Empire of Blood (Book 2): Fading In Darkness (14 page)

“You may come forth, young one.”

Hank had never felt so much joy in all his life as he did at that moment. She was granting him passage. He would be in her
true
presence. Very few had ever been where he was now. Hank seemed to float forward unaware of his feet moving or any sensations below his soles. She spoke to him then inside his mind.
You know now that this place is real albeit disconnected from the physical world of which you came from. It is the birthing place of my children,
myself
, and all of those who walk in darkness.

“But why—” The Queen put a solitary finger to Hank’s lips and pressed it gently against them; gently but firmly. Her mouth stretched slightly into a rich lustful smile. She slowly slid her finger along Hank’s lips with deliberate sensuality, pulling his bottom lip down involuntarily and allowing saliva to moisten her finger and lubricate its passage as the sharp rigid tip of the curve-shaped claw at the end of her finger entered first into Hank’s mouth, followed by several more inches of the finger itself.

Hank willingly let the finger tenderly probe the inside of his mouth, the point of the claw only barely grazing the flesh inside his mouth and bringing forth a flood of pleasure he’d never known possible.

Inside these delicate vessels of flesh and bone are many answers to the questions that you seek. The answers we all seek. You simply must unlock them. And inside the closed partition of your flesh body
lies
the miracle responsible for it all. Now use this new voice to speak to me from within.

Instinctively, Hank reached out to her with his mind. He felt a connection bridge between them.

But why me?
What’s so special about me?

It is curious. Although completely human, there is a power in your blood.
A great power.
Its origin, though certainly ancient, is a mystery to me. I’m as blind to its secrets as I am to the Emperor’s.

How do you know this?

Have you forgotten so quickly, young one?

The memory of her fangs piercing into Hank’s neck flashed into his mind only from the Queen’s perspective. In that quick glimpse, he could taste the unique property of his blood she had described. The mysterious element came through as though it were a potent seasoning sparingly introduced. But its power was heavy with potential. The vision dissipated just as Hank’s life began to play itself out within the Queen’s memory. And there was something else in that short moment of alien memory.
A transfer of energy.

Ah, well, young one, I’m not the only one who received a taste of something powerful. When I transferred your blood to me some of mine was transferred in exchange. This is why you see things yet to come. We have blood bonded. And from here on, we will be linked. Whenever you wish to call upon me, I will hear you. And when I wish for you to hear me, it shall be. But for now, you have work to do, young one. Those who you travel with will need help. You will know what to do when the time is right. Sleep for now and when you awake, go and help.

Chapter 19

Southbound

Marcus
Amilius
stood across the street from what had once been the Stratosphere tower in Necropolis and
Las Vegas
before then. An explosion from some large source nearby had knocked the tower over and shattered its top into another burning building creating a visual effect akin to a monstrous still-burning torch laid across the city.

Kicking chunks of concrete debris out from under his shoe, Marcus studied the site, letting the scent of the air tell him more than it would ever tell any mortal man. He could smell the sweat of a man who had walked barefoot. He could still smell the man’s blood on bits of broken glass along the road.

He knelt down and picked up a piece of the glass and tasted the sticky dust-covered dried-up blood.
Human—yes.
He hadn’t been wrong.
But odd, nonetheless.
It wasn’t purely human somehow. It was different. Marcus decided he would keep this little bit of information to himself until he could be alone with his Queen. Then he would put the question to her wisdom to unfold. He turned then, walking away from the trampled tower. It was time to find out just where the rest of these cowards had gone.

* * *

Pushing the soil with ease, Jack dug his way out from the hole he’d buried himself into. His target had likely gained some ground on him thanks to the bloke in the leather, so he decided to head into the nearest town and look for some fresh game before continuing the real hunt. He retraced his steps back to the diner Toby and
Cayne
had eaten at. Mostly fat old truckers and middle-aged waitresses lined the place.
Nothing enticing to Jack’s very particular palette.
Between the new moon and the cloudy sky, darkness engulfed the rural countryside.

Jack had driven his little jalopy of a car to the place, but decided to run instead to try and work out some of the nervous energy he’d built up lying in that
hole
in the ground. He’d barely slept. The old wives tales about vampires falling into a deep sleep in the daylight hours weren’t as true as Jack would have liked. He often found that when he was uncomfortable it took some time to finally fall asleep, but he would never sleep in. He’d always wondered why his internal clock had been so consistent. It never had been when he was still human.
Human?
I’ve never truly been human, eh?
Jack laughed to himself as the lights of a nearby town peeked over the tall hill he was running up.

* * *

Toby awoke to find Dustin asleep sitting upright in a chair by the door, Jonathan's crossbow lying across his lap. Thin streams of bright sunlight snuck in from around the four corners of the square piece of plywood nailed over the only window in the room. Toby eased himself down from the top bunk landing on the bottoms of his shoes with a hollow tap. Dustin's eyes fluttered at the sound and he looked up at Toby with an expression like a man staring into a spotlight right in front of his face.

Toby smiled as Dustin moaned in an exaggerated deep growl. "Why you
gotta
go and wake me up for?"

"Sorry. I didn't think it would be that loud. We probably have to leave soon anyway."

"Yeah, probably.
Don't mean I
wanna
get up just yet, though." Dustin grinned mischievously and stretched as he got up from the chair. A knock at the door caught their attention and Jonathan
peeked
his head in at them.

"You guys
wanna
get cleaned up and get some breakfast before we head out? It's
gonna
be a long trip."

The shower rooms were crude, much like an older version of what Toby dealt with in the Imperial orphanage. But breakfast was far superior.
Big fluffy waffles, bacon, sausage, toast and eggs.
When they were done eating, Toby was afraid he wouldn't be able to get up from his seat.
After the grand welcome the day before, Toby was surprised to find that there was no send off of any kind as the three of them got in Jonathan's truck to leave.

Conversation was light for the first hour or so of the trip. Toby watched the sun get higher and higher in the clear blue eastern horizon above the trees and tops of houses, barns, and bare fields as they drove along the highway. Traffic was also light in those early hours just late enough to be after the morning commute and early enough to be well before lunch. A few tractor trailers and the occasional minivan seemed to be as busy as it would get.

After that first hour went by, Dustin and Jonathan seemed to take to each other well, having long conversations about guns, music, and movies. Toby mostly listened, but added his opinion here and there on the subjects of music and movies where he felt comfortable doing so. Otherwise, he stared out the side window and let the two men talk.

It was late in the afternoon before they stopped to get gas. Dustin and Toby went inside to use the bathroom as Jonathan manned the pump. As soon as they walked into the gas station, Toby was reminded of just how surrounded by the enemy they were. The sound of Imperial praise music filled the intercom speakers. Years ago, the lyrics had barely meant anything at all to Toby. But ever since he'd been old enough to make sense of them and then after his father had been taken from him and Toby was put in that orphanage, the lyrics of those songs haunted him often.

This particular song was a new one he'd heard a lot in the past few weeks. The lyrics were typical really:

Lord I praise your name up to the sky,

If you asked me to, I would lay down my life and die,

For you, Lord Caesar,

All for you

Having believed his father dead in Necropolis at one point, the song struck a dissonant emotional chord in Toby. It gave him a fearful kind of chill yet lately, he'd often found the song stuck in his head. It was almost an anthem to him, an anthem built on irony and anger. As Dustin led the way down a narrow hallway past the register, Toby wondered what it was like for his father to meet face to face with such a purely evil and psychotic man as the Emperor. He wasn't sure why he'd never thought of it before, but the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth and a sharp pang of guilt for all the time he had been so difficult toward his father for what he thought was going on.

When they were done in the bathroom, Dustin looked around for a snack for a few minutes while Toby just stared out the window, wondering how much longer it would be before he could see his dad and hug him. Apologize—thank him. Talk with him for hours. He wanted so badly to just be in the man's presence. He felt safe with Dustin and Jonathan, but without his father there was a nagging fear building up inside. He wasn't used to worrying about adults, even though he'd had his share of doing so in the past year.

Dustin decided on a single serving bag of chips and a hot dog and the two made their way to check out. The man behind the counter was dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans and wore a long necklace made up of leather string and multi-colored beads of various shapes and sizes. He was staring at a television just out of view from Toby. Dustin stood waiting for a few minutes as the man, appearing to be mesmerized by what he was watching, seemed to ignore him. Dustin gave a loud prompting fake cough and the man reached forward and grabbed the items Dustin had laid out on the counter without looking at them and began to scan them.

"You believe this shit on TV, man?
It's
crazy enough the Emperor had vampires holed up somewhere, now he's got them stationed all over the place. They're not
sayin
' it on the news, but what the hell happened to this big attack against Necropolis? If you ask me, something went really wrong and we're all screwed."

Toby and Dustin shared glances at each other while the man talked.

A man standing by the donut stand nodded. “The cops also got the state lines blocked up. They ransacked my whole truck and patted me down and everything. I think you might be
onta
somethin
’ there
fella
’.” He wore a greasy old blue baseball cap with a matching windbreaker, and blue jeans. A small tuft of gray hair stuck out from the loop in the back of his hat when he turned to rummage through the donuts some more. The man behind the counter just sighed in reply and then finally looked up at Dustin.

“That’ll be seven dollars and eighty-six cents.”

Dustin paid the man and
he
and Toby left for the car. Once inside they told Jonathan what they had heard.

Jonathan started up the truck staring forward in deep concentration. “I’m not surprised. And I’ll just about bet you they’ll have
them
goddamn vampires there at night. But they can’t cover the entire boundary line of every state. 
A
lotta
roads
cross from state to state and some of them aren’t so well known. Dustin, you
wanna
take over driving soon?”

“Sure,
you
gettin
’
tired?”

“Yes and no, but more importantly, I
wanna
look over some maps and get us a few alternative routes ready ahead of time.”

* * *

Hank's eyes blasted open. Above him he could see a faintly lit gray-metal ceiling that was otherwise void of detail. After well more than a day without it, the thirst for ancestor blood was taking its toll on his body. He wasn't sure if what he had just experienced was real or a dream. There was no smell of smoke and no longer a sensation of burning. After being with the Queen he had dreamed of a checkpoint along the highway in broad daylight. Two police officers checked the truck and when they found there were vampires inside, they shot the driver in the head, set the trailer on fire and locked Hank and the others inside to die.

All around him were bodies lying in bundles that might have been made of stone had he not known any
better.
The dim blue light seeping into the cracks of the back doors of the trailer told Hank that it was not yet too late. The truck bumped along for now, but it would soon come into dangerous territory.

Hank struggled to his feet and limped over to the cab-end of the trailer and began beating on the featureless gray wall hoping someone behind it would hear him. After a few minutes of hammering on the trailer, the truck began to slow and Hank could feel
it's
movement veer. Then the truck shook in large intervals as it pulled off the road.

After what seemed like an eternity had passed, one of the back doors of the trailer slowly squeaked open and a fearful young stubbly face under a blue baseball cap peeked inside. It took Hank a moment to remember the man likely couldn't see in the dark quite as well as he could. Hank broke the silence that was coming to a head as blue cap’s eyes bobbed up and down and side to side.

"The road will be blocked at the state line of
New
Mexico
,
I can help us get past it."

Hank’s voice seemed to startle and confuse the man, so Hank walked up to where he could be seen.

“Oh, phew.
I didn’t see you at first, pal.
You trying
to give me a heart attack?”

Hank smiled.
“Not at all.
Just wasn’t sure how best to get your attention.”

“What’s this about a road block?”

“Are you alone up there?”

“Yeah, why—“