V (A Vampire Crime Novel Book 1) by Brian Yansky

Author:Brian Yansky [Yansky, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Keeping It Weird Press
Published: 2023-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

The Emperor Augustus Julius was born in Rome during the rule of the first Roman emperor (Gaius Octavius) in AD 38, the year of the Blood Plague when it is believed the first V were brought into existence. The exact number of V created during this plague is unknown, but in the United States of V, thirteen still live who went through the change in Rome in the year of the Blood Plague.

Emperor Augustus supported the resurrection of the senate as a legislative body when the V took control of governing, in part because it was an essential body in ancient Rome. Representatives from the most powerful families meet once a year, and selections are made for a legislative body that will meet for one month in St. Louis under the watchful eye of the emperor. —Historical Moments, Princeton University.

It was about 8AM when Roman got home. The gate to the ranch was shut and locked, and old Charlie stood there with an automatic rifle. The V would all be asleep, and most of the human house slaves would be tucked away in their beds, too. Out in the ranch hands’ bunkhouse, ranch-hand slaves often would stay up an hour or two after sunrise. Then they’d take turns with shifts to do things that needed doing during the day. One of those was standing watch, making sure there were no intruders. Every ranch hand carried emergency buttons that would wake the whole house with the press.

The house was locked up like a fortress during the day. It would be nearly impossible even for a V to get indoors. Still, the Count had lived a long time, and he believed that the key to continuing was to expect the unexpected. He liked to say that.

Roman told Charlie he was running late because he’d had to track down one of the Count’s deadbeats.

“Sure, you weren’t out with the ladies again?”

Roman winked at Charlie. He knew Charlie liked to live vicariously through him. Charlie had not left the ranch his whole life or at least his life since the Revolution. Charlie opened the gate, and Roman drove down to the parking lot. He went around to the trunk and lifted Angelina’s cousin and fireman carried him to the tigers’ cage.

The tigers were outside pretending not to watch him. They were laying lazily in the sun. Remus’ tail started twitching. Roman carried the body back to a little room used to prepare the tigers’ meals. It was always raw meat. Normally not human. But human enough times that Roman could hear the tigers pacing in anticipation outside.

Roman put on a plastic apron and a mask and got the chainsaw off the hook on the wall where some other tools hung, including meat cleavers and knives and old torture devices the Count had brought with him from the Middle Ages. Roman pulled the chainsaw cord, and the engine fired up, and Roman trimmed the limbs off Angelina’s cousin and then the head.

The tigers had wandered close to the bars that separated the feeding room from their inside quarters.

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