Immortal Earth (Vampires For Earth Book 1) (8 page)

Isi appraised both of them, quickly going into a triage frame of mind.

The nanobots will heal their wounds, but there is a lot of damage for my little doctor machines to deal with. Blood … they need blood.

She settled Afon and Nanook onto the two couches in the room, and put them each into a supine position.

“You must go and get blood for them,” Isi said, and looked at Jian. “Bring back two, one for each of them.”

“Of course,” Jian said. “Two of what, Dr. Nizienko?”

“Two people, Jian,” Isi said, and fixed him with her most commanding look.

“Bring two human beings back here, alive, correct?”

Isi nodded, and Jian left.

She turned back to her two charges, and Isi was amazed by the rapid progress the nanobots had made in healing Afon and Nanook, in just the few minutes she had spent conversing with Jian. They were both fast asleep, but what had been gaping wounds, flaps of gnawed on flesh that gushed torrents of blood, were now simple red blotches on both of the Immortals skin: the beginning of scar tissue, covered with caked on, dried blood.

Beautiful … what feats of science we could have accomplished, what heights we could have reached, if we had learned to work with nature, instead of against her. My god, what a wondrous world we have killed …

Isi’s eyes filled with tears, and she took Afon’s hand, stroked the flakes of blood from a part of it, and kissed him there.

“Fight for Her, my love, as you fight for me,” Isi whispered. “She just needs one true warrior, one firm place to stand, and She can fix Herself. The Earth can undo all that we have done to Her, but we need to give Her a chance …”

Isi reached out and put one finger on Afon’s lips. She carefully climbed onto the couch, and wrapped herself around him gently. Half his size, Isi’s arms and legs fit naturally into him. She rested her head on his chest, and drifted off to sleep.

In Afon’s dreams, he heard Isi speaking to him, felt her body meld into his, but then her voice began to change; a deeper, more resonant, tone emerged and fused with hers.

I am always by your side. When you feel the wind at your back, I am there, holding you up, with her. She and I are one, and you will never be alone, my knight.

THIRTEEN

Listen to me …

She is there, walking among you now; my power, and my hope, go with her.

In the beginning, I had four roots, drawing their life from me, and giving life to you, in turn. My daughters … my girls …

In time, you came to view them as your enemy. You grew suspicious of their abilities and you called them unnatural, even though their power was drawn from nature, derived from me. You persecuted their descendents, my descendents, drowning them and burning them alive. Those who survived did so by hiding … not just from you, but also from themselves. The ancient wisdom became lost, buried in backchannels of myth, and barely remembered family lore.

She is the last of her blood, the last of my blood, the last living descendent of my founding roots. She knows not her own history, nor her own power.

Every invention, she has credited to the work of scientists that came before her; every miracle carefully brought into being by her own two hands, she sees as the ultimate expression of nature’s genius … my work, not hers.

She is brilliant, and she is humble. She is here to save you, so, of course, you will try to kill her.

If you kill her, you kill me.

If you kill me, you kill yourself.

Listen …

FOURTEEN

The corpses of the two men that Jian had caught for Afon and Nanook were lying in a corner of the living room, drained dry of blood. Not a drop spilled, the only thing to do now was to dispose of them in a way that would raise no questions … left in the woods, a victim of a bear or wolf. The bigger problem was the headless bodies of the monsters, and what they represented.

“He’s tracked us through time,” Isi said. “I knew that would be possible, I just didn’t think that Mortterra would figure out the technology so quickly …”

Her voice trailed off, and Isi bit her lower lip, “Oh God, that means … poor George.”

At the mention of Isi’s assistant, George Murphy, the Immortals all focused in on what Isi was saying.

“You think that he helped Mortterra track us?” Nanook said. “George would never help that bastard!”

Jian shook his head, “No, much worse than that, I’m afraid. Torture, you think, Dr. Nizienko?”

Isi was crying on Afon’s shoulder. “It’s the only way … fuck! I knew I never should have left him behind. Even death is a much better fate than interrogation at the hands of Mortterra’s thugs.”

Afon held his hand still against the small of Isi’s back; not caressing, not moving, he just held her sorrow in the palm of his hand and acknowledged it.

“He did succeed a little bit against Mortterra, though,” Afon said.

Isi searched his eyes for his meaning. “Oh! Those awful idiot monsters … of course! George helped the AmEur Alliance track us, but he deliberately screwed up the design of Mortterra’s thugs. They’re brainless and easy to kill, once you figure out how. Good old George, one of us to the very end,” Isi said, and curled up against Afon’s shoulder.

“How do you think we were tracked, Dr. Nizienko?” Jian asked.

Isi thought for a moment before she replied, “I’m not certain, but I know it is possible to track human beings in the present, without using any sort of invasive device. The AmEur Alliance has the ability to scan for DNA from satellites. The Americans were developing the technology before their country was mostly destroyed in the great waters of 2100. They knew the tipping point in the weather was about to be reached, a global warming catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions, and the government wanted a way to be able to keep track of itself. If the President of the United States, and all of the government, were to be lost in the storms, they could be found again … if anyone wanted to find them. Of course, once the whole city of Washington D.C. was submerged in the Atlantic tsunami, there was no one left to search for.”

“And then Mortterra took power,” Nanook said, “and took my country.”

“He did do that, K’eyush, but I think it was the one good thing that he did,” Isi said. “Without the remaining wealth and technological knowledge of America and Europe, the human race would have gone extinct in 2100. The AmEur Alliance did invade your country Nanook, but it was global warming that took your home.”

“And who caused global warming?” Nanook said. “The same people that stole my country so that they could run from the mess that they themselves had made. It’s a complete circle, positively biblical when you consider Project Immortality.”

“Ah, exactly brother,” Jian said. “
We
complete the circle.”

Afon nodded agreement, and Isi looked at him questioningly.

“By funding the science that created us, by funding your laboratory Isi, President Mortterra sowed the seeds of his own destruction and, if we succeed, the seeds of the Earth’s rebirth, as well,” Afon said. “Full circle.”

Isi shook her head, “All of the heroic myths of the world can come true then, if Mortterra is destroyed … but, right now, he’s still out there in the future, sending god-knows-what after us.”

Isi stopped for a minute, looked down, and massaged her hands, then continued, “I can’t even wrap my head around what he must have done to poor George … and I know he’ll go after my brother next.”

“Fyodor!” Afon gasped.

Isi nodded, “It is not just our lives that are in danger.”

“If I may, Dr. Nizienko,” Jian said, “it occurs to me that we should concern ourselves with more than our own defense. We may, or may not, be able to defeat the next group of Mortterra’s mercenaries, we may, or may not, be able to defend those that we love in the future from Mortterra’s wrath, and we may, or may not, be able to do what it takes, in this past that we are living in, to stop pollution from destroying our planet, but there is one thing that we can most definitely accomplish. Nanook was hinting at it earlier, but he would not say it outright, for fear that it was solely the primal emotion of a man bent on revenge, but, in this case, justice and logic demand the same solution: we must kill Ignis Mortterra.”

“My ever-logical brother,” Nanook said, “you always wind up where I start.”

Isi smiled, hope dawning in her eyes; she would force herself to put the fate of the whole world over and above the fate of one man, even if that one man was her brother, but not if she didn’t have to.

“We will need to send at least two of you back to 2112 … technically forward,” Isi said, and took a moment to appreciate the odd humor of their situation. “Mortterra will be heavily guarded, and the more of you the better … actually, what we need is more of you.”

“Dr. Nizienko, we all agreed, before we began this trip, that we would not do that,” Jian said. “The three of us are enough, any additions would be uncontrollable. If we change someone from the past, they would never be able to truly understand the stakes of the mission that we are on. If we change someone from our own time, Mortterra’s dictatorship is so strong, that our recruit’s loyalty would always be a question to us. No, with all due respect Dr. Nizienko, we said that we would not do that.”

“He’s right Isi,” Nanook said. “I can take Mortterra down all by myself, but I’d be happy to bring either one of these two with me, if you want. No need for anyone else, and certainly no need to create anyone else.

“You misunderstand me, gentlemen,” Isi said. “There already
is
someone else. There are now four of you in this world.”

Afon’s eyes widened, and Isi patted his hand reassuringly. Nanook and Jian were stunned into silence.

Jealousy got the best of Afon, and he was the first to speak. “I don’t understand Isi, you made another one of us? When? And how did you bring him along without us knowing?”

Afon’s assumption that the unknown Immortal was male was not sexism. Only men were allowed to be test subjects in Project Immortality. The risks of injecting a woman were too great and unknown and, with the human race on the brink of extinction, the lives of women were too valuable to risk.

“Unbelievable,” Isi said, “you don’t remember?
I
didn’t create another Immortal,
you
did, all of you. Does London, England ring a bell to anyone?”

Afon smiled, “Harland.”

“I almost forgot about the old chap,” Nanook said. “He gave me quite the welcome to England. I thought that we just drained him, though, Isi? What makes you think that he’s one of us now, instead of just a normal mortal man, with a bit less blood?”

“You were all so intent on not killing him, at the time, that I didn’t think I should tell you what happens to your prey if you don’t kill them,” Isi said. “Didn’t you ever wonder why we fed you from bags of donated blood, at Thule? It would’ve been just as easy to let you lightly snack on me, or any of my assistants in the lab. The nanobots inside of you are all programmed to reproduce, to keep themselves at an optimal level inside of their human host, so when one of them escapes into a new host, it replicates itself until its preprogrammed numbers are reached.”

“Making the new host just as immortal as all of us,” Nanook said. “But how do they escape into a new host?”

“When you feed, your canine teeth are acting like a syringe,” Isi said. “Just a microscopic bit of you needs to go into the person you are feeding on, just one single nanobot needs to make its way into the bloodstream of your victim, and another Immortal is born.”

“Dr. Nizienko, even if we are able to find Harland Fergusson in London, I highly doubt that he would be so welcoming to us now, as he once was,” Jian said. “As far as he is concerned, we are his attempted murderers; a group of foreigners who took advantage of his generosity, and then ruthlessly assaulted him at the first chance. No such man, with even an ounce of self-preservation in his blood, would agree to meet with us, much less to help us. We question the loyalty of people from our own time, but think that a man from the past, a man that we tried to kill, can be our willing ally? Dr. Nizienko, with all due respect, I must disagree.”

“That is your right, Jian,” Isi said, “though I am a bit taken aback by your sudden willingness to question my orders.”

“Dr. Nizienko, I am not questioning you, I …”

“I understand, Jian, but you disagree, and Afon disagrees with our main purpose here in Detroit, though he knows enough not to say so. Men will believe what they will believe, but may I remind you all that orders are orders.”

Isi paused. “But orders tend to be followed more successfully, when they are agreed with. So … Jian, you will stay here to protect me, in case another batch of Mortterra’s thugs show up. And Afon …” Isi squeezed his hand, “you will travel to London with Nanook, and search out our long lost friend, Harland Fergusson. You will convince him to journey back here with you; tell him as much as you need. Then, once he is here, we will all discuss together how to take out Ignis Mortterra.”

“You seem uncannily confident that Harland will agree to help us,” Afon said. “I agree with Jian, I think it is far more likely that he will try to kill us. He won’t succeed, of course, two-against-one, original generation against a knockoff clone, and all the rest, but whatever happens, our past victim coming to our rescue is quite low on the list of possibilities. So, what makes you so confident, Isi?”

“Imagine, all of you, if you were in your current immortal condition, and didn’t know how you had gotten that way, or the extent of your powers. Wouldn’t you want to know, desperately, what had happened to you … wouldn’t you want to know what you had become?”

Afon smiled, and put Isi’s hand to his lips, “So smart, my love.” He turned to Nanook and said, “Put on your Sunday best, tomorrow morning we’re London bound.”

Nanook chuckled, “Alright then, but when we see Harland, I’m leaving the explaining entirely up to you. No worries though, I’ll come to your rescue once he starts kicking your ass.”

Still laughing, Nanook stood up and tapped Jian on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s give the lovebirds some time alone.”

Nanook turned to Isi and Afon, curled on the couch together, and          pointed at the corpses that still littered the parlor. “Don’t worry about the mess in here,” he said, “Jian and I will take care of it. You two should go and get some rest and … whatever … before Afon and I hit the road in the morning.”

Isi smiled. “Thank you, K’eyush.”

She took Afon’s hand and walked from the room with him.

As they headed up the stairs, Isi’s fingers began lightly moving over the tender skin on the palm of Afon’s hand. The rhythmic motion of her fingertips rekindled the cauldron of emotions that had been bubbling inside of him, since right before Mortterra’s thugs had shown up.

He wanted Isi, but he wanted her with a fierceness that was unknown to their relationship. He wanted to drive Henry Ford from her mind, he wanted to own Isi’s body and leave part of himself on every square inch of her, he wanted to mark his territory and claim what was his, before he left tomorrow … and left Isi to another man.

In truth, Afon had always wondered if he too was just a temporary installation in Isi’s life, a station stop on a longer journey that she must make all alone. For him, she was the end of all journeys, the answer to every question he had ever asked.

At the top of the stairs, he let go of all restraint and took Isi’s face in his hands. He held her, the tips of his fingers pressed into her cheekbones, and he tilted her head back forcefully. Then, ever so gently, he touched his lips to hers. He did not kiss her, he did not move. They stood, face-to-face, lips meeting with only the faintest whisper of a touch, and the electricity generated by their proximity began to take visible shape … a shimmering white light in the small space between them.

Isi tried to get closer, and pressed herself into Afon with a hungry urgency. He pulled away, and told her to open her eyes.

A light emanated from deep within Isi, poured out of her, and wrapped itself around Afon.

Isi blinked in shock, “What the …”

The light snapped back, recoiled inside of her, and disappeared.

“Don’t question it Isi,” Afon said.

She bent herself back into him, closed her eyes, and rubbed her lips down the side of his neck. One hand nimbly addressed the buttons of the shirt that stood in her way, then her mouth moved down to his collarbone, skimmed over the sharp softness, and took in the taste of him.

As she moved her hand down Afon’s smooth chest, Isi felt electricity sparking off of her fingertips. She cracked one eye open.

The light was pouring out of her again, evanescent; it bubbled with electricity and popped with static, every time something inside of her sprang open with desire.