Fledgling (The Vampire Manifesto, Book Two) (6 page)

The pain flared up again, stronger this time, but I kept going, through the living room, crashing out the sliding patio glass doors, then leaping up once I hit the balcony. I was in the air, just seconds before the eagle began to dive bomb in the direction of the government SUV that detained Staci Girard. My body slammed into the side of the all-terrain vehicle, the strength of impact kicking the vehicle up on two wheels then flipping it over altogether just as the flaming eagle smashed into the ground where it had previously been only a second before.

The SUV slid across the street, skidding over the sidewalk then down a slight hill that led to the beach. I hit the blacktop, tumbling across the pavement, my body slamming into the embankment, flipping me haphazard like over the SUV. I came crashing down into the sand just a few feet away in a low crouch, my fingers and feet dug deep into the sand to stop all momentum.

“Holy shit.” I whispered to myself. I remained motionless for a moment, breathing heavily.

The SUV was turned on its side and there was a racket from its interior, someone was trying to kick the door open, but the metal was twisted in a way that it wouldn’t budge. From my crouch, I leaped forward, landing on the side of the vehicle, one leg on each side of the passenger side door. I reached down and pulled the door free from its hinges, flinging it over my head without a second thought, the dented metal landing somewhere far off in the ocean. I leaned forward and reached inside again, grabbing Girard by her collar, hoisting her up and out of the SUV.

“There you are.” I smiled.

“They…they were going to kill me.” She stammered. “I did everything they asked and they were still going to kill me, but you…you saved my life even though I betrayed you.”

I tossed her to the ground just a little bit harder then I should have, but nowhere near as hard as she deserved, then jumped down, landing just in front of her. “I gave you my word...” I could hear rumblings behind me and as I turned, Defense Initiative Agents were scrambling down from the street onto the beach. I counted at least twenty. “…unfortunately.”

“Please Madison, don’t let them take me.” Cried Girard. “Please help me.”

“Don’t worry.” I sounded more confident then I felt. “I got this.”

“You there!” Someone called out.

I turned towards them, positioning myself in between the Defense Initiative Agents and Staci.

I saw him approaching, wearing the same type of ebony and yellow body armor as the others. I recognized him as soon as I caught sight of him. Asian, around twenty-nine, white hair, with a vicious looking scar going down the side of his face.

“You must be the man in charge.” I acknowledged. “Colonel Hawking I take it?”

“My reputation precedes me.” The Colonel declared. “As well it should.”

I held up my hand. “Stop!” I yelled. “Don’t come any closer.”

Colonel Hawking continued coming towards me. “And if I don’t?”

I exhaled. “Then you’re going to have a monumental problem on your hands.”

The Colonel paused then held up a closed fist. When he did, his men ceased advancing towards me, yet I could tell they were more than welcome to take me up on my challenge.

“Look, I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.” The Colonel said. “All I want is the woman there and Connor. That’s it.”

“You attempted to acquire Connor and failed.” I was beginning to get my nerve, stalling for time. “As for the woman, she comes with me.”

“Right now, whoever you are, you’re in the clear. You can still walk away from this, still have a normal life.” Colonel Hawking shook his head. “Do not add yourself to my mission statement. Just walk away. Walk away now and I’ll overlook the fact that you assisted a known terrorist and mass murderer in evading incarceration.”

“Connor is not a terrorist.” All I could do was hold my ground. He was testing me, seeing if I was going to crack under the pressure. He wanted to see if I was going to cave in and give him what he wants without a fight, but I’ve had to fight for everything in my life so why would I give up now?

“If the President of the United States declares you a terrorist, then you’re a terrorist.” The Colonel looked back at his men and gave a slight nod, then turned back to me. “Go home. I’m not going to ask you again.”

“I can’t do that.” I shot a hurried glance towards Girard. “Whatever happens, just stay behind me.”

“Okay.” She hastily agreed.

“Well what are you waiting for?” I looked at the Colonel dead on. “I don’t have all fucking night.”

Hawking just laughed. “Alright then.”

He began to walk towards me.

“Here we go.” I dashed forward. I came at him as fast as I could, yet Colonel Hawking effortlessly evaded, spinning behind me, grabbing the back of my ankle, jerking it upwards. I fell forward, my face slamming into the ground, yet he still had me gripped by the ankle, hoisting me up in the air, punching me in my back. I heard something crack and I couldn’t move.

I was paralyzed.

He let go of my ankle and I collapsed to the ground in a crumbled heap. I tried to move, but I couldn’t, nothing in my body was functioning. Colonel Hawking kicked me once in the stomach and my body popped up in the air, landing about fifteen feet away. I rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop, the tide of the ocean splashing against my face. Girard was running towards me now, attempting to pull me to my feet, but I was all broken inside. No matter how hard I tried, nothing responded.

I could perceive the Colonel advancing, but I couldn’t see him, all I could witness was how lovely the stars were. I recalled the night of the accident, the night Terry died, remembering how beautiful the stars looked that night as well. Except this time there was a bright, burning star getting closer and closer. I smiled inwardly.

About damn time.

Connor dropped from the sky in-between Colonel Hawking and myself with the strength of a meteorite impact. His body was burning so hot that the clumps of sand that had been kicked up from his landing immediately solidified into glass. It was as if Connor were some burning hot drop of water and the sand was a lake and the splash that he generate when he struck ground, burned in place, a glass cut statue of a water splash with Connor at the center.

He was in a kneeling position and underneath him the earth grew red hot, a bubbling froth of lava gurgling underneath him and as it developed and grew, Connor was lifted from the ground, straddling this molten lava mass between his legs. The magma began to take form, expanding in size, limbs and a head beginning to form just as horns began growing from that. In a matter of seconds, it was huge, muscled, lava mass in the form of a Bull, with Connor riding on its back.

This thing, this vehement Bull that was constructed from rampant lava roared and huffed, spurts of magma squirting out of its nostrils. It began stomping its foot, prepared to stampede at a moment’s notice as Connor rode on top of it, his hands gripping its mane, which was composed of raw flame.

“Prometheus.” Colonel Hawking stood in admiration. “It appears you’ve gotten quite a grip on those abilities of yours since we last met.”

“I’d have to thank the Marauders for that.” Connor gestured the Bull forward and as it marched, the molten creature left flaming footprints in the sand. “They endeavored to sedate me, give me something to prohibit me from engineering fire, but instead, all it did was make me stronger as I tried to burn through the drug.”

“You mean back in San Francisco?” Colonel Hawking backed up somewhat. “They experimented on you and then by hook or by crook, persuaded you that the outcome was all your doing? Nice.”

“What are you doing in Palm Coast, Colonel?” Connor demanded.

“You do realize that the Translucent Man and his merry band of Marauders are behind all the unlawful, Transhuman, gene experimentation in California and you just so happen to get a power level intensification and that doesn’t ring any bells to you?” Hawking seemed doubtful that Connor hadn’t put that together. He glanced at me. “Not unless you’ve got another angle you’re playing at here.”

The Colonel just smiled. “Same old Prometheus. Plots behind plots, schemes behind schemes, suspect loyalties in play and a nice, pretty, young thing smack dab in the middle.”

“What do you want Steven?” Connor was advancing again.

“You fucked up in California, son.” The Colonel stood his ground. “You attracted too much attention, left to many eyewitnesses. I mean, you blew up a fucking residential neighborhood. A Supreme Court Justice lived six doors down for Christ’s sake. Not to mention that little fiasco on the freeway. Come on man, what did you think was going to happen? Did you really think that there wasn’t going to be any governmental blow back on this one?”

“Get out of my city.” Connor demanded.

I felt a tingling in my toes, I was beginning to regain sensation again which means my shattered back was mending, the Vampiric healing sluggishly beginning to take effect. I attempted to move and a searing pain raced through my body. I wanted to scream, but I stifled off any sound, not wanting to divulge precisely how bad off I was to the Colonel.

“You forced the Presidents hand, Prometheus.” Steven Hawking never looked at one of us to long, shifting his gaze from Connor, then myself, then back to Connor. He was attempting to size up the situation, figuring out a game plan, determining if he and his squad could take us. “He’s going on TV later tonight. I’m not sure what it’s going to be about, or what he’s going to say, but it can’t be good.”

“The President?” Connor seemed apathetic. “You tell the old man that he couldn’t kill me twenty years ago and he won’t be able to now.”

“If memory serves, the only reason he didn’t kill you twenty years ago was because I stopped him.” Hawking fired back.

The ground began to tremble somewhat and six hot spots began to appear, scattered out in the sand, little crimson circles spreading, getting bigger and hotter, the sand solidifying to glass over top of them. Suddenly the glass exploded outward on all six and a bubbling lava pit was reveled underneath, the magma effervescing up, taking shape, its mass twisting and turning, elongating, taking on the form of a rhinoceros, flame and lava spurting this way and that as they all began to dig their hooves into the ground.

“Get out of my city.” Connor demanded.

“You caught me at a disadvantage.” Hawking raised his hands up, backing away. “I hate being at a disadvantage.” He turned around and retreated back up towards the thoroughfare, his legionnaires slowly following after him, their weapons still trained on us.

Just before Hawking disappeared from view, he turned around again and called out. “Oh yeah and about your colleague over there.” He pointed towards me. “She’s now officially on my radar.” With his left hand, he made a circle with his index finger and thumb, the rest of his fingers standing straight up. He then placed the circle over his eye briefly. “Be seeing you.”

Connor held his position, his beasts in a defensive circle around us. We stayed like that for a while, not moving until I could acquire my strength and stand on my own.

“Where is everybody?” Girard wondered aloud.

“Everybody like whom?” Connor asked.

“Civilians.” She said. “Just regular people.”

“This whole area has been quarantined off for the next twenty-four hours.” He explained. “Standard Defense Initiative protocol.”

Girard was helping me to my feet, brushing the sand out of my face. “How do you know that?”

“Because I was the one who wrote the protocol.” He exclaimed. The mount that he rode began to dissolve and as it did, the others began to disperse, shrinking in on themselves until they were nothing.

Chapter 2

That special little death…

“Can you walk?” Connor angrily brushed Girard away, looking me over to see if I was okay.

“Hey!” She protested. “Rude much?”

Connor shot her glance that silenced her completely.

“Whatever.” Girard rolled her eyes. “Sooo, are we near your car or are we gonna have to steal something?”

“I wanna go home, Connor.” It was difficult for me to speak, but I knew that it would only be a day or two before I was back at peak performance.

“Yeah, whatever you say.” He was so genuine, so concerned that my heart went out to him, my little dark haired savior. “Are you sure you can walk? I can carry you.”

“I’m fine Connor.” He can be so sweet when he wasn’t being a homicidal asshole. “Hell, I’ve already died twice; think a little broken back is gonna keep me down?”

We headed towards the street, the three of us, looking at the desolate emptiness there.

“Wait for me.” Connor instructed before whisking himself away.

After a couple of moments, Girard seemed comfortable enough to speak. “You move like him.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.” It was something that had just become so second nature to me of late that I forgot how it would appear to someone who actually knew me from before. “He’s a lot faster though.”

“If you say so.” She was staring at me, examining me with her bookworm eyes. “Your wounds are all gone.”

“I still feel shitty, but yeah, for the most part.” I wish she would stop looking at me that way.