BlueK Dynasty: The 1st Seven Days (28 page)

Fae screamed in Inis’s
ear, “What’s happening?”
  

Inis tried to hold his
mother down. There was a ruckus going on in the Seven News Studio.
The cameras hadn’t stopped rolling, and their microphones were
picking up noises. Inis heard screaming and running and men
shouting. There were cries of pain and terror as men big as beasts
ran across the camera’s field of view. Fae’s eyes bugged out, and
she grabbed on to her son.
  

Inis watched as the
producers in the studio were bitten into as his brother had been,
and he thought he would be sick. His body tensed up as everything
registered in his mind. Men and women alike were being attacked and
eaten on national television, and the single camera caught
everything.
  

The studio went completely
dark. Electrical wires sparked repeatedly, which only intensified
Inis’s dread. Fae’s cigarette had almost burned out; the ash was
long as her nails. But she couldn’t take her eyes away from the
screen. She didn’t know what was going to pop out of the dark at
her.
  

There was movement in
front of the camera, and a voice called out from the dark.
“
Get the lights. I want the people to see
this.”
  

A light came on in the
distance, and a warped figure appeared where Connie had been
sitting. He was bloody and dressed in black. Inis could tell he was
big; he took up half of the
 
screen. His eyes were black
like onyx and glassy. He was completely bald, and his ears were
pinned back, giving him an intense facelift. His nose seemed too
straight, as if someone had pinched it off, and his mouth was a
deep color, his lip big and full. It was his teeth that stood out
the most, though. There were rows of them, all gleaming white and
pointed, and resembling piranha teeth.
  

“
Oh my
God,” Fae and Inis said in unison. “Santino!” they
screamed.
  

35.

Kill to
Eat
  

Santino directed Kosner to
move the camera closer to the podium.
  

“
Right
there,” he said. He looked squarely into the camera and gave a big,
toothy grin.
  

Santino, Kosner, and VIN
had all left the pier bruised and battered, with Allie in tow. They
were now in the Seven News Studio in downtown Alexandria. Santino
had opened the door and let his newborns in. He needed them to
clear everybody else out of the building while he got his message
out to the city of Alexandria and, more importantly, to Kurma. He
didn’t care where she was hiding out or where her pack of cronies
laid low; all he wanted was for her to know that he was coming for
her—he and the whole army of Phantoms that he would create. If
Kurma wanted a war, she would have it.
  

Santino wasn’t going to
turn himself in. Why should he? Kurma was going around killing his
Phantoms. Who was going to stop her? He was! And, he knew just how
to do it.
  

“
Settle
down, settle down out there,” Santino said. “To all my viewers:
yes, what you see is real. I am really on the news. The time is now
eleven o’clock on Friday the eighteenth.” He leaned back in his
chair. “People, I am what you call a Phantom. I’m very much as
hideous as I look. Outside there are more things like me running
around, tearing the place up.” He paused and leaned toward the
camera. “You can stay inside all you want, but we’ll find a way in.
Understand this, Alexandria: I am a Phantom, and when I touch
someone else”—he held up his right hand—“they turn into a Phantom
like me.”
  

He laughed. “You see, I’m
contagious. I can spread and I will spread, all over the city until
I have completely taken control.”
  

He rose out of his chair,
and Kosner had to adjust the camera’s angle. Santino said, “People
of Alexandria, unless you become one of me and join my side, you
will forever be on the bottom of the food chain. That’s right.”
Santino’s voice became deeper. “I will eat you. All the Phantoms
will gorge on the bodies of this city until it is bled dry and the
bones have disintegrated into dust. Then I will move on to the next
city and then the next. Think I’m lying?”
  

Santino walked around the
newsroom desk and marched right up to the camera that Kosner was
steadying. “Look outside, people of Alexandria. This is not a game.
I am not the only one you have to fear. There are more things out
there that are worse than I am—or at least almost worse than I
am.”
  

His faced hardened as he
thought of Kurma and how she had killed Leon. “To Karmenia Rosales,
also known as Kurma.” He smiled into the camera. “Because of you
and your little birdies, Alexandria now has to suffer—and it
will.”
  

Santino backed away from
the camera and yelled to VIN, who was standing in the studio’s
green room. “You can bring him now!”
  

Santino looked back into
the camera and made room for VIN, who was dragging a man on his
back. VIN left the man by Santino’s feet. Santino roughly picked
the guy up and brought his face to the camera. They stood shoulder
to shoulder, Santino smiling and the man crying.
  

“
I want
to show you what I can do to all of you who think I’m lying. Join
me as my new friend has. You won’t be
disappointed.”
  

Kosner caught the man’s
transmutation on camera for everyone to see, just as Santino wanted
him to. Santino wanted people either to join him or fear him. He
wanted them to see exactly what he was—what regular people weren’t.
Whatever Kurma was, he wasn’t, and that was obvious. Whatever he
was, she wasn’t. That was all that mattered.
  

There were clear sides to
be on: winning and losing. Kurma could walk around being smug all
she wanted. Santino would gain more Phantoms that would destroy her
and all like her. Either you became a Phantom and helped kill off
Kurma and her friends or became Santino’s food. Santino would let
the citizens of the city decide. He didn’t care. Humans were not
his concern any more than a cat or dog would be.
  

Santino dropped the man on
the ground when the mutation was complete. “There’s room for plenty
more like him.” He opened his arms wide and welcoming. “Kurma, I’m
coming for you.” He pointed at the camera with a long,
purple-tipped finger. “We’re all coming for
you!”
  

Santino grabbed the camera
out of Kosner’s hands and smashed it on the ground, shattering
glass everywhere. Then he walked off, and Kosner followed…and so
did Santino’s newborn Phantom.
  

36.

The After
Hours
  

“
What do
you think will happen to us?” asked Jackie. She and the girls had
relocated to the stone museum in the park, avoiding the train
station all together. “Think we can ever go back to
Snowhill?”
  

O’bellaDonna hung by the
hole in the wall that resembled a window. “Never. The Jeers have
probably elected a new leader by now.” She tossed a rock up in the
air, feeling bored and hungry. “I hope Kurma has a
plan.”
  

“
She
does,” Rimselda said. “She told me that the first thing she’s going
to do is take over the mayor’s office.”
  

“
Get the
hell out of here,” Jackie said. That was too high up there. But she
was definitely down for the thrill. Last night had been crazy to
say the least. She was still reeling from learning how to change
back and forth between her Raptor form and her human body. “There’s
so much we can do, the five of us. For sure we’ll be
unstoppable.”
  

O’bellaDonna agreed. Her
mind shot off a hundred ideas of where she could go and what she
could do. She smiled to herself. “Rimselda, teach me how to change
into a Raptor.”
  

Chelsea and Jackie had
turned into Raptors when they’d reached the park. O’bellaDonna had
been too exhausted from running through half the city and had
instantly fallen asleep. She was up now and ready to start her new
life. “I bet I’ll look so hot when I’m
Raptored.”
  

“
I’m the
cutest Raptor, hands down,” Chelsea yelled up from the bottom of
the crumbling stairs. She had refused to sleep on the second level,
afraid that it would collapse under all their
weight.
  

Jackie yelled down at her.
“Just because you have pink wings doesn’t make you the
cutest!”
  

O’bellaDonna and Rimselda
laughed.
  

“
Let
Kurma show you,” said Rimselda. “She’s the best teacher for all
that.”
  

“
Well,
where is she?” asked O’bellaDonna. “I haven’t seen her at all since
we’ve been up. I’m ready to get this party started!” O’bellaDonna
stood up and ran around the circular room, pretending to spar with
an imaginary person.
  

Rimselda rested on the
floor and looked up at O’bellaDonna. She could have showed her, but
had thought better of it. “She went on the roof. I think she
doesn’t want to be bothered right now.”
  

O’bellaDonna stopped
sparring and gave an exasperated groan. “So what do we do now? We
just have to sit around until she feels better?”
  

Rimselda knew O’bellaDonna
could get very competitive, and enjoyed every minute of her not
being able to command her Raptor state. She put her arms behind her
head and got comfortable. This would be a long and hectic ride with
all these girls.
  

“
Rimy!”
screamed O’bellaDonna.
  

But Rimselda only tuned
her out and waited for Kurma to return.
  

37.

BlueK
Dynasty
  

The high pine trees
blocked out the sun long enough in Dover Park Square. Kurma had to
fly atop the stone museum’s slated roof to catch a glimpse of the
first sun rays. She sat by herself, knees to her chest, naked in
her human form. Her hair hung limply down her back, adding warmth
to her skin. From the roof she could see the skyscrapers of
downtown Alexandria. She heard the screams from the inner city and
knew things hadn’t died down. The park was her little haven for the
time being, but even that wouldn’t last.
  

Kurma looked at the
tallest building, the Olivares Tower. It housed the most important
individuals in the city: government officials, millionaires, and
business tycoons. If they were smart they would have left the city
last night. The Olivares Tower would be ripe for picking, and more
importantly for living.
  

If Kurma planned on
building anything then she needed a headquarter—one as splendid and
exclusive as the Olivares Tower. Here in Dover Square, she was too
exposed, too open. Santino could easily scour the city looking for
her, planning an attack for his revenge. She had to be smarter than
him. She would need a fortress, more Raptors, and power to keep the
Phantoms at bay so she could build her Raptor
legacy.
  

Kurma had high hopes for
her new life. It had only been seven days since she had been
transformed into a Raptor. She was still here. Nothing had defeated
her so far. She had battled Phantoms and Jeers, and had formed a
solid assemblage of Raptors. Whatever had caused her and Santino’s
changes had opened up Pandora’s Box, and out had popped Phantoms
and Raptors. Kurma had stumbled onto an entire area that had yet to
be seized. She was the first of her kind, and Santino was the first
of his kind. She had every intention to win, to create a world
where she
 
made the decisions and rules, and where Raptors came first.
This was only the beginning. Kurma was a young leader in the
making. She would create a dynasty, the BlueK Dynasty and be the
first Raptor ruler there ever was.
  

Kurma transformed. She stood up with
her head high and spread her blue wings, then flew up off the roof,
aiming straight for the heavens with the sun against her
back.