52. En-gannim

Ahasuerus

My head ached. Usually… days seem to drift into each other like the hundreds before the last one. I opened my eyes. My bed was filled with women. Sitting up, I tossed my legs over the edge. I got up naked.

I made my way to my ensuite dressing room. The door closed behind me.

Today was the day Raas was going to earth to meet with that chit and Marcus… My Marcus.

Punching the mirror in front of me, it smashed into a thousand pieces. I was coming up on a thousand this year. My only grandson is stuck on some godforsaken planet. Bound to some young female. I smashed my fist into the mirror again, breaking through the wooden frame. Ripping the white cabinet out of the wall.

I turned on the shower, letting the cold water run over me as I stepped underneath the stream. It cooled my temper. I wanted to wash away the filth that covered me from last night. I was tired and laid my head down on the wall in front of me, letting the water run and run.

I didn’t want to think about Qadir coming back and taking over. I had banished him to that place because he killed all his brothers. I had just one son left… I never wanted to see him again.

I nearly killed him the last time I saw him.

He had killed Danny… Ruthlessly. My Danny… My heart contracted when I thought about how he suffered. I hit the wall in front of me. My already open flesh wounds are almost ripped down to the bone. The tiles shattered, and the wall cracked from the floor to the roof.

My temper had been like this since two weeks ago when I heard that girl had another man brand her. “If I get my hands on you, I will rip you apart….” I willed the words to reach her. I wanted her to be scared.

“Even if the consequences are what they are. I will just keep you alive, so Marcus doesn’t die. Or… I will sever that connection with as many sacrifices as it takes.” I spat out the words loudly as if she could hear me.

The water covered my mouth. My spit hit the wall. I was so angry… I couldn’t get myself under control.

I can’t touch her because she’s pregnant with that Riphath’s baby. The chances that she will carry the baby to full term is what…maybe one percent. A miracle would have to happen.

I rang the bell next to the shower. Three women came running, washing me. They worked fast. I rinsed off the soap. They held up towels for me as I covered myself from the waist down.

Gesturing with my hand, they disappeared again. The last one tried to scurry away. I grabbed her at the roots of her hair, flinging her back. I had some human women kidnapped to see what Marcus had to eat.

It had grieved me that this was what he was surrounded with. A primitive species that could do nothing for themselves. I tossed her to the floor, a chunk of her hair stuck in my fingers. She crawled away as I flung the hair of my hand onto the floor.

I command her to stop. I lifted her up again by her neck, tilting her head to the side and biting into her flesh. I cracked the bones to make her stop kicking. My hands only needed to contract, and my prey was dead.

I sucked out every last drop she had. Strangely humans made me feel better… there was something in their blood. But just like every species, their blood affected us differently.

I dropped the body. Feeding for a vampire was always a messy story. Taking the towel off my waist, I rubbed it over my face and tossed it next to the corps.

I made my way over to sit down in front of a mirror. Looking at myself. I didn’t have much time left. Wrinkles covered my face. Blotches from my advanced years.

My biggest problem was not knowing how to break Marcus… I needed him to come home. Take his place here before I died…

The only way was that chit of a girl. Getting up, I walked over to the window. My rooms were still dark. Our star had not risen yet. The dark skyline of the city spanned as far as I could see. A city I had built. Beyond that, a kingdom I ran. Everyone in its place.

Everything started with rebellion. And after all of them were captured… The overpopulation in the prisons became a problem. I needed space in the jails. We had more and more criminals and the fact that our world just needed a reprieve. We just needed some more space… The earth seemed like the best place. It wasn’t worse than our world. Just different. I sent all the convicts there. The useless men and women that couldn’t cut En-gannim. The colony on earth had flourished ... Marcus had proved himself by staying by his father’s side. He was a filial child.

I wanted him to come home and rule … On earth, he was already the general of an army… Ready to bring the planet into subjection. Until that morning… he surprised us all.

It does lift up the corner of my mouth. Marcus was master of himself until he showed his hand.

“Open,” I spoke. The doors glided. Each one to the side of the balcony.

I took in a deep breath. I was so high in the sky that I looked down on everything around me. The air up there was crystal clear and clean.

***

I teleport from my bedroom where I was… to the breakfast room. I stood as the silence washed over me. The quiet of the space assailed me every day. Once filled with boys. I now only had second-wives kids. I have yet to meet one of them. There were hundreds, and they didn’t signify. The door to my right “swooshed” opened. Tabitha stopped in the doorway. Eyes cast down.

“Come.” She entered the room. A servant followed her in, and the door closed behind them.

I didn’t feel like sitting alone… eating alone. She sat looking down the whole time. She knew her place. The peace she afforded was priceless.

I didn’t need to cut out her tongue… She had never said a word because she was trained before she was given me as a spouse. Our conditioning camps taught our women how to behave. On En-gannim, there was order. Hierarchy and obedience. Some of the things that happened on earth would just never even occur there.

Looking over to Tabitha, I didn’t even know what she looked like. I never wanted to know. Covered from head to toe, it didn’t really matter. I knew she would be beautiful. If I ever decided to lift up that veil… But so many men have fallen for a face.

The servants brought the food, and the feast was laid out as we ate in silence. The news was playing on the glass of the table next to my plate. I didn’t have to look up. Could just eat and get things done.

As I finished, it was almost mid-morning. Jabin came into the breakfast room. Seeing him, I knew Raas was already there waiting. I took a deep breath. Wiped my mouth on a napkin and pushed out the chair behind me.

“Let’s get this over with.” I cleaned my teeth with my tongue. Scratching my forehead, running my hand over my beard. I was fidgeting. Whenever there was news of Marcus, it unsettled me.

***

Entering the office, Raas was already bowing on the ground. No one there had ever bowed before Marcus. Something I wanted to change. Show him where his place was. I frowned, my breathing ragged as I thought about the report of him bowing in front of that girl. Apologizing.

Unfortunately, my reports came from the watchers, and they had everything animated. It was the first time he had seen a Riphath. He would have grown up with me if I had taken him when he was born. But Qadir is ruthless and evil.

I thought that if anyone could make a child hard enough to take over, it would be him. But the one thing about Marcus was that he never got greedy like I hoped he would. His self-control was unfathomable. Never any emotion.

I had raised Danny and his brothers… They were all greedy enough to get themselves killed. Qadir was the most desirous of them all.

“Get up!” I ordered Raas. He jumped up, head bowed. His body tilted a little towards me so that our eyes never had to meet.

“Play the meeting.” He started shivering, and Jabin thinned his lips as I waited impatiently. Jabin grabbed the device from Raas’s grip and waved the little black tube in front of us. The animation started where Marcus and that chit came through the teleporter.

Soon she had the upper hand, even over Raas. He was thwarted at every turn by that mouth of hers. My fists clenched at my sides as Marcus shuts him up, explaining what was going on.

The account of what happened when he branded her. They could have come back. But he chose not to because of her. My nails dug into my hands, piercing the skin. Marcus dismissed Raas. The feed stopped.

“Play the rest.” Jabin played the next file.

I see her making sure Marcus gets fed with the Riphath. He enjoyed the feast immensely. The two men are friends. They played with their food. For the first time in years, I smiled, seeing him enjoy himself.

My anger rose as I thought about her taking care of him. Manipulating him. He was with another family. One I was going to crush.

Walking over to Raas, I kicked him in the face. He toppled over. She was giving him what I couldn’t. I should never have let him stay once he was born.

“You are useless,” I spat out. “That place is not run properly. You can’t even control a little girl.”

My biggest mistake was having the werewolves piggyback on the planet with their own criminals. Telling them of the Earth. A species that looked exactly like us but could not manifest at all. Now we had to be diplomatic towards the other races. The rules were different there than they would be on En-gannim.

But back then, trade alliances were more important. They still didn’t know that it was us causing the werewolf population numbers to dwindle… Or maybe Queen Brylee knew. And like me, she didn’t really care about her people on Earth. Letting them do whatever they want.

Qadir was given complete control of the compound and all operations on the planet. He decided to infiltrate from the inside, started negotiations with the humans, and established the watchers.

So far, that route had not been his worst plan. And his other one was also not too bad… Seeing that girl suffer was my one consolation.

“Is there anything else you are not showing me, Raas?” He took out another tube. He handed it to Jabin.

It’s Marcus and that girl. Everything that happened in the last two weeks. Condensed in clips. It angered me… Marcus unloading… everything that happened from his point of view. The werewolves heard what was going on in the compound. The watchers knew things they shouldn’t. His conduct confused me. Marcus wasn’t talking to her. Kissing her. Touching her. Unless she made him.

In the last clip, she transformed. I smiled happily as she changed in his arms. It made me stand up from the table I was sitting on. My eyes were wide, scoffing at her. “Because you wanted to save a werewolf cub,” I whispered to myself.

“Play it back with Marcus’s face close up.”

Staring at the rendered image playing out slowly in the air. Marcus’s face zoomed in on. Every reaction was visible.

“Has he done anything physical with her?” Raas shook his head vigorously. “What is that boy up to? Is he there for her or for us?”

Raas wanted to say something. Lifting his hand in the air.

“Speak.”

“Marcus is having trouble with the other men. Her conduct and the way she dresses….”

“Jealousy?” Luckily for me, it seemed that Louis was now suffering with her. Biting my lip, I thought about Louis du Pont. He was the thorn in my side that had become my biggest obstacle. That chit had taken a course that no one had seen coming. The only ones to blame for that were Samuel and his brother.

“Watch him closer. Analyze every facial feature… Go now, Raas! You have many meetings to attend. Report to me… Before you go back.” He stood up, bowing. Backing out a few steps facing me before he dared turn around.

***

Michael

When I went into the army. I didn’t imagine my life to be like that. My training and the countless hours I had slaved away.

After running away from a gang, I entered the army as an escape... I quickly climbed the ranks. Did my tours. I was born and bred… I found I was… a patriot. I became an expert marksman. Special forces. Delta team at the age of twenty-three.

My world crumbled down around me. My career flushed in an afternoon. Taken from my flat in Brooklyn. On well-deserved leave. Hauled into a room in the heart of New York. Stayed for two months and redeployed to sit behind a desk in the desert. On the border between Utah and Nevada. Hidden away in the mountains.

A secret army base underground. Covered by America’s biggest Mormon community lives the vampires in their compound.

For two hundred years, they were there, and we didn’t know. But when social media boomed, there were meetings with the president. There were peace treaties signed.

Money… And lot’s of it.

One thing the vampires had was money because of their technology and the selling of information. Their two-hundred years of oil mining and minerals they acquired and now owned. Not to mention their fingers in every pie Qadir could think of.

Of course, the men on earth thought they were in control of the situation. I sneer at them. Sitting up there… Not know anything of the s- storm going to hit our world and soon. Or they knew and thought that they would be prepared with their own secret bases and organizations. I didn’t really care. When Juliet was born, I was twenty-three.

When she was fifteen, I was a millionaire… a million times over… All I had to do was sit behind a screen. Everything I did was paid for. I had all the luxury. The freedom… And all I had to do was… watch a little girl's life… twenty-four seven.

I didn’t want to know what they offered Jack and Kubra. What they exchanged for doing it so long. And they didn’t have some girl to watch.

Jack had it best being in Europe away from everything. Prying eyes and the Alps for most of his life. Kubra was the only vampire watcher because Qadir didn’t trust us with his son. He didn’t want a human on the compound ever. So we had the tech to watch, but I have never set foot on their soil. Never to intervene. Just to study.

Of course, there was the interstellar travel that only took a moment. Not that we could go anywhere else than En-gannim. Our alliance was with the vampires, not with the werewolves or the Riphaths.

Their three worlds occupied another system with their own star Sirius. A blue one… With their own rules… I only went once. All of us only went once, and watchers were all male.

The consequences of talking… Or, drinking and spilling secrets… was immediate death. Execution. Bullet to the head. All money and assets were taken away from any remaining family without question. When we signed those papers, we literally signed away our lives. But I thought that I would live for nine hundred years. I looked over to Juliet lying on Chris’s chest.

My life would have gone on. They would reset my biological clock. I would be discharged and allowed to start a family. A life. You could choose the age you wanted to be frozen. I decided at thirty-two. At that time, Juliet was nine. Taking two months off wasn’t an issue. I thought that if… I needed to find a wife later in life and start a family. Thirty-two was a good age for a man.

That was the one time you went. You stayed until the treatment was done.

In that time, you got to travel their world. All the vampires there were in a manifested state all the time. Unless you were still not going through puberty. So, everyone knew… who and what we were.

They looked like us in every way. But underneath, their nature was different. Not at all like humans. The universe playing a sick joke: “Who is on top of the food chain?”

“Not us.” I rested my arms on my knees. I was tired. I sat back my head resting on the glass behind me. Trained to sleep sitting up. Waiting for my dependent to sleep…

Programmed to sleep only when she slept. That meant I woke up when she did. A built-in alarm clock. Nightmare… Clubbing… Staying awake through the night at a sleepover when she was invited to one for the first time. So excited that she couldn’t close her eyes. Or when she slept for three days straight. Got to leave the compound… I got to leave the desert. I was immersed in her world for weeks where it was just her and me… On Samuels farm.

A person I had never met but knew better than I did myself. For the longest time, I was the only one there for her… Well, not the only one. Carl was there… When she did stupid things and was drunk at parties. Boyfriend after boyfriend. They had placed him with her for a reason. I closed my eyes and slept. Raas would come back the following morning. With word from Ahasuerus and their courts and councils.