Of Gods and Goddesses: Book 3 (Lords and Commoners Series) Read online

  “Those two must be separated,” Elijah said. “I can’t, in good conscience, set them loose on Europe. We already have enough problems as it is.”

  Cosmin jumped to his feet and brushed some of the ash off. “Please, My Lord, we’ll try to behave.”

  “We’ve never been separated,” Costel added.

  “Well then, it’s long overdue.”

  The twins gave each other a concerned looked.

  “Can you guarantee me that you will not get into trouble?” Elijah narrowed his eyes at them.

  “Maybe he’s right. We should go our separate ways,” Cosmin said.

  “Yeah, who can promise that they will stay out of trouble?” Costel said.

  The plan was quickly laid out. Pairs of the Court’s vampires set out at once for the major troubled areas across the continent. Abdulla and Teller each took one of the twins. Many of the others set out with their significant others; Samuel and Mari, Sonia and Aaron, Mary and Elizabeth and so on.

  “We can at least slow them down, even if we can’t get rid of them for good,” Elijah said. “We can cover most large cities with what is left of the Court. Any word from our allies in Beijing or Shantanu’s coven in India?”

  “No and now that communication is down, we’re not likely to hear from them anytime soon,” Samuel said.

  “This is a disaster.” Elijah rubbed his forehead.

  “I’ll keep experimenting. I’ll find you to let you know if I discover a way to get rid of them for good. Next, I’ll try my flame thrower.” Samuel, like the twins, had a glint of excitement in his eyes.

  “Goodbye for now, old friend.” Elijah gave him their signature one-armed embrace.

  Elijah and Riddick set out together. They hunted and killed the shadowy skeletons, as they made their way to Copenhagen. This was their ancient home and they wanted to protect it.

  Several nights were spent killing and then re-killing the apparitions.

  “Is this hell?” Riddick asked.

  Elijah gave him a sideways glance.

  “Think about it; spending every night fighting something that will never fully die. Endlessly repeating the same thing over and over. That sounds like hell to me.”

  “We’ll find a way to send them back to … wherever they came from.”

  “That’s the problem, we don’t know how they got here or how to get rid of them. Nothing has worked so far,” Riddick said.

  “We need to find their origins. That may give us the answer to defeating them.”

  “How do we find that?”

  Elijah sighed. “I have no idea.” He had never felt so helpless.

  Life went on in this manner for a month. No matter what they did to the skeletons, they would reappear at dusk to drink an endless amount of human blood. Or try to, if the Court did not get to them first.

  “You ever see the movie Groundhog Day?” Riddick asked.

  “Shut up,” Elijah said, as they headed out once again at twilight.

  The Court was overextended and tempers were high as they grew beyond tired of this battle that they could only temporarily win, yet never end.

  “At least the skeletons appear to be taking longer to come back.” Riddick had to try hard to find a bright side.

  That night a full moon shone brightly on Copenhagen. Few people remained in the city; many had perished but most had fled. The apparitions had to travel farther each night to find humans to feed on. This made it harder for the two vampires to cover all the ground.

  Elijah knew where some of the skeletons would reform. They would remain where he last turned them into ash the night before. He stood with his whips ready, waiting alone outside the city for the black smoke to bring them back to life. This time when the apparitions stepped into the moonlight they turned to smoke that rose high into the sky. They disappeared entirely. No pile of ash.

  Elijah took flight, searching for others. Black smoke could be seen floating in the air in a couple of places. He watched as the smoke dissipated. He searched throughout the night for any signs of the skeletons but found none.

  “Did you finding anything?” Elijah asked Riddick when they met up at dawn.

  “No, nothing. They … disappeared. You?”

  “It appears they evaporated.”

  “Do you think they’re gone for good?” Riddick asked.

  “Let’s pray that this nightmare is over.”

  Chapter 31 Europe 2021 A.D

  Elda fell to her knees with a scream. “Did you feel that?” she whimpered.

  Silvia hurried to Elda’s side. “No, My Lady. What happened?”

  “They’re gone — the dead — they’ve vanished. It’s not something I can see. It’s a feeling. Perhaps since the power that gave them life came to this world through me, I felt the power leave this planet as well.”

  “We knew their strength was waning but now you are saying that they’re gone entirely?” Silvia said. “The full moon must’ve driven them away for good. This is perfect. We can’t have them killing all the humans, otherwise how would we survive?”

  “Yes, this is simply marvelous, as they provided a necessary distraction,” Elda said. “This made it easier to take out the cell towers and satellites. Plus it weakened the Court by spreading them out across Europe. With my people attacking every major city, humans now know that we exist and soon they will know that I am their ruler. As we speak my forces are rounding up and imprisoning the remaining humans. The world as we know it has changed forever.”

  Elda and Silvia embraced in celebratory congratulations.

  “It’s finally here. Our day has arrived!” Silvia said.

  “All that waiting and planning has paid off. With the queen missing and the Court scattered, the king will not be able to maintain control.”

  “Not to mention the losses they endured from our attacks.”

  “The world knows vampires exist. This can’t be undone so the Court’s oppressive laws no longer matter,” Elda said.

  “We have won!”

  It took several days for the members of the Court to make their way to Venice. There was still no cell service and no electricity. The lights in the safe house were dim as they ran off generators. Thankfully Samuel had insisted on having these doomsday hideouts. They had been well supplied and maintained over the years. They were coming in handy now.

  “Any word of John?” Elijah asked his comrades.

  “No. Perhaps he perished when we were attacked in New York,” Teller offered.

  “Maybe he has not found his way here yet. He could be at another hide-out waiting for us.” Elijah didn’t want to entertain the possibility that John was dead.

  “If he were alive, he would have checked here by now, as he searched each safe haven for us,” Riddick said.

  Not knowing John’s fate was torture for Elijah. John had been by his side since he was a small boy. Elijah could not remember a time without him. John was always by Elijah’s father’s side. When his father was killed, John showed the same dedication to Elijah — the most faithful of servants. When Elijah took over as king, John had remained an ever-present obelisk in his life. Elijah could count on him. John filled a hole where Elijah’s father had once been. In fact, he had always been a surrogate father. Elijah could hardly bear the thought of life without him. Of course, Elijah had not fully realized all this until John came up missing.

  The only logical explanation is that John is … dead. Elijah conceded with the weight of a stone in his chest.

  The flat screen TV clicked on in the other room. A woman’s voice rang out. “Attention. May I have everyone’s attention?”

  Elijah and his comrades filed into the room with the now working TV. They were hungry for any bit of news from the outside world.

  It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the new world. For those of you who don’t know me, I am your new ruler, Queen Elda. All will bow to me, as I am the leader of the vampire world. This new world will be one where all vampires are free. We are t
he superior species and our time has finally come. Under my rule you will no longer have to remain hidden. My fellow vampires, rejoice as you can now taste the sweetness of freedom!”

  The camera panned to a crowd of cheering vampires. Then the TV went blank.

  “Well that confirms what we already knew; Elda is behind all this,” Riddick said.

  “How was she able to turn on the TV and get her signal through?” Samuel asked. He immediately moved to investigate the back of the TV. “She must have complete control over the airwaves and now she can send her messages all over the world.”

  “That will simply not do. We have to find out how she is doing it and hack into her system,” Aaron said. He and Samuel went straight to work.

  “What are we going to do?” Mari asked.

  “The only thing we can do — we must try to help the human race. There will be many ruthless vampires coming out of hiding. They’ll hunt and terrorize humans. We’ll have to try to protect them,” Elijah announced.

  “Can we be ourselves at all times, since humans know vampires exist?” Riddick asked.

  “I suppose we don’t have to pretend to be human anymore,” Elijah said.

  “That’ll be odd. I’m used to keeping my identity a secret in public. In fact, that’s all we’ve ever known,” Teller said.

  Elijah was appalled at the state of affairs when they ventured out of their underground shelter. Vampires were relentlessly hunting humans. They were rounded up and taken to camps that Elda’s supporters worked hard to secure. Many people died in the process. If they resisted or if they found themselves too close to a hungry vampire they did not survive.

  Then, to make matters worse, there were numerous unorganized bands of vampires who took full advantage of their new freedom by indiscriminately killing humans. This was not always for feeding; at times it was simply for sport.

  Elijah and his Court came upon a football field in Venice. Blood-stained bodies lay piled in mounds. The scene reminded Elijah of the slaughtered buffalo across the American plains. On one of his many adventures he and Val had come across the carnage that settlers had left behind. They had destroyed many buffalo herds and taken no meat or skins. They simply left them for dead — for what — a good time or to simply prove that they could? That had been hard enough to make sense of, but this, this was many times more unfathomable.

  “How could I have let this happen?” Elijah’s stomach felt like it had turned upside down. He placed his hand over it and wondered if he was going to throw up.

  “In all our years, we have seen humans commit such atrocities against one another and I’d wager that has been the case since the beginning of time,” Riddick said. “Vampires are killers by design — so this new world of Elda’s is likely to be even more brutal than the human world.”

  “This was to be expected if our kind ever took over the world,” Teller added.

  “I don’t give a shit what humans did to one another,” Elijah spat. “It’s my job to protect humans from our kind. It was our kind who did this, ergo it’s my fault. That’s the price of being the king. There’s no one else to blame when you’re the leader. I have failed.”

  “You did not do this.” Mari placed her hand on Elijah’s shoulder.

  Elijah pulled away from her attempt at comfort. “We have to stop this.”

  Chapter 32 Europe 2021 A.D

  Hundreds of humans had been slaughtered and thousands taken prisoner and this was only in Venice. It was assumed that this was happening throughout the world. What was left of the Court could no longer contain all the chaos. After a couple of nights attempting to fight the rogue vampires and Elda’s soldiers, it became apparent that the Court needed a new strategy.

  Riddick was recovering from a large gash on his arm. Several others were gravely injured as well. Elijah was grateful that they had not lost anyone — yet. He knew losses would be inevitable if they kept this up.

  “We need to be smarter about this.” Elijah paced to help him think. “We are not winning this battle.”

  “It does not appear that we’re even slowing down the number of humans who are being killed or being thrown into her prisons,” Riddick said.

  “I suppose it’s time for us to go underground. If we cannot beat them in outright battles, then we’re going to have to use surprise attacks. We need to go into hiding so we can plan a new strategy.”

  “You mean guerrilla warfare?” Abdullah asked.

  “Call it what you like. We must try to save humans at all cost.”

  A crow cawed loudly from behind Elijah. He flinched. He had never thought much about crows before but now they were becoming the stuff of nightmares. He gritted his teeth.

  “How did a bird get in here?” Riddick asked.

  My darling husband,

  I must warn you. We have been betrayed by someone very close to us. All we know is that someone we trusted has joined forces with Elda. She knows of every safe house the Court ever created. Her men are systematically destroying each hideout, in an attempt to find you. They will soon attack the safe house in Venice. I’m able to warn you earlier this time. So you have a couple of days at best. Get out and take all our blood supplies to a new and secure location. It will not be long before human blood is the most precious and scarce commodity.

  Your loving wife,

  V

  “What the fuck,” Riddick all but yelled. “She knows what Elda’s plotting? And where in the hell is she!”

  “Who is with her? She wrote, ‘we’. So apparently she’s working with informants — perhaps she knows someone who is close to Elda,” Mary reasoned.

  Elijah had hoped that Val would return to fight. He shook his head. “I don’t know but it appears she has no intention of returning at this time.”

  “When we need her the most! Our world — her world, the one we fought so hard to maintain for all those centuries is gone — apparently she doesn’t give a shit anymore.” Riddick’s face was crimson.

  Elijah thought Riddick’s head might explode. “I don’t understand. It’s not like her. She has always begged me to fight for humans — this is her chance and she’s nowhere to be found. The world was constant for many years, so many that it seemed continuous … never ending. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye that world is gone. We’re going to have to do this without her and we’re going to have to … adapt. We are … no longer in control. We’re the ones in hiding now.” Elijah placed his hand over his stomach as it turned over again. This was the hardest thing he ever had to admit. He had been on top for so long — to let that go required giving up a part of himself. He would have to humble himself. He hoped he was up for the challenge. Raised in aristocracy he had never gone without. This was entirely new territory.

  “Do you think she has something to do with this?” Riddick interrupted Elijah’s troubled thoughts.

  Elijah rounded on him. “How dare you make such accusations against the Queen?”

  Riddick put his head down. “Sorry, My Lord.”

  “You know her as well as I do. She would never have a part in hurting humans. She’s trying to warn us. How could you speak such treason?”

  “Please forgive me, My Lord.”

  Seamlessly the two old comrades reverted to their medieval roots and ingrained formalities. For a moment they were no longer old friends but a king and his commander in chief.

  “Yet, the queen disappears and then the world as we know it comes crashing down. You can’t tell me that that is merely a coincidence,” Samuel ventured.

  Elijah became thoughtful for a moment. “It’s not. She has disappeared for a reason. Whatever it is she’s doing, it’s for the best. She’s helping in any way that she can. I don’t doubt that for a second and you shouldn’t either. After all, she warned us of the attacks.”

  “How’s she able to do that?” Aaron said.

  Mary lit up. “Maybe she’s infiltrated Elda’s inner circle.”

  “That is not possible. Elda knows what Vallachia look
s like,” Riddick said.

  “I don’t know but I am done worrying about this. We can’t do anything about Vallachia. We need to focus on how to save mankind and ourselves,” Elijah said.

  Riddick turned his glare to the wall.

  Elijah knew Riddick was not convinced of Val’s innocence but the discussion was over. There were more important issues than Elijah’s estranged wife. In a way, this was a guilty relief for him. Humans were suffering and this kept him preoccupied. He had to put all his energy into surviving, so that the Court could continue to help humans. Humans had to make it through this. As the leader, the burden was on him. Having to admit that he no longer ruled the vampire world caused a knot to form in his stomach. Yet this was not as terrible as wondering about Vallachia. He could not fathom why she would not return to him and to her people. He decided to focus on the easier of the two — the end of the world.

  “The first order of business is to secure our blood supplies. We leave for London tonight to warn Hector, if it is not too late,” Elijah said.

  “Then what?” Teller asked.

  “We go home.”

  The Court’s main blood banks were in London and New York. They had to get to them before Elda did.

  Chapter 33 Europe 2021 A.D

  When they reached London, Elijah was relieved to find Hector alive. “You need to get your men out of Safe Haven Seven. Elda knows where these hideouts are and she will be here soon. Take what you need and find a new hideout, one that no one in the Court previously knew about, as someone has betrayed us. Our blood supplies must also be moved and secured. At the rate Elda and the rogue vampires are going, it’s likely that human blood will become scarce. You should take what blood you can with you to your new hideout.”

  Hector nodded in agreement. “I know just the place. We’ll ship the blood to Perth. I used to have a secret place there. It was where I would go when I needed to get away.”