Birth of a Dark Nation (42 page)

My fangs elongated and I hurled myself at
her, knocking her to the ground as I bit her neck and drank her
sour blood.

"Aborişade, no!" they cried out. I knew I
shouldn't be drinking the vile blood of a nightwalker, but I hadn't
had a proper meal in months. She would have to do.

Her blood spilled out from the wounds I made
in her neck. I gulped her down. I heard the roar of the ocean in my
ears rather than her screams and the shouts from my brothers to
stop. I grew more powerful by the second.

I stopped and looked around me, smiling.
Everything was red.

"We have to go!" Ominiyi shouted in slow
motion.

They grabbed me, pulling me away from
Cassandra's beautiful, bloodied body, leaving her spurting and
nearly lifeless. I didn't walk; I floated along with Aragbaye and
Eşusanya and Ominiyi as they pulled me away from the scene. The
house became a big, brown blur.

Sasha and Andre didn't follow. They were
frozen, stuck for some reason over the body of Cassandra. We flew
away, free to live, free to be, free to choose. Just free.

A few weeks after the massacre at the Anubis
Society's mansion, things were back to normal. I drove my new
Mercedes Benz into the gravel parking lot behind Magdalene next to
Steve's car, a modest Honda Accord. We'd both done well for
ourselves since ourselves since the Foundation took over.

"That's a nice ride you pushin'," Steve
said.

"Thanks. Hard work pays off." I smiled.

"Indeed. Can we talk?"

"Sure, what's up?" I asked, leaning against
the closed door of my car.

"Nothing…we haven't talked in a while. You
know, just shoot the shit like we used to."

"Yeah. It has been a while."

"Yeah man. So, I was hot and heavy with
Chiyoko for a while, but she just up and disappeared on me."

"Word?" I asked. I'd long since learned to
perfect my poker face when dealing with Steve.

"Yeah. Used to see her every week at the bar,
but then she was just gone."

"That sucks man, sorry to hear that."

"Yeah. I really liked her, too."

"I'm sure somebody else will come along."

"We'll see." He shifted his weight from his
left leg to his right leg and put his hands in his pockets. My mind
wandered to the night Chiyoko died; how Dante impaled her, making
her a mass of slime on the floor.

"Are you okay, though?" he asked, snapping me
back into the moment.

"Me? Yeah! Everything's fine!"

"Okay." Steve smiled.

"You don't think so, do you?"

"I mean…you changed."

"Changed? Naw, it's still the same old me.
I'm still Justin Kena. No worries."

"Yeah. I know. You just…"

"I just what?"

"Justin, you've lost like 50 pounds easy. I
never even see you eat anymore. And you've just been rolling with
Dante and his crew since you met him. I mean, I know that's your
boy and all, so it's cool. But I can't help but wonder what's
really going on. I worry about you, man. Shit goes down with you
personally and I don't even hear about it anymore. Those weeks that
you were sick. The Foundation takeover. It's just all shady man,
and I don't want you to be in any trouble. You my boy."

"Steve, I promise you…"

My mind wandered again, to the first day I'd
met Dante… to the day I learned what he really was… to the day I
learned about nightwalkers… to the day I was attacked… to all the
memories I'd made since those days and to all the memories I
received from my brothers. My first kill. My next kills.

My emotions got the better of me and I began
to weep.

"Hey, it's okay man!" Steve came over and
embraced me. My weeping continued as I clutched him back.

"What's wrong? You want to talk about
it?"

I sniffed and wiped my eyes. My heart broke
because I knew in an instant what had to be done.

"Steve…look at me," I began.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Steve, everything with me is fine."

"Everything with you is fine."

"My health and my well-being are fine."

"Your health and well-being are fine."

"There is never any need to worry about me. I
am safe. I am with people who love me. I am with people who take
care of me. You have never seen me happier."

"I've never seen you happier."

"You don't worry about me."

"I don't worry about you."

"Now…there's no need to remember this talk.
Just remember those emotions. You understand?"

"I understand."

"Have a good day, Steve."

"You, too, Justin."

Steve turned around and walked up the pathway
to our building. I remained next to my car to wipe my eyes and get
myself together for work. I followed the pathway and glanced across
the street, seeing Dante sitting on the stoop of the Masonic hall
in his leather jacket and black kufi cap. I waved. He nodded at me
and pointed to his pants pocket.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my
phone.

I LOVE YOU. HAVE A GOOD DAY.

I smiled and looked at my
ipsaji,
who
was smiling back at me. He would be my protector today, and every
day, for the rest of my life, if he could help it.

In the office, I waved and spoke to all of my
employees. Everyone was pleased with their jobs and that suited me
just fine. They thrived on their independence. Our jobs program was
up and running and a formal press conference with the city would be
coming soon, just in time for Christmas.

I sat in my chair and turned on both my
desktop and my laptop computers. While they were warming up, my
office phone rang.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey dick breath," Victor replied. I
laughed.

"What's up?"

"Just wanted to remind you I'm taking Orlando
down to Charleston for the sorority board meeting."

"Okay, cool. I saw that on my calendar. How's
he feeling?"

"Getting stronger. Still having trouble
sleeping, though."

"Yeah, that's to be expected. Getting some
Iota blood will be good for him."

"And me, too. Getting tired of this local
blood."

I laughed again. "Be safe, Victor."

"You too, bruddah."

I hung the phone up and began sifting through
my work emails. I saw one from Selena Esteban from the Friends of
the Crown, asking for a lunch date. I replied right away, putting
her on my schedule. It had been a long time since we chatted, and I
would need to continue to cultivate that relationship in order to
establish myself as a real nonprofit executive—not just a front man
for the Foundation for Community Justice. There was more to me than
what I had been through.

A few minutes later, the Skype alert on my
laptop went off. It was Babarinde—so far, the only person I ever
needed to Skype with.

"Hello, Uncle John! To what do I owe the
pleasure?" I smiled into the camera imbedded in the laptop while I
looked at Baba's smiling, chiseled brown face on my screen.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm good! How are you?"

"I'm fine. Good, actually. We've got a lead
on Ogundiya."

"Really? Wow, I never thought we'd find him
so soon. When one goes off the grid…"

"Exactly. And as quiet as Ogundiya is, I
thought it would be years before we found him."

"So where is he?"

"My sources say that the Djinn have him and
they're ready to negotiate."

"The Djinn? Jeez. I thought we were cool with
them?"

"We were. Last week. So, how about it? Will
you go get him?"

The Djinn were far more mysterious to me than
any other being I'd encountered since I'd been made a Razadi.
Mysterious—and dangerous, I was sure.

Things would never be back to normal ever
again. And that's just the way things would be from here on
out.

"I'm on it."

Nigel entered Cassandra's bedroom. She
stirred in her four-poster bed. Sasha and Andre brought her
upstairs every day after nightfall to give her some reprieve from
her dark coffin in the basement. The attack had left her weak.

Sasha sat at the foot of her bed, waiting for
instructions, while Andre stood guard by the door with a
semi-automatic assault rifle.

"Hello, darling," Cassandra said from her
bed.

"How are you feeling?" Nigel asked after he
sat down beside her.

"Tired, but getting better."

"Good. We'll get those bloody daywalkers yet,
don't you worry."

"Nigel, please…"

"If Malcolm had been here, he would have
stopped them."

"Even Malcolm is no match for them."

"Andre and Sasha let eight of us die.
Eight!"

"It was an ambush, Nigel, they couldn't have
known. And with wooden bullets and everything! It's not their
fault."

"And they destroyed millions of dollars of
research! Had we even known about their sabotage when it happened,
we would have known we were next. Millions of dollars of work down
the drain!"

"Can you really blame them? What we did to
that young man was unconscionable."

"What we did to that boy was our right! It
was our destiny! This was only a taste of what we can do to them.
They'll soon find out just why we're called the Anubis Society.
Malcolm!"

Malcolm rushed in.

"Yes, sir?"

"Unleash the jackal!"

"With pleasure, sir."

Malcolm sped out of the room. Within seconds,
they heard the sound of his engine igniting and then taking off
from the driveway of the mansion.

"Oh, Nigel," Cassandra said, as she closed
her eyes. The air in the room chilled and Andre and Sasha glanced
at one another in terror as Nigel spoke.

"We are the guardians of the jackal. I will
do whatever I have to do to ensure that we are the victors in this
war. The Razadi will pay by their total extermination."

Novels:

Lazarus
(2005)

Covenant
(2011)

Epiphany
(2012)

Poetry:

The Life and Death of Savion Cortez (2011)

Rashid Darden currently lives in Washington,
DC. He may be reached at any social media outlet (@RashidDarden) or
at his website,
www.rashiddarden.com
.

Cover design by Charlis Foster for 620 Media.