Arise: Book one of the Inperium Series

by Addison West

  Arise

  Book One of the Inperium Series

  Written by Addison West

  Coming Soon by Addison West:

  Alter – Book Two in the Inperium Series

  Align – Book Three in the Inperium Series

  Atone – Book Four in the Inperium Series

  Copyright © 2019 by Addison West

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  ARISE

  We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

  - Joseph Campbell

  1

  Aurora

  1.30am 5th September 2020

  It was the early hours of Saturday morning when I died.

  I suppose I always thought that my death would have been more spectacular, but it wasn’t. I reckon we all think that our lives should have more meaning than they actually do, in the grand scheme of things.

  Friday evening had rolled around unexpectedly. After spending the week packing boxes for college, I was ready for my next step in life. School had finished weeks before and although my memories were mostly good, I was relieved that it was over. College seemed like the next step in my future. At least that is what everyone around me kept saying. Being accepted into one of the best chemistry courses in the country was an honour. My Dads were proud of me and everyone was thoroughly impressed. Science had always been a passion of mine.

  Frankie, my best friend, had insisted that we were to do my last night right. I had known her all my life, but it was not until recently that I had become such close friends to her. She was raised by her Mum and her millionaire Stepfather, so she got away with a lot. She was planning on taking a gap year before college to travel. It seemed like an expensive way to fill her Instagram account to me, but she was happy. Luckily her cousin worked the door at the only nightclub in our town, Sin. It was a shabby run-down venue that sat looking almost derelict on the main street, but on a Friday and Saturday night it came alive. Business always boomed at Sin, but a monopoly always did that to an establishment. The drinks were cheap, the floor was sticky, and the music was always that little bit too loud, a typical club.

  It was a place that I would normally have never visited but it was the only place to have any real fun after the sun went down in the town we lived in. I never really understood the allure of nightclubs. Perhaps I was either too young or too old headed.

  This particular Friday night was no different than any other at Sin, apart from the fact I was there rather than at home studying. My Dads had encouraged me to go out, they thought I spent too much time studying. We always joked about how I clearly had not inherited their party loving genes. It was always particularly funny because obviously with two Dads that looked nothing like me, I was adopted.

  After buying a few too many shots at the bar, we shuffled over to the dance floor. The sambuca still sticky on my hands. I felt a little uncomfortable in the stiletto heels and tight dress I had been forced to borrow from Frankie. I was constantly playing with the hemline. It was not that I was particularly insecure about my body or anything, it was more I worried about what others would think of me showing to much skin. Her dress sense was so different than mine, but she had insisted if I was to go out with her, I had to dress the part. I would have been happier in jeans and a t-shirt. Simple and versatile. She had handed me the dark purple dress and even though I had protested, I liked the way it looked on me. Frankie was a confident blonde. She seemed to personify the saying that ‘blondes have all the fun’. She was carefree and beautiful.

  We reached the centre of the dancefloor just as a new house track was starting up and the DJ was muffling something through his microphone. The floor below up lit up in various colours to the beat. Next to the DJ booth was a small platform stage featuring some of the local single women strutting their stuff for the males watching before. Frankie eyed it up, deciding whether she wanted us to join the peculiar mating ritual which I think David Attenborough would have been able to comment on. Frankie began to make a claim on the centre of the dance floor, moving her hips wildly to the music. She danced loudly and sexily in front of me and I watched as guys flocked towards her, trying to encourage me to join her. I danced awkwardly. She smiled as an older guy begun to grind on her and whisper, well shout, in her ear.

  “I’m going to get some water.” I shouted over the music to her. I was feeling a little left out.

  “No water!” She shouted back. “Only shots!” She laughed as I tried to push across the dancefloor. Hoping the bartender would oblige in me by putting tap water in shot glasses for me to drink to fool Frankie. I walked straight into a tall muscular man, lost in my own thoughts.

  “Sorry.” I mouthed trying to get past him. “Excuse me.” He didn’t move, he just kept looking at me intently. His blue eyes were piercing as the lights danced across them, illuminating his well-structured face. He leaned in, his hand on my cheek and kissed me. The world around me seemed to silence and suddenly we were the only people in the room. The kiss ended abruptly and as I opened my closed eyes he was gone. It was as if he had never even been there. Looking around for him seemed pointless. I knew he had only kissed me as some kind of bet. No man that good looking was going to be interested in me whilst I was out with Frankie. She was a classic beauty, I was a little bit weird looking. I knew if I looked for him, I would find him laughing with his mates at how I had kissed him without a second thought. Turning back to see Frankie and her judgemental smile, I was surprised as she too was gone.

  Frankie had a habit of disappearing on night’s out, it was one of the reasons I never went out with her. She would often be in the bathroom or just outside of Sin, ridding her body of the excess of alcohol she had drunk, I knew this from stories I often heard at school on Monday mornings when she had a ‘big weekend’. I looked in the bathroom and did not see her, so I decided to check the lane by the side of the club.

  Walking up the stairs and out of the club, I realised how tipsy I was and chastised myself for getting into that state, stumbling onto the street, my shoes burning my feet. There was still no sign of Frankie. Something was beginning to feel very wrong, my stomach churned, and I hoped it was just the alcohol and not something more sinister.

  “Hey Rory, are you okay?” Frankie’s cousin asked as I passed him, I guess my face reflected my inner anxious feelings.

  “I’m fine, have you seen Frankie?”

  “No, I haven’t but it’s been a busy night, she could’ve slipped past me. I would check the lane, if I was you.”

  Some oddly dressed men and women brushed past me. There were five of them in total. They were dressed head to toe in black. The women wore what seemed to be tight fitted black leather dresses. Which I thought seemed odd for the unusually warm September night. One of the women stopped and looked at me, blowing me a kiss. Her lips a dark scarlet. I could have sworn her eyes were the same colour red. Must be coloured contacts, I thought. Although it was not something you really saw outside of Halloween. Frankie’s doorman cousin never even stopped them despite them all looking quite young. I shook it off thinking that maybe he knew them. After all he had let us in, and we were both underage.

  I gingerly walked across the quiet cobbled road to see if I could see Frankie in the lane, growing increasingly angry that she had just left me. As I reached the pavement on the other side
, the club behind me exploded. The force of the explosion knocked me forward and to the ground. Everything went quiet, like all the sound had been sucked out into the sky. The world was blurry and hazy. Colours seemed to dance around me, and I felt as though I was in a big bag of water.

  My knees were sore from the impact with the ground and as I turned over, I could see they were heavily grazed. Blood prickling down my legs. My purple bodycon dress was torn and I had pretty much lost my shoes. Frankie was going to kill me for ruining her stuff.

  A hand was in front of me, snapping me out of my own little world. I followed it up to its owners and was surprised. The man I had kissed offered me his hand to help me up. I cannot be sure if he said anything straight away as I would not have heard it thanks to the explosion blasting my ear drums. Shaking my head in disbelief I took his arm and was lifted to my feet abruptly. Just beyond him the club was in flames, the building all but destroyed and I just knew Frankie was in there. Dread washed over me. Trying to run over to help, his arm grabbed me around my waist and held me in place. I tried to fight him off. He placed a small syringe to my neck.

  “I’m sorry about this.” He mumbled as the darkness took me.

  2

  Aurora

  2.30am 5th September 2020

  A smell of chemicals and the dull hum of a pop song filled my senses and my eyes fluttered open. I could feel I was in a moving vehicle. I looked down at myself strapped down onto an ambulance gurney, although the van around me did not look much like an ambulance. The walls were tarnished and there was no medical equipment. My hands were cabled tied together at my wrists, I could feel the plastic biting at my skin. It seemed like over kill considering I was already strapped down. Who did they think I was?

  Sat across from me were two men, one I recognised and the other one was someone new, he was very dark skinned and seemed to be about my age. He had a kind face and was dressed very stylishly.

  “Where am I?” I asked quietly. Testing my voice.

  “Safe.”

  “What happened? I need to go back. My friend is still there!” Panic was rising within me. Frankie was still in the burning club.

  “You can’t.” The blue-eyed man said definitively and looked away from me. His southern drawl was extremely evident.

  “Who the hell are you?” I shouted. He looked back at me, his eyes narrowing. He was incredibly good looking. I felt a little intimidated. “Take me back now!” I demanded, trying to be strong.

  “I said we can’t.” He gritted his teeth, I was making him mad.

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because you died in that club.”

  “I…I…what?” I was very confused. No one spoke for a moment. I looked up at the roof of the van wondering what he meant. I clearly was not dead.

  “You didn’t really die, obviously. We just had to make everyone think you died.” The other man spoke. “Colt, you need to go a little easier on her.” He hissed at angry blue eyes.

  “You killed all those people, just to fake my death?” I was shocked, thinking about how packed the nightclub was. This had to be an elaborate prank, I thought.

  “Oh no sweetheart, you aren’t that special.” The one named Colt laughed at me. After he finished chuckling, he said. “The fire-bombing was your government.”

  “What? Why?” I frowned. It made very little sense.

  “Containment.” He said just one word. It took me a moment, but I realised what had happened. The people that had knocked past me in the street must have been some of the infected. The red eyes should have been a dead giveaway to me but I was too worried about where Frankie was to really pay attention and think about it. “You mean this has something to do with that nasty infection, the brain altering one?” I asked. It was a new illness that scientists had discovered a couple of years before. It infected the diseased person’s blood and their brain and made them crave human blood. It was described to us in school like it was similar to pica, but it was a virus that caused it rather than a mental health issue or deficiency. I knew the government had been cracking down and trying to get rid of them because they were so dangerous, but I had not realised to what extent. All I could think about was all the people in that club. Had they even survived the infected before the explosion? We heard stories on the news all the time about single infected people being able to kill hundreds in minutes.

  “What are you talking about?” Colt looked at me like I had lost my mind. It was a bit cheeky really considering he had been the one to kiss me, give me a forced sedative and kid nap me. He really did not have a leg to stand on.

  “I think that is what they are telling the people. That the vampires are some infection or disease. The government doesn’t know what they really are.” The other man explained to him.

  “Did you just say vampires?” I was bewildered.

  “Tristan, I thought you said she should know about things?” Colt looked at the other guy and he shrugged.

  “She should. We have confirmed she is one.” He replied.

  “I am one what? Can you stop talking like I’m not here please?” I was getting agitated.

  “You don’t know?” Colt asked me.

  “Clearly not.” Tristan said and Colt looked at him. I was clearly a disappointment.

  “Hey little lady, have you even heard of the Inperium or heard the term Mult before?”

  “Are you kidding?” I snapped. “I have a name, I’m not some cowgirl at a rodeo you are hitting on, you jerk.”

  “Just answer the goddamn question!” He barked, getting fed up of dealing with me.

  “No.”

  “I suggest you get some rest.” Colt said coldly and I knew it was a warning about what was to come. He stood up and prepared another syringe carefully. I tried to move away from it, but I could barely move. He placed it to my neck and the darkness came for me again.

  ✽✽✽

  I had the same dream a thousand times before. It was always the same, always watching from the sidelines never able to help.

  “I have told you a thousand times, you need to be more careful.” The man scolded his young son as his wife cleaned up the small gash on the little boy's arm. He was the spitting image of his father even though he barely looked old enough to be going to school. His dark moppy hair flopped uncontrollably on his head and his smile although filled with gaps from the loss of his baby teeth was cheeky and infectious.

  “Henry, calm down, it’s just a little scratch, it’s not that bad.” The woman spoke softly. She was the more lenient parent to the two children. She glanced over at a small girl, barely a toddler who was fast asleep in a large floral armchair.

  “He was just curious, you cannot expect to him to have these abilities and not explore things. He is still learning.” She kept glancing at the little girl with the big curls glad the commotion had not woken her up. It made the mum's heart ache, that her son was already showing signs of having special abilities. She worried the Inperium would find out and want to recruit him early. She did not want her children to have the life she had.

  “I know, but still I do not like him trying to control things with his mind. That glass could have smashed in his face or hurt him really badly. He is too young to be messing around with it.” The man was angry but more so out of concern. The woman undid the bun in her hair, it was pulled back tight. She let the rich brunette locks tumble from the top of her head. Feeling herself relax, she shook of the man and his worries, walking over to the little girl, slipping herself next to her and gently placing a kiss on her forehead. This woke the little girl up and she stared at her mother wide eyed. She was a brunette like her mum, and she had also inherited her gentle features and bright eyes. Her mum held the girl whilst the man softened and lost his anger as he picked up the young boy and threw him above his head, then catching him and flying him around the room like an aeroplane. The little boy chuckled, and they all laughed and smiled. A perfect little family. Everything was well in their household.


  The front door across the room flew inwards and the dad braced suddenly pulling the little boy into him. Five men entered, their faces covered, they wore clothes made of leather with capes swooshing from their shoulders. The man crumbled to the floor. His eyes open and staring at me as the light left them.

  “It can’t be you.” The woman whispered through her rising tears. She grabbed up the little girl and ran, grabbing the boy from his dead father’s arms. She was struck down and the children fell sobbing as their parents were roughly hauled out the room. The children sat holding each other crying for their parents. All I could do was watch. I could not shout or try to reach out and help the poor helpless infants. In the distance a baby began to cry. The cries grew louder until they completely engulfed me.

  3

  Aurora

  9.30am 5th September 2020

  “We are pulling up now, Aurora, so just stay calm.” Colt said gently waking me as Tristan opened the door and hopped out of the van. He had clearly lost a lot of his anger from earlier.

  “Calm down? Are you kidding me? You pair of loons just kidnapped me off the street. Injected me with god only know what and you are now giving me orders. If you want me to calm down, then let me go home.” I ranted.

  “You know it isn’t that simple.”

  “I don’t know anything. Look I won’t tell anybody anything about this please just let me go home!”

  “It isn’t safe for you there.” Colt tried to reassure me.

  “Says the kidnapper.” I remarked and no one spoke for a few moments. He undid the clips on the straps that held me to the gurney, leaving my hands tied still, he pulled me up and onto my feet.