Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Sounds of my father feasting on me blared through my eardrums. A snarl and moan rumbled from deep in his throat as he drank deeply from the artery in my neck.
My body and mind were completely in shock and paralyzed.
It all happened so fast. I couldn’t even hear Jude and Gabe screaming until they removed my dad from on top of me.
Gabe’s powerful hands gripped my dad’s shoulders, sending him sprawling backward against the wall with a heavy thud.
With a swift, decisive movement, Jude unsheathed his gun and pressed it to my father’s temple.
“I’m only keeping you alive because Vinny would never forgive me if I made a move.
Don’t try anything, or I’ll be forced to put a bullet through your head. ”
His eyes wide with worry, Gabe fell to his knees, his warm hand cradling my neck. “Vin! Are you okay?”
I swallowed the saliva pooling in my throat. “I-I’m fine.”
His fangs pierced his skin, a bead of blood welling up before he offered his wrist to my mouth. “Drink me to help you regain your strength.”
I wrapped my lips around his wrist and drew in a deep breath.
Blood cascaded into my mouth like water from a lake once the dam had been removed.
His blood was sweet, and I couldn’t get enough.
Is this how I tasted to him? No wonder he loved sex so much.
As my body grew stronger, I gradually released his wrist from my mouth.
I wiped my lips with the back of my hand. “Thanks.”
A bloodcurdling scream, sharp and piercing, echoed from the wall.
My father started making gurgling noises, his face turning pale, and his body heaved as if he were about to vomit.
His face drained of color, and his cheeks swelled as his skin took on a sickly gray hue.
He doubled over, clutching his stomach in agony, and collapsed onto the floor in a fetal position.
“What’s happening? What’s wrong with him?” Jude asked, locked onto the man with his gun extended.
Is it bad of me to say I didn’t care what happened to him? On one hand, I wished Jude would pull the trigger, but my conscience wouldn’t allow it. I didn’t know why he was sick, but I also didn’t care. He deserved it.
A hearty laugh boomed from the doorway. “Evil is a disease that infects the body and mind.”
Every eye in the vault snapped to the door, a tense silence between us as we waited to see who entered.
With a slow, deliberate movement, a man in a white robe reached up, his fingers finding the surface of his unicorn mask before he let it fall to the ground.
From the shadows emerged Arthur, a triumphant smirk playing on his gray beard as he brandished a gleaming pistol.
“D-dad, what’re you doing here?”
He held his chin high, eyes locked onto my father, a steely gaze that dared him to challenge him. “I’m here to end this war.”
My dad was still on the ground in pain, but managed to croak, “End the war? The vampires will never lose. We’re-we’re winning.”
“Oh, are you?” A chuckle came from Arthur’s mouth. “I had a trick up my sleeve, too. Why don’t you see for yourself, Sal?”
We stared at the screen, the four quadrants of the war outside painted in stark, flashing colors, the air heavy with the unspoken screams of those fighting.
The vampires were growing tired. The battle looked about even, with both sides slowing down.
From the gate, a larger wave of humans appeared, brandishing pitchforks, axes, and other barbaric weapons.
A horrifying eruption of red liquid sprayed across the floor as my father let out a massive belch. “The vampires will be victorious. If the Exiles fail, my military will step in.”
“So you say.” Arthur shook his head in disbelief before turning to me. “Vincent, what’s wrong with your father? It seems he has fallen ill after trying to drink your blood.”
Why did Arthur’s tone change? The once fatherly man now radiated dark energy. Something different, something sinister. “Yeah, it-it has never happened before.”
“Never happened before, isn’t that strange?” With a frown, Arthur tapped a finger to his chin, feigning deep concentration. “What might be different from the last time he drank from you?”
I had no idea what he was getting at. There was nothing different about me.
“Your blood is no longer drinkable, thanks to my son.”
Gasps of horror filled the room, a chilling counterpoint to my father’s labored moans and the sounds of his vomit.
Gabe’s eyes were wide, his chin almost hitting the floor.
With his mouth clamped shut, Jude expelled ragged breaths through his nose, his eyes glistening with moisture.
The revelation hung in the air, heavy and shocking.
How could this be true? Did Jude somehow deceive me? The thought was like a dagger to my heart, shattering the trust I had in him and leaving my thoughts in a whirlwind of confusion and betrayal.
“You liar!” My father’s accusation pierced the air. “That dirty human is gaslighting you!”
Arthur cocked his head at me. “Am I lying, Vincent? Have you been feeling…ill? Maybe even itchy?”
All eyes were on me, boring into me like daggers. How did he know I’ve been nauseous and my constant itchiness? What was Arthur trying to get at? “Yes, but that doesn’t mean my blood is bad.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong.” Arthur held one finger in the air like he remembered something.
“You’re special, Vincent, you’re the blueprint.
I had a thought after hacking into the files Sal created on extending blood lifespan—maybe, just maybe, I could delve into the data to see if there was a way to render your blood unusable.
And after years of experiments, I did. You needed fertile semen injected into your bloodstream, it seemed so obvious once I realized.
Something alive would cancel out the death—the fertile human DNA caused a cellular-level rejection and had manifested as a full body rash.
” His eyes glinted in the light. “But there was no way of confirming the validity of my experiment, which is why we staged an attack to kidnap you…and I made sure my son was there every step of the way.”
“Wait a sec…” Jude lowered his gun from my father’s head. “Did you-did you use me?”
Arthur’s pupils drifted upward, and he moved each of his hands up and down, like he was trying to balance something.
“I wouldn’t say I used you exactly…more like I initiated your meeting and forced the two of you together with the hope you may get close…
too close. And I was right.” He held up a finger.
“That was part one of my plan. The second was to continue to fuel Vincent’s hatred for his father after the first laboratory fell, and that’s when I set off the bomb at Silvertown. ”
“You’re disgusting!” I yelled over my father’s screams of pain. “You killed all those innocent humans, leaving children without parents!”
“But I wasn’t wrong. You wanted nothing more than to help me.
” Arthur smiled, his larger-than-normal incisors peeking out of his lips.
“After intercourse with my son, your blood was infiltrated and unusable by the vampires going forward.” His chin gave a slight nod toward my father, who was fixed on him.
“Vincent is no longer able to be used to continue the vampire race.” He sidled closer to Jude with a smug smile painted across his lips. “But I believe I can.”
“What do you mean?” I screamed. “How’s that possible?”
“Throughout the years, I’ve been microdosing on vampire blood, leaving just enough human in me. Equal parts human and vampire.” He couldn’t hide his triumphant smile. “After a few experiments, I believe my blood can create the next generation.”
A gasp caught in my throat. His experiments were the sick people in Silvertown jail. He was experimenting on his own citizens, whom he vowed to protect.
“Dad, I-I can’t believe this.” Disbelief etched Jude’s face as he shook his head, his whole body trembling in anger.
It was unreal. This man, who was so nice, so caring, was a monster.
He was the puppet master, pulling the strings behind everything that transpired between Jude and me.
I was sick, and I felt dirty. We played right into his hands.
He was the king, and we were his pawns. Despite my best efforts to break free from my father’s grasp and forge my own path, I had fallen into the hands of someone else’s control.
“Now we can create our own world. One without Salvatore Asposito. We can rebuild the world with superhumans. Doesn’t that sound exciting?”
“Hold on,” my father groaned. “I know you, aren’t you—ahh!” With a pained expression, he grabbed his aching stomach and puffed his cheeks. Whatever was happening to him wasn’t good.
Arthur walked closer to the trembling Jude. “Move out of the way, let me take a look at this man before I put him out of his misery.”
Jude remained steadfast, a silent sentinel between my father and his father, his presence unyielding.
“I said move, or he’ll get the bullet.” Arthur’s arm stretched out, the gun steady in his hand, aimed squarely at me.
Gabe stood, shielding me from Arthur. “You won’t hurt him.”
“Gabe, move,” I yelled. “Don’t be stupid. Don’t die for me.”
“I’d always die for you,” he answered. “You’re my beginning and end.”
“See, Jude?” Arthur spat. “If you don’t move away, he’ll get the first bullet, and Vincent will get the second. Is that what you want?” He glared at Jude and narrowed his eyes, like a master schooling his disobedient dog.
“Just listen to him!” I yelled. I couldn’t bear the responsibility if anything happened to Gabe, knowing his stubborn streak and the immense love he held for me.
Jude reluctantly ran to us, collapsing into our embrace. “We have to get out of here. I need to know you’re both safe.”
Arthur bent down and spoke quietly to my father, whose gasps for breath echoed in the stillness. I watched as my dad’s pupils dilated, his jaw dropping slightly in shock. I strained my ears, desperate to catch the murmur of their conversation.
My father vomited a small pool of blood and muttered, “But how did you do all of this?”
Arthur turned to us and solemnly said, “I’m sorry for doing this, Vincent.” There was a metallic click of the trigger as he pointed the gun at my father, and the subsequent gunshot shattered the silence.
It was like everything turned black and white.
My father’s body went limp, his blood pooling around him.
The look on my dad’s face—etched with terror—is all I remember.
The gunshot itself was completely silent to me.
His eyes, wide with shock, slowly drooped, mirroring the crushing weight of defeat and loss.
He was always one of those people you never thought would die, who would live forever.
Yet when he did pass on, it almost seemed surreal that someone so important was nothing more than a normal being.
Arthur muttered a silent prayer under his breath.
“Come on, Vin, let’s go!” Jude tugged insistently on my arm, but I remained rooted to the spot.
“You’ll be safer here. At least until the war is over.” Arthur pointed to the screens. “Ah, it looks like my third wave finally joined.”
The screens showed humans and vampires locked in a desperate battle.
The ground was covered in blood, yet both humans and vampires continued to battle on.
Broken bodies lay scattered across the muddied ground, their chests crushed under the relentless march of soldiers on both sides.
I was fixated on the imposing gates, where a wave of animals in perfect formation stormed the gates. I squinted. “What are those?”
“My babies,” Arthur whispered, his voice full of love and relief. “I’ve been waiting for this day to come. I created my own Dogs to help us win the war.”
A squadron of metal animals marched onto the screen. Their red eyes, burning with intensity, were laser-focused on the vampires, who screamed as they desperately tried to escape. The Dogs exploded into a frenzy of barking and snapping teeth, launching themselves at anyone who dared to approach.
“How did you—why did you?” Jude stuttered next to me.
It all clicked in my mind, like a puzzle coming together.
The vampire blood kept him alive longer than the average human.
Arthur knew the passcodes for both laboratories.
He even knew the dates to shut off the Dogs in the mountains.
The Polaroid pictures on the computer. He had the knowledge to create new Dogs. He called my father Sal.
A wave of realization washed over me, and the words seemed to choke out of my mouth. “You’re Dante.”
Arthur turned to me, a surprised look on his face as he shrugged. “Sal had the ego, I had the brains.”
A gunshot rang out through the bunker, and Arthur—Dante—fell to the ground with a smoldering bullet through his forehead. Tears streamed down Jude’s face as he collapsed onto the ground, his gun clattering to the ground with a metallic clang.
“I had to do it.” He sobbed. “I had to. He created more of them. He was going to be another version of your dad—worse probably.”
I knelt, cupping his face in my hands, feeling the warm tears stream over my fingers. “Jude, I love you.” I looked at the black-haired man behind me. “I love both of you.”
Gabe kissed him on the cheek, licking the salty tears from his lips. “You did what you had to do for the greatest good.”
The greatest good. What was the greatest good in this moment? I stood, a knot of dread tightening in my stomach, and walked over to the screens to watch the Dogs rip the vampires apart. I couldn’t let this continue. The Dogs should never be allowed to walk this Earth again.
Gabe held Jude’s head against his chest, his hand gently rubbing Jude’s shoulder, and I smiled, feeling the warmth of my love for both men. “I have to do what’s right for everyone—for us.”
They didn’t try to sway me, so I ran before they could.
I opened the door to the secret room lined with blood, opened the glass box, and punched the red button protruding from the wall.
Red lights started blinking around me, and just as I ran back to the two men, all of the doors within the bunker closed shut.
“Vinny, what did you do?” Gabe yelled.
I did it for the greater good. I did it for us. I did it for our future.
We watched the screens as several large explosions erupted in a blinding flash, the sound delayed slightly before the connection was lost. Killing every vampire, every human, and every Dog battling within the war outside.
My gilded cage was destroyed. Elysium was no more.