Now he could die in peace.
* * *
The airport was mostly empty. Hank was not surprised that he'd been the only person getting off of the plane in Boulder City. He stood in the airport bathroom washing his hands when the Emperor's voice finally broke its long silence.
"I'm sure there are many questions going through your head right now thanks to your friendly driver. But I assure you, the most pressing matters lie ahead in Necropolis. Mr. Draper is awaiting my command to pay little Toby a visit. Don't give me a reason to make Mr. Draper's wish come true. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Hank's voice echoed against the white-tiled walls.
"Good. Make sure to keep this in mind when you meet with the council." And with that the voice was gone. Hank knelt down to the small black case lying on the floor. He unzipped it and pulled one of the cool vials from within. He took the entire contents in one swig, tossed the container in the trash, and took a long look at himself in the mirror. He would be in the city in just a few hours time. The only idea he had to warn them was a long shot at best. It was of the utmost importance he paid a lone visit to Ishan. But he needed an excuse that wouldn't alert the Emperor. He might have had one by now if it hadn't been for the driver. The man had said so few words. So few words that opened up so many questions. Questions Hank knew were the very reason the man had spoken to him. Had risked his life. Had sacrificed his life. And the old man never even told him his name.
Hank picked up his bags and stepped out through the open doorway out into the main hall.
* * *
The next driver wasn't so talkative. In fact he hadn't said a single word since he picked Hank up at the terminal. They'd been on the road for at least two hours now. Hank peered out the window at the setting sun and the tan-colored dust covering everything. He couldn't help but remember the last sunset he'd seen going toward the city. It had been only weeks ago, yet it seemed like decades. Tumbleweeds blew in the distance behind a thick cloud of dust.
"Have you taken other Mediators into the city before?"
"Yes, sir. I've been driving this route for the past ten years."
"Oh really? What did you think of the last one, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Oh, not at all, sir. He was a wound up fellow. I mean, I don't blame any of you for being so. What with how many of you have died. But I have to say, you're awful calm. Almost like you've been here before."
Hank fought the chuckle urging to come out. "Must be the happy pills I took to get on the plane."
The driver laughed. "Well, I'll say this much. I can usually get a feel for you guys and I've been able to tell when one of you might just make it past the first visit. And I think you just might have a shot, Mr. Evans." The driver grinned in the mirror.
Hank smiled back. "I hope you're right." He thought about what the other driver had said, what it could mean. Could there be others out there like him. Other people willing to stand up and fight? Hank was betting if that one man had been willing to give up his life to talk to Hank, there had to be others. But how could they know about him?
Chapter 9
For Hank
Toby woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking and he knew then his father was already gone. He thought about getting out of bed when the entirety of the night before came back to him all at once. Guilt followed. Had he only known what his father was going through, he wouldn't have behaved so aggressively toward him. He'd been angry, thought he had lost his father again. Only this time for good. Death would be better than his father becoming someone he wasn't. Someone so... wrong.
Toby's bedroom door opened a crack and Dustin's wooly black beard and brown eyes peeked in the crack.
"Hey Toby, you want some bacon and eggs?"
Toby fought back the storm of emotion threatening to overcome him. "Sure. I'll be out in a few."
"Word," Dustin said and winked. The door closed and Toby let out a long sigh. His father had left it to him to explain. But he couldn't do it here. It wasn't safe here anymore, never really was. As much as Toby had hated the place, it had at least given the illusion of safety for himself and his seemingly alien father.
He pushed off the covers and dressed himself, walked to the desk and opened the main drawer. The letter lying inside looked light as a feather but its contents had been a crushing weight on Toby's reality. And yet it had also been a huge relief. He picked it up, folded it, and put it in his pocket.
They ate their breakfast mostly in silence, Dustin reading something on his cell phone and mumbling once or twice, then giving a chuckle every now and then in between. Toby watched him as he sat eating and reading, stroking his beard between bites. He was a large man. Heavyset in an intimidating way that gave him the appearance of a bouncer or a security guard. People often gave him a fearful glance in public, but anyone who took more than a moment to speak to him could easily tell he was just a big teddy bear.
Toby loved him.
He hated that he would have to tell Dustin what he would, hated to have to involve him in something so dangerous. But Toby and his father's lives depended on it.
"You wanna go to Rhodius and play some basketball?" Toby asked and shoveled a bite of food into his mouth to at least attempt to act casual.
Dustin's eyes didn't leave the screen of his cell phone to notice Toby's fork shaking in his hand. "Word. Just let me finish my breakfast and then we can go."
Toby sighed as silently as he could. He'd been worried Dustin wouldn't want to leave the house until later that night. He picked at his food, but with the thought of all he had to explain lingering, his appetite was all but nonexistent. Dustin rose from his seat still staring into his phone and walked over to the sink, turned on the water, and set his plate underneath.
Dustin sighed. "Trust." That was Dustin's word for something obnoxious. He seemed to have a catalog of words he and his friends all said. He put his phone away and looked at Toby's plate.
"You better eat those eggs or I'll tell your dad you were mean to me while he was gone. I cooked those just for you."
Toby sat staring at his plate trying to bring himself to take a bite.
"Hell, I'll eat them if you won't." Dustin sat and pulled Toby's plate in front of him. He took a bite and started talking with a mouth full of Toby's eggs. "You doing all right?"
"Yeah, I'm just worried."
Dustin's expression softened as he continued to chew. "Yeah, I don't blame you." He took another bite. "He's gonna be okay, you know. He's been there before. I still don't understand how the hell he got out, but he'll manage again."
Toby nodded.
Dustin smiled. "Anyway, go get your shit ready. And don't forget to grab some extra dignity because I'm gonna murder you out there."
Toby smiled, got up, and went to get his things.
* * *
Toby sat with the ball in his lap in the passenger side of Dustin's SUV as they pulled from the driveway. He wondered if the car was a safe place to talk. He wasn't sure just how likely it was that the Emperor would have made the effort to bug the car. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he was being paranoid. The Emperor was probably far more focused on Toby's father. Still, he found himself hesitant to even speak.
Dustin started up his collection of bootlegged death metal music and turned up the volume just a hair. Loud enough to hear the music better, but not so loud that it could be heard outside of the car. Death metal was one of many genres of music outlawed by the Empire. Toby finally took a deep breath and began to speak as they pulled onto West Morris Street.
"Don't go to the park. I have to talk to you. I couldn't do it at home, I'm sorry. It wasn't safe."
Dustin glanced at him, confused.
"Can we just drive for a while?"
"Yeah, what's up?" Dustin pulled into the turn lane at the intersection and stopped at the red light.
"Dad's been acting weird a lot since he came back from... that place."
"I bet."
"No, no
t like you would think. You haven't been around much for a while, you haven't seen him. I was so scared they had changed him into... into something he's not. He started reading Caesar's Bible, reading it all the time. He was going to every church service, even on non-mandated days. He was reading books on empires and history all the time, and languages like Hebrew and I thought maybe he..."
Dustin was looking at Toby with a stunned, sorrowful expression.
"But he's okay. Well, it wasn't what I thought it was. He left me a letter. Maybe we should find somewhere to stop so you can read it. It explains everything. How Dad got out of that place, why he was acting so weird. And more. A lot more. He's in danger. I'm in danger. He didn't want to tell you because you would be in danger, but he had no choice. In the letter he told me to tell you so you could... so you could protect me."
Dustin drove quietly, the most serious expression on his face that Toby had ever seen. He seemed to be driving on autopilot. Toby waited for him to say something, but he didn't speak. He just kept looking forward, his eyes heavy with concentration. Before long they were in a part of town Toby had never been in. And not a very pleasant one either. Dustin pulled the car into an alley behind some houses, his eyes darting back and forth between the side and rearview mirrors. Then he sighed and brought the car to a halt and put it in park.
"Let me see it."
Toby pulled the letter from his pocket and handed it to Dustin. Dustin opened the letter and began to read, his face becoming a mess of worried wrinkles and sweat. Toby looked at the letter in Dustin’s hands, skimming some of what he'd already read.
I'm not sure how, but when I drink the blood I become inhumanly strong. I don't think I'm human anymore. The more I drink it the less I feel natural. But when I stop, it becomes unbearable. And not like when I quit smoking, this is so much worse.
Dustin turned the letter over.
Don't bother waiting for me to come back, just run. If I screw this up, that monster will come for you. And no matter how much I try, I can't figure out how to pull this off. I know I'm going to fail. Dustin can take you somewhere safe. He can take care of you until I can get back. I love you, Toby. If for some reason I can't get back I need you to know that. I love you with all my heart.
Dad
A tear slid down Toby's face. Dustin stared at the letter a long time. The sound of children playing crept into the car replacing the silence. Dustin folded the letter and handed it back to Toby without looking at him. He took a long deep breath and laid his head back against the seat as he exhaled, looking up into the ceiling of the car. Toby wiped his tear away and began staring through a chain link fence at the tall, un-mowed grass behind it.
"Jesus Christ," Dustin said to himself.
* * *
It was dark. They'd been driving for hours when Toby had laid his head back and slept. Now, he was waking and still it was dark. All around them were massive amounts of cars. Some sort of major highway that Toby had never seen before.
"Where are we?"
"Almost in Chicago. I have friends there that will give us a place to lay low for a few days. After that I'm not quite sure where we'll go, but I'll figure something out. You doing all right?"
"Yeah. My back hurts from this seat, but I'm all in one piece."
"Good. Let's make sure and keep it that way." Dustin smiled.
Toby smiled back and then looked out his window at the soft radiance of the neon and halogen lighting of the city. He felt himself drifting back to sleep a few times from the mesmerizing glow. Before long he couldn't fight it any longer and he fell into oblivion again.
* * *
Toby woke as the SUV came to a stop. The sound of traffic and distant horns blaring faded into the background like white noise. He looked outside to see a road that looked to be made of brick with trees along the sidewalk in uniform, equal distances from each other. Each one lined up with the line dividing the houses along the road all along side each other like a rectangle filled with squares all the same size. Each house was almost exactly the same. All painted in tones of brown and tan with concrete stairs and black metal railings reaching up to high concrete porches.
"Well, we're here." Dustin opened his door and got out, walked around to the back of the SUV and opened the hatch. Toby dropped down onto the curb and closed his door. When everything was gathered and the hatch was closed, Dustin led the way to the third house down from where they'd parked. They climbed the steps and Dustin knocked on the door. A moment later a tall, dark-skinned girl with thick black curly hair answered the door with a huge grin.
"Duskin!" She jumped forward and hugged him, oblivious to the number of bags and items he was holding.
"Kathy! You lookin' good baby. How you been?"
"Okay, I guess, but better now that you're here."
"Oh, that won't last long. You'll get tired of me. You always do."
She swatted at him playfully. "Who's your friend here?"
"Oh, Kathy, this is Toby. Toby, this is Kathy."
Toby nodded at her, too tired to speak.
She furrowed her brow at Dustin. "Hank's Toby?"
"Yeah. Hank's out of town on business and asked me to take care of him. So, I figured wouldn't it be a great time to go for a road trip, show the boy some Chi-town love?"
"Well, nice to meet you, Toby. I've heard a lot about you."
Toby smiled in reply, still tired, and feeling oddly embarrassed.
"All right, come inside already, have a drink. I'm tired. I don't wanna be standing here at the door all night."
* * *
The natural vampire lay sprawled out on the floor as the Emperor wiped the blood from his lips and quickly licked his fingers clean. After all these years, he would settle for nothing less than quenching his thirst directly from the source. He sat back down on a huge golden throne with blood red upholstery and let the quickening bring him back to that extra heightened state of power he'd been longing for lately.
Even after all the centuries gone by, the quickening still gave him a rush throughout his very being each and every time. His hands gripped the shiny golden arms of the throne as his eyes faded from full black orbs to white with soft blue irises. He let out a long sigh of relief mixed with ecstasy. His hands finally loosened from the arms of the throne when the emergency phone line started ringing.
"This had better be good," the Emperor mumbled as he made his way over to the desk where both the ringing emergency phone and the standard phone, silent as the grave, sat waiting for someone to talk to them.
"Yes?"
"The little bugger's flown the coop. His 'babysitter' took him as far as Chicago before the sodding prat responsible for tracking him got ahold of me. They haven't moved though. Maybe they won't be heading out too quickly."
The Emperor rolled his eyes. "Is that all? You have his location. Just get out there and keep tabs on him. The boy isn't worth much to me dead. If his father does as he's told, we'll need the boy to arrive back home in time to welcome him back. I can't have my best motivation for Mr. Evans up and dying just yet."
"Aye, sir. I'm already on my way."
"Good, good. Oh, and Draper?"
"Uh?"
"Pick yourself up a snack on the way. My treat. Just don't make it a habit. I don't mind making arrangements, but you go getting seen or leaving evidence and you know where you'll be headed."
"That's very kind of you, sir. I'll make sure not to spill a single drop. I might even make a toast in your honor."
"You do that. Just be sure you don't lose track of the boy."
* * *
Draper smiled as he looked at the family of four coming out of the rest stop.
"Oh, I won't sir. I'll catch up with 'im soon enough. Goodbye, sir."
He hung up the cell phone and put it in his pocket and headed toward the vending machines where those two sweet little boys and their mummy and daddy were currently walking. Their smell was so sweet even over the cold crisp air filled with scents of motor oil, perfu
me, garbage, and dog shit.
He'd made a habit out of it already. There wasn't anything the Emperor or anyone else could do to stop him. Not only did he have a natural thirst to contend with, but he also had an insatiable desire long before he'd ever stopped being human... physically. Because before Jack Draper had even been a vampire he'd already long been a monster.
Chapter 10
The Meeting
An eerie nostalgic sense of fear gripped Hank's heart as the car pulled to a stop just outside the border of the city. It was dark by then and the lights of the city cast an all too familiar glow. In the rearview mirror, the driver gave him a nod and Hank took that as his cue to get moving. He stepped out of the car, thanked the driver, and began walking toward the huge "welcome" sign he had never actually seen before in person.
Hank pulled the map from his pocket. He wasn't sure if he'd ever been on this side of town before and the map didn't give any indication that he was wrong about that. The sound of the car driving away behind him made him grab hold of the bag hanging at his side as if it was some sort of security blanket. He fought the urge to have another vial. It was best to save as many of them as he could.
He made his way along the sidewalk underneath that infamous sign looking up at it with a mix of wonder and dread. He reminded himself of his would be friend Ishan in order to attempt to calm himself. As if on cue, Hank noticed a figure off in the distance. Judging from what Hank could remember about the master vampire, he felt there was a good chance either he was hallucinating or it was Ishan himself waiting for him to arrive. The closer he came the more sure he was that it was him. The long straight black hair, short stature, and as he came close enough to see them, those frightening red eyes were the final confirmation.
Empire of Blood: A Dystopian Vampire Trilogy (Bundle, Boxset) (Plus Two Empire of Blood Short Stories) Page 30
