“Drop your weapons and I will let you live!” I yell.
Most in front of me surrender right then. The few who don’t, who take aim, I shoot in the head. The sheer number of deaths does not numb me. I look in the eyes of each one I destroy, and wonder about his life and who he leaves behind. If it was just my life—honestly, if there was no danger of my blood falling into the wrong hands, I would let them cut me down. But I have a responsibility to mankind. I know that is the rationale of every great man or woman, of every merciless monster. The smell of blood is too thick even for my taste.
Arturo and General Havor disappear around the corner.
I call to Joel to join me in the hallway.
He cautiously peeks out. He groans.
“Nothing can be worth this,” he whispers.
“You may be right,” I say. “Still, we have to get out of here. To do that, we need General Havor.”
“Where is he?”
“On the second floor.” I grab Joel with my free arm and shield the top of his head with my palm. “Let’s join him.”
I leap straight up and smash through the ceiling. Again, Yaksha’s blood comes to my aid. Without it, such a move would have given me a righteous headache. This time the ceiling barely slows me down. Pulling Joel through the hole I have created, we stand up on the floor of the basement, level one. I see soldiers down the hall jamming the stairs, frantic to exit. Arturo and General Havor struggle in the midst of the human flood. Raising the machine gun to my shoulder, I take aim at General Havor’s right thigh. For a split second it is clearly visible. I put a bullet in it. The general stumbles and lets out a cry. No one stops to help him, least of all Arturo. I grab Joel’s arm.
“Come,” I say.
As I wade into the crowd, they scream and scatter. I guess my red hair does not suit me. Or perhaps it is the fact that I am soaked from head to toe in blood. I must look like a beast that has climbed from the depths of hell. Arturo is already out of sight, but General Havor lies helpless at the side of the stairway. He is lucky that he was not trampled to death. But he is not lucky that it is me who reaches out to help him to his feet.
“General Havor,” I say. “Pleased to meet you face to face. Sorry I have to ask a favor so soon after saying hello. But I need you to take me and my friend into the cave behind this compound. I need one of those thermonuclear warheads you keep there. I have a thing about fire, you see, about explosions. For me, the bigger the better.”
SIXTEEN
The cave turns into another prison. We reach it without excessive bloodshed, but once inside I am forced to kill all the soldiers. The endless slaughter weighs heavily on me. Joel’s broken expression begs me to stop. But I can’t stop until it is over, one way or the other. It is my nature never to quit.
We are scarcely inside when the remaining soldiers close the door on us. The metal is as thick as the door on the cell—it cuts in half the miniature rail tracks that run between the compound and the depths of the hill. They also turn off our lights, but there are emergency lanterns. For Joel’s sake, and the general’s, I turn on several. The stark rays cast ghastly shadows over the carnage I have inflicted. There is blood everywhere. The red blurs in the silent gloom, in my racing mind; it is as if the walls of the cave bleed. I try not to count the dead.
“I didn’t want this,” I say, pointing my weapon at the general, who sits on the edge of the small railroad car that carries supplies into this place of secrets. His leg continues to bleed but he doesn’t complain. He is a horrible human being, but he is not without strength. A hard man with a blunt face, he wears his hair as if it were a disease growing on top of his head. I add, “It’s your fault.”
My accusation does not faze him. “You can always surrender.”
I kneel beside him. To my left Joel sits on the ground, looking weary beyond belief. “But you see that is not an option,” I tell the general. “When history started, I was there. And the only reason mankind has been able to move steadily forward is because I have chosen to stand apart from history. I watch what happens. I have no desire to have important roles. Do you understand that I tell you the truth?”
General Havor shrugs. “You’ve changed your style today.”
My voice hardens. “You made me change.” I gesture to the dead men who lie around us. “All this is because of you. Look at them. Don’t you care about them?”
He is bored. “What do you want? A nuclear bomb?”
I stand and look down at him. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. And after you show it to me, I want you to arm it.”
He snorts. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
“I know you’re crazy. I have seen inside your mind. I know what you planned to do once you had my blood in your veins. You were going to murder Arturo and rape me.”
He’s cocky. “You flatter yourself.”
I slap him in the face, hard enough to break his nose. “And you sicken me. I don’t know how Arturo ever teamed up with you. He must have been desperate. He and I are not alike, by the way. I never beg for anything, but I know how to make you beg. Give me the warhead and arm it or I will subject you to such physical and mental torture you will think that soldier I ripped apart inside the cell died peacefully.” I raise my hand to strike again. “Yes?”
He holds his nose; the blood leaks through his thick fingers. “May I ask what you plan to do with the warhead?” he asks.
I catch his eye, push hard enough to make him cower.
“I am going to clean up your mess,” I reply.
General Havor agrees to furnish me with a bomb. He digs it out of the back, and wheels it into view on the railroad cart. A black squat affair with a pointed tip and an elaborate control box on the side, it looks like something from an old sci-fi movie. The general informs us that it is rated ten megatons—ten million tons of TNT.
I point to the color-coded buttons on the side.
“Can it be rigged to go off at a specific time?” I ask.
“Yes. It can be set to detonate in ten minutes, or in ten years.”
“Ten years is a little long for my tastes. But your men may escape, if they listen to me. You will want to argue my position to them, once we get back outside. Which leads me to my next point.” I gesture to the metal wall that blocks the exit. “How do we open this door?”
“It can’t be opened from the inside. They’ve cut our power.”
“Is there a radio in here?” Joel asks. “Can you talk to them?”
General Havor shrugs. “I have nothing to say to them.”
I grab the general by the collar.
It doesn’t take much for him to piss me off.
“You will tell them that we have an armed warhead in here set to detonate in fifteen minutes,” I say. “That will be, by the way, the literal truth. You will also inform them that if they wish to prevent the bomb from exploding, they are to let us out. Finally, you will mention that I am willing to negotiate.”
He laughs at me. “You can do what you want to me, I am not going to arm this warhead.”
I let him go, take a step back. “You think you can play with me, General. You think the worst I can do is kill you. Arturo never told you of the power of my eyes. How my gaze can permanently fry your brain.” I pause. “If in the next ten seconds you don’t tell me the code to arm this warhead, I will stab such a needle into your forehead that you will have the IQ of a chimpanzee for the rest of your life—however long that may be.”
He lowers his head. “I cannot allow you to set off this bomb.”
“Very well.” I step forward and grab him by the jaw, thrusting his head up, forcing him to stare at me. “Look deep, General! Into the eyes of the witch you thought to control. See where I have prepared a piece of fire for you to burn.”
SEVENTEEN
Ten minutes later the door is opened by the highest ranking commander on the outside and we wheel a fully armed warhead into the nighttime air. The detonator clicks off the seconds. Fifteen minutes to A
rmageddon. Driving at high speed should give us and the soldiers time to get clear of the blast. Overhead, the full moon shines down on our heads, bathing the entire desert with a milky white radiance. The setting is dreamlike, as if there has already been a nuclear explosion thousands of years ago and the radioactive fallout remains.
A small army aims a line of high-tech weapons at us.
On all sides, from the guard towers to the rocks in the hill, we are surrounded.
A minute before, a mumbling General Havor had ordered them to let us go.
But they’re not listening.
The highest ranking commander on the outside is now Arturo.
He steps forward as we move out of the cave.
“Sita,” he says. “This is madness.”
“You tell me about madness, Arturo.” I hold a pistol to General Havor’s head, shielding myself and Joel with his wobbly figure. He wept as I bored into his brains but he resisted me as well. I had to destroy most of his mind to get what I wanted. Gesturing to the bomb, I add, “This warhead is set to detonate in less than fifteen minutes. That gives you and your men barely enough time to get clear.”
Arturo shakes his head. “We cannot let you escape. An order has come from the President of the United States. At all costs, you are to be stopped.” He gestures to the men around us. “We are expendable.”
I force a chuckle. “You will not sacrifice all these people.”
“It is not my decision to make.”
“That’s nonsense! They look to you to command them now. Command them to drop their weapons and get the hell out of here.” I pause. “You are bluffing.”
Arturo looks me in the eye. He is not intimidated by my gaze.
“I pray that you are the one who is bluffing,” he says softly.
The timer on the detonator goes to fourteen minutes.
I meet his gaze. “When was the last time you prayed, Arturo? Was it before the inquisitor’s court? The day they hanged you? I did what I did then because I know the danger my blood poses for the world. Tonight, I killed all these people for the same reason—to protect humanity.”
Arturo challenges me. “To protect us from what? A chance to evolve into something greater? Into creatures that need never grow old, that need never hurt one another? Earlier you laughed at my mission. Seven hundred years ago you also laughed at me. But mine is still the noblest quest on earth—to perfect humanity, to allow it to become godlike.”
“You do not become godlike by merging with a monster!”
My words surprise him. “You’re not a monster, Sita.”
“I am not an angel, either. Or if I am, I am an angel of death—as far as humanity is concerned. True, I have the right to live. Krishna granted me that right. But only if I lived alone, and made no more of my kind. Now I have broken that sacred vow. Krishna will probably judge me harshly. Perhaps he has already judged me, and that is why I am being forced to suffer in this place, to hurt all these people. But what is done is done. I am what I am. Humanity is what it is. We can never join. Don’t you see that?”
“Don’t you see me, Sita? I am an example of what can be accomplished with a merger of our DNAs. And I am only an incomplete example because I never got to complete the process. Think what mankind can change into if you’ll just let me experiment with your blood for the next few weeks. Even a few days would be enough. That’s all I’m asking. Then, when I’m finished, I promise to let you go. I will arrange it so that you can go free.”
I speak with sorrow. “Arturo, I can see you. I see what’s become of you. As a young man, you were the ideal person: devout, loving, brilliant. But your brilliance was perverted the day you received my blood. Your love was twisted. For the sake of your experiments, you even sacrificed a boy you loved. You sacrificed us—the love we had for each other. You lied to me, and I think you lie to me again. Your devotion is no longer to Christ—it is to yourself. And even though I have also lied to my God, I still love Krishna and pray he will forgive me for my sins. I still love you, and I pray you will order these people to let us go. But because of both of these loves, I cannot surrender. You cannot have my blood.” I pause. “No man can have it.”
Arturo knows me.
He knows I’m not bluffing, not when it comes to matters of life and death.
The timer goes to thirteen minutes. Unlucky thirteen.
His face and voice show his resignation. “I cannot let you go,” he says quietly.
I nod. “Then we will stand here until the bomb goes off.”
Joel looks at me. I stare silently at Joel. There are no words left.
Arturo stands still as a statue. The moon shines down.
Twelve. Eleven. Ten.
Ten minutes might be long enough to get clear of the blast.
“Arturo, ti prego,” I say suddenly. “Arturo, please.” “At least warn your men. Let them flee. I have enough blood on my conscience.”
“The blast will leave no blood,” he says, turning his eyes upward, toward the sky. “We will be like dust, floating on the wind.”
“That is fine for you and me. We have lived long lives. But most of these men are young. They have families. Give the order—enough will remain to prevent Joel and me from escaping.”
Arturo sighs and turns. He raises his arms and shouts. “Units G and H are free to go! Hurry! A nuclear bomb is about to detonate!”
There is a great commotion. I suspect more than units G and H want to leave. The men pour into their trucks. Engines roar to life. Tires burn rubber. The front gate is thrown open. The vehicles roar out of sight. Driving at a hundred miles an hour, they can put at least twelve miles between themselves and the blast in the time they have left. They should survive. Yet many remain behind who will not survive. Too many men still stand guard over us. If we try to escape, we will be cut down. It is better to go out like this, I think. Standing on our feet. Disintegrating in an all-consuming wave of fire.
Then I remember something.
“He’s in a box so thick an atomic bomb couldn’t blast through it.”
But if we move and try to flee toward the lab basement, they’ll open fire.
For the first time in my long life, I can see no way out.
Time creeps by.
Eight. Seven. Six. Five.
“I don’t even know if the warhead can be deactivated once it’s armed,” I mutter.
“It can’t be.” General Havor mumbles with what is left of his mind.
“Oh,” I say.
Then I begin to feel a peculiar sensation, a subtle but constant vibration inside my body. The moon is directly overhead, of course. It has been shining down on us since we left the cave. But what I didn’t realize—with all that was going on around me—was that the moonlight has been filling my body all the time we have been out in the open. It has become more and more transparent. I feel as if I am made of glass. Interesting, I think—and I didn’t even have to take my clothes off. It is Arturo who is the first one other than myself to notice the effect.
“Sita!” he cries. “What’s happening to you?”
Standing beside me, Joel gasps. “I can see through you!”
I let go of the general. Staring down at my hands, I glimpse the ground through my open palms, through my fingers. Yet I can still see the blood pulsing in my veins, the tiny capillaries glowing like a complex web of fiber optics. A cool energy sweeps over me, yet my heart is strangely warmed.
It warms even as it starts to break.
The white glow spreads around me.
I realize I can just lift off and fly away.
Yaksha’s blood, maybe Krishna’s grace, gives me another chance.
Do I want it? I feel myself leave the earth.
I reach out to hug Joel, to carry him away with me.
My arms go right through him!
“Joel,” I cry. “Can you hear me?”
He squints. “Yes, but it’s hard to focus on you. What’s going on? Is this a special vampire power?”
<
br /> My luminous body floats a foot off the ground now.
“It is a gift,” I say. Despite my unusual physical state, I feel tears on my face, white diamonds that sparkle with a red sheen as they roll over my transparent cheeks. Once more, I have to say goodbye to those whom I love. “It is a curse, Joel.”
He smiles. “Fly away, Sita, far away. Your time is not over.”
“I love you,” I say.
“I love you. The grace of God is still with you.”
The ground is two feet below me now. Arturo tries to grab me, but can’t. He stands back and shakes his head, resigned.
“You are probably right,” he says. “Mankind is not ready for this.” He adds, “Everything you require is in my basement. It is your choice.”
I don’t understand. But I smile at him as I float higher.
“Ti amo,” I whisper.
“Ti amo anch’io, Sita.”
A wind takes hold of me. Suddenly I am soaring. The stars shine around me. The moon beats down on the top of my head like an alien sun spawned in the center of a distant galaxy. It is so bright! My now-invisible eyes can hardly bear the glare, and I am forced to close them. As I do an even greater light ignites beneath me. The fiery rays of it rise up and pierce through my etheric body. There is tremendous heat and noise. A shock wave as thick as a granite mountain strikes me. Yet I feel no pain—just swept away, on currents of destruction and tidal waves of death. The compound is gone, the stolen blood is vapor. The world is safe once again. But I, Sita, I am lost in the night.
EPILOGUE
There is, to my utter amazement, a basement in Arturo’s Las Vegas home. The afternoon after the atomic blast, I peer through the carefully hidden trapdoor and discover sheets of copper, magnetic crosses arranged in odd angles, and, most important of all, an empty crystal vial, waiting to be filled with blood. A mirror rests above the vial. It can reflect either the sun or the moon, depending on how much you want to wager.
I call Seymour Dorsten, explain the possibilities to him.
Wait, he cautions. He is on his way.
Thirst No. 1 Page 41
