by J. Thorn
Hell or New Orleans—I can’t tell the fucking difference.
A door opened. The noise startled Dax, and he grimaced as he pulled down on the chains.
The silhouette of a single dark figure entered the room. The heavy door groaned as it shut then, rattling against the frame. Standing near the doorway, the dark figure stared at Dax for a moment before it came forward into the light.
Serafino walked down the aisle between the rows of candles. He wore a cloak, and threw the hood back as he approached.
“I thought I’d died and been sent to Hell before I got finished with you,” Dax said.
“You believe that such a place exists?”
“About as much as I believed in vampires up until a few days ago.”
“Well, perhaps you will wish you had died and gone to Hell by the time this is all over.” Serafino laughed softly. “This place will be far worse than any punishing afterlife destination that your small human mind can conjure.”
“Then how about you go on and kill me so that I can see for myself?”
“But I told you…” Serafino ran his fingertips down the middle of Dax’s bare chest. Dax closed his eyes and shivered. “You have a destiny far greater than death.”
“You have me. At least let the children go.”
“Oh, but I already have.”
Dax narrowed his eyes. “What did you do to them?”
“I told you. I let them go. Not alone, of course. But I can assure you that they are far away from here.”
“And they’re alive?”
“If by ‘alive’ you mean that they are still in their worthless human form, then yes. They are still alive.”
Dax sighed as he stared straight into the vampire’s glowing eyes. “What do you want from me?”
“How much did the old man know?”
“His name was Papa Midnight, and you killed him.”
“The last time you and I met, he said something to you, and then you were able to break the telepathic connection I had on you. This Papa Midnight, as you called him… he had magic powers of his own. Did you know this? In fact, it was his magic that led me to you.”
Silence hung in the air. Dax couldn’t quite determine whether the voodoo priest had been full of shit or not, but it seemed as if Serafino had just confirmed the prophecy. Dax licked his lips as he prepared to speak again.
“If I’m the key to destroying your kind, then why not kill me? If you kill me, then you and your other bitch-ass vampire friends can run around and do whatever the fuck you want. Right?”
“Yes,” Serafino said. “That would be correct. And it would make sense, if that was what we wanted.”
Dax furrowed his brow. “What is it that you want?”
A smile extended across the vampire’s face. He put his hands on Dax’s shoulders, lightly tapping his fingers on the prisoner’s skin. He moved his face to within an inch of Dax’s.
“We want the world, Jackson. All of it. Control of every faction’s territory.” There was a new fire in the vampire’s eyes.
“I don’t understand,” Dax said.
Serafino pulled away, letting his hands trail down Dax’s pectoral muscles before pulling away. He paced back and forth in front of Dax, his hands clasped behind his back.
“There are four Masters on earth. The legend says that they will together destroy the human race. The problem is that their…egos have taken over. Why rule a quarter of the world when you can have all of it?”
Dax lowered his eyes and shook his head. “You want to use me against the others.”
“Now you are beginning to understand your role. Jing, the leader of the Asian faction, has already sent one of his minions here to spy on us. I took care of her. But we do not believe we have seen the last of Jing’s threats, nor the other Masters’.”
Dax lifted his head, his eyes narrowed at Serafino. “You can go fuck yourself if you think I’m going to help your faction. You might as well kill me now.”
“Is that so? Perhaps you should listen to what I say. Either way you choose—we have no interest in killing you. And regardless, you will become a slave to the North American faction. But if you choose not to fight alongside us, then not only will you live out the rest of your life wishing that you had never been born, but I will make you watch as I gut all of the ones you care about. Not just Monica and Darius.”
Dax’s eyes went wide.
It can’t be.
“Yes, it can, Dax. I have them, too. Your sister’s children.”
“You son of a bitch! Let them go!”
“All I have to do is send a signal, and I can have the kids either freed, or I can have them brought to me one by one so that you can watch them die. And I won’t do it all at once. I will make you wait—weeks, perhaps even months or years. Then I will murder them before you.”
Dax closed his eyes, picturing all of the children he loved. He couldn’t allow this monster to kill them, just as he couldn’t allow the faction to take control of the world.
“What will it be, Jackson?”
With his eyes tearing, Dax looked up.
“Just tell me what you want me to do.”
Chapter 37
Gabby Harper’s House
New Orleans, LA
Several years earlier…
“Thanks for coming over,” Gabby said as she set the plates down on the table.
“Of course,” Dax said. “I need to see my sister sometime, right?”
Gabby laughed. “Whatever, fool.”
For dinner, Dax’s sister had made one of his favorite meals—shrimp and grits, with collard greens on the side. Plenty of places in New Orleans served the dish, but Dax hadn’t found anyone who could make it as good as Gabby could.
“Damn, I might be needing to come over here more often. I think I’d forgotten how good you make this.”
“Well, not quite as good as Mama, but yeah. And don’t you be eatin’ until we pray, you hear me?”
Dax picked up the fork, ready to dive into the meal. “Your house. Say it.”
Gabby rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Bow your head.”
As his sister blessed the food, Dax’s mind drifted elsewhere. He had business to attend to—including several deals with street thugs that could net him thousands, but he’d put them on hold to be with his sister. She had been through several spells of depression, and they usually came when her kids weren’t around. It was getting difficult for her to go long stretches without them being at her side.
“How’s everything at work?” Dax asked as he took the first bite of shrimp.
“It’s all right,” Gabby said. “We done switched bosses like nine times in two months. It’s a trip, man. You’d think they’d be able to find one damn Mexican woman who can run a housekeeping department.”
Smiling, Dax savored every bite of the shrimp and grits. “You know, this might be better than Mom’s.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“You only told me about the hotel. How are things going at the dry cleaners?”
Gabby scoffed. “Damn, boy. You need to bring your ass by here more often. I done quit that job.”
“You quit, or you were fired?”
“You deaf, little bro? I quit.”
“You win the lottery or somethin’? How you able to quit when you got three kids, a house, and bills to pay? And why you making me this expensive dinner when you’re in that situation, anyway?”
“Don’t you worry about all that. Eat your damn shrimp and grits and enjoy it.”
Gabby’s tiny house was on a street in a bad neighborhood. But with the kids, and all the credit card bills she had, Dax didn’t understand how she could afford even this place on a hotel housekeeper’s low hourly pay. Something wasn’t right.
But Dax didn’t pry. He continued to eat his dinner, trying to enjoy the moment with his sister.
“How things going with you?” Gabby asked, breaking the awkward silence.
“It’s all right
.”
“Just all right, huh?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Gabby exhaled and shook her head.
“What?” Dax asked.
Gabby looked up at him, a fork full of collard greens nearing her mouth. “Nothin’.”
The response prompted another awkward silence. Finally, Dax dropped his fork, more aggressively than he’d meant to. It startled his sister as it slammed against the plate. He wiped his mouth.
“Look,” Dax said. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“Is there something you’re not telling me? What you so worried about?”
“This doesn’t make any sense. You’ve worked two jobs for years, Gabby. What changed all of a sudden? You don’t have any extra money to put into savings.”
“What? You worried I’m doing something illegal, Jackson?”
Dax swallowed, but didn’t respond.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Gabby said. “Don’t be no goddamn hypocrite. And you’ll be happy to know I’m not selling drugs.” She looked back down at her plate and took another bite. Keeping her eyes averted from her brother, Gabby said, “I got a boyfriend.”
“Oh.”
Gabby looked up. “That surprise you or something?”
“Not at all.”
“Then why you got that look on your face? You’re my brother. You think I can’t tell when something is wrong?”
“I’m not surprised that you have a boyfriend. I’m just a little shocked this is the first I’m hearing about it. I mean, it must be pretty serious if you’re able to quit your job. Obviously, that means he’s helping support you.”
“And you got a problem with that?”
“You’re my baby sister. I ain’t got a problem with it, but you’re damn crazy if you don’t think I’m going to be looking out for you.”
“Yeah, well, don’t,” Gabby said. “Charles is a good man.”
Dax laughed. “Charles. What the hell, he like seventy-five years old or some shit?”
“Nigga, I will end you if you talk like that.”
Both of them grinned. Dax picked up his fork and took the last bite of grits from his plate.
“He’s good to me, Jackson. He really is.”
Dax nodded at her and smiled. “I’m glad, Gabby. I really look forward to meeting him soon.”
“So, how’s your love life going, little brother?”
The need to use the restroom suddenly hit Dax. He wiped his mouth again, then set his napkin down onto the table.
“Hold that thought. Gotta take a piss.”
Gabby lowered her fork from her mouth and narrowed her eyes at him.
“Sorry,” Dax said. “I need to use the restroom. That better?”
She rolled her eyes. “No wonder ain’t no girls wanting to get with your gross ass.”
Dax laughed as he stepped out of the dining room and into the hallway. He passed the kids’ bedrooms and glanced in as he went by. It hurt him to see them empty. Gabby loved her children more than anything in the world. She might not have had a lot of money, but she was a damn good mother. Nothing could change that.
He entered the bathroom and promptly took care of his business. When he was done, Dax washed his hands and looked at himself in the mirror. A piece of food was wedged between his teeth, and Dax flicked his tongue against it to try and get it out. He searched the counter for a toothpick and couldn’t find one.
“I know that damn girl cares more about her teeth than this.”
The mirror doubled as a medicine cabinet, and so Dax opened it with the hope of finding toothpicks. But his mouth went dry when he saw what was in the cabinet. Dax swiped up the bottles and rushed out of the bathroom.
At the kitchen table, he slammed the orange bottles down onto the table.
“What is this shit?” Dax asked.
“They’re pills—medicine. What does it look like?”
“It looks like a bunch of bullshit.”
There was a level of anger in Dax’s voice that he hadn’t directed at his sister in a long time. Not since they’d been kids and Gabby had ratted him out to their grandmother for stealing one of her cigarettes.
“I have a prescription,” Gabby said. “It’s just medicine. Chill.”
“Chill?”
Dax looked at the labels again. The one he recognized most was Sertaline.
“These aren’t just pills, Gabby. They’re anti-depressants. You can’t play around with this shit.”
Gabby stood up, pushing the chair into the table—hard. “You think that’s what I’m doing? Just ‘playing’ around? What do you think I do, huh? Get my dollhouse out and shit and down some fucking prescription drugs?”
Dax took deep breaths. He was in dangerous territory here, accusing his sister of abusing anti-depressants. He didn’t want to say something he would regret later.
“You remember what happened to Curtis?” Dax asked. “He was hooked on Sertaline.”
Curtis had been Dax and Gabby’s cousin. He had secretly struggled with a prescription drug problem when they’d still been teenagers. Dax and Gabby had known their cousin was taking the drugs without his mom knowing, and Dax had never allowed himself to get over the guilt of not alerting someone to the problem. By the time Curtis had been found on the floor of his bathroom, dead and bloated, it had been too late.
“Oh, hell no,” Gabby said. “Don’t bring that shit into this. Curtis was young, and his father done fucked him up when he left him and his mom out to dry.”
“It’s that Charles guy, isn’t it? He’s getting these for you.”
And that was it. The thing he shouldn’t have said that he would regret later.
Gabby narrowed her eyes at her brother and crossed her arms. “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Dax sighed. “Gabby, please. I meant that—”
“Do I need to remind you where the door is?” Gabby pointed toward the front of the house.
Dax slumped his shoulders and lowered his head. He went to the front door and opened it. Halfway out the door, he turned around.
“I’m sorry. I love you, and I’ll call you. Okay?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Dax stepped outside, and Gabby slammed the door behind him.
Across the street, Gabby’s neighbor, Donovon, raised his whiskey bottle to Dax. The old man was always sitting on his front porch, boozing.
“Fuck me,” Dax mumbled to himself.
He had no idea it would be the last time he talked to his sister on the outside.
Chapter 38
Two of Serafino’s soldiers dragged Dax away. They’d put a blindfold on him, shrouding him in darkness. He tried to keep his feet on the ground and walk now, but the creatures moved with speed. Exhaustion had also taken hold, and his tired legs couldn’t keep up.
They put him in his boat and drove several minutes before they dragged him out again.
Other than trying to get onto his feet so that he could walk, Dax didn’t fight the Screamers. Serafino owned him now. Dax was a slave—not unlike the creatures dragging him around.
He hadn’t felt this defeated since he’d murdered the two white folks moments before the police had showed up at the house to arrest him. Their son’s face appeared in his mind now. With all that had happened, Dax hadn’t thought about that boy in a long time. And with nothing but darkness surrounding him now, Dax couldn’t stop seeing the boy’s face in his head.
The Screamers stopped, allowing Dax to push himself up onto his feet. A door opened in front of him and the vampires stepped forward, slower than before and allowing him to walk.
The smell of burning wax permeated the room. It mixed with a dank, mildew smell. Another door opened in front of him, slamming against something metal and echoing throughout the entire space.
Letting go of Dax, the Screamers shoved him forward. He slid across the ground before sitting up and leaning back against what felt like steel bars. A metal door slammed, and th
en there came the rattling of something else that was metal and a loud ‘click.’
The main door to the room slammed shut again.
Dax raised his hands to his face to remove his blindfold.
“Well, ain’t this some shit?”
The voice had come from next to him, inside the room. It was painfully familiar.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Dax looked to the other side of the room.
“God damn.”
Sitting inside another cage—like the one that Dax was in—was Chuck. The same gangster who had tried enslaving him, Chloe, and the rest of their group into his meth production line. Dax stood and walked to the edge of the cell, gripping the bars with his hands.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Chuck smirked. “I should be asking you the same thing, nigga.”
“I thought you were dead.”
Chuck did more than smile, letting out a laugh. He rose to his feet and walked to the side of the cell. “Again, likewise.”
Dax violently pushed off the bars and turned his back to the gang leader.
“You gotta admit,” Chuck said. “Pretty damn ironic that those things locked us up together again. That’s twice now. Can’t say that I think we’ll be alive to figure out if the third time is a charm.” Again, Chuck laughed at himself.
Dax gritted his teeth. “You might not be around.” Keeping his back to Chuck, Dax went to the edge of the cell and shook the bars. He then went to the door, reaching his hand outside to check the padlock. There was no way he was going to get it off without bolt cutters, and even then, it might be difficult.
“Think I ain’t tried to get out of here? You’re one dumb nigger. Much stupider than I thought.”
Trying to break out of the cell would have been difficult enough as it was, but with the man he hated inside of the same room, blabbing endlessly, Dax was all the more frustrated. He stepped to the middle of his cell and faced Chuck, his hands on his hips.
