Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (7 page)

I could smell him. His blood pumping,
churning so freshly in his veins. The sour scent of the light sheen
of sweat which covered his body almost distracted me from the
delicious aroma of his blood. He had barely let go of the bread
before I had ahold of his arm. I pulled him flush against the bars
and bit into the veins at his wrist with a brutality I never
thought possible of myself. Mihalis and Pavlos were right behind
me, reaching through the bars for the poor servant’s other
limbs.

“
Afterward, the servant’s
body dropped to the floor and once again, we were sated, if only
for another short time. Each of us felt remorse for killing the
servant, but we did realize that when the hunger took over, we did
not feel that way. When the hunger took over we did not care about
anything but feeding.

“
We spoke amongst ourselves
in the cells. The girls, Korina and Elene, were in the cell next to
us with Vlasis, so we could hear them even though we could not see
them. We were not imprisoned long, for soon Chryssa came to see
what had become of the servant who never reported back to
her.

“
She approached the cells
without fear, knowing that we would obey her every word. A darkness
we had never seen before surrounded her, as if the summoning of the
dark powers had left a stain on her aura. She found the dead
servant and looked to us with no regret in her eyes or her words.
She told us she would be back with a proper feeding. However … it
was too late, we detested her and not one of us trusted her word.
And most important, none of us, including Chryssa herself, knew
that the blood we had already consumed had made us even more
powerful. With every drop of blood our strength grew and so did our
ability to deny her demands.

“
She once had a power over
us because she created us, but she created demons who evolved with
the life force of others.

“
As she strode away into
the darkness of the hallway leading away from the cell, I felt
anger well up inside of me. How dare she treat us this way! It was
bad enough when we were treated poorly as servants, but being
locked away and fed like animals because of her own selfishness …
well, that was what sent me over the edge.

“
In a flash, I was at the
bars. My hands wrapped around the thick iron, grasping them with
the rugged hands of a servant. I pulled inward with my anger
fueling the motion. All of us in the cell were surprised when the
iron cracked and split in the middle. I took no time to revel in
the shock of what I had done. Instead, I forced the bars even
farther toward me until I had an opening and I ran. I barely
realized that I had moved with supernatural speed when I found her
alone in the dim torchlight of the hall. She only had time to spin
to face me, her charcoal mane flowing out around her at the same
instant my hands wrapped around her neck.

“‘
Stop!’ she choked out. ‘I
command you to stop!’ Unlike before, I was able to ignore her
wishes. When she ordered us to kill and go down to the cells, we
obeyed because our bodies left us no choice, but now … I was the
one in control.

“
The others, all five of
them, appeared behind me and slowly encircled her. She actually had
the decency to look afraid of us. However, didn’t stop her from
trying to call out commands to stop us. She called upon the powers
of her ancestors as she had done before, but this time nothing
appeared to help her. I grasped her neck even tighter and squeezed,
feeling her heart rate quicken with fear and the blood pump even
faster. I then brought my lips to her shoulder and let my fangs
slip into her perfect golden skin, piercing the vein.

“
My comrades followed suit,
each taking a piece of her … our beautiful maker. And like her
husband, we drank from her until there was no life left in her.
Then … well, then we had no choice. We ran. We ran as far away as
we could get from the home of Chryssa and Leventrios.

“
The six of us traveled
together for a long time, never staying in one place for very long
at all. We discovered a lot about the creatures we had become as we
traveled. Much of it was trial and error, like the fact that we
could not set foot into the daylight. The day we discovered that
was a sad day. You never realize how much something like sunlight
means to you until you cannot have it.”

Anthony’s gaze moved to the darkened
windows as he remembered the loss. “After many years of moving
around, we also found that none of us aged. We stayed exactly the
same as we were the day Chryssa cursed us.

“
None of knew for a very
long time that we could make more of our kind. It was an accident
when it happened the first time. Korina, she drank a man to the
brink of death, but did not kill him. This was the first of our
offspring. The others, except for Vlasis, were thrilled to find
that we could create more of our kind. Even after many, many years,
they were still bitter over what Chryssa had done to us. So, they
made up for the loneliness of only having each other by making
others like us with the hopes that they would join our small
group.

“
The newborns, they became
a problem. We found that they could not be controlled, and were
even worse than we were when we were created. Our offspring were
born with a lust far worse than our own. Few of those that were
created stayed with us and eventually, the warrior woman and the
warrior angel appeared to kill off our rapidly growing kind. We
lost Elena, Mihalis, and Vlasis to the warriors during that sad
time, it was then that we discovered the secret of killing head of
the line. When each of them died, their entire line fell to their
death within a few hours. Korina, Pavlos, and I went into hiding,
hoping to avoid the wrath of the warriors. We knew that we were
evil and that we should not exist, but even as demons, the human
will to survive ran strong in our veins.

“
The three of us stayed
hidden for a long time, coming out into the villages and cities to
feed. We were very careful not to create anymore vampires. Well …
Pavlos and I were, Korina was another story. Our beautiful
handmaiden, our sister, she had another evil that lived inside of
her. As the years passed by, she began to resent humans all
together, she felt them beneath us … she began creating vampires
unbeknownst to us.

“
By then, the warriors had
created their own offspring.” He waved his hand toward us. “The
Hunters. Your race was born to kill ours.”

Damn straight! And if he didn’t get to
the point of this story that was exactly what I was going to do to
him.

“
We discovered what Korina
had done when the Hunters waged war on the vampires. Pavlos and I
did not want any more of our kind tainting the earth, for we still
had some humanity left in us and knew without a doubt that those
evil offspring should not be allowed to survive. So we fought with
the Hunters, tracking the demons and killing them.”

Drew shifted in his chair. “Why didn’t
you just kill Korina?”

Anthony shrugged. “She is my family.
That long with someone builds a bond, whether you actually like
that person or not is a different story than if you love them. I
loved her, we were as brother and sister in a world where all odds
were against us.”

“
Would have solved a lot of
problems,” I mumbled under my breath.

Anthony’s head snapped in my
direction. “Little Hunter, do not speak of things you know nothing
about. Spend a hundred years with him,” he waved his hand at Drew,
“and then kill him because he made a few mistakes in that
century.”

I kept silent. I wouldn’t do it; that
was all there was to it. I would like to say that I could kill
someone I love for the greater good, but even after only knowing
Drew a few years, I would never be able to do that.

I didn’t apologize or elaborate on my
thoughts to him, though. “Keep going.” I knew the important parts
of the story were coming soon.

“
We were almost killed by
Hunters many times. That was one secret we kept, the secret of the
bloodline. The Hunters did not know and we kept it that way in
order to keep the three of us safe.

“
Eventually, most of the
stray vampires were killed, but not all. A few lived and moved on
to create more and more. With the Hunters now in existence, it
became their problem to deal with. Until we went our separate
ways.”

“
So Korina and Pavlos still
live? That makes the three of you?”

Anthony nodded. “Yes, I have not
created an offspring since the times of the warrior woman and the
warrior angel. It is safe to assume that Korina and Pavlos are the
remaining bloodlines of the vampires.”

I returned to my pacing. “Do you know
where they are?” Man, why couldn’t he just tell us this before. I
loved my history, but that was a long story that could have been
summed up with the part at the end.

“
I know where Korina is,
and I’m assuming that the problem here is associated with her. I
don’t think that Pavlos is in this country.”

Drew stood up, clutching his gun so
tightly his knuckles were turning white. “Tell us,” he demanded of
Anthony.

“
New Orleans.” He tapped
his fingers on the table.. “Korina resides in New
Orleans.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Of
course she does,” I said sarcastically, and looked to Drew. “You up
for a road trip?”

He nodded. “We have to.”

Anthony stood, but neither Drew nor I
moved to shoot him or anything like that. He seemed all right for
now. Then he gave us the final bit of information. “Like I said,
you can kill me if you want to afterward, however … there is one
thing that I think you’re forgetting.”

Here it comes. I should have known
there would be an ultimatum. The situation thus far just seemed too
easy. “What?”

“
You, young Chloe, are half
vampire, also descended from one of our three lines.”

Oh.My.God. How could I have forgotten
something like that?

He smiled. “Do not worry, after a bit
of researching I have discovered it is my own line that you are
born of … So, as long as I live, then so do you.”

My gun hand dropped to my side. “Oh,
crap.”

~~***~~

Drew and I abandoned hunting for the
night and went back to the house. We left Anthony at the apartment;
he had told us that he would stay there for now and if we wanted to
find him that he’d be there. As uncomfortable as it made me to just
leave a vampire out there, we couldn’t really take him with us.
Although, I was pretty sure he already knew where we
lived.

We had to talk to the rest of the
group and the other Hunters back at Arcadia Falls about the
situation as soon as possible. So, continuing to hunt for the night
wasn’t an option. It wasn’t like we really wanted to go out after
learning all that we had, anyway.

Back at the house, we found everyone
asleep. With the exception of Gavin, who was running the security
system, and Christina, who was on patrolling the grounds
outside.

Christina met us in the driveway as
soon as Drew parked the truck. I caught sight of her jogging toward
us as she appeared out of the darkness. The breeze caused strands
of her dark hair to fly up behind her as she made her way in our
direction. As always, she wore something fashionable, even if it
was only to guard the inner grounds of our home. This particular
night she had chosen a pair of black jeans and a black tank top.
This outfit was accentuated by a lot of silver. Her boots were
combat style, reached her knees, and had all kinds of buckles on
them. She didn’t wear any bracelets because they usually made too
much noise, but she made up for that with a pile of silver chains
of all different sizes looped around her neck. Her gun belt rested
on her hips and held a gun on each side. I preferred the shoulder
holster myself. Of course, Christina wouldn’t be Christina without
her knives, which could be seen strapped onto her thighs. There
were most likely more knives on her body that we couldn’t see; she
always had several knives of different shapes and sizes on
her.

“
Hey,” she greeted us as we
hopped down from the truck.

I waved. “Hey. How is everything
here?”

She shrugged. “It’s pretty quiet
tonight. Nothing so far.”

Drew came around the front of the
truck and we all walked in together.

“
What about you guys, how
was your night?” she asked. The front door clicked several times as
Gavin unlocked them for us. Once the door was open, we all filed
into the house and headed for the kitchen. I immediately went for
the fridge and got out a couple of water bottles.

“
It was eventful,
actually.” I tossed one of the waters to Drew and uncapped the
remaining one. “We have some very, very interesting information
that everyone needs to know about, even The Board.”

Christina’s eyebrows shot up. “That
important, huh?”

The Board consisted of some of the
older Hunters. Once they didn’t go out on missions anymore, they
were made part of The Board. All decisions regarding the community
of Arcadia Falls or the vampire hunting missions were approved or
disapproved by The Board beforehand. I wasn’t a favorite of the The
Board at the moment. They were pissed at me because we went behind
their back and took down the Talon Building, a building made up
entirely of vampire run businesses. It was what started this whole
vampire apocalypse to begin with.