Chapter 19:
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
Adrian pulls himself from under the covers, feeling his way
through the darkness, making his way toward the kitchen. The kitchen is subtly
lit with the full moon giving him enough light to find the handle on the
fridge. He pulls on it, opening and searching for his last meal, Frigarui, his
favorite left over. He pulls the tray out and sets it on the counter, taking a
few off and placing it in the microwave. He stares at the remaining pieces as
the microwave whirls and decides to shove a cold piece in his mouth.
The microwave beeps politely, and he pops it open grabbing
out his treasures, turning to walk toward the table, a figure stands in the
shadows. His body quickly jilts unexpectedly.
He grabs a knife from a wooden block, “Whhhy, why are you in
my house?” he manages to stutter.
The dark shadowy figure narrows in on the body, silent.
Adrian falls backwards, stumbles. “I’ll stab you. I will.”
He threatens.
The vampire rushes towards his victim, the knife falling
through his chest gives him only a moment of hesitation, before he sinks his
fangs into the prime mister’s neck.
*********************
Sultana sits in the corner bar, a
hole in the wall, located in Cluj, called The Jack; the name mundane and simple
for sitting in the biggest city of Transylvania. It is slightly crowded, inside
as well on the outside, people stand around listening to music any sipping on
beers from pint glasses. The queen’s attire is subtle, almost blending in with
strangers. She gazes down the bar at a plump man, dangling his short legs off
the bar stool as he shifts the ice in his glass, staring nervously at the
television. The reporter booms information about the recent slayings of
numerous important government officials and he is one of the few still living. He
wipes his bald head, pushing his glass toward the bartender as he passes.
“Another one,” he snaps, slightly turning his head toward the people of the
bar.
Sultana’s eyes shift away from
the man and passed various people interacting, finally finding a familiar face,
Lucius, who nonchalantly nods. Taking the cue, Sultana pushes away from the
table, exiting towards the back of the bar, the crisp air invigorating to her icy
body. There is a sudden moment of ghostly silence before blood curdling screams
begin to echo from inside the bar, without reaction her head raises to the air
pausing. Feeling the presence in the shadows, she speaks steadily, “I’m not
being presumptuous by assuming you have begun your part?”
The shadowy figure slightly comes
into the light, Poisonous Dart revealing herself. Her voice is low and wispy as
she speaks in a commanding tone, “I needed to be assured you were being
successful before I proceeded.”
Sultana’s fist clench as anger
boils inside her, “You question me?” she whispers from her throat.
“Question you? Don’t flatter
yourself.” Poisonous Dart scoffs.
Sultana slowly turns toward her.
“Romania will be ours by tomorrow morning. Cluj will be my headquarters for
operation. Bucharest is ours. Taken over their armed forces and currently their
air forces. Things are as in order.”
Poisonous Dart smirks, “The
creatures are ready. I will wait until then to release them.”
“No, release them now.” Sultana
demands. “The chaos must divert.”
Dart’s eyes narrow and ignoring
the queen’s demands she turns away, starting to walk.
“Dart!” Sultana calls, causing
Dart’s head to swing around; eyes dry against the brisk wind. “I don’t trust
you; but I believe in you.” She confirms confidentially.
Poisonous nods towards her, “Unfortunately
our minds may think too much alike, my Blood Sucking friend.” She vanishes into
the dark.
Sultana snaps at the touch
against her shoulder, turning to Lucius’ blood covered face staring at her.
“Our work is done here.”
She tilts her head toward the
bar, silences hovering in the outside air. She grimaces, flinging her coat
toward the street, “Come, Lucius, we have a long overdue conversation with
someone.”
Lucius’ head tilts downward as
his body thrust forward, following his Queen.
*********
Janet intently watches the
television as the boat whirls against the wind on the top deck. Her chin rests
her hands, her eyes wide. Her father’s feet thumping against the steps behind
her don’t grab her attention. “Janet.” He firmly tries.
“Dad, you should see this.” She
points at the TV, not taking her eyes away from it.
Her father takes the remote ready
to shut down the set but stops for a moment. “What the heck…”
“Yea, all over Florida, people stuck
in their houses because of the alligators. But it’s not just there; there are
places in South Carolina and other states around the coast. Reporters also mentioned
other countries like Australia and…,” without finishing her thought she quickly
jumps, “Dad; they said climate change or global warming effect…”
Daniel interrupts, “Grab your
phone, and get up deck.”
Janet looks confused as her
father begins grabbing wires from the wall, disconnecting things. “What’s going
on, Dad?”
“Janet, top deck I said. Take
your phone.” He firmly scolds at her.
His face suddenly looks defeated
as she takes off toward the deck, the air smacking in her face, pushing fresh
tears toward the back of her ears. Daniel
follows up close behind, grabbing the cell from her hand and tosses it to the
crashing ocean.
“Dad!” she screams. “My cell!”
He then feeds his phone to the
dark ocean, it splashing into the screaming waves.
“Dad! What are you doing?” Janet
cries louder this time, grabbing her temples. “What are you doing? You cut off
all communication!”
“We don’t need it Janet…” he yells
over nature’s noise.
“How’s mom going to find us?” she
screams hysterically, “How’s anyone going to find us?
“Listen to me, Janet.” He grabs
her arms as she tries to breaks free.
“Dad, no! No! You’ve lost your
mind!” Janet’s tears stream down her flushed cheeks. “We’re going to be lost at
sea forever!”
The clouds begin to darken over
them, pushing the waves harder into the boat. The wind whirls louder, smacking
against their bodies. “Come in Janet. We are going to talk.”
“Dad it’s going to storm. The
boat won’t hold in this storm. We’re never going to see mom again. We’re never
going to see anyone again.” Janet’s voice becomes flat, arms flinging around
her father’s torso holding him tightly, tears quickly damping his shirt. “You
won’t tell me what is going. I’m scared, Dad.” She sobs.
Daniel’s arms grab her tightly,
pulling her toward the lower deck, the wind working against them. “Listen,
Janet, I need you to wait down here while I steady the boat.”
She’s blank, staring at him in
dismay.
“Janet, co-piolet, I need you
hon. Be with me.” His palms finding her cheeks while his eyes continue to search
for hers.
“Why are you trying to kill us,
dad?” her words stale flat against the air.
“You listen, Janet.” Daniel
persist, desperately closing his eye’s flood gates, “I’m not going to let
anything happen to you little girl. You aren’t going anywhere under my watch.
You understand me?”
She nods at the desperation of
her father’s voice.
He grabs her and hugs tightly again
before steading. “We are meeting your mother at ‘our paradise.’ Understand me, baby girl?”
Janet’s head hesitantly nods,
tears dripping off her chin and then landing onto her father’s knee.
“She’s going to be there Janet.
We are all going to be safe together.” He kisses her forehead and then slows
and calm, “I’m going upstairs to steady the boat. Get that Jane Eyre book you
love, okay? It’s just like any other storm. Read. Calm. I’ll be down.”
Her neck leads slightly, standing
still.
Daniel grabs the book off a
shelf, shuffling her over to the bed. “Climb up.”
She does as she is told. Daniel
fluffs the pillow around and tucks her under the blanket. He grabs her iPod,
setting the playlist and snuggling the head phones against her ears. “It’s
Shubert’s ‘Serenade’.” He forces a smile opening her book. “Start at chapter
one. Read out loud baby girl, don’t worry I will be able to hear you.”
The music dances against her
ears, slowing her heart against her chest, her father’s voice falling quiet as
she reads, and “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day…”
Daniel quickly leans down and
kisses her on the forehead once again, then rushing to the top deck; he raises
his head watching the clouds parting, brightly the sun shining through; The
wind calm against the ocean’s gentle waters. He blinks his eyes against the
rays; once again a storm has quickly passed them by as fast as it had come.
*****
President Cromwell twirls the pen between his fingers. The
thin utensil feels heavy and thick as he tires from fondling the ball point
pen, dropping it, letting it ting against the desk. His hands fold under his
chin, eyes rise to the top of his forehead, meeting the Chief of Staff’s. “We
need to call military action to Romania. I’ll call an emergency meeting to
order. Handle contact of the alliances. I will directly contact the Planeteers.”
“Sir, some of the Planeteers have already arrived.” The
chief of staff reveals, “We just received word before you requested my
presences.”
Cromwell’s palms find his eyebrows, pulling them to his
temples as if he were shaping them. “Where are they?”
“In the US, sir, on their way to Washington. They seemed to
have some trouble on their travels and arrived through the Pacific Ocean,
outskirt of California.”
“Media’s going to love that.” Cromwell groans. “Get them to
me personally. I’ll contact the others.”
“On it, Sir,” the chief walks toward the door but pauses,
slowly turning his body toward him. “Sir…?”
“What is it?” Cromwell answers matter of fact.
“We also need to address the issues in the South, with
abundance of alligators surfacing. Some people are making claims that they are
walking on two legs…”
President Cromwell shakes his head, “Important things first.
We don’t have time for outlandish stories and theories. We need to be assured
all measures are taking place to bring an end to Queen Sultana or we might not
have a South.”
“Yes, sir,” the lengthy man nods, hurrying from the oval
office.
******
Sultana’s heels click against the flooring, echoes following
behind her as Lucius and Domninious trail inches behind.
Sultana comes to a halt at the dark wooden door and then
without any thought swings the door open, letting it slap against the door stop
before hitting the wall. “Euguen!”
Sultana exclaims as the man quickly stands up from behind the desk. “Chayse,
wonderful to see you in person again.” She grins widely to the woman standing
behind him.
“Likewise, my queen,” the blonde leans back against the
painted wall, her arms dangling next to her side, returning a toothy gleam,
highlighted by her red lips. “Also good to see you again, Loosh. Dom.”
The two say nothing in return as Sultana slinks in cutting
off the introductions. She slides her rump across the front of the desk,
slapping her hand on Euguen’s shoulder, gliding him back to a sitting position.
“We’ve done it.” He announces, with some uncertainty.
“We’ve done it.” She gently whispers back, snapping her neck
toward her wicked friends. They all begin to laugh among each other. Euguen’s
eyes shoot around the room in confusion of the chuckles. He gradually begins
chiming in as Sultana’s cackle crescendos, echoing against the walls of the
room; then suddenly cut off by her hand slamming down on the desk before him,
indenting the heavy oak into the floor.
Silence.
Eugen Adam’s apple feels as if it is floating in his throat.
“Tell me exactly what you
have done again, Euguen?” Sultana smirks, leaning toward him.
The expression quickly begins to change on his face and he
bottoms up some courage.
“I’ll tell you what I did;
you blood sucking Strigoi,” he firmly finds his voice, “I collaborated and
infiltrate of our government, arm force, air force…” standing from his seat he
continues, “without me your whole operation would have been sloppy; destroyed.”
Sultana scoffs, “You were merely a pawn, Euguen. A very
small pawn in a very huge game.”
Euguen’s body trembles with rage, “We made a deal, Strigoi!”
“Ha!” she mocks rising to her feet and turning her back to
him.
“You will turn me
into one of you! I move to your planet. That is the deal.” His voice now quivers through his breath, words short
and choppy. “You are a Queen. Honor
your deal.”
Queen Sultana’s body snaps toward him. “I am Queen. I most
certainly do honor my deals… just not with humans that continue to refer to me
as Strigoi. You say the words in such a vial way, I really despise it.”
“Your majesty,” he grovels slowly, “I know Romania like one
else…”
“Actually, that is very untrue.” Sultana’s lips tighten, “I
used to live here.”
“Yes, but in what decade? Things have changed. People have
changed. You really think you can just conquer all the Romania people?”
“I haven’t conquered all of them. I have turned many Romania
people into one of us. They are
useful.”
“You, sick, Strigoi! Do you really think no one is hiding? Do you really think the people of
Romania are just going to belly up and become one of you? They are waiting for
the right moment to take you down and without me you are going to be fucked.”
“Chayse.” She directs
her attention toward her.
“Yes, my Queen?” she takes a step closer.
“Are you exhausted of fucking with this man?” Queen Sultana asks
blankly.
Euguen turns toward Chayse with pleading eyes.
She shrugs her shoulders at him and then directs Sultana, “Incredibly.
Fucking with him. Fucking him. All of it.”
“Well do it one more time.” Queen Sultana nods with a wicked
grin toward Chayse.
“Yes, my Queen,” she grins, pulling out a dagger from behind
her side.
“No!” Euguen screams about to run. But his reflex is to
slow, the dagger thrust into his back, “Du-te Dracu!” his head howls to the air
for a moment.
After a brief second of thought, Chayse continues
withdrawing the knife from his spine and thrusting it again and again. Blood
spews from his body, splashing on her face. His body falls limp against the
desk but Chayse continues to viciously hack at him, gore decorating the room in
red.
“Chayse!” Sultana raises her voice slightly annoyed, as she
is slapped with a splash of blood against her cheek bone. “Chayse!” she screams
out finally catching her attention.
Chayse slowly removes the dripping dagger, “He’s dead.” She
proudly grins like an ‘innocent’ five
year old.
Sultana nods, “Yes, I can see that. A dagger? Couldn’t just
snap his neck or something?”
“He was a creep.” She whispers.
“That was noticeable and very evident. Glad I didn’t have to
fuck him.” Dominious chimes in. “Kind of like the office is ruined but makes me
a little hungry too.”
“Yes, I need some fresh food,” Chayse drops the dagger
sliding toward them.
Sultana ignores the women’s idle chit chat, meeting Lucius’
pale eyes. “It’s time. Let’s continue on.”
Lucius gives a slight movement in his neck allowing his
Queen to lead the three vampires from the massacre.
****************
Susan’s head rest against the
door of the car, her forehead pressed against the glass, watching the fields
pass by in one patch of green.
“How do you do this?” Susan’s
voice falls flat not expecting an answer.
Silence falls heavier in the
vehicle’s box, Susan grasping her eyes and tightly rubbing them. “I’m tired.
Are we almost there?”
“A little under thirty minutes,
Mrs. Smith,” the man answers dryly.
Susan’s head fall back against
the window’s glass, her eyes shifting toward the lights in the rear view
mirror. She sits up quickly, “I think you are being pulled over.”
Watching the lights flash behind
them, searching for an expression on the agents face.
He only keeps driving.
“You need to pull over agent.”
She sarcastically announces.
“They aren’t after us.” He dryly
moans, checking his rear view mirror.
As the lights flash on the
passenger side she confirms, “Um, yes. No other cars around. It’s you, Mr.
Agent ‘Above the United States Law’.”
The agent grunts and with a smirk
of humor decides to pull over. He stares in the mirror, waiting for the officer’s
vehicle to past, but instead the vehicle pulls behind him, lights flashing.
Susan smirks, gazing toward the agent,
the red and blue lights flickering through the vehicle. “Looks like everyone
isn’t on your page, Agent.”
He turns away from her, adjusting
his mirror as the police officer steps out of his cruiser, walking toward
them. He clicks the button on his door,
allowing the window to lower, waiting for the officer to approach.
“Sir.” Agent addresses.
“License and registration,” the officer
announces, pulling his mirrored sunglasses from his eyes, staring at the agent.
“What’s the problem, officer?”
Susan watches as the agent leans out the window.
“Sir, I need your license.” The cop
reminds him.
“I think you need to radio into
your captain, deputy.” He dryly suggest, threatening the officer’s integrity. “FBI
Agent.” He displays his badge.
“Sir you need to step out of the
car,” the officer challenges, peering into the car, directly shooting a glance
at Susan.
She stares into the officer’s
green eyes, and he quickly looks away, focusing back on the agent. “I need you
to step out of the car, sir.” He firmly says, opening the door and waiting for
the agent to exit.
Agent XXG gives Susan a brief glance
and then steps out of the vehicle. “Contact your captain now.” He says more
demanding, “You are representing your agency poorly.”
The officer steps past the agent,
peering into the door, “Are you okay, mam?”
Susan, not expectantly, turns
toward him and nods as if she were being the one interrogated.
“Your name?” the officer asks
XXG.
“I’, an agent.” He answers
annoyed, “I will have your career on the…” he begins to threaten but is
interrupted by his cell vibrating through his pocket.
“You should answer that.” Suggest
the policeman.
Agent hesitantly pulls out his
phone, “Yea?”
Silence as chatter against the
phone spits in his ear. “I have a rookie officer pulling me over right now.” A
pause. XXG wryly observes the officer. “My boss would like to speak to you.”
The officer anxiously goes to
grab the phone and the agent pulls it back for a moment as if to challenge him.
“I suggest you listen closely to what he has to tell you. We are on a time
frame and I am only standing here out of politeness and respect to your
commissioner.”
The blue suit sneers taking the
phone. “’Ello.”
Susan’s neck extends from the
passenger seat as if she were a heron spotting a jumping fish, trying to catch
all of their conversation.
“Uh huh. Officer Steve Walch,
sir.” Pause. “Almost two years now, sir.” Pause. “No, sir I most certainly
would not want to hold up a man of the FBI. Important I’m sure.” Pause. Longer
pause. “Well, sir, if it’s so important I can escort him in case of traffic or
something, sir.”
Agent XXG tries to grab the
phone, “There is no traffic.” He spits frustrated, making Susan give an
unexpected soft smile.
Officer turns his back toward the
Agent, “Yes sir. Will do sir. Proud to do so sir.” Pause. “Yes, sir, good-bye
then.” He hangs up the phone and spins around handing it to the agent. “I’m to
escort you sir. You are a very important man and after you drop her off, another
agent needs to take over. Apparently there is some shit happening and they need
you on it.”
“I know.” He moans. “My politeness
has expired.” He climbs into his vehicle fastening his seatbelt.
The officer’s knuckles tap
against the window. “ugh…” Susan confused taps the button allowing the window
to drift down.
“Want to catch a ride with me?
Since we are all going to the same place and all.” He grins.
“Ugh…” she nervously scratches against
the cardboard box of Cheeze-Its laying in her lap, shooting a glance toward the
agent.
He moans and starts up the car. “She’s
my responsibility. Step away from the car.”
Susan takes a long deep breath
and shrugs with pleading eyes.
“Right understand, agent.” He hit
the top of the vehicle with the palm of his hand, “Let’s get you there.” He gives
Susan another look with short reassuring nod.
Agent XXG doesn’t wait for him to
climb in his vehicle and begins to drive, making the officer act quickly to
keep up.
Steve’s radio comes through
clearly, “Where are you, Steve?”
He grabs his radio, “I’m off
duty. Have the cruiser back in the morning.”
*******
Read Chapter 20: Unified