Blood Legacy (PULSE Vampire Series #6) (14 page)

And with that, they continued through the snow banks, towards the ever-strengthening scent of the Carriers.

Chapter 15

F
rom their new position at the bottom of the cliff, Kalina, Max, Octavius, and Stuart could better make out the terrain ahead of them. “Disgusting,” Max was saying with a grimace. “I can sense it – we're getting closer. Wherever Mal left them, he left them so far down the mountain that they'd have to fly in order to get out. And I don't know a single Carrier under sixteen with those kinds of abilities. Unless...” She bit her lip.

“Unless what?” Kalina pressed further.

“Unless the kind of blood that we used on you and the other test babies – it's not like normal Life's Blood, we know that. But what if Mal thought that there was a chance that this special Life's Blood would manifest itself early. We know that adrenaline causes the Blood to reveal itself – maybe he thought that putting these girls in life-threatening situations would force their blood to respond.” Max scanned the horizon. Before them was a vast expanse of pine trees lying across the valley, an enormous swarm of greenery. Kalina could smell the fragrance of pine fir in the end. It smelled like Christmas, Kalina thought grimly. She associated this smell with warmth, home, security. But for the girls out there, this was the smell of wilderness, or death. Her heart ached for these Carriers – taken away from their homes, from their lives. Most of them were missing parents, siblings (at the thought of
siblings
, Kalina felt tears stinging at the corners of her eyes), friends – fearing for their very lives. How could anyone, human or vampire, do something so unimaginably cruel?

She looked up at Octavius, who was staring out over the horizon. For so long she had thought of Octavius as nothing but her lover – a kind, strong man who happened to be a vampire. But now she regarded him with new fear. In the actions of this Malvolio – not to mention Molotov – Kalina saw a vampire capacity for cruelty she could never have imagined. Was Octavius, too, capable of such a deed? Was Jaegar? Stuart, she knew, had once been the Dark Knight, a killer of women and children as well as men. But she had never really understood the enormity of vampire potential for evil until now. Could her wonderful, kind Octavius, who always protected her through anything, be capable of such atrocities? The idea made Kalina shiver with horror. And if Kalina was beginning to take on vampire qualities, did that mean that one day she, too, would be capable of performing such acts as these?

“Fear not, my darling Kalina,” Octavius said as they proceeded towards the forest, her thoughts evidently clear on her face. “Mal was not just a vampire. Even as a man, I have no doubt, Mal was cruel and immoral. Most vampires have terrible urges, but they know in their heart of hearts that such urges are wrong. Malvolio had no such compunctions. He never felt any guilt. And believe me when I tell you, Kalina, that vampires nearly
all
feel guilt, even the terrible ones. You needn't worry, my darling. This is not the natural outcome of vampire hunger. It is something far worse.”

They stopped short at the beginning of the forest as Max sniffed the air. “There,” she said. “I can smell it. They're in there – not more than a ten-minute walk at most.”

“You can sense their location so precisely?” Kalina looked at her mother in wonder. “From so far away, I mean? I can smell a generic Life's Blood in the air, but no more than that.”

“When you've been working as long as I have,” said Max, “you'll know that it's not a choice. Certain skills you'll need to learn – or die. Listen to me, Kalina – I sensed something at the hotel; I wasn't sure what. At first I thought it was just you I smelled – but now I'm sure it was something else.”

“Another Carrier? An adult? Or one of the children...”

“I don't know,” said Max. “The children wouldn't give off a scent this strong – but this new generation of Life's Blood isn't like the old one. The smell is stronger. It's hard to know what to expect.”

“If they're out there,” Octavius broke in, “we have to get to them quickly. They're likely as not to be held without food or water – we need to save them before they all starve or freeze to death. And let me tell you – I've seen men starve before. And I've seen men freeze, way back in Ancient Rome. It's not a pretty sight.” He looked grimmer than Kalina had ever seen him.

Max led them into the forest, and at last they came to a concrete building, a windowless compound, the sight of which filled Kalina with trepidation. Now she too could sense the Life's Blood in the air. Even if the Carriers weren't there now, she knew they definitely had been here once; she could smell it. Max nodded – evidently she could smell it too.

The compound was dark – only a few electric lights swinging dimly from sockets gave any visibility at all to the damp, stifling corridors.

“This isn't right,” Kalina whispered. The place seemed empty, even deserted. If the Carriers were there once, she knew, they had vanished long since. But something felt wrong about the place – very, very wrong. Kalina's spine was tingling with presages of danger. “We need to get out of here, Max,” she whispered. “I have a bad feeling about this place...”

But Kalina was interrupted by a piercing scream that broke through their eerie silence like glass. It was the piercing scream of a young girl – a Carrier!

“Come on!” Kalina shouted as they ran towards the source of the voice, finding themselves in a small courtyard in the heart of the compound. “Let's go.”

But they found no Carrier in the courtyard. Kalina felt a rough hand at the back of her neck – it was Octavius, holding her back. He grabbed Max and Stuart with the other hand. “Hold still,” he growled. “It might be a trap. I smell vampires in the air.”

No sooner had Octavius spoken than Kalina saw two vampires emerge into the courtyard, wearing Life's Blood rings on their fingers. They were newly-turned – Kalina could tell by the youthful, hungry look in their eyes. She wasn't too worried. The newer a vampire, the less powerful he was, and these vamps couldn't be more than a day or two old at the most. But Mal had been dead for some time. And if Mal hadn't turned them, who had?

Evidently, Octavius wasn't intimidated. He rushed forth into the courtyard, staking one vampire and picking up the other by the neck. Kalina winced as she heard the bones crack. He dragged the vampire into the shadows, wrenching the Life's Blood ring off his finger. “Better men than you have died for one of these,” he hissed. “Now if you want your afterlife to continue more than twenty-four hours, tell me, fool – where are the Carriers?”

“The who?” The vampire spluttered. “The Carriers? Carrying what?”

“The ones with special blood,” growled Octavius. “Tell me where they are, and I'll think about letting you live.”

“I don't know anything!” The vampire yelped. “The guy just told me to stay here, make sure nobody came by – I don't know anything.”

Octavius squeezed him tighter by the neck. “Tell me what you know!” This time his voice was almost a roar. “Unless you want to die twice in two days. Don't think you can fight me, boy; I've lived for centuries.”

“But I don't know anything!” The vampire's high-pitched voice reached the pitch of squeak. “Honest, I don't.”

“I'll glamour you if I have to,” Octavius spat. “Listen, those girls out there are cold, and alone, and hungry, and scared. And I'm not about to let anyone, especially an upstart pip squeak like you, stop me from saving their lives.”

Kalina beamed with pride. How handsome Octavius was – even in anger, he exuded strength. He would fight for what he believed in, no matter what the cost.

“He knows nothing,” said a familiar voice. “So let him go. Kill him if you can, but it won't do you much good.”

They whirled around to face Molotov, who stood before them with a sharp, wry grin on his face. “I suppose you're wondering why I bothered to use such a newly-turned vampire as a guard. Why, they're no better than cannon fodder, you doubtless thought – so weak you could kill them easily! But there's safety in numbers, friend Octavius.” He stepped into the light, his red ring glimmering in the light of the sunset which now spread pink shadows over them all. “And you see, you can't fight off
everybody
.”

Kalina and Stuart gasped. Behind Molotov, there appeared what looked like hundreds of vampires, stepping forth with grim expressions on their faces. Kalina's eyes opened wide with shock. “I recognize these people,” she whispered. “That's the receptionist from the hotel, and that's the man I saw in the restaurant, and that's one of the children who was playing in the hotel lobby...”

Stuart sighed. “I recognize more of them...when I went to the church, they were there...praying...”

At last realization dawned upon Kalina. “Why, he's transformed the whole village,” she said in horror.

“That's right,” Molotov shrugged. “You deprived me of my 'farm' in Mongolia, so I decided to take another route. I had my few remaining men turn the entire village in one night. Starting with your brother, and ending at the village school. Now the whole village of Aucaurgne-sous-Montaigne belongs to
me
.” He grinned. “Let's see if you can take on all of them, shall we?”

Kalina looked wildly around. They were vastly outnumbered. And weak though they were, the newly-turned vampires all had a familiar look upon their faces.

They were hungry for blood.

Chapter 16

K
alina's heart began to pound. She quickly scanned the group of vampires that surrounded them, taking them all in. She was aghast at the horror of what she saw. She was used to seeing hardened, experienced vampires – vampires who had already killed many innocent men, women, and children, who had already lost their humanity. But these vampires
were
men, women, and children, and if they'd just been turned they might not even have fed themselves yet. These creatures, who stood before them, ready to sacrifice themselves in order to weaken them, were innocent – guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when Molotov decided to turn them all. Kalina felt sick. Would she have to stake women – would she have to stake
children?

They're already dead,
she told herself.
Molotov's killed them. They're just shells.
But were they? She looked over at Octavius. Whatever he was, he
wasn't
a shell. And these children – wasn't there hope that one day, a Carrier could turn them back to normal children, just as she had done with Stuart? How could she bring herself to kill any of them?

But from the grin on Molotov's face, she knew that this was part of his plan. She wouldn't hesitate to slay a trainer fighter, but killing any one of these newborn vampires before her would give her pause. Maybe enough time for them to kill her, instead.

“Why, you
monster
,” Kalina breathed. “How could you?” She remembered the kindly smile of the hotel receptionist, the jovial grin of the old man whom she had spotted over drinks at the hotel dining room. Where were those smiles now? On these faces she could manage to see only cruelty and despair. “How could you do this – to all these people?”

Octavius stood silent and stony-faced before her. She knew what was going through his mind; she could feel it – their connection still strong enough for that. He was thinking of all the men
he
had turned over the years – Stuart and Jaegar and Aaron and so many hundreds more – and his eyes darkened with guilt and regret.