King's Blood: Vampire Descent (A Serial Novel, Part 4)

KING’S BLOOD

A Serial Novel

Episode Four:

Vampire Descent

P.J. Day

Acclaim for P.J. Day:

P.J. Day breathes fresh air in a genre oversaturated with the same plotlines and characters. This page turner is something special.”

—
H.T. Night, author of Vampire Love Story and Winning Sarah’s Heart

“A fun departure from the usual vampire tale, with King’s Blood author P.J. Day has introduced a whole new kind of vampire.”

—
sookiestackhousebooks.com

“Hip. Relevant. Darkly funny. Day’s vampires offer a unique perspective on what it means to be human. A fantastic new series.”

—
J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and Dark Blood

BOOKS BY P.J. DAY

King’s Blood: Serial Novel

Episode One: Vampire Revealed available on
Kindle

Episode Two: Vampire Unleashed available on
Kindle

Episode Three: Vampire Lust available on
Kindle

Episode Four: Vampire Descent

Other Works

The Sunset Prophecy

Zombie Party & Other Stories w/ J.R. Rain

Daughters of Eve w/ J.R. Rain

Mercy's Magic (A Witch Series #1) w/ Elizabeth Basque

King’s Blood: Vampire Descent

Published by P.J. Day

Copyright © 2012 by P.J. Day

All rights reserved.

E-book Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the both the copyright owner and/or author.

Cover Design by Susanna at:

[email protected]

www.photogravity.de

Dedication

To my beautiful baby girl, I thank you for perspective.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to H.T. Night, J.R. Rain, Sharon F. Stewart, and Eve Paludan for all their help.

Author’s Note

      
King's Blood: Vampire Descent is the conclusion to the serial novel which has been split into four episodes. Descent follows Vampire Revealed, Vampire Unleashed, and Vampire Lust, and is best understood when read in succession. In Descent, Jack King has been captured and betrayed by his company, Schnell Link, a multinational pharmaceutical company. Schnell created a customized drug whose creation was influenced by Jack from information he gathered as a wayward vampire in a Central American jungle a hundred years ago. Jack has also been having strange, reoccurring dreams that oddly enough, have been spilling over into real life. Right before Jack was captured, he sent his friend Ted to meet a stranger, who had contacted him through an instant message service, claiming to know what he was.

King’s Blood: A Serial Novel

Episode Four: Vampire Descent

Chapter One

I woke up. Everything was foggy, nothing was clear, just shadows; nebulous shapes were the only patterns I could make out as the room slowly came into focus.

My wrists and ankles were tied down with hard, steel cuffs. I would feel my skin unglue itself slowly from the cold, metallic table every time I committed to a small movement or two.

“
Hello, is there anyone there?” I asked into the empty cold air.

I heard someone or something punching what sounded like a piece of meat in the echoing, far reaches of the room. I lifted my head so I could make out what was making the beefy, grotesque sounds.

“Rebecca? Alan? Is that you?” I asked, my faint voice bounced off the seemingly large, concrete walls in the room.

As my eyesight slowly focused, the first image that caught my eye was that of a broad-shouldered, thick man clubbing the shit out of somebody who was suspended, naked, from the ceiling. The poor soul, who was hanging from his hands, looked completely skinned from head to toe. His body was covered in blood, the skin porous and burnt, each exposed ligament in his neck vibrating with each punch, like stretched-out guitar strings that had been tuned to the highest pitch. I couldn’t tell if he was alive since there were no screams or groans or spastic movements as the savage beating continued inside a fully transparent, Plexiglass cube.

I felt pain as I watched the beating and realized that it was
my
pain. I focused my eyes on my throbbing forearm—a straight, seven-inch row of stitching ran down the back of it. It seemed that I had been dissected alive. I instinctively let out a loud moan as the realization hit me that something as barbaric and inhumane as vivisection had been done to me against my will.

My howls of agony caught the attention of the shirtless strong man as he ceased his weighted wallops and looked at me through the glass. Like a jaguar identifying its prey through the brush, his eyes made sharp eye contact with mine. He squared his body and exposed his muscular, tattooed physique. His chest was emblazoned with the image of a long-beaked black bird with outstretched wings. The middle of the bird’s throat looked squeezed, as if choked tightly with string.

“Can you please let me out of here?” I asked politely, mercifully, hoping to break the monotony of pain. He stood completely still, without expression, his knuckles slit and bloodied.

As my eyes cleared further from my delirium-induced haze, I slowly realized that the brutal savage was an enraged Havens Ling. His chest heaved in exhaustion, his circulation coursed with rapid fluidity as a rush of adrenaline pumped into his maddened, bloodshot eyes. His bulging muscles and veins, his inked body, and seemingly war-like state, confirmed my suspicions that this man was no scientist or engineer, but a mutilator of men.

“Mr. Ling,” I yelled. “This is a big misunderstanding. Please be kind and call Rebecca and Alan?”

Havens didn’t say a word and smiled as he smeared blood on the glass, blood that he had gathered on his hands from his series of torrential hay-makers. I didn’t know if he was mocking me or somehow reveling in his psychopathy.

Behind Havens, the pendent victim began to move his head slowly. He carefully cocked his head back and opened his mouth, revealing a set of beautifully sharpened canines. I could tell the vampire was male; his scrotum, luckily, hung untouched from his lower extremities.

Before I woke up into my grotesque reality, Milton had said something in my dream about a cormorant with its neck squeezed. I had no idea what a cormorant was, but I think it was what Havens had tattooed on his chest, and surely enough, the neck was tied, too. Milton was also right about there being another of my kind present within the facility, however, it was obvious that he was of no help and was in the same horrendously emasculated state I was in, but much worse off than I was.

Havens opened the clear door that led into the glass cube and began slowly walking toward the table I was laying on, all the while maintaining an intense and predatory look about him. I began hyperventilating, my heart started racing uncontrollably. I was jettisoned into a sudden state of panic. In an act of unrealized futility, I began tugging my wrists and ankles away from the cuffs. I felt the dull metal edges begin to dig into my skin, as I did everything I could to escape my imprisonment.

“
You’re going to let me go, right?” I asked in a panicked tone. “Cause if you’re not, I’m not going down without a fight.” My pathetic attempts at negotiating had no effect on Havens as he continued to approach me like an enraged gorilla.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the concrete wall reveal a door-sized opening. Two men and two women in lab coats walked into the room. Yi, Alan, Rebecca, and an unrecognized young Asian woman stopped a few feet away from Havens and me.

Yi snapped his fingers, which caught Havens’s attention as if were a trained chimp. “Havens, please step away. We like Jack,” Yi commanded, with a general’s posture.

Havens pursed his lips and gave Yi a frustrated look. His tense posture relaxed a little, as his massive shoulders drooped, and he stepped away from the group that were all looking at me like I was some type of science project.

“Jack, it’s good to see that your sedation has worn off, how are you feeling?” Yi asked.

“
What the fuck are you doing to me?” I yelled.

“
Are you going to remain hostile, or do you want me to let him continue?” Yi said, motioning at Havens.

I laid my head on the table and let out a deep sigh. I was trapped and there was nothing I could have done that could have alleviated my situation. I had no choice but to submit any sense of outward pride.

Yi sat on the leather office chair that was next to me. He gave me a slight grin and a look of superiority. His cologne was strong. I held back a sneeze. I noticed his forehead was full of perspiration. I sensed nervousness, but he was doing a good job of hiding it.

The rest of the group stood behind him without expressions. Alan had a tablet in his hand, Rebecca and the other girl had notepads in theirs. Yi leaned in to me and adjusted his tie. “Jack, I’m sorry we had to do this to you, but believe it or not, you are doing good work for mankind and science.”

I didn’t respond. I just looked straight up at the ceiling, refusing to give Yi the pleasure of eye contact.

“
Jack, I know you’re very upset.” He paused and rolled his chair closer to my face, giving me an intense stare. “However, by studying you and others like you, we can hopefully cure many of humanity’s ailments.”

I continued looking at the ceiling and said, “What? By torturing me? By making me suffer? There is no reason to have me tied down to this table.”

Yi backed away from me while in the chair. He crossed is his arms and wrinkled his brow. “We might untie you, but you need to comply with some interviews...do you think you can do that?”

I rolled my head in the direction of the group and scanned each set of their eyes, hoping to identify a flinch or a small movement that indicated deceit.

Yi continued, “The other one like you, which was captured a few hours after you arrived, is being a little uncooperative.”

“
Can you un-cuff me now?” I calmly asked.

“
After the interview,” Yi responded.
Again, I really had no choice in the matter. I paused and took a deep breath. I relented and gave Yi and the group a nod of resignation.

“
Rebecca will conduct the interview; be friendly and cooperative,” Yi said, as he got up from the chair. He proceeded to put his cold, wrinkled hand on my shoulder. “My advice to you is...just be nice,” he said, flashing me a condescending wink.

Yi, Havens, and the rest of the group exited the large room, leaving Rebecca behind. Her eyes drew down in a flash and had a look of unease as I gave her a cold stare from the table. They probably thought that leaving me alone with an attractive female they would get more information out of me. Truth was, I was in no mood to play games with anyone, no matter how pretty she was.

* * *

Rebecca sat down on the same chair Yi had used. She took a recorder out of the pocket of her lab coat and placed it on top of a small metallic table that was next to my head. She gave me an awkward smile as she pressed the large, red record button. She leaned closely into the recorder and spoke in a slow methodical way, “Friday, March 18
th
, 2012. Day One of interviews with Jack King, American Vampire...subject number three.” She tucked some of the loose strands of her long, curly brown hair on the side of her head behind her right ear, before settling into the chair.

I gave Rebecca a stinging look. “You and Alan aren’t genetic engineers, are you?” I asked.

Rebecca had a somber look on her face and her eyes got lost into the empty pages of her notepad. She took a deep breath and responded, “No, we’re not, okay? I’m sorry for deceiving you. If you want the truth, Alan is a primatologist and I’m a behaviorist, a leading one in my field.”