Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (6 page)

“
You probably just missed
it somewhere. And you do all that research on your own,
too.”

“
Drew, just tell
me.”

Anthony raised his eyebrows. “She is
truly a feisty one. I have always taken a liking to women who have
a bit of fight in them.”

Drew raised his eyebrows at that last
part. “She’s not a woman.”

“
Really, Drew?”

He shrugged. “I mean that you’re
young.”

Anthony grinned. “Long ago, when I was
a human, girls were married off when they were very young and
considered women at an early age.”

“
Forget about it and start
talking,” I blurted out, fuming over how blunt this guy
was.

Drew picked up the conversation since
he seemed to know so much about the topic. “Anthony Christos is one
of the very first vampires. After discovering how evil his kind
was, he fought against them with the Hunters, but the evil
offspring had become too many for them to win the battle. Ever
since, Anthony Christos has lived in hiding or a chosen seclusion.
Either way, no one has heard of him or from him since that battle
long ago.”

I almost rolled my eyes again. Really,
why was that such a big deal? He was the same as the next vampire
in my book.

Anthony clapped his hands in a slow
arrogant manner. “Well done, Hunter. At least you know your
history.”

I wasn’t at a point to even consider
moving my weapon away from him. “This doesn’t mean anything. You
are still a vampire, making you a threat and part of the
problem.”

Surprisingly, he nodded. “Yes, I am
part of the problem.”

Drew took a step forward. “You say
that you want to help, that we need you. What do you know that can
help us?”

“
I am actually quite
shocked that none the fearsome Hunters have discovered the answer
to that question, especially since you are all supposed to be so
educated on vampire lore.”

Drew ignored the jab.

“
Tell us,” I
demanded.

He smiled that half gentle, half scary
smile again. “To kill the vampires … all of them, you have to kill
the first in the bloodline. You do that and the entire line will
cease to exist.”

I sat back a little bit in the hard
wooden chair. It seemed so simple. How could the answer to all of
this chaos going on around us be something so freaking easy. And
here, in front of us, sat the first in the line of many. “Do you
know what this means?”

He nodded, his smile suddenly replaced
with a solemn expression. “I am willing to accept my final death.
After so many years of seclusion from my own kind, as well as
humans, my time has come.”

Drew didn’t look convinced. I know I
sure as hell wasn’t. “So you’re just giving yourself up to us? That
is why you found us?”

“
Not entirely.” He leaned
forward and folded his hands on the table. “You cannot possibly
think that I am the only vampire that is first in a bloodline.” He
lifted his hand, giving us a dismissive wave. “This … problem you
are facing right now did not start with my line. In fact, there are
very few left in mine.”

It was my turn to lean forward. “Do
you know whose it is?” I asked.

He nodded. “Of course I
do.”

“
And you are going to help
us find them?”

“
I will do my very best.
However, I stay alive until the other lines are taken down. That is
the deal.” Anthony looked to Drew for confirmation of the
deal.

I didn’t like this at all. He was a
vampire! I knew some were worse than others, but at this point a
vampire was a vampire and I just wanted to kill them all.
Regardless, I had a feeling that Anthony was telling the truth, and
if there was any way that he could help us find the head of each
line, we were going to have to keep him alive.

Drew met Anthony’s eyes. “I don’t
understand why you even want to help to begin with.”

Anthony merely shook his head a tiny
bit. “You, young man, were raised as a Hunter, raised with the
understanding that all vampires are inherently evil. But, there are
some … very few, in fact, who are not. Yes, we drink blood and have
a lust for it that drives us to do the most ungodly acts, but the
few who can fight the demon inside do not like the creatures that
we are and want to rid the world of the evil ones just as much as
you do.”

I almost laughed. Did he seriously
think we were buying this garbage? “I don’t believe
you.”

“
Whether or not you want to
believe me is your choice. I have no reason to lie, even more so
since I have agreed to let you eventually kill me for
good.”

Drew rubbed his forehead. “All right.
Tell us about the other lines.”

“
Yes, of course.” The
solemn yet wistful expression returned to Anthony’s face as he
leaned back and prepared to tell his story.

“
In the beginning, the
original lines consisted of six vampires. No, we weren’t related.
We were simply in a bad place at a bad time … chosen by the woman
who cursed us. This woman, like the race of Hunters, was also the
daughter of a god a descendant of Hades. With his blood running
through her half human veins she was very, very
powerful.

“
Now, as most stories go,
love and deceit played a very large part in how it ends. This
woman, who was named Chryssa, was born into a wealthy and prominent
family. Not only was she extraordinarily beautiful, but she wanted
for nothing … and when she fell in love with a commoner it was no
exception.

“
The man she fell in love
with was called Lavrentios. As a commoner, he was obviously taken
with Chyssa from the very beginning. He may have been from a poor
family, but he was indeed as handsome and strong as the males from
more prominent families. Chryssa, even though descended from the
God of Hell, was human enough not to deny what she thought was true
love.

Lavrentios would have been a fool to
deny Chryssa; she was everything he could have ever wished for.
Along with the inheritance of her family line she was a rare beauty
with her long, dark mane, eyes just as dark, and flawless golden
skin. So, Chryssa took this man as her husband, and more than
willingly, he came to live with her among all her wealth and
power.

“
It was only after a few
years of marriage that Lavrentios, who never had any sort of wealth
nor power, eventually let both of these troublesome things go to
his head. Chryssa caught him fornicating with two of her
handmaidens. Now, understand … these women were under Chryssa’s
rule, which meant her husband was able to make them do whatever he
wanted them to. They were slaves, with the
title
of handmaiden. Just as the
servants were slaves with the titles of servants. All of the slaves
were obligated to do as their master’s ordered. If they refused to
comply, he would have whipped them or perhaps worse, depending on
his mood.”

Anthony paused and took a deep breath
before he went on. “I was there, I was one of their servants who
bore witness when she discovered her husband’s infidelity, when she
went mad with jealousy and rage. There were two handmaidens and
four servants in attendance of the incident. Two men were standing
watch over him and I, as well as another male servant, were always
with Chryssa.

“
Insanity followed
Chryssa’s initial shock of finding her husband with two other
women. She screamed and threw things, telling him that she gave him
everything. Lavrentios, a changed man since his commoner days,
merely dismissed her with a wave and instructed the servants to
remove her from his presence. I will never forget the next moments,
for they are seared into my memory, but they happened so quickly
and in such a blur of time.

“
Lavrentios had absolutely
no idea of the power that his wife was able to wield. It is
entirely possible that even
she
had no idea until that tragic day. The magic of
the gods swarmed up around her in dark, oily smoke and she ordered
us to bind his hands and feet together. Immediately, we complied.
He fought us and he put up a good fight, but the last few years of
laziness had made him weak. We were slaves, which meant that we
were stronger, plus there were more of us. Even Lavrentios’s own
servants had to heed her word and helped us to subdue him. Once he
was bound, she ordered us to kill him.

“
We were a gentle people,
the slaves. Everyone has a line they will cross and murder was that
line for all of us, which was the reason we hesitated when she
demanded that we kill her husband. I was not going to kill a man
over adultery, which happened on a day to day basis in those days.
Many wealthy men took mistresses. I floundered, as did my fellow
friends.

“
Seeing our hesitation, she
became enraged once again. I felt the magic well up within the
walls as she called upon the power of her descendants to help her.
It was then that foreign words escaped her lips and a curse was
place on all six of us who bore witness.

“
Suddenly, I felt as if my
body was afire. We crumpled to the ground while Lavrentios cried
out for help, screaming for mercy from his once so doting wife.
Even the handmaidens had fallen to the floor and were writhing in
agony from the pain that seared their bodies from the inside
out.

“
I do not know how much
time passed in which we were forced to endure the pain. We all
awoke feeling weak, confused … and hungry.

“
She stood there watching
us and waiting.

“
My mouth was dry, drier
than it had ever been. I moved my tongue over my teeth, trying to
force saliva to form, and discovered sharp points had developed on
my teeth. They felt as sharp as the edge of a sword.”

Again, Anthony stopped speaking, but
this time he absently moved his hand to his mouth. His lip lifted
and he touched the tip of one of his fangs as if he were
remembering the first time he felt them.

“
What happened next?” Drew
tried to direct him back into the story.

Anthony swallowed and then continued,
“Finally she spoke only one word. ‘Feed!’ she demanded, pointing at
her bound husband.”

Sadness filled his brown eyes as he
caught my gaze. “You have no idea how it felt. Have you ever been
so hungry that it literally burned in the pit of your stomach? I
felt this hunger in every pore, every cell, and every part of my
being. I looked to my five companions, knowing they felt as I did.
As I set my sight upon them, I saw that none of their eyes were the
deep, rich brown they were before. Each of them had changed from
the original color to the glowing red of demons.

“
We
had become demons.

“
And with her demand … the
curse was sealed … sealed in blood.

“
As one, we attacked
Leventrios, who had no possible way to escape. I was beyond
comprehension of any right or wrong as I felt my fangs pierce his
skin, letting his blood flow freely into my own being. We drank
from his veins until there was no life left in him.”

Anthony looked to the
ceiling before finishing his tale. “And
that
is how the first six vampires
were created.”

I switched my gun to the other hand
and rolled my eyes. “This has been an interesting history lesson,
but you haven’t told us about the remaining original lines and how
we find them. That’s what we want to know.” I felt a bit like I was
belittling the emotion of his tale. It was an interesting story and
I was actually surprised that with all of my research on the
history of Hunter’s and vampire lore, that I hadn’t come by any of
that particular information. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I
knew that the information he had just given us would eventually be
help of some kind.

“
Patience, my
dear.”

Drew stepped forward. “If you haven’t
noticed, we don’t really have time to sit around telling stories.
The sooner we end this, the sooner we can get society back into
something that can at least function.”

Anthony shook his head. “It will never
be the same.”

“
Yes,” Drew agreed, “but if
we get rid of the vampires the rebuilding can begin. People can
stop being so scared.”

The pain I’d felt from the
entertainment center had finally faded away, so I stood up and
paced a little bit. I still didn’t trust Anthony, but I was tired
of sitting there pointing my gun at him. If he was going to try and
kill us, he had already had plenty of opportunities to do that. I
waved my gun at him on a pass by. “So tell us about the other
vampires and their bloodlines,” and for my own personal curiosity,
“and what happened to Chryssa”

Drew took over my chair while I paced
and Anthony went on with his story telling. “Chyssa, knew what she
had done to us. After her husband had been drained, she ordered us
into the cells and locked us behind iron bars. It was a learning
experience for her as well as for us. She did not realize the
superior strength of the creatures she had created, but … neither
did we. After the initial phase of hunger had been sated, the six
of us were more afraid than anything. We cowered in the cells. She
tried having food delivered to us, but the first of the servants
she sent down ended up meeting his demise the same way as her
husband. The servant came to the cell I shared with Mihalis and
Pavlos, and tossed a loaf of bread in between the bars in our
general direction.