“You should. You and your dead lover spent enough time there. I hated you then. Did you know that? I hated what you did to me. In my own home. I hated Cerci for protecting you. And most of all, I hated Cerci for feeding on me all those years ago in Troy. But soon enough we will be home in Greece.”
At that moment the darkness and gloomy, foul air of her muggy prison was pushed back as blooms of light came to life around her. Face after face appeared behind the white glows of modern lamps. Eyes filled with hate and disgust looked back at her. Rats scurried and fled for the cover of shadows as men and women in long, dark red robes came closer and closer to the bound Fabiana.
“Do you remember Ambracia?”
Bedros’s voice found her once more. “Do you remember our sanctuary under the city? It’s still there, you know. It has never been discovered. It was never found by man. Even after all this time, it waits for us to one day return.”
“What of it? What do you care if I remember it or not?” she replied with bruised lips. Fabiana could still taste blood from where one of them had stuck her.
“Oh, I remember it as if it was yesterday. The first city which I called home with the Origin of Blood was Ambracia, a most marvelous and interesting place. It was close to my home of Troy—in ‘the East’, as we used to say. Yet it was still part of your Roma then, wasn’t it?”
Bedros had always harbored a hatred toward Rome for he came from a time when Rome and Greece were not one empire. He came from an era when Rome was more like a petulant child and Greece was the wise parent of the land. But even that didn’t last.
“The same can be said of my origins in Hispania, Bedros. I am no more a Roman than you are.”
“Still, Ambracia was a Roman city and had been shaped by the politics of Roma. Funny how the most influential parts of Roma happened to be Greek in origin.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh you know, Fabiana. The philosophy and ideas of the Greeks shaped Roma as much as Roma shaped Greece. Santorini was a city of splendid Greek architecture and it was a city of great thinkers and philosophers. Even though we hunted its streets at night, I longed to see the blue of the water around Ambracia in the daytime.”
“Well, now thanks to me, you can have that pleasure,” Fabiana said snidely.
“How right you are, my girl. And sooner than you think.”
Chapter 56
12:00 a.m., May 7
Lights flickered in Seattle like a million small flames and a frigid wind grabbed at my jacket outside the home of Detective Katarina O’Hara. Agent Joe Tango—who I suspected had not given us his real name—had just laid everything out for us. Kenny had reluctantly told O’Hara and Tango about the other bodies found in the city before we had gone to Toledo.
We made our way inside as Kat put out her cigarette and took a seat at a small dinner table. A laptop computer was glowing away in front of her and her fingers moved effortlessly over the keys as she brought up a diagram of the city and we tried to pinpoint exactly where the bodies were found. Since Kenny and O’Hara both had been working the case from opposing ends, it seemed they now had no choice but to share their notes.
“Okay,” Kat began. “My case was in Richmond Beach so I’ll mark the map here.”
She pointed with the curser and clicked. A red dot appeared over Richmond Beach on the map of Seattle.
“Good. Hmmm… The last body for me was found on the Northside in Shoreline,” Kenny said.
“Where in Shoreline?”
“175, I think.”
“Okay, that’s directly across on the map.”
She highlighted that part of the map with the same red dot.
“Then there was a body found in the Highlands, outside the Seattle Golf and Country Club.”
“Okay, now where was the first body found?” Kat asked.
“That would be Green Lake area… Hold on, let me think. 12 Avenue,” Kenny told her, his brow furrowed in thought.
“Well, looks like a pattern to me but I couldn’t tell you what it could be yet. Joe, do you have anything you might be able to add?” I asked suddenly, turning to him sitting by the fireplace.
“Sorry, Detective. My job was to retrieve the blood sample. I have nothing to do with your dead vampires.”
My eyes quickly shot to Kenny as he started to twitch nervously. I could feel right off the horror building inside his mind. And before I could catch him, he was down, cracking his face hard on the tiled entry of Detective O’Hara’s home.
“Johnson!” Kat yelled as she ran to his side. My hands were nearly shaking as I lifted his head. I was surprised at how heavy even just his head felt in my hands.
“What’s wrong with him?!”
Kat met my eyes with a stern look and I’m certain the fear behind my gaze gave her no comfort as we stared at one another. Still, I said nothing to her question.
“Kenny, goddamnit, look at me!” I nearly shouted.
I didn’t want to answer her. I didn’t want to say the words to her. I thought this was all done. I thought Kenny was better. I was sure that he was going to live.
“He’s been having nightmares.”
“Nightmares? This isn’t any fucking nightmare. Look at him!”
“No, it’s something else,” I told her. “It’s…” then my words were cut short as Kenny began to speak and for a second I was relieved. But even that was short-lived.
“A… Acacia,” Kenny mumbled. Then he seemed gone just as fast as he was here a second before. I was completely lost by what he had said.
“Kenny, what? Come back to us, Kenny. Focus.”
Then his eyes opened. I could feel almost nothing in Kenny that was my friend. As he looked at me, I saw almost no recognition of me in the man that I knew. Then that word again.
“Acacia.”
“‘Acacia’? What is that? Kenny, I don’t understand.”
He suddenly began to move. Large limbs began to come back to life as if he was the monster of Frankenstein and the lightning had just surged into his dead body.
“Kenny, no! Don’t get up. You’ve had a hard fall. You might have a concussion.”
“No, I have to get there,” he stated blankly as he tried to get up.
“Where? Where do you have to go?”
Kat grasped his wrist for a moment, and the look of concern that was painted across her face scared me even more now.
“What? What is it, O’Hara?”
“His pulse is racing.”
With that, I put my head to his chest and the sound that filled my ears was something I never want to hear again. His heart sounded as if it was about to beat out of his chest. As I looked into his eyes, I could see the sweat that was now pouring out of him.
“Kenny, if you’re going anywhere, it’s to a hospital.”
“No, I have to get there. I have to go to Acacia,” he said almost automatically.
“What’s ‘Acacia’, man?” I asked again, trying to sound patient.
“Memorial Park,” he said, his voice just above a whisper.
Then Kat’s eyes had mine again. She looked back at Kenny and then ran to her computer. She was onto something, but I didn’t know what.
“Oh shit,” she uttered after several key strokes.
“What?” I demanded uneasily.
“Look,” she commanded as she turned the screen of her laptop so I could see it from where I was. She had put a red dot at Acacia Memorial Park in Seattle. It was directly east of the Highland body crime scene.
“What the fuck…?” I uttered helplessly. She hit another key and a printer came to life. Seconds later she was holding a map of Seattle.
“I need a marker,” I said without taking my eyes off the piece of computer paper.
“Right.”
She reached into a Japanese bamboo cup on top of the table that was littered with pens and tossed me a Sharpie. I didn’t want it to be true.
Anything but that please, I uttered to myself as I connected the dots o
n the map. I stared at the map for a while and didn’t want to say a word. But Kat’s eyes told me everything. She knew it too. I had drawn a pentagram. If it was true and Kenny was drawn to that spot in the city, and his heart gave out and he died, who knew what would happen. It all seemed so tacky—like some horrible B movie. I mean, come on! A pentagram? How many times does the same stupid thing have to be done? Really, demons have to get a new symbol.
“We need to keep him here. No matter what.”
I really had only one thought streaming through my mind now—where the fuck was Fabiana?
Chapter 57
12:15 a.m., May 7
The entire collection of human vampires was chattering and groaning, sending moans up to the roof of the hidden hanger where they had now made their residence. And gazing toward the mouth of the grand tree, they anticipated that infinite spell of darkness that was the horror Kenny was now enduring.
Their voices were rising up over the thousands upon thousands of frogs and crickets that hummed around the countryside. Fabiana could tell that whatever their plans were, the momentum of their intentions was getting closer and closer to a conclusion. It all came down to that tree. If she didn’t find a way to destroy the demon tree, Kenny and many more would surely die.
The last few moments had been unendurable. Since her capture, Fabiana had suffered many violations, the worst of which included Bedros’ invasion into her mind. He seemed to have an ability to push back one’s will. An ability to restrict mental power. She needed to distract him just long enough so she could focus her will for just a short time. One second really, that is all it would take.
A tear was welling up behind her eyes now. Fabiana didn’t want to lose herself to emotion but she seemed unable to control things like sadness and sorrow. As she lay on her back, bound to a straw-covered dirt floor, she could see Bedros. He was standing several feet from her. He was not close but he still had a constant hold on her mind, and suddenly she was reminded of his words about her and Cerci.
Fabiana had loved Cerci very much, so intensely. Fiercely. She wasn’t sure quite why, but now she recalled her memories of him. Then she felt something, something she hadn’t felt since the day Cerci was taken from her. Since the day Cognatus died and her future was changed forever. She felt Cerci.
He seemed very close to her now and she couldn’t imagine why or how that was possible. Yes, he had spoken to her the day he died, but this was different somehow. And suddenly his voice was in her head. It was like a beautiful song to her heart. She felt uplifted as if Cerci was actually pushing back the evil power, masking the hold of Bedros. Her mind suddenly felt as if it was coming alive again.
“‘Who have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth I desire besides you. My heart and my strength.’”
Cerci’s voice was clear and warm in her thoughts as he quoted poet Ramona Thompson in her head. And it wasn’t until that moment that she actually believed it was truly him. It was Cerci.
“I miss you, Cerci.”
“And I miss you, my sweet. Be ready.”
“Ready?” Fabiana asked.
“I’m going to attempt to break his hold on you. If I can. You’ll need to act quickly.”
At once, the wooden panes closest to Bedros were shattered. The splinters flew against the flesh of the shocked faces of those in the hanger but would not pierce them as the boards fell loudly and clamored to the floor. The cold breeze of the night gusted into the room with a shocking chill.
“Foolish trick, Cerci!” Bedros bellowed and already seemed to be aware of her old lover’s presence in the room.
Suddenly a cloud of dust and dirt rose up off the ground and spread itself out beneath the ceiling and floor. The billowing, wondrous human shape forming in front of them was Cerci. The nearly transparent spirit ran at Bedros. Bedros threw up his arms and cried out to the spirit, “Is that all you have?”
Then Cerci consumed him.
At last when Bedros could take no more, a wind full of pain thrashed wildly and once more tiny bits of wood flew at the people of the hanger. Fabiana made her move as they all ran for shelter. She felt the grasp of Bedros weaken significantly and she struck out with all her power. A blast of fire exploded past the fleeing vampires and engulfed the weak, large hanger. Wood and nails shot out like fragments from a grenade as a massive fireball rocketed to the old, dried wood of the demon tree. With a rumbling explosion, the darkness of the night glowed yellow and orange as the tree was consumed by heat and flames. It only took seconds, but the thick, round trunk of the tree was incinerated by Fabiana’s massive heat blast.
“Nooooo!” Bedros screamed as he raced to what was left of the demon tree. Flames flickered in every direction, consuming everything around them. The inferno kicked and danced over wood and metal scraps as ex-vampires scattered away from the blaze like mindless mosquitoes. Fabiana was weakened, utterly drained of all her will and she suddenly felt no presence from Cerci.
Is he dead? Again?
She wondered but she would get no answer from him. Fabiana was drifting in and out of consciousness. Her awareness of her surroundings was quickly fading. The last thing she saw was Bedros standing over her and then a quick, painful blackness as his boot came down upon her face.
Chapter 58
12:15 a.m., May 7
A blue haze of cigarette smoke hung over the rooms in the Fremont house. Kenny’s face came into my field of vision as if it were in a magnifying glass. He was beautiful. Perfect like he had been reborn into something new. For a moment I lost my sense of balance. Had she done it? Had Fabiana destroyed the demon tree? I had no answer and was still unable to feel her at all. I hoped she was safe. I knew I couldn’t worry now about her. After all, if anyone could take care of herself, it was Fabiana.
“Are you alright, Kenny?” I questioned him as he rubbed his face.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“What do you remember?”
“It was so weird, man. This voice was in my head. You know, like in the movies. It kept calling to me, urging me forward. Telling me to go somewhere.”
“Acacia Memorial Park,” Kat added, trying to be helpful.
“Yeah. Right. That was it.”
“Listen, man. Acacia is the last point to the puzzle. Don’t you see?” I said, holding up the map. Each spot where the bodies were found makes up a point on the inverted pentagram. You see this? This is a demon symbol.”
“Yeah, I get it. It’s the sign of the devil, evil, and witchcraft. I watch movies.”
“No, Kenny, not witchcraft. And the movies have got it dead wrong. Upright pentacles and pentagrams were among the most widely used religious symbols. They have been used in many eras and by many cultures and religions—like the ancient Pagans, ancient Israelites, Christians, magicians, and Wiccans or witches. Now, the inverted pentagram like we have here is a whole other mess altogether. As to the inverted pentacle, if there was a goat's head imposed on it, it would be called the Sigil of Baphomet. It has also been called the Black Goat, Devil's Goat, Goat Head, Goat of Mendes, and the Judas Goat. The Templar Knights of the Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition reported the first sighting of this symbol.”
“Why the history lesson?” Joe interrupted me.
“Shut up, Agent.” Kenny told him, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“Now those Templar Knights reported something else too. Apparently there was a secret society that came together during the Inquisition. No one is really sure, but the knights reported that all five members had all died in what looked like a ritual suicide, each body laid out on one point of the five-sided sigil. Now keep in mind that this is all hearsay. But the knights say there was a sighting.”
“What kind of sighting?” Kat asked breathlessly.
“Demonic.”
“What you mean ‘demonic’? Like demon?”
“Fuck me…” Kenny said in a daze as he climbed to his feet. “But wait. If I’m fine, that means it’s over, right? Fabiana
destroyed the tree.”
“Wait, what tree?” Kat insisted.
“Oh, sorry we never got that far. Did we, Kenny?” I said.
“No.”
“Okay, long story very short. The demon that created the first vampire was using a tree, a demon tree, to control the ex-vampires. To will them to kill themselves at different points around the city.”
“Okay. And you think this was all part of a way for him to what? Rise from hell?” Kat said. I could tell this was getting a little too crazy for her. She’d been hit with a lot of very weird information in the last few hours. I was in her shoes. I was a hardnosed street cop just like her. I didn’t want to believe any of it either, but when a beautiful, exotic vampire picks you up and flies you to Italy in thirty seconds, you tend to believe anything.
“Not rise from hell, O’Hara. We think the demon is here and is using the sigil to get strength. You know, somehow siphoning energy from the deaths.”
“Wait. Here in the city?”
“No, what we’ve been told is that this demon is in some kind of hibernation state somewhere in Africa.” I stopped for a moment as eyes of confusion met mine.
“Listen. We don’t really have to worry right now. It has been stopped. Kenny’s going to be fine and the tree is gone.”
“How do you know the tree’s gone?” Joe asked.
“Well, I don’t. Not really. But look at Kenny,” I said pointing to him. “The tree must be gone. I trust Fabiana. She’s very powerful.”
“Okay, but what’s to stop one of the other vampire guys from going to Acacia and dropping dead?” Kat asked.
I hadn’t really considered that and if I’m honest, I really didn’t like what was just suggested to us. Again it wasn’t yet over. This nightmare just kept going.
“Well, I don’t think the vampires that died really had an option. You saw Kenny—he had no control of himself. Besides, I think they were led there by the demon. That shouldn’t be able to happen now that the tree is gone.” I said and then I met Kenny’s eyes. His look was intense and full of concern.
“Wait, Tim. Fabiana told us that the demon had reached out and pulled her mind to him. That he had control over her for a bit. Right? What’s to stop him from grabbing hold of one of the other former vampires? One of the other ex-vampires with less power? Someone who has less of a chance of resisting him? Maybe he wouldn’t even need the tree to do that.”
The Blood Born Tales (Book 2): Blood Dream Page 27
