Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) Page 3

  The vampire at the podium had cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone. “Members of this community, as you surely know by now, the debate concerning the historical legends and whether vampires exist or not has finally been settled. The truth is right in front of you … I am a vampire, and we do, indeed, exist.

  “Now, onto the subject at hand. I have been chosen to represent this fine city. With that responsibility, changes must be made. These changes are being made in every state, every city, and every county all over the United States. Therefore, leaving town will do you no good, you will face the new laws wherever you go.

  “At this moment, a bit of chaos is taking place, but we are working hard to establish order once again. To achieve order, the changes I spoke of before must be put into place and obeyed. The changes will be made within the next few months and years. But, to begin with, we have a few laws which are going into effect immediately.

  “We will allow anyone who comes forward and pledges themselves to the Vampire Council to live. The condition being that every pledge has to willingly give blood twice a month. Each pledge will receive a tattoo signifying their loyalty to the Vampire Council. The tattoo will be placed on the right cheek. Any human who has not given their pledge to the Vampire Council is fair game to every vampire.”

  The cameras panned the audience crammed into the tight space before the podium. Loud murmurs and shouts of unfairness rose from the disgruntled crowd. The new mayor held his hands up for silence, but the shouting did not cease. After waiting a few minutes for his audience to settle down, he just spoke over them, continuing on with his speech. Regardless of how pissed off they were, the people still wanted to hear what he had to say … their lives depended on it.

  “We have designated several human guards who will replace the regular police force which you have previously known. The law enforcement and laws that you once followed no longer exist. As of this moment, they are null and void. These law enforcement personnel will be present and in charge at the pledging areas. The pledging areas have currently been secured in the public libraries. If you choose to pledge, simply go to any of the libraries in the city, day or night, and you will be accepted in, allowed to pledge, and required to give your first blood donation. You will also receive your tattoo upon pledging.

  “These law enforcement officers will also be in command at the blood banks where those who have pledged will go to give blood. The first donation will take place at the library, then an appointment will be made for you at one of the local blood banks. If you miss an appointment to give blood, the consequences will not be something you want to endure. So do not miss your appointment. Beginning immediately, anyone can come forward to pledge themselves. As I stated before, those who are not pledged will not be protected, so the longer you wait, the more danger you put yourself in.”

  “Chloe!”

  I snapped out of another memory and the world came into focus around me. I realized that Drew was beside me, staring into my eyes with concern. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded and adjusted my bow again. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about how crappy things have gotten already.”

  Drew nodded that he understood. “I know what you mean. There is no going back now, society has been too traumatized. Even if we manage to win this war, it will have affected so many. Too many people have been lost already.”

  It was my turn to nod that I understood. It was true, the world would never be the same as it was. “Let’s keep moving.” I shook off the memories and marched forward. Once we were up on the sidewalk, the people out in the streets began to notice us. They knew what we were; Hunters always carried a lot of weapons and walked with a purpose. The survivors moved with caution, practically running wherever they went.

  Almost everyone stared at us as we passed. Most looked at us with awe; knowing that we were actively searching out the enemy put us on a level to be looked up to. “This is weird,” I whispered.

  Drew didn’t respond, but I knew he was thinking the same thing. For so long, especially for him, the fact that vampire hunter’s even existed was kept secret. If the world had discovered the vampire hunters, it was only a given that the existence of vampires would have been exposed. The Hunters had worked very hard for a very, very long time to stay hidden, now … now we were saviors in a world being taken over by demons.

  After a few minutes of walking and ignoring the stares of the survivors, Drew finally said, “I wish these people would go to the training centers and learn how to protect themselves. Most will probably end up pledging simply because they have no other options.”

  I nodded. “Me too, but until then, it’s our job to try and protect them.”

  The people who roamed the streets at least had some spine. The weakest and the most fearful had already pledged to the Vampire Council. The ones with the most will to survive had gone to the training centers or taken off with their families. There were also the preppers who were prepared for some kind of “end of the world” to happen, those people were in hiding, too. But these who were left, they had something in them that told them pledging was wrong, they just didn’t have the strength to actively fight against them.

  I didn’t blame them, though. Vampires could kill you within seconds and no one in their right mind would want to go up against them one on one. Vampire hunters weren’t just humans who fought, we were bred from the blood of angels and demi-gods. In my case, I was half vampire, a dhampir, which made me even more powerful.

  My brother, Zander, is also a dhampir, but not a true vampire hunter as far a blood and power. He’s a bad ass, though, and that goes a long way when fighting the undead.

  “This looks good.” Drew paused and gestured to the bakery on our right. It was an old structure, built out of red brick. The door was newer than the rest of the place; double glass doors with a dark tint over them. Perfect for seeing out, but harder for people to see in.

  The place also had a balcony on the second floor. The aging but sturdy looking balcony ran the width of the building and extended about four feet over the sidewalk where we stood.

  “Yeah. This is as good a place as any.”

  I followed Drew to the tinted double doors, silently slipping my gun out of its holster. Drew held his gun in one hand and cautiously reached for the door handle with the other. I stayed a few feet behind him just out of habit. It was part of how we worked, he usually took the lead and I stayed back to cover.

  He pulled on the door handle gently, giving it a testing tug before he yanked it open completely. Then he held the door open and I moved forward, into the darkness of the building with my gun out in front of my, ready to shoot pretty much anything that moved.

  Contrary to what a lot of people believed, vampires could be up during the day as long as they avoided direct sunlight. So, it was completely realistic that a vampire could be hiding out inside any of the buildings. Entering the buildings without being prepared was a common mistake amongst the survivors. A lot of vampires actually hid out, waiting for some unprepared human to come along like a meal delivery service.

  I veered right, keeping my gun up and ready to fire while Drew came in behind me and took the left side. Hearing nothing right away, I stepped backward a few steps and reached out for the wall with my left hand, searching for a light switch. My enhanced dhampir vision allowed me to see better in the dark than full blooded humans, so Drew needed the light more than I did. But, a well lit room was obviously better than a dark one. After a few seconds of groping the wall, my fingertips finally connected with a small panel of switches. I flipped them all and suddenly the room was bathed in a harsh fluorescent light.

  The place looked empty, but that didn’t mean anything. Unlike a lot of the businesses that had been abandoned when the vampires attacked, this place was actually pretty clean. The counters and tables were free of crumbs and dishes; if it wasn’t for the light layer of dust, they might have actually appeared shiny.

  It only took a few minutes for
us to clear the room, assuring it was free of vampires, and then we were off to check the upstairs.

  As we found the stairwell and headed up, I felt beads of sweat begin to form on my forehead. They immediately rolled downward, threatening to sting my eyes. It was hot outside, so that made it sweltering inside of the abandoned bakery, which hadn’t seen any air conditioning for quite some time.

  Drew and I didn’t speak the entire time. He and I were one of those couples, and teammates, who worked perfectly in silence. I had trained with Drew … and killed with him. I could read his body language and his silent cues. Words were not needed between the two of us.

  Upstairs, we found a studio apartment above the shop where the owner must have lived. We went through the same process of clearing the room as we did downstairs in the bakery, and then took a moment really look at the apartment. It was spic and span, but like downstairs the whole apartment was covered in a light layer of dust, telling us that no one had been around for quite some time.

  There were no pictures on the wall except for paintings and artistic photographs. On the T.V. stand there were only two frames with pictures; one was of a woman with her big orange cat, and the other photo was just the cat. I reached out and touched the edge of one of the shiny, wooden frames. No family pictures for this woman, apparently.

  Feeling a rare flash of sadness for my old life, I turned away from the photos to find Drew pushing open a set of heavy, beige drapes. Once opened, they exposed the French doors that led out to the balcony. The doors were made with panes of glass squares, which allowed sunlight to pour into the dim apartment.

  “Still a little while before the sun sets. You want to sit out there or in here?”

  I shrugged. Normally inside would have been the choice so that we could stay hidden from any of the vampire loyal humans that might be outside, but after giving the hot and dusty apartment another once over it felt a bit claustrophobic. “Outside.”

  As soon as he pulled open the balcony doors, I felt the rush of fresh air and inhaled deeply. Boy it felt good to breathe the clean air. I hadn’t realized just how much it had gotten to me until I got a whiff of the good stuff. We could even see the dust particles floating around where the sunlight streamed in.

  Drew and I exchanged a look and headed out.

  The balcony had a wrought iron fencing that stood about three feet tall, effectively keeping whoever was on the balcony safely within its limits. There were gaps between each of the posts that looked to be about four or five inches apart, giving us plenty of space to see through if we sat down on the floor of the balcony. Which was exactly what we did.

  Waiting out the sunset was something that we did a lot. I wasn’t the most patient of people lately, but it was something we had to do. Coming into the city after it was already dark wasn’t really a good idea.

  I took one side of the balcony and Drew took the other, and we kept our posts in silence. We wouldn’t risk speaking and giving away our positions. I didn’t really want to talk to him anyway. I understood where he was coming from, being worried about me and all. What I couldn’t understand was why he didn’t understand my point of view.

  I was so used to him being the hardcore Hunter, the one who trained me and made me pay attention when I wanted to quit. He was always the one who went first into battle, and now he had gone soft on me. I just didn’t get it at all.

  Eventually the sun went down behind the hills and veil of darkness began to spread over the city. All of the survivors had long since abandoned the streets to go to their hiding places or find a new one. The growing darkness was gradual; both Drew’s human eyes and my dhampir eyes didn’t need to adjust. Since we could both see just fine, it was no surprise when we saw the first group of vampires strutting down the street like it was a perfect day in the park.

  Drew stretched his leg out and tapped my foot with his, and nodded in the direction of our targets.

  I indicated that I saw them, too, moving onto my knees so that I could get a better shot. Drew and I had both attached silencers to our guns while we were waiting. Silence was the key; if any of the nearby vamps heard the gunshots it would give us away and we would be in some serious trouble. So, we opted for the silencers. As for my bow, I wasn’t going to sacrifice my arrows from such a high position unless I knew I could get them back.

  There were only five of them all together, so it should be easy. They strode down the street with ease, looking from side to side and chatting amongst themselves. If we played this right we could take them all out with five quick shots. Hopefully they were all fairly new vampires and the UV bullets would take care of them.

  I rose up on my knees and took aim. Time to go to work.

  I took the first shot and the vamp on the far left went down. Before the others even had time to react, Drew shot the one on the left. Instantly, I took the one on the right of the three remaining confused vampires.

  Two left.

  One of the remaining two took off at a dead run back the way they had come. The other one was a woman and she had fallen to her knees beside one of the dead guys. “No!” I heard her scream as she shook the dead vampire’s body. She had long blonde hair that fell down in waves over her and the fallen vampire. “Wake up!” she shouted, shaking him violently. She got no answer except for the glowing light which appeared and began to slowly erode through the body.

  Drew shot the one who was running, pegged him in the back and took him down. I was having a hard time getting a bead on the one who was bent over.

  “We have to go down,” Drew hissed. “Make sure that one is dead and get the other.”

  “I’m on it, boss.” I stood up, threw my leg over the railing, and jumped down to the sidewalk below me.

  Drew wasn’t an idiot; he went through the apartment and took the stairs. I could make that jump for several reasons. For one, I had a lot of abilities that vampires had, like the ability to jump long distances and land them. Even if I did break a bone or something, it would heal fast. But, Drew wasn’t about to risk his body by making that jump.

  As soon as I hit the ground, the female vampire’s head snapped up and turned in my direction. As soon as her she realized that I was the threat, that I was the one who had shot the others, she stood to face me.

  Sweet, just the position I needed. I raised my weapon, took aim, and fired.

  She had been expecting that. With vampire speed, she dodged to the right and the bullet zipped past her, missing its mark.

  Damn it! I never missed.

  Before I could get her within range for another shot, she was in front of me. She grabbed my gun, painfully twisting it out of my hand, and tossed it aside.

  Whatever. She wanted to play dirty, I could play dirty.

  Just as she reached out with her other hand to grab my throat, I side stepped then turned and threw my leg out, grabbing my knife as I spun. I landed the roundhouse on the side of her ribcage. I’m sure it didn’t hurt her, but it jostled her enough that she was momentarily stunned. It was just long enough for me to charge her.

  With my knife raised, our bodies met and we fell into the hard cement. As we went down, I tried to plunge the knife into her chest, but she grabbed my wrist and kept the blade at bay. My other hand was holding her arm down. Well, not necessarily down, but it was there. She was much stronger than me and it would only be a second before she threw me off of her.

  So, I let the warmth flow through my body, starting from my core and extending out to my fingertips until the flames appeared. I pressed my palm down onto her arm, letting the fire sear into her undead flesh.

  “Ahhhh!” she cried out and twisted, releasing my knife hand in the process. As soon as my wrist was free, I slammed the blade down into her chest. She lurched upward, but quickly relaxed.

  I relaxed for a moment, too. She lay there, her pale face accentuating the dark red lipstick she wore. A few droplets of blood slid off the corner of one of her lips. Suddenly, I wanted to punch her in her dead face.

>   I was deterred from my act of unnecessary violence by Drew’s boots pounding over the sidewalk behind me. He ran to the unconscious vampire he had shot to confirm that the UV bullet was doing the job it was supposed to do.

  I rose up off of the female, ran over to collect my gun, and joined Drew just as he was firing two more shots into the vampire’s chest. He finished, satisfied with the amount of light we were seeing from within the body.

  UV bullets were helpful for killing vampires, but as I had learned early on in my training, sometimes they didn’t work all that well. The older vampires were more immune to the UV, so it took more to kill them. Therefore, UV bullets worked better on the younger vampires.

  “Check the others,” he ordered.

  We hurried to make sure that the other two vampires were truly dead and then I popped off a shot in the female vampire that I’d wrestled with.

  After we were done with that group, we both gave each other a triumphant glance and silently hurried back to our hiding spot on the apartment’s balcony to wait for more vampires.

  It was rare to see a lone vampire; they usually wandered in groups now that there were so many of them. I guess it was some kind of a predator thing, like how wolves traveled in packs. When we attacked them we normally got more than two or three kills.

  So, imagine our surprise when we went back into the apartment and found a vampire sitting on the couch, his legs casually crossed as if he had been waiting for us. He was dressed in black jeans and a black button down shirt, a gothic looking cross embroidered on one side of the chest. His dark brown hair was cut very close to his head.

  Instantly, both of us had our guns drawn, and I felt the fire surge into my fingertips in preparation for defense.

  At first, none of us said anything; he just sat there on the couch staring at us with our weapons pointed at him. Even in the dim apartment, his dark brown eyes twinkled with amusement. I took an involuntary step backward. This guy, with his demeanor and dress, was disturbingly similar to Trevor. That caught me off guard, which didn’t happen very much anymore. The only major difference between the two was that Trevor was super pale and this guy was black. When people with dark skin became vampires, the color didn’t change much, just a bit of a fade.