by Seth Eden
And she didn't think he had. Because he would have come back to gloat. That she truly believed. Just as she believed if she hadn't been the one he gloated to but Alek had, that Alek would have been decent enough to tell her.
She had to believe that because believing that meant believing Candy was still alive.
If the Vampires were the ones who knew where she was, then they were the ones Mindy needed to be around. Because she might find out something.
Something about Candy.
Something about what was happening with all the soldiers massing.
Something about the Vampyren and any weaknesses at all that might allow the humans an advantage.
When she had considered every possible plus and minus of her plan, such as it was, she went and asked Shauna who to go to if she wanted to ask to serve the Vampyren.
When Shauna stopped laughing, and then stopped trying to talk her out of it, she told her.
10
Word came down midday. There was a runner lose in the city, a human who had escaped Vampyren control.
Most of the time that would be fine. Humans had limited opportunities available to them since their new lords and masters had come. Most of them kept their heads down in the city areas and went to work when that work still existed. Their economy was taking a beating and inflation was more rampant than it had been in several generations. There were no shortages of food, but being able to afford it was becoming a problem for a lot of people. Then too, getting to the job took ingenuity and sincere application of will. Public transportation was down, deliveries of fuel or charging stations for private vehicles were breaking down, wrecks on interstates were often left rather than being cleaned up, and jobs were closing before workers got there.
It was enough to keep the average human busy worrying and out of the way and those who might have been a problem, the politicians and so-called leaders, they were given things to worry on like their infants were given pacifiers to cut teeth on. Most of them probably realized even if they didn't admit it to themselves that the level of power they had was minor, but they were happy enough denying what was happening all around them to take it.
Only there were some things that couldn't be ignored. Like the plans for planet wide games that would involve a lot of the humans who could no longer procreate and who didn't contribute much, those whose blood was tainted with drugs the Vampyren didn't want to ingest secondhand, those who hurt others the Vampyren were the only ones with the authority to hurt. From prisons. From nursing homes. From senior neighborhoods. Those people were going to be turned into arenas planet wide for the enjoyment of those Vampyren ready to pledge themselves to the hunting down of the Lucian if and when – or now that, no one was sure – they came. It would be one gigantic party for those brave enough to battle the Lucian and if their planning ended up with only a few arenas and only a handful of parties, so what? The Vampyren in the other locations could make their own fun.
The planning was enjoyable because the Vampyren, having overtaken the planet and not yet ferreted out their enemies, were growing restive and bored. It was nowhere near time to leave the planet yet. The humans didn't know it – most of the Vampyren who weren't leaders or military didn't know it – but their forces on Earth weren't as strong or numerous as they should be.
Killing off a certain number of humans who refused to be conscripted into military when needed? That would add to the fun. Already there were games across cities, nights that the invaders went out together wearing their finest, toting slaves and blood donors with them if they had them, buying them at concession stands if they didn't.
It was a society and one that needed some shaking up. it wouldn't do to get comfortable.
There was a runner loose in the city. He'd hidden in one of the Command Towers in the Las Vegas City Hall where leaders of the invasion force had met. Where generals and other high ranking officers had met. He had hidden where he was privy to secrets he shouldn't know and he had been discovered by accident, so surprising the human cleaning woman that she had jumped back and failed to raise the alarm immediately.
At least that was the explanation she gave in the moments before she was drained and killed.
Alek's team had been on hand. He'd been working with his unit, going over strategies for going out into the wastes of desert between parts of Nevada and parts of California that were metro. They were heading into the wastes, which they loved, and the forests, which they didn't, searching out the Lucian because enough of the high command believed they were already on Earth.
And they were going to root out the rebellion that was brewing in those areas, the small towns like one actually named Independence, where rebellion was fomenting and humans were gathering outside the metro areas. They were harder to track that way and from all reports, many of them that lived out there had done so even before their planet was invaded because they couldn't be tracked there.
They were crazy and well supplied and they had weapons and attitudes, they weren't coming in when ordered and they were willing to fight.
Silencing them would be a side errand. Alek felt certain of that.
But news of the runner. Every one of his men sparked to life, blood lust rose, eyes bright, breathing changing to filled their lungs with the heavy oxygen of the planet. They could run for hours and they could search in the artificial lights of the city.
A runner was good sport.
"Your team thinks it has a chance?" Braydon, across the table from him, slapping his chest and declaring his 12 Vampyren unit the best by far.
His boast was met instantly by Stanton, taller even than Pan and more violent by half but general hooting filled the air and it was Pan himself who said, "No Vampyren huge as you could possibly sneak upon a frightened human!"
Which lead to more calling and jibes and the two Vampyren going up back to back with someone measuring them off and proclaiming, yes! Yes! Stanton was the tallest and therefore the less likely to –
And Alek, interrupting in the general noise, "Just like to point out that I am shorter than my esteemed brother – " and really they hadn't gotten along since the day he'd discovered Mindy in the bedroom at that condo but for once they were back to back, measured against each other and of course Pan was taller, Pan had always been taller.
"Weaponed hunt?" That from Jory, a slight youth, still putting on his battle muscles, and he was shouted down with no ill intent, just, wait till you're older young one and realize how stupid that sounds, as if any of us need, weapons would be wasted, run him down–
"Run him down! Run him down! Run him down!"
The chant still reverbs in his ears, Alek ran from the conference room, joined the other sin bounding down the stairs locked to everyone else in the building, stripped off all but the shorts he wore under the uniform to convince the humans until it was too late that of course the Vampyren were just like them and of course it was safe to come closer, come closer –
Come closer!
The hunt was on. He sprang into the street, sniffing, letting his vampire senses seek out the blood. The man could be anywhere. That was the challenge. For him and his unit to be the ones to corner him.
To stop him.
To punish him.
To make him pay.
He scented. He ran. He laughed, mostly naked as the sun went down over Las Vegas and the change settled over the invaders, the one that came with full dark.
The one that turned them from savage masters.
To unstoppable unbridled killing machines.
Night closed over the city. Even with the artificial lights, kept on in areas where Vampyren wanted them, the strange hormonal and mental shifts happened.
He felt it as he loped through the city streets, chasing the blood signature. There were two units on the man, who had hooked up with others. They were running as a scared knot, the signature of their fear easier to track when they were moving in what they thought was "Safety in numbers."
The two units of seventee
n men total would have them locked down in no time.
They cornered the runners in an abandoned business that had sold souvenirs and t-shirts on The Strip. Some thirty humans, their signature of heartbeats called out to the hunters.
"Lock the doors," Jayren said. The other leader, he glanced at Alek. This wasn't a challenge. Just what he thought was the best way to keep the humans from running any farther.
The joint unit moved out, around the building, two men stopping at each door until they were all locked down from the outside and then the scouts came back so they entered, seventeen strong, from the one door they locked behind them.
At first glance the warehouse and its office looked damp and clean and empty. Cleared out by the people who had owned the business, maybe before the invasion.
Didn't matter.
Vampires could hear the blood rushing in a human's veins if the human was panicked enough and those in the group were. His eyes met Jayren's and at the same time, they both signaled up.
The humans were hiding in the loft space above the warehouse floor.
There were only two staircases leading up, metal and at opposite sides of the warehouse. The two leaders signaled their teams. The lowest ranking vamps stayed on the ground, waiting by the doors the humans might run for.
If they got the chance.
They shouldn't. They'd hear their death coming for them on the metal stairs leading to the lofts but by then it would be too late. Alek and Jayren would go up at the same time.
Their men would follow.
There were almost two humans for every one of them.
This would slake his thirst.
The screaming started when he and his unit ascended to the top floor of the warehouse.
It continued as they cornered the humans in a tiny office meant for overseeing the other humans who would have worked in the business.
It culminated in catching them before they could hit the stairs, throwing down a few who were less interesting, to be caught and killed by the lower ranks guarding the doors.
Alek himself took on a bodybuilder, a man only about a foot shorter than he was, tall and thick but blond and sandy golden where Alek was dusky dark with stark blue black hair.
His chosen prize tried to run and Alek, hungry now and angry at the lack of honor – the man was clearly running from a woman who was his to protect – caught him by the hair and threw him down.
It would have been easy to snap his neck.
It would have been simple to drain him in a few quick minutes.
But the nighttime bloodlust was on him. He bit into the man, into his throat, a nonlethal bite, only to hear him scream.
He bit through the man's shoulder. He dislocated his jaw. He tore his limbs off and reveled in the spray of blood for only a second before he staunched it with his mouth and finally allowed himself to feed.
He drank, and drank, and drank.
11
She became accustomed to waking unpredictably for reasons other than having had enough sleep. Ever since the night Candy had been taken, Mindy slept waiting for Pan to come for her. The fact that she had raised no alarm, questioned no one but the other women in the harem, that might have something to do with his continued non-appearance. If he'd meant to upset her, he had. But she didn't let it show.
There were cries in the night, often. Sometimes it was a harem girl being assaulted by a Vampyren. Other times it was a girl giving as good as she got. There were fights between the women – it only made sense when there were so many of them jammed into a few floors of hotel with no respite from each other.
There were nightmares and night terrors. It was a whole new world and it was not a friendly one.
But less than one week after she'd stated working as a server, bringing food and wine and blood to the generals and colonels, or the Vampyren equivalent, her new tattoo still stinging and scabbing but marking her as a servant who could, for then, be trusted, she woke because someone was in her suite.
Her first blurry, sleep sodden thought was that Candy had been returned. Shoving back the sheets she threw herself over the edge of the bed, not giving thought to the tiny nightgown she wore. Sleeping in t-shirts or shorts or sweats wasn't allowed. They were harem. They were to be beautiful. If they woke to a Vampyren in their room, they were to be grateful that he wasn't there to kill them. It was drummed into their heads as they ran laps or sat for manicures and pedicures that were, after all, on the menu, to such extent they were less luxury and more annoyance.
The be grateful mantra didn't take. They were angry and seeking a way out. The Might as well stay for now had gone the instant Candy had. The job she'd taken was with a mind of finding something to do with the information. Somehow.
Now she ran into the main room of the suite and stopped short.
It had been nearly a month since she'd seen Alek and now she barely recognized him. He crouched on the floor beside the sofa, looking half dead and mortally wounded, looking lost and as close to frightened as she'd seen a Vampyren look.
She didn't give it thought. She ran to him and threw herself down on the floor beside him, recoiling when she realized he was soaking wet, shining, glistening, dripping with blood.
"What happened?" There was raw horror in her voice and even being human and him a vampire she couldn't restrain the emotion.
It was for him. It was fear for him, not of him.
He startled as if he hadn't known she was there. His head had been down in the circle of his arms where they went round his knees. The blood stained the carpet and where his back had brushed up against the sofa.
"It's not my blood," he said.
But by then she'd already figured that out.
"You're not hurt." She said it as a statement but there was still question there. There was still fear there she didn't want to admit to.
He laughed. "No. But I believe the human phrase is, You should see the other guy."
She filed that away, wondering if they were watching movies. Netflix and cheer for the aliens from outer space. It was weird enough.
"Do you want to – " Her voice trialed off because she honestly didn't know what he wanted. Vampyren were strange at night, their violent, bestial side released. Had he come here to hurt her?
Or was he looking for help?
Or was being covered in what, for him, was food, even something that he'd want help for?
When he didn't look up again, she asked, "What can I do for you?" her heart pounding out of step with what that question should have meant. And then, "Do you want to get cleaned up?"
He gave a short, hard laugh, reminding her again how infrequently any of the invaders did anything remotely like laughing. "I shouldn't. I've had my fill to drink and yet I should look at washing this off as a waste."
Her eyes widened as he looked up, his words sinking into her, and her hand went hard over her mouth as she fought back nausea.
To her surprise, he said, "I shouldn't have said that. I forget that what's food to us isn't the same as if you were to be covered in – " he paused, then gave her the smallest of smiles. "Pizza."
That made her laugh for real. "For one thing, there'd be cheese and dough and sauce, not just – " Pause and decide on a word that wouldn't make her want to retch. "Liquid."
"Yes." But he wasn't looking at her. He rose, suddenly, without changing position, just used his leg muscles to push himself up from a cross-legged position to standing. `"There was a hunt."
She didn't want to hear any more. At the same time, she couldn't ask him to leave and she didn't want to go away from him. Stupid or not, she felt safer with him there. When she fumbled for something to say, a question to ask, he glanced at her and away. He paced, his bare feet leaving bloody prints on the carpet.
"There were humans trying to run."
"To where?" she blurted out. "Your people have the whole fucking planet!"
He looked at her like he might argue that, which made her heart pound, which he could probably hear.
Well, so what? She was human. Of course she'd be interested in how much of her planet was in the hands of the Vampyren.
"There are always places to run to. Places where a little mouse can hide." He scowled and paced to the window. "We chased them down. Two units of men. There was plenty for everyone because they'd decided there was safety in numbers."
He was standing with his back to her, looking out the windows at the city beyond, and Mindy understood he could see her reflected in the window just like she could see a blurry fainter image of him and knew he was watching her.
She managed not to react, to only looked down at the stained carpet that would have to be cleaned. But in her mind she thought, there’s no safety in numbers, it's safer if you run to run alone, or at most, two of you, if only I can find Candy, but why is he telling me this? In one long, scared, confusing wail.
She had no intention of running.
She'd had no intention of running.
Until he'd said that.
When he didn't go on, she said quietly, "Tell me what happened." as if she had the right to request anything of him.
His shoulders shrugged. "We caught them. We killed them. There is discipline to be maintained. There are rules that have to be followed. And those who are prisoners are not free to change their minds about how they want to live." He was watching her directly now, his back to the window.
"Or if," Mindy said, knowing what she was saying and not caring. The constant struggle to stay alive while living in a cage of predators was exhausting. Sometimes she slipped.
"Yes."
She almost asked him then, why did you come here? But there was something bleak about him, not the usual cold of the Vampyren but something hurt. She didn't want to ask him. No matter whether it was her place to question him or not, she didn't want to sound like she wanted him to go.
She did. Of course.
