But that couldn’t possibly be right, she told herself, unable to stop her mental trek across the dropping orange glow of the coming evening sky.
Past the tall buildings of downtown and over rolling hills and flat plains, her mind flew out over the United States. Out to the endless, swaying waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Her mind raced across the world as if her own thoughts were being pulled away from her. The coast of Africa was coming up faster and faster and for an instant she thought the images were going to overpower her.
Fabiana’s body was starting to convulse now. Everything blurred for an instant and then cleared over Lake Victoria in Kenya. The power was intense but she struggled against its will. Fabiana’s mind was strong, stronger than the other vampires. She could resist him. Whoever was controlling her had great will and immense influence, for to capture the mind of someone like Fabiana would have taken great abilities. And that fact alone scared her. For if she would ever have to face such a creature she would certainly lose. Suddenly her eyes opened and her mind cleared. Fabiana’s glance darted left then right, and she was back in her unwelcoming bathroom at the hospital.
She sat there on the floor for some time, her thin arms wrapped around her legs. The familiarity of the creature was too close to be right. It felt as if it was the Origin, the first vampire ever to be born in this world. But she destroyed him! How could it be?
There was some monster hiding in Lake Victoria out in Africa; she could feel its presence. It was calling out, calling out to the old blood collectors. There was something inside her that wanted to go, to leave this place. Fabiana knew what it was. It was the blood dream, the calling. But she would not give up her life. Not after all she had done. She would not sacrifice herself as the creature had asked of her. She would not give up her life.
Then words hit her and she could do nothing but let them come.
“You killed him. You destroyed The Origin. You, Fabiana, are now the key to my awakening. You, Fabiana, are now the Blood Key.”
The words sounded like the throaty growl of a beast.
“What key?” she responded weakly. And she didn’t like the feeling that she was getting now. She didn’t enjoy the thought that she might be something more perverted than the human that she had aspired to become. Fabiana didn’t want anything to do with the evil that she now felt in the recesses of her mind.
“You are the key to my resurrection, to my rising. I have slumbered for a great many centuries. But soon it will be my time to come and cull the dead weight of this land. To reclaim the power I once had. I will make this world mine and it is you, Fabiana, who will give it to me.”
“Who are you?” she asked through clenched teeth, but she knew that she didn’t want the answer he had for her.
“Search your mind and you will find that which you seek,” the voice told her. “For there is much in you that you have yet to experience. There is much in you that you have yet to open your mind to. You took him. You were the one that killed Cognatus. And in doing so, you became connected to a greater purpose. A purpose you couldn’t possibly have fathomed until now, my child. For you are my child and I am your father. And it is you that will bring me into the light of day once more.”
“You are not my father. You are the one without a name.”
“I have a name. It was given to me long before there was life on this world. Long before there was a god that you worshipped. My name is Inferi and has remained the same over the centuries. In the words of my people, it means ‘death from below’. It was a name that was gifted to me long ago and in my own tongue I relished its use and lived up to it.”
“What are you?” Fabiana felt sick.
“Before there was good and evil on this world, there was me. I am the father of all. I am the beginning.”
Chapter 31
5:00 p.m., May 6
The sun slipped in and out of slate blue clouds and had just begun its descent as the sea heaved against the shore, foaming around the docks in downtown Seattle. The brightness of the sky was now a soft orange glow on the horizon out at sea and the city was coming to life with the coming evening.
Kat kneeled in an alleyway near the market, a body bag at her feet. Police tape fluttered in a cool spring night breeze and with gloved fingers, she pulled back the black plastic covering the body. He was face up and right off she could see it, the massive bruise on his throat. She didn’t like this at all. It was obviously a homicide and Kat didn’t like what was happening to her city. First shots were fired only a block from her and now a dead body. Something was going on and she didn’t like the feeling that she was getting on the back of her neck. Her senses were screaming because none of it felt right. None of it felt true.
The Crime Scene Unit at that very moment was a few blocks away, marking off bullet impacts in another alley. Several individuals had opened fire on an unknown target only moments before the body was discovered, and Kat didn’t feel good about any of it. This was all playing out like a bad book she didn’t want to be reading.
Kat looked over and could see Dr. Colleens making her way to her. The doctor had been called only a few minutes after Kat had been directed to the scene of the crime.
“What do we have, Detective O’Hara?” Marty said, making it look like they had not just been sitting together at the Seattle Center only moments before. She looked as if it was just a normal meeting between the two of them, and for a second Kat didn’t know what to say.
“Thirty-something male. Looks to be a crushed windpipe, I’m guessing,” Kat told her with a sigh.
Dr. Colleens opened her crime scene case and after snapping on a pair of cotton gloves handed Kat a pair.
“I think this just might be your size, Detective. Don’t contaminate the evidence.”
The doctor gave her a smile and then looked over the body.
“The victim is an adult male,” she began after a moment. “Contusions to the trachea… I suspect to the vertebrae and left patella as well, but I can’t be sure without a scan. If that’s the case, he could have died very quietly. I’m also seeing a mark over his mouth. It’s as if someone had a hold of him and held on very tightly. Would have to have been a strong grip.”
“Yeah, like someone was covering his mouth so he couldn’t yell out.” Marty then looked up to Kat and held her eyes for a moment. She spoke softly.
“I’ve seen this kind of injury before, Detective. I can’t know for sure, but this looks like a precision knife hand strike. Like something a Special Forces soldier could do.”
“How do you know that?” Kat asked, bewildered.
“I did my residency at Ft. Benning. I saw these kinds of injuries all the time.”
“Okay, Doc. You just keep surprising me. Please print him and get back to me as soon as you can. Let’s see if we can get an ID off of him.”
“Sure, Detective.”
There were now about ten police officers around the car where the victim lay and many of them were scanning the scene for clues. Three talked to witnesses and other bystanders. Then a man Kat had grown to dislike very much over the last few months appeared out of the blackness of the alleyway. The Captain of the police approached her and their eyes met before she could respond to his presence. Before Kat could say a word, he barked at her like a mad dog.
Almost handsome in a dark suit and paisley suspenders and tie, he looked remarkably average. Kat could not help but recall what Dr. Colleens had said once about his ambitions and connections. The idea that this egotistical idiot would one day run for office was one Kat could not stand. A man like this should not have any kind of power over anyone else. After all, the power he already had was abused because he came from a time when the police misused their influence over the city. But not Seattle, she reminded herself. He was from New York, where corruption ran wild. He was old school.
“O’Hara! Where the fuck is your partner? He needs to check in!”
“He’s following up on a lead in last night’s death, Captain,” she t
old him honestly.
“That was not my question, O’Hara. Where is he?”
“Toledo, Washington, Captain.”
There was a long silence and O’Hara would not look away, even though she knew the Captain was expecting her to. He was very much like a dominating dog—the alpha wolf. But she wasn’t going to play his game. Kat wasn’t in the mood.
“Get him to check in.”
Just as the Captain was turning to leave, an officer ran up to her.
“Detective O’Hara, we have a witness in the shooting,” the young man said, somewhat out of breath.
“What? Good. Give me the information please.”
Chapter 32
5:30 p.m., May 6
It had come as a piece of blind luck. We had found a part of Nesto. True organic matter after all this time. But one thing wasn’t making sense to me. Why would Nesto lead us right to him? It’s as if he wanted us to find him. Then Kenny was in my thoughts.
“Why would Nesto want us to be able to find him? What ghost wants to be killed? Because that’s what we’re going to do, right? What could he possibly be doing all of this for? Why lead us here? We are going to kill him, right?”
I think maybe he was worried about the ghost overhearing us somehow.
“Right, Kenny.”
“How? How is it done?”
“We have to kill the spirit at its source because we can’t really kill a ghost. ‘Kill’ is not really the right word here. Spirits are already dead. We need to force a passing.”
“So what the hell do we do?” Kenny asked anxiously.
“We salt and burn this,” I said as I held up the evidence bag with Nesto’s hair and blood in it.
“What? Like on TV?”
“Well, Kenny, it’s not that simple, I’m afraid. Salt purifies the bones or flesh of energy for a short time, giving us a window to burn the remains to cremains, or ash. And like on television, the spirit will be gone from the bones or flesh. But there will be a short time when we will be at risk so I need you to stay back.”
“And that should stop the ghost sickness?”
“Yes, I hope.”
Kenny and I drove north on Jackson Highway past country homes and rundown trailers until we came to the campgrounds of the Lewis and Clark Park. I couldn’t think of any better area where we could conveniently build a fire and break the sickness that had plagued my friend.
“Kenny, why don’t you go inside and rent us a spot for a while? I’ll get what we need out of the truck.”
“Right.”
As he walked away from me I truly hoped that this would end it for us. I hoped he would be alright. Because I honestly felt out of options now if this didn’t work and I knew that there was a good chance that it might not work. After all, this was the first time I had ever done something like this. If it didn’t work Kenny might die, and I didn’t want to see that. I couldn’t see that.
It didn’t take long for us to get a spot on the far side of the campground, just off of the road. I had the bed of my pickup truck open and Kenny had arranged some scrap wood in the campsite’s round fire pit. He was spraying the wood and crumpled newspapers with lighter fluid. I dug an old Zippo lighter out of my tool box and tossed it to Kenny.
“Hey, I remember this! We were given these when we graduated basic training,” he said, referring to a time that now seemed as dead as dead could be in my life. A time when Kenny and I still had our youth and I believed in things like good intentions and right and wrong. A time when my friend and I had nothing standing in our way. It was those good old days in the Army that I sometimes longed for. When it was just the two of us fighting the world.
“Yeah, seems like forever ago now, right?” I asked him. And for an instant I was saddened by that. We had lost something. We were so close back then. But now in only the last few hours, we had kind of regained something. We had grown closer again and that meant something to me too. It meant something that I could be there for him. It meant that even after all this time he still called me for help. For some reason, Kenny still needed me in his life in some capacity. A moment later flames reached upward like little fingers grasping at ringlets of black smoke.
I held the evidence bag just above the flames and looked over at Kenny.
“Okay, man, step back to the truck. I want you out of his path if indeed he comes at one of us. This should do it, man.”
I stood there for a moment, hoping that this would be it. Hoping that Kenny would be free.
“Do it. Throw it in, Tim.”
I stood there for a long silent moment with a saddened look on my face, holding the bag that contained Nesto, and for a second I didn’t know if I was going to do it. I filled the evidence bag with salt, and then my fingers released the bag. The evidence bag dropped down and almost hung on the air like a kite riding the breeze. It fluttered downward to the heat of the fire and when it touched the flames, a burst of blue light erupted out of the pit. I could have sworn for just an instant that I could hear a young voice carried on the wind. Then it was gone. Was that it? Was it finally done?
I turned again to stare into the fire burning in the wide, stone fire pit. There had once been hot dogs and marshmallows roasting over those flames, but not now. Now only the remains of Nesto Santos fizzled in its fire. Kenny emerged from the front of the truck and looked at me quizzically.
“Is that it?”
“Umm…yeah. I think so. Do you feel any different?”
“Maybe just a little. My mind seems a little clearer.”
“Good,” I said as I slapped him on the back and we hugged. I briefly felt comforted again. I felt his friendship return to me.
“Then we can get going.”
“What?” Kenny said. “We can’t leave.”
His words struck me in a strange way. We didn’t belong out here and certainly Kenny must have known that as well as I did.
“Kenny, this has gone too far. I’m not a cop anymore and you’re going to be okay. We need to get back home while you still have a job and before I get arrested for impersonating an officer of the law.”
“Tim, please. I still need you.”
I turned and gave him my eyes. And I could sense the need in him.
“What?” I asked breathily.
“There’s still a missing person out there, if he’s not dead already. We owe it to that Harvey girl to make sure her brother is alright. And you know as well as I do what most likely is taking these people. We can help them, Tim.”
“Vampires,” I said in a whisper. But I didn’t really believe it. There were no more vampires and I didn’t even have to say it. Kenny already knew. They weren’t really vampires. Not really, but I didn’t have a word for what they were now. Ex-vampires, used-to-be vampires, human vampires. Whatever we chose to call them, they were still a danger. Even I knew that.
“No matter what they are now, they are killing innocent people,” Kenny said urgently.
“Okay, big man, I’m with you. I’m most likely going to jail, but I’m with you.”
Chapter 33
5:15 p.m., May 6
A veil of smoke drifted out the chimney and streamed almost horizontally with the wind and through an open window. Kat caught the red glint of movement. This was the place, this was the address dispatch had given her. The person or persons inside had witnessed the shooting below. Kat knew the main witness was a woman. She had been informed as much. The lady lived in a flat roofed condo of curved tan concrete and glass that interacted with the nature of the city and reflected the water, earth, and sky. Kat was reminded of a building she had seen as a child in Boston. The condo in the slowly setting sun looked like a lighthouse all lit up.
The condo, a tall tan brick building, sat on the far end of Elliott Avenue. Kat climbed the tall staircase and as she looked over its stone and iron rail she had a clear view of Pike Place Market.
She felt eyes on her. A drape moved and Kat heard the sounds of steps muted from deep within the condo as she wai
ted on the porch and a small yapping dog sniffed and announced her arrival. Kat followed this up with a pounding upon the wooden frame of the door and she finally called out, “Anybody home? Hey!” Banging her fist hard, “Police, I need to have a word with you!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” an impatient woman’s voice sang out. A hard, tired face filled the space of the opening door. The burglar chain was still anchored tight from door to frame as she stared through the small gap at Kat.
“Oh, what is it?” the irritated woman said, looking back at Kat with judging eyes. She was obviously flush with money and was someone who didn’t appreciate what she had. Kat was certain she had always had wealth and never thought life would be any different. She had the look of someone who was addicted to Botox or any of the treatments her dermatologist could offer her on improving her looks. It wasn’t working, Kat thought.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry to disturb you. I’m Detective O’Hara. I’m investigating the shooting that occurred earlier today. Could you maybe talk with me about what you witnessed?”
“Does this have to be right now? I’m just sitting down for dinner.” And still the chain of the door had yet to be released. The woman’s untrusting eyes narrowed at Kat who was still standing in the doorway. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“I understand, ma’am, but it won’t take any longer than a moment or two,” Kat told her.
“Oh, all right,” the woman breathed heavily and released the burglar chain of her door, waving Kat inside. Kat had her notepad out, ready for the information that she required as she stepped into the brightly lit home. And it was apparent that the woman didn’t care at all for the power and resources that she was using to light every square foot of her palatial house.
“So, you’re Mrs. Callaghan? Did I say that right?”
“Right enough, I guess,” Mrs. Callaghan retorted. “Make this quick. I don’t like strangers and have no interest in getting involved in something so unseemly as this.”
The Blood Born Tales (Book 2): Blood Dream Page 17
