Birth of a Dark Nation (39 page)

Justin tensed up and peered out of window. A
uniformed security guard and another woman walked out of the house.
The small white woman wore a long black coat, a Baltimore Orioles
baseball cap, and ear buds in her ears. She locked the door behind
her. The guard got into the company issued sedan and sped off. The
woman got on a bicycle and rolled by us at a moderate pace.

"Follow her," I ordered.

"I got this," he snapped back. He made a
quick U-turn and stayed about half a block behind the woman as the
pedaled through the neighborhood. She never looked back once.

We followed her through Rock Creek Park as
she neared Georgia Avenue, pedaling slightly harder and slightly
faster.

"She made us," I said.

"I think so, too," Justin said. He
accelerated as she sped across Georgia Avenue onto Missouri,
pedaling furiously.

"She's gonna make that left on Fifth Street,"
Dante said.

"I know," Justin replied. "Relax, we're in my
territory now."

Justin was right behind her as she turned
onto Fifth Street. She pedaled as fast as a superhuman could and we
were on her tail. We both ran through red lights.

Justin's fangs began to elongate as he
concentrated on the road.

"You hop out as soon as I go past her," he
instructed.

"What?!" Dante and I said in unison.

"You hop out of this truck as soon as I pass
her!"

"That's crazy!" I said.

Justin ignored us and put his pedal to the
metal just as we reached Coolidge High School. We passed the woman
just on the other side of the school and she hopped off her bike,
running through the parkland next to the gym.

"Get her, bitch!" Justin screamed at me.

Without argument, Dante and I bailed from the
truck and hit the ground, tumbling a few times but hopping right
back up in pursuit of the vampire. Justin sped off down the street.
Our stakes were in our hands, ready for action.

The woman was fast, but we were faster. She
knew she couldn't outrun us, so she attempted to hide behind the
trees. To a human eye, all that could be seen was one black blur
going from tree to tree, followed by two more blurs, and the sound
of the wind cutting through dead leaves.

"What do you want?" she finally asked us. She
had a real terror about her, which we didn't ordinarily find among
vampires. Her brown hair frizzed out from under her baseball cap
and her nose twitched when she talked.

We both hissed and got into offensive stances
while she cowered before us.

"Tell me what you want!" she shouted.

"An eye for an eye," I hissed.

"You're responsible for Chiyoko's
disappearance last night? She's dead, isn't she?" she asked.

"Back to the sludge from which your people
'evolved.' Back where we're going to send you, too," I said.

"No, you can't!" she said, placing her hands
in front of her.

"Why shouldn't we stake you?" I asked.

"Because…I know that you turned Justin. And I
didn't tell Nigel or Cassandra."

"Bullshit," I said.

"I'm not lying. Cassandra dispatched us to
keep tabs on you. We staked out your initiation at the McMillan
Sand Filtration Site. We saw everything. We saw Justin win his
fight. We saw his crowning. It was…beautiful."

"How dare you intrude on our sacred ritual?"
Dante hissed.

"We were following orders from Cassandra. But
we didn't give her the photographs. We deleted every last one of
them and told Cassandra there was nothing worth reporting. That you
had taken Justin to a hospital and he was recovering from his
wounds there. That he was out of commission. A non-factor."

"Why did you do this?"

"I did it because I saw the look on my
husband's face when he saw your rites. He's an African American
nightwalker. He sees the Razadi and he knows what you have is a
gift. He'd trade almost everything to be with you."

"You're Sasha Forzani?" I asked.

"I am."

"It's nice to meet you, Countess," I said,
withdrawing my stake.

"It's nice to finally meet a Razadi face to
face," she said. "Even if it had to be you."

"How did you get tied up with vampires like
these? I'd always heard you and your husband were free agents."

"Let's just say we got into some trouble. Ran
afoul of the vampire law. We're tethered to the Anubis Society for
a while."

"That sucks," Dante said.

"What sucks?" Justin asked, as he appeared
out of the blue.

"You're Justin Kena?" she asked. Justin
nodded.

"I am. Who are you?" he asked.

"Sasha," she said, extending her hand. Justin
looked at her suspiciously.

"It's okay. That's Countess Alexandra
Forzani," I added. He shook her hand firmly.

"It's nice to meet you, Countess," he
said.

"Sasha is fine. I haven't been a countess in
a long time. I heard you were made a Razadi. The first in hundreds
of years."

He nodded modestly.

"Yeah, that's me."

"What cologne is that you're wearing?" she
asked.

"He just…yeah. That's just him," I
interjected.

"Curious…" she said with a smile.

"Right."

"Listen, we need to figure this thing out,"
Sasha said.

"So let's talk. Is Orlando still alive?"

"Yes, very much so. He's still in the house.
They won't move him. The next closest safe house for us is in West
Virginia—too far away from the lab."

"Lab?"

"Victor, Nigel has commissioned a genetic
study of nightwalker and daywalker DNA. He's committed to
discovering your weaknesses and using them to eradicate you."

"Why? We're not at war."

"Nobody knows. He has it in his head that the
daywalkers will somehow destroy all nightwalkers. He sounds like a
religious fanatic."

"He follows the way of the scrolls?"

"Yes. Down to believing that Justin is The
Key."

"Some of us believe that, too," I
admitted.

"Do you?" Sasha asked.

"I believe in survival."

"Me too. Nigel is pure evil. He will destroy
you when he gets the chance. And Cassandra is an opportunist. If
either of them find out Justin has been turned, then it's all over.
It's war."

"Then we've got to strike first."

"No…you need to follow the blood, first."

"What? Follow the blood?"

"You have to find out what they know about
your blood. Find Dr. Zolotov. He's the one who gets Orlando's
blood. From what I can gather, he knows all about the difference
between daywalkers and nightwalkers. And get this: he's human. But
once you dispose of him, you have to come get Orlando. They will
find no use for him once you get rid of the doctor and take his
research."

"You're right. Sasha…What can we do for
you?"

"There's nothing you can do for me. But my
husband? He wants the sun again. Find out what you can from
Zolotov's work and let us know. Cassandra…she says she believes in
unity between our kind, but don't trust her for a second. She'd
drain you if she could."

I nodded.

"I'm really glad I finally got to meet you,"
I said.

"Same here. Just remember that when it all
goes down, you have friends on the inside. Don't forget us."

"You have our word," I said.

Sasha smiled and was off in a flash.

"Can we trust her?" Dante asked.

"I think so," I said. "She's definitely not
like the others."

"Wait. What the fuck just happened? You have
me Tokyo-drifting across DC, chasing this chick through the park,
and all of the sudden we just trust her? How do we know we can
trust her? She could be telling that Nigel and Cassandra everything
right now. We have to get her!"

"That was Sasha Forzani. She's a legend among
nightwalkers, man," I said.

"Legend? Why you ain't tell me?"

"I mean, who knew she was in DC for real?"
Dante said.

Justin growled.

"What? Calm down," Dante said.

"How are we going to fight them and I don't
even know who they are?"

"Aight…I got something for your ass. Get in
the truck."

We sped off to the truck and drove to
Justin's apartment, where I knew we'd have the Internet connection
we'd need in order to teach him what he needed to know.

"It's musty in here. Don't you believe in
Plug-Ins?" I asked.

"When's the last time I was even here?"

"True. Where's your remote control?" I asked.
He pointed to an end table next to his sofa, and I discovered one
of the big, good remotes with a built-in keyboard. I turned on the
television and went to the Internet.

"What are you doing?" Justin asked.

"Come sit down," I said. He came to me on the
couch while Dante went back to the bathroom.

I typed in a series of numbers and periods
into the navigation bar.

"An IP address?" Justin asked.

"Watch," I directed. Dante emerged from the
restroom and sat on the floor in between Justin's legs.

A protected page came up and I typed in the
lengthy password. I was in within seconds. A single folder opened
with one file. I clicked it.

Justin's television made the perfect
theater.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Just watch," I said.

The opening titles were blurred, jumpy, and
black and white. A white man in a plain black suit appeared on the
screen and spoke words I had heard many times before.

"Greetings, and welcome to Project Corn Lily.
As conflict escalates worldwide, you have been selected from among
hundreds of qualified soldiers to assist with a most important
project: the development of a superior weapon."

The suited man stepped aside, and the camera
panned back to reveal a bare bunker with one hooded figure strapped
to a chair.

"This race of foreign savages has been living
among us—in secret—for decades. All we know for certain is that
they are a European import. They are strong, fast, and deadly.
They, my friends, are vampires—the monsters that you only thought
were part of movies and folklore."

The suited man pulled the hood off his
prisoner. The blond vampire was angry and hissing through his
fangs.

"Dark eyes. Inch-long fangs. Unfettered rage.
This thing would rip your heart out and eat it if it wasn't
strapped down. But watch this."

The suit produced a foot-long, sharpened
stake and a hammer. The vampire panicked and tried to get out of
the chair, but it was bolted down. The man steadied the stake, and
then with one quick movement, drove it into the heart of the
vampire. Immediately, the nightwalker shrieked and then shriveled
into a black mass, just as Chiyoko had done the night before.
Justin winced.

"The rules are simple for dealing with these
animals. First, they have vulnerabilities. A wooden stake will kill
them. It is painful, but it is quick. Second, sunlight has a
similar impact. Should you ever receive orders to abort the
project, those are the only two things that will kill it.

"Our experiments here are designed to
mitigate these weaknesses for the benefit of the cause of freedom.
Please, let the scientists do their jobs. Protect them. With your
assistance, we can revolutionize the way we fight. And we can end
this war.

"One final note: the females of this species
are just as deadly as the males. Never, ever look directly into
their eyes, and never, ever let your guard down at night. They will
use every opportunity to escape, through force and cunning.

"Thank you, soldier. God bless you and God
bless America."

The tape went black and the television
reverted back to the file folder.

"You know what?" Justin asked, after minutes
of silence.

"What?" I asked.

"This is exactly why I don't fuck with the
government."

Dante and I laughed hard.

"Dead ass!" Justin continued. "You mean to
tell me nightwalkers have been here for decades? And the government
basically tried to turn them into weapons? That is just fucking
like America to do that shit."

"That's the only tape we could find like
that," Dante said. "But there are bits and pieces of the
nightwalker story everywhere. They're old. They've got their own
systems and traditions. But for whatever reason, they didn't come
to America until well after we did."

"Did America ever weaponize them?" Justin
asked.

"Didn't seem to," I said. "There's still a
lot we don't know. But the most important thing we know is that
they're still here and they are dangerous as fuck."

"Then we've got to find Dr. Zolotov. And then
we're getting Orlando. I don't want to wait any longer. This shit
is crazy.

As luck would have it, Dr. Damien Zolotov's
name was in the phone book. We took the old white van and made the
journey to Bethesda, Maryland, to the private National Life Lab
building, near the National Institute of Health and the Walter Reed
complex. We donned our work suits and grabbed bags of tools and
proceed through the front door of the building, right through the
metal detectors.

"We're from Rising Sun, we're here to start
some renovations to Dr. Zolotov's lab," I told the elderly security
man at the front desk.

"I don't have anything on the calendar for
today. Let me buzz Doctor-"

"Look at me," I said sharply. The security
man turned to me.

"You don't need to buzz the doctor," I
said.

"I don't need to buzz the doctor."

"We're going to go up there, do what we need
to do, then leave quietly. You won't remember a thing."

"I won't remember a thing."

"Thank you, friend!" I said cheerfully.

"You're welcome, have a good evening!"

"I could get used to this," Justin said. "I
can't imagine you've paid a restaurant bill in years."

"Who'd want to do that?" I said.