Empire of Blood [Box Set]

by Robert S. Wilson

  Chapter 27

  The Melting City

  It had been hours since Jonny started sorting out his plan. But those hours had gone by like lightning. He was sure it would be one of the hardest things he'd ever done before, probably one of the hardest he'd ever do in his life. If it lasted all that long. The man standing guard today was older than the others. His name was Tom. He had a weathered face and his voice had an aged grit to it. Jonny had grown to like the man from the tiny scraps of conversation they had shared. But it was time. He knew this was his only chance. And so he had to take it.

  And yet his nerves never stopped pulling at him like the strings of some goddamn puppet master. Even his fingers were shaking as he tried to make a fist. Tom was leaning against the cave wall, head nodding downward into unconsciousness.

  Jonny rose to his feet gently, trying to be silent. He'd never been very good at being quiet. Always the noisy one. That had been his legacy back home. But now he was so far away from home and Julie was all alone and he had to find a way to save her.

  A light snore snuck up from Tom and Jonny took his cue. He snuck forward toward the older man. He swallowed as he put his arm around the front of Tom's neck. In a movement more swift than Jonny realized he was capable of he pulled back on Tom's neck and squeezed as hard as he could.

  Tom sprang up, fighting tooth and nail against Jonny's arm, trying to free his wind pipe.

  "Good, good, Mr. Cross. Very good."

  Tears ran down Jonny's face as Tom's body went limp in his arms. He set the man down against the cave floor as quietly as he could and took the rifle slung around his shoulder. Wiping his face with his sleeve, he knelt down and began sifting through Tom's pockets. He found a modest keychain that included a big black Chevy key and took it. Then he pulled the rifle strap over his shoulder and made for the main hall of the cave.

  The room was silent as the dead. The dead he'd left behind and the dead that in the dark hours rose again, night after night. The rest of the Hive seemed to be just as empty as Jonny made his way for the entrance. The sun stung his eyes as soon as he walked out into the open air. It took a good long while before he could manage to move any further, the glow of darkness still enrapturing his eyesight.

  As soon as his vision was back to some semblance of normal, Jonny went running through the swamps beneath the trees, heading for higher ground. It didn't take long before he stepped out onto more solid earth. A big black Chevy truck sat in the distance waiting for him. Tom's, no less.

  Jonny asked Mother Mary for forgiveness before running on ahead and climbing into the truck. Hank had said he would know when it was time, but he hadn't been very clear about what to expect. On purpose of course, but Jonny couldn't help but worry that what he had just done was all for naught. He'd taken a man's life. By force.

  He couldn't help it any longer. Jonny opened the driver side door and heaved over the side of the truck onto the ground below. The Emperor's laughter filled his ears as he coughed up the last bits of sick from the back of his throat. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to be anywhere else. Nothing more except for one thing. One wish.

  Julie... He gulped back the sob fighting to erupt from within him and let it burn into his chest and then slammed the door shut. The truck started with the roar of a beast crying out to be unleashed. He pushed down on the gas and it roared some more. He let the bitterness in his stomach build up some more and then put the truck in reverse and hit the gas.

  The truck chugged backward, bumping and shaking. He shifted it into drive and set the beast loose. It rolled forward like an earthquake, flattening everything in its path with ease and making its own road along the way. This plan better fucking work, Hank. It has to...

  ***

  The rev of the truck engine was Simon's cue to act. The daylight would be uncomfortable, even this deep in the Hive, but it had been the only way. Tom had done more than his share to help both the cause and the Queen and her children. Shielding his eyes from the terrible glow of UV rays coming through the cave walls, Simon stumbled his way into the cavern where Jonny had been kept. He put his hands over Tom's chest and took a deep breath. The familiar glow of power burst out and sent shivers of energy through Tom's body.

  Tom’s eyes shot open and he flung upward, gasping for air.

  ***

  It had taken a long scalding shower to pull it off, but Hank eventually shed the queasiness and constant urge to slap at his skin where the occasional random itch happened upon him. None of the bugs had actually touched him, but he'd been close enough on a number of occasions to get that special jump-at-anything creepy crawly kind of jitters.

  He told himself that he'd have rather faced as many vampires in that hall though he knew that was far from true. The safe house bunker was a lot like the others he'd stayed in in various cities across the nation. Close quarters, multiple bunks per room, and plenty of firepower. The only difference was now that the war was so active, this particular safe house just happened to be completely vacant save for himself.

  He sat watching a tiny dusty old television, loading one of the many assault rifles. He'd taken one down to have on hand just in case. It didn't really make him feel any safer, but he knew his abilities couldn't protect him from everything. And now that he carried the best chance of taking out the Emperor in his own veins, the responsibility of keeping himself alive had become a very real and palpable thing.

  Watching the television didn't do anything to ease his anxieties. On one hand, he knew it was extremely unlikely that much of any news reported was completely true. On the other, nothing positive for his cause would get reported true or not.

  He turned off the TV set and leaned back in his chair, letting his worries wash over him all at once. There had never been any better cure for stress quite like more stress. Because no stress was not an option when you were responsible for so many lives.

  Hank took a deep breath. It was all procrastination anyway. He knew why he was here and what he had come to do. Beyond just being bait for the Emperor through Jonny. He'd known he would have a lot of time to kill while the kid worked to catch up to him.

  It had been months since Hank let his mind dip into the dark pool of his visions. It was likely what he saw would be no more reliable than the information he had gathered from the news, but he still had to try. Every upper hand he could get was worth taking at this point. Having a venom in your blood that can kill someone isn't enough to get the job done. You have to make it to their doorstep first.

  Hank closed his eyes and let his head fall back in complete relaxation. At first the myriad of thoughts swimming around in his brain all fought together to keep him from being focused enough, but eventually he was able to tune them all out.

  Darkness spread over him. A darkness not unlike the gray overcast of a black cloud covering the Sun. There was a depth to it unlike any other vision he'd seen before. He fell slowly at first and before long he was diving deep within the heart of an oblivion spreading further and further across the vast expanse of the Universe.

  Time was speeding up in this place and before long the events around Hank began to unfold in rapid succession. Faster and faster the arms on the clock hanging from the wall turned until they were nearly indiscernible. Then the flashing began and everything around Hank grew bright with the glow of foresight.

  Moments blurred by. Jonny Cross stood in the back yard of the safe house. Hank was curious to learn just how the plan would go, if they would be able to keep the Emperor from learning the truth. But just as soon as he tried to skip forward, the moment disappeared from his grasp and a new vision took over.

  A wind unlike any Hank had ever experienced spread out like a giant beast, setting buildings ablaze and melting nearly everything in its path. It was a blast of some sort. A big one. Nuclear. Had to be. It swept across the city like a line of molten dominoes. The destruction was so great and so fast, Hank couldn't manage to take in what he was seeing enough to recognize where the carnage was.


  The experience shifted from a sort of detached observation to something else. In the space of a heartbeat, Hank felt the entirety of his being catch fire and explode. He wasn't just seeing some possible future, he was seeing his future. He tried to will away the sensation of burning all across his body. To put away the images flooding his brain.

  It wouldn't stop. The harder he tried to fight it, the stronger the vision became.

  But was this future set? Would he now be forced to live it out, no matter what he did? Or, like the death of his son, if he chose to act, would it become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

  Green fire spread around Hank and rose up like a tall ocean wave ready to blast apart some lonely drifting ship lost at sea. But instead of washing him away in its destructive heat, it parted at the bottom and a small figure stepped out from the opening walking toward him unfettered by the burning, the melting, and still-moving blast spreading like a slow storm through the city.

  When Toby's eyes locked with Hank's, everything else fell away in shattering pieces until nothing was left but father and son.

  Chapter 28

  Etched in Flesh and Blood

  Awaken, my child. We must speak now.

  Simon's eyes opened. The Queen stared down at him with an expression he couldn't quite discern. There was a sadness to that look but a sense of great love and devotion as well.

  "What is it? What's happened?" He could sense something terrible from her. Not in words or thoughts but in the very complex emotion coming off of her in waves.

  "My child, it's Jackie..." She looked away from him then, eyes downcast toward the cavern floor. "I've seen many futures, many possible outcomes and none of them..."

  Simon took her chin gently then and pointed her face to his. "None of them what? Please, tell me."

  "Simon, her fate is sealed. No future I can see will bring her back to you. And only one... Only... only one will allow you to be together one last time."

  Simon rushed to his feet then. "Then I have to go. I have to find her and—"

  "You will die." The words were stiff. To the untrained ear they would have sounded cold, uncaring. But to Simon's well-tuned hearing a sting of utter remorse hid behind a wall of forced detachment.

  A deep weight dropped in Simon's chest. He'd known for some time now he couldn't possibly live forever. Not really. But he could live longer. He could choose to stay and who knew how many centuries he would watch fall out from under him. He could.

  He could stay and let her die alone. He could stay and never even try to save her. "Is there any chance we can live? That I can save her?"

  "None that I can see. But..." She gave him a weak transparent smile. "I cannot see every possible outcome. No one can. If you go now and choose your steps without my involvement, there is a slight chance you could create another future. But so long as I keep talking your chances drain away further every second. I already know you will go, my son. Don't waste anymore time with me. Your love has kept me safe and now it's time for me to let you go."

  Simon hadn't expected to ever see tears in those ancient eyes. The stream of blood spread slowly, hungering him in a way he hadn't hungered for her blood before. Not as a lover's offering but as the nurturing gift of a mother's milk.

  He moved closely and licked the stretching bead of crimson from her face. They embraced. Through the unseen connection between them, her love wrapped itself around him, giving him strength for what may come as they held each other. Now, go, child. Find her. Save her if you can...

  ***

  She'd been watching this one for weeks now. He was the one. She was certain. He had pulled the trigger. Alexandria held her breath as she hid in the shadows of the alleyway. She'd followed him tonight to his apartment near downtown, watched as he went in the building and watched as the light of his bedroom switched on, and now she watched as he disrobed for his shower.

  She felt nothing but cold calculated hatred as she, for the first time in her young adult life, watched a grown man undress. All she could think of was how she wanted nothing more but to cut him deep from one end to the other. To replace the smile on his face with a smile etched in flesh and blood.

  She'd left the boys alone at home. So long as they stayed asleep—which they would, they both slept like rocks—they would be fine. It didn't for once alarm her to consider them sleeping in the house alone.

  Besides... she only had eyes for Murdoch. Jesse Murdoch, Imperial Guardsman. A lowly bird on the totem pole, but that didn't matter much to her. He became her number one target when he replaced her father's head with a bullet.

  Alexandria slipped out of the cool expanse of shadow surrounding her form and made her way toward the front of the building. Quietly, she jogged up the stairs she had watched him take only moments before. Something about the way the wind blew through her hair gave her confidence and the anticipation of what she would do when she stood face to face with that motherfucker was becoming cathartic. He would taste his own blood before the night was over. She would make him taste it. It would be the last thing he would ever do. Her pulse quickened at the thought. A mixture of fear and hatred and revulsion with... herself, maybe? Everything was so jumbled up inside her head these days. Not a single feeling could just be simple anymore. Everything had to have attachments to something else.

  Imperial gospel music bullshit seeped out into the empty air surrounding the metal stairway from some nearby unseen open window or door perhaps. The words, "Glory to Caesar," twisted into her gut like a knife, but she let them fade to the background with the rest of the fury continually building inside her. The echoes of her steps rang hollow but swiftly with each passing floor. Just two more to go. She was almost there. The tightening of her guts was a new kind of nausea she'd never known possible. She didn't feel like she would throw up so much as she felt like her stomach would keep twisting and twisting until it strangled itself to death, taking her out in the process. The sound of nearby voices on the next floor above sent her nearly reeling into her shins. She didn't want to be seen here. If someone remembered even a glimpse of her after what she was about to do, she'd end up on a Nightly Broadcast before you could say v-a-m-p-i-r-e-s d-r-o-o-l. That was the new phrase going around in the various underground scenes for the past few months. She'd heard it more than a few times from complete strangers on the local bus and had once even heard a kid about Jeremy's age spouting it off without a care in the world. The Foederati rules and vampires drool! If an Imperial guard ever heard him, he'd be caring, all right.

  The voices were getting closer. Apparently someone was about to come around the corner of the next floor, just above her. She dived back down the stairs and waited, breath held deep in her chest, as the voices grew way louder quite suddenly accompanied by the rhythmic tapping of casual footsteps.

  "—hell is wrong with Jimmy these days?"

  "I don't know. I keep trying to tell him he's going to get himself killed if he keeps this shit up."

  "For real. I don't think I'm gonna be hanging out around here for a while. I don't want to end up on the fucking TV with a pair of fangs in my goddamn neck."

  "Yeah, I'm with ya. If he wants to get himself good and dead, that's his problem, not ours."

  Two sets of shoes began making their way down the staircase directly in front of Alexandria. She took a deep breath and started toward the mouth of the steps.

  "Besides, I..."

  Alexandria looked up at the two boys and gave her best giddy schoolgirl grin. The two boys smiled back, dumbfounded.

  "I... I... Oh, never mind."

  They scooted out of her way when they crossed paths at the near middle of the stairs. She could feel their eyes on her body as they continued down the steps. When she got to the top, she made the half-turn toward the next set of stairs, keeping her eyes forward, letting her peripheral vision feed her as much as it possibly could. They were watching her all right. But not in any way she probably had to worry about. She could imagine them being questioned by
Imperial Police:

  Tell me again about the girl you saw.

  Well... She had a really nice ass.

  Alexandria smiled despite herself. Somehow the humor of her imagination combined with the thrill of why she was there and the odd sense of cheap and dirty confidence that came from being objectively admired seemed to fuel her in a way she wouldn't have expected. The empowerment of it all was so distracting that it almost took her a whole minute before she realized this was the floor she'd been headed to. She stopped and looked around at the angles of the building and the different lit up windows trying to orient herself based on what she had watched from the street. If she was gauging her location well enough, Jesse Murdoch's door was just around the corner. Wouldn't he just be so surprised to see her.

  It was oddly surreal and not quite what she expected, but when she came around the corner she could make out Jesse's window as the third and last one along the wall. Why he left his curtains open to the world while changing out of his clothes in such a wide open apartment where anyone could see him was anyone's guess. She didn't want to know. Didn't care really. Just another passing curiosity as she tried to keep her mind steady. A tiny voice in the back of her head had been whispering to her ever since she heard those two boys coming around the corner. It said, "You're on the edge of a cliff and you're just about to jump, Alex. Maybe it's time to turn around.... go home?"

  But she wasn't listening. And so the voice had faded more and more into the background ambience of nearby traffic and unidentifiable white noise.

  Passing what she believed was Jesse's front door, she was just about a handful of steps away from the light glowing down on the walkway from his window when she slowed her pace. She crept the rest of the way to the window itself and glanced inside with as much stealth and concealment as she could pull off. The pattering of water told her he was still in the shower. Her glimpse inside confirmed it as well. The bathroom door she had watched him enter through, completely bare ass naked, stood closed. With all her courage having gone this far, with all her sheer will to do something, anything to somehow make someone pay for the death of her father, she hadn't put much thought into exactly how she would get inside Jesse's apartment.