Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Hank wondered again how he would pull off telling Ishan anything. He got up from the bed and stepped into the bathroom. He closed the bathroom door behind himself and leaned his back against it, listening. When a moment of silence passed, Hank opened the secret door, his hand trembling on the handle. Light spilled from inside, revealing dozens of small plastic vials full of thick black vampire blood. Hank took one with both hands and held the top to his nose. The smell sent chills of pleasure down his spine.
He was about to take a drink when the bedroom door outside the bathroom creaked. Hank chugged the red liquid. Then he replaced the vial and closed the secret door faster than human eyes could have seen. The moment the blood touched his tongue, all senses heightened to the extreme. Only, now he knew how to tune them to his will. The imperial training helped with that. How the Emperor had even known about the blood when even the vampires of Necropolis hadn't was still a mystery.
If it hadn't been for Hank accidentally drinking the blood of an ancestor in the first place, the vampires would still be in the dark. Hank was too bloodthirsty to find humor in his own pun. He attuned his inhuman hearing to the next room. Toby's heart beat faster than normal. Hank stood still, listening. Keeping his secret addiction and powers from the boy had been proving more and more difficult lately.
Papers shuffled in the next room, followed by the opening and closing of drawers. Footsteps tapped against the hardwood floor of the bedroom toward the bathroom door. Hank locked the door in a silent flash. The knob jiggled for a second and then stopped abruptly. The boy's heartbeat doubled. Then his faint voice came to life through the door.
"D-Dad? Are you in there?"
Hank almost tried to pretend he wasn't there, but didn't have the patience to do so. "Yes, what do you need, Toby?"
"Oh, nothing, Dad. I was just trying to figure out where you were."
His heartbeat told otherwise.
Hank knew all too well what he was looking for. Toby had been trying desperately for days to find something to explain why his father was behaving so differently than normal. Why his father had become more concerned about his job as the Imperial Mediator to Necropolis than receiving the last message from his dead, beloved wife. Why his father had been attending the Imperial Church lately and immersing himself in Caesar's Bible, the official holy book of the Empire, half written by Emperor Caesar himself. Why his father spent long hours studying history books on the subject of empires from the past. It was like he'd become a different person literally overnight. Ever since he went to that ceremony to be "blessed." He came home that day a changed man. Toby probably wondered if the "blessing" had included some sort of brain-washing as well.
"Okay, Toby. I'll be out shortly."
"All right, Dad. Don't fall in." Toby's heartbeat relaxed a little and his voice was back to its old self. He still was the same boy Hank had raised and loved for the past 16 years. Just confused. Hank knew what he was doing was tearing his boy apart, but there was no other way to protect him. Not yet, anyway. When the bedroom door shut and Toby's footsteps faded toward the front of the house, Hank let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Two days left. Two days to figure out the impossible.
Chapter 3
The Second Offering
The days had gone by one after another and still all Jack could think about was that precious little girl. The way her golden curls framed her face and her warm, vibrant skin. But most of all he remembered the sound of her heart beating and the smell of that rich innocent blood flowing through every vein in her body. He could even remember the look of those veins as the blood pumped through them behind her skin. With every image seared into his brain, every sense she had affected, he felt the hunger tear through him even more.
He'd lost count of how many days had went by since the Emperor had brought her, but he knew they were adding up. As was the case with starvation, his pale skin had sunken into his bones. He could even feel his ribs poking through the flesh of his chest and stretching it slightly. He lay in the darkness thinking of that beautiful child for at least the hundredth time that day. At first they had left the body in his cell to rot. The smell of death didn't quite affect his kind as it did humans, but it certainly wasn't a pretty perfume, either.
After several days went by, a cleanup crew of sentries finally entered the room and removed her, leaving the place as though she'd never even been there. Never even existed. By then Jack had lost the last of his strength and had no choice but to smell their blood as they cleaned up the remains. He could barely lift his own fingers, let alone lunge at the sentries with the strength it would take to kill or even get a taste of them.
After they'd left he found himself weeping, yet no tears would come. If he ever did get the chance, he'd decided, he would take the Emperor's offer without any fuss. He only knew he needed blood and needed it soon. He'd never went this long without any at all, and wasn't sure how long he could last this way. He was wondering when he would get his second chance when that sodding elevator started up again.
Every time it moved up or down that little glimmer of hope lit up within him, and he'd be damned if he'd let it spark into life now. But there it was in the back of his mind. Brilliantly luminescent and shiny. As the elevator neared his floor he cringed weakly with the little bit of muscles still working within his face. Would it stop this time? Or, just like every other time, would it move on and leave him to starve. He'd seen centuries go by quicker than those moments. Time stood still and held him over the edge of a cliff towering over a boiling sea of lava.
When the elevator latched into place, the sound of metal on metal echoing throughout the outer hallway, Jack hardly realized it to be true. He was so used to it moving on at this point that he could hardly rationalize why it would stop. He heard the door open with an excruciating clarity. Then came the smell again.
Death.
Innocent blood.
It was him, all right. Sodding bastard. And this time he'd brought an even sweeter prize to offer Jack. The hunger was giving him a second wind he hadn't realized to be possible. He was almost able to sit up.
The peephole screeched open, tearing through Jack's sensitive ears. Light spilled into the room and Jack could see those stale lips within the thin rectangular slot. There was a long pause and then the Emperor began to speak.
"Mr. Draper, how wonderful to see you again. I do hope this time we meet under more mutually beneficial circumstances. I trust you smell the offering of which I have brought and are able to appreciate the value it exhibits. But I think, once you've heard me out, Mr. Draper, you will find this offer to be much more to your liking in more than just one way."
While the Emperor paused for what Draper knew to be dramatic effect, Draper smelled exactly what the Emperor was talking about. He could smell the fear in them. This elicited even greater excitement in him than the precious girl the Emperor had brought before. But there was another who felt no fear and Jack was at a loss to understand the entire bargain the Emperor was about to explain.
"Good, I can hear your brain working with excitement. Good, indeed. Curious are you... as to why I've brought their mother?"
Jack could only let out a small whimper in reply but that was all that was needed.
"Yes, I am most proud of what I have prepared today. You see, Jack, the mother, as I'm sure you can already smell, is under a spell much like the young lamb I brought before. Consider her your daily ration... your main course, if you will. But the true prize, the dessert, I'm sure you know, is her twin daughters."
With that Jack could hear the hearts of both little girls beat madly in their chests. Oh, the precious blood those tiny organs must pump through their sweet, innocent little bodies.
"I'm going to open the door and let the mother in. She has been instructed to come to you and do whatever is necessary so that you may regain your strength. I will be leaving the door open. And to make it more to your liking, Mr. Draper,
I've decided to take the girls with me. If you can hunt us down and take them from me, you shall have your first taste of the bigger picture that I truly have to offer you."
Jack nearly choked on the saliva building up in his mouth. He longed for the hunt almost more than he longed for the innocent blood coursing through those precious girls standing behind that door. The gears within the thick metal door turned and a deep thud resonated through the walls and the metal bed beneath Jack. Yellow, blinding light filled the room as multiple footsteps echoed in varying speeds along the walls. One set came calmly toward him as another sped away from the doorway.
Other layers of sound and senses overwhelmed Jack so that he was nearly void of awareness for a moment. Then her delicate skin touched his lips and he felt the vibration of it as she spoke to him.
"Drink."
As she pressed her throat against his open mouth, Jack put all of his being into pressing his fangs into her flesh. It was slow at first but as soon as the skin was punctured and the first drop of blood touched his tongue, his sense of strength renewed with every taste of her. Before long he was gripping the back of her head and the blood flowed evenly. He could feel her body lighten as he drained her more and more. It had been over 15 years since he drank from the source and of course the thirst was now stronger than he'd ever known it to be.
He cast the body aside as he leapt to his feet. His senses were on full alert and every cell in his body was alive. With his thirst abated, now he could savor the hunt. He lunged through the door and pounded his feet against the concrete floor of the hall in the direction he'd heard the Emperor's footsteps lead. Not a second's thought went into opening the elevator door in the traditional manner as he sped toward it. It grew before him as he reared his shoulder forward to ram through it with brute force.
As he crumpled into the thick titanium elevator doors, he remembered just how secure every unit of construction within this place had always been. The collision sent a rupture of pain through his arm and side. He slid down to the floor still moving with the momentum that had thrown him at it.
After a moment of dizziness, he flung himself upward and grabbed at the place where the two doors met in the middle. His claws pressed into the thin crack between them and stretched the opening slightly further. Pressure pushed against his fingers where his claws attached to the flesh. The pressure became pain and his claws were near to breaking from his fingers when he finally managed to gain passage for his fingertips.
Fingertips led to knuckles. Knuckles led slowly and painfully to more of his fingers until finally he had enough of his hands inside to grip. Then, he started to pull with his arms, so that the doors would move away from each other. At first they stood firmly still, but with time and focus they began to budge like glaciers in the sea. The opening exposed more dull gray features from inside the elevator, only these were of a different texture than the rest of what he had seen inside the hallways and his cell.
Seeing inside the doors encouraged his strength and will and he pulled harder with more focus, creating a gap wide enough he could have fit his arm into. After a moment of even more focus and pulling with all of his strength, he had the doors open with enough of a gap to fit in sideways. He let go with his right hand and twisted his body fast enough to catch hold of the door and then wedged himself through. As soon as he was in the elevator the doors slammed back together and an alarm sounded within the tiny space. Red lights flashed all over the control panels.
Jack tried typing instructions on the keypad along the right side of the doorway, but nothing happened in return save for the monotonous screaming and flashing of the alarm. In frustration, Jack swung his fist full on into the control panel, shattering it like glass. Silver shrapnel shot out in all directions and sparks flew as electricity hissed from inside the hole that had been the panel.
He reached his hand inside the hole and felt the pressurized jolt of electricity flowing through his body. It barely slowed him as he pulled his hand back from the opening with a handful of wires and metal. The alarm stopped, but still the elevator sat still. Jack looked up at the ceiling and could see the vulnerability he had been looking for.
He flung himself upward with all of his might and slammed through the thin sheet of metal that covered the top of the elevator car. Dozens of thick cords, which usually held the elevator as it went up and down the shaft, reached upward and downward deep into the darkness. He grabbed two of them and immediately pulled himself upward toward the mixed scent of his prize and the Emperor's musky dead odor.
He pressed his feet into the side of the elevator shaft as he continued to pull on the cords, sending himself upward at an incredible rate of speed. Friction had long ago warmed his feet to the point of pain, but he was determined to find his prey. His momentum and the scent of them grew in a cycle; each one pushing the other further on. He glanced back in a flash as he passed another floor. A quick sniff of the air told him to continue upward.
Several more floors up and the smell was overwhelming. A sense of gleeful anticipation grew within him and he held it back so when the time was right he could let it explode. He knew as he climbed beyond it, the next floor was the last one he would have to pass. He looked upward at the elevator doors protecting the entryway to the floor he desperately needed inside. When he was at just the right distance he leapt backwards in an upward somersault. His body moved through the air with an elegance most figure skaters would kill to emulate. This time, although he was sure it would hurt insanely, he knew he was blasting through that door. He envisioned it and his muscles prepared for the shock of the coming collision.
His momentum combined with gravity managed to slam him into the door with enough force to bend the doors inward and give him something to grab hold of. His feet planted on the thin flap of flooring where the doors were bent inward. He pushed forward and leaned his weight into the doors. The doors stretched open more. He swung into the opening feet first.
When his feet were in, he only had to use his hands to pull the rest of his body through. Once inside, he assessed his surroundings. He was in a gray hallway adjacent to the elevator. It was like all the others except that it wasn't lined with cell doors. He let the scent of the children's innocence wash over him.
Something was wrong.
They had been separated. One's scent came from one direction and the other girl's came from another. He found himself at a loss as to which direction to go. The Emperor's deathly odor was in neither direction and the two scents were identical. He decided either one would be the same, so he ran in the first direction his instincts told him to go. Although he ran, his body moved with the stealth and skill of a lion. A ways down the hallway, it intersected with another adjacent to it. The smell came from the new hallway and Jack turned left with immense speed.
He'd come close to slamming into the wall as he swung into the new corridor. It wasn't nearly as long as the hallway he'd just come from but there were still no cell doors lining the walls and he could see it ended in a single doorway. The door stood ajar and a faint glow spilled out from inside. As he charged silently closer to the door, several smells caught his attention. There was a hint of pickle and rye coming from the little girl's breath. Also, saturated sweat and urine marked his prey's fear. It had been the one thing missing from the Emperor's first offering.
That smell mixed with the scent of innocent blood drove him mad and he purposely let his footfalls rise in volume. The increase in her heartbeat combined with the collage of perfumes mixed together made for the ultimate temptation.
As he neared the door, he slowed himself to a human race-walk. Then he steadied his rhythm gradually until he was just outside the door stepping with deliberate intimidation. The girl began to whimper with fright. This was the best part of the kill. Savoring it.
"There, there, little lamb. It's just me... Jack. Mum was nice enough to give a chap a nice topping off."
The girl's whimpering turned to nearly silent screams of terror.
"What's the matter, little lamb?" he stepped into the room where she sat curled up in the corner behind a small wood-finished desk. Jack stopped and stood there, his bare feet slapping against the cool, white linoleum tiles of flooring. He looked down at her, his fangs fully showing behind a cruel grin. The girl curled up tighter trying to back impossibly farther into the corner, her body shaking with trepidation.
Jack leaned down, bending at the knees until he was at eye level with the precious, innocent, sweaty little girl. He looked her in the eyes and she broke his gaze, quickly looking at the floor. He reached his hand out and she screamed, but he didn't flinch as he continued to gently set his hand under her chin. Her flesh quivered at his touch as he lifted her head to reinitiate eye contact. She tried to look away with just her eyes, but he gripped just tightly enough to move her head so no matter where she tried to divert her eyes, they would still be locked in his general direction.
After a moment of this, she gave up rebelling and returned his gaze lamely, her body still shuddering with horror.
"There. Now that wasn't so hard, was it, little lass? Now tell me... what's your pretty little name, girl?"
She opened her mouth to speak and her teeth chattered violently as a faint, hoarse groan uttered from the back of her throat.
Jack released her chin and brought the back of his hand down the side of her face in a soft caress. "Shh. I suppose I've overestimated your ability to keep cool under pressure. I do believe I'm scaring the willies out of you. That just isn't very fair, now is it?"
The girl nodded, a sweat-soaked curl coming loose from behind her ear.
"Yes, I know. How about we even the odds just a little, eh? Give you a fair chance. Whattayasay?"
Empire of Blood (Book 2): Fading In Darkness Page 2
