Crimson Storm Page 2

  “Whoa—wait a minute. What did you do?” the guard yelled, falling back a few more steps.

  “As a wise friend of mine once said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’” Nathaniel said and began to climb, moving so quickly his body blurred in my vision.

  “You want death? You got it Grampa,” the guard yelled in a panicky tone. He raised his rifle and fired.

  Nathaniel fell to the concrete. After a second, he clutched his stomach and began screaming. A hole appeared in his midsection, its burning edges spreading rapidly outward until the cavity expanded to erode the vampire’s entire chest then his neck and abdomen.

  The screaming stopped.

  It was the first time I’d seen someone die here. And I’d never seen someone die like that.

  I’d heard about what the new UV weapons could do, of course. They were discussed on the news as either the latest and greatest form of “home protection”—or the harbinger of mass genocide—depending on what network you watched. I’d never dreamed they’d be so effective though.

  Seeing Nathaniel, who’d lived through twelve wars and who knew how many battles, reduced to a smoldering pile of disconnected limbs sickened me.

  It also reminded me of something Reece had said during one of our walks together not long before I’d left the Bastion for California.

  They won’t rest until every last one of us is burned from the consciousness of humanity.

  At the time I’d believed he was simply cynical. Now I’d begun to wonder if he’d been the smartest of us all.

  3

  Bullies

  “Any of the rest of you bloodsuckers want some?” Gatlin yelled in a shaky voice.

  Striding close to the fence again, he pointed his rifle at the small group of vampires who’d ventured near to investigate Nathaniel’s remains—or perhaps test the barrier themselves.

  They scattered and retreated, leaving the guard smiling.

  “That’s right. The president has assured us there’s plenty more of those UV rounds coming—more than enough to take care of all of you.” He lifted a walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Get someone out here to test the western barrier. Now.”

  Behind me, the sound of whimpers was followed by a soft sob. I turned to see Kelly and Heather huddled together, staring in horror at the place where Nathaniel had stood only moments earlier.

  We’d been together when we were arrested in Los Angeles and tried to keep an eye on each other at all times here in the prison camp.

  While none of us were having a good time, I worried for Heather most of all. She was growing thinner by the day, and she frequently got the shakes. She had the vampire equivalent of low blood sugar.

  Before we’d been incarcerated, she’d managed it by drinking small doses of blood frequently. But here we had no control over when we were fed and how much. It was never enough—for any of us—which frankly was dangerous for our human captors.

  I walked over to my friends, whispering for them to follow me to the other side of the enclosure.

  “What’s going to happen to us, Abbi?” Kelly asked.

  “Did you hear what Gatlin said? He said none of us are getting out of here,” Heather said. There were tears in her eyes, making their lilac shade appear even lighter.

  “He was just talking tough,” I assured her, instilling as much confidence in my voice as I could muster. “Of course we’re getting out of here. It’s a temporary holding facility. As Mr. Bradford said, we’re American citizens. The Accord gave us full rights. We won’t antagonize the guards as he did. We’ll follow the rules and keep our heads down, and we’ll be fine until Sadie is able to secure our release. I’m sure she’s working on it as we speak.”

  Please God let Sadie be working on it.

  In spite of my confident words and tone of voice I was growing more worried with each passing week in confinement.

  Nathaniel had been foolish to challenge the armed guard, but he’d been right about one thing—it was wrong that we hadn’t been allowed to speak to an administrator by now or anyone outside the facility.

  “How would Sadie even know where we are?” Kelly argued. “They took all our phones.”

  A cold slice of fear bisected my empty belly. “I’m sure when we didn’t show up for work, she started looking for us,” I said. “You know how smart she is. She’ll figure out where we are and come for us—all of us. We’re innocent. We won’t be here much longer.”

  When I’d first heard about the Safety Centers, I hadn’t worried too much, assuming only those who’d violated the Accord were being sent to them.

  I hadn’t seen much of the world before my seventeenth birthday, having grown up in an Amish community far removed from the outside “English” world. I was barely aware of the Crimson Accord until I became a vampire myself.

  In my classes at the Bastion, I’d learned that prior to the signing of the Accord things had been ugly, with humans being drained or turned against their will and vampires being hunted and mostly in hiding.

  But once our numbers had grown significant enough, Sadie Aldritch, the leader of the Vampire-Human Coalition, had approached John F. Kennedy, the American president at the time, and convinced him a peaceful treaty between vampires and humans was the best thing for everyone.

  Kennedy had interceded with other world leaders, and for the past sixty years, humans and vampires had co-existed peacefully, except for in a very few holdout countries that still refused to acknowledge the existence of vampires.

  Vampires had become active members of their communities, and though there were always a few bad apples, most were considered exemplary workers who never called in sick, required no health insurance, happily covered night shifts, and made amazing long-haul truck drivers.

  Older vampires I knew told stories of how glorious it was to be able to go out in public for the first time without fear of being staked or shot. Red fireworks still lit up the night every twenty-fifth of April in celebration of Accord Day.

  The past few months though, had been disturbing. Vampire neighbors of ours in Burbank, a dermatologist and an advertising executive, had disappeared without a trace. Heather had been feeding their dog in their absence.

  Another friend, Larkin, had been abruptly fired from her research job and despite an Ivy League education and spotless employment record had been unable to find another one in her field. She’d had to leave the city and take a much less prestigious and lower paying job in San Francisco.

  And then there was the election. Graham Parker, who’d run for president on a hardline anti-vamp platform, had quickly amassed a small but very vocal following who harbored hatred toward vampires—any and all vampires.

  His campaign had worked hard to stir up fears among the rest of the humans in our country. Apparently, it had succeeded. He’d won the race.

  He hadn’t yet taken office, but since Election Day things had been rapidly changing.

  It seemed the Accord was unraveling, and the old animosity and suspicion between vampires and humans was bubbling up again. I only hoped Sadie and her allies at the Coalition would be able to keep it from boiling over into an all-out war.

  And that she could get me and my friends—and the other innocent vampires—out of this place soon.

  A bell rang, and the vampires in the yard raised their heads, almost as one.

  “Ration time,” called Phillip. He was one of the nice guards, and most nights he was the one who delivered our nightly meal.

  Lining up with my fellow detainees, I waited for him to hand me the small blood bag that would sustain me for another day. It wasn’t buttered popcorn, but it got the job done.

  Without it, I’d weaken and eventually desiccate like any other member of my species would without proper nutrition.

  Phillip smiled at me as I reached the front of the line, the wrinkles around his kind blue eyes deepening. “Good evening, Miss Abigail. I heard we had a bit of excitement out in the yard tonight. You doing okay?”

  I no
dded and accepted the vinyl bag he offered. “I’m all right. Thank you Phillip.”

  “Listen, I’m sorry you had to see that. You be sure and stay out of Gatlin’s way, okay sweetheart? He’s been on edge lately and spoiling for a fight. Just stay clear of him.”

  “I will. Thank you,” I said before moving aside for the next prisoner in line.

  “Oh dear, Margaret, you’re still looking peaked tonight,” Phillip said. “Still having trouble sleeping?”

  I looked back over my shoulder to see her shuffle forward. Margaret had arrived at the Center two days ago. A senior citizen, she was the sickliest, most confused vampire I’d ever seen.

  Well, almost. When I’d first met Reece, he’d been nearly insensible from malnutrition and blood poisoning.

  “I think it’s that rabbit blood still in my system. I’ll be okay soon. This will help,” she told the kindly guard. “Thank you, sir.”

  Moving slowly, she went to sit on one of the small grassy patches in our enclosure. For a moment, I watched her fumble with the small stopper at the end of the rubber tubing.

  I went and sat beside her, holding out my hand for the bag. “Let me see that.”

  She clutched the blood to her chest. “Please. No. I need it. I’m sick. I was starving before they picked me up for vagrancy. I got so desperate I started drinking rabbits and squirrels and such. I’ll give you my rations tomorrow—I promise.”

  Blinking in shock, I dropped my hand. “No. I’m not trying to take it from you. I was going to help you open it.”

  “Here.” I offered her my blood bag, which I’d already opened. “Take mine.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, she dropped her own bag and snatched the open one from my hand, sucking frantically at the tube. I tried to ignore the gnawing hunger in my own stomach.

  “You should be okay in a few weeks. I’ve seen animal poisoning before. It’s reversible if you haven’t been doing it too long.”

  She nodded and continued drinking. “Thank you. Sorry I was rude. It’s just that one of the others took my rations the first night. I really was starting to think I might die in here.”

  “Someone took it from you?”

  Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was probably unreasonable to assume every vampire in here was an upstanding citizen who’d been falsely accused. I guessed sometimes my mind reverted back to my human days and the community I’d grown up in where crime was nearly non-existent and everyone shared what they had.

  “Who was it?” I demanded to know.

  Margaret looked around then whispered under her breath. “Over there. The big one with the long, black hair.”

  I followed her gaze to a huge male vampire leaning against the wall of the barracks. He was laughing with another male I’d never met.

  Both of them looked rough, scary, like the Bloodbound soldiers I’d known back at the Bastion. Like Reece.

  They were the type of vampires the anti-vampers always pointed to when they tried to stir up fear. The type who gave us all bad names and made us targets.

  Bullies.

  Aggressive energy charged through my muscles, causing me to clench my fingers into fists and grind my teeth together. Part of me would have loved to march over there and demand restoration of Margaret’s missing rations.

  The smarter part of me decided to follow my own advice and not draw attention to myself. I picked up Margaret’s discarded bag from the grass, opened it, and handed it back to her.

  “Take this one too. It’ll help you recover faster.”

  She stopped drinking. “No. I can’t. You’ll have no rations. You’ll get weak.”

  Giving her a smile, I got to my feet. “I’m not hungry. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be running any marathons. I’ll eat tomorrow night.”

  She clasped the second bag gratefully. “Bless you child. What is your name?”

  “It’s Abigail Byler. My friends call me Abbi.”

  “Abbi, I won’t forget this. When we both get out of here, I’m going to repay your kindness,” she vowed.

  “Oh, that’s not necessary. It’s really not that big of a deal—”

  My sentence was cut off by the roar of a loud motor followed by a crash of metal and the sound of screams.

  4

  Out of Time

  At first I thought it was a terrorist attack.

  I’d seen news reports about incidents where radical anti-vampers had driven vehicles into crowds of vampires at popular outdoor nighttime gathering spots.

  But no, that didn’t make sense. For one thing, we were already incarcerated, which I assumed would make the vamp haters happy.

  For another thing, the armed men who emerged from the SUV after crashing it through the western fence were motioning to a group of vampires nearby, encouraging them to get inside the vehicle.

  One of the men simply stood outside of it, his arms spread out to the sides, head tipped back to the sky, no gun in sight.

  “Come on,” one of the other men yelled toward the inmates and waved his arms above his head. “We’ll get you out of here. Don’t worry about the fence. It’s deactivated.”

  No one seemed to be taking him up on his offer. Vampires poured through the opening in the broken fence, bypassing the men and escaping the grounds of the Safety Center into the foothills that lay beyond it.

  Some stuck around long enough to kill the guards stationed around the perimeter and up in the watch tower. I couldn’t see Phillip. I hoped he’d made it back inside before the chaos erupted.

  One escapee stopped just outside the fence where Gatlin now lay injured and bleeding. It was the large, black-haired soldier-type.

  He knelt to the ground and started drinking from the man’s wounds, ignoring his screams of terror.

  “Help. Get him off me. Get him off,” the guard screamed, though there was no one with a pulse left to hear.

  Conflicting feelings battled inside me. Dismay. Satisfaction. Thirst.

  The last one was self-explanatory. I hadn’t taken my ration tonight, and the scent of fresh blood—Gatlin’s and that of the other guards—filled the night air.

  Dismay because I didn’t agree with taking blood from an unwilling human, particularly a helpless, injured one.

  And satisfaction because if anyone deserved to be drained, it was Gatlin. Still, I moved in their direction, intending to intervene. The death of a guard at vampire hands wouldn’t bode well for the rest of our kind.

  If I’d learned anything from Sadie it was that change could only come from setting a good example for other vampires and demonstrating to the humans that we weren’t all soulless monsters driven by our unholy thirst.

  By the time I reached them, the big male had been joined by his friend from the yard and a female vampire.

  “Stop, please,” I begged them. “You’re going to get us all in trouble.”

  One of the males raised his head, his lips shining and dark with blood. “In trouble? We’re in prison. Wake up. If you were smart, you’d join us. He deserves it. Feed on this bastard, make him pay. You can strengthen yourself and escape before the backup arrives. Either way you’d better hurry. One of the guards is bound to have made a distress call.”

  The woman chimed in. “At least run. Following the rules won’t save you now, honey. When the backup arrives, they’re going to shoot first and ask questions later, and I doubt they’ll be keeping track of who’s a pacifist and who’s not. There’s not going to be any throwing yourself on the mercy of the court. You can’t trust any of the humans. Fighting back is our only chance.”

  “What should we do?” Kelly asked. I turned to see her approaching with Heather. Their eyes were wide and frightened, taking in the chaos all around us.

  I was paralyzed by indecision. It wasn’t like we were anonymous and could simply disappear and go back to our lives. The Safety Center had records of all our names and addresses.

  If we escaped, they’d only track us down, and then they’d have a legi
timate reason for holding us and confiscating all our property and financial assets.

  But what if the female attacker was right? What if the arriving troops started firing at random? What if they’d been given orders to shoot every vampire in the camp?

  “I don’t know. I don’t even know where to go,” I told my friends. “But I don’t think we can stay here.”

  A new voice entered the conversation. “I can help you. Come with me. I’ll get you to safety.”

  I turned to see one of the humans from the truck jogging toward us. He was younger than the others, around my age. He carried a handgun down by his side, but not the kind outfitted with anti-vampire ammunition.

  Did that mean he was a vamp ally? Had he and his associates come to break us out?

  Had Sadie sent them?

  A few seconds later the answers to those questions were no longer my main concern. A group of guards dressed in riot gear burst from the doors of the Safety Center barracks, yelling for us to drop to the ground with our hands behind our heads.

  They were at the far end of the yard, but we had only seconds left to decide which way to go—obey and remain prisoners, perhaps have the blame for the attack on the fence and the deaths of the other guards placed on us—or leave with the mysterious men who’d crashed their SUV through the fence.

  “We’ve got to go,” the young guy said, sounding breathless. “It’s now or never. Trust me. They’ll kill you if you stay.”

  “Abbi?” Kelly asked in an anxious whine. “What should we do?”

  I still wasn’t sure it was the right thing, but I said, “Let’s go.”

  The young guy nodded and motioned for us to go ahead of him. “Run to the truck. I’ll give you some cover.”

  As we bolted toward the vehicle, which had now circled around to face away from the Safety Center, I heard several loud pistol shots followed by the sound of UV rifles firing. A glowing round whizzed by my ear.

  Beside me, a vampire I didn’t know burst into flame and fell to the ground, writhing. Heather screamed, stopping in place. I grabbed the back of her bright yellow uniform, pulling her along.