The Diary of the Vam’pir Jacques (The Diaries of the Immortals #1)

Chapter Twenty-six.

J ulius stared and nodded. At least someone could acknowledge my presence.

There was a commotion, and someone flew into me. Cursing, I collapsed to the floor just as a fire of electricity hit where I was standing. The owner of the gun fell as a vampire took him out. Dazed, I looked at the body lying on top of me, and Dan smiled.

“You were told to sit safe,” I snapped, rolling Dan off me and getting to my feet. Annoyed, I pulled him up.

“If we had, you would’ve been caught,” Tony said, standing over the still body of the guard. “Here, help me get this bastard into the cage. Jacques, I gather we need these alive.”

“Yes,” I stated.

Quickly, I assisted Tony in carrying the still body into Ana’s prison. Deftly, I searched through the guard’s pockets, looking for something that would identify him, and found nothing.

“Let’s free the others,” a vampire said. “We’ve captured most of the guards.”

I nodded agreement.

“Ana, Julius, and James stay here. You are not up to full strength and could hinder us,” I ordered sternly.

Ana looked aghast at being treated so, but Julius and James nodded.

“Jacques, we will keep guard on the exit and make sure that no one comes in. Anyone who does, we’ll keep alive,” James replied.

I left the room with Amelia and the six vampires. We came across ten more men as I forced open a door. After knocking them out, I realised it led to more rooms.

“This place feels like a maze,” Amelia remarked as we continued to open door after door.

I had snatched a bunch of keys from a guard that allowed us to open the doors with the least noise. I told the vampires to take the unconscious bodies of the ten guards to the cage and lock them in. They did so without an argument. Carrying on, we discovered the other lost vampires and Vam’pirs. Returning them to the main lab, I sent those able to round up any missing personnel. There were over sixty living people here.

“There is one missing,” James said as he helped Mihal feed.

“Tall bloke, dark blond hair and a bulldog face?” I asked.

James nodded.

“Got him earlier.”

We kept one scientist and one guard alive for answers. The scientist, Dr Warner, was scared out of her wits.

“What is this?” I demanded.

“An experiment to create the perfect soldier,” Warner stammered.

“How did you find out about us?” I asked, crouching down.

“By complete accident. One of the doctors…” Warner broke off as she saw his broken body on the floor.

“Look at me,” I said softly, and she looked into my face, terrified.

“Please don’t hurt me.”

“Answer my question.”

“One of the doctors witnessed one of you feeding. Dr Rainer had been working on an experimental weapon and stalked the vampire he had seen. Rainer caught him with a blast from the Magnetiser, a gun that works on your kind. We brought the vampire here for investigation. Rainer thought that we could copy the DNA from your blood. If we attained the gene that made you unkillable, then utilised this, we’d have the perfect weapon if there were a war.”

“You were analysing our blood?”

“Oh yes,” Warner warmed to her subject. “If we could transfer vampiric powers to a human, then we would have the ideal soldier. We were injecting diseases that would kill a human into the test subjects and monitored how they reacted.

“The results were amazing, virtually nothing can hurt you except a loss of blood. Our next step was to experiment with how long you could survive without blood.”

Warner’s self-satisfaction swamped her and blinded her to her wrongdoing. Once I had pulled all the information from her, I gave her a quick death and turned to the guard. His name was Jarvis, and he stared at me venomously before looking at a spot on the wall.

“Who else knows about vampires?” I demanded.

Jarvis refused to answer.

“How about your wife and kids? I will keep you alive when I go after them, and I’ll torture and kill them in front of you.” I took a punt in the dark.

The lucky guess that paid off.

Jarvis began to talk at once.

Apparently, Jarvis was the commander of these men, so we’d been fortunate to not kill him. He was part of an elite group that had been posted here about a year ago. They had been briefed on the experiments and Jarvis had held a great deal of derision until their first vampire.

Jarvis could not believe what he was seeing until the vampire got free and murdered one of men. Excited, Jarvis killed the vampire himself. The asshole admitted thinking of us as animals and not as people and said that made his job easier.

Jarvis had witnessed much of what happened and had helped the scientist’s piece together our lore. He’d also helped hunt and capture those held here. After torture and not being fed, several of the vampires spilt stories they had seen what they believed to be the firstborn. The Vam’pirs.

These tales intrigued Rainer and sent crews out to find them. They had caught Julius six months ago and held him hostage. Slowly, they trapped the others who had come to the rescue. Rainer left the captives in an unshielded room, where they weakly called for help.

One by one, Vam’pirs fell into the trap. James had been allowed to call an SOS to entrap Amelia or any other vampire that might answer the call. They’d underestimated those coming being alert to a trap. Amusingly, the rest of the Vam’pirs had blindly walked in, banking on their strength.

Arrogance was their undoing.

Jarvis, the fool, was proud of his men and of how they had handled the situation. But I’d been an unexpected element. Jarvis had believed that I followed the others down, but I hadn’t.

The idiot thought I was a suitable opponent and tipped his hat to me. But my gut told me Jarvis was hiding something. The sensation made me push Jarvis, and eventually, I discovered that he had snuck blood to those held hostage. Whether we were animals or sentient beings, Jarvis did not believe in what the scientists were doing.

Julius nodded his head, as did James. They remembered Jarvis sneaking rats or cats and dogs into them so they could have something to eat. Jarvis regretted his involvement but stated he’d repeat his actions. Those were his orders, and he’d followed them. It was part of his job, and although the torture was a part that he did not like, Jarvis did it.

I sat in silence asking the occasional question and thinking what he said over. The others chipped in with little comments. He remained stoic but stayed firm and ignored the threat of death against him. Finally, I’d had enough.

“Who else knows?”

The commander rattled off several names that held me still in amazement.

“Who else?” I asked, probing his mind.

“That’s it,” Jarvis answered wearily.

“The Prime Minister, or his staff know of us?”

“No, we are part of an elite group. We operate outside normal procedure, so few know of our existence.”

Jarvis told the truth.

“A kind of secret service,” Amelia said.

“Yes.”

“Is the data solely stored here for the tests, or are there additional backup systems?” I asked.

“The chief maintained complete files on all events here. He was planning to hold everyone until there was a war. Then we would’ve used your blood to make invincible soldiers. No country would have been able to stop us,” Jarvis replied.

“Wrong. You would have used it to become world dominators. Our blood would not have been used in defence of this country. Those super soldiers, the government would have used to subdue other countries that refused to do what Britain demanded,” Seti said.

“That might be true. I’m a soldier, and I do what my country needs or demands of me. No more and no less.”

“Would you put your head in an oven if instructed to do so?” Curtan asked.

“If that served a purpose, yes.”

“Blind obedience.” Curtan sighed and turned away.

“You would not have been able to control the soldiers, you know. With our blood, they would have run riot.”

“Warner was working on something to stop the blood thirst.”

“And we haven’t searched for a cure? They’d never find a way. Vam’pirs had far more superior technology that what you have today.”

I laughed bitterly.

“That’s true then. The story of your origins? Atlantis did exist ,” Jarvis questioned, amazed.

“You thought the legend untrue?” Inka asked.

“Of course? Damn, I’m actually looking at some Atlanteans. Unbelievable. This is amazing.”

“Yeah, yeah, enough of the wide-eyed amazement,” Nathan cut in. “Time to finish this shit and kill him. We know enough to find the others and destroy whatever records they hold and kill them.”

The commander backed against the wall and looked resigned. Jarvis pulled himself up to his full height and stood. His arms dangled by his sides as he stared death in the face.

“No!” I ordered. “Jarvis is not dying today. There has been enough blood spilt tonight. I will not have him killed.”

“Who do you think you are to dictate our actions?” Li’zel rounded on me. Together, they all closed in a tight bunch and left me with James, Amelia, and the six vampires on the other side.

“This is my territory, and my word is law. Do you want to argue about it?”

“Yeah, I’m up for that,” Nathan stated, coming forward. I crouched down and felt someone beside me do the same.

I glanced to my side and noticed James in a fighting stance. James saw my look and smiled grimly.

“Jacques, I owe you, and you just happen to be right. I can guess what you’re considering, and that will work.”

Nathan growled and pounced, and James got there before me and threw him to the ground. Before a full-on fight broke out, Ricardus stepped forward and grasped Nathan by the arms. Ricardus pulled him back and looked at James.

“What are you thinking?”

“Wipe Jarvis’s memory. We are telepathic, are we not? Search out all the information in his head and destroy it,” James said.

I turned to Jarvis. “This will not hurt you, but you’ll remember nothing about what happened here. We’ll take you home, and you can wait for your superiors to contact you. It will be like you have a year’s amnesia. In fact, I will give you a knock on the head, and they’ll believe it.”

“You can do that?” Jarvis asked.

“Yes, it means that you get to keep your life,” I said as Jarvis gave me a grateful look.

I remembered Jarvis had a wife and children, and he had been completely honest with us. Sure, it was coerced, but Jarvis had spoken the truth. He didn’t deserve to die. There had been enough death tonight.

“I will submit to this being done on one condition. Don’t take me home to my wife, let me wander the streets. That way, the police will have to search for my identity, and there’ll be no chance of my leading others to you again.”

That was acceptable, and I nodded in agreement and faced the others.

Without a word, they turned to leave.

Refusing to let them leave without having the final say, I added, “One more thing. You owe someone a thank you.”

“If you think that we will thank you—” Curtan started heatedly.

Sneering, I waved a hand.

“Oh, I expect nothing from you,” I replied disgustedly. “But Amelia and the six others deserve a thanks. They could’ve left you to the tender mercies of these people. If it hadn’t meant I would have been hunted down myself, I would have left you there. But you all would happily have given up my location.”

A sneer crossed Nathan’s face.

Yeah, he’d have sold me out.

“That is not good enough. You owe Jacques thanks,” Amelia burst out.

“Jacques killed a Vam’pir. None of us owes him anything,” Inka spat.

“Why?” Amelia demanded.

“Amelia, let it drop,” James ordered, and I turned in surprise.

“You know?” I guessed.

“Yes.”

“Barrington told you?” I drawled after a moment’s thinking.

“Barrington didn’t want you to be the only one to know why you killed Julia. He said that you needed someone to understand. And I do,” James replied.

“Damn that man. Barrington was more brother to me than anyone else in this life,” I responded softly.

Several of my oldest friends flinched. My words had stung them.

“What truth?” Eduardo demanded.

James turned and sneered.

“Ask yourself this. Was Julia a strong Vam’pir?” Amelia butted in before James could speak. I smothered a laugh. Amelia did not care about Vam’pirs or their thoughts. She was in a fine temper.

“Yes,” Kait answered, puzzled.

“Then why would Julia let Jacques drain and weaken her?” Amelia demanded.

Silence greeted the question before Nathan laughed.

“Julia did not; Jacques forcefully drained her. They fought,” he said confidently.

“And I guess Jacques beat her. What a shame we can’t communicate telepathically. Any time during the fight, Julia could’ve called for help. When Jaq attacked her, Julia could have cried for aid. Or when Jacques drained her, Julia surely would have screamed for her family to rescue her. What about when chained to the rocks? Such a shame we aren’t telepathic,” Amelia sneered.

“Amelia,” James warned, but Amelia didn’t subside.

“What a beast Jacques is. He never sacrificed for any of you or supported you. Jacques has never done everything in his power to assist you when you needed it. Even now, Jacques isn’t present to save you despite you all being assholes to him. No, this image is a figment of your imagination,” Amelia sneered once more.

“Why did Julia not call for help?” Emil asked, looking around. Emil looked stunned, as did several of the others.

“Jacques, what is your explanation?” Ricardus demanded.

“There is none for you. The appropriate time for that question was following Julia’s passing. Back then, I would’ve shared everything. However, you judged me out of hand. Truthfully, I owe none of you nothing,” I replied.

Vam’piric curiosity was now tweaked, and guilt swamped half of them. I refused to answer and turned my back on them. The Vam’pirs didn’t exist to me.

Amelia had opened their eyes, but it was too late.

They glared at my stubbornness, and, as a group, thanked their rescuers.

Evilly, I smiled at Inka as she glanced at me before following them. Such a deep love we’d once shared, now it was hate.

“Don’t come back,” I said to their backs. “Any intruder on my territory shall be killed.”

They stiffened and then left.

“James, can you start the memory swipe? I’ll smash the files and everything else on us.”

“Certainly,” James replied.

James sat Jarvis down and placed his hands on his head. Jarvis stared at James and then his head fell forward as James dropped him into a deep sleep. Amelia stood next to James and massaged his neck. Wiping someone’s memory was a tiring business and was rarely done as it severely weakened us.

I picked up a computer and went to smash it when Dick stopped me.

“They could still retrieve the data. We can do one of two things. Wipe the memory core but that’ll take ages, or smash and burn everything in here.”

I looked around. “The second option. Grab petrol and other flammable items, then splash everything in every room, not just this one. This needs to burn hot. We’ll throw the match from a distance.”

We waited an hour while James continued to wipe the memory, and then he stood.

“What is that smell?” James asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Petrol, we’re going to burn this place to the ground.”

“You’ve been busy while I worked. Best thing to do, burning this.”

James picked up the unconscious commander and slung him over his shoulder. Together, we walked to the lift and rose to the surface. I was the last one out of the building, and striking a match, I flicked it into the house and ran away.

The place lit up immediately, the fire spreading immediately. I stayed and watched as flames reached high into the sky. When I was satisfied that it was completely alight, I joined the others at the edge of Epping Forest.

From our vantage point, the flickering blaze in the night sky, was visible. Several explosions were heard as the underground rooms caught on fire.

“Dan, take Jarvis to the nearest police station. Second thoughts take him to one in London. Jarvis being far from here, will confuse everyone.”

Dan nodded and took the commander off James.

“One more thing, the warning that I gave the Vam’pirs does not include you. You are welcome in London as long as I live there. I’ll not hunt any of you for the help you have given so freely tonight. Drink from the guilty, not the innocent. I will put you down for that. If you ever need a safe haven, you have one. Find me. If anyone confronts you, say you are of my vein.”

Before I could change my mind, I bit into my wrist and allowed blood to flow.

“Drink,” I commanded, and they looked surprised. “If you’re of my vein, then you need a little of my blood in you.”

They all drank and then, giving thanks, left. James and Amelia remained locked in each other’s arms.

“Thank you,” Amelia said, glowing.

James was a lucky man, and I told him so. He smirked slightly.

“True friendship between us is impossible, Jacques. Yet, we might start tolerating each other.”

“That would be something indeed. The same goes for you two. If you ever need me, I will be here or within shouting distance.”

They smiled and transported away, leaving me alone. I returned to the house to ensure it was razed to the ground. Fire engines battled the blaze unsuccessfully.

I buried myself in the ground, ignoring the cold earth as sun came up. When I rose the next night, the house was a mess of fallen timbers, and there was tape surrounding it, warning of danger. Through the debris, I located the missing elevator’s opening.

I jumped down and walked around the underground rooms, searching for anything that had not burnt. The fire had effectively completed its task, leaving no clues behind about the previous activities. The fire’s intensity incinerated even the bodies.

◆◆◆

The following evening, I invaded the Houses of Parliament, looking for one of the names that the commander had given me. The man was in his office, and I broke his neck. I rampaged through his room, destroying any computer disks or computers that I could find.

The paper files I gathered up and took with me and burned. I left to search for the other three names. Over the next few nights, I tracked them down. On entering the last office, I discovered the mastermind. A woman seated at a desk puffed up with her self-importance. My entrance startled her, and she gazed at me in horror.

Her thoughts screamed at me. Vampire , her mind shrieked. The fact she was female threw me for a minute, as I’d honestly expected a man. She reached under the table for something, and in an instant, I was at her throat and drinking.

I let her dead body fall to the floor and crouched next to it to peer under the desk. My instinct had been right. The idiot had gone for a gun and would have tried to kill me. I looked at her, somewhat unsurprised that a woman could show such ruthlessness.

Shrugging my shoulders, I did the same to her office as I had done to the others. The only difference was that I took her files with me as they named the vampires that had died in her experiments. I was shocked when I flicked through the file to see over fifty names on the list. It detailed how long it took them to die, and I was surprised when I read that they were not all young vampires.

A couple had been over a thousand years old. How could they have been captured so easily?

The recriminations didn’t matter. They’d been caught and killed.

There was nothing I could do about it now. What made me wonder was how so many had been caught. Over fifty had died in total had passed. Why’d nobody realised that they were missing? I know we are creatures that like solitude, but we do mingle with others, so why’d no one known that they were missing?

Whatever, it mattered little. No further threats existed.

Why am I drawing the eyes of the reader to us if I stopped all threats? Because as I said, you will think this is fiction. Basically, who cares?

Those who masterminded the experiment are dead, and who can prove if Vam’pirs exist or not? I couldn’t give a shit, really, even if there was someone who believed. Come and get me if you dare!