Reluctantly, he had decided to do as she wished and took on the task of leading the war against the enemy vampires. Like her, war was what he knew best. War was where he would be strong. But they had tricked him. He should have been able to see the strategy at work, but he had been blindsided by the anger still within him. She had sensed it the moment he died. He had only come for her. To do what she wanted. He still longed to dethrone her lover from her side and take what he had built. In that instant, before the centuries ended into dust and his eyes saw nothing but darkness, she saw the truth that had been hiding from her for so very long.
He wanted to be her lover. To take away the one creature on this planet who she loved more than him. Her most beloved child wanted to betray the man that she loved. She would have killed him if he had tried, but it didn't matter. He didn’t have the chance. Simon had killed him. A fledgling vampire had taken him from her. And so he would know what it felt like to lose one you love so deeply.
No longer would she hunt him down to take his life. She would instead take his lover away. She had wanted the other queen as soon as she saw her anyway. And it would only give her beloved Joseph more power if the bitch were gone. So it had been decided. And now that her strength was gaining and Ishan's receding, perhaps she would be able to carry out her true vengeance. As of yet she could not move his body. Not since the night she had been so close. But she could feel her sense of power growing.
***
Action was the only constant now. Jackie had felt every terrible thing she could ever feel all in one moment that seemed like it would stretch out forever and now all she could do was find the creatures responsible and make them pay. She knew from the way the bodies had been ripped apart that what she was searching for were natural vampires. Not born of the Queen's bloodline but one of the Emperor's vampires. Mindless as they might be, she longed to rip them apart in turn. Them and the entire fucking empire if that might somehow dissolve whatever had set the events in motion that led to her family's death. They were innocent. There was no need to do what had been done to them. The fuckers weren't even following their own rules now.
I should have been there to protect them.
Jackie knew the pointlessness of her thoughts, but she didn't care. She was grasping at any straw she could imagine at this point. It didn't matter if the only way she could have been there without having done the deed herself would have had her dead too. She'd rather be dead now. She wished so badly that Simon were there. She had wanted him so badly to like her... to love her. And now it seemed that he did feel some kind of something for her and so the Universe had to go and even the balance of things and the cost of her desires had been the ones she'd left behind.
It would have made her sick to her stomach if she could actually feel anything now other than pure numb desolation. Her shadow stretched out below her like a long ethereal blanket in the moonlight. She had left the house in a fury, her weak ability had erupted into something new and even with the power of it, the reach and the sheer magnitude, it wasn't enough to do the one thing she wanted now more than anything else.
To tear the world apart.
Frank had hidden behind the car from her. She didn't blame him. He had been so good to her so far, and all he wanted was to live out the rest of his life as best as he could. It had been selfish to leave him, but she couldn't really imagine being able to do anything else right now. And then she remembered.
He's alone. And they could still be out there. And if they are, the smell of his blood will draw them...
All her fury and pain came to rest in a hidden place within her. She could at least set them aside for now. Her body turned, leaving behind a pile of blood and organs. The cold wind blowing against her face and the immediacy of her need to make sure Frank was okay distracted her about as much as could be possible from the knowledge of what those remains were. As much as it pained her that they were dead, she could let the dead be dead and at least for now focus her mind on saving the living.
The few remaining street lights that made up what was humanly visible of the town Jackie had spent most of her life in spread out around her as she hovered with forward momentum over bare patches of desert, blood-stained roads, and ravaged homes. When she arrived at her own street, she pulled in the stretching cord of her heart to keep it from bursting from the anguish of what had happened in this place. She let her tongue taste the air for any signs of Frank. His scent was definitely still fresh. Her inhuman hearing picked up the faint vibrations of something scratching. It was ever so light, but it was fingernails. Against metal no less.
She tuned her hearing to pick up the sound more clearly and the screech of it erupted into her brain, sending up a strong painful chill through her spine. It was too subtle to be human.
Vampires.
A faint whimpering accompanied it and for a moment Jackie was sure she was too late. But the scratching grew in intensity slightly and she realized what was transpiring. As she swooped around a long curve in the road, her home and Frank's car became visible and she confirmed what she had surmised. Three ancient vampires clung to the top of Frank's car, playfully scratching at the roof of it, toying with their prey. Frank, frozen with fear, held his steering wheel with white-knuckled hands and had apparently either lost the keys or had not the strength of will to try and start the car and drive away. Guilt struck Jackie then and she tried to push it aside. It wasn't fair to expect that she could react any bit differently than she had.
Something else, somewhat but not completely unexpected, became clear to her at that moment. These were the creatures responsible for the deep canyon of loss within her. She could smell her family’s blood on their breath floating up to her in the air.
The rage she had been holding back boiled to the surface. There was no stopping it now. She had no choice but to let it lead her...
Wherever it may.
Chapter 26
Words of Heresy
The deep southern drawl of Pastor Williams's voice echoed off of the tall concave ceiling and reverberated at Yusef from all directions.
"In these desperate times when brother stands against brother and father stands against son, we need to remember just how much Lord Caesar loves us. Just how important it is to hold fast to the strength of our savior. When the evil United States tried to make us condone the filth of sodomy and there was nowhere to turn, Lord Caesar rose up and tore down their corrupted regime of—"
A tug on Yusef's shoulder brought him face to face with a young youth pastor he wasn't quite familiar enough with to remember the young girl's name.
"Mr. Tahir, sir, Pastor Bradley needs to see you right away"—she leaned down and whispered more quietly in his ear—"it's about Umar's behavior in Sunday School this morning."
Yusef's palms went clammy the moment his son's name uttered from her lips. He nodded silently and rose to his feet as Pastor Williams shifted into some new sermon about something having to do with a wolf in sheep's clothing. The room was nearly spinning around Yusef. He followed the young girl as she headed between pews toward the far side of the room where the long hallway wandered off from the main part of the church and branched out into the various Sunday School rooms.
The slick hardwood floors seemed to barely stay beneath Yusef's feet as he rushed to keep up. They passed three doors on the left before swerving right down an adjacent passage and before Yusef could even let out a sound, the door to Umar's classroom passed them by.
At the end of the hallway, stood a solitary unlabeled door. The young girl, stopped, looked back at Yusef and said, "Just let me check with Pastor Bradley real quick and make sure it's okay to let you in."
Yusef opened his mouth to protest, "But..." She brought her finger up to shush him then disappeared behind the closed door. Yusef stood there a moment just fuming when the door burst open again and Lydia—whose name he now remembered suddenly for no discernible reason—nodded for him to come in, holding open the door. Yusef eased forward, barely able to con
tain the frustration born from the tension and worry that was clouding his head. Allah, please let this be quick and painless...
Once Yusef stepped inside, Lydia simply walked away, letting the door close between them. Yusef turned to find Pastor Bradley sitting at a large desk, glasses brimming the edge of his nose, and hands flipping through papers.
He gave no indication that he even noticed Yusef entering the room.
Yusef stepped forward, slowly, giving a fake gentle cough to make his presence known. "I was told... I was told you needed to see me about Umar?"
At the sound of Umar's name, Pastor Bradley's body seemed to grow cold and stiffened. "Yes, Mr. Tahir. I believe there's a serious matter you need to be aware of about your son."
Suddenly alert to the boy's absense, Yusef looked around the room, expecting to see Umar sitting at some lonely desk, a shameful expression drawing his eyes toward his feet. But he saw no such thing. If his son was in the room he must have become invisible. "Uh... Where is Umar, anyway?"
There was a snap from something in Pastor Bradley's hands. Two ends of a yellow pencil fell from his fingers and clacked against the wooden desk. "I think it's best we talk before I bring out your son, Mr. Tahir. Please... have a seat." He gestured toward a small desk at the front of the classroom directly in front of his own.
The room seemed to be shrinking and Yusef's body seemed to rise in temperature as he took in what the elder pastor had said.
Slowly and silently, Yusef took a deep breath and stepped up to the empty desk and sat down. As soon as he was seated, Pastor Bradley came to full attention as if he hadn't been actually interested in the conversation until his subject was in the docile position of being trapped in a child's school desk.
"Mr. Tahir, are you aware of any heretical books that may be in your possession... or do you know of anyone who would teach your son such things?"
Something gripped tightly inside Yusef's chest. This was definitely worse than he had feared. Up till now he had assumed the boy had made some minor offense like goofing off or talking when he was supposed to be listening. But heresy... Or at least what was called heresy in the eyes of the law...
He had always been very careful to explain to the boy just how dangerous it was to talk about the truth. It had seemed rash at the time, but he had told Umar more than a dozen times about what they had done to the boy's mother. Every painstaking detail. But children... Children aren't the greatest at keeping secrets. At lying. The gripping feeling in Yusef's chest turned to one of anger. He'd never wanted to turn his child into a liar. Pride swelled around the growing anger. His son was not a liar. Could never be one.
Yusef cleared his throat. "I-I'm not aware of anything like that, no."
Bradley stood up and leaned hands down against the desk then, eyes drilling into Yusef's. "Mr. Tahir, these things don't just come from nowhere. Children do not invent words of heresy, they learn them. Have you been teaching your son from the Quran?"
There it was... flat out in the open. Now was the time to either speak up or deny his faith. Yusef had been lucky enough to not have anyone question him so frankly before. It was such questioning that had gotten his beloved Safiyah killed.
Sure he had been warned. Practice heresy and you will follow your wife's lead. But never had anyone asked him point blank if he too was a follower of Mohammed. If he had prayed with his wife. If he believed in any other god than the mighty Joseph Caesar.
Before Yusef could speak, a shallow sound caught his attention from behind. He turned to see the missing piece of the puzzle that had been hidden from him. In the corner lying in a heap, Umar sobbed quietly, his body curled up in a fetal position. On the cold linoleum floor.
Yusef turned and went to his son. Leaning in close he could see the purple bruises on the boy's face and across his arms. The pastor's question had beaten down Yusef's anger into something small and alone. Something frightened and weak. But the sight of purple welts on Umar's skin transformed the tiny fragile flame in Yusef's heart and it exploded into pure rage.
"What have you done to my child?"
Pastor Bradley's eyes twitched for a short second as if he had a moment's doubt in his actions and then his face stiffened. "I did as any good servant of Caesar's would have done in the face of such blasphemy!"
Yusef's hands shook before him, his every muscle ached with rigid fury. His stomach turned inward as the last moments of Safiyah's life flashed before his eyes. The soldiers...grabbing her. Her blood-curdling scream reaching out and then silenced by the blast of a handgun. Blood and brains sprayed out onto the pale crème-colored front door. A sort of blindness overtook him as he straightened up and turned to face Pastor Bradley. Not a blindness of sight but a blindness of consequences.
A blindness of conscience.
It must have been the look in his eyes at that moment, but Pastor Bradley's smug expression melted into one of terror. He looked at the door then back at Yusef. Then, without warning, he circled around his desk and sprinted for the door. Yusef ran. Faster than he'd ever ran in his life, he soared, jumped and toppled Bradley, landing on top of the man's turned and crumpled body.
Yusef's fists were coming down then like someone else controlled them. Like his mind was trapped in some faraway place where he could only watch through some blurry television screen as someone else used his body, used his fists to desecrate another man's face.
When his arms could punch no more, they fell at his sides and the bloody pulp that was still sort of Pastor Bradley's face shook. Looking down at the blood on his hands, Yusef panicked. He looked over at Umar, still crumpled in a heap and half conscious. Had his boy seen the thing that he had just done? Alah help him if he had.
Yusef wiped his hands on Pastor Bradley's white button-up shirt and began to sob. He had never done such a thing in all his life. He had never wanted to hurt anyone. Never. Not in all his life. He had never wanted to watch his wife's head erupt and...
They would come for him. For both of them. They would do to his son what they had done to her...
Yusef let out one long moan as he got to his feet and stumbled over to his son. Oh Umar... Before he could think of anything else, he did the only thing that seemed logical at that point. He picked up little Umar in his arms and without a passing glance at the man who had beaten his precious innocent son, he snuck out of the room, closed the door behind him and ran through the halls.
When he came out into the main room, his movements disturbed a few members of the congregation who turned to watch him as he came race walking as silently as he could toward the main doors. But there must have been blood still on his hands or on his clothes because they didn't just watch. A woman, tall and lanky, with brown eyes and a face draped in too much makeup screamed.
And just as quickly as her voice echoed off of the ceiling, two imperial guards appeared in the main doors, the same two who had let him in. "Sir, please put the boy down and let's talk..." one of the guards said.
Yusef shook his head and turned to run the other way and the guards rushed over to stop him. Everything happened so fast, Yusef could hardly believe it was real. He turned again and ran for the opening the two men had left behind. In an instant he was out the door and jumping past the concrete steps, landing hard and painfully on the sidewalk and running, running, running.
The men shouted something at him he couldn't make out. He just kept running and running. Shots rang out behind him as he ran and so he ran faster, heart beating through every vein in his body. Something cramped in his lower leg and he nearly fell forward but somehow... whether it was the frail body in his arms or the brutal last memory of his wife, Yusef kept running. His right leg now stumbling to keep up with his left.
In the parking lot, the glass of a nearby sedan's back window blew out in a wide spray of shattered glass and Yusef ducked down low between the parked vehicles, cradling little Umar close to his belly as he duck-walked with bent knees.
His car came into view, silver and inviting. Ju
st two more cars to go... The sounds of urgent footsteps coming closer sent the world spinning as he tried to sift through his pocket and find his keys.
Another loud explosion and then a high-pitched ping as a bullet bounced off the door of the car just before his. His keychain fell on to the pavement and he dropped down to his side, one arm still holding Umar against him and rolled over so the boy was beneath his body and, with his other hand, he felt around for the keys.
Sirens rang out then. They must have found Pastor Bradley. Yusef was near to tears then when his pinky brushed against something cold tiny and metallic. He hooked it around the keychain and grabbed hold of it.
A scream erupted from somewhere far away and the gunshots stopped for a moment, then voices struggled and Yusef took his chance. Running around the back of the next car, he came around to the back door of his sedan. Someone was screaming something at the guards and in their mad panic none of what they were saying was clear enough to be heard. The guards attempted to calm the woman, but her screams only grew in pitch when she saw Yusef putting Umar's little body into his car.
Yusef was sure it was the last thing he would do. The guards however, didn't take the cue and instead became angry. One of them put a hand over the woman's mouth while the other swung his rifle at the back of her legs.
It hurt to watch them do something so horrible to someone but Yusef had no choice but to do whatever it would take to save his boy. He ran around quickly and got in the driver side. When he started the engine the men turned around and more gunshots rang out. In seconds he was speeding backwards from the parking spot, shifting into drive, and blasting his way out the other end of the lot.
Empire of Blood [Box Set] Page 68
