Fangs of Fate (Untish #1)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHANCE

Bodies on gurneys formed neat rows of death. There had to be hundreds and hundreds of vessels in here. How had I not smelled this from outside? I walked up to each table and noted that the humans were all unconscious. They just lay there; blood being drained into bags. The vampires who worked here all wore green jumpsuits and masks. This was not the usual blood collection protocol. What was strange was the quantity of vessels and lack of soldiers present.

“What’s going on here, arche?”

The male didn’t even look at me, he just scurried away. His face was dazed.

“Strange.” Holland stepped up beside me and pushed some bloody hair behind her ear. Neither of us had a chance to clean up since the battle.

“This is definitely not protocol for blood collection.” I walked up to a table and snapped my finger next to a human woman’s ear. She didn’t so much as flinch. I felt for a pulse to confirm she was alive and then moved to the next gurney. A human male, also unconscious. He had the most extraordinary black hair I’ve ever seen on a human. It was raven black and reached down to his waist. A purple and blue tattoo of a dragon crawled up his arm and neck; the dragon’s head turned into a serpent and somehow gave you the middle finger with its tongue. I bet he was a peach when he was awake.I snapped loudly, nothing. I lowered my fangs to graze his skin and still he did not move. They were comatose. All of them.

I continued down the row and pinched each human vessel’s arm. They all remained unconscious, even when I broke their skin and blood began to pool.

“Have you ever seen this before, Dale?” Holland’s voice came from beside me.Her shoulders curved in slightly, the day had been tiring.

“Nope. Definitely new. We’re going to have to file a report.”

“Already on it.” Her confirmation added to the list of things I was beginning to like about her.

We continued throughout the warehouse until we reached the back office. Inside, the manager of the processing plant sat, staring at the screen.

“Hello.” I shut the door loudly, but like the humans, he remained in a daze. “Dux,” I leaned closer to get a look at this badge, “Hoffman. A word please?” He stared at the screen. I moved behind the desk to get a better look at the screen his disk was projecting.

“It’s no use. He’s been like that since the attack this morning,” a new, squeaky voice came from the corner. I looked up and spotted a young vamp, low ranking from his badge details.

“And you are?”

“The only one talking.” Smartass.

“Are you insinuating something occurred during the attack this morning, arche?”

“I’m saying that he and all the staff that were in the plant during the attack this morning are unresponsive.” The arche looked disheveled. Upon closer inspection, I could see blood on his collar, red and black. He’d been in the fight.

“Where were you during the attack?” Holland asked.

“Outside fighting, just like these cowards should’ve been. Everyone’s been on edge lately, but to remain in here and hide is a disgrace. Even if the dux ordered it. Nah,” he spat on the floor, “they deserve what happened to them.” His fingers fidgeted in a nervous tic. Clearly, he was unnerved.

“Careful how you speak about your superiors, arche.”

“Why? What are they going to do? Lecture me?” He sneered as he stood and strode toward the door.

“Hold up. I am the highest-ranking officer here and as such you will answer to me. What do the numbers on the screen represent?” The arche paused, it wasn’t lost on me that he didn’t have a name badge and hadn’t volunteered his name. My suspicions were already on high alert.

“How should I know?” He lifted his nostrils and sniffed before rubbing at his eyes with his hands. My money was on drugs.

“You said you worked here?” Holland chimed in, walking around the desk to get a closer look at the projection. Her hand casually moved to her weapon. Blood, I loved her instincts.

“I do. But I was just the grunt worker, dragging bodies up from the human district and dumping them back in their hovels. I, as you pointed out, didn’t rank high enough to understand the data.” The sneer on his face made me want to punch him. He needed an attitude adjustment. Big time.

“Get me someone who can help,” I commanded.

“You’re looking at him. All frozen and frosty.” He gestured to Dux Hoffman.

“Frosty?” Holland squinted focusing on Hoffman.

“I don’t know who the hell you think you are arche, but I’ve had it up to here with your insubordination. Now get us someone who can help or start answering our questions?—”

“Dale, look.” Holland reached toward Hoffman and a blue aura surrounded him, it became more visible as she projected a bit of her magic at it.

“They’re in magicside. Those creatures wielded dark magic here. But none sent any at me? How is any of this possible?”

“Frosty, right?”The arche clapped his hands and laughed, spit flying from his mouth and dribbling on his chin’s stubble.

“You saw this before Dux Holland noticed it, how?” I demanded.

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” He continued to laugh, rubbing his hands together nervously, causing his pale skin to redden further. He was thin, probably didn’t eat much, and from his appearance and demeanor, I’d guess he was low on the feeding totem pole. Still, he should have been getting rations. He flipped me the bird as he darted for the door.

I was faster. Much, much faster. I grabbed his collar and lifted him off his feet slamming him into the wall. “Answer me now, you lowlife.” My voice had gone deadly calm.

His pupils dilated and I could see perspiration dripping at the corners of his scalp down to his mouth. The tint to his teeth was yellow and his left fang was broken.

“You know how.” He squirmed as he responded, his clothing stretching in my hands. He was a wielder then.

“What do you wield?”

“Nothing, I—” I cut off his lies with my forearm pressed to his throat, temporarily constricting his airway.

“Holland, want to step in here?”

“Hmm, someone likes having a partner after all, huh?” She smirked as she swaggered from across the desk and looked him up and down. For a small female, she had a way of sizing males up and making us feel so very small and insignificant.

“Answer the question, arche. How did you spot the aura before I did?”

“I’m a reader, OK? Magic speaks to me. I don’t always know how to read it, but I can sense it.” He wiggled in my arms some more; his body odor was hideous. I looked to Holland, and she nodded in confirmation. The truth. I let him go and he fell to the floor in a heap.

“And you can sense magic on Dux Hoffman?”

“Not just him,” he flayed his arms wide, “this whole place reeks of it.” He scrambled to his feet and made to bolt for the door, again. Holland had her rifle’s butt in his stomach before I could even react. A smile pulled at my lips; I was really beginning to like working with her.

“Not so fast, why don’t you take us to the human district, arche?” she spoke, her hips swaggering as she shoved the arche through the office door.

“Fantastic idea, Dux Holland.”

The human district was quiet. The hovels had seen better days, the roads were broken down, and it appeared the dux here had let the upkeep of common spaces fall between the cracks. Not surprising given his attitude toward humans. We continued down the path, looking for humans to interrogate. The streets were empty.

I approached a larger hovel and knocked on the door. It creaked with the force of my pounding fists.

“They don’t like us much,”the no-name arche unhelpfully added. He stopped twitching since we left the warehouse, and his color was slowly returning to his face.

“It’s not unusual for humans to resent vampires and be uneasy around us, but to be this distrustful reeks of mismanagement on your dux’s part.” Holland shoved past the arche. I really needed to get his name.

“Yeah, well the ones left really don’t like us.”

“The ones left?”

“Hello?” Holland spoke at the same time I did.

That was the only distraction needed for the wimpy arche to evade my question. Holland pushed on the door and to my utter surprise, it was unlocked and creaked open. In the human district in HQ the humans interacted with vampires frequently, but they always kept their doors locked when they weren’t looking for activity.

Dux Holland took a tentative step inside. No movement, no response.

“They’re meek as sheep,” the arche beside me grumbled, examining his fingernails.

“Shut up, arche!” I snapped, I grabbed his collar and shoved him inside in front of me. The room was small, furnished with old furniture; a tarnished green couch, worn velvet armchairs, and a fireplace that was roaring with life. Noticeably, the humans here didn’t like our kind.

“We just have a few questions,” I called out. A creek from the nearby wood floor ousted the tiny human. She looked maybe seventeen. Her clothes were worn and covered in patches, her hair streaked across her gaunt face, and her pallor was paler than snow.

“What do you ‘skeets want?” Her voice was laced with anger.

Skeets?

“Just to check and make sure everything is okay here after the events from earlier this morning,” Holland reassured.

“Ha, like you care. Don’t worry, your sheep are still here. Baaa.” She imitated a sheep, revealing uneven, chipped front teeth. “Not like ya be needing more of us.”

“Excuse me?” Holland stepped forward. The girl didn’t shrink back, instead, she raised her head, hate glaring in her eyes.

“For which part? Takin’ my parents last week or my brother last night? Or draining ‘em to death?”

“You are protected under the no-kill law,” I spoke up, tentatively taking a small step forward. “So is your family, if there has been a violation, please file a report and we will look into it. Are you alone here?”

Her eyes shifted to me. “Alone. All alone.” She shuffled closer to the fire and poked at it with a fire stick.

“I gave two nights ago. I still got one more day, so unless you are offerin’ me a bonus, you ‘skeets need to get the hell out.” She then turned her back to me. I’ve never interacted with a human so utterly terrified and yet stupid enough to turn her back on one vampire. Let alone three.

“Thank you for your time.” Dux Holland gestured for me to follow her as we left.

“What the hell has Dux Bole been doing to these humans?” she demanded, grabbing the arche by his arm and yanking him toward her. Despite the fact that he was a good eight inches taller than her, she evidently was in control of the situation.

“Dux Bole doesn’t exactly care for the humans. He’s a bit old-school in thinking and finds the new laws too…” The arche paused, sucking on his fang for effect. “Lenient.”

“Meaning?” I pried. If Dux Bole was violating the no-kill law amongst others, he would need a full write-up.

“Meaning he follows his own rules here. The strong prey on the weak.”

“Dale, we’ll need to file a full report.”

I nodded to Holland as I surveyed the rest of the small unkept, district. A few humans moved about, even in bright daylight they all held torches with them. For Dux Bole being so old-school, I was surprised he hadn’t confiscated all torches. The arrogant bastard probably didn’t think they were a threat even with fire.

“Holland, why don’t you go file a report and contact HQ. I’m going to visit another home or two. And you,” I pointed to the scrawny male still in Holland’s grasp, “what’s your name, arche?”

Holland released a wave of her magic at him, I could sense it growing stronger, thickening the air.

“Arche Damaris,” he answered, inhaling deeply.

“What did the human mean when she called us ‘skeets?” I pressed.

“You been living under a rock?” The charge in the air thickened, he clawed at Holland’s hands trying to find release. “Ok! Lay off the magic, lady.” He yanked his collar down. “‘Females,” he muttered, earning a glare from Holland. “Skeets’ is slang for mosquitos. The humans here view us as bloodsucking parasites.”

“They what?” Holland and I spoke in unison.

“Yeah, try as he might, Dux Bole can’t seem to stomp out all their spirit. Well, not from the young anyway.”

The whole situation violated so many laws. Humans were entitled to certain rights in the Glenn. They also were supposed to respect vampires for our superiority, and that included the way in which we followed the rules and gave honor to the food chain. Something was very, very mismanaged here.

“Stay with Dux Holland,” I commanded Arche Damaris and then turned, continuing down the street. The next three homes all were in similar shambles. Two were empty, but in the third, I found three children huddled together near the fire. A very intoxicated man grumbled and sang from a nearby armchair.

“Hello,” I spoke quietly, unstrapping my rifle and dropping it to the floor. They didn’t need any further reason to fear me.

The children all glared up at me. The oldest couldn’t be more than ten. Their clothes were either too big or too tight—all in patches and worn colors. Their hair was matted to their faces in knots, and they had the same grey pallor as the first human girl.

“Is there another adult here?”

The man continued to utter unintelligible words, ignorant of my presence. He reeked of beer and piss.

“Where’s your mother?” The kids just sunk closer together. I took a step toward them and the younger two ducked behind the oldest boy. He lifted his hand and pointed past me to the processing plant.

“Where are the other adults?”

The child continued to point. No way. No way Dux Bole was stupid enough to process practically all the human adult vessels at once. I looked closer at the boy’s arm. Puncture marks. These children were being fed from. Another violation.

“Excuse me.” I turned and left them huddled by the roaring fire. Holland and I would need to process quite the report; it could take another day or two to install new leadership here prior to heading to the Southern Outpost. I continued through the human district and all I found were pale, scared, mute children.