Empire of Vampires ✔️

Chapter Forty-Two

Marie turned to look back at the group. They stared at her in stunned silence.

'I wanted to tell you earlier,' she started, looking at her brother, 'Um, I guess I was waiting for the right moment.'

'And- this is the right moment?' he asked, shocked and unable to think of any other reply. He wanted to ask 'who?' but instead James asked, 'Since when?'

'I only realized about a week ago, when I got a sudden craving for human food but, um- I can't be sure of the exact date.'

James's mind was spinning as he turned to look at the human. Was he human? Andrew didn't look quite so human. Long, dark lashes cast mysterious shadows over his delicate features. His dark, inky eyes sparkled like stardust under the blue moonlight. They looked positively dreamy as James stared into them. Their expression was unmistakable. If James had to find the words to explain what he saw there, there was only one word that could describe it.

Lovestruck.

James inhaled sharply. There was no denying it. His sister had found her soulmate in Andrew. They were both true eternals.

'I don't know who it is.' Marie's voice cut into his thoughts.

James blinked. 'What?'

'I don't know who my soulmate is. It could be anybody I've met within the span of the year.'

'Would you not- wouldn't you know?' Andrew whispered. His windswept hair curled around his strong jaw, blowing gently in the breeze. 'When you meet the person you love, the person you're destined to be with, wouldn't you just know?'

In that moment, James realized that Andrew knew. He knew he was an eternal and he knew he was in love.

'I suppose I could just whack everyone I've ever met on the head and see who doesn't feel pain,' Marie contemplated.

'What? Why would you do that?' Andrew demanded, slack jawed in shock.

'How else will I know whether they're human or eternal? There's hardly a difference except that, you know, eternals can't die, so they probably have a higher pain tolerance.'

'I'm sure there are other ways to find out,' Andrew balked.

'But are there funner ways to find out?' Marie grinned and skipped into the cargo hold area, leaving the gate swinging open for the others.

Andrew sighed as he followed her in, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking aside a rock that was in his way. James stepped through the gate quickly, not wanting to stand too long near the harmful metal, and Danyel followed him.

The grounded spotlights glowed up from the tarmac, lighting the hub from below. Rows of hangars surrounded the perimeter, planes visible through their glassed openings. Directly opposite them were the transportation shacks, piled high with recent cargo. On their left was the security guard's office.

There was only one man on guard that night. He was snoozing in his cubicle feeling safe in the knowledge that the gate had been securely locked. His television played in the background, showing an old cartoon that didn't run anymore. The loud animation sounds of a crime-fighting platypus could clearly be heard from where they were standing, providing a sound blanket to silence their own noise.

They got on their knees and crawled past his half-open door, standing only when they were well past his line of sight. The group was forced to walk in silence across the tarmac although they all had questions to ask the newly-turned eternal. Marie had irritatingly dropped a bombshell before joyfully skipping away, into an area where they couldn't even speak up to ask her about it.

Andrew impatiently strode to where he spotted the latest shipment inside the transportation shack. It was where goods were temporarily stored for a night, before being loaded the next morning into the train connecting the hub.

There were crates upon crates of imports, piled as high as the roof would allow it. They teetered dangerously in their uneven stacks, the weight of the goods seemingly too heavy for the simple wooden crates.

Andrew hoped that Danyel wouldn't want to check inside all of them. They clearly didn't hold the airy lilies that he was obsessed with. One or two broken boxes might cause no comment or investigation, and as long as nothing had been stolen it would look like an accident. 

They stood by while Danyel went to the first crate and snapped it open. It's heavy contents remained inside, causing him no interest. He immediately went to the next and cracked it open too, clearly not finding the lilies which he expected would spill out. 

'Hey, hey stop, you can't just break all of these,' Andrew said as Danyel broke open his third crate.

'Why not?' the eternal inquired, turning around innocently to face him.

'Well, first off, it's illegal! And secondly, it's really just a waste of time,' Andrew complained, sick of humoring the half-crazed eternal.

Marie shrugged. 'It's not as illegal as killing people, just let him look in the boxes.'

Andrew turned his glare on her. 'They're all the same thing, they're just building mat-' He paused and glanced inside one of the crates, unsure what he was looking at, 'Wait, what are these anyway?'

Andrew had never seen goods like these before. They were unlike any of the normal building materials he knew of. There were odd little yellow cylinders, and various kinds of wires and coils which he didn't recognize. There were bunches of cans with unfamiliar symbols on them, and stacks of green puffy material cocooning more goods within them.

He went towards one of the crates and picked up an odd-shaped little ball with a criss-cross pattern embedded on it's surface. It had a pointy end and a wide circular top that had some type of green pin stuck in it. Andrew threw it deftly from one hand to the other as he spun on his heel to face the twins.

'Hey, what's this?' Andrew looked at them questioningly, his brows drawing together as he saw their terrified expressions. The twins were frozen in shock and unable to speak, their horror-struck faces deathly pale in the blue moonlight.

They knew all too well what explosives looked like.