"Get the fuck away from that gun, old man." The elderly gentleman doesn't look so gentle as he does what Jayden says.
Jasmine moves forward changing course toward the pistol and picks it up and turns to face the nearly naked geezer. The revolver shakes like thunder in her hand. Tears are rolling down her face. "He was just a kid, he was just a kid, he was just a kid." Something in the old man's posture folds with guilt and without warning, Jasmine pulls the trigger and the bullet that pierces Old Man Undies in the chest splatters blood at an angle all over Jayden's face.
Mid Afternoon
Easter Sunday
North Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, Nevada
They're losing daylight fast and Jayden knows it. He knows it more and more as he thinks about Tommy's face and his mind tears out a chunk of it just like what that old man did to Ashen. The death toll seems to rise in both consistency and individual numbers as they go farther north. Judging by the complete lack of flying creatures and the things he's seen the past two days, he doesn't think they're dealing with something that can come out in the daylight. Thank goodness. This just further terrifies him as he puts it together with everything else he's learned.
They're vampires, all right.
And they probably killed his brother-in-law. Hopelessness fills his every pore and for a split second he wants nothing more than to put the barrel of the rifle he's holding in his mouth and scatter his brains up toward the blazing sun.
Jasmine hasn't said a word since they walked away from the Pump N’ Snack, leaving Ashen and Old Guy's empty corpses behind. Ashen was her close friend or her brother, Jayden could tell. She lacked that lover's tenderness for him, yet she loved him just the same. They walked along, Jayden stiffly gripping the rifle at the ready and Jasmine holding the revolver loosely at her side like a child dragging an old tattered teddy bear by the arm, its body far too damaged to bother being careful with.
Jayden remembers something then. Something he hasn't thought about since before Ashen... "You said something to Ashen about a car...?"
Jasmine looks at him, her eyes dark and worn and red. "Yeah, we drove here in my old black Buick. It's parked at the Neon Museum just north of here."
Jayden sighs. "Listen... I don't think there's any point in looking for my brother-in-law. I think I need to face the facts..."
Jasmine looks at him like he's just slapped her in the face. "You're really gonna give up on him already? What makes you so sure?"
"I keep playing it over and over again in my head. It's the way he disappeared like that. I only looked away for a split second. There's no way he just got up and ran away. One of those fucking things must have taken him. I've been lying to myself all this time because I don't want it to be true, but I'm done with that. He's fucking dead and I know it... So, let's just get to your car and get the fuck out of here while we can."
Jasmine looks at him for a long time, face staring blankly. Then, still somewhat dazed, she nods, defeated. "Okay..."
He looks at her. Some force, some mysterious thing inside Jayden makes him reach out and take her hand. She looks down at his fingers draped over hers and a tear rolls down her face. The next second and he's holding her, her body quaking in his arms.
Dusk
Easter Sunday
North Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, Nevada
One by one dim stars pop up in blurry succession across the orange-blue sky. The Neon Museum is just up the street, looking like two oddly stretched baseball cap bills aiming at the sky. Jasmine had pointed it out as soon as it came within view. They only have maybe ten minute's walk to get there. Hands gripped tightly, Jayden thinks they might have a chance to make it out of what's left of this now hellish city. Within minutes the darkness begins to encroach and Jayden gets a bad feeling about things. It's as if his hope died away with the last of the sunlight. He shrugs it off as just a good old-fashioned fear of the dark.
On up, they see a short brick building covered in graffiti. The stars multiply in numbers eventually accompanied by the moon, lighting Jayden and Jasmine's way just enough. They're maybe a block away from the garage, when Jayden hears voices and turns to see a crowd of people standing around talking in front of The Cultural Corridor Theatre Center. At first it's the nonchalance of their tones and their words that captures Jayden's attention. But then it's that one particular voice that reels him in. He knows it.
It's Tommy!
Jasmine's hand is shaking in his as she nods for them to keep going, but it's too late. Not only has this crowd gotten Jayden's attention, but he and Jasmine seem to have gotten theirs as well. They move across the street faster than Jayden expects, forming a moving circle around the two. Jayden's confused. He sees Tommy in the group, but they're all staring at him and Jasmine like they want to do something bad. Like they want to hurt them. Even Tommy.
"Tommy, what's going on? I thought you were—"
"Dead? Is that what you were going to say?"
"Yeah, I..." The group continues to circle and Jayden finds himself having to turn around every few seconds to keep facing Tommy. Jasmine is quivering at his side and he knows something's terribly wrong, but he just can't seem to make any sense of it all. He remembers the gun at his side and realizes it's out for all to see and yet none of them seem afraid. Quite the opposite. He feels like a mouse being toyed with by a gang of large hungry cats.
Tommy snickers. "Well, you were right, Jayden. Just like always. I'm dead. Dead-dead-deadity-dead... I am fucking dead..."
Jayden isn't sure which part of this mess is more confusing. Tommy and his friends' behavior or the fact that he just heard his brother-in-law cuss for the very first time. Or that whole dead thing he just said. The kid is a raving Jesus-freak-Pentacostal for goodness sakes. He face-palmed and said "Oh my," to a practically G-rated sex scene on television the last time he and Julie came over. Whoever this kid is, circling around them, it couldn't be the Tommy he knows. Not only is something terribly wrong, but now things are just getting absurd as well and Jayden can’t take it anymore.
"All right. We're just gonna be on our way and I'll have Julie give you a call or something, okay, Tommy?" The circle comes to a stop and Tommy glares at Jayden.
"No... Not okay...Not okay at all…" The next second they’re on him. They’re on him and they’re on Jasmine and they are biting them and the world is spinning and it’s all Jayden can do not to scream at the top of his lungs even though he’s sure he already is. But he can’t feel anything now, Jasmine is crying out in tortured sobs and he can’t feel anything at all because the world around him is fading. Fading away. Fading into blurriness and nothingness and... darkness.
Nightfall
North Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, Nevada
Tommy Derringer looks down at his first kill. His weak human, mortal piece of shit brother-in-law and the girl's lifeless bodies lie in the street not moving. Not ever moving again. Tommy had worshipped his god his entire life and never received anything for all of his troubles. And yet, here, among these creatures, he’s been given the true gift of eternal life. He laughs, blood dripping down his face. He looks at his brothers-in-arms, the other vampires he'd been introduced to after being turned by one of the ancestor vampires, as Peter calls them. They are strong, fierce, and full of life. And he is too now.
Suddenly, all across the city, one after another, the various neon-lit signs spark to life until the entire place becomes one huge garish candle shining up into the heavens.
And the city of Las Vegas has been reborn...
RISING FROM ASHES:
EMPIRE OF BLOOD BOOK THREE
Robert S. Wilson
for Michele
Part One: A Million Empty Wells
Chapter 1
Jonny Cross
Light streamed past both sides of Jonny’s body in a fluorescent blur of colors as he made his way through downtown New York. The vampires had been on his trail for weeks now and t
onight they were close enough he could see them catching up with him, could hear their rushing footsteps. He knew they were fast enough to catch him and he couldn't understand why they didn't just snatch him out of reality with a flash of pale skin and dark clothes. It wasn't like anyone in the city would give a second look. It was New York City for Christ sakes. Even before the Empire took over it hadn't exactly been known as a city of compassion.
So they were keeping their distance from him, that much was obvious. But why? Jonny skidded the rubber bottom of his shoes against the sidewalk as he turned a corner, barely missing the street and a few pedestrians. Just before he passed the hard cinder-brick wall of the building next to him, he caught a glimpse of one of them. The vampire smirked in his direction, his face about eight feet off the ground with long yellow messy hair tangling down from his scalp and a big thick matted beard that masked a heavy jaw attached to an even heavier head. Strong heavy. Big heavy, like a man who'd spent all his living years hitting the gym day in and day out and then died and reawakened a massive chiseled sculpture of brute.
Jonny felt like an awful tiny mouse being chased by one hell of a nasty tom cat. He let his feet fall faster, having paced himself more evenly prior to actually being within visual distance of his pursuer. As he neared the end of the long cinder building, he looked over his shoulder and saw nothing and was just about to turn back and stop for a breather when he crashed into something painfully solid. Almost too solid. He bounced back and crumpled onto the sidewalk before he could get his head around to look at what he'd just run into. Blood ran down his scalp from where it had hit the crack in the concrete sidewalk and his vision was blurry but he could see straight enough to make out the mammoth monster in front of him staring down and grinning.
"Jonny Cross." The vampire spoke like some Neanderthal reading its first word from a cue card.
"Uh-huh, that's me, buddy." Jonny brushed off the thin sparkly dust of glass and dirt that now covered his pants courtesy of the lovely sidewalk and rose to his feet. He stared right into the vampire's eyes. "You found me. Now what the fuck do you want?"
The vampire's grin grew and he laughed. Jonny couldn't help imagining a giant Viking helmet on the guy's head as his muscles jiggled while he guffawed in that deep jughead voice.
"What's the matter? You some kind of monosyllabic motherfucker or sumthin'?"
The vampire's laughter ended abruptly and he looked at Jonny with glistening eyes of confusion.
Now it was Jonny's turn to laugh. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?" His laughter grew to an echo slapping back from the building across the street and Jonny went to turn and run. Before he even moved his head twenty degrees, the bulky vampire's hand clamped onto his neck and picked him up off the ground, his feet dangling in mid air. The pressure of the creature's hand burned against his skin and he knew that it was only a matter of seconds before his neck snapped if he didn't get away.
The vampire smiled up at him again. "You funny, eh?"
Jonny squeaked out an unintelligible response and the vampire's head tossed back with another uproar of laughter.
"You funny now."
Jonny managed to swing his foot hard enough that it nicked the vampire in the chin and again the laughter ceased and the vampire's face stewed with rage as the pressure around Jonny's neck grew. Jonny screamed as his whole body went into a cold sweat. He was on the water’s edge of passing out when a familiar scratchy voice came from behind the vampire and up the street.
"Harek," the voice yelled. And before it could even echo back to its source, the enormous hand around Jonny's neck loosened some and he felt himself gently lowering to the ground. In more display than need, he coughed and grabbed at his throat as he leaned over in front of the creature he now assumed was Harek.
Slow casual steps echoed from the end of the street behind Harek making their way nearer to Jonny and his new companion. A figure in a long black trench coat came into view just beyond the vampire's thick girth and when the dim glow of the street light touched its face, Jonny's eyes widened with angry recognition. The Emperor smiled in response and stepped uncomfortably close.
"Please forgive Harek, his temper is as vast as it is ancient." And with that Harek stepped back and turned away as if to look out for any surprise guests that might happen along this small frightening gathering.
If Jonny had been afraid before, he was certainly terrified now. The fact that the Emperor had sought him out personally had landed on Jonny like a ton of bricks and he was sure there were some stray blocks about to fall as an aftershock. "Wh-what do you want?" Jonny did his best to keep his shaking hands in his pockets and not try and turn and run for it again. Besides, there was no way he could get away now.
The Emperor grabbed Jonny's chin and turned it sideways looking over the long scar along his cheek and running his fingers across the far side of his face and then locking them behind Jonny's head. A grip tighter than Harek's pulled his face up close to the Emperor's and he glared into Jonny's eyes. "You've been running a long time, Mr. Cross. A long long time indeed. I could barely even begin to count the number of times your name has ended up on the Penitent list and yet you always seem to slip through Imperial fingers."
Jonny swallowed hard, his neck feeling like a rabbit's foot in a vice.
"I won't pretend not to revere the number of my followers you have led astray with your petty Catholic blasphemy. How many underground churches have managed to spring up wherever you happen to roam, Jonny? Twenty? Thirty, perhaps?"
Jonny stared into those fierce blue eyes less than an inch from his own and said nothing.
The Emperor smiled again. "Oh come on, son. Surely a man who has amassed such a movement must feel some ounce of pride at what he's accomplished? No?
"Well then, perhaps you're not as faithful to your holy trinity and its people as I thought you were. I suppose you'll feel no ill will if I send my legions of vampires into those filthy tunnels for a real communion—a truly worthy sacrifice of blood far more gruesome than the solitary crucifixion of your precious Christ!"
Jonny's face constricted with panic and a yelp of horror fell from his mouth.
"Oh, perhaps you are the man I was looking for, yes? The faithful servant who would die for the sins of the world." The Emperor laughed. "I'll tell you what. Let me offer you something your Christ could never give you. You do something for me—without question and without failure—and I'll turn a blind eye to the congregations of rats you have living down in my sewers and see to it that no harm comes to them." His hand relaxed behind Jonny's head and a deep terrible throbbing replaced the pressure of those unnaturally strong hands. Jonny tried rubbing his neck but it did no good.
"And just what do you need me to do that you can't get done yourself?"
"Jonny boy, the time for you to know has not yet arrived. The third cock has yet to crow if you get my drift and I have something much more important—to you at least—to show you now. You see, Jonny, there's just one more piece of... insurance... I have taken in case your resolve starts to waver in the tasks I am yet to assign you."
Jonny's body temperature dropped to near zero and he was shaking uncontrollably now. "Wh-wh-what the hell are you talking about? What do—"
The Emperor's hand grabbed the back of Jonny's neck again as he turned to walk back the way he came from, pulling Jonny along with him. Jonny stumbled to keep in step with the man.
"It'll be much more effective if you see what's at stake than if I tell you myself, Mr. Cross. I'm counting on your cooperation in this matter and if I'm to feel confident I've got your full attention, I'll need to see your face when you fully realize how imperative your situation truly is."
A black car waited at the end of the street. Harek opened the back passenger side door and the Emperor slid inside, dragging Jonny along behind him. Inside it smelled of new car and lemon-scented car freshener. Jonny made eye contact with the driver through the rearview mirror for a split second before a thick black pane
of glass separated the back seat from the rest of the world. "Relax, Mr. Cross. In due time, you'll be back in your sewer scurrying about again." Jonny stared out the cloudy dark glass of the tinted passenger window seeing more of his reflection than the city outside. He'd never seen his face so visibly terrified before.
A voice crept into the backseat of the car from some unseen place. “My Lord, you have an incoming call waiting from Colonel Chiles.”
“I’ll take it back here, thank you.” Reflected in the glass, Jonny watched as the Emperor put his hand up to his left ear. “Yes, Colonel, what is it?” A long silence seemed to stretch on forever as Jonny tried not to focus on the Elephant in his own personal room.
“I see.” The Emperor’s hand pressed into the car’s interior and violently ripped into it then gripped tightly onto an internal spring in the cushioning. “Don’t send anyone now. I have something else in mind. In the meantime, inform all state governors that I want the number of nightly broadcasts doubled in response to this latest development. That should teach them a lesson they won’t soon forget.”
The man really had no conscience at all. Jonny couldn’t stop his mind reeling anymore. He was sure he already knew what it was the Emperor was going to show him. Joseph Caesar’s face reflected in the glass from behind him. Jonny closed his eyes and prayed to Mother Mary that he was wrong. Then he prayed again for guidance.
And for protection from the devil sitting only inches to his left wearing a wide wicked grin and staring ahead at nothing.
Chapter 2
Enemy Ghost
Darby lay stretched out on his stomach watching the Commander and several Foederati soldiers through the nightscope of his stake-rifle from the top of some nameless industrial building. His finger itched for its chance to pull the trigger as they walked through war-torn streets toward the center of town. Carlisle was much smaller than any place he ever wanted to live. Born and raised in Chicago, he couldn't imagine just what the hell anyone would do on any given day or night in such a tiny little shithole. Taking aim, he could see the targets gathering in the city square. About thirteen or so thirsty Imperial vampires corralled around a line of men and women of nearly all colors, shapes, and sizes. It was time for what the Empire had dubbed the “Nightly Broadcast.”
Empire of Blood [Box Set] Page 54
