Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (63 page)

And
in that moment Rachel was right back where she stood with the angel and the
vampire.

Pyotr
offered a sincere smile and assured her she was among friends. “I am so sorry I
troubled you before Rachel, but time is so very vital in all of creation, and
as you can now imagine, creation is a very expansive and detailed thing.”

The
young woman only barely brought herself to nod in affirmation. “So…what is it
that you need me for?”

“Do
you recall everything we spoke about at our second meeting? I told you about
your ability to heal yourself and others, though that was only but a part of
your power Rachel.” He took her by the hand and walked with her back to
Vladimir’s side and set her down on the rooftop. “Your gift is divine in
nature, which is why you injured Vladimir when you tried to heal him.”

Rachel
frowned. “You’re saying he’s evil?”

Vladimir
glanced away from them and admitted it was true. “Rachel, there is a very great
deal you are not aware of. I have committed grievous sins and I only work
alongside Pyotr for two reasons: to firstly redeem myself for those past
crimes, but more importantly to locate and utterly obliterate a greater evil.”

Pyotr
intervened, “A long time ago, Vladimir and I were both mortal and average
people. We lived in London and had a very close group of friends. However we
all failed to notice one in our midst was struggling and deeply troubled. A
young man named Constantine slowly grew apart from our tight-knit group and he
began to become violent, moody, and angry. One day we discovered how violent he
had become and it sickened us. We tried to…reason with him, but there was no
use. Constantine used immoral and unspeakable means to steal immortality and
immense power for himself. Our circle of friends was forced to flee our homes,
out of fear, and later we all resolved to either find him to bring him to a
reckoning of the crimes he committed, or to ultimately bring about his end.”

“However
it was not that simple,” Vladimir told her. “Constantine was immortal and we
knew we would be unable to combat him if necessary. Our decision then was to
find a way to gain that needed, or rather, that desired power for ourselves so
we could fight him. Yet even that proved to be a corrupt and vile endeavor.”

“Though
not all of our circle chose to pursue immortality and supernatural abilities,”
Pyotr added. “A few of us elected to live out the rest of our lives without the
confrontation.” He cracked a small smile and admitted that they were all cursed
from the start. “None of our friends managed to remain separated from the
supernatural and over time each one of us either found immortality or perished.
And one by one the power corrupted our ranks and many of our dear friends
turned on one another and eventually allied themselves with our great enemy.”

“Pyotr
and I are all that remain opposed to Constantine,” Vladimir murmured.

Rachel
mulled over their claim before she asked what Constantine’s ambitions were.
“Why did he want immortality in the first place?”

Pyotr
heaved a heavy sigh and told her the power tempted him. “Constantine wanted
strength, as he was fragile and weak. He was and is filled with hatred for the
world and wants to bring misery and absolute desolation to mankind. If
Constantine has one goal it is to either eradicate humanity or to enslave all
of humankind to his will. In either case, it is unholy and cannot be allowed to
pass. And that is why we require, well…That is why we ask for your help.”

She
looked at him sheepishly and asked how she was to aid them. “I don’t know what
you want out of me. I don’t think I would be able to stop him, especially if
neither of you could. I mean, can you even kill an immortal?”

Pyotr
laughed and told her it was quite simple. “Immortals are nearly as vulnerable
as any regular person, in most cases. It merely depends on how they gained
immortality; from there you simply need to select a method to end their life.”

“For
instance,” Vladimir joined in, “Since I am a vampire, you would only need to
drive a wooden stake through my heart, cut off my head, carve my heart out with
a sickle and then burn it, or any number of other traditional methods that
could kill a vampire.”

“Yes,
and I believe Constantine is just as vulnerable,” Pyotr assured her. “And if
not, there is always a surefire way to bring about his demise.”

“And
what is that?”

Pyotr
only grinned and told her she would have to wait and see. “But alas, my time is
nearly spent and I must return to my work elsewhere. So allow me to extend this
invitation, or rather, this appeal.” He looked her in the eyes and asked, “Are
you willing to help us?”

Rachel
wasn’t sure what reason she could offer to deny their request, though she was
also unaware of how she could possibly aid them. Yet she knew that what they
said was true and felt in her heart that she needed to agree to their appeal.
She agreed and asked what she needed to do.

---*---

Chapter
23

September
23
^rd
, 2029

7:53
AM

Bothell,
Washington

Nick
couldn’t reach Mizuno after the incident. All evening and through the night he
tried to call him, and even Bruce and Kyle, but no one answered. Strom didn’t
either, which worried him even further. Nick took Lauren to his hotel room in
Bothell while he waited for Mizuno or someone within Impact to contact him.
Lauren didn’t voice a word of opposition or a word whatsoever. She asked who he
was once or twice and asked who the killer was, but mostly cried. Nick tried to
console her, but knew there wasn’t anything he could do to help her.

She
fell asleep around three in the morning but woke up periodically. Nick knew she
didn’t trust him and might have even been afraid of him, yet even through his
constant promises that he would never harm her, Lauren stayed on the defensive
and tried her best to protect herself. When she was asleep, Lauren occasionally
mumbled to herself in another language and seemed upset. Nick never slept at
all. He sat in a chair with his cell phone in his hands opposite where Lauren
wrestled with sleep. Every time Lauren woke up she found him exactly where he
was before she dozed off. He never moved.

“Did
you know he was going to try to kill my family?” she suddenly asked him.

Nick
shook his head and said he would have stopped him if he had known. “I was
supposed to keep you and your parents from making it to the Seattle Art Museum
because the Dáfù were going to attack.”

“How
do you know that?”

Nick
told her it was complicated but that his leader knew a lot about their organization.

“Why
would the Dáfù want to attack a museum?”

He
only shrugged, “I don’t know why they do anything.”

She
sulked and muttered that they just hated people. “I don’t know what else would
prompt them to do anything like that.” Lauren looked at him and asked why the
killer targeted her family.

“I
don’t know.”

“Did
they want everyone to die?”

“I
don’t know.”

She
looked away from him and cried for a moment before she asked if the killer
would find her.

“No,”
he told her without any hesitation. “He won’t find you.”

“How
do you know?”

“I
just do.”

“What
if he comes after me?”

Nick
didn’t know how to convince her she was safe. He knew she would eventually be
on her own and if the assassin did try to find her she would die. Nick told her
he would protect her, but he felt his words failed to resonate with her.

His
cell rang and he answered it without a second’s hesitation. “Mizuno?”

“Yes.”

“Why
didn’t–”

“We
couldn’t stop him Nick.”

Nick
stopped talking. He sat silently while Mizuno recounted the event and the
attack by Dalton. Lauren watched him sit rigid in his seat and saw his eyes wet
upon hearing some unfortunate news.

“Everyone’s
fine though, right?”

“More
or less,” Mizuno muttered. “Strom won’t be doing much beyond recuperating for
weeks, but he’ll live, as will Kyle.”

Nick
let out a breath of relief and ran his fingers through his hair. “Why was he
even there?”

“I’m
not sure. I would normally/ hesitate to associate Dalton with the Dáfù, yet
it’s evident he was aware of the entire plot.”

Nick
glanced at Lauren, took a breath, and told Mizuno about the incident on his
side. “I wasn’t able to save anyone except for their daughter.”

Nick
heard Mizuno mutter something to himself in what Nick guessed was Japanese
before Mizuno asked whether he killed the charlatan or not.

“I-I…No,
I didn’t.”

There
was a pause before Mizuno continued, “There’s a warehouse full of shipping
crates in Seattle where I have a hideout of sorts set up; take the girl with
you and meet us here.”

Nick
got out of his seat, found one of the complementary pads of paper and a pen the
hotel left in the room and jotted down the address Mizuno rattled off to him.
Nick wanted to ask how he was supposed to get there, but Mizuno hung up before
he could get an answer.

Lauren
watched as he sighed, put his phone away, tore out the address, and quietly
asked her to get ready to leave. “I-I don’t know if you want to shower or
anything, but we need to leave soon.”

“Where
are we going?”

Nick
folded the sheet of paper in half and stowed it in his right back pocket of his
jeans before he said they were headed for Seattle. “Mizuno,” he stopped and
corrected himself, “The guy in charge wants us to meet there.”

“Why?”

Nick
said he wasn’t sure. “Probably t-to assess the situation and talk about what to
do with you.”

Lauren
looked away from him and asked what she could do. “The only family I have left
is in Canada and I hardly know them.”

“Would
they take you in?”

She
shrugged and said she didn’t want to live with them. “What am I supposed to
do?”

Nick
admitted that he didn’t have any ideas. “You could go back to Paris and–”

“Where
are you from?” Lauren stopped him. She looked him in the eye for the first time
in hours and said, “Earlier, you asked me where I was from, so where are you
from?”

He
said he lived where they were. “My family, my mom and brother died a few months
ago.” Nick told her that his mother died in a car accident and that his brother
was killed by the same person who killed her parents. “I’ve tried to find him
since my brother’s death, but I haven’t been very successful.”

“Why
didn’t you kill him yesterday?”

Nick
flinched at the suggestion and quickly told her he wasn’t a killer.

Lauren
quieted herself and let the subject drop. She finally got up from the corner
she slept in, (as she didn’t trust Nick enough to sleep  in either of the
beds), and walked into the bathroom and turned the sink faucet on. She told him
she’d be ready to leave in a few minutes and shut the door.

---*---

8:30
AM

Bothell,
Washington

Rachel’s
alarm sounded and abruptly woke her. However Pyotr’s presence startled her far
more than the suddenness of her alarm. She would have screamed but Pyotr
negated the audible cry and spared them the unnecessary step of explaining
everything to her aunt.

He
sat at the foot of her bed quietly and only told her to meet Vladimir and
himself at Stipek Park as soon as she finished her breakfast. “Bring a coat as
well,” he told her briefly before a light surrounded him. “It’s going to rain.”

She
blinked and he was gone.

--          --          --

Her
aunt wasn’t pleased that Rachel elected to skip church, but it didn’t impede
Rachel at all. It was always a choice that Rachel usually agreed to simply to
appease her aunt. However her angelic acquaintance seemed to know what he was
doing when he told her to meet him at the park.

She
arrived and found it to be desolate, aside from Pyotr and Vladimir. Vladimir
wore his regular attire while Pyotr sported shorts and a gray tee-shirt with a
vertical red stripe that crossed over a star over his heart. Vladimir sat
brooding on the bench she first met him at while Pyotr stood and greeted her.

“I
take it your aunt wasn’t happy that you could not make it to church with her?”

“She’ll
be fine.” Rachel skipped the small talk and asked why he wanted to talk with
them.

“I
simply wanted to finish our talk from the night before.”

“Why
didn’t you?” she asked. “If you stopped time and could take as long as you
wanted to tell us everything, why didn’t you?”

Pyotr
looked out at the road near the park and watched a car pass by. “You may not
have realized it, but talking, having a conversation when time stands still is
a very bothersome thing. Sounds are emptier, emotions seem to echo, and it is
physically uncomfortable.”

“So
you’re finishing it now?”

“In
a matter of speaking.” Pyotr crossed his arms and paced for a moment before he
admitted that he could not stay long enough to truly reveal everything they
both wanted to know.

“Why
not?”

“He
is quite busy Rachel,” Vladimir told her.

“Doing
what?”

Pyotr
smiled and reminded her that he was an angel. “I serve the Lord and he requires
much from me that occupies the majority of my time. The fact that I even have
such a moment to be here to speak with you is quite gracious.”

“Alright,”
Rachel wasn’t entirely sure what he meant but asked him to continue.

“If
you remember from our conversation last night, our primary goal is to eliminate
Constantine, though he has eluded us for a very long time,” Pyotr started. “He
continues to hide and the best way to locate him is through his allies, one of
whom is named Cipriana. I’ve come to know that Cipriana is in Seattle–”

“How?”
Vladimir interrupted him. “You and I have searched for her for years and you
have just now found her?”

“Yes.”

“Why
haven’t you killed her then?”

“Because
I haven’t the time and I do not know where she is within the greater Seattle
area. I am charging you both with the task of tracking her down and killing
her.”

“Who
is she?”

Pyotr
apologized and said that Vladimir would need to explain everything to her.
Pyotr then told them he would contact them again as soon as he had another
opportunity to do so. Afterwards he said his goodbyes and walked out of the
park only to vanish in a ray of light upon leaving the grounds.

Rachel
waited until the light faded to ask Vladimir what he did. “I mean, what does an
angel do exactly?”

“What
we are going to do, but to a much larger and wider extent.”

“What
are you talking about?”

“He
is an angel of death Rachel,” Vladimir flatly told her. “He ushers the dead and
dying to the next world or life or whatever it is.”

Rachel
paled slightly and asked if he was serious.

“I
am. Now–”

“He’s
the grim reaper?”

Vladimir
let out a breath and told her there was no such thing as the grim reaper.
“There are only angels who traffic the dead, or as he would say it, ‘servants
of the Lord doing His work.’”

“Okay…so
who is Cipriana?”

Vladimir
told her she was an old friend, “She originally sought a means for immortality
to lengthen her life enough to kill Constantine, as that was all of our
intentions at the start. But she had loved him, unbeknownst to us, and her only
true intent was to be with him no matter what his aspirations were. And she did
find a means to immortality in eighteen-sixty-seven, through reincarnation.”

“What’s–”

“This
will be a far less irritating process if you allow me to say what I need to and
then ask questions once I have finished Rachel,” he stopped her. “Now, Cipriana
found a ritual from the Middle East, although I am not entirely sure where it
originated exactly, but the ritual allowed her to reincarnate herself as many
times as she pleased. Basically she would find a woman who was with child, have
her willingly or unknowingly ingest her blood, and once Cipriana’s spell was
cast she would kill herself with a bronze dagger and her spirit would manifest
as the infant of the mother who ingested the blood previously mentioned.”

“That’s
horrible.”

Vladimir
agreed. “Cipriana would retain all of her knowledge from her past life when she
was reborn later. Because of this, finding her has been nearly impossible,
seeing as she is no longer, to my knowledge, of her original ethnicity, which
was Italian.”

“What
do you think she is now?”

Vladimir
said he could only guess. “Before we lost complete track of her around the
First World War she was German. Before that she was Spanish and Indian before
that.” He told her to take a seat as he was unsure how long it would take him
to explain everything to her. Rachel only told him she was fine with standing
and asked him to continue. “I will not hurt you, you know that, right?”

“How
can I be so sure?”

“It
is actually rather simple. I have no desire to harm you, as such I will not.”
He smirked, “It is the same with all people.”

“But
you’re not like everyone else.”

“Because
I am a vampire?”

“Yes.”

He
chuckled quietly and told her she misunderstood the situation. “Vampirism is
not a changing of species Rachel. It is nothing more than a disease that
grants, or curses, one with immortality, enhanced speed, strength, vision,
senses, and flight, all while cursing the bearer with an insatiable hunger for
human blood, carnal pleasures, and death.” Vladimir then stopped her before she
could say a word and simply told her Pyotr helped him master the pain that
accompanied the hunger. “Those who carry the vampiric virus can succumb to
starvation if they are not adequately fed. In fact,” he frowned, “I think the
longest duration a vampire can last before starvation is around forty days.”