"Jackie."
She looked up at Frank. He smiled down at her. "You're a good kid. I want you to know that, okay? You're a good kid. Now go." The next second Simon and Jackie were gone. Frank opened the main core panel, took a long slow breath, and reached inside.
***
Simon held on to Jackie's body with all of his strength as he ran faster than he ever had before. He was thankful he remembered the city as well as he did. He went straight for the old fallout shelter house on Spencer street.
Jumping over houses and buildings and crashing through walls he ran and ran until finally the house was in sight. The next second there was a deep resonating boom under the earth from behind Simon and he knew time was just about gone.
His legs doubled in speed and he jumped into the air, just barely landing in the house's yard, looked back for one quick split second to see the blasting fiery wind push through the city, dissolving everything in its wake and coming right for them.
Simon crashed into the house, found the secret entrance and pulled it open, tossing Jackie's body down inside, and then grabbed hold of the inside of the hatch and dove in. It locked into place just before he fell to the ground below next to Jackie.
The earth around them shook violently. They embraced each other tightly, squeezing faces into each other's chests as the blast ravaged the outside world above. The entire room around them started to break up and dust and debris fell from the ceiling and then everything around Simon blinked out of existence.
***
In mid push, both the Queen and Ishan screamed out in unison. They could both feel something terrible emanating from Simon's mind. A great blackness engulfing all of his being and everything around him. And then just as quickly as it came, it passed and the Queen and Ishan stared at each other in knowing and sadness. Then the next contraction blasted through her body and Ishan did his best to hold on to her legs as they spasmed in response. The Queen's voice cried out, echoing off of the walls and resonating inside Ishan's mind.
"The crowning has begun," the Queen cried out as her legs pressed hard against the bed. Ishan looked for himself and sure enough, there was the very top of the head of a child. He smiled despite the terrible knowledge threatening to burst his heart in two.
Simon, if only you could have seen this.
Chapter 58
Firstborn
Hank had busted through three doors now and once again he was greeted with yet another door. There has to be an end to this. He would have been drained of all his strength if he hadn't drank the blood of several of the ancients that had tried to kill him before moving on. He looked at the door in front of him and let the rage that had been building inside him simmer and then closed his eyes. After a minute had passed he let the anger release as he swung his body elbow first crashing into the door. This time, the door came away without any resistance, falling flat to the floor and sliding into the room it had previously concealed. Hank walked inside.
This room was far different from the others. It looked familiar. It wasn't the same room where he had made that deal with the Emperor what felt like eons ago now, but it was designed and decorated almost exactly the same. He listened for breathing or a heartbeat or anything. There was nothing. He knew the Emperor was here somewhere, but he also knew Joseph Caesar wasn't like other men. Hank could only dream of the things that Joseph was capable of after centuries of drinking the blood of the ancestors.
When he still couldn't make out any sounds or smells to detect the man, he began tearing through furniture and throwing aside boxes and trinkets and anything else in his way. He came to a computer. Its screen flashed with some sort of error message and Hank grabbed the entire desk, monitor, machine, and all and pulled it away from the wall, tearing out all its cables in the process. Sparks flew for a second and then died out. Hank threw the desk and its contents aside.
There was nothing here. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find any trace of Caesar.
"I know you're in here. There's no point in keeping up this game. You might as well come out and show yourself."
No response.
Hank threw aside the desk he had just dropped and began investigating the floor for some kind of trap door. Everywhere he looked, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, they all looked sealed. No hint of a door or window or anything.
***
Joseph waited beyond the wall, his face a mix of tension and fury. Something loud crashed outside of the room and his face flinched involuntarily. For more than three thousand years he had walked this earth and no petty little creature was going to stop him from living three thousand more. With his own eyes, he'd watched the dawn of civilization, the crucifixion of the one they called Christ, the destruction of the holy temple by the Romans, the very rise and fall of the Roman empire, and so much more. He had risen up his own armies more times than he could rightfully remember anymore. He had torn apart entire nations and rebuilt them and now this man, this one descendent of his would dare try and take it all away from him.
Fool. I will not go into the night so easily.
Joseph activated the security trap and waited just beyond the door. It was only a matter of time before Hank would find his way in, but when he did...
***
Hank focused his senses on the walls. Sliding his hands along them and concentrating, allowing for any slight vibration to let itself be known. He hadn't come this far just to give up. His internal timer showed less than three hours remaining. He had to find the Emperor now or he would die here in this place, his last task uncompleted. The sound of some nearby microscopic electronic switch turning on alerted Hank to the wall just behind him. He turned and listened. Something was behind that wall. Right behind that wall. A device of some type. Something digital.
Hank let the hum of it resonate in his mind and followed the sound of it to its source with his eyes. When he was confident he had the sound placed with as much accuracy as he could possibly accomplish, he crashed into that spot in the wall without so much as a breath taken first. A door caved inward, partially, causing its outline to half resolve. Inside, Joseph Caesar stood in the far corner of the room. Their eyes met and something in Joseph's expression told Hank something was wrong, but he didn't listen. He stepped back once and charged forward again, busting his way in through the door and stomping it aside.
He stepped into the room and the next second everything went tumbling away and he was on the floor, the entire universe pulling out through his abdomen. He looked down. A stake much like the Foederati blood stakes was lodged into his stomach and he could feel the blood draining quickly from his body. Hank screamed and grabbed hold of the device, trying against all odds to pull it out but it only pulled harder inward the more he tried. The room and everything around him was blurring. The Emperor stood over him, smiling down, eyes alight with fury and victory all at once.
"Did you actually believe you could do anything to hurt me, Mr. Evans?" He laughed. There was an odd sense of tension in his movements and his voice. Regardless of what he wanted to believe, or what he was trying to convey to him, Hank could see that Joseph was afraid. Afraid for probably the first time in his unknowably long life.
***
Ishan wiped the Queen's face of sweat as her body convulsed. "Push."
"I am. I am," she screamed out. He moved back over to where her legs parted, to where the child slowly released from her opening. "You're almost there, my love. Push once more and I think you'll have this one out." The Queen clenched her teeth together and grunted, every muscle in her body tensing and the child's body began to come out. Ishan put his arms beneath the tiny little body and took hold of it as its legs came out with a loud suctioning pop. The Queen was breathing hard then and lying back. "I'm so tired. I can't. I can't do anymore." Ishan stared down at the beautiful child in his arms. She looked just like her mother. Almond eyes of black and skin a pale shade of olive.
He brought the child over to her to see and she looked at her own reflecti
on in the infant's eyes and face. Ishan reached down and severed the umbilical cord with his fangs and turned away with the baby to the makeshift crib he had set up beside the Queen's bed. The baby was quiet, but very obviously awake. Her eyes stared all around in wonder. Ishan was overwhelmed with more emotion than he had ever known possible. He lay the child down gently and smiled. "She's beautiful."
The Queen gripped his hand then quite suddenly her hand fell at her side and her eyes rolled away into the back of her head.
"My love! No. You have to stay with me." Ishan put his hands on her belly then and sent out waves of power. The yellow glow of his healing illuminated the curve of her body and the sweat upon it. She trembled then and gasped in one long breath of air. Her body rose to half of a sitting position and her hands quickly grabbed the bed behind her. A long moan of pain erupted from her voice and Ishan went back to her womb. The next head was already halfway out. Tears ran down Ishan's face as he reached forward and waited for the child to come out.
Chapter 59
Melted and Withered
The world around Hank was slipping away. He no longer had the energy to pull the stake out of his stomach even if he could focus enough to find it. Part of him was screaming, but he couldn't hear anything that told him it was actually coming from his physical voice. The Emperor watched him, waiting for him to die. Hank could see the bastard’s eyes, staring like a frightened boy who's just hit a snake with a long stick. Backed away to see if the thing will die before it can reach out to bite him. The image gave Hank strength. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of me. Hank kept repeating those words in his head over and over. Trying to keep himself awake before his mind could slip away into the ether.
Now his voice was screaming. He could hear it loud and clear. The Emperor jumped at the suddenness of it and began to back away. Hank's hands felt over his body blindly until they found the device pushing its way deeper into him. He grabbed hold of it with both hands and his scream became more guttural as his muscles tensed and his hands pulled and pulled and... It was loose now. The device was loose, but there was so much blood. Hank screamed again with all the fury inside him. He let every moment since the death of his son come together inside his mind and inside his heart and crash into each other into one large terrible emptiness that reached out of his body and took hold of his hands and pulled with him. And then the device was out completely and falling to the floor. Hank was still bleeding but his body was healing. It was slow and agonizing but he could feel the flesh reaching to close. He looked up at Joseph Caesar who was now backed against the wall staring with a mix of fury and horror.
Their eyes met and Joseph’s face changed into the face of a tiger ready to rip into its prey. Caesar lunged at Hank and with what little energy Hank had regained, he swiveled and just barely moved in time to grab Caesar's body and toss him away. Joseph landed on his feet without missing a beat and came charging back at Hank. It was Hank's turn to run, hide if he could. He turned and lunged for the open doorway he had ripped through just minutes before. He barely stepped foot out of the room before Joseph grabbed him by the throat from behind. Hank smiled. "Go ahead, tear into me, drink!"
"Try as you might to tempt me, Mr. Evans, I haven't lived through eons to be led into darkness by the simple taste of revenge. We both know your blood is tainted. But I can snap your neck all the same." He tried then pulling and twisting, but Hank sent one hard elbow into the Emperor's ribcage that sent him stumbling several feet backward and grabbing hold of himself. Still slightly bleeding, Hank extended one leg out and kicked Joseph in the same spot he had just crashed his elbow into. The Emperor screamed and fell forward, clutching his chest with both arms.
The wound in Hank's abdomen was down to a single pinpoint now as he circled around the Emperor's crumbled body. All he had to do was bite into the man. Let the venom take over. Just one quick motion and all of it would be over. Hank hesitated for just a fraction of a second and then moved and before his mouth could make contact there was a flash of movement and Hank was flying through the air and crashing down into the far wall.
"So very close, Mr. Evans. So close, indeed. But you must learn that he who hesitates will die with his regret."
Hank sat up gasping to regain his breath. It came in one quick burst and he began to pant. "I'm... not... done... yet..."
He lunged at Joseph again and this time the Emperor twisted around and in one flashing motion broke Hank's right arm in three places before sending a swift blow right into the tiny place still unhealed from Hank's wound. Hank screamed.
"Mr. Evans, you disappoint me. You make so poor use of the training I gave you. So poor use of the power at your fingertips."
Hank stood there letting his body heal. The bones in his arm snapped into place and he screamed. "I would much rather be a disappointment to you than the alternative. Do you think I value anything you have to say? Anything you care about? Anything at all?"
Joseph merely smiled in response.
***
Something was wrong. The Queen once again went limp. Ishan reached down and put his hands on her legs and sent the power of his healing through her yet again. Nothing happened. He let go of her and cradled his face in his bloody hands. Crying out, his voice ricocheted off of the walls of the cave and back again. The little baby in the makeshift crib began to cry. If the Queen didn't wake up, the other baby might not make it. Ishan closed his eyes and laid his hands on the Queen's belly once more, sending out every ounce of power he possibly could. At first nothing happened and then slowly there was a flutter here and a flutter there and then her body was trembling with the sensation of it again and now in one quick gasp of air she rose and their eyes met.
***
The Emperor was on him then, the creature's ghastly hands gripping around Hank's throat squeezing and crushing and squeezing and crushing. Hank gasped, but no air could go into his mouth. He fought but Joseph had him pinned, the bastard's muscles like solid steel holding him tightly. Lights began to pop in and out of Hank's vision. Lights that grew into glowing balls and stretched out like lightning in his internal vision. The lights became colors that wrapped around his entire head and haloed over the Emperor's blackened eyes.
"It's okay, Mr. Evans. Just let it all... slip away. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to be frightened of. Just let the life inside fade. No one has to know you gave up. No one will ever have to know. It'll just be our little secret. Just let the light take you and go peacefully into the void and you won't have to struggle any longer. No more suffering, no more screaming, no more hurting. Just let go."
It was so easy. He could do it too. He could feel himself slipping. The world around him coming apart at the seams and emptying itself of his presence.
"Yessss... Very good. Just let it slip away. There's nothing for you here now. Your son is truly dead. Your unborn daughter never lived to take a single breath. They're both gone and you can go and be with them now. Just let go."
The Emperor's words were curling up into Hank's cocoon and wrapping their way around his body and making him warm. He was right. He'd had to kill his own son. And was it true? Was little Diana gone already? Did she never even have a chance to open her eyes or take in one single breath? The cold bitter thing still alive in Hank's mind wept at the thought of it. He'd never even known she was coming. The Queen had predicted a new litter of vampires. Of ancients. But even She couldn't see everything. The visions sometimes tricked even her. For whatever purpose they had if there was one. If they could even be capable of having their own purpose.
Hank shuddered. He thought of the child that could have been. She couldn't be dead. Couldn't be. He had to know. Had to find out for himself. He flexed his arms with the need of it. The sheer will to know the truth. Slowly he pulled his arms out from under the Emperor's pinning legs and grabbed hold of the monster's fingers still wrapped around his neck and squeezing the life out of him.
Joseph's clawed fingers came away slowly and
Hank gripped the man's fingers and pulled them back, breaking several at once. The Emperor screamed out. He jumped away just before Hank could make another move. Climbing to his feet, Hank glanced around the room. Joseph was nowhere to be seen. Hank took a moment and let his senses focus. Soft silent footsteps led away from the room. Hank turned and leapt toward them, landing on Joseph's back. He grabbed Joseph by the neck. Just as quickly Caesar threw Hank off of him and back against the wall. Hank slid downward, landing in a sitting position.
"How do you know?"
Joseph turned then, an eye raised in Hank's direction. "How do I know?"
"How do you know that Diana is dead?"
"Because, Mr. Evans... I entered the launch command myself. By now all of New Orleans is melted and withered under a pile of ash."
The surety in Caesar's voice told him it was true. Grueling hopeless despair washed over Hank from head to toe. He felt himself sinking into something deep and unending. A place where no light can shine and no heat can warm.
Chapter 60
One Fleeting Glimpse
Hank lay there on the floor, tears blurring his vision and every ounce of hope within him spent and dried up to nothing. Joseph stepped closer, watching him intently. "I'm not sure which will be more satisfying. Watching you die or watching you suffer as you do here and now. Regardless, I will remember both fondly."
The Emperor’s words went through Hank as he sat there letting every horrible moment in his life reawaken to haunt him at once. He had struggled so hard for so long only to fail. It had always been fated to end this way. How he could have ever expected anything else, he didn't know. He lay there, waiting for Joseph to finally get it over with.
Empire of Blood: A Dystopian Vampire Trilogy (Bundle, Boxset) (Plus Two Empire of Blood Short Stories) Page 83
