The Devil's Angel (Devil Series Book 2) (23 page)

“But the time has come for humans to give back. A small token of gratefulness is all we ask for the many years we’ve had to suffer. We’ve had to sneak—”Aiden dramatically tip toed around the stage. “—in the shadows to avoid being hunted. They rule us by numbers, but it is vampires who rule them by power and make no mistakes about it”—he emphasized each word carefully—“we will show them our power!”

The vampires returned to their fever-pitched cries and yells.

Lucien’s stomach swam, and the room spun. He stumbled back and fell to the ground. The wall of concrete and steel he’d carefully layered over his memories cracked. Every hateful word that spewed from Aiden’s mouth created an imaginary hammer, smashing down the barrier in his mind; large pieces disappeared into oblivion. He covered his ears, trying to shut out the demon, but Aiden would not be stopped.

“What gift would we like from man?” Aiden continued. “What does man owe us for being so generous when we could break them with our fingertips if we so desired?”

Vampires cried out, demanding an answer.

Aiden yelled, “We want their blood!”

The warehouse exploded in agreement.

Aiden grew quiet, the crowd followed his lead. “But how? How can we take their blood without being hunted for doing that which is natural to us?”

The vampires waited anxiously for an answer.

Lucien’s body shook. The wall around his memories shattered, and his torment unleashed.

Aiden said carefully, “We do simply what has been done in the past. Many of you have heard of the plague, which destroyed half of Europe. In fact, some of you may have had the pleasure of being there.”

Lucien’s body shook like aftershocks of an earthquake.

Aiden spoke louder, his fist shaking in the air. “When the black plague hit, the vampires feasted. We gathered from the four corners of the earth. We fell from the sky and crawled out from beneath our rocks to finally take what was ours. Rivers of human blood, and no one was there to oppose us. We treated ourselves like the kings that we are!”

Shouts of approval rose.

Lucien moaned in agony.

Aiden pouted. “Unfortunately, it didn’t last. The humans recovered, and the vampires were chased back into their holes, only to surface when our hunger proved too great. We would snatch a small morsel of food and retreat back to the shadows where they said we belonged.”

Aiden whirled in a full circle, searching the crowd, ensuring that all eyes were on him.

He whispered into the microphone, “But the time has come to feast again.”

Nobody moved or spoke as the words sunk in.

Finally someone yelled, “How?”

Adrian’s eyes turned cold. “You need to have the proper tools and the brains.” He drilled his forefinger into his temple. “Fortunately, I have both.”

Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass vial filled with a purple liquid. He lifted it into full view of everyone.

“In my hand is the key to our happiness. I need strong vampires to take this key and unlock the door that has been closed to us for too many years! It will take a combined effort to accomplish this great feat. Who among you will make this happen?”

The majority of the vampires rushed the stage, begging to become his army while the guards pulled out a stack of papers and handed them out. The crowd was so unruly that they gave up after just a minute and tossed the flyers into the air for vampires to obtain for themselves. One of them fell near Lucien.

Lucien’s sanity hung by a thread. He had to leave this place if he was to keep it intact. Pushing himself to his feet, he grabbed one of the papers and shoved it deep into his pocket. It seemed to weigh him down more than a thousand boulders.

Lucien stumbled toward the exit, knocking several vampires out of the way. They snarled in protest. Two bearded guards at the door barred his way. Using the last of his strength, he shoved them hard, sending them into the night air. Forgotten memories were flooding his mind, and they would not be stopped this time.

He moved like a drunk man through the streets, his thoughts unable to capture where he was supposed to be. His stupor led him away from the city and into a forest. He kept moving, stumbling through the trees until he finally collapsed, his body falling partway into a stream. And as water trickled over his head, he breathed it in deeply, willing it to fill him entirely. His last thoughts were of Eve, beautiful Eve. His mind called out to her. Over and over, he said her name, until there was only blackness.

Ireland, 1665

Lying in tall grass, Lucien watched thick clouds move in and out of each other. He always struggled to understand how something as insubstantial as clouds could create something as glorious as rain. Even as a boy, storms held a magical mystery to him. And though he was much older now, despite his young vampire appearance, the rain continued to fascinate him.

He loved Ireland for no other reason than its storms. Actually, there was no other reason to love Ireland in 1665. It was ruled by England and had become a war-mongering country. At first, he enjoyed the bloodshed as much as Aiden. So much so, that they often fought in many of the battles, but they didn’t always care what side they fought on. In some battles they thought it humorous to fight against both sides.

Eventually the fighting had grown tiresome and, it appeared, Aiden grew to feel the same way. He was always disappearing to a different part of the world for days at a time, only to return in an even more somber mood.

Lucien’s thoughts were interrupted when Aiden called his name.

“Lucien!” Aiden’s footsteps approached him from his right.

Lucien did not sit up to reveal himself through the grass—he did not want to miss the rain.

“Lucien!”

“Over here, Aiden, near the Oak tree.”

Aiden bounded over, breathlessly. “I got one. I finally got one!”

Lucien scrunched his face as he tried to see passed Aiden, who was standing directly over him. “Can you move? I can’t see.”

Aiden looked up, and, finally realizing what Lucien was doing, moved out of the way. “Did you hear what I said? I finally got one.”

“Got one what?” The clouds turned a deeper shade of black.
Any second now.

“Remember, my experiment? The one that will make it possible for us to truly be who we are?”

Lucien knew Aiden had been traveling back and forth from Holland, but he couldn’t remember why. “So what did you get and what are you doing?”

Aiden sighed. “I’m not going to explain it again. You can see the rats for yourself.”

Lucien sat up. “Rats?”

The sky cracked and rain poured down.
Damn!
He missed it.

“Come on, see for yourself,” Aiden said.

Lucien reluctantly stood.

“Come on!” Aiden demanded. He was already several yards in front of him.

Lucien followed him to the barn. He smelled death before Aiden opened the door. “What’s dead?”

Aiden giggled. He threw open the tall wooden doors; they creaked and groaned under the pressure.

Death’s bitter odor punched Lucien hard in the face. He turned away in revulsion. Aiden, on the other hand, inhaled deeply.

“Doesn’t it smell wonderful?” he asked.

Lucien covered his nose and mouth and stepped into the barn. Three dead humans, badly decomposed, lay in a heap in the middle of the straw-covered floor. He had never seen bodies so black. “What happened?”

“Do you remember how I told you Holland was having problems with people mysteriously dying?”

“Yes,” Lucien lied.

“Well, I’ve been over there trying to figure out why and what it was they all had in common. At first, I thought it was the water, but when I tested it on a human, nothing happened. Then I tried all kinds of their food, but that too proved negative. I was about to give up when I saw a fat rat scurry into a home. I immediately came back to Ireland and, using one of our own rats, had it bite a human. Still nothing happened.”

Aiden walked over to one of the corpses, which resembled a woman. He lifted her stiff, black arm and studied it. “Anyway, I returned to Holland and brought back several of their rats. I locked these humans in with them for just one day. This is what I produced after a week.”

Aiden beamed.

Lucien laughed. “So you’re going to make the rats attack people?”

“Of course not. My plan is much simpler. All they have to do is live among humans. Whatever is on them, fleas most likely, will spread to other rats and eventually people will die.”

Lucien thought through Aiden’s plan. “Any idea how many?”

“Hundreds at least. Humans will be so consumed with trying to save themselves that they won’t notice us vampires coming in to pick off the weak ones. And we won’t have to worry about anyone coming to help, either. They will all be too afraid of contracting the disease themselves.”

Despite the whole thing being disgusting, using the rats and all, it sounded like a good idea. Lucien was tired of sneaking around, trying to find a human that could disappear without anyone noticing. And when he couldn’t find one of those, which was often, he resorted to hunting animals in the mountains. Animal’s blood was to vampires what insects were to humans—you only ate them if you were starving.

Throughout the rest of the day, Aiden talked up his plan until Lucien could find no reason not to do it. After all, it was his father who had taught him that survival was all that mattered, even if it meant you had to sacrifice one of your own. After Lucien had been turned into vampire, his father’s advice had saved his life—he’d killed his father in order to survive.

In preparing for their planned slaughter, which was set to take place in London in three weeks’ time, Lucien began to have doubts. Aiden’s behavior with the rats and the humans had gone beyond strange, even for a vampire. He spent every spare second in the barn with some new victim. Lucien asked him once where he was finding these pitiful looking humans, and they were sad-looking—all skin and bones and barely clothed. Aiden had replied, “From his collection.” Lucien tried to inquire further, but Aiden’s eyes glazed over and his mouth pressed tight. Lucien was all too familiar with this look and knew Aiden would not give him any more information.

A few days before their departure, he spied on Aiden through a crack in the barn wall. Aiden was seated on the edge of a chair holding a fat brown rat that squirmed against his grip. His sandy blond hair, which normally was slicked into a ponytail, hung loosely to his chin. His chest was bare except for spatters of dark blood. One of the red stains was in the shape of a smeared handprint.

A naked, tied-up girl sitting across from Aiden was drenched in sweat. Dark blue and purple bruises plagued the girl’s skin; her legs were almost entirely black. Across her arms were small, open wounds that oozed blood and pus. Her short, uneven hair was matted to her scalp and around her feet were several long, golden locks. Lucien couldn’t figure out how her hair had been cut until he saw a pair of scissors on a nearby table—a lock of hair stuck within its blades.

Occasionally, the girl would shake, as if in excruciating pain, and her eyes bulged in terror. If it weren’t for the rag stuffed into the girl’s mouth, Lucien would’ve heard the painful sounds her eyes expressed.

Aiden stared at the girl with what looked like curious indifference. After a minute, he lifted the struggling rat and peered into its beady eyes. Then, without warning, he shoved it into the girls face. She threw her head back and tried to avoid the rat’s snapping teeth.

Lucien had to look away. He couldn’t understand why Aiden hadn’t killed the girl already! The torture he was inflicting was beyond cruel, even for a vampire, and the strong smell of blood was so overwhelming, Lucien had half a mind to charge in there and kill the girl himself.

The morning they were to leave for London, Aiden finally appeared after days of absence, looking clean and vibrant. He wore his nicest clothes and Lucien swore he was wearing new shoes. His dark eyes were practically vibrating, and his smile reached his ears.

“You look happy,” Lucien mumbled.

“And why shouldn’t I be? All that I’ve worked for will finally be visible to the world.”

Lucien narrowed his eyes. “What does the world matter? I thought this was about an all-you-can-eat blood buffet.” He paused. “What are you doing, Aiden?”

Aiden was quick to answer. “Nothing. You’re right. This is about their blood. We’ll take their lives for all the years of making us cower for being who we are.”

Lucien nodded, but still felt Aiden had more sinister motives.

Traveling with Aiden toward London was miserable thanks to Aiden who couldn’t hold still. He was like a four year old before a vacation. He kept twitching and tapping every part of his body. At one point, Aiden was literally bouncing on the seat. Aiden didn’t calm down until Lucien threatened to eat the caged rats sitting next to him.

As London drew closer, Lucien became uneasy. Something felt wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what. He knew many humans would die, but so what? He was indifferent toward them. The nagging reached its peak when the coach finally stopped just outside the poorest part of the city.

When Aiden moved to jump out, Lucien grabbed his arm. “How many humans are going to die?”

“A lot, oh, so very many!” Aiden giggled, barely containing his glee.

Lucien tightened his grip. “We only need enough to scare people away from here, no more, no little.”

Aiden ripped free, anger flashing in his black eyes. “Sure, little brother, whatever you say.”

Lucien remained in the coach while Aiden carried four cages full of rats toward the inner city. The sky overhead was deathly black. A slight rain trickled down. Deep, uneven puddles of dirty water spread over the cobblestone road—evidence of a large downpour earlier that day. Lucien wished he could’ve been here to see it.

Aiden’s sudden whistling in the background made Lucien sit up. Aiden never whistled.

“It’s done,” Aiden said when he climbed into the coach.

“How long will we have to wait?” Lucien asked.

“Not long. Within a few weeks, the word will be out. And in a month, only those who don’t matter will be left behind. We’ll make our move then.”