Birth of a Dark Nation (18 page)

Nigel disappeared in a blur. Cassandra
exhaled.

"Sasha!" Her maidservant appeared in
nanoseconds.

"You and Andre. Track the Razadi. Tell me
everything you see. But don't you dare tell Nigel first. You leave
that to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Miss."

"Good… Sasha, tell me something."

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in the prophecies? In Nigel's
fire and brimstone?"

"Truthfully…I don't know, Miss Cassandra.
It's just not what my maker taught me. I never thought about it too
much."

"Have you ever dreamed of walking in the
daylight again?"

"Yes, Miss. I do."

"Then study the Razadi. There just might be
hope for us, yet."

Sasha smiled, ever so slightly, on the
inside. For the first time since she'd been tethered to the Anubis
Society, she saw a glimmer of humanity in Cassandra von Croy.

It had been decades since I was last taken by
surprise.

"Tastes spicy," the nightwalker hissed, as he
spat out a piece of Justin's flesh.

I looked down once again at Justin. The hole
in his neck spurted insane amounts of blood on the ground. His eyes
looked up at me, fixated in shock. His breathing was shallow and
quick.

Every ounce of my body welled up with fear
and rage that exploded as I bared my fangs and charged the
nightwalker.

"Watch it now," he said, pointing at me and
gazing into my eyes. I froze and hissed.

"I'm going to leave now. The way I see it,
you can chase me and try to kill me, or you can try to save your
friend's life. Choice is yours."

In a blur, the nightwalker was gone.

"Fuck!" I screamed. He had hypnotized me.
That didn't usually work between our kind, but if our guard was
down, it could briefly overtake us. At least he used it to get away
from me, rather than preventing me from helping Justin.

I looked down. Justin was in shock. His chest
barely heaved. Blood continued to flow from his neck. He was
bleeding to death.

We were three miles from the house. Shit.

I took my shirt off and placed it against his
open wound. I tried hard not to panic, but the fear was setting
in.

"Sweet Olódùmarè! Please let him live!
Shango, give me strength!"

Dozens of lightning bolts suddenly formed out
of the black, cloudless night. Thunder ripped through the sky.
Lightning struck the ground all around me in huge explosions.

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun

I picked Justin up and held him against my
body.

I ran. Ran off the site of the terrible
attack, a huge pool of blood left behind.

I ran through the neighborhoods off North
Capitol Street, not caring who saw me, because I wouldn't stop
until I got home.

I ran all the way across Rhode Island Avenue
with my man in my arms, running at speeds I had never run
before.

Shango was with me.

Olódùmarè was with me.

Justin would not die. Not tonight.

The world around me became a blur, as though
I were traveling through a memory of another time.

I did not stop to catch my breath. I did not
stop for anything.

My man would live. God had ordained it long
ago.

I reached my house and kicked in the
door.

"Victor! Victor, I need you!" He appeared in
seconds.

"What the fuck happened?!" he shouted.

"Hold my shirt on his neck! We gotta stop the
bleeding. Here."

I laid Justin's motionless body on the floor
and ran downstairs to our basement. In a far corner was a stainless
steel refrigerator. I broke the lock and flung the doors wide open,
grabbing as many bags of blood as I could. I raced back
upstairs.

"What are you doing?" Victor asked. "You
can't do that!"

"I have to!" I threw the bags to the ground
and then raced to a secret compartment in the kitchen. I opened it
up and found our first-aid kit: needles, tubes, pumps—everything
I'd need to save Justin. I raced back to the living room.

"I can't let you do this, Dante," Victor
said.

"Listen, Victor, either keep the pressure on
his neck or get the fuck out of the way!"

Victor tried to grab the needle from my hand
as I was preparing Justin's arm for the IV.

"Give me that," he demanded.

"No!" I shouted. My peripheral vision began
to glow blood red.

"It will never work," Victor said. "Just let
him die peacefully." He grabbed at my tools once more.

"I said no!" I bellowed. Without hesitation,
I punched him in the face, sending him hurtling through the living
room and crashing into the wooden banister leading up the
stairs.

He was knocked out cold.

I placed the needle in Justin's arm and began
to pump the blood into his body.

"Come on," I said. "Just hold on, Justin.
Keep fighting."

While I pumped the new blood in with one
hand, I sliced my wrist open with a fang and let my blood poor into
Justin's open neck wound, praying that it would heal him.

"Please, God," I begged. "Let this work."

My blood covered the open wound; at first,
nothing happened. Then, I could tell the wound was slowly but
surely repairing itself.

"Yes. Yes. Good. Keep fighting, Justin."

I could hear rustling from the stairs. Victor
rose and began walking toward me.

"Victor, I swear to Olódùmarè that I will
kill you if you stop me from saving Justin."

Victor bared his fangs and continued walked
to me.

"I swear it!" I yelled.

He raised his wrist to his mouth and sliced
an inch-long line. He knelt by Justin's head and put his wrist to
his mouth. Victor glared at me, but he said nothing. I nodded.

Justin's mouth opened and he licked his lips,
taking in drops of Victor's blood. We sat in silence and in
prayer.

Ten minutes later, the wound on Justin's neck
had healed and the bag of blood was empty.

"Take him upstairs," Victor said, as he
finally took his wrist away from Justin's mouth. "Start another IV.
We'll have to do this all night. And don't forget to bind his eyes.
And don't you dare tell him that I helped."

"I know," I said. Victor disappeared. Justin
was breathing deeply and his eyes were still closed. He was still
bad off. But he was alive.

I bent down and scooped him up with both of
my arms, cradling him carefully.

"We're not going to lose you," I whispered to
him. "Not tonight. Not ever."

The night was long, filled with fever and
cold sweats, and Justin vomiting up the blood he was being fed to
save him. And the transfusions didn't stop, either. He needed blood
to replace that which he had lost in the attack; blood that would
be stronger than what he'd had before. If he survived, he would be
better than what he was before. He'd be stronger. He'd be faster.
He would be one of us.

But he had to survive the transformation.

I picked up the phone and called
Babarinde.

"Baba…something terrible happened."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Justin and I were on a walk. The
nightwalkers…they got him."

I broke down into sobs.

"I told you this would happen!" he shouted.
"He was to be protected at all costs."

"I know Baba…"

"I suppose he wasn't The Key after all.
Damn."

"But…"

"Contact Horton's on Kennedy Street to make
the arrangements. Tell Cissy and Steve. Have them notify his
parents."

"Babarinde…he's not dead."

"What?"

"He survived."

"How?"

"I picked him up and I ran back home with
him. We gave him our blood."

"And it's working?"

"So far."

Babarinde remained silent on the other
line.

"Baba, are you there?"

"Is he awake?"

"No."

"Continue the transfusions as long as you
need to. This time might be different."

"Okay," I sniffed.

"Dante. Everything is going to be okay."

Babarinde clicked off the phone and I stood
still in the dark hallway. Everything would have to be okay because
I couldn't imagine a life without Justin.

By the next workday, Justin was still in a
coma. As a board member for Magdalene House, I had some decisions
to make and Victor wasn't remotely interested in dealing with
them.

"Your man, your decision, your consequences,"
he said as he went off to rehearse with his band on Sunday
afternoon. I sat in constant vigil at Justin's bedside, waiting for
him to wake up.

I decided to tell Steve and Cissy that Justin
had taken ill and that he'd be out indefinitely.

"What do you mean 'indefinitely'?" Cissy
asked. "What happened to him?"

"I'm afraid I can't say," I told them.

"I mean, is he sick or was there an
accident?" Steve asked.

"It's nothing like that," I said.

"Is he in jail?" Cissy asked.

"Lord Jesus, he got locked up!" Steve
exclaimed.

"Listen!" I shouted, my patience growing
thin. Startled, Steve and Cissy looked me in the eyes.

"Justin has the flu," I said quietly,
hypnotizing them into submission. They nodded.

"He will be back soon. Just needs a little
while to recover. Do you understand?"

"Yes," they replied in unison.

"You will both be in charge until he comes
back. The Foundation trusts you. Do you understand?"

"Yes," they replied.

"You will not ask me about Justin anymore. If
anyone else asks you about Justin, what will you tell them?"

"He has the flu," Cissy said.

"He'll be back soon," Steve said.

"Good. Now get back to work…please."

Steve and Cissy quietly left the foyer of the
building. I had really hoped not to have to hypnotize Justin's
friends, but humans didn't often accept just anyone's words on face
value. At least now I wouldn't have to worry about them
worrying.

I returned to the house and sat by Justin's
bedside for the remainder of the day. At around seven in the
evening, Justin finally stirred. He moved his head slightly to the
left, then the right. Victor entered the room silently, having
heard Justin's rustling.

"Justin?" I called out to him in a firm voice
and held his hands. "Justin, are you awake?"

"Where am I?" he asked.

"You're at my house. I'm here. Victor's
nearby."

"Why can't I see?"

"We covered your eyes. The light will
hurt."

"Take this shit offa me." He let go of my
hand and then tried to take the scarf off that we had used as a
blindfold.

"Justin, don't."

He removed the scarf and tried to open his
eyes.

"Oh God! Oh God, it hurts!"

I took the scarf out of his hands and covered
his eyes once more. I made the knot tight behind his head so it
wouldn't slide off.

"I told you not to take it off."

"What happened?" he asked.

"You were attacked."

"By a vampire?" he said, slowly reaching up
to touch his neck.

"Yes. A nightwalker."

"Oh God."

"I got you back here quickly."

"Am I going to turn into a vampire?"

"What? No!"

"That's how it goes, doesn't it? You get
attacked by a vampire and survive, you become a vampire.
Right?"

I stroked his face.

"There's only one thing we call a vampire
survivor: lucky."

He dozed back to sleep. Victor
disappeared.

Twenty minutes later, Justin inhaled sharply,
waking himself up.

"Dante?" he called.

"Yes, I'm here."

"How did you fix me? The truth."

"I carried you back here. I started an IV
with Razadi blood. And I put some in your mouth in the hopes that
you'd drink it." Victor reappeared in the room and stood silently
in the corner.

"Did I?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure you did."

"Will it change me?"

"Yes. It will change you."

He looked away from me and began to sob. I
touched his face and he recoiled.

"We had to do it. There was no other way to
save you from the attack. Listen, before you know it, the wounds in
your neck will heal. Your strength will come back, in time. I
promise you."

"How could you do this to me? I don't want to
be a vampire."

"You won't be a vampire. You will be greater
than a vampire."

"Leave me alone."

"Listen, you ungrateful son of a bitch,"
Victor said. "If it wasn't for Dante, you would be dead by the side
of the road. It doesn't give me great pleasure to know that my
blood runs through you now, but it does. Like it or not, you're
going to be one of us. That, Son of Adam, is the greatest gift a
Razadi can give a human. Now, be thankful that my brotherhood has
chosen you, because it could have easily gone the other way."

"But I didn't choose you…" he mumbled before
he fell asleep.

I left his side. Victor followed me into the
hallway.

"He's just confused," I said. "He doesn't
understand how serious this was."

"I don't give a fuck," Victor said. "He's
yours."

"He's ours."

"So says Babarinde," Victor retorted.

I was disappointed in Victor for being so
cold and callous about everything, but my heart ached more for
Justin. I knew this transformation would be long and painful, but I
also knew he could do it. He, more than any human I had ever known,
deserved to be more than what he was before.

I went outside into the garden and picked a
basket full of vegetables: onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, red
peppers, kale, and chickpeas. I also picked handfuls of the herbs
that had no names.

~

"Wake up," I said. "It's time to eat."

Justin stirred and sat up in silence. I put
the tray down on the bed and carefully picked up the bowl.