Containment measures, p.40
Containment Measures, page 40
part #2 of The Immortium Series
Damien sat back now that he had her full attention. His eyes continued to shoot blades at her if that were feasible. “Did you ever once feel a reverberance?”
Lillian scoffed. He didn't. “DID YOU EVER FEEL HER DIE?”
She met his eyes with a fiery glare. “I was in hibernation to avoid feeling her death.”
Damien smirked. “I was in hibernation too, but you know what I found out Lilith?”
“What?”
“I went to researching everything Trevor Graves sent me. I even tracked down the werefox that defected from the Conclave that provided him the proof you required. I even discovered a former thrall that was enthralled by Jaxalon that somehow managed to elude detection. After everything I have been finding out on my own. There are a few things that stick out like sore thumbs to me.”
He growled, “there are eye witness accounts of Sara using grand alpha like power, including your ability of Arial syphoning.”
She tilted her head. “Are you saying our daughter was a Grand Alpha?”
“I am saying more than that…”
He leaned forward. “2087, the year she was burnt alive in that museum fire. I checked the dates, I was awake in 2087. I woke up from hibernation in 2085, and if I am really her father, you know, if you lied about anything else, I never felt a reverberance…”
Lillian listened to him, her eyes wide and melting. She knew that he was her father, and being her father, if was awake when she was killed, he would have felt it. This caused her to become distraught. “You are her father.” She hesitated, “Are you saying you think she is still alive?”
The man looked off to the side. “The thrall was 117 years old. She had some of her memories modified by our daughter’s blood. She was visiting the woman every year, giving her enough blood to rejuvenate her, up until 40 years ago.” His eyes locked with hers, they looked as if they were in a staring match, seeing who would veer off first. “I enthralled the woman, and when I converted her, the modified memories were easy to retrieve. This thrall had been quite beneficial to Jaxalon’s Order of The Hand. She had names, dates, and locations of key events all locked away in that brain of hers, including our daughter, and the vampires our daughter had created that were being used as pawns for Jaxalon’s own ends.” He didn’t miss a beat. “I believe that Ethan Holiday was one of our daughter’s converts… Not only that, but the names of some of the vampires that have died in recent years, were spawned by David Tyler, a man who Jaxalon used to raise Sara. David had a man named Daniel Fobian that was one of his right-hand vampires. That is the same name of one of the club owners recently slain that belonged to the Conclave for example… Sara had a list, and I think she is alive and well, taking out those who could identify her.”
The woman sitting across from him couldn’t talk. She was choked up. Not only that, but she was beating herself up for not looking into the data that Trevor had collected. All these years, she assumed her child had met the fate that all of the others born of her womb had been dealt. Her lack of action was haunting her, and Damien had no issues with rubbing more salt into the wound.
“I also went to visit the grave site of our grandchildren. I don’t think our dhampir granddaughter is dead either.” That caused Lilith to start to slowly gasp. She was already feeling beaten down, this was another blow as she sat there soaking in every word that dispersed from his lips. “I found their crypt, a mausoleum to be exact. The doors were made of silver, the gates made of silver, and when I went inside, I couldn’t smell anything, other than my nose burning, due to the smell of silver… I figured, that much money spent into such an elaborate burial, something had to be up. I had to know something… So... I opened our granddaughter’s crypt, and you know what happened Lilith?”
Breathing slowly, she gasped the word. “WHAT?”
“Thirty-six silver bolts were fired in my direction. Someone had booby-trapped the crypt Lilith. Had I not moved when I did, I would be dead right now. Someone laid a trap in our granddaughter’s crypt and when I opened her coffin Lilith, I found a corpse, not a dhampir corpse, but that of a human whose face had been demolished beyond recognition. The silver in that fucking crypt would prevent any Immortium from realizing the scent was human unless they opened it to find out for sure.”
Lilith’s eyes widened further. Her pale skin became whiter, she gasped. “Damien?”
“You never bothered to go visit her, did you? See for yourself? Well I did. After I realized that the other coffins were likely a death trap as well, I used my biosonar. I didn’t have to open the other three coffins. Yes, two of our great grandchildren are dead. I could see the smooth outlines hiding behind the silver coffins, but the third, the body in the coffin of our oldest great grandchild was just as rotted as the body that had been replaced with Cecilia.” He smirked. “I bet he’s alive too after discovering these other facets of information that have bubbled to the surface.”
She looked at him. “Let me get this straight? You’re telling me that our daughter might still be alive? And our granddaughter?”
“And likely our great grandson Xiren, the body in his coffin was human, I am sure of it, that and apparently his name was purposely misspelled. I found an obituary that matched the head plate, but when I checked the birth records on a hunch, his name is spelled differently in the global statistics database. As different as his name is, it would be easy to get it mixed up. The only Xiren registered in global birth records that I could find was listed to a Cecilia and Draven Thunder, and both of them are presumed dead. Draven is, I could tell that.”
Lillian’s eyes shot him an awkward glance. “Thunder?” She thought for a moment, goosebumps were starting to rush down her white skin. She looked at him. “You said you checked the birth records? And the death records? And his spelling was different?”
Damien nodded. He reached for his briefcase, opened it, and handed her a few papers he had printed out. “Yeah, it is. The spelling in the obituary and global statistics have it as X-I-R-E-N Dean Thunder, but the birth records have it as X-A-I-R-I-N, Dean Thunder. I guess it's pronounced the same way, a play on spelling is my guess. Because I damn sure know the body in that coffin was decomposed far more than even a dhampling would be.”
Lillian couldn’t gasp any harder than she was right now. She looked at the paper he had handed her. She saw the names, the spellings on the death certificate, and then the birth listings. She also noticed a record of a man named Isac Jordan, coming forward, and signing his grandson over to foster care, after that the records were sealed. She put both her hands over her mouth. Her green eyes turning solid black with a tear going down both cheeks. “OH MY GOD!”
Damien could feel the emotional backlash she was feeling. This caused him to shutter a little. “What do you know Lilith?”
She thought back to when she met Xairin. The fact that he was in foster care, his innate fighting ability at the hospital, clearly it has been dormant inside him until the bat’s bite unleashed it. The smell, that familiar scent he had, the scent she couldn’t place. She sniffed, He smelt like Vlad… She couldn't speak, she was gasping so hard.
He could tell she was being sincere about whatever it was that she was coming to realize. She was trembling.
“We can’t turn our dhampir and dhampling descendants…” She looked up at him tearful. “BUT THOSE BATS CAN DAMIEN, BELIALIAN BATS, THEY CAN TURN DHAMPLINGS… AND HE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME THE ENTIRE TIME!”
Her thoughts were loud enough for him to see. He sat back in his chair. He could see Xairin in her mind, the day she interviewed him, and the day the man fought the gorgons in the ER. It was his turn to sit silent.
She sobbed. “It's not pronounced XIE REN… IT'S PRONOUNCED XAIR-IN. He was one of the bat victims in Bastion City.” She covered her mouth; Damien's eyes flickered a red light behind his black eyes.
“Lilith, if what you’re saying is true.”
She nodded. “We have an heir, and if Sara and Cecilia are still alive, then that means possibly two others. We have to find them Drac, we have to find them now!”
The door to the pup opened up, four men walked in. The first to come in was dressed in a white business suit. He pulled at his pointed black goatee and tossed a devilish grin around the room. He noticed the fireplace, two swords above the mantel that wreaked of silver, the quaint simplicity. He smiled. The scent coming off all four men, caused Damien’s attention to divert to the doorway. He saw the black-haired man grinning ear to devilish ear. Lilian was still gasping and distracted. Damien could smell it, Gargoyles had arrived, and they were looking right at Lilith and Damien.
The Grand Alpha looked around the room. His hand twitched. He saw the fire place just a few feet away near one of the sofas. Damien noticed the swords above the mantle, and then thought about two things. Killing that bastard that just walked in, and tossing his suitcase into that fire place just in case…
Damien returned his gaze to Lilith. He tapped her hand and looked up, nodding at the door. “I need you to go from a whimpering woman, to a killer bitch, right now.”
Lillian shrugged. “What is it?”
“Smell the air and look over your shoulder.”
Lillian sniffed, her tears stopped. She looked over her right shoulder and saw Lucifer standing there with his Gargoyle brethren. Each of them, Grand Alphas. Her fangs grew, her eyes turned black, right as she growled. “OH SHIT!”
_____
Bon Veda
Xairin was laughing. Ezra was telling him about some of the things Marine had said in the past about one of his ex-girlfriends. Xairin was still a little uneasy about the man saying he was bi, but he did find the date to his liking so far.
“Are you sure you're bi?”
Xairin struggled to get out the following words. “I tried it with a girl once, I had nightmares about her vagina eating me for a week.”
It was Ezra’s turn to laugh. “What?”
“Seriously I did, when I was 20. I went on a few dates, just to make sure I was really gay. Tried it, couldn’t get hard enough to save my life, so I figured I would just do oral. That night I had nightmares about tentacles coming out of it and some demonic voice coming out of her vajayjay saying the words. “FUCK ME!” Xairin mimicked that phrase by deepening his voice to sound sinister. Ezra spit out his water.
“Dude, that’s just wrong.”
Xairin laughed, “I know right?”
Ezra had to regain himself. Once he had his laughter under wraps he looked at Xairin. “I guess I’m bi. I mean, I’ve never had trouble getting it up, but, I have to admit, I’ve always just wanted to be with a guy. I mean, I’ve never tried it, so only one way to know for sure?”
“So, you’ve never been with a guy either?”
Ezra smiled. “You really use the word, so, a lot.”
Xairin leaned back and rolled his eyes playfully. “It’s a habit. My mom used it all the time too, kinda stuck with me.”
Ezra pursed his lips. “I get that. And to answer your question, nope.”
“No experimenting at all?” Xairin asked.
The man shook his head. “NO, I’ve wanted to, but I’ve always been afraid to try it.”
Xairin smirked. “It's like 2118, what's to be afraid of?”
Ezra frowned. “I had an overly religious mother. Growing up, it was all I could hear, this is a sin, that is a sin, you’re going to fry in hell. Every time I would think about trying it, I could hear her taunts.” he sipped his drink. “I guess after she got hooked on drugs, and I got custody of my sister, I just haven’t had a lot of time to be me.”
Xairin got quiet.
“So, what were your parents like?”
Xairin blew out the side of his mouth on that question. He frowned this time. “My dad was a detective, a little overbearing, my mom was into fitness. They used to make me get up at the crack of dawn to work out. I hated it. They weren’t religious. My grandmother was. My dad had to start taking care of her before they died. But other than that, I think they would have been cool with me being gay.”
“How did you handle foster care? K2 has told me some about it, but he said you never talked about it much.”
Xairin took a drink of his bottle of blood, by now it was cold. He had to swallow hard to get it down. “It sucked. I kind of kept hoping I would get adopted, even if I was just 17, but, no one wants a grown dog, they want a puppy, so, the younger kids got out, and I aged out. I did get to work in the clinic at the group home though. I had graduated early and had two degrees I could use, but with the age laws and all, I had to stay there. Anyhow after I turned 18, I received some money my parents had left me that my social worker had kept in a trust fund, and then gave me handler ship of K2.”
“Do you ever visit them? Their graves I mean?”
Xairin’s left cheek protruded as he bit his tongue. “I’ve never even laid eyes on their graves. I was in the hospital when they were being buried. Apparently, I have a living grandparent, my mom’s dad. He didn’t want me, so he signed me into the system, buried my parents and my siblings, and that was that.” Xairin reached for his water, took a drink and added. “I did find out where they’re buried though, and an address for my grandfather. I’ve thought about looking him up, just to find out why he chose to leave me, I guess he had his reasons, but I’d still like to know why. Ya know?”
The detective nodded. He was feeling like he was in a whirlwind, listening to him. It made him think about his sister, and how his own mother just up and left her. Even if it was court ordered, she still left Raven, the drugs she was on were more important. “Man, yeah, I would want to know. I know my sister asks all the time why my mom chose drugs over her. She wants to find her and ask her why. I try to tell her all the time, some people just get hooked, but yeah, I get it.”
Xairin looked at Ezra. He could feel the raw emotion behind that. He didn’t want to pry, but it was the current topic, and they were getting to know one another so he went ahead and asked. “What is she on?”
Ezra’s right cheek raised as he almost bit his tongue. His nose twitched. He hadn’t really spoken about his mother in a while but figured talking about it might help. “Mexaphedamin, that new meth/heroin mixed crap coming out of South America. She’s a sensitive, so was my father. He died from sensitive overload when i was a kid. After that mom got mixed up with Raven’s father, another sensitive hooked on that crap. Anyhow, Raven’s dad died right after Raven was born from an overdose. I was already training in Academy. He got my mom got hooked, and then got booked for her first offense selling the shit. She got Raven back twice, before she just up and disappeared. Anyhow, last I heard she was in some rehab facility in Dayton.”
Xairin felt sorry for Ezra, but glad that he was able to take in his sister. Xairin had seen the effects of drugs first hand when he was in foster care. The majority of the kids there were homeless due to three reasons, drugs, some sort of abuse, and neglect. Often, far more often than anything, it was always a combination. “When I worked at the clinic, I saw a lot of kids, since I was a nurse practitioner also, I started working with the new arrivals, babies at first. I’ve seen what Mexa does to people. Seeing the seizures those babies born addicted to that crap would go through. Just made me want to find the parents and blow their heads up.”
Ezra nodded. “One of a thousand reasons I went into special cases. I've done the homicide bit, and the drug trafficking bit, I needed a break from it. Especially the drugs. After Raven’s ordeal, I just couldn’t work those cases anymore, at least not full time. What my mother put my sister through, even if she hadn’t run off, there’s no way a judge would have allowed her custody again.”
“That bad?’ Xairin inquired softly.
Ezra nodded. “I will just be blunt about it. My mother was pimping my sister out to pay for her Mexa. Being a sensitive, she was able to overpower my sister and force her to do it. Anyhow, I don’t usually talk about that.”
Xairin’s eyes widened. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Ezra frowned. “So, tell me more about you. What does Xairin Dean Thunder like to do for fun? And by fun, I’m not talking about the type of fun that might go on in my bedroom.”
“Now who’s using the word, so?” Xairin playfully mentioned as he took a warm glance.
Ezra laughed. “Got me. SO… What do you like to do for fun?”
Xairin rolled his eyes. That last part was refreshing. “Let’s see. I like to watch scary movies, going to the movies, read, I love reading. I enjoy hanging out with friends, going for walks, and when the chance permits, I actually enjoy going camping.”
“What about you?”
Ezra bounced his head up and down. “Never really went camping, but I do like working out when work allows it. Movies, though I prefer, feel good flicks, as for friends, really haven’t had a chance to hang out with people that much since getting Raven. But I do like going for walks. Watching TV, that's about it, I’m pretty boring.”
