Page 266 of Golden Eagle

A face popped up, right in front of the camera, startling all of them. A gaunt, dirt-streaked face with eyes thatburned. No sign of intelligence, no consciousness, just this awful glow. The mouth opened, its lips chapped and cracked, and revealed a set of long, vampiric fangs.

“Vampire,” Nikita said, his pulse thudding like the low, distant thump of cannon fire. “They look insane.”

“That’s because they are,” Will said. “They aren’t thinking creatures, anymore. There’s no soul, and no intelligence – beyond the instincts to feed, and sleep, and fight, and kill.”

“Shit,” Lanny breathed. “How’d they get like that?”

“Romulus. So far as we can tell, every mortal he turns eventually becomes one of those, some more quickly than others.”

“Mehmet,” Val said. His voice had changed; no excitement or bloodlust now, no humor or drama – only an awful, chilling flatness.

Nikita tore his gaze from the screen and looked at him.

The prince breathed in shallow little open-mouthed pants, lower lip quivering as the air rushed over it. He stared at the monitor, eyes huge, pupils nothing but pinpricks.

“Val,” Nik prompted.

“His Imperial Majesty, Sultan of the Ottomans, Mehmet, Son of Murat. The Conqueror.” He swallowed, gaze never wavering. “Romulus turned him. It took…it took a very long time. But his body was failing; he was not resilient, like a regular vampire. Strong, yes, but…deteriorating.” Another swallow, and his whole body trembled, now, his hair rustling against his shoulders. “I killed him before he was…that.”

“Val,” Nikita snapped.

Val blinked, and dropped his gaze. Sucked in a deep breath. “They’ll die like regular vampires?” he asked, like he hadn’t just gone wandering back through his own memories, and been terrified by them.

“Yes,” Will said. “Though they don’t seem to feel pain – or, if they do, it doesn’t slow them down. They’re relentless; there’s no strategy, no attempt at self-preservation. They just…keep coming.”

“That’s some realWalking Deadshit, man,” Lanny muttered.

“Oh,” Will said. He clicked the mouse, and the feed shifted: there were other cells, five more, six, seven, all full of more of the strange vampires – until he reached a feed that showed a wide, square concrete room studded with cell doors.

“My brother calls it the Absence,” Val said, sounding like he was sliding back into his own head again. Nikita took a grip on his shoulder and squeezed tight, fingertips digging in. Val covered it with his own and squeezed back:I’m alright.“That’s what happens, when Romulus turns someone,” he continued, a little stronger. “Something in his blood creates a void. An absence. The soul is gone.”

“They can go to hell, then,” Lanny said. “Or rot in those fucking cages until they turn on each other.”

“I doubt that will be their fate,” Will said.

On the screen, the shot of the center of the cell block, a light on the wall started to flash; a revolving red one, its beam panning out across the floor. And all the cell doors slowly began to swing open: activated by a remote of some kind.

“Artillery,” Val said, grimly.

“They’re siccing them on us,” Sasha said, already growling in the back of his throat.

“They’re in the subbasement,” Will said, checking the bottom of the screen. “Which means they’ve got several flights of stairs to come up.”

The cell doors were halfway open, and tainted vampires were already spilling out. They crashed into each other, squabbling amongst themselves.

“The children are in a room partway between here and where they’re taking Alexei.” Will pulled out a flash drive and jammed it into the nearest monitor. All the screens went to static. “We’ve got to hurry,” he said. “If any of those things get outside the building…”

They’d be loose in Queens.

“Right.” Nik ejected his empty magazine and slid in one of the extras loaded with silver. He touched the hilt of his borrowed sword, briefly. Something told him he’d be drawing it before this was through.

“Five, four, three, two,” Will said. The flash drive’s light went out, and he pulled it out and pocketed it. “Alright. Shall we?”

Sasha went back to all fours, and led the way down the hall, howling.

~*~

Mia was conscious, at least. “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay,” she chanted, teeth chattering, like she was trying to convince herself of the fact, or like the words were a lifeline she gripped desperately to stay awake.

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