Desolation: Chapters 27 & 28
Dominion of the Damned: Book One
In a world where zombies roam and vampires rule, how far will Hannah Jordan go to survive?
Desolation is the first book in my post-apocalyptic horror trilogy, Dominion of the Damned.
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Chapter Twenty-Seven
They waited another night to hold a service for the fallen. After consulting Alek, Ned had burned the bodies. It didn’t feel right to bury them without their heads.
Alek seethed for vengeance, to track down Eddie and his people and take back the heads of his friends, bringing back all of theirs as well. But what had vengeance ever gotten him, except a tainted soul trapped in an immortal body? It wouldn’t bring them back. It wouldn’t erase his failure.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t seek justice. Someday, he and Eddie would meet again. And somehow, Eddie would pay for the lives he took.
Ned and Paula had found urns for each. They sat lined up on a table that had been set up in front of the stage in the base’s auditorium. The residents each filed past the urns to pay their respects before taking their seats. Once everyone was seated, Alek moved to stand next to the table.
As he looked out at the faces of all those in his care, he felt overcome with shame. He’d failed them all. He’d let an enemy into their camp, and this was the consequence. These people depended on him to keep them safe. And now he was alone in that task.
His gaze found Hannah, bouncing Noah on her knee to keep him happy. She met his gaze and smiled. In spite of everything, he found himself smiling back.
No, he wasn’t alone. Not anymore.
Forcing his gaze back to his audience, Alek smoothed his tie and took a deep breath.
“Carl. Stephanie. Antony. William. Juliette. I recruited each of them personally for this project. I’d met them all years ago, and all of them were my friends. It’s not easy to find those among my kind who remember what it means to be human. Or who still care.”
He looked over at the table, at each urn. “But they were good people, and they believed in what we were doing here. They were happy to put their lives on the line for it, to provide a safe place for us all to rebuild our lives. They patrolled the fence, they manned the gates, and they made sure nothing got in that wasn’t welcome. But then they were fooled.” He looked at Hannah as he emphasized, “We were all fooled.”
Alek shook his head. “I know it doesn’t seem fair, that I survived and they didn’t. I also know that I wouldn’t have, if you didn’t come for me.” He looked out at Hannah, Chris, Zach and the others who’d been involved in the rescue. “I owe each of you a debt of gratitude for that, but I owe everyone here so much more. And I promise each of you here today, I won’t be so easily fooled again. We’ll have to pull together and find the strength and courage to continue their work.”
His voice caught. He swallowed, pushing past the hitch in his breath to add, “If anyone would like to say a few words, go ahead.”
He took his seat beside Hannah. She reached over and took his hand. It was all he could do not to pull her into his arms then and there.
As Zach got up to speak, she leaned over to whisper in his ear, “It wasn’t your fault, either.”
He looked at her, at the baby in her lap, and knew at that moment that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect the life they had here, to give them a chance at happiness. To give Hannah that big house out in the country to raise Noah in peace and safety, even if he couldn’t give her children of her own.
At the front of the room, Zach addressed the assembly. “Carl was a buddy of mine. He was there with the doc the night he pulled my butt out of the fire, and I mean that literally. My building at MIT was burning, and it was surrounded by shamblers. There was no way to escape. I would’ve been a chicken-fried happy meal if it weren’t for them.” He looked over at Carl’s urn and smiled. “I remember this one time, when we were still setting up the camp here, when Carl dared me to…”
His voice trailed off as the doors at the back of the auditorium opened. A stranger dressed in black fatigues entered and marched deliberately up the aisle. “Aleksandr Konstantin,” he called.
Even from a distance, Alek could sense his own kind. The other vampire had the air of official business. Alek stood up. “What do you want?”
“You’ve been summoned. The Council has assembled, and you are to report to them at once.” He looked past Alek at the memorial display. “It’s true, then? You’ve lost some of our people?”
Alek’s jaw tightened. “My pilot was among them. The Council will have to wait until I can make the trip by ground.”
“That won’t be necessary. I have orders to fly you back myself.”
“Tonight?” Hannah stood next to Alek. “Can’t it at least wait until we’re done here?”
“My orders are to bring you back immediately,” said the vampire, not even glancing at Hannah.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
Alek looked at her. “Absolutely not.”
“Actually,” said the vampire, “I have orders to bring the girl. Esme felt that her presence would ensure your cooperation.”
Alek laughed at that. “If Esme thinks I’m just going to hand her a hostage—”
Hannah grabbed his sleeve. “Alek, I want to go. I don’t want you going alone. You need someone there to watch your back.”
“It’s not my back I’m worried about, it’s your neck. If we fly there with him, they could keep us both there. Esme wants to use you to control me. That is not going to happen.”
“Esme thought you might say as much,” said the vampire. “She instructed me to inform you that this is your one and only chance to convince the Council that your project is progressing satisfactorily. If you and the girl don’t come back with me tonight, then tomorrow they’ll send a task force to shut you down and deliver your charges into Esme’s custody.”
A cry of protest went through the assembly as everyone rose to their feet. Alek held up a hand to signal that they should stay calm, even though calm was the last thing he was feeling at the moment.
The rest of the crowd was still murmuring when a voice spoke up. “I’m a pilot,” called out Captain Burell. He came forward to stand next to Alek. “I can fly us there. That will at least improve your chances of being able to leave.”
Alek closed his eyes for a moment, envisioning his hands wrapped around Esme’s lovely white throat. It was the only thing keeping him from going for this vampire’s instead. “Go back to the Council,” he told the vampire, “and tell Esme we’ll be there soon.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When the messenger returned alone, Esme had to smile. She knew Alek too well to expect him to simply obey the summons without some show of defiance. “This is an outrage,” said Charlemagne, seated next to her at the long table. “This entire hearing is a farce. We should simply send soldiers to shut down Konstantin’s camp. We’ve been far too lenient with your protégé, Esme.” Charlemagne was second only to Balthazar in the Council hierarchy, and also in age. He was also a stickler for rules.
“Aleksandr hasn’t been my protégé for a very long time, my lord. His stubbornness today is nothing new. But don’t worry. He’ll come.”
“Are you certain?” asked Julia from the opposite end of the table, on the other side of Balthazar’s place of honor in the center. The only female on the Council, Julia was reputedly an ancient African queen with skin as smooth as marble and dark as teak. Her true name was something only she knew, if she even remembered. Today she looked more like a businesswoman in a white silk Armani suit. Only her bald, tattooed head belied her exotic and royal origins.
“Absolutely,” said Esme. “If there’s one trait to match our Alek’s stubbornness, it’s his predictability. He will come.”
As if on cue, the conference room door opened and Alek walked in. Esme’s smug smile froze and then faded as the girl entered behind him. She hung back near the door while he approached the Council table.
He bowed his head respectfully to each of them in turn, except Esme, who instead received a look of accusation and contempt. “You summoned me?”
“Aleksandr Konstantin.” Julia addressed him. “We’ve received disturbing news that five of our brethren were slain under your leadership. Is this true?”
Alek bowed his head. “I regret that it is.” His voice sounded heavy with shame. Or was it grief? “May I ask how you came to be informed of this so quickly? It only happened last night. I haven’t even had a chance to make a report. We were in the middle of a memorial service when your messenger arrived.”
“A memorial service?” asked Char-lemaigne. “How… human.”
“The humans at my camp cared a great deal for the fallen. They thought of them as friends. As did I. But again I ask, how did you learn about them?”
The others looked to Esme, whose smile returned. “One of my patrol squadrons discovered a band of humans hiding in a field near your Army base. They put up a good fight, but they were able to capture most of them and bring them in for processing. Most of those who survived were all too willing to explain the five vampire heads in their possession.” She shook her head and made a tsking noise. “Really, Alek. How lax must your security be if this band of slack-jawed rednecks were able to slay five of our people?”
“Carl and his team were my security. It’s a pity you can’t ask them.”
“We’re less concerned about your security issues,” said Julia, “than we are about the fact that it’s been more than six weeks since you’ve filed a progress report. Our research team in Sydney has shown promising results in their work toward a synthetic food source. They believe they’re very close to a breakthrough. What do you have to show for your efforts?”
Most people would be fooled by Alek’s poker face, but not Esme. She didn’t miss the barely perceptible twitch in his jaw, the oh-so-slight pursing of his lips as he weighed his response. “Actually,” he said, “I’ve performed a highly successful experiment.”
Charlemagne leaned forward. “Are you telling us that you’ve succeeded in replicating human blood?”
“No. Since taking over the Army base I’ve been conducting a different sort of experiment. A social experiment.”
The elder vampire almost shook with anger. “Who authorized such a thing?”
“No one,” Alek admitted, “but I saw a perfect opportunity to see what would happen if the humans under my charge were allowed to direct and care for themselves, under our protection. Rather than supervising their every move, forcing them to work and herding them into the blood banks like cattle,” he shot a look at Esme, “I gave them freedom to live and work as they pleased. They even have the freedom to leave if they choose to take their chances outside the compound.”
Charlemagne looked at the others as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you hearing this? Is it any wonder that the five we allowed to go with him are now dead?”
Julia held up a hand to calm Charlemagne. “And what were the results of this experiment?”
“They stayed,” said Alek. “They thrived. And they happily donate their blood in regular drives that they organize themselves. What’s more, their blood is healthier than that of those in captivity. And it tastes better.”
Julia sat back in her chair. “Free range. Interesting.”
“But what about the synthetic blood?” asked Charlemagne. “That’s the research you were tasked with. Who cares whether the humans are happy? If we can synthesize a substitute we won’t need to bother with them any longer.”
Alek’s jaw grew tighter, but he kept his tone deferential. “I haven’t been able to make a breakthrough with the synthetic blood.” Esme was impressed with how easily he sold the lie. She knew as well as he did that his work had nothing to do with synthesizing blood. “But the point of my experiment is that we don’t need to keep humanity in these prisons. We can exist with them, side by side, and as long as we protect them from the infected they’ll be happy to reciprocate and take care of our needs.”
“It’s true.” The girl stepped forward. “I mean, nobody has more reason to be anti-vampire than me.” She shot a look at Esme as she spoke. “A few weeks ago, my brother and I were picked up by one of your patrols and brought here. People here are miserable, and they’re afraid. They don’t walk around alone because the guards can’t be trusted not to have their way with them as soon as they get a chance.”
“Why is this human speaking?” demanded Charlemagne.
“What is she talking about?” asked Julia.
Esme kept her calm, not letting the others see how much she despised the girl. “On her last day here, there was an incident. One of my guards found her wandering where she shouldn’t, and he took advantage of the opportunity. He was dealt with immediately.” She looked at the girl. “That sort of thing is not a usual occurrence here.”
The girl’s defiance was even more blatant than Alek’s. She raised an eyebrow at Esme. “Is that so?”
“Why is this human speaking?!” repeated Charlemagne.
But she kept going. “My point is, after a short time at Doctor Konstantin’s camp I’m as willing to contribute to the blood bank as anybody. Just treat us with respect and give us our freedom, and we don’t need to be forced.”
Charlemagne jumped to his feet. “SILENCE THIS GIRL!”
“This girl,” Alek shouted back, “is a warrior. She deserves your respect.”
The others all sat in silence, watching as Charlemagne shook with fury. In a low voice, he said, “How dare you speak to me that way?”
Alek sighed and held up his hands. “Forgive my insolence, my lord. But this woman, her courage and her will to survive, represents the best of humanity. She’s their future. She’s our future. Don’t you see?”
He looked in turn at each member of the Council, saving Esme for last. “Say you succeed in synthesizing human blood, and we let them all die out. What happens if we can no longer make it? What if some natural disaster wipes out the means of production, or another virus comes along that we’re not immune to? What then?”
He shook his head. “We need humanity to survive. We always will. There’s no getting around that. And for the first time in history, they need us. We have a unique opportunity to form a truly symbiotic relationship that will put both our races on equal footing.”
Charlemagne shook his head in disgust. “Humans equal to vampires,” he muttered.
“The boy does have a point, Charlie,” said Julia.
“Don’t call me that!”
On the other side of Charlemagne, Esme’s sire stirred. The oldest of their race, Balthazar, smooth and pale as an alabaster statue, had remained as still and silent as one throughout the proceedings. Steepling his fingers, he spoke in a voice soft enough to force people to listen yet powerful enough to brook no argument. “We’ve heard enough.”
Julia bowed deferentially to him, and then nodded to Alek. “Thank you for coming. Please wait outside while we deliber-ate.”
Alek returned her nod and turned to go. When he reached out to take the girl’s hand, Esme stood and called to the guards. “Take the girl to my office for safekeeping.”
“What?” The girl looked from Alek to Esme. “I don’t think you want to do that, lady.”
“Stay right there,” Alek told the guards. “Don’t touch her.” He looked back at each of the Council members in turn before zeroing in on Esme. “A word?”
She wanted to command the guards to ignore him and take the girl, but something in his eyes and his tone told her that she would do well not to ignore him. “What is it?”
His half-smile filled her with dread. He knew something. “It’s private.”
Esme looked down the table to the Council members. “Excuse us. This won’t take but a moment.” She got up and allowed Alek to lead her to the back of the room, but that wasn’t enough to be out of earshot. “What is it?” she asked him in Czech, a language she was fairly certain nobody else in the room knew but them.
He answered in kind. “I know what Hannah saw the day I took her from here, why you put her into solitary confinement. If you try to keep her here, I’ll make sure she has a chance to tell the Council how you’ve been dipping into the food supply for your own pleasure.”
Esme burned so hot with fury that she was almost certain beams would shoot from her eyes and incinerate him where he stood. “You wouldn’t.”
“If you don’t rescind the order to take her, I’ll tell them right now.”
“Do you know what they would do to me?”
“I have an idea. Do you even care about the lives that will be ruined if you get your way here?” He laughed, and shook his head. “What am I saying? Of course you don’t.”
“It’s obvious that you do.” Her eyes narrowed as she leaned in. In English, she whispered, “I can smell her all over you.”
Alek smiled, then leaned in and whispered, “Good.” He turned and went to the girl. Hooking her arm through his, she glared back at Esme with eyes full of contempt as he led her from the room.
Esme fought down the powerful urge to walk out there and snap the little fool’s neck. That would take too much explaining. Besides, she and that wretched infant brother of hers would be back in Esme’s custody soon enough. It would be all too easy to arrange an accident, and have the added satisfaction of doing it right under Alek’s nose.
With that thought to console her, Esme composed herself and returned to the conference table. “Shall we begin deliberations?” she asked, taking her seat.
“What did you say to her?” Hannah asked once they were alone in the hallway.
“Nothing,” Alek said with an innocent shrug. “I simply reminded her about what you saw her doing the day you were attacked here.”
Hannah smiled in surprise and not a little appreciation. “You blackmailed her.”
His face turned serious. “I protected you.” He reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear. “I don’t have a great track record of protecting the people I care about, but every now and then I manage to score.”
She took his hand. “Alek, you’ve got to stop beating yourself up. You’re not some god. You’re just a guy. Granted, a guy with superhuman abilities, but still. You can’t save everybody, and nobody should expect you to. Including you. Besides, in case you haven’t noticed, my daddy didn’t exactly raise me to be some fair damsel.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “I noticed.”
They stood there a moment, looking into each other’s eyes. Hannah was ready to lean in for a kiss when he looked down at the floor. “You shouldn’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
He let out a soft, sad laugh. “Like I’m a hero or something. I don’t deserve it.” He took a seat on one of the metal benches flanking each side of the conference room door.
Hannah sat beside him. “What are you talking about? I don’t know anyone who deserves it more.”
“You deserve it more.” Sighing, he took her hand and held it in both of his. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and looked at the floor instead of at her. “There are things you should know about me. Things I did.”
“Things… like, vampire things?”
He nodded. “But also from before. When the Nazis had me and my wife.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand. “They forced me to work for them, to be a field medic for their troops. They kept telling me that if I cooperated, my wife would be treated well, and they’d return her to me after the war. So I did.
“They would bring the wounded into their camps… prisoners. Civilians, mostly. I wasn’t allowed to treat them. I was only allowed to treat the S. S. and any POWs that they deemed important enough to keep alive and healthy. All the others, I was forced to ignore. But how do you ignore people who are crying out in agony, when you know that you could help them? But knowing that doing so will put your wife in danger?”
He shook his head. “I can still hear them, sometimes. In my dreams, I can smell their festering wounds, see the pain and desperation on their faces as they reach out to me—”
“That wasn’t you. That was their crime, not yours.”
He nodded. “And I made them pay.” He leaned back, keeping hold of her hand, fixing his gaze on it. “After the Allied powers released us, I went to get Irina. I found out then that they only kept her two weeks at the labor camp before they shipped her to Auschwitz. Once there, it was only days before…” His hand tightened over hers. “Almost the entire time I was violating my oath to keep her alive, she was already dead.”
“Oh, Alek—”
“So I hunted them down. Every one of them. After Esme found me… changed me… I devoted myself to vengeance. I—” He stopped and swallowed. “I did things to them…”
“Good.”
He looked at her as though he couldn’t believe his ears. “But, the things I did—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Hannah shifted on the bench to face him better. “They were Nazis. They gave up their rights to humanity when they put on those uniforms and participated in genocide. Whatever you did to them, they had it coming. As far as I’m concerned, that makes you a frigging war hero.”
Still he stared at her, his face a mix of surprise and uncertainty. She raised her free hand to touch his face. “You’re a good man, Alek. I know that now, and I’m so sorry it took me so long to believe in you. But I do. And whatever ancient sins you feel like you need to confess, I’m not the one you need to confess them to. I don’t care what you did decades ago to a bunch of mass murderers.”
The look on his face melted into one of relief and gratitude, and something else Hannah was still afraid to name. He released her hand and touched her hair. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he pulled her close. They held each other for a long moment before he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “Thank you,” he whispered.
In answer, she took his face between her hands and kissed him. His arms tightened around her as his lips parted. Her tongue danced flirtatiously with his until he broke it off and buried his face in her hair. “Wait till I get you home.” His voice was so rough it was almost a growl.
Hannah grinned. “Wait till I get you home.”
The conference room doors opened. As they broke apart Hannah tried to stifle her smile. A red-headed vampire stepped out and said, “They’re ready for you.” When they both stood up, she glanced at Hannah and looked pointedly at Alek. “Just you.” She went back inside.
Alek looked at her apologetically. “This probably won’t take long.”
“I’ll be fine out here.” She smoothed out his jacket and straightened his tie. “Here,” she said, wiping a smudge of lip gloss off his face with her thumb. “Okay.”
He smiled at her, a smile that said everything in his life really was okay, at least in that moment. Then he went inside and closed the door.
Hannah sat back on the bench to wait. At the other end of the hall, a door opened and someone in an orange jumpsuit came through, pushing a broom. Hannah knew her. She pulled the letter she’d written out of her purse and stood up. “Louise!”
The older woman stopped pushing her broom as Hannah ran toward her, looking up with no hint of recognition. “Do I know you?”
“I was a prisoner here,” said Hannah. “You checked me in and showed me around.”
“Oh, right.” Louise nodded as though it was coming back to her. “You were on the doctor’s list.” She looked Hannah up and down. “You look pretty good for someone who’s been experimented on.”
“That’s because I haven’t. Everything you’ve heard about Dr. Konstantin’s camp is a lie.” She figured if the cat was already out of the bag, it couldn’t hurt to let everyone know. Maybe it would give them some hope to cling to. “He’s trying to help.”
“Help? How?”
Hannah pointed back at the conference room. “Right now he’s in there trying to convince them to change the way they do things here. That they don’t have to treat us like slaves.”
Louise’s laugh had a bitter edge. “Like that’ll happen.”
Hannah didn’t bother to argue. She knew it wouldn’t do any good. They would have to see for themselves once Alek succeeded. She held out the envelope. “Will you please give this to Phyllis for me?”
“Phyllis? Which one is she?”
“I never learned her last name,” Hannah admitted. “She’s tall and skinny, with really short hair. She talks a lot. She was on the janitorial staff.”
“Jewish girl?”
“Yeah.”
Louise looked down at the envelope and shook her head. “She’s dead.”
Hannah stood there, still holding out the envelope, and stared at Louise. “What?”
“There was a riot,” said Louise. “Damn fools tried to stage some kind of uprising. But it didn’t faze the vampires none. All they had to do was open the doors.” Her face twisted into a mask of anger. “They let them in. Those sons of bitches let the zeds in.”
Slowly, Hannah lowered her arm, crumpling the envelope in her fist.
“Those of us that made it back to our cells in time were the only ones that made it. Then we just had to wait it out while the vampires cleaned up the mess.”
“I’m sorry,” Hannah said, her voice thin and hollow. She didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, well, don’t be sorry you made it out of here. Or else you might have joined your friend.”
Louise went back to her sweeping. Hannah stood there, staring down at her letter, the elation she’d felt moments ago with Alek already a distant memory.
Behind her, the doors opened and closed. Alek came out alone. He didn’t look at her. She could tell by the way he stood that something was wrong. Then he spun and kicked the bench so hard it almost came unbolted from the floor. Hannah hurried toward him. “What’s wrong?”
“They want to shut us down.” He was so tense he practically vibrated with fury. “They’ve ordered me to turn all of the human residents at the base over to Esme. A portion of her population was lost in a riot, and now her production is down. They want to make it up with our people. That’s what this entire thing has been about.” Again, he kicked the bench.
Hannah flinched. “They didn’t get killed in a riot.” She pointed back at Louise. “She told me. Esme fed them to the shamblers.” Angry tears burned her eyes. She swatted at one as it escaped down her cheek. “Phyllis is dead.”
Alek looked at her. “Your friend?”
She nodded glumly. “What are we going to do?”
He looked down the hall at Louise before glancing at the conference room door. “Not here.”
He took her hand and led her back the way they came. Along the way, he pulled a walkie-talkie from his pocket and made a call to Captain Burell. They waited for him on the roof, and only when the chopper approached, the beat of its blades providing a sound buffer between them and any prying ears, did Alek lean down to speak in her ear. “We fight.” He pulled back to look at her. “Right?”
She nodded. “We take her down.”
Alek gazed at her as the chopper landed, blowing her hair in her face. He pushed it out of her eyes. “We take them all down.”
He squeezed her hand. It felt like some of his strength and conviction transferred into her with the gesture. As she climbed into the chopper, Hannah knew she was ready for this war.
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