Vampire Vendetta (3 page)

“Kenji.”  I whisper through the bars “I have a plan to get us out of here.”  I explained the plan to him as quickly as I could “I helped design these cells and I know how to open them without raising the alarms. I feel like we must go back through Invictus to Egypt. I know that if I have failed in my mission Ramses and the council will be readying a new assassin to do what I did not accomplish. That means that we have a few hours at best, before they have someone ready to go through the portal.”  “Eva they are not sending a different assassin to Egypt to complete your task. The council has agreed to send Ramses himself. If he gets there before we do he will surely find and Kill Isis. There is much that I must tell you about Ramses that I think you do not know.  I will tell you when we have more time. “I nod at Kenji and begin my work on my cell door; once I have recalibrated the system I enter my backdoor code and the bars unlock with a hiss sliding into the ceiling quietly. I walk over to Kenjis’ cell and repeat the process and soon he is free as well. There are no guards here as no vampire has ever been able to break out of the cells before. The bars are made from a material that gives off a high dose of UV rays of they are tampered with. The only way you can get out without unleashing these powerful rays is by knowing the code. As we race down the slim hallways we keep watch for any guards that may be idling nearby. As we near the end of the hall I spot a guard sitting in a glass room, his back is to us and I am trying to decide how we will get past him. I signal to Kenji that if we slide past him low to the ground we should be able to get past. Kenji whispers in my ear,” We must take out the guard, they are holding my weapons in that room as well as yours.” I inwardly cringe at not having thought of this.

Before I can offer to go in and take care of the guard, I see that Kenji has already entered the room and has his hands around the guard’s neck. In a blur of hands and arms the guards head was ripped from his body. Kenji tossed the guards head to the side and walked past the body as it blackened to dust. I run into the room and once we find our weapons we head out; I lead the way quickly to the chamber where Invictus is housed I don’t trust our luck to hold out much longer. As we make our way down the dark halls, we can hear sounds of life coming from behind the different doors we pass. We run quietly and make no sound, we don’t even blink, which is not hard to do when you are a vampire. We finally reach a wide steel door; the palm reader next to the steel door glows an ominous blue.

This is the tricky part, because I don’t know if my palm print has been deactivated and I will only have one try. If my palm has been deactivated it will set off a silent alarm and the guards will be upon us in moments. I lift my palm to the palm reader, but I hesitate; if I am wrong then we will die. “No!” Kenji hisses in my ear. “I have a better way, we cannot risk it.” Again he has read my mind I wonder exactly how much of my mind he is able to read it’s pretty annoying. “I cannot read your every thought Eva, I can only see your thoughts if they are a danger to me.”  I roll my eyes at this. “Well Kenji if I am not going to put my palm up to the scanner, how exactly do you propose we get in? This door is three feet of steel and it is also enforced with UV bars, if we break it the light will obliterate us in seconds.  “Just trust me Eva; wrap your arms around me press your body as tightly to me as you can.” I look at Kenji like he has completely lost his mind; we are in a life or death situation and he’s asking me for a hug. If that’s what he really wants to do then so be it at least I won’t die alone. I sigh shrug my shoulders and wrap myself against him like a python. Kenji wraps his arms around me; one hand rests against my head and presses it into his shoulder. Suddenly as I look around my vision becomes hazy and everything begins to melt away like dripping wax, before I can check to see if I am dreaming I feel lighter than air, and for a moment I am floating like a droplet of water in the ocean spray I feel myself fall away. In the next instant I can feel my legs again and the things around me start to come back into to focus. I push back away from Kenji and hiss “What the heck just happened?”  He just let a small grin slide across his face and said “No time I will explain later.” Well I couldn’t complain too much, at least we were finally inside of the Invictus chamber. We quickly check the small labs surrounding the main chamber and all seems deserted. I can’t understand where everyone is, but then I glance at a computer screen and see the time. Everyone will most likely be in Quadrant two for their doses. Doses are the only time when everyone is basically in the same area. Our daily doses of blood or other life sustaining substances are given out at the same time every day. That at least is in our favor. I also note that we have about fifteen minutes before the Invictus team returns.

I hurry over to the console and begin typing in the information we will need to open the portal. I set the timer and the date and then turn on the shields. The console begins a countdown we have to wait five minutes for the machine to prime. Once the machine is set I run to the storage closet and pull out clothing to match the time period. I also grab a transporter watch for Kenji if he decides to return for some reason he will need one. I quickly dress and remember to grab three vials of my daily dose from the emergency case. I grab Kenji who has been inspecting Invictus with wide eyes. I pull him into the machine and tell him the simple instructions. “Keep your hands next to your side at all times, and try not scream, beaming out hurts a bit. When the purple light comes on the transporter is ready.”  He looks at me and I can tell he is about to say something, but he is too late.

399 B.C
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We arrived safely and in one piece; Invictus transported us to a location an hour outside of the city. Kenji obviously knows the way so I let him lead the way. During the short journey he has told me the true story of Ramses and how he came to be. I of course am shocked to learn that Ramses is a Hybrid of proportions that I had never dreamed were possible. Now that I know what he is, I can fully believe that he is behind the attacks on the covens. I also see that by sending me to eliminate Isis in the past, he would have had a clear shot to power long before 2021.Had I been successful and returned to 2021, killing Isis would have changed the world of the damned in ways that my mind can barely wrap around.

It scares me to know that I almost brought an age of darkness upon the world.  Humans would have been all but wiped out and vampires would no longer be ingesting mixed blood. Kenji explains to me that he gleaned from the thoughts of Ramses; That Isis is alive in 2021. He tells me that Isis is in a deep Slumber in a hidden place. Ramses it seems had been searching for her for centuries; and when Invictus was created Ramses had finally found a way to murder her. Kenji explains that once the blood of innocents would have begun to run through the streets. Isis would have heard their pleas for help and would have awakened from her slumber. This is Ramses great fear, for although he is a hybrid, he might not be able to defeat her in battle.  It pains me to see that I would have been used to bring about such a violent end to the world as we know it, and for once I wish I would have taken the time to really look and judge my mission properly. I walked blindly into a mission having full faith in my commander and the council. I am quite for a long time after Kenji has finished talking; I realize after some time that we are walking into the city instead of running at full speed, we could have reached the city long ago. “Why are we walking so slowly?”  I finally ask, “It is night no one will see us at this hour.”  He nods “You are correct; however I wanted to speak to you before we reached our destination. I also thought that there was no better place to speak with you. The quite of the desert at night is good for thinking.” I looked around surprised to find that he was right. For the first time in a long time I was thinking things through slowly and carefully. “Thank you Kenji I say softly, but he only nods again. I watch him as he walks through the sand, his step sure and steady; his hair is onyx in the light from the moon and his skin shines as bright as silver.

My thoughts drift slowly back to when we entered through the door at the compound; the feel of him so close against me, when he told me to hold him tightly. How reassuring and safe I felt with his hand resting on my head. He smelled like the air before it rains, never has the scent of another so filled my body. His shoulders were firm his voice so deep like a lullaby. Kenji still hasn’t told me how he did what he did and I don’t know that he ever will. I know that in the moments it took us to pass through the door, I felt that I had become one with him in some way. I feel that a small piece of him has stayed with me since that happened. Like when someone kisses you and you can still feel the press of their lips on your skin long after they have walked away. I hardly know him and yet if I were a braver women I would throw him down into the shimmering sand and kiss him till the full moon had passed through the sky a hundred times. I want to be close to him again, but the press of time is upon us and I must not let my feelings in the way.

Eva is thinking again she bites her lip when she is deep in thought; I think it is a habit she does not realize she does. She is very beautiful the night suits her like a second skin. She is wearing a sheath dress of all black with gold ties around the waist and shoulder; in all truth the clothes she was wearing in her cell did not do anything for her figure. I wonder if she knows how beautiful she is, with her hair floating around her in a halo all soft curls and tight ringlets. Her hair was as soft as a swallow’s feather when I placed my hand on her head when I shifted us through the doors. I have shifted with many people in my time, but never have I shifted and been left with a piece of another’s essence afterwards. It feels like I was holding something warm close to me for a very long time, and then when it left , it left its warmth behind where I held it. I feel this warmth of her all over my body and I want more of it, so much more. I have not felt such a yearning for anything, since I was a full vampire, and fed on the hot elixir of life that I suck out of others. Her golden eyes look up at me and I see that she has felt my thoughts on her; how deep her eyes are now, how deliciously hypnotic. Of course as a vampire they would be nothing but. 

We have entered Cairo at last, the nights still and cool, and we walk without disturbing a stone. I check the time on my transporter and I suddenly see four blinking red lights on the screen. The only time when blinking lights appear on the screen is when others have transported to the same time as you. The lights let you keep track of how many portals are open. That means there are four others here from 2021. I turn to warn Kenji, but he is ready with his weapons drawn. He had sensed the danger as soon as it entered my mind; and he has his Kyoketshu-Shogei standing still in ready cloaked in the shadows of the night. He holds two deadly steel blades with gut hooks at the ends in each hand a long metal chain attached to the pommel of each knife. He whispers in my direction “Hide Eva.” I do his bidding with all the swiftness I can muster, I run and make a one sprawling jump onto a rooftop overlooking the alley. Then I see them, turning into the alley weapons drawn, faces hard. I realize I know them; they are four brothers from Persia, deadly vampires who have a lust for bloodshed and death. They are not from my coven though and I realize how far Ramses power is reaching.

The battle has begun, a battle of shadow and light, a blade reflecting the stars as it arcs and takes of a limb. Kenji moves fast his blade arching outwards in twisting death giving pulses. The blades fly behind his back as he spins them in the direction of each assassin. Kenjis’ blades fly, hitting flesh pulling back, throwing again severing tendon from bone. With a twist of his body he flips and wraps the long chain of his Kyoketshu-Shogei around his body; with a crunch two heads roll down the alley. Blood dripping and fangs long; silent screams frozen in their throats before they can reach the air. Kenji ducks low spinning the blades above him, and then he spreads his arms in the shape of a Y then crosses his arms. Blood drips from the blades dark and thick in the moonlight. The assassins are no more.

I fly from my hiding place to search the bodies for any clues but find none. “We must reach Isis I fear she may be in great danger; when these four do not return they will send more.”  I grab the discarded weapons of the dead. We move through dark shadows; behind us remains the reek of blood and signs of betrayal.

Kenji stops in his tracks and puts a hand to his heart. “Isis is in trouble we must get to her now.”  Before I can ask what the trouble he says to me through black strands of flying hair. “Ramses will be here soon, we don’t have much time.” 

I bare my fangs as we run, knowing that if Ramses is here undetected he will have his guards with him.  I can’t figure how Ramses transported here undetected, this development is new. Kenji comes to a stop in front of a shuttered and abandoned home, made in classic Egyptian style, a faint scent of incense hangs about the place. Kenji yanks open the rotting front door and we step inside quietly. Once inside Kenji walks to the far wall and pushes it; as I watch a tunnel opens in the wall near the floor. “Come.” He says and shrugging my shoulders I follow behind him. The tunnel is dusty and dark and the smell of earth is sharp in my nostrils. Kenji stands ahead of me as he comes to the end of the tunnel; I make my way out and stand next to him. I dust off and take in my surroundings; my jaw drops the sight before takes my breath away.  We are standing in an underground cavern the size of a football field; there is a Giant statue of Ra surrounded by candles standing in the center of the cavern. I see a woman standing at Ra’s feet a soft sad song comes from her lips she; she holds incense in her hands, the fragrance reaching the face of the god in front of her. “Where are we and who is that? “  I whisper to Kenji. “That is Isis; we must wait until she finishes her prayers.” I have a hundred other questions I want to ask, but he turns his head away from me and settles into a stoic silence.  I watch until at last Isis finishes her prayers and turns away from the statue. Kenji walks the stone path to the base of the statue and embraces Isis, then they turn away and begin to talk amongst themselves, I can hear what they are saying, but I do not speak ancient Egyptian, so the words they speak have no meaning for me. I am hoping that they are not planning on killing me; I was almost her assassin after all. Kenji beckons for me to join them when their discussion is over. After the introductions are made, Kenji tells me what they were talking about. “I had a vision of Ramses murdering Isis when we were on our way here. Isis had the same vision last night; she is convinced that he will be here very soon. We have both come to the same decision.” I look from Kenji to Isis and realize how grim their faces are. I am also trying to think how we can stop a hybrid like Ramses and come out alive, because if we hide Isis we will definitely have to face a battle with Ramses. Knowing that Ramses has the powers of the three of us combined does not make me happy at all. “What do you two have in mind?” I ask him. Kenji moves over to Isis and wraps his arms around her gently. “In order for us to defeat Ramses we have to kill Isis. If he can’t find her now or in the future he will never be able to take over every coven.”