“Listen, Kaldan, I don’t pay you to make excuses. I pay you to do what I tell you. What I told you was to have her followed, not have your idiot flunky attack her.” He paused, obviously listening to this Kaldan person.
Whatever Kaldan said really pissed Darroch off because he started screaming into his phone. “Listen, you idiot, I don’t care if he was starving to death! Her blood is not to be taken! He was to follow, not attack … I don’t fucking care … You know what, Kaldan? Deal with the problem or I will!”
I was getting a really bad feeling about this. I’d been attacked last night by a vampire who’d tried to take my blood. The only Kaldan I knew about was the head of one of the local vampire clans, Terrance’s master. From the sounds of things, Darroch had hired Kaldan to have me followed. Fortunately it didn’t appear he wanted me killed, but that was just rude. Not good, very not good.
While Darroch continued yelling into his phone, I tried to think. Why would my client have me followed? I could see him maybe wanting to make sure he got the amulet back once I found it, but according to Jack, Darroch already had the amulet, so it couldn’t be that. The only other thing I could think of was that Darroch wanted me to lead him to the Sunwalker. The Sunwalker he’d hired me to kill. Either he didn’t trust me, which was understandable since I was currently lying under his bed and therefore not exactly trustworthy, or there was a lot more going on here than I knew. I was voting for the latter.
Now how to get out of here? Preferably without getting caught.
Fortunately my opportunity came a few minutes later when Darroch, still screaming into his cell, strode into the en suite bathroom and slammed the door so hard I thought it’d fall off its hinges. Fantastic. I rolled out from under the bed and scurried for the door. A quick peek into the hall showed all clear, so I hurried down the stairs. Still no sign of Darroch’s minions, so rather than try for the pantry and its tiny window, I headed straight to the front door and walked right outside, bold as brass.
One of Darroch’s neighbors was taking his garbage out. The guy was about eighty and peered at me suspiciously through the thick lenses of his glasses. I nodded, smiled and gave him a little wave. He smiled back and gave me a salute. When in doubt, act like you belong.
I decided to skip a run-in with Kabita and headed home. I was in serious need of some sleep and I really didn’t want to spend the next hour arguing.
White knuckled hands gripped the smooth railing as I gazed out over the sparkling city below. The spire of the Great Library, the tallest building in the world, glowed red and gold in the afternoon sun. The Dome of Enlightenment sparkled in blues and silvers below, beckoning those who saw it to enter and partake of its serenity.
This city stood for millennia first on our home world, and then here on this beautiful new planet when our own suns died. It had been a beacon of enlightenment in an uncivilized universe, but now … This was the end of it, then. The end of all things, for both the City and for the people of Atlantis.
I whirled from the railing, stalking back into the temple, the marble floor cold beneath my thin silken shoes, robes swirling around my ankles. Something must be done. Something would be done. Saving the treasure of my people for a future generation was paramount. Surely there was some way to ensure survival? A way to stop the madness?
I paced wildly, clenching my hands together, willing my shattered mind to pray. How could we have known that a tiny little infection would turn the most peaceful race on the planet into mindless, bloodthirsty beasts, impossible to cure or to kill? We would destroy all of human kind, if I didn’t do something. A paradise planet turned to a wasteland.
It was only a matter of time before the sickness reached the temple and the priests and priestesses succumbed, the royal family along with them. As the last High Priest of Atlantis, I would be the last to fall. I was, after all, the strongest, chosen as a conduit for the gods. The energy that flowed through me, as it flowed through the City of Atlantis, would protect me. For a time.
I scrubbed a weary hand across my face. What to do? How to save all the good that was Atlantis? How to save a remnant of the Atlantean people, the last of our kind in existence?
A thought came to me. There was, perhaps, a chance. I strode across the room, purpose flooding my veins.
“Send me Varan.” The young acolyte bowed and hurried out of the room. Our only chance for success lay in the half-breed children Atlantis had born. They alone were immune to the sickness, both the ravening disease that struck Atlanteans, and the Nightwalker sickness that struck humans. Even our greatest physicians did not know where the disease had come from, or the reason for the immunity of the half-human children, but it might prove our salvation, and that of the human race. There was only one member of the Royal Bloodline who possessed both Atlantean and human blood.