The Legends of Blood Volume 1
"Blood Lust"
By: Myke D
Part 3: Secrets
19: The Lucky Ones - Evan
It was surprisingly easy for me and David to slip Jenna out of the hospital undetected. We loaded her up in the SUV and were soon back on the highway. David turned on a heavy metal station to cover up the sounds of Jenna's grunt and groans as we traveled throughout the night.
"How much farther?" I asked as the sound of the music was beginning to get on my nerves after four hours of metal.
"We're almost to the Poconos," David replied. "We'll set out on foot in about another fifty miles. Lulu has already been notified of our imminent arrival. She'll have a room ready for Jenna to finish the change in."
"Good," I said quietly. I glanced back at the blonde-haired girl. She had been my best friend as we grew up. Now, she was going to be my best friend in Death. I felt better about letting her make the choice instead of me making it for her, and it had helped me learn a new aspect of my abilities.
"So," David began hesitantly. "Do you want to talk about your little mind trick that you worked back there?"
I shrugged.
"It's kind of hard to explain, honestly." I told the Hunter.
"What did you do?"
"I put an image of a white room within her mind, and I went in and talked to her." I explained. "You know what happened after that."
"Were you really in her mind?"
"I think so," I said as a chill went down my spine. I could still feel all of her emotions as if I was still connected with her. I shook my head to clear my mind of all of her fears. There was something more important I needed to think about. "How do I get my brother back, David?"
Mr. Hunter hesitated before he finally answered me.
"I'm not sure, Evan." The man said quietly. "From what I understand, there are still a few more events that need to play out before any definite plan can be put in place."
"What does that mean?" I demanded in confusion. "I'm getting tired of all of these riddles."
"You're not the only one, Evan." David said. I could tell that he was dodging my question, but I decided to let it go for the time being. The man clearly had more to tell me. "You're going to have to give it time, Evan. We're playing by somebody else's rules in this game."
I groaned in defeat.
"You're just going to have to trust me, Evan." David explained. "There's not much that I can tell you."
"What are you capable of telling me, David?" I clenched my teeth to hold back the frustrated growl. "I really need to know what I'm up against."
David sighed in defeat.
"All I can tell you is that you're going to change a total of four people before the first battle takes place," David said. "So far, you've made two new vampires."
"Who are the other two?" I asked in a hushed whisper.
"Nobody knows for certain, Evan." The man stated in a soft voice. "I know that your life has been full of challenges..."
"That's an understatement," I muttered under my breath.
David chuckled lightly before he continued.
"There is an end to all of this, though."
"How long until we get there?" I asked quietly.
"The end?"
"Yeah."
David chuckled.
"We've still got a way to go before we wind up at the end of this journey, Evan." The Hunter told me with a reassuring smile. "The obstacles that we face are just going to get more difficult with each one. It's not an easy path that we're on. Especially for you."
I frowned and turned my attention back to the road. Mr. Hunter had given me more information than anybody else. Now, I knew that I was going to have to change two more people into vampires before I even had a chance of rescuing my little brother. Jenna groaned in pain from the backseat. Her head injury kept her from feeling all of the pain yet as the venom worked its way through her body. She had been loaded with morphine and other medications, and I was certain that those chemicals were helping to dull the pain of the fire.
"How long do you think she'll be under for?"
"How long did it take you to go through the change?" David asked.
"Eight days," I replied with a shrug. "It took Tatum nearly six days to finish the process."
David looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Well, we can assume that it will be anywhere between four and ten days for the time being." Mr. Hunter said. "Other species of vampires take between three days and three weeks. I think it just matters on the species. With you being a new species, I think we're just going to have to go through a trial and error phase. We have time to figure out these little differences between you and Arella."
"Like being able to walk around in the sunlight?"
David chuckled.
"We're getting close to the safe house," David stated after a few more minutes of silence. "We need to find somewhere to stash this vehicle."
I glanced towards the road ahead and saw a break in the trees coming up on our right.
"There," I said as I pointed towards the clearing.
"Works for me," David stated before he parked the truck.
We made sure that the SUV was covered with brush to keep anybody from seeing it from the road in case we weren't able to retrieve it for a while. I carried Jenna's twitching body over my shoulder as we ran off into the thick forest.
`Lulu's Hideaway' was quiet when we approached. We kept ourselves hidden in the bushes on the far side of the road. Three SUVs sat out front of the building and we could see flashlights sweeping across the walls of the main lobby. My stomach twisted into knots as I began to worry about Tatum and Dylan. They would have been back by then.
"What's going on?" I asked quietly.
"I'm not sure," David replied. "Those are government vehicles, Evan. I think Director Croft may have found the location of the safe house."
"Shit," I muttered. "What do we do?"
"We have no choice but to wait, Evan." David said grimly. "Lauren has plenty of safeguards in place to keep the humans from finding the actual bunker. I'm almost positive that she's watch..."
A sudden gun shot from within the motel made David fall silent, and I held my breath as I waited to see what was going to happen next. Seven men came out of the motel and got into the awaiting SUVs. Each of the vehicles threw stones from the parking lot as they spun their tires to get away.
I picked up Jenna and ran across the road with David beside me. David held the door for me as I stepped into the building with my new offspring. I laid her against one of the walls before I turned to hear groans of pain coming from behind the counter. I turned to see David looking at me apprehensively and I suddenly understood that these was going to be one of those choices that I had to make on my own.
"I'm going to go check on Lulu," David stated. He turned for the hidden door that led downstairs when it suddenly burst open. Lulu came running out – her eyes scanned the room until she saw the figure lying on the ground behind the counter. I followed behind her slowly as she knelt down and took Leonard's body into her arms. He gasped for breath as she held him against her chest, and I could tell that they were both in pain. There was only one way for me to help them. I glanced back to see Jenna lying against the wall as my venom ran through her body before I turned back to Lulu and Leonard. I moved around the counter and kneeled beside the woman. There were tears in her eyes as she turned her gaze to me.
"I shouldn't have left him alone," she whimpered quietly. "I promised him that I would always be there to protect him, Evan. I promised him."
Leonard's eyes were a deep brown color as I gazed down at his face. He was pale and I could hear his heartbeat beginning to falter in its journey. The moment had come...
"Lady Lauren?" I said her name in a near whisper.
Lulu looked at me and I could see the pleading look in her red eyes. She needed me to save Leonard.
"I'll do it," I said before I moved over to the other side of his body. I took his arm and stroked the back of his hand reassuringly before I brought his wrist up to my lips. "Don't scream, Leonard. This is a bad time for me to be doing this."
Leonard's eyes went wide, and he gasped slightly as my teeth sunk into the tender flesh of his wrist. The blood squirted into my mouth and it took all the control I had to not gulp it down thirstily. No, Leonard had to live. Lauren would never forgive me if I killed her beloved.
He's not her beloved anymore, Evan.' A strange voice told me in the back of my mind. He's ours now.'
Leonard and Jenna were put in the same room for the duration of their changes. Tatum and Dylan were staying behind at the motel to help Lulu keep an eye on the two newborns if they awoke before Jon and I returned from Section-9. The members of the Alliance had returned to their own homes the moment Jon had returned with the news about the newborn army. There were preparations to be made for the coming battle. Each Elder had went to gather their own forces. There was no telling how large Sonya was going to make her army before we had a chance to take her down.
"Agent Croft has been calling for three days straight, Evan." Jon warned me as we pulled up outside of the old prison. The Section-9 Headquarters had been buried beneath the prison to help keep the anonymity of the agency in the area. It was easier to move armored cars in and out of a prison than it was an office building. "He's worried that we've ran out on him."
"Is that why he sent those men to attack the safe house?" I demanded in an irritated tone.
"That wasn't Agent Croft, Evan." Jon informed me coolly. "It was the FBI trying to hone in on the CIA's territory. The FBI knows that Section-9 exists in theory, but they've never been able to infiltrate the agency. There's too many checks and balances in place to prevent that from happening."
"So, why doesn't the President do something to stop the conflict within his own agencies?" I asked.
"He can't control something that he doesn't know about, Evan." Jon stated. "The Underworld has been kept a secret for a very long time. One that is guarded very closely. In these modern days with modern weapons, our kinds face new threats when it comes to being exposed. We can actually be annihilated. This isn't just a battle of life and death anymore, Evan. It's went beyond that. The secret must always be kept."
"Oh shit," I muttered. "What about the window incident?"
"Surprisingly," Jon said with a grin. "Nobody has picked it up yet. I doubt anybody is going to now. It's already been three days."
"At least we know that I'm old news." I stated with a laugh.
The gates to the prison finally slid open, and Jon pulled through without any trouble. He rolled down the window and showed his ID to the man at the guard shack before we were permitted to continue into the facility. The guard had gave us an odd look which I waved off as the fact that my eyes were red as blood. We stopped outside of a different entrance than the normal access tunnel that we used to enter the building. Neither of us was surprised to find Director Croft or my uncle waiting for us inside of the doors.
"It's good to finally see you, gentlemen." Agent Croft said with a slight sneer in his voice.
"We ran into a little trouble in Philadelphia, Director Croft." Jon informed the man in an even tone.
"The gang violence?"
"It's not gang violence," Jon said. "It's an army of newborn vampires."
Agent Croft frowned thoughtfully for a moment.
"It seems that it's time to put my next plan into action," Croft stated drily.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Director Croft." Uncle Mason protested. "You have no idea how he's going to react to this."
"There's only one way to find out, Doctor Mason." Croft said as if he was reminding my uncle of his position. The man smiled at me. "Come with me, Evan. There's something I need to show you downstairs. Meet me in my office, Jon. I want a full report on this newborn army."
I followed the man into an elevator and held my breath as the doors slid closed. His scent filled the small room and it took everything I had not to lunge out and kill him. My thoughts were filled with the desire to drain the eggplant shaped man dry and how good his blood would taste as it filled my mouth. Finally, the doors slid open and I could breathe again. In front of us was a small waiting room where two armed guards stood. Beyond them was a long hallway lined with solid steel doors. I could hear multiple heartbeats coming from the hallway and I realized that I was in one of the cell blocks.
"What is this, Director Croft?" I asked.
"The future of Section-9," the man replied pleasantly as he motioned me to keep moving forward. I had just stepped beyond the edge of the hallway when a door slammed shut behind me. I turned quickly and grabbed the metal bars that the door was made of. I yelped with pain and let go when a surge of electricity jolted through my body.
"What the fuck are you doing, Croft?" I demanded with a growl.
"I'm ensuring my success, Evan." Director Croft stated with a sneer. "Without your cooperation, the entire plan is pointless. You were the only person out of hundreds that survived the injection of the serum, and it's been proven that you can create more vampires that are just like you."
"You want me to create an army for you?" I asked in disbelief.
"Essentially," the man stated with a smug grin.
"What do I get out of this if I help you?"
"You get your freedom," Croft responded quickly. "And, I'll make sure that Ethan is well taken care of financially for the remainder of his life."
I stared at Al Croft in disbelief as I began to loathe the man. He was blackmailing me into creating him an army of vampires. I made up my mind at that moment. I would never do what he wanted.
"Don't come to any rash decisions, Evan." Croft warned me. "I would hate for something to happen to your little brother."
I was stunned into silence by his words. The eggplant shaped man grinned smugly and I growled angrily. Croft quickly backed away from my cage and disappeared into the elevator.
**********I hope you enjoyed this chapter from "The Legends of Blood". Things are finally moving forward, and it's time for the Alliance to come together to prepare for the battles that are coming. Next time... Chapter 20 – Painless
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