough," he shrugged. "You are a freak amongst freaks."

  "Thanks."

  "Welcome."

  "Eat shit."

  "And die?"

  "No just eat shit, it might help with your breath." I went on as Ghost blinked and breathed into his palm trying to check the scent of his breath. I looked up at the ceiling.

  "Three hundred years," I said, glaring at nothing. "You've been watching for that long, waiting to see if I had it, so why now? Why would you push this now?"

  "Gabe, who're you talking to?"

  "Threntü. You know he's gotta be watching. He's wanted to know if I had a fifth power since they turned me in the first place."

  "So why don't you hurry it up and show him already," came a quiet voice from behind us. "Get us the hell out of here and go kick his ugly ass. Or better yet, burn his ugly ass and then kick it."

  I glanced over my shoulder at Rachel. Her eyes had opened, one swollen partly shut and a lurid purple bruise beginning to appear around her cheek.

  I grinned at her. "At least one of you was smart enough to figure it out."

  "Figure what out, God damnit?" Ghost growled. His hulking wolf form towered over me and I could feel the heat rising from his fur covered body as his anger grew. I couldn't entirely blame him either. We were tired, hungry and irritable. This going around in circles thing that I had going, something that I have admitted is a personality flaw of mine, had always gotten on his nerves.

  "The only way to get out of here," I explained to him. "Is for me to use the fifth power that they assume I might have due to the unusual nature of my turning."

  "If they're not even sure that you have a fifth power at all what makes them think it'd help you escape from this cell?"

  "They don't. Threntü just wants to see it. He wants proof. He's been waiting three centuries for me to slip up and reveal this supposed power and I haven't, so now he's decided to force the issue."

  "So your little friend there and I are stuck in this room and have been tortured for no reason other than Threntü has a problem with you?"

  I winced but nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

  "Well dammit, make with the magic already and get us out of here I'm starving and you're starting to look like a side of beef to me Gabriel."

  I glared at him. "I've been hiding this for a really long time Ghost, it's not so simple just to throw away centuries of habit just because it's our only option."

  "But it isn't our only option," he shot back, voice rising. He lifted one long, muscular arm and pointed a wickedly sharp claw at Rachel. "It's her only option. If you don't get us out of here, and soon, one of us is going to eat her so fucking suck it up and get moving."

  He reached out and gave me a solid shove in the direction of the metal wall. I stumbled. Something I hardly ever do as my balance is unnaturally perfect in most cases. Exhaustion and hunger however had degraded my physical condition to far below my norm and I raised one hand to catch myself.

  My hand met no resistance as I continued to fall forward and my face collided solidly with the wall.

  "Ouch," I groaned. "That hurt."

  Neither Rachel nor Ghost responded and I knew they were staring, most likely dumbfounded, at my arm buried up to my shoulder in the solid steel wall as if it wasn't even there.

  "You can become immaterial?" Ghost asked, a note of confusion coloring his gravely voice.

  "Don't be an idiot," I sighed. "I can manipulate the physical structure of solid objects at a molecular level."

  Ghost and Rachel both blinked, surprised. "Right," she said slowly. "Cause that clears everything up."

  I ignored them both, pulled my arm from the wall and set both palms against its smooth surface. A moment later the solid structure rippled like the surface of a pond. The ripples spread out from where my hands rested, slowly growing larger until a thin line appeared running vertically from the ceiling to the floor and the entire wall slid open, folding back along itself like a set of curtains.

  When it stopped there was a three foot wide opening, a doorway leading out of the cell into a white hallway beyond.

  "You seriously could have done that anytime couldn't you?" Ghost growled as I picked up Rachel and stepped through the door.

  "Pretty much." Despite his irritation I didn't feel or sound even the least bit apologetic for not getting us out earlier. He had no idea yet the trouble revealing this would bring down on our heads and he was going to get caught right up in the shit storm with me, whether he liked it or not.

  Outside the cell I stretched out my senses, delving as deeply as possible into the powers gifted to me by my nature. The Vasiths' telepathic powers were not amongst my greatest talents. Especially against the Packs and the Clans. I couldn't strip their minds bare and reveal all their secrets, but I could sense their presence when I focused hard enough.

  "Right turn, Clyde," I muttered to Ghost. "Two of the Wind Clan sixty feet and one right turn away. Happy hunting." Without a word Ghost turned and loped away, clawed feet moving silently across the carpeted floor.

  We appeared to be in an office building. An empty one from what I could hear and smell, with the exception of the two Wind vampires that Ghost was about to eat. A low, whining sound barely registered on my hearing and I turned to my left, following the noise as I held Rachel carefully against my chest. She winced when I jarred her too much but thankfully I didn't do that often.

  Around another corner and thirty yards away there was a single door in the otherwise featureless hall. I carefully set Rachel down and grabbed ahold of the doorknob with one hand. A quick turn of my wrist released the latch and I pulled it open.

  Inside I found about what I had expected.

  Video monitors. Dozens of them. All showing the same thing. A thirty second video on a loop of me changing the structure of a solid metal wall. A power that didn't exist in any of the vampire clans.

  Each monitor was labeled. Berlin, Murmansk, Venice, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Montreal, Tokyo, England, Dublin, Cairo, Casablanca, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Boston and on and on.

  I sighed, defeat weighing heavily on my shoulders.

  "He did it. The crazy bastard actually did it." I couldn't believe that this was truly what he wanted. All these centuries this had been his end-game all along? Why didn't he force this issue before now if this was all he wanted?

  "Forgive me for being just a lowly human," Rachel said from her spot on the floor behind me. "But what did the crazy bastard do, exactly? I'm not in the know on all the political machinations of the vampire world you know."

  I could hear Ghost approaching so I raised my voice, just slightly to allow him to clearly hear what I said. He would need to be a part
of this if I had any chance at all in getting out of it alive.

  "Remember how I admitted back in Claus' hotel room that I could potentially be the father of a Fifth Vampire Clan?"

  "Yeah?"

  "No one else knew that before then except me and Ghost, and even Ghost never knew what my fifth power was that would make me a candidate for a new clan." I sighed. "Now everyone knows. Threntü streamed the video of me manipulating that wall to all the major vampire communities around the world. They've all seen what I can do now."

  "What difference does that make? Wouldn't a new clan be a good thing? There used to be dozens of different clans, you said. I would think new blood would be good."

  "Except you're thinking with a human perspective. With humans you want different and new blood to prevent your race from becoming inbred and mutated. But with Vampires we don't breed with each other. We create new vampires from human stock. When the Brotherhood was created there were only four clans in existence, so the treaty, the peace agreement only applies to them. With the inclusion of a new clan I, and my children, would not be held accountable to the treaty. That makes me dangerous. That means all the other clans, and the Wolf Packs will be out for my blood to keep me from building my own clan and attempting to reignite the wars between the clans."

  "But you wouldn't actually do that right?"

  "No." I turned to face her and Ghost who had come to a stop standing next to her, blood staining the front of his body from the guards he had obviously just eaten. He looked extremely satisfied with himself and I chose to ignore the smug look on his face. "That doesn't make any difference though. One thing you'll have to learn about people, human wolf or vampire, is that they have a tendency to believe the worst of someone before they'll take something on faith.

  "It won't matter what I say, they'll typically just assume that I'm out to take over everything."

  Ghost nodded. "He's right girl," he said. "Part of why I've been hanging out in the middle of nowhere, Mexico for decades now."

  "Didn't they include a clause to add new clans to the treaty as they arise?" she asked. "That way you could just bind your clan to the treaty like the rest of them and be done with it.

  "Yes, they did. But they've never been used. It's been more than 500 years since the treaty was drafted and signed and there has never been a new clan. We're not even sure how new clans arise. Even back when there were fifteen different clans we didn't have any understanding of how the infection deviated enough to create a new power or a new species of vampire."

  She fell silent as she considered the new information and I turned to stare at Ghost. "I need you now, old friend."

  "You got me. Threntü has officially made it to my shit list and I intend to take it out of his hide."

  I picked Rachel back up and started making my way down the hall, Ghost trailing along behind us.

  "And we need to go find Grim."

  "What!"

  I grinned as Ghost started stammering hysterically. Grim was not his biggest fan and it would be interesting to see what the old wolf did first. Would he shoot him, or would he break his jaw?

  Threntü wanted to push me? He wanted me to bring the fight to him, huh? He was going to find that he bit off a lot more than he could chew when he decided to press me. I was going to do a lot more than bring a fight to his door. I was going to lay a war directly at his feet.

  PART II

  Sins of the Past

  17

  New Orleans: March 1, 2005

  It took three days and a lot of arguments before I managed to get Ghost to agree that we didn't have any choice but to go find Grim. The old dog was not at the top of Ghosts list of people he was in a hurry to see. As a matter of fact I would hazard to guess that Grim was the only person on his list of people that he never ever wanted to see again for as long as his unnaturally long life may extend.

  And I had no idea why.

  It was driving me crazy, lemme tell you.

  "Will you tell me now?"

  "No."

  I sat quietly for a few moments, cigarette dangling from my lip again as I watched the scenery roll by outside the stolen vans window. Ghost was driving while Rachel took a nap behind us on the middle bench seat. She was still recovering from her bruising at the hands of Threntüs' men.

  "Now?"

  "No."

  I blew out a cloud of smoke that was quickly drawn through the cracked open window. When we were escaping the building back in Oregon I had asked Rachel how they got her. She said that about the same time that I was attacked she heard Ghost being attacked as well. Thirty seconds later the door to the hotel room we'd been staying in was kicked in and she was knocked out before she had a chance to react.

  Obviously Threntü had known where to find us all along. There was no reason for him to have waited so long to grab us though, that was what didn't make sense to me.

  "How about now?"

  "No. Ask me again and I'll tear your spine out of your body through your ass."

  "How colorful. But come on man. We used to be really good friends with Grim, I don't understand why you're so against going to him for help."

  "I don't really want to have him try to kill me."

  "And why would he do that? He trained us for fucks sakes, you're practically one of his pups. Youare actually, didn't he sire you?"

  "That's got nothing to do with it." He paused for a second. "Actually that's not right, because I am his pup it's even worse."

  I took another drag and flicked the stub of my cigarette out of the window. "Alright dude, seriously it's time to spill. What the hell happened?"

  "I really don't want to talk about it."

  "You know I'm just gonna ask him when we get there, why not give me your version of it first?"

  "Do you honestly think he'll tell you? If there's anything that man has, its integrity coming out of his ears. He wouldn't talk about someone else behind their back."

  I shot him a smirk. "No but he might talk about it right in front of you if asked to his face.

  He growled at me. "You're turning into a right bastard in your old age, you know that right?"

  I grinned but declined to answer simply waiting quietly for him to spill his guts.

  Five minutes later he did, letting out an explosive sigh of exasperation. "Fine, the last time I saw him I called him a senile old dog who'd lost his teeth."

  I let out a low whistle my eyes widening in shock. If anything was guaranteed to earn Grims' undying enmity it was questioning him like that. "And he didn't kill you?"

  "He tried. I had surprise on my side though and he was busy at the time..."

  No matter how I pestered him after that Ghost remained steadfastly closed mouthed on the subject so eventually I gave up.

  I had far more important things to worry about. The clans knew about my power now, I was sure of it. Threntü streamed the video out to them and the price that he had put on my head was nothing compared to the new incentive he had put before them to track me down and eliminate me. A return to war, the possibility of an unsanctioned clan would send them into a frenzy. I was sure the Shadu were out there now, using all of their considerable resources to track me down.

  My mind had been working overtime since we left Oregon. My options were limited as far as what I could do about it.

  I had narrowed it down to: A, hiding for the rest of my life. Not an option I preferred but I would hold it in the wings, just in case.

  Option B, revolved around wiping out every other vamp and wolf on the planet so they wouldn't do the same to me and start creating my own clan to have friends like me in the world.

  Also not a great option.

  And right in the middle of the spectrum was the plan I was going with that just might be more insane than anything I had ever attempted in my life.

  And lemme tell you, that was saying something. You're talking to a guy that tried to hitch a ride on the Apollo 11 mission.

  On the outside of the rocket.

>   Don't look at me like that I was really depressed in the 60s, it seemed like an idea at the time.

  "Do you honestly think Grim is going to go along with this plan of yours?" Ghost asked, breaking me out of my musings. "Wait, scratch that, do you really think he'll even let us anywhere near him for you to explain your insane plan in the first place? He's been hiding out here for longer than I've been in Mexico and his security has always been better than mine. You remember what happened in Bangladesh right?"

  I winced. "Don't remind me dude, please. I'm hoping he hasn't kept up with the times as well as you have. His security might be a bit less high tech than yours was."

  "You're deluding yourself if you honestly think that'll be the case."

  "I live in a constant state of delusion."

  "That why you think you've got any chance with the girl?"

  A series of loud cracking noises reverberated from the vertebrae in my neck with how fast my head whipped around to look at him. I could feel my face getting warm, something that I cursed silently about and gave him the calmest look I could manage.

  "I have no idea what you're talking about."

  Ghost snorted and hit the turn signal, navigating an easy left turn onto a narrow dirt track, the van bouncing slightly in the uneven ruts worn into the ground by the passage of god knew how many vehicles.

  "It might have been a few decades since we saw each other last my friend but I know you better than you know yourself and I'm telling you you would never have kept a woman around this long if there wasn't something more going on in that furry head of yours.

  I shot a quick glance behind me at Rachel to be sure she was still asleep. "You've got a lot of nerve calling me furry, fuzz ball," I shot back at him.

  "Be that as it may, spill. You hounded me until I told you why I don't want to see Grim so it's your turn, tit for tat my man."

  "It comes back to my plan," I admitted finally after sitting in sullen silence for several minutes. "I've got one way out. One that I really don't want to use but I've been thinking a lot lately."