by Darcy Lennox
‘What?’ I said, alert of his sudden attention.
‘You’re worried.’
‘Are you not?’
He eased into the surface of the bed, pondering how best to respond. ‘Yes,’ he sighed. ‘But… I didn’t think we would ever be here – doing this either,’ he said with his eyes locked onto the ceiling and away from mine.
‘Because you thought I was dead?’ I said knowing he was not being completely honest.
He did not answer, but I scrutinised the prompt edges of his profile and imagined what he was thinking. When my mind fell blank, I realised I was just as lost as he was.
‘You know, I could just force you to tell me?’ I said.
‘You wouldn’t do that,’ he said so seriously I almost flinched at his abrupt eye contact. He was challenging me, to do so right here, I would be a fool to compete and a loser if I did not.
‘Do not temp me kid,’ I clenched my teeth.
‘You’re only just nine hundred years older than me,’ he smirked.
‘More. I’m am three times your age,’ I responded.
He moved quickly, pining my wrists to the bed and my body between his thighs – it was difficult not to react. ‘And twice as strong as any other vampire,’ he said.
Then a newsbox at the end of the bed fizzled to what sounded like white noise as a hologram appeared across the blank wall before us. London was burning.
Chapter Thirteen
When something so shocking its almost unbelievable happens, it can take a while for the body to recognise that the receptors in the brain are not responding. What I saw through the newsbox was something that I would never forget, the image played on my mind repeatedly until I had manipulated it so much that my brain nearly played it off as just that of a nightmare. Had I not seen the expression on Akilis’s face when I turned to look at him, I may not have believed it myself.
The hologram expanded across the room in the form of a woman, she was a news anchor, judging by the familiar landscape background of clean London. She looked high on adrenaline with eyes as big as a tennis balls, glaring into her screen like she had just seen a ghost. Clearing her throat, she started:
“This is a global disruption from the Organisation – I repeat this is a global disruption from the Organisation here live in London. In the early hours of the morning there was an outbreak of what we think is a deadly virus that is highly contagious to human beings. From what we have seen, the Stallites are immune to the virus however it has proved lethal to human blood. We are not sure how it started but what we do know is that once humans are exposed to the virus, they change at a rate faster than can be explained.
The virus, it seems, has only been active in London – from what we can tell. Which is why officials have decided to quarantine London off from the rest of the United Kingdom, and the world. Due to the wild nature of those affected by the virus we have asked residents to remain in their homes, lock the doors and windows, find safe houses, keep off the streets and large open spaces where there is little cover, share supplies, tape cardboard to your arms and legs, carry sharp weapons for defensive precautions and if you do see one of those things then, run.
We are attempting to keep the electricity on for as long as possible. The accelorway has been shut off and blocked meaning all transport in and out of London is now prohibited. Do not attempt to go down there yourselves, gas has been released as a preventative measure that could put your lives in danger if you get trapped underground. Air cruisers have been diverted, teleported or flown away from London as we do not know the danger that it could cause to such creatures. Stallites and humans who wish to teleport into London – don’t, it is suicide. We strongly advise you against this. If you are unable to reach family members and friends, call the number at the bottom of this screen. Ration food and water, after tonight we will no longer be able to help those trapped in London. The Organisation has made it clear that they will be investigating this further, so far there has been no word from the Daggertooth Clan. The Needles will meet tonight where a verdict will be met on how to proceed.
The footage I am about to show you is incredibly distressing, but I implore you watch it as it could help you better identify those who have been exposed to the virus. For those of you around the world who are watching this today, if you have seen anything like this before then I urge you to report it this instant. This world has already been through enough and we need to work together to save it.”
As soon as her face faded out, blurry video footage of Trafalgar Square and the newly crafted sculptures of the angelic Xanyth creatures to replace Britain’s lions appeared on the screen. But this was not the Trafalgar Square I knew. The background was engulfed in grey smoke which clouded half of the screen, in the foreground there were chunks of rubble from the sculptures shredded to pieces on the floor and blood smeared across the infamous fountain in the centre which too was flooded in a pool of blood. The video, silent, zoomed in on a figure in the distance behind one of the beheaded sculptures. As it got too close, the video blurred, the cameraperson zoomed out and then in again just enough that the video quality was adequate. There, that thing I had seen in the lab earlier, deadly red with two black holes for eyes suddenly jumped from the sculpture and landed on all fours. It buried its slickly smooth head to the floor, like it was trying to catch a current of a scent – the camera jolted to the ground and then the sky until it landed on a man who was crouched behind the sculpted wings of a Xanyth. As instinct took hold of his senses – a feeling I was all too familiar with – the black beast hurled his head back and shrieked to the sky almost like it was calling. Without a second to spare it ran towards the terrified man faster than my eyes could follow and dragged him to the ground where he thumped his fists on his skull and then finally – it released its fangs and hissed before it dug them into the man’s cheek as he cried out in terrific pain.
The camera wobbled as the beast released the man and the ghastly thing ran away faster than the camera could follow. When the camera flew back to the same place, the man was now gone. The person holding the camera was frightened, judging by the constant swiping of left to right with the shaking camera and then – it stopped moving. Slowly, the cameraperson turned around catching sight of the destruction and smoky buildings against London’s background. The tension in my muscles seized as the camera came to a final turn only to find there was nothing there. And just as quickly as I sighed in relief, a pair of devilishly black eyes and fangs twice the size of mine engulfed the screen whole with its red complexion – and then the camera went out.
Akilis and I held our breathes as we waited for the video to depart and return to the news presenter that had been on the screen earlier. But instead, a caption appeared stating there was a signal failure and the hologram dissolved.
We sat in silence for a moment and let the images play with our imaginations of all the possible explanations. But that was short lived when an aggressive knock on the door boomed us back into consciousness. When we did not answer, Troye smashed the door off its hinges only to find us looking at him the way he was looking at us. We were all just as fucked as each other.
Chapter Fourteen
Kendrix called a meeting up to his penthouse at the top of the sky scraper as soon as the footage came to an end. Although there were less people in the room this time, it was clear that only the most important members had been called – two of which were Akilis and I for obvious reasons. The atmosphere was filled with an unsettling wave of anger, most of which seemed to be directed at me.
‘It seems that you have not been honest with your claims,’ Kendrix said.
‘We have told you nothing but the truth. That thing – we killed it, I put two bullets into its chest with this very gun,’ I said and Akilis tugged his jacket to the side to show them the gun tucked into his jeans. ‘They must have injected more humans or something – I do not know, we barely got out of there alive.’
Kendrix, as well as the other faces in the
room were sceptical of course, we were after all just shadows – why would they believe us?
‘We are aware you have very little reason to trust us, but do you forget who I am?’ I said confidently because this would be the only card I had to play. ‘They call me the Reaper because I hunt down those who no longer belong in this sphere… and eat them. If I wanted to start a war – I would not need vampires to do so. Yes, I need blood to survive, just like vampires but as you may know not all vampires are bad. Now listen to me very carefully – if we are not quick to act on this so-called virus then the world we know today will be gone tomorrow. I know what you are thinking – why should you help?’ I looked at them and they eyed me up, when there was silence I took it as a sign for me to continue. ‘If we do not, innocent people will die and worse yet, if the virus spreads – and it will spread – then soon enough you will be in danger too.’
‘What makes you so sure the virus will spread?’ Troye said.
‘Do the math, London is a thriving hub of all species with a capacity of nearly twenty million people – the chances of them killing off the virus are unlikely because it will spread faster than they have time to kill each infected individual. I predict that within five days London will be crawling with those things, and when they cannot find any fresh blood within – they will want to go out where they will have the entire country to feast on. You know how quickly bacteria spreads? Well imagine a city with twenty million bacteria the size of person?’
Shocked by the reality of the situation, the atmosphere cooled into an icy chill. Even Kendrix, who always remained calm and collected, had dropped to a slouch in his chair.
‘And how would you proceed with this… situation?’ Troye said.
‘First, I would go alone. I am faster, stronger and a better fighter than everyone in this room –’
‘I will go with you,’ Akilis interrupted.
‘No. You saw how quickly it moved, you felt it’s strength in the lab – three of us against one of them.’
‘I will not let you go alone!’ Akilis hissed.
‘What exactly do you plan on doing once you’re there?’ Kendrix said.
‘What I do best, hunt. The only way for us to know how to stop this is to start at the beginning. Zagan created this, so he must know how to stop it.’
‘I will confer with the others tonight, I suggest you take the remainder of the night to catch up on your sleep – it seems like you will need it,’ Kendrix said.
The room cleared in a blur, and Akilis was hot on my heels. When we were inside my room again, he exploded. ‘You can’t go!’ he barked. ‘They’ll kill you.’
‘They will not kill me, they will not touch me,’ I said as I recalled what he had said earlier hoping he was right because it would be my only weapon against them.
‘How can you be so sure? The lab experiment breed might be different from the others.’
‘I know I am right about this, I know,’ I gritted my teeth. ‘Now, I am tired, and we can have this discussion tomorrow.’
Akilis lingered for a moment, he wanted to say something and I knew he was trying to reconstruct it in his head so that it sounded better aloud. ‘Then, I will stay with you tonight.’
I did not have the mental energy to fight him on that, so I let him lay on the bed beside me. A little while after I turned on my side away from him where I felt his eyes burn the clothes off my back. I phased him out of my mind and closed my eyes to breathe. And then my world bled red and the sound of a single bell chimed once.
Chapter Fifteen
I awoke with my back flat on the bed, just like all vampires do. Cautious not to make a sound, I even slowed my breathing for a moment to inspect the arm securely locked around my waist. When I looked over to Akilis, he was sound asleep, a slight snore erupted in the back of his throat – small enough that it could put you to sleep like a lullaby.
The room was pitch black due to the metal shutters that automatically locked itself up at the press of a button, Akilis must have shut them. It was a new world necessity to install metal shutters into buildings to allow creatures of the night to escape the sunlight.
Carefully, I slid Akilis’s arm across my body and near his other arm which was resting very closely next to my thigh. He jolted in his sleep, my heart froze, and I waited to see if he would wake. A moment went by and nothing happened. Relieved, I climbed out of the bed using all fours – just like a cat would around water. Fortunately, I fell asleep in my clothes and did not need to worry about what I would do next. I had dreamt of London in all of its smoky haze and as soon as I had opened my eyes I decided right there and then that I would need to leave today. I pressed the button by the window and let it roll down smoothly so that just the top tier let in the scorching morning sun.
New Yorkers no longer buzzled the street below and not a cruiser in sight, clearly frightened of what they had seen last night – too afraid to leave their homes. I saw it all in its ghostly glory and ate up the fear the way humans had breakfast after starving the night. But then I wondered, how long would it take for me to roll out the metal shutter and escape out of the window. I sized up the long drop for safe measure, and although it was incredibly high it was not something I had not jumped before.
I looked back to Akilis where his chest rose and fell. I wondered if he would hate me, or worse, come after me? No – stop that. Enough is enough. I swung Deathclaw gently around my back and locked it into place.
My hand automatically reached for the latch on the window, I tugged lightly at first and when it did not budge I pulled harder. Of course, being thirty-seven floors up, they do not make windows so easy to open, but that did not stop me from doing what I was about to do.
I dragged the metal shutter down and formed a fist with my hand, tightening my thumb by the side of my knuckles I pounded into the glass with full force. The sound of glass shattering pierced the eerie silence of the room as a flock of birds squawked and flew around a tower opposite this one. Here we go.
A sharp hissing sound followed by an aggressive cry of anger came from behind me. I turned around to find Akilis crouching in the furthest corner of the room with his hands in front his eyes protectively.
‘What are you doing!’ he spat with his exquisitely pointed fangs on full display.
‘What I was always going to do,’ I said and cleared the glass away from the shattered window to make a bigger clearing.
‘Stop! Please! Don’t do this,’ he begged and leapt from the corner of the room to behind the chair next to my legs and sharply avoided the smallest drops of sunlight. He had a few scorched scars around his arms, the smell of his blood crawled up my nose, stronger than anything I had ever smelled before.
‘I need to do this before its –’
He latched his hand around my wrist and let the sun scorch his skin again while dragging me away from the window. I resisted, and so did he. But I could not stand the smell of burning skin any longer, so I pulled myself free and bit my tongue to supress the hunger.
‘You can’t do this,’ he took my face in between his hands, one of which had been tarnished by the sun. ‘Please, it’s dangerous – its suicide!’
There was something about his expression when he spoke, like I had missed something so evidently obvious. Maybe it was the way his eyes sunk with fear at the thought of me leaving him, or maybe it was the consequences he would have to face at the expense of my departure.
I gently took his hands from my face, shoved him into the window and pulled the shutter off its hinges so that the room was lit up in a blaze of light. His body sizzled and stung as he screamed out in pain. I had to betray him, it was the only way. This would be my moment. I put a foot on the window sill of shattered glass and without looking back, I jumped.
I felt the cool breeze of the morning air tickle my skin as I fell from the sky like a tunnel was dragging me down alongside the building. But then, a mist like cloud appeared from underneath me and as I descended further towards it, it was t
oo late for me to get away. I sank straight through it and landed on pavement steadily on all fours. When I looked up, I saw the familiar underground pipes and smelled a familiar…. Troye.
‘Didn’t think I’d let you go alone did you?’ he smirked as I rested Deathclaw on the apple of his throat.
‘How?’ I hissed.
He chuckled and pushed Deathclaw aside knowing I would not hurt him. Then, he crossed his arms and set his feet apart to stand at his full height. I scrutinised the curves of his face and every individual line that gave him such character. He had medium set wrinkles by his eyes and cheeks by the way that his facial muscles moved when he smiled forming slight dimples. In a few years’ time they would be deep set wrinkles with plenty of laughter and charm set into them, no doubt.
‘I’ve been watching you, keeping a track of your routine – how you kill, what you kill, when you kill and why you kill. Kendrix thought it was important to keep an eye on you considering you did so much for our people during the Battle of Dust.’
‘How do you know about –’
‘I am Stallite, not human. We are indebted to you because without you there would have been more bloodshed than necessary. I told Kendrix I would go with you, should we get into serious trouble in London I can teleport us back to New York. And don’t say it’s dangerous, I know it’s dangerous but you’re better off having a portal by your side than not, trust me.’
But I was never going to say it was dangerous, because it was the perfect idea. Troye’s ability made him valuable and clearly, he had very quickly come to master this type of mental and physical energy – especially if he was trusted by Kendrix. Which made me wonder…
‘It was you was it not? Always close but never close enough for me to see you,’ I recalled standing on my balcony window peering out into the distance with my sharp sight but never picking up on anything.
