District Human

They call it Bloodfaye. I call it a perpetual fire on earth where the wicked are punished after death. That might sound like an exaggeration on my part. It wasn’t. It was a forged existence. Nothing shone other than the silver egg that hovered above us like a deceptive halo. Imitation did nothing to appease a restless soul. It was the new kindred way of life.

I rubbed the back of my neck. My muscles ached from endless days working the laboratory. Today was no different. Bloodfaye was open for business. Humans had to pass a blood test before they were permitted into the dome city where they were promised a better life.

It was a sham. We took their blood for two reasons:

A. Contaminated blood could potentially kill a vampire if consumed.

B. The search for the invincible and elusive AB positive blood was as eternal as life after death.

The fact that I possessed a vial of gold mixed with Lygarou blood was a delicate situation, but I wasn’t losing any sleep over it. As it was, Melissa was currently taking care of all matters sleep deprivation. The woman was haunting me. She had been my wife and Avila’s mom. The last time I’d seen her was the morning she had left the house to go for her usual run. It was the same day she had died.

I frowned and pushed those thoughts aside as the beginnings of a commotion erupted from across the lab. It was the usual lab set-up — lengthy benchtops, glassed cubicles and an array of scientific machines. Marius was a resourceful overlord. I peered through the white coats skimming the room. They stunk like self-importance, and dotted between them were the Leavings who were ushered through the lab faster than a Sushi conveyer belt.

“Hold still, Leaving!”

The brash order was issued by some vampire kid they’d dumped in the laboratory and called a Mysticus scientist. There were dozens of them. Most of them couldn’t distinguish a fart from a turd, let alone competently take the blood of incoming Leavings. I had no choice but to deal with it.

Mongrel blood.

I cursed and stood up from my workstation. Some vampires were like foul gutters. This one was poking a Leaving woman in a rather offensive fashion. Time to intervene. I’d been here before. It was the barbaric vampire guttersnipes who lost their shit often. An event that inevitably resulted in a dead human.

“I said, stop fricken squirming bitch!”

I picked up my pace. The woman whimpered. I had a zero-dead human policy on my watch. They all knew it but not all of them had the ability to care when confronted by human blood and frustration.

The woman cried out as I approached. Her limp hair hung over grotty features like rotten seaweed. Her stench resembled the muck too. They seriously needed to do something about the hygiene of Leavings, preferably before they reached the lab for their mandatory blood testing.

I stopped behind him. His name was lost on me. They should consider issuing name tags too.

“Easy, kid. She’s not a dartboard.”

“Her veins are rolling or something!”

I peered at the underside of her arm. Her skin was angry-red and swollen.

“Small veins. Perhaps we should choose a butterfly needle and attempt on her other arm.”

The dumbass didn’t even look me as he gave a frustrated hiss before tightening his grip on her wrist. The syringe poised briefly. Her dull eyes glanced at me; her pasty lips trembled as he jabbed the needle into her flesh. He didn’t appear to be aiming for anything. She shrieked and jerked her arm. Blood fountain. He hit it and it was suddenly spurting everywhere. She wailed louder. I groaned. His lips stretched to bare his fangs. A growl followed before he went to lunge for her. I stopped him by grabbing a fistful of his ginger hair in the nick of time.

Mongrel. Blood.

“How bestial of you.” I gave a growl of my own and yanked him clear off his chair. He landed on the floor and promptly scrambled to his haunches. His eyes flashed and he hissed at me. Life just gets better … and better. I gave him a twisted grin and studied my talons. “Ah, and so he challenges me to a dual-dance … vampire trout must be in the mood for a second death today, hmm?”

His brows instantly lowered as he started to back away. I expected as much, but my problems were far from over. I had a lab teaming with vampires and a Leaving who may as well have had an “all you can eat” sign plastered on her head. The air was now thick with the scent of hunger. They were stalking all around. Eyes like neon beads. Breath like hot alley cats.

“Back away, vampires!” The warning went unheard. I grabbed the nearest roll of cotton and pressed it against the woman’s now overactive vein. He butchered her good for a rooky armed with only a thin needle. A low hiss emanated from behind. The woman screamed.

Shit. Fear elevated a vampire’s insatiable desire for blood.

“Keep still and shut up.” I gripped her wrist and scrambled among the empty vials, packages of syringes and antiseptic bottles splayed over the benchtop for some tape. It remained unfound and my heart thundered. The crusniks were closing in.

The woman skittered closer to me. I shoved her behind me, and she grappled at my lab coat as a female vampire with pink bangs and studded nostrils displayed her fangs. Talons twisted at the ends of her hair. Nostrils like a flame. Others inched closer, transfixed by the promise of fresh blood for the taking. Jaws salivated as they sought out the woman. Meat market fair. I needed backup.

Luckily there were guards and Shadow Guardians stationed in the lab for incidents like this. Where the hell are they when you need them? I gave the blood-lusting creatures my most hideous growl as some guards began pushing through the growing mob. Finally. Relief was in sight. It was Michal’s shrill voice rising above pulsating hisses that caught my attention next.

“Coming through! Coming through!”

He emerged from among the throng of vamps with a few guards at his side, stopping abruptly when he copped sight of me and the woman nearly pushed up against the benchtop. Brown eyes blinked rapidly over her splattered blood as he made tittering noises. His fidgety thumbs probed his glasses.

“What in the name is this mess?”

The guards began ushering the predators away. Some of them resisted. They hissed and growled like feral animals. I ignored them and gazed toward the blood that doused the benchtop and floor.

“It’s called blood, Michal. It’s what we do here, remember?”

He gave me a filthy look. “How they expect us to work like this is beyond me!”

“Understatement of the century.” I pushed the woman toward him. “Wrap her up properly and give her a pass.”

His jaw dropped. Guards began shouting. A few of the mongrel bloods were getting feistier. The tension was brewing — just perfect

“A pass? B … but, master … she hasn’t been cleared for District H.”

I gave a tight smile. “She has now. Shall we use this current turn of events and escort the Leaving out of here?”

His lips parted. Spittle dribbled out of his mouth before he clamped his mouth shut and nodded. Ding, ding. He understood.

“Grab what you can,” I said.

It was tedious smuggling items from the laboratory. Marius had guards assigned around the clock which had forced us to set up our own makeshift lab to work the hybrid blood. We’d chosen a discreet hub in the underground subway located along the wall that separated the districts in the far reaches of District H. It was better than nothing.

Michal fussed over the Leaving woman; he secured her wound tight while offering a running rant. “It’s going to be okay, Leaving woman. We just have to ensure the bloodsuckers on the other side won’t detect your fresh wound so easily… This will help you avoid the soowoo tooth fairy if you know what I mean.”

“H — huh?”

She was terrified. I had to look away. Her life wasn’t about to improve any time soon, but that was out my hands. I didn’t run the joint.

Humans had become our bona fide blood-cows. If they passed their bloods, they were allocated quarters in District H — the human section of Bloodfaye. They were enslaved after that. Bloodfaye had a no free-loader policy, a fact I found ironic considering each Leaving was eloquently drained of blood every eight weeks to appease the clan’s thirst. Most of them survived the periodic bloodletting.

Life beneath the dome was a far cry from the vision Marius had painted. Granted, the entire process was still in its infancy. There was much to establish as far as procedures and regulations were concerned. No time to think about that right now. Michal and I were just about ready to begin a process of our own.

I glanced at the guards on crowd control. The baking coven were still restless, but I knew the distraction wouldn’t last.

“Hurry up!” It was a grunt issued at Michal as he carefully wrapped a few basic laboratory apparatuses in a white cloth — things like test tubes, tongs and funnels. I stuffed a pair of goggles, clamps and a few droppers into my pockets before encircling an arm around the trembling woman.

“Come on, love. Let’s get you through to District H.”

A handful of Shadow Guardians stood around the exit door. One of them was Lena — the tall leathery Latino who had accompanied me part the way into wolf-mission wilderness some time ago. She had taken to me since my return. I was reluctant to admit that the feeling was mutual. Her dark roots dipped with her curt nod.

“Master Jett.” Chaffed lips grinned as she moved away from her peers and pushed open the door. “I see you’re leaving at just the right moment this afternoon.”

I gently shoved the Leaving woman across the threshold after Michal. “Hello Lena. As usual, your observation skills impress and delight.”

Her eyes scanned my bulging pockets before flitting up to me. She flicked her chin and stepped closer. “Master Zaros was spotted wandering through District H earlier.”

“And?”

Zaros was a fluctuating version of Marius; an overlord vampire. He was erratic and conniving. His desire for power made him extremely dangerous. I liked him as much as the vile aftertaste of a lowlife hawker.

“I saw him heading toward the old subway. He wasn’t alone.”

I squared my jaw. “Thank you, Lena.”

She smiled and stepped back, sweeping her arm toward the door. “Good day, master Jett.”

“And to you.”

I walked from the lab with my pockets intact. The sounds of hyped hisses and growling guards were muffled beyond the closing door. I possessed many things of value in my pockets these days. None so much as the few members of my own secret sector.

District Human is an urban fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world and part Kim Petersen’s Blood Legends world. Visit Whispering Ink to find out more.