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Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Los Angeles
Gender: Male
Posts: 2
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A Dark Destiny Arises
A Dark Destiny Arises
By: Adolphus
Chapter 1
Alyssa suddenly awoke in a cold sweat, aware that there was a foreign presence in her room.
“Ah the sleeping beauty awakens.” A disembodied voice floated out of the darkness and Alyssa practically leapt out of her skin, sitting bolt upright and staring at where the voice had come from. “What the-? Who the hell are you?” A tall dark figure was sitting in the chair by the window but there wasn’t enough light to discern any features.
“A friend.” If she wasn’t so scared and angry the voice would have made her knees melt. It was like listening to honeyed chocolate melting in the night.
“How the hell did you get into my apartment?” She crawled across the bed and reached for the phone. The distinct click of the safety catch coming off a gun stopped her dead, mid-reach, and she froze.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” She knew it was a man but not being able to see anything else, Alyssa didn’t know what sort of chance she had against him. Retracting her hand slowly, she turned to look at the figure. “Good.” The voice sounded amused. “I’m here to help you and I couldn’t very well do that if you call the police every time I show up.”
“What? You’re crazy! What kind of freak breaks into a woman’s apartment in the middle of the night, watches her sleep, pulls a gun on her and then expects her not to call the police?!” A dry chuckle sounded, almost a whisper.
“This kind of freak obviously.” Alyssa swallowed and tried to calculate how long it would take to dive over the other side of the bed and onto the floor with the phone and then call the police without getting shot. Not very likely.
“Are you going to hurt me?” She asked in a tiny voice and this time the man laughed loudly.
“Haven’t you listened to anything I said? I told you, I’m a friend and I’m here to help you.”
“I don’t need your help. Get the hell out of my apartment.” The anger was tinged with terror and her hands were shaking.
“I’m afraid, Alyssa that you are in very grave danger and if you don’t listen to me you will end up subjected to a fate worse than death.”
“How did you know my name?” She whispered, surprised into momentarily forgetting her fear. This time the man sounded almost sad.
“I’ve been forced to learn an awful lot about you over the last two weeks.” He admitted. “It was important that I get to you before they did.”
“Before who did? What the hell is going on?” Alyssa fought her rising hysteria knowing full well that panicking was possibly the worst thing she could do. At first the man didn’t answer, but then she heard a small sigh and he shifted slightly in his seat.
“Where do I start? You aren’t going to believe a word of it anyway.” This was getting so incredibly surreal that Alyssa half-convinced herself she was dreaming and pinched her arm. He obviously saw her do it because he chuckled. “No, you’re not dreaming. I’m really here. I have been assigned as your protector. There are others that will watch you all the time but you will only ever see me.”
“Why do I need a protector?” Alyssa was incredulous, deciding he was either a complete delusional nutcase or some random figment of her imagination. Or perhaps both.
“There are those that would kidnap you and put you into a slavery that would last the rest of eternity. He is searching for a new bride.” The way he said ‘He’ sent shivers down her spine.
“Who is ‘He’?” Alyssa crossed her arms. “You’re not making an awful lot of sense.”
“’He’ is Lord Arken, Imperial master of the Vampire underworld. They are seeking a new bloodline and you, Alyssa, are eminently suitable.” Despite herself, Alyssa burst out laughing.
“Vampires? Are you on pills or something? There’s no such thing as vampires. Perhaps you should go back to never-never land and play with your dolls.”
“Do not anger me lady.” The voice was deathly quiet and the intent unmistakable. Alyssa stopped laughing instantly and swallowed again, shivering suddenly. That tone of voice felt like cold steel sliding across her bare skin. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me. I have to protect you. It’s my duty and I will carry it out with your consent or not.”
“Who are you?” She whispered. “What does it matter to you if some freak lord wants to make me the mother of his children?”
“I have been hunting down and killing vampires since I was sixteen years old.” The stranger told her in an oddly detached tone. “Contrary to popular belief, not everyone that is bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire. In fact, very few can withstand the changes the vampire virus inserts into the genetic code. And of those few that do survive, even fewer are capable of reproducing. It’s very rare as the virus causes complete sterility in most people.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Snorted Alyssa. “A virus wouldn’t set out to cull a population. Humans are perfect bio cultures.” She saw a slight shift in the darkness as the man shrugged.
“Nevertheless that’s what happens. So they keep trying to turn humans, to keep their populations up. Those vampires, male and female, capable of breeding are kept locked up and permanently being forced to reproduce, but they are so few and the process takes so long that the population is slowly dwindling as me and my kind pick them off one by one. Only one in every five hundred people they bite is turned and they can’t kill that many in a short period of time. The authorities would notice that many people vanishing. It helps that we have infiltrated at least five of their dens and eradicated the breeding stock in them.”
“So what has all of this got to do with me?” If he was intent on telling stories she might as well humor him – it meant he wasn’t doing anything violent.
“The vampires have discovered that certain people are more likely to survive the turning and not be barren. They did surveys of the genomes of their kind and found a particular allele in all of the turned, and another one in those that can reproduce. So they turned this knowledge to the human population and started to search for those that had both alleles. As soon as we realized what was happening, that they were targeting specific people and had a higher turn rate, we did some research of our own, found out what they were seeking, and then set out to protect those people. You, Alyssa, are one of them. You come from an old bloodline. Many members of your family have both alleles but all have already got children of their own. The vampires may be intelligent but when it comes to certain things they are indomitably stupid. They won’t turn tainted meat.”
“So how many of us are there?” Alyssa was starting to get drawn into the story, despite herself and the stranger shrugged again.
“Very few. You are one of only six we have found in the whole of America and we have scanned the whole population.”
“How the hell did you get samples of DNA from everyone? That’s not possible.” She could sense his smile in the darkness.
“It is when you break into the ultimate Big Brother of all. Every child born in the world has a blood sample taken when they are babies. They get put onto Guthrie cards and sent to huge storerooms where they stay for years gathering dust. The general public doesn’t know that the government has access to the DNA of every living person in this country.” Alyssa’s jaw dropped.
“It must have taken you years to go through all of them.” She blurted. “DNA fingerprinting takes a day to do for one batch of samples, and that’s if you have state of the art machines!”
“We had a lot of scientists, and we could cut out an awful lot of generations simply from the parent’s lineage. We only followed those with at least one allele and then tested the offspring of meetings of the two. There weren’t that many, and of those we could strike all the ones that had children of their own or were known to have had sexual intercourse. Like I said – you’re one of only six in the whole of the United States of America.”
“So why am I in danger and not them?” She hadn’t intended to sound petulant but couldn’t keep the irritation out of her tone.
“Oh they are in danger, believe me. The vampires will try to turn them, but you are different.”
“Why?” The fear was rising again and she firmly pushed it down. “Why am I different.”
“Because of the other five, three are men and the other two are girls of two and three years old. You, at twenty-two are the only one suitable for Lord Arken’s attentions.” Alyssa was starting to get confused, sure she was missing something.
“So why not wait until the others grow up? Why the rush?” The man leaned forward.
“Because three weeks ago we killed Lord Arken’s only surviving relative. He has to pass on the imperial bloodline immediately. Why do you think they were searching only for those with both alleles? Why not just seek those with the one that enables them to turn and turn them all? Because the imperial bloodline is important and it must be continued through untainted flesh.”
“And that would be mine.” A faint movement as he nodded.
“We get closer to Lord Arken every month and well he knows it. He has to pass on his line before we catch him and kill him and put an end to the whole race. When he dies, all those he has turned die and in turn those that they have turned will die. It will decimate the population and we will clean up the remaining few. However, should he produce an heir, his turning bond will be passed on to the child.”
“Oh. Right.” She was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that he was telling the truth, as unbelievable as it sounded. She put the suspicion down to tiredness and tried very hard not to yawn. “So why not just kill us and have done? Surely that would be an awful lot easier and cheaper than assigning us twenty-four hour protection?”
“Do you want to die Alyssa?” The question was quiet and struck ice to the core of Alyssa’s being.
“No. No I don’t want to die.”
“Well then.” She saw movement in the rising dawn pre-light as he ran a hand through his hair. “Besides, I don’t kill humans. Especially not women. Once I have killed Lord Arken that’s it – no more bloodshed.” He leapt to his feet, suddenly looming up out of the darkness, and Alyssa bit back a startled scream. “I must go.” He said calmly, ignoring her gasp. “It is almost dawn. I will return soon, but until then keep watch and be careful. Do not go out on your own in the dark or anything reckless like that. They will not take you in daylight or in crowded places. Farewell Alyssa. Lock the door behind me.” And he was gone, just vanished into the darkness. She heard a soft click as the front door closed and leapt out of bed to lock and bolt it. How the hell had he gotten in? She distinctly remembered locking and bolting the door before she went to bed. And who was he? He hadn’t given her a name. More to the point perhaps, what was he?
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