Birth of a Dark Nation (36 page)

Justin ran toward the sand bin and we
followed. By the time we got there, Victor had already been tossed
about like a rag doll. He tried to fight back, but Justin was
quicker and more powerful than him. Sand quickly rose everywhere,
making it tough for us to see more than glowing red and gold
eyes.

Justin straddled Victor's body. We could all
see the red glow diminish from Victor's eyes.

"Are we finished here?" Justin asked as he
caressed Victor's face.

"We'll never be finished," Victor growled as
he spit blood in Justin's face.

Justin roared and pummeled Victor with his
closed fist over and over again until the yellow glow in his eyes
softened and disappeared entirely. I approached him from behind and
quietly called his name.

"Justin…
ipsaji
… What separates the
Razadi from all other beings on earth?"

Justin's fist froze in midair.

"Justice…" he said in his normal voice. He
stood up and reached down to grab Victor's hand. Victor reached
back.

"…and redemption." He hoisted Victor up and
carried his weight as they walked toward us.

"I love you, brother," Justin said, as he
kissed Victor's bloody cheek.

"I love you, too," Victor admitted. Justin
handed him off to some other brothers, who took care of him.

We reformed our circle, this time without our
black cloaks. Each of us had on a different set of colors, some in
traditional West African robes and others in more contemporary
garb. Justin stood before us, chest still heaving from the
excitement.

"Brothers of the Razadi," Uncle John began.
"I present to you Justin Kena, son of Theresa, now and forever more
known to us as Ominiyi. This means 'Oshun has honor.' Now, take the
knowledge of what you have seen here tonight and spread it through
your home cells. Spread the word that for the first time since we
left our homeland, a new member of our tribe has been made, named,
and crowned by the Orisha Oshun herself. Let them all be made aware
that Justin Kena-Ominiyi-is our brother and he has more than proven
himself worthy. Justin…"

Justin looked up at Uncle John with
pride.

"Ominiyi. You are one of us now. Welcome
home."

The circle of Razadi erupted with applause,
whistles, and chants of celebration.

Babarinde embraced Justin. Bewildered, Justin
embraced him back with tears in his eyes. The entire group came in
to welcome Justin, one at a time. I took great pleasure in
introducing him.

"Salako, bring me his cloak, please. Justin,
let me introduce you to your family. From Miami: Kosoko and
Omiyomi. Omiyomi shares your crown."

"Greetings, brother," they said in unison as
they embraced Justin.

"From New Orleans: Salako and Omitonade.
Omitonade also shares your crown."

"Welcome to the family," Omitonade said.

"From Atlanta: Ogundele and Akinlana. From
Los Angeles: Makinde and Ojonda."

"Blessings, blessings."

"And from New York: Balogun, Osundara,
Oyagbola, and Iranola."

"I can't believe all of y'all came to see
me…all this way," Justin said.

"You da baby bruddah," Iranola said. "'Course
we gonna see you be born."

"Oshun crowned you. What an amazing gift,"
Osundara said. "I'm so happy to have you as part of my family."

Justin's eyes continued to water.

"I've never experienced anything like this
before," he said.

"Well, I should hope not!" Babarinde
guffawed. We all joined in.

"So, what now?" Justin asked.

"Now?" I bared my fangs. "Now, we eat. Who's
got a taste for some Iota Theta Beta?"

I woke up first.

He was sleeping one of those good, deep
sleeps that humans only get after two Benadryl. He was exhausted
and blood-drunk.

He slept with a do-rag on to keep his baby
locs in place—what good that did now after a night of fighting in
the grass and dirt. He still did it, though. Everything I'd taught
him was a habit.

My
ipsaji
.

I ran my fingers lightly over his bare chest.
He smiled without opening his eyes and pulled me closer to him. He
was snoring again within moments.

I wasn't tired one bit. I barely ate anything
at all. Justin was now one of us. He didn't have to worry about
being accepted. He didn't have to worry about Victor. There'd be no
more sickness. Old age wouldn't happen for a very, very long
time.

"Dante, I need…oh. Excuse me."

Uncle John wasn't accustomed to such
practices as knocking before entering a room. On the other hand,
Razadi weren't known for inhibition, either. Justin remained
sleeping hard on his side of the bed.

"What's up, Uncle?"

"I need to talk to you. Can I sit down?"

"Of course." He took a seat on the
ottoman.

"How's Victor?"

"Recovering. I already talked to him about
this."

"Okay…"

"Victor really botched this thing."

I nodded.

"We've got a mess on our hands with the
nightwalkers. We've maintained this truce for a long time, but him
sending Justin to their house? Well, you saw the result of that.
But at least…at least we know that they have Orlando. And if we can
get Orlando back, we can find John Irons, too."

"But how do we get them back without starting
a war?"

"I've done my best to negotiate with the east
coast nightwalker clans. And they say they won't interfere if we
are solely trying to rescue one of our own."

"Which we are. We've got no beef with
nightwalkers."

"But there's a catch. Only you, Victor, and,
now, Justin are allowed to go after them. If any other Razadi
attacks the Anubis Society, then it will be an all-out war. And you
know we will lose. Philadelphia, New York, West Virginia
nightwalkers would all descend on DC like cicadas if the Anubis
Society is ambushed."

"I fucking hate being a minority."

"Said every minority ever."

Justin stirred in his blood-drunk sleep.

"Even him, Uncle? He just earned his name.
Just got crowned. This is hella dangerous."

"I know. But Orlando is in danger. If they've
got access to laboratories and doctors, they could be attempting to
clone our blood. Isolate our DNA. Who the hell knows what else?
Look, if I thought there was another way, I'd propose it. We know
the nightwalkers have Orlando. You, Victor, and Justin are all
strong enough and smart enough to get him back."

"What if we don't succeed?"

"Aragbaye. Did you see Justin out there last
night? He might have been nervous, but he wasn't scared. He had
confidence. It's something I haven't seen since we were back in the
village. I need you now. Your people need you. We can get Orlando
and end this whole thing. Say you're on board."

"Of course I'm on board, Uncle. It's just…the
last thing I want to do is let you down. Or put Justin in
danger."

"The only way you would let me down is if you
didn't try. And as for Justin, he's one of us now, Dante. Like it
or not, he will always be in danger. From the nightwalkers. From
the demon Djinn. From the government. From journalists. The rest of
his life will be filled with deaths and rebirths, periods of hiding
in the shadows and periods of hiding in the daylight. Surely, he
knows this."

"Just as surely as he knows that he needs
human blood to live."

"You really take this protector thing to
heart, don't you?"

"I didn't know you were handing me my
ipsaji
on a platter, Uncle."

"Indeed. You didn't."

"But you did, didn't you? When you gave me
that folder…you somehow knew."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"I think you did," I nodded. "But if you told
me, it would have changed things. I needed to discover it on my
own."

Babarinde smiled knowingly.

"Act quickly, but act intelligently when it
comes to the nightwalkers. We need Orlando back safely. And if
we've got to shed vampire blood to get him back, so be it."

"So be it," I repeated. I gazed at Justin's
snoring body while I silently prayed that he was ready for his
first mission.

"I'm really happy for them," Andre Crawford
said from the back seat of the mini-van.

"I know," Sasha said. "They look happy."

Andre and Sasha had seen the entire Razadi
initiation fight from the top floor of a parking deck off
Children's Hospital. With the assistance of binoculars and a
telephoto camera lens, their already impeccable vision allowed them
to practically read the lips of the daywalkers.

"I don't know a lot of the words they're
saying," Andre said. "Do you think they're all African words?"

"Maybe," Sasha said. "They're supposedly West
African. One of those words was weird… ip… sahj… something.
Couldn't make it out."

"Funny how they just had the entire fight out
in the open like that," Andre marveled.

"Well, it was on land nobody could see from
the street. In the middle of the night."

"But the drumming…"

"Wasn't that loud."

"But…"

"There were over a dozen of them. They would
have hypnotized any humans that discovered them. Then drunk
them."

"Yeah. You're right."

They sat in silence as the Razadi
dispersed.

"Should we follow?" Sasha asked.

"No. They're probably just going to go
celebrate."

"This upsets you."

"Sasha…you don't know the half of it."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Do you want to…you know…run?"

"They'd stake us before we could get to
safety."

"Not if we had help…protection…"

"You really think the daywalkers would have a
reason to protect us? We helped keep their brother hostage. We took
his blood."

"What do you want to do, then? We are
tethered to the Anubis Society. Now, we either run and keep running
until we get someplace where we can be left alone, or we link up
with the Razadi, or we just sit there in that mansion under Nigel
and Cassandra until karma deals with them."

"I don't know what we're supposed to do. I
don't know who we can trust."

"I hate vampires," Andre said.

"But we are vampires!"

"So are the Razadi! Look at them. They love
each other. They take care of each other. They're not worried about
prophecies or science. It's just family with them. Nothing more or
less. And they are vampires. They drink the same blood we
drink."

"They're not vampires. Not really. They own
the fucking sun. You and me? We'll never see the sun again. We
can't walk down the street with sunglasses on. I can't…I can't go
to the beach, take my shirt off, and feel my body getting warm just
from standing there. I'll never get tan. I will literally never see
the sun! We got cursed, Andre! Because not only was the sun taken
from us, but we are tethered to the craziest people I've ever met.
All the power that we have? The strength? The influence? It's
worthless. Because we have to obey these stupid, ancient, vampire
laws and pay our penance to the society."

"Look at me," Andre said. Sasha turned all
the way around in her seat.

"We can have the sun again. I believe
that."

Sasha looked away.

"I think you're just being sentimental
because the Razadi are black."

"And what if I am? Hmm? What's the harm in
having faith that we're not that much different from them? That
maybe—just maybe—they could look at me and see a little bit of
themselves. Because when I see them…I see a whole lot of me. I see
who I was. I see who I could damn well be some day. Somebody with a
family. Somebody who doesn't have to run. Now, listen. I don't
trust Cassandra any more than I do Nigel. I know she doesn't want
to kill Justin, but I still don't trust what she wants him
for."

"And what do you think that is?"

"I don't know."

They sat in silence for a few more
moments.

"Andre… We can't tell Cassandra what we saw
tonight."

"Yeah."

"The less she knows, the less they all know,
the better. I don't necessarily think that the Razadi can help us.
But I don't think they mean us any harm. We took their brother. And
then they came for us, as anybody else's family would do. If
they're trying to take down the Anubis Society, then we should let
them. As long as we know to run when the time comes."

Andre climbed over the seat and sat next to
Sasha.

"You know I love you, right?" he asked.

"I know," Sasha said. She smiled as coyly as
she had the day she met him. He pulled out the camera and deleted
each photo he had taken.

"I wish you well, Razadi," he said softly.
"It was a pleasure peering into your most sacred moments."

Sasha exhaled.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Just nervous. Justin Kena's
one of them now. For real. It's only a matter of time before they
strike back for what Malcolm did to him."

"And they're going to strike back hard."

"Hopefully," Sasha smiled. Andre grabbed her
hand.

"Hopefully," he repeated. They kissed and
hurried back to the mansion before first light.

He whipped my ass fair and square.

I can't deny it and I can't be mad about it.
He did what he was supposed to do.

He's one of us now, like it or not. And I
respect him. Truth be told, I honor him. We were told long ago that
Razadi were born, not made. But I knew different. A real Razadi had
to be made through blood, sweat, and tears, and Justin had more
than paid his dues.

I didn't like him. But I loved him. And now
it was time to kick some nightwalker ass.