Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (famous ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“Look, I’ll decide to tell her when I tell her!  And I promise you it won’t be too late when I do.  But for now, I don’t want to add to her stress. And you can’t tell her either!”

Caroline sighed heavily and rolled her eyes slightly.  “Fine.  But I think you’re making a huge mistake not telling her.”

“Whatever.  Look, can I go check on her now?” Kale then whined as he then stood up from the couch.

“Alright go.  But let me know when she’s awake.  I have a lot of things I need to tell you two.  Things that you guys need to know if you’re really going to go up against my brother.”

Kale just nodded and then ascended the stairs to his own room.  After putting on a quick grey shirt, he then exited and walked across the small hall to the room right across.  He slowly turned the knob and opened the door, quietly entering the room.  It was there in the bed that he saw Nora, sleeping, and covered with layers upon layers of blankets.  He noticed a chair nearby and he took a seat there.  He watched Nora only for a few minutes as he noticed her extremely rosy cheeks against her light skin.  He couldn’t help but wonder, was she really going to turn into what Caroline was?  A hybrid is what she called it.  All he knew was that he didn’t want that for her.  He wanted her to stay as human as she could.  That’s the way he liked her…

When Nora awoke she looked around her at the unfamiliar room.  That is, until she suddenly noticed something very familiar; Kale, sitting slumped in a chair nearby, sleeping.

“Kale?” she softly cooed.  Kale must not have been sleeping very heavily because he immediately stirred.

“Nora, you’re up,” he stated, “How are you feeling?”

“Kinda shitty…you?” Nora’s voice was a little raspy as she spoke, and she realized she couldn’t talk very loudly either.

Kale shrugged, “Kinda shitty too.  But you know, being a vampire you bounce back a little quicker.” He ended his sentence with a small smile.

Nora gave him a weak smile back.

“I’m just glad you’re alright,” Kale then sincerely said.

“You too,” Nora responded, “When I thought…you were dead….I…”

“Nora, don’t,” Kale sternly commanded.  He noticed the tears starting to well up in her eyes and he didn’t want to see her cry, “I’m not dead.  I’m here.  I’m sorry I had to do that to you.  But I had to make Dagon think I was dead too so I could get to you without him knowing…”

Nora just nodded slightly as she looked away, still lying under the immense amount of blankets.  “I know…” was all she said back.

Kale sighed.  He didn’t know what to say back to her.  However, it was Nora who ultimately broke the small silence. “I’m just glad you came.  Thank you…for saving me.”

Kale smiled a bit at her statement. “You’re welcome.  But you know that it doesn’t require thanks.  It should just be implied by now.”

Nora smiled as much as she could back. “Yeah, o.k.”

It was then that Kale noticed Nora’s obvious tiredness.  She was fighting to keep her eyes open and she needed to sleep, he could tell. “Look, you get some more rest,” he then instructed as he stood up from his seat and began to head for the door. “When you feel better, Caroline’s going to talk to us.  She has a lot of information about Dagon that could help us.”

“Can we trust her, really?” Nora softly asked him before he could leave.

“I believe we can,” Kale answered, “I know she has connection to Dagon, you were right about that.  But she didn’t kill me when she was supposed to.  And she rescued both of us and brought us here.  I think she really wants to help us.”

Nora sighed a bit before responding, “O.k.  I trust you.”

Kale just gave a small nod as he then turned and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.  Nora had a few minutes to think before she began to drift off.  She thought about all that had happened in the last day.  She didn’t know what Caroline did when she was out in those woods with Kale, but whatever it was, whatever she said to him, must have been serious because he was all about trusting her now.  Nora however, wasn’t sure.  It was going to take a little bit more convincing for her to really trust Caroline.  She refuses to get caught in another trap like that again or feel the way she felt when she thought Kale had died.  She promised herself she would never go through that again and she’d do whatever she had to in order to prevent it.  Stop whoever she needed to stop.  No more sitting on the side lines.  She had felt so helpless lately and she didn’t want to feel that way anymore.  She wanted to help; to fight and that’s just what she plans to do.

 IT WAS AN hour or so later that all three of them, Nora, Kale, and Caroline, sat in the living room.  Caroline sat in a reclining chair next to the couch that Kale and Nora occupied.

It was Caroline who broke the silence by heaving a big sigh. “O.k. before I can talk about Dagon’s plans at all…I have to tell you about his past.  About when he was Charlie, and how he got to the way he is now.”

Kale and Nora leaned in eagerly.  Nora was still wrapped in a few blankets as she sat and listened, however, she was sure the shivers she was feeling now didn’t have anything to do with the hypothermia she had suffered from.

“O.k. I guess the best place to start would be when Charlie was eighteen,” Caroline began, “It was the year 2012 and he was serving in the army; Special Forces.  He and his group were ones being sent out to kill vampires.  The hellion virus was just breaking out and the military was doing all that it could to stop it from spreading, however, it almost seemed like a wasted effort because the virus was spreading faster than we could quarantine it.  Charlie had told my mom and me that we should leave.  The place we were living was a pretty dangerous one; hellions were beginning to outnumber people at a very rapid rate.  I remember thinking I wanted to go.  I was only thirteen then but my mom was very stubborn.  She didn’t want to leave the house that we had grown up in with my father who had died when I was seven.

“Well, anyway, on one of Charlie’s missions, he got wounded, badly.  And when he was taken back for medical care it was noticed by the medical staff that he had been bitten.  The rule at this time for any soldier that was bitten was immediate elimination.  Charlie was scheduled to be executed along with a few other soldiers that had contracted the virus.  He was allowed to come back home for a brief chaperoned visit to say goodbye to us.  My mom couldn’t handle it.  She was about to lose another man in her life.  First her husband, now her son.  I too was horrified.  I was very close to my brother.  Ever since my dad died, Charlie looked after me.  He was my protector and hero and I couldn’t believe this was happening and that he was going so willingly to his death.  I was wrong, however, because Charlie was not going to go willingly.  He had put on an act for us at the house because he was being watched but little to our knowledge he had a plan.

“Basically, when the day came and he and his fellow soldiers were about to be lined up before the firing squad, he led an uprising and he and a few others had managed to escape and go A.W.O.L.  He had even killed a few of his fellow officers in the process.  That day something had snapped in Charlie.  He couldn’t believe that these men, the ones who’s side he was supposed to be on, would turn on him like that just because of one bite.  They were supposed to fight with him, not against him and after all the time and energy he had given to them; he couldn’t believe that they would just disregard his life like that.  Like he was just another insignificant ant amidst a colony; something to be tossed aside and replaced so easily by the next soldier that came along.  I believe it was then that he began to really hate humans.  The thing that was once his own species he turned his back on; just like they turned their backs on him when he was no longer considered ‘human’.

“After he escaped, he came straight home.  I remember when he did, because it was the same night my mother died.  A few hellions had broken into our house and attacked us.  We were practically defenseless.  We didn’t know back then what could kill them.  My mother got slaughtered.  I remember it because she didn’t really fight back.  It was almost like she wanted it.  After all, she thought Charlie was dead by now and after my father, she had already been a wreck.  I however, was badly injured.  One of the night-flyers had gouged a good chunk out of my neck and chest and if it hadn’t been for Charlie coming back and killing the thing, I’d have been dead like my mother.

“That was also the night that my brother healed me.  He didn’t really know what he was doing, he told me he just had this instinct that was telling him to put his blood into mine; that it would save me.  So he did, and I was healed.  It was after that that the both of us left; moved to another state, another city.  We moved quite a lot after that actually.  Charlie had to hide what he was and if we ever got found out we had to leave before the mobs showed up.  But each place we went, Charlie befriended other vampires that were in similar situations.  Ones that didn’t see a problem with what they were and didn’t think they were something to be eliminated.  That they were better, if not superior to humans; a new race that deserved to grow.

“Eventually we settled here and the Blood Land here got started.  Other vampires that learned from Charlie eventually moved on to become sires of their own Blood Lands, but Charlie always stayed here.  It was at this time that he decided to change his name to Dagon.  It was a name of someone from the Hebrew Bible that was the some kind of deity to the Canaanites.  I guess he felt it fit what he was becoming so he took that name.  I guess he wasn’t too far off.”

It was then that Kale decided to briefly interrupt Caroline’s story, “So, when was it that he knew about the hybrid thing?”

Caroline nodded. “Shorty after he healed