***
Simon stood watching as the Queen lay sleeping. In the days since he had tried to awaken Ishan and she had nearly killed him for it, he had grown content with the realization that no matter how angry he was with her and no matter how restless he became knowing the war was going on out there and Jackie was somewhere unseen and possibly crossing or standing in the trenches, she would be okay. Because his ancient mother had said it would be so. And he had yet to see her predictions not unfold into the real world. He brushed her hair behind her ear and whispered his thanks to her as her steady breathing continued uninterrupted. Then he walked from the room and out into the main part of the cave, kicking at stray rocks and bits of dust as he went, wondering where Jackie was now and what she was doing.
Before long he stood out in the open darkness, looking up at the stars fighting to glow brightly behind the thick lush branches of the trees towering over the swampland. The moonless sky was dark but gave room for the countless glittering dots high above the Earth. Simon wondered if Jackie could be, in that moment, watching those same stars and thinking of him. He had taken for granted for so long how much her presence had become a growing part of him that now that it was gone, the emptiness seemed to stretch out between himself and the farthest burning sun in his sight. Without her, he was confused, incomplete, and utterly alone. Not for the first time, he wished more than anything that he could see what the Queen could see just by closing her eyes and opening herself to the waves of prescient matter coming back along the unseen carriage of time.
Miles away the sound of a turning vehicle alerted him to its driver's course destined to inevitably end just meters away from where Simon now stood. Whoever it was, some lost teenager or someone fully intent on entering the sacred cavern of the Hive, they would be there within minutes. Simon stepped several paces backward until he was sure his pale skin was hidden in shadow enough that his body would blend in with the dark forest trees. Seconds later an unfamiliar old jalopy of a car made its bumpy way down the hilly dirt road until it came to a stop, its headlights fading into phantom glowing afterlight in Simon's vision as the engine abruptly cut off. Two steady hearts beat loudly, the rhythm of which thundered into Simon's hearing along with… something else. Swift steady movement. Elegant movement that could only be the motion of the undead. The driver side door opened and a familiar female vampire stepped out from the car and called out, "All right, Simon, you can come out of the trees now. It's just me."
Rosadelma. That was her name. Simon remembered her from before the city of the dead had moved out in large black trucks spread out along the roadways each heading for one single destination. The Hive. Simon stepped out from the shadows without a word and in an instant he was standing before her. "I hear heartbeats, I'm going to guess you didn't bring me a late night snack?"
"Hmph, yeah not exactly. I've got an unconscious Foedarati leader in here and a man who tried to kill him in the trunk. It took a lot of willpower not to snap his neck like a twig, but if he has any inside information, I figured..."
"You did well, Rose."
Her head flinched. "Don't call me that."
"Sorry, I—"
"No need to apologize, just don't ever call me that again, and we can both pretend it never happened, deal?"
Simon nodded. He was beginning to remember why the two of them hadn't exactly bonded as of yet. "All right, well why don't you get—Hank?"
It was her turn to nod.
"Okay, yeah, you get Hank, and I'll get our friend in the trunk."
"Yeah, friend's not what I would call him, but it's your world, white man, I'm just a little helpless squirrel from Meh-Hee-Coh."
Simon bit back his reaction to the sting of her tone and walked around to the back of the car, popping open the trunk with one swift slam of his fist. Inside, a young man lay unconscious and breathing heavily. At least one of his arms and one of his legs were broken and from the small curve in the right side of his ribcage, Simon figured it was safe to assume he had at least a few broken ribs as well. "You didn't exactly bring him here unharmed."
"Yeah, fuck you, okay. He's still in one piece, which is a lot less than the number of bits I wanted to bring him anywhere in."
Simon gently pulled out the young man's body and slammed the trunk. The kid cringed in his mostly unconscious state but didn't wake. Simon sighed with annoyance, but didn't say another word. Some battles just aren't worth fighting.
Chapter 17
With Great Consequences
Despite what he had said, Frank had driven on in silence ever since Jackie returned to the big blue Lincoln that now smoothly made its way down the long stretching highway under the starry horizon. They were breaching into the desert now, West Texas to be exact. Flat desolate land reached out all around them wrapping its way around the earth and making way for the tumbleweeds that blew across its path from time to time and little else. Jackie was getting nervous of all the quiet and figured it was time they climbed up the elephant in the room and pulled it down to the ground and stabbed it over and over until it could no longer hover and wait in thick anticipation. "So, how much longer you think it'll be until we hit the state line?"
Frank took his eyes off the road long enough to look quietly and annoyedly over at her. He let out a sigh. "What's-a-matter, kid, you not too fond of the peaceful quiet that comes with bitter acceptance?"
She laughed. "Uh, yeah, something like that. Look, I'm sorry I put you in this position, I—"
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm a big boy, Miss Madam Dracula. I don't need you apologizing for my mistakes."
"Mistakes, huh? Is that what it was?"
"Kid, I don't know just yet right now. I'll tell you what I think when I figure that one out, okay?"
Jackie nodded. "That's fair... In the meantime can you keep me company? I've enjoyed talking to you and this isn't exactly an easy journey for me either. I mean I'm headed..." She stopped herself before she said anymore. If he knew he was taking her to see what, if anything, was left of her mortal family, would he still be willing to go to so much risk? Would he still be willing to take her to what could be a waiting ambush of Imperial soldiers or worse yet vampires. She knew that was a stretch, but she was fighting to kill her own elephant in the back of her mind. Would he be concerned that her family might actually be there, still alive and well? That although her intentions might be for the best, her inhuman nature, now fully developed, might send her into a blood-hungry frenzy that would leave her hopelessly mourning the loss of those she once held so dear to the thirst that tore out from her own being?
"Uh huh? You were saying?"
Jackie turned and looked out the window at the dark barren desert outside. "Never mind."
Without warning, the car's tires squealed out in protest as the vehicle careened over toward the side of the road. Frank's face was fury as he pushed with all his might on the brakes. Through screaming rubber and pavement, he yelled loud enough to be heard, "Bullshit. You want to go any further you're gonna be straight with me right fucking now or you can get out of this car." The Lincoln came to a halt at the side of the road, white smoke rising up from the tires in the darkness through Jackie's mirror. Had he purposely omitted the other option they both knew Jackie had? Or was he so sure she wouldn't hurt him that it hadn't even entered his mind? And if that were so, why had he become so untrusting lately? She knew why, but what he knew and the way he behaved showed so little concern for his own being that it had taken her by surprise. She knew he had nothing to lose, but she couldn't really fathom what that could be like so she had taken it for granted. Now it was plain as day right in front of her. He hadn't said it because he wanted her to fill in the blanks and consider it for herself. Did he want to die so badly? Or was he merely trying to see how she would react. What she would do?
They sat there in silence for a long while, dust and tumbleweeds blowing along in front of the car as Jackie processed what he had said and what she had realized. "I'm headed back home. To
my family... If they're still there. If they're still alive. I wanted to see them—I had to see them again. I have to know if they're okay or..." The last thing she had expected was how easily she broke into tears then. They ran down her face and the sobbing took over her chest and the next thing she knew Frank was holding her against his big soft warm chest and telling her he understood that it was okay and he was sorry. The rhythm of his heart beating behind his ribcage thundered in her ears and she wept. The thirst didn't call out from inside of her and for the first time since her death she was touching a living human being without wanting to tear away into its veins and suck up every last drop of lifeblood pumping within.
***
The darkness was no longer solid anymore. A new texture was coming into focus and Jonny realized he was waking. But the first thing he wanted to do upon becoming conscious was to slip back into unconsciousness. The pain in his wrist and his ribs and his leg was building into one throbbing mass of anguish. The grainy darkness lightened some making the graininess somewhat visible for what it really was. Yellow dust, rock, unlike any he'd ever seen before. Distant inky shapes hung uneasily in the blurry background. He thought he was seeing bats at first but then... Holy shit. Those things are way too big to be bats. Then something much closer came into view. A face leaned in close to him and spoke. Blond hair, eyes blue and searching. The words went into Jonny's ears like sonic booms in an echo chamber. He tried to concentrate on what was being said.
"...said can you hear me? Jonny?"
"Yeah, I hear you, it hurts, but I hear you."
The head nodded and in a lower volume the man spoke again. "Hi, Jonny. My name is Simon. You're being held captive by the Foederati, but that's not why I'm here. I'm here to help you. Just tell me where it hurts and I'll take care of the pain..."
Jonny's first impulse was to get away at those words and he paid dearly for it. His legs tried to stretch out causing his right femur to stab sharply with drilling agony and he grabbed hold of it with his right hand as if his touch could make it stop. A scream wretched from his mouth and tears flooded his eyes and nose and mouth and he was crying out still but no longer screaming. The man who called himself Simon reached down and pulled Jonny's hand away from his leg then replaced it with his own. A soft glow built up between the man's palm and Jonny's leg and Jonny found himself screaming again. This time not out of pain but fear. But his scream caught in his throat when, as if by magic, the pain in his leg sharpened slightly then disappeared altogether.
Simon looked in his eyes. "See? Isn't that better? Just tell me where else it hurts and I'll—"
"M-m-my wrist, my left wrist!" It hurt so bad to breathe.
Simon laid his hand over Jonny's wrist and in a similar glowing magical moment, his arm was like new, bending and stretching and turning.
"Is there anywhere else?"
Jonny nodded and pointed to his ribs. When Simon pulled his hand away and Jonny's ribs were healed, Jonny sat up immediately to try and get some better understanding of where he was. He certainly wasn't in a building of any kind. Between the ground beneath him and the tan rock and dust and debris that made up everything around him, he could tell. Behind Simon another figure stood facing away from them. Jonny leaned forward to get up and Simon put his hand on Jonny's shoulder to stop him. There was an unexpected amount of strength in that grip. He knew he shouldn't be surprised. After all, the man wasn't human.
"Why..."
Before Simon could answer the inky shapes above began to shudder and thousands of small pairs of glowing red irises lit the darkness with an odd blood-like glow. Vampires! Jonny had never seen a natural vampire before. But it didn't take a degree in biology to know what he was looking at now. "Is this... is this a..."
"Hive?" Simon was grinning. "Well, you're smarter than I would have figured..."
Jonny was hyperventilating now. "Why did you...? Won't they come down and..."
Simon got down on one knee. "Ah, ah, ah, easy. Just get some rest. As long as you stay put and don't get yourself into trouble, they'll stay up there. I wish I could make that sound less scary, but it is what it is. You didn't end up here on account of good behavior." Simon stood there looking at him for one last moment and then moved like a blur and was gone. It was then that Jonny noticed that the glowing eyes had returned to their original closed position leaving the place in that grainy darkness. The man still standing there seemed as still as a statue but was now barely visible. Jonny sat there for a long moment watching the phantom lightshow taking over his vision as his eyes adjusted to the dark. He lay down and closed his eyes, trying not to think about the thousands of blood sucking creatures hanging just hundreds of feet above him from—what?—a cave ceiling? Probably. He thought about Julie and suddenly wanted the creatures to rain down on him in a one course feast of Jonny Cross. He sucked in a breath near to weeping when the voice came.
"Mr. Cross, please compose yourself. You're not dead yet. And neither is your sister. I was worried too, but it seems you've gone and gotten yourself at the heart of our little problem here. For now, rest, Mr. Cross, and I'll give you instructions soon."
Jonny's sob caught in his throat. Relief filled his being to know that Julie was okay but it was a burdened bitter relief that comes with knowing the thing you want so badly comes with great consequence. He took a deep breath and rolled onto his side and let the growing dreariness take him into sleep.
***
Hank woke gasping at the thick warm air. The pressure of his chest trying to rise and his lungs taking in the weight of it was like dragging a corpse uphill. Nothing but darkness surrounded him for the longest time until finally his eyes adjusted to reveal the dark tan cave walls of the Hive. Even still beyond the darkness and the crumbling caverns and stalactites, Toby's face hung brightly before Hank everywhere he turned his head. The frozen cascade of the boy's tears stretched down along his face and called out to Hank and mocked him—mocked that he would never ever feel them or wipe them away. The vision glistened then with his own tears falling and splashing down on his arms and legs. Hank curled back into himself and lay there sobbing for some time, longing for the vision to be real, but knowing there was no possible way it could be.
And through the tears it all fell back into place, the things he'd seen before the vision had so unexpectedly arrived like a crashing rhino through a suburban living room. And with it came the diminishing countdown.
186:36:48:22
186:36:48:21
186:36:48:20
186:36:48:19
186:36:48:20
Shit! Already, he had lost thirteen and a half hours since the timer started. A sharp pressure took hold of his heart as he imagined himself dying without having found the Emperor. Resolve spread through every cell of his body and he stood up and stretched toward the ceiling of the cave. He couldn't let that happen—he wouldn't. He thought of the genetic sequence winding its way through his blood stream and wondered then how he would go about getting the same deadly venom into Joseph Caesar's veins. However he did it, it would have to be irreversible. If somehow that terrible creature found a way to protect or save himself, there would be no hope. It was a long shot at best, but Hank tried to reassure himself that, if Roger had set this plan in motion, he had to have foreseen it succeeding.
Hank sighed long and heavy, his body shaking with the weight of it. Somehow, he found no comfort in whatever Roger Tresney might have foreseen. Because no matter what happened, one thing was certain from now on. Hank was going to die. There was no arguing or hoping or wishing it away. Those numbers kept on depleting right there in front of him and when they ran out, there was nothing that could be done.
Chapter 18
Demons Circling
The thick musty stench of death floated just below Alexandria's nostrils as she sat there on her knees in the back yard of the home she'd grown up in. Dry dirt caked her arms up to her elbows and loose strands of hair hung down in tandem from a large tangled bun at the top of her head. Her
eyes were red from having cried for two days straight. But now they were nearly as dry as the dirt on her arms. Before her, beneath piles of sticks and branches, lay her father's body in the shallow grave she had dug out with her own bare hands.
Somewhere in the abyss of the house, a shovel hid and eluded her, but as time had ticked away, it soon became obvious she wasn't in any state of mind to be able to find it and Dad's body wasn't going to get up and take care of itself. Just the thought of that had torn through her like a jackhammer, but nothing could change that now. There was no one on her side and nowhere she could run. No adult to take care of the hard things that adults had always taken care of in her life. Now she was the adult and the world had landed on her back in the blink of an eye and the blast of a rifle.
The walls she had glued together in her own emotional well were threatening to crack again and she snapped out of the long trance she had fallen into. She would have to cover him over now. Her hands slid at her sides in fresh dirt, accumulating the stuff in her forearms, wishing it was fire she could sweep up into balls and send hurling toward the soldiers who were now standing at the corner of the street watching her and whispering to each other. Her hands gripped deep into the dirt and her fingernails found her palm and started to pierce into the flesh slowly, biting and tearing and focusing her hatred. She gritted her teeth with the pain and the imaginary black poison in her chest waiting to spew out and destroy them.
Rising From Ashes: Empire of Blood Book Three (A Dystopian Vampire Novel) Page 10
