The Blood In the Beginning

by Kim Falconer

  A wave of energy washed over me. I wrenched my knife hand out of Billy’s grip and arced it toward him until it sunk into flesh. Billy screamed as I pivoted, my hand still on the knife, and found my feet. I pulled it out and plunged it into his heart. Three more rapid stabs and he wasn’t saying a thing. I sheathed the blade, swept up Billy’s gun and turned to face Bane.

  He lifted the glass of blood in a toast. Bravo, but Ava, you’re making this harder than necessary. You should come join me for a lovely drink of Cate. He smiled.

  It was the same warm expression that had charmed me in the past. More than charmed, it filled me with a feeling of comfort. Home. A sense of rightness. No!

  It’s who you are, my dear.

  Bane’s voice rose over the sound of my pounding heart.

  Join me, Ava. There is so much we can share together, so much I can teach you.

  The ecstasy of his words warred with reason as pressure built inside me. ‘Get out of my head!’ The command burst from my mouth. I threw one arm over my eyes and fired blind. The wineglass full of Cate’s blood exploded as I screamed, shattering the spell.

  * * *

  ‘You lied to me!’ I fired again but the gun clicked empty. I tossed it aside, rage infusing every fibre of my body. My wounds throbbed, but I was so jacked, they didn’t slow me down. I swept up the bat, my grip sticky, eyes on Bane. Two things were going to happen. He was going to die, and I was taking Cate’s body home.

  She still hung, unmoving, chained to the wall. Bane looked drunk on her blood, cat and the canary as he watched me like I was more of the night’s entertainment. Last act. I had to get to Cate. They weren’t going to keep feeding on her like a piece of prime rib and toss the remains to the sharks. Over my damned dead body.

  I charged, howling, bat raised high. Bane’s remaining guards were on me. One clamped my upper arm and I swung, lightning fast. His head snapped back, bones cracking. I threw a roundhouse kick in the opposite direction, sending another guard across the room. His body hit the wall and didn’t move. Bane’s brow furrowed, as he picked glass shards out of his hand. I kept him locked in my gaze as two more men came charging at me. I swung the bat like a propeller. It sent one guy smashing through a row of tables, bowling over a few passed-out customers, scattering them on the floor. The oil lamps toppled and tablecloths caught fire. ‘Get out!’ I yelled at the washed-up clubbers. I didn’t see Rourke. Bastard. I told him to help these people. ‘Go home!’

  Ava. That’s enough! Bane’s voice sounded in my head.

  Not even close. I roared as I punched another guard to the ground. I dropped the bat, and with an ankle in each hand, I spun him over my head and let loose. He flew through the air and hit the middle of the aquarium, fifteen feet off the ground. The glass split like thick ice. The sharks thrashed, excited by the sounds, or maybe the smell of fresh blood. They bumped the glass with blunt noses, rolling to expose their huge jaws and saw-blade teeth. The fractures deepened. Flames from the tables rose higher, smoke billowing in dark, raging plumes. Bane pushed off the wall and headed toward me. ‘Enough!’

  I leapt over a fallen chair and ran straight at him. His last remaining security loomed and before I reached him, I was spear-tackled from the side. The floor hit me hard. Sprawled face down, I pushed up, grabbed onto the shirt and flesh of my assailant and flipped him, slamming him into a table, splitting it in two. I scrambled to my feet, pain shooting through my wounded leg. My head snapped toward Bane. He was still walking my way. Nothing ruffled this man. I cocked my fist, ready to run it through his face.

  His hand came up, caught my punch and threw me back. I skidded across the slick floor, hard on my tailbone.

  You could have stood by my side, Ava, but you can’t stand against me. Bane was on me. He clamped one hand around my throat and lifted me in the air, walking up the dais to the wall. With his free hand, he cut loose, throwing punches to my head and neck. I tucked my knees and ploughed my heels into his guts. Bane fell backward, but didn’t loosen his grip. I tumbled on top of him and pulled my knife, already wet with blood. It flashed between us and I swiped upward, cut the left side of his face, through his eye and into his scalp.

  He roared and punched me so hard I flew back twenty feet, landing in the middle of the dance floor. Smoke rose; tables burned. Alarms blared. Some of the customers who could move staggered toward the elevator, but not all. Bane charged at me, his face gushing, one eye milky white. I sidestepped and did a spinning kick, but he blocked my move and smashed me in the face. It stunned me for a moment. I sucked in my breath, shook it off, and barrelled back toward him.

  He started to dive to the side, but this time I latched onto his midsection, knocking him off his feet. We sailed back into the wall. I whaled on him, trading punches as he struck back, until a bat came down on my spine. Pain flashed through me like a searing thunderbolt. I was pressed into Bane, but only for a moment. Two guards hauled me up, pushed me against the wall and started throwing gut punches. I doubled over, gagging on my own blood.

  Stop! Daniel stepped in while the guards held me. I have her. Put those fires out. The sprinkler system should be on. See to it. He reached out and clamped my throat, lifting me off my feet again. One of the guards handed him the bat. He glanced at the ceiling, as if he could see a hundred feet over his head. Send a team up there, now! he barked at his security. He looked over his shoulder to the aquarium. And open the valves. Pump the tank before that crack widens. All but one took off. Bane tightened his grip on my throat. Who the hell let her in?

  The guard shrugged.

  A smile crept over my face, even though pressure built unbearably in my head.

  Bane turned back to me. His wound, a hideous gaping rend, began healing in front of my eyes. The cavernous tear was knitting together, the pale eye darkening, coming back to life. How …?

  I could have shown you, taught you everything. Now you’ll never know.

  I ground my teeth as a scream rose and caught in my throat, unable to escape his grasp. With my hands free, I grabbed his fingers and thumb, wrenching them back until they snapped. It released my scream, the roar filling my ears. Bane dropped me and staggered back. I wrapped my arms around his legs, pulling his feet out from under him. He hit the dais, me on top. I pile-drove into his guts, pounding him with fists.

  He caught one wrist and squeezed so hard I thought it would break. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, little Mar. Then he backhanded me and I flew over a broken table and hit the ground. It was a while before I could move. By then, Bane appeared overhead. He laughed, his broken fingers popping as he straightened them. The sounds mixed with the crackling flames and the roar in my head.

  Bane planted his foot on my shoulder, pressing me to the ground. You’re nothing, Ava Sykes. Nothing at all. The bat followed, crashing down at my head. I rolled into his leg. It missed by a fraction. Next strike I wrenched myself out from under his foot and stopped the bat with both forearms crossed in front of my face. Wood shattered; pain radiating up my limbs. He dropped, healed hands clamping my throat again. I groped for a shard and found one. With the splintered point facing him, I drove it upward, toward his chest. I felt muscles give way as it ripped through his abdominal cavity. Bane rolled to the side, his knees drawn up. Both hands were on his guts, trying to hold them in.

  Blood seeped around his fingers, spilling out in pulses. My breath was forced, ragged as I sucked in air. I jumped him, arms swinging, pounding him into the floor. ‘You deceived me. Tricked me into trusting you.’ I growled out the words as the overhead sprinkler came on, washing Bane’s spattered blood from my face, down my cheek into the corner of my mouth. Without trying, I tasted it.

  My tongue heated, sensations shooting through my head. I saw Cate getting her promotion to VIP. Bane slipped a ribbon around her wrist … There was more, but like waking from a dream, the images faded away. I was left panting over Bane. I had to see it all. I had to know the truth. Without thinking I lowered my mouth to his neck, pull
ed back my lips and bit.

  His flesh was the texture of cheddar cheese and about as tart. It gave way that easy. I gagged, repulsed, but tore into his throat anyway. The strength of my jaws and slice of my canines surprised me, but not as much as the blood filling my mouth. It ran down my gullet to hit me with a blast of images in tones of grey, black and green. They jolted me like zaps of electricity.

  I saw myself in the office chair, right after I first stumbled into VIP. He laughed at me! Thought me naïve. Then, I watched his face in the mirror as he painted his eyes unrecognisable and ran those vertical lines from his scalp to his brow, lip to chin. He chased me down the back alley and mimed the gunshot toward me as the bus pulled away. Next he was buying roses and hand delivering them to the hospital. You’re insane!

  I saw Daina as the blood drained from her feetless legs. Scores of others died the same way. Year after year, decade after decade, the ribbons, the torture, the goblets of dark fluid and the brutal memories they conjured, and all while, in the mirror, Daniel Bane painted on his seamless, warrior face. You’re not the copycat. It’s been you all along. The visions pummelled me, like machine-gun fire, nearly knocking me over. The taunting. The fear. The time it took for them to die. Then I saw him with Cate again, forced to watch as he drained away her life. She’d trusted him to the end, confusion and terror flooding her face when she realised it wasn’t a game. I jerked myself back from the visions and found her, hanging above me, grey and unmoving. Noooo! The cry cut loose from the depths of my soul and I hammered Bane with both fists.

  Bones broke. His spine snapped. Gore splashed my face. The sounds became rhythmic, laboured. Breathe in. Thud. Breathe out. Thud. Over and over. I didn’t stop. The screaming thinned as my throat went raw. Water ran off my head, blurred my vision. Then flesh gave way to concrete. Pain shot up my arms. Chips flew into my face, wet with blood and water. Finally, I looked down. There was only a dark pool where Bane’s head had been. I sat back on my heels, panting, hands crippled and limp in front of me.

  I watched the stain wash away as I stood. Who’s nothing now, Daniel Bane?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Sensations slammed back into my body, pumping pain with every heartbeat. I stumbled to Cate. Sprinkler water mixed with my tears, plastering hair to my face. The cries coming from my swollen throat choked off, turning into grunting and gasps for breath. I tore open the clasps on her manacles, letting her fall like a puppet, strings cut. ‘It’s time to go home, sweetheart.’ She slumped against me and I stood there, panting, waiting for my breath to steady. It didn’t. With her shoulders against the wall, I squatted, allowing her upper body to fall down my back. Cate sighed as I stood, or had I imagined it? I held my breath. ‘Cate?’ Nothing. No rising of her chest. No pulse I could feel. Just air forced from her lungs. That was all. My eyes welled again and snot ran out my nose, diluted by the icy shower hammering down on my head. I turned away from the dais and limped toward the exit.

  Fire raged around the room, flames jumping to the stage, incinerating the backdrop and licking the edges of the aquarium, turning the glass smoky black. Oil floated on the water. There was no putting it out. The aquarium glass cracked further, fractures shooting up the wall. Seawater sprayed from the focal point like a high-pressure hose. The rush of water spread the oil, sweeping fire across the dance floor, linking the oil lamps as if connecting the dots.

  ‘Come on,’ I whispered to Cate and patted her cold back. ‘Home.’

  My rage had moved over, making room for despair. If it hadn’t been for Cate, dead as she was, I might have collapsed. Let the ruin take me. But it was for Cate. I wouldn’t let her be buried down here, forever entombed with the likes of Daniel Bane, and Billy, this tribe of copycat killers. Not that for you, Cate. I weaved around burning tables, and motes of flaming oil, trying to keep from tripping over in the water. It was calf deep and rising. My boots sloshed with it, making each step heavier than the next.

  Slowly the sprinklers choked off until they were only a drizzle. Water still sprayed from the middle of the aquarium, the cracks spreading. I coughed with each wet, smoke-filled breath, searching from side to side, looking for survivors, wary of guards. With that thought, I stumbled into a woman, a ‘siren’, drenched, bleeding from her wrists. She was dazed, sitting in a chair, water lapping her legs, swirling by her fingertips as her arms hung slack. ‘Hey!’ I shouted.

  She didn’t respond.

  ‘Wake up!’

  She turned to me, her brow wrinkled, like she was trying to recognise something. Anything.

  I hobbled closer. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Cin.’

  Cin? She must have been promoted since our little chat in the staff lounge. Seemed like forever ago. ‘Cin, do you remember me?’

  ‘Ava?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  Her chin dropped to her chest.

  I shifted Cate’s weight and shook Cin’s shoulder. ‘We have to go!’ I tilted my head in the direction of the elevator. ‘Come on.’ I tried to soften my voice and sound encouraging. I couldn’t imagine how I looked, torn clothes, bloody hair, battered face, dead girl on shoulder. I sucked my teeth. Yep. They tasted of blood. There’d be some kind of berserk fire still in my eyes, or maybe that was gone now. My head spun too much for me to tell. ‘Stand up, Cin. I’m going to get you out of here.’

  She obeyed. Her eyes were vacant, hardly aware of her surroundings, or maybe completely overwhelmed by them. A person could only take so much. I was inches away from that myself. ‘It’ll be alright. We’re nearly there.’

  As we reached the elevator, Cate’s head bumped against the backs of my legs. Cate? She sighed. I felt the rush of air from her chest. ‘Cate?’ I pulled her down off my shoulder and cradled her like a child. ‘Cate! You’re alive!’ I looked over at Cin. ‘She’s alive! Quick!’

  I might as well have been talking to the wall, as far as Cin’s response time went, but Cate’s lids fluttered. Her chest rose and fell in little shallow breaths. I could see that now. I could also see the blood dripping from her wrists. ‘Help me get her hands up!’ I yelled at Cin over the roaring flames and spraying water.

  Cin responded, lifting the lacerated wrists, then pushed the elevator button. The light went on. We watched the dial go from the surface to club level, then continue down to VIP. The bell dinged and the doors opened. Rourke was there, his shirt torn and bloody, his face covered with soot.

  ‘Any more left?’ By the look of the handprints on the walls, this wasn’t the first time he’d returned to the VIP lounge to search for survivors.

  ‘Didn’t see anyone else.’ Water rushed in with us. It was rising fast and so were the flames.

  ‘Go.’ He hit the UP button for us. ‘I’ll do one more sweep.’ As the doors started to close, thunder split the air. The aquarium burst and a tidal wave surged toward us.

  ‘Back in!’ I cried out. ‘Cin! Stop the doors.’

  Cin had gone catatonic again. She buckled to her knees. I thrust out my wounded leg, stopping the doors with my boot, stifling the scream. Rourke squeezed in and the doors sealed shut. My eyes met his and locked on. It was the closest thing to a goodbye I’d ever felt. I could tell he didn’t like our chances of survival any more than I did. Slowly the cables engaged and the elevator shuddered.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d wished I believed in a higher power, if only to beseech their ass to save us. Save Cate. Her eyes were closed, breath shallow gasps. The water level was going down, leaking through the crack under the door. I imagined it trickling down the shaft, rushing to meet the seawater rising below. ‘We have to stop the bleeding.’

  Rourke pulled off his shirt, bit the edge with his eye tooth and tore a few strips. As we passed the club floor, he bandaged Cate’s wound.

  ‘Cin’s too!’

  He wrapped her wrist and lifted her up, leaning her against his chest.

  Our eyes caught again. It looked like we had a few more minutes to live, so I let him hav
e it. ‘You knew about VIP.’ My brow creased. ‘You fucking knew it was Bane, all along?’

  He didn’t answer.

  When the elevator dinged at street level, he put his hand on my shoulder. ‘It’s complicated.’

  I shrugged him off and stepped into the foyer. Heat slapped my face. Sirens blared. Firemen had high-pressure water shooting into the ruined building. The place was thick with mist and smoke. I turned toward the exit and tripped, my leg giving out.

  ‘Ava!’ Rossi ran to me, catching us before we hit the ground. ‘Are there any others?’ His eyes went to Rourke as he spoke. Rossi’s shirt was covered in blood and soot, his dark hair dripping.

  We both shook our heads. If there are, it’s too late.

  Rossi pulled off his jacket and draped it over Cate, then he gathered her into his arms.

  ‘Will she live?’ I tucked the jacket around her, not meeting his eyes.

  ‘Maybe, one way or another.’ He scanned me up and down. ‘Can you walk?’

  I was scared to think about what he meant by one way or another so I limped along beside him, not speaking a word.

  More than once, Miguel Rossi turned to me, something like astonishment in his eyes.

  Rourke was just as confused. ‘You do this, Sykes?’ He indicated the hole in the entrance as we made our way through it.

  I shrugged. ‘Was in a hurry.’

  Rossi frowned. How?

  A small smile twitched my lips. 1982 Cortina. Mint condition.

  He glanced toward the smoking chassis. Not any more.

  * * *

  Ambulances pulled up across the street. Cops poured out of special unit vans. More fire trucks arrived. I touched Rourke’s shoulder after an attendant took Cin from his arms. ‘I’ll make you a deal, detective. You keep me out of this, and I’ll do the same for you.’ I didn’t think I would ever forgive him for sitting by while people were tortured and drained of blood, but I wasn’t going to have him implicate me. ‘It’s win-win, Rourke. Otherwise, we both go down.’ People who steal cars, drive them into buildings and murder one of the most powerful men in the country aren’t generally hired by the CDC to serve and protect the global community.