Bloodline by Joel Abernathy

16

I thought listening to Jonas’screams as he burned to death was as far as my fractured mind would go before it just... stopped. Before it was impossible to feel anything else.

It wasn’t.

One after another, they brought the other candidates in and each time went just like the first. One after the other, they all turned and lost their minds. My arms were a matrix of crescent wounds, but none ran deeper than the ones left behind on my soul each time Daniel or Bobby or one of the other officers staked one of my newly turned fledglings.

I kept waiting to grow numb. Waiting for the bond that formed and flashed into existence with the force of an explosion, only to die just as violently, to sever the frayed nerves of my spirit so it would feel no more.

It didn’t.

Daniel remained close, but he never looked me in the eye. Not anymore. It was just as well, because those eyes that had once reminded me of all my sweetest memories now sickened me.

The doctor had come to me the next time I needed blood with a bag attached to a tube and syringe. I didn’t remember what he had said, only that he was entreating me to allow an infusion in hushed, sympathetic tones. Once I realized what he wanted, I held my arm out wordlessly and allowed him to inject the blood into my veins.

It was a kindness, but an unnecessary one. I might have felt every ounce of agony they meted out to my children, but I no longer cared what they did to me. It didn’t matter.

“Something is wrong,” Rye said after what felt like an eternity. They were waiting for the most recent blood infusion to kick in while servants swept the newest pile of ash off the floor. I found myself mesmerized by the soft, grating sound of the broom against the smooth surface. So rhythmic. “It’s not working. This is the eighth one now.”

Eight. Was that how many there had been? It felt like more.

They had brought in a chair for me to sit on at some point. A wooden and metal throne, stained with blood. I didn’t remember falling into it, but it was just as well because I couldn’t have remembered how to stand if I tried.

“I’m well aware, Doctor,” Daniel said in a stiff, dangerous tone I once thought he reserved for me.

“Then you should be aware it’s time to stop,” Rye hissed. It was the first time I’d ever seen him look or sound like the vampire he was and not the civilized doctor I had come to know.

“That’s not your call,” Daniel said coldly.

The room grew dead silent. At least until they brought in another lamb for the slaughter.

The man seemed as calm and eager as the first had. As all the others had. I knew they weren’t telling them the truth. They weren’t giving them any warning of the certain madness and death that awaited them. They were just children, fresh faced and eager to do what they thought was right. They didn’t know.

How could they?

“I’m done,” Rye finally said, turning to his commanding officer. “If you want to court martial me, you know where my room is.”

With that, he stalked out of the room, and the newcomer’s excited demeanor shifted slightly.

“Sir,” Bobby said warily as she looked between them, clearly flustered by the break in the chain of command. “Are we going to proceed?”

Daniel didn’t answer immediately. He turned his gaze on me, hard and piercing.

I forced myself to hold his gaze, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of looking away. I could see him falter, ever so slightly. “Clear out,” he finally muttered. “We’re breaking for the day.”

“Yes, sir,” Bobby said, ushering the others out of the room. It seemed the human soldier was to be spared, for the moment.

To say I felt relief wasn’t quite right. Merely suspended dread.

Once we were alone, Daniel walked over to stand in front of me, dry ash clinging to the leather folds of his boots. “What is it?” he demanded tonelessly.

I looked up, frowning. “What is what?”

“Whatever you’re doing to fuck this up.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “You think I did this?”

“You never wanted to turn anyone, and eight vampires in a row turning out to be feral is on the verge of statistical impossibility, so yeah. I think there’s a really fucking good chance you did.”

I looked away, a bitter, incredulous laugh escaping me.

“You find this funny?” His tone darkened as he crouched in front of me. He grabbed my jaw in his hand and forced me to look at him.

“Your attempts at playing God?” I asked, holding his gaze. “No. I find them hubristic and wicked. The fact that God has made a pile of rubble out of your golden tower as punishment for your sins? That, I find absolutely hilarious.”

His eyes narrowed, and for a moment, I was sure he was going to strike me. He was, after all, like every other power hungry man whose captivity I had fallen into. It seemed to be my curse that I never recognized the bars of the cage until they had me sealed in. Instead, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back, his lips whispering against my throat as he leaned in.

“If I find out you are lying, I will destroy you.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Colonel,” I whispered back.

He finally released his hold on me and stood up just so he could look down at me. “Believe me when I say it won’t be a mercy.”

With that, he turned and left. Once I was sure I was actually alone, I collapsed against the back of the chair and let the tears of blood cascade down my cheeks. I wasn’t sure who they were for. Myself. My children. The man so divorced from his humanity he was willing to become a monster just to fight one.

Eventually, someone came to collect me, but I was not taken back to Daniel’s room. Instead, they put me in a small prison cell surrounded by four walls of glass.

It was a relief. I couldn’t stand the thought of my savior turned captor, let alone the sight of him. As I lay on the simple cot against the wall, knowing more death would come with dawn and I’d be forced to live through it all over again, I prayed to a God I was certain had long since forsaken me that I wouldn’t wake up at all.