Bloodline by Joel Abernathy

18

The night airstung my face and filled my aching lungs as I followed the vampire out of the building that had been my prison for the last several weeks. I looked back, feeling the strangest need to convince myself it was still there.

“This way,” the vampire said, ushering me into a black vehicle waiting at the curb. He opened the door and offered a hand to help me in before coming around to the other side.

I had never actually ridden in one of these vehicles, unless one could count being locked in the trunk like cargo, but even as the man next to me barreled down the desolate road, the ride was smoother than any carriage I had ever ridden in.

I gripped the handle by the door, my nails digging into the upholstery before I caught myself. When I finally looked over, I studied my rescuer a bit more carefully. He had a young, handsome face and looked no more than twenty-five years old at the most. About the age Jonas had been when he died.

“Who are you?” I finally asked.

He glanced over at me briefly, before looking back at the mirror in front of him. “My name is Major General Alden Cross, your majesty. I’m a servant of Lord Enoch.”

Enoch.

My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. It was an oddly human sign of dread I hadn’t felt in ages, and one I was surprised to find myself still capable of.

I should have known. I might have, if I’d had so much as a second since escaping to think properly. Out of one tyrant’s hands and into another’s.

“And how did Enoch learn of my location?”

“We have a source inside VOICE,” Alden answered, keeping his eyes on the road, save for checking the mirrors every so often. “Once Lord Enoch learned you were alive, he organized a rescue effort.”

A rescue.It was almost enough to make me laugh out loud, but I resisted. Somehow, I doubted my savior’s proxy would find it half as amusing.

I soon picked up the habit of checking the mirrors as well, not even certain what I was waiting for, only that Daniel would not let me go so easily.

“The city is walled in. How are we to escape?”

“It’s all been prepared for weeks, Sire,” he said in an oddly reassuring tone for a vampire. Given my time with Daniel, I had begun to think it was a skill none of them possessed. “There’s no need for concern.”

I nodded and tried to relax, though I was anything but reassured. When I heard the rumble of more vehicles tearing down the freeway, my dread was vindicated. Another second and three dark vehicles came into view in the mirror. Alden sped up, turning sharply to dodge the golden spray of gunfire unleashed from the nearest car.

“Get down,” he ordered, pushing my head down with his right hand while gripping the wheel with his left.

Gunfire whizzed past the vehicle and the sound of pellets bouncing off metal suggested a few had hit their mark. One struck my window, but the glass merely splintered rather than shattering as I had expected.

I kept my head covered as Alden rolled down his window only to fire a round of deafening shots back at the other vehicle. I cried out in alarm at the sound, followed immediately by the squeal of tires against the pavement. I didn’t dare look up to see the crash. I knew at least one of the cars had to still be following us, since Alden kept firing while somehow keeping us firmly on the road.

Whatever Enoch was paying him, I was certain it was not enough.

I finally ventured a glance up ahead only to see the road block stretched across what had to be the only path leading out of the city. My throat tightened. There were two guard shacks on either side of the great blockade, high walls that looked to be made of steel, and two mechanical turrets atop the sides.

Surely Alden saw it. Save for the furtive glances he was casting in the mirror, his eyes were fixed ahead, and yet, he showed no sign of slowing down as we headed straight for the barrier.

I watched in horror, crying, “Look out!”

Before he could respond, a great explosion turned the barricade into a firework show, pieces of metal and debris raining down around us. A large hunk of metal cracked the windshield, and I ducked down again as the vehicle sailed past the barricade. The moment we’d passed it, three more explosions went off in close succession, leaving nothing visible but a massive cloud of dust behind us.

My heart’s ambling pace had shifted into a steady clip, and I sank against the door to catch my breath. “How on earth...?”

Alden looked over at me with a grin of amusement on his face and the glimmer of adrenaline in his eyes. “I told you we were prepared.”

“I should say so,” I murmured. It didn’t take long before the lights of the cityscape disappeared, leaving nothing but the abandoned edges of the city behind us. Old buildings and decaying roadways Alden left in favor of a more reliable dirt road that seemed to be in regular use.

My mind was still racing, consumed with thoughts of Enoch. For once, the man I was heading toward was not the one I feared most. Not at the moment.

With Daniel behind me and Enoch before me, I knew not which way to run if I ever got the chance. All I knew was that Alden was, presently, my only hope of thoroughly escaping the former. Once that was accomplished, I could reassess.

“What does Enoch want with me?” I finally asked once I had calmed down enough to speak.

His confused look told me the question was a strange one, though it seemed simple enough to me. “You’re his sire,” he said in a low tone, as if choosing his words carefully. “There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to find you.”

His words made me shiver, even though I had a feeling they were meant to be comforting. Whatever benevolence he thought my wicked “child” possessed, he was terribly sheltered from Enoch’s true nature if he thought the man was interested in protecting me.

Whatever use Enoch had finally found for me, it would be as bad as Daniel’s plans, if not far worse.

* * *

We drovefor at least an hour, or perhaps it only felt that long. Not nearly long enough to be free of any chance of our pursuers catching up with us, yet Alden came to a stop in a lot full of abandoned vehicles. The lot was attached to a low building with windows on all sides, too darkly tinted to see through.

Alden drove down aisle after aisle of vehicles before choosing an empty parking spot. He got out and came around for my door just as I was weighing the odds of escaping if I ran. I thought of locking the doors and trying to drive away myself, but I had no idea how the damn thing worked, even if I was reasonably sure I could get it back up and running after watching him.

The door opened too soon to decide, and Alden held out his hand expectantly. I took it, surprised to find it wasn’t as cold as the others’.

No, it wouldn’t be, would it? Of course not. He was Enoch’s child, likely one of the first generation, if Enoch trusted him with such a task—and whether the poor boy knew it or not, he was smuggling a weapon. There was no other reason Enoch would want me unless he’d finally found a use for his unwilling sire.

“This way,” Alden said, releasing my hand once I was on the ground. Our boots kicked up the dust and crunched the gravel as we ran toward the building.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“It’s an old car dealership. Beneath it is a transit line,” he explained, stopping before a big green trash bin with wheels attached to the bottom. He pushed it aside easily, revealing the hatch buried in the gravel underneath. He opened it to reveal more darkness within. “It’s a good place to leave our cars before cleanup can retrieve them.”

I looked around at the sea of vehicles, realizing they were meant to camouflage ours. “I would imagine so.”

Alden disappeared into the hatch, apparently using some sort of ladder, and offered a hand once he was halfway down. I reluctantly took it and let him guide my footing onto the narrow rungs of the ladder waiting in the darkness. We climbed down slowly until Alden’s hands settled around my waist and he easily lifted me down onto the floor. A second later, lights illuminated a long, stone tunnel that seemed to stretch on as far as the eye could see.

Alden went back up the ladder to pull the hatch shut, then motioned for me to follow him down the tunnel.

“Who built this?” I asked, studying our surroundings in fascination. Soon, the tunnel opened up into a broader room with concrete benches and posts lining yet another tunnel that went on indefinitely in both directions. There were train tracks on the ground, not far from the platform.

“We have underground rail systems in most regions occupied by VOICE,” Alden explained, looking down the tunnel as if he expected something to be coming at any moment. “It’s a more efficient means of transporting weapons, and troops.”

“So it is,” I murmured. “Hasn’t VOICE discovered them?”

“There are wards,” he explained, smiling in response to my confusion. “We’ve picked up a few tricks from the Harts over the years.”

The name always made my heart ache in rage and nostalgia alike. Alden paced the platform, glancing once or twice at his watch. It was a relief to see that some people still wore them.

“What are you waiting on?”

“A train is set to pick us up here,” he explained. “The line only runs to Las Vegas, but we’ll be able to pick up a flight from there.”

“A flight?”

Alden gave me an apologetic look. “An airplane.”

My eyes widened, and I felt the need to lean against the nearest pillar. I’d read enough about the damn things in Daniel’s books to know I never wanted to go on one. “Is that safe?”

That earned a surprisingly human chuckle from him. “Very.”

A rumbling sound that sent vibrations through the surrounding stone grew louder, and I felt as if my blood was quaking with it. Blinding lights greeted us from the other end of the tunnel and a train like none I’d ever seen came churning to a halt. It sounded enough like the trains I had ridden, but it was smooth with no visible smoke stack. The wheels, too, were oddly sleek.

A moment after it stopped, the doors opened, and a plate was lowered onto the platform, connecting it with the interior of the train. There was another man inside, dressed nearly identically to Alden, save for his lack of a helmet.

He seemed to be expecting us and bowed low to me, though thankfully, he didn’t kneel the way Alden had. Alden took my hand and led me onto the train. Time was still of the essence, it seemed.

The interior of the train was more familiar than I had expected. There were benches all along both walls of the train, and doors at either end leading into the next car. Aside from the weapons and soldiers lining those benches, it looked much like the last passenger train I had taken.

The dozen or so men and women clad in black leather garb with guns of varying sizes strapped to their backs and sides stood in unison. I jolted at the sudden movement, but Alden put a hand on my shoulder to lead me toward the end of the car and one after another, the soldiers bowed low as we walked past.

It all felt so surreal. Of all the things that had happened to me over the centuries, this was by far the strangest. The car doors slid open and Alden led me past the trembling bridge into a car that was far more luxurious than the last. There were no benches, only six sets of padded booths facing one another.

Alden closed the doors behind us. “Make yourself comfortable, Your Majesty. It will be several hours yet before we reach our first stop, and much longer until we reach our destination.”

Your Majesty. If there had been a trace of guile in the lad, I would have thought he was being sarcastic.

What the devil was Enoch playing at?

“And where might our destination be?” I asked, following the young soldier over to the booth that had been prepared with cushions. It was a strange consideration coming from a man who had been all too content to let me burn not so terribly long ago.

Alden seemed troubled by the question, and it wasn’t hard to imagine why. “Forgive me, my lord, but I’ve been instructed not to discuss the details until we arrive.”

“It’s alright, I understand.” I sighed, taking a seat. I knew firsthand just how terrifying it was to be on Enoch’s bad side, and perhaps it was merely Stockholm syndrome, but I didn’t wish to inflict such a fate on the vampire who had been nothing but kind to me. Even if he was working for the enemy.

I realized Alden didn’t plan on sitting down when he was still standing by the other cabin door a few minutes later, holding onto the handle above him.

“Why don’t you join me?”

He didn’t respond right away. I could tell the request surprised him, but he didn’t seem as nervous this time. He nodded and came over to take the seat across from me.

“How long have you worked for Enoch?” I hoped that was an innocuous enough question and tried to sound more curious than suspicious.

“Since nineteen fifty-four,” he answered proudly, as if it was a great honor. I’d never imagined my spiritual son would inspire that kind of affection in anyone, though he had always been charismatic. More than enough to whip a mob into a violent frenzy. Different times called for different tactics, it seemed.

“He must trust you.”

“I like to think so.” Alden studied me closely and seemed to want to say something else.

“What is it?”

He grew hesitant. “It’s just that your portrait hardly does you justice.”

I stared at him for a few seconds, convinced I had misunderstood. “I’m sorry. My portrait?”

“Lord Enoch keeps it in the palace, on the wall of his throne room,” he explained.

“Palace,” I murmured, afraid to linger on the other thought for any length of time. “My, how far he’s come.”

“He’s a great leader,” Alden said with all the sincerity of one who was either a true believer or entirely brainwashed. Perhaps a bit of both, in his case. “One day, he will be recognized as our true ruler by more than just IVY.”

I hesitated. “IVY? Who is that?”

Alden chuckled. “It’s short for the International Vampire Assembly of York.”

“York, England?”

“It’s where the organization officially got its start,” he explained. “After the quarantine, our European forces were split in half, so we no longer have a hold on the region, but that will change soon enough.”

“You sound quite confident.”

He nodded. “VOICE is the only real threat to our power in the West, and they’re already coming apart at the seams, as I’m sure you’ve witnessed firsthand.”

“They do seem to have some internal friction,” I conceded. “Daniel is a rather difficult man.”

“Daniel,” he growled, his eyes darkening. “The Devil.”

I blinked. “I’m far from his biggest supporter, but that seems a bit extreme.”

“It’s the name his enemies know him by,” said Alden. “Trust me, he’s earned it.”

“Oh,” I breathed. That might have come as a surprise a couple of days ago, but now...

“He will pay for every indignity you suffered at his hands,” Alden said, a hard look coming over his usually pleasant features. “I’ll make sure of it.”

I swallowed hard. “I would rather not have any violence enacted on my behalf.”

A slow smile curved the young man’s lips. “You really are exactly the way he described.”

“Pardon?”

“Lord Enoch,” he clarified, as if it should be obvious. “I have to admit, it was difficult for me to believe the Primus could be such a gentle soul, even if the assertion came from Lord Enoch himself.”

I looked away, though I found the windows to be tinted too heavily to see anything outside. Not that the tunnels were likely to offer much in the way of scenery, anyway. “I find it hard to believe he would describe me in such fond terms.”

“Well, there was a little frustration in his voice when he said it,” Alden confessed. “But he talks about you all the time. About your beauty. The heavenly scent of your blood.” His eyes grew a bit glazed as he spoke. “He wasn’t exaggerating on any count.”

My face grew warm for reasons I couldn’t quite comprehend. “We knew each other for only a brief time.”

“You’re his sire,” Alden said, frowning. “Back in the days when that meant far more than it does now.”

“Yes, I’ve heard he’s amassed quite an army in the time I’ve been sleeping.” I hugged my arms to my chest, finding the car had grown chilly.

Alden rose from his seat, and the apprehension that stirred with his sudden movement evaporated as he shrugged out of his coat and draped it over my shoulders before sitting back down. I thanked him and settled into the warm fabric with its pleasant masculine scent.

“The army is necessary in order to fulfill our plans,” he explained.

Our plans. I’d always thought Enoch would make a marvelous cult leader. It seemed he had far exceeded my expectations. “To make him King, I assume?”

Alden gave me a strange look and tilted his head. “A king rules only one nation. An emperor rules many.”

My throat tightened at his words, spoken with such sincerity. How could such an innocent boy be so devoted to a creature of pure wickedness?

There were a thousand other questions I wanted to ask him, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for the answers. In any case, Alden had no shortage of questions either.

“What was he like back then?” he asked eagerly, his eyes gleaming with curiosity, as if he had finally met a close acquaintance of a favored celebrity. To be fair, Enoch was probably all that to him and more.

From the way Daniel spoke of things, combined with my own impressions, I had initially believed Enoch was just another tyrannical warlord. The fact that there was more nuance to his rule than I had originally assumed did the exact opposite of setting me at ease.

I knew well the most vile and destructive rulers weren’t the ones who ruled with fear, though they too had their place in whatever hell I was destined for. It was the kind of man who could inspire others to do his bidding simply because they liked him. Simply because he was charismatic enough to convince them of his singular vision, and ruthless enough to execute his will with the most powerful weapon of all: devotion.

I knew I had to choose my words carefully. For whatever reason, Enoch had chosen to severely mischaracterize our relationship to his followers, and I had to tread carefully to avoid setting the record straight, which would hardly benefit either of us.

“He was quite ambitious.” Every virtuous quality had its negative, and Enoch had a plethora of both. “He was never satisfied with life as a town doctor.”

“He was a doctor?” Alden asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

“I don’t suppose he would be proud of that,” I said with a quiet chuckle, leaning back in my seat. My thoughts drifted to the past, as they so often did. We had a long journey ahead of us, so if the boy wanted recollections, that was what he would get. I had plenty of them.