Cain wasted no time. He sprang up and marched to Willis’s lab. The ridiculous fool thought a lock and some tables and chairs would keep out the vampire king. When he reached the door, Cain simply shoved it with both hands. There was a loud crash, and the door flew inward. Furniture sailed in all directions. Willis was cowering on the opposite side, his eyes wide and his mouth wide open.
“I need you to draw up several vials of my blood and give it to the hybrids.” He motioned to the room containing his sleeping creations.
“We’ve already given them your blood,” Willis stuttered.
“I know that, you walking ribeye,” Cain said dryly. “We need to do it again.”
The vampire walked over, opened a drawer, grabbed a handful of syringes and needles, and then tossed them on the table. He sat down, resting his arm beside them. “Get on with it.”
Willis walked slowly over, his eyes full of skepticism. But when he saw Cain wasn’t going to lunge at him and take a bite, the scientist picked up the first syringe and went about doing as Cain had asked.
Minutes later, there were ten full syringes of blood with needles attached. “Come with me. We’re going to give them my blood and then wake them up.”
“And w-what if they’re crazy?” Willis’s voice rose an octave.
“I’ll open a portal and shove them through it.”
“A portal? I didn’t know you could do that.”
The scientist grew bolder the longer he was in Cain’s presence and wasn’t killed. That would be rectified soon.
One by one, they injected the thirty hybrids with Cain’s blood. Then Willis took out the IV’s that administered the drugs keeping them asleep. When the first few awoke and didn’t immediately attack anyone, Cain was encouraged.
He sat on the edge of a table, watching his creations come alive, so to speak. They looked around, confused, but as soon as they met Cain’s eyes and he told them to sit down, they obeyed.
“They’re not crazy.” Willis’s voice sounded relieved
“So it seems. Now, listen up.” Cain explained to the group the ability that he’d given them. They looked skeptical, but then he had one of them do as Celise had instructed. Sure enough, a portal opened. Cain told him to close it, and it disappeared. “Your task is to go get vampires and hybrids and bring them back here. I want to speak to them directly. Your blood will givethem the ability to use the portal. But I want to be the one to pass on this information. Is that clear?”
The hybrids nodded in unison like a group of programmed robots.
Cain listed off the cities where most of the vampires and hybrids had gone. Then he sent these new creations through the portals in groups of three or four. He’d share his vision with as many as he could before his time on this earth was over. At some point, one of the most ambitious, older vampires would take up the mantle of king. It was the nature of his kind to need a leader. Much like wolves, without a leader, complete chaos would reign among the vampire ranks.
Once all the hybrids were gone, Cain turned his eyes on Willis. “You’ve served me well.”
“Thank you,” the scientist said slowly. He began to back away, his natural prey instincts kicking in as he recognized the predator before him.
Cain didn’t step forward to get into a position to attack. He didn’t have to. With his hybrid speed, thanks to Alice’s blood, it was over in the blink of an eye. Cain moved so quickly Willis didn’t even see him. He grabbed the male by the throat and tilted it sideways. Without a word—because what was the point in speaking to your food before you ate it—Cain sank his teeth into Willis’s neck and drank deeply.
After he’d drained the scientist dry, Cain dropped him, as he had all the others. The vampire let his head fall back and took a deep breath. Then, with a sound that was eerie even to him, he called out, “Sam, you can’t hide from me. But please try. I love a good hunt.”
The man who’d been angry about being turned into a vampire wouldn’t have to endure his fate for much longer. Cain wondered if the lawyer would be any good at hide and seek. The vamp king decided he’d purposefully prolong the hunt. It wouldgive him something to do until the hybrids brought back others for him to instruct.
“Should I count to a thousand, Sam?” Cain shouted as he strolled from the room. It wouldn’t be much longer, and Cain would be free of the unwanted emotions that refused to leave him in peace. Damn Alice, and damn the wolf who took her from him. Damn them both to hell and eternal torture. Maybe he’d see them there and get to gloat for all eternity. He sighed. For the first time since he’d acquired the throne, Cain didn’t want it. “I’m done being king,” he whispered as he searched for his final prey.
One
“Maybe the past is meant to stay in the past. Maybe the reason we don’t remember some things is because they are better left in the tombs of our minds, securely locked away.” ~Perizada
“It’s time.”
“Okay… Time to die, to eat, to exfoliate your leather hide? Maybe it’s time to weep from the boredom because I’ve been sitting on this cliffside with you for so long? What are you talking about?” Peri looked up at Serapha, the massive draheim that she’d somehow befriended when she’d been hiding out like a chicken in the draheim realm.
“Give yourself a break, Beloved.”Her mate’s rich voice filled her mind.“It’s okay to take a break.”
Peri mentally sighed.“Right. It’s okay to take a break even though Cain is still out there and we now know killing him wouldn’t hurt Alice or Lizzy. It’s okay to take a break when there’s a horde of hybrid vampires loose on the world, and the aforementioned psycho vampire king is no doubt attempting tomake more of them. And it’s absolutely okay to take a break when there’s a crazy ass sprite out there with a book that could open the gates of hell and apparently raise the dead. You’re right, babe. I should be lying on a beach somewhere, drinking a mimosa while looking at you walk around shirtless as water drips down your sculpted abs.”
“That can be arranged.”
