Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

was my area.”

“This area?” Nora winced as she thought of the horrible state that it seemed to be in.

“It didn’t use to look this bad.  Dagon funded me to keep it nice and to…” Rogan hesitated for a second before he continued, “To fill it with vampires.”

“Fill it with vampires? How?”

“Well, we were told to search out and find strong humans that would be good candidates to become vampires.  To…strengthen our race.  And we were instructed to bite them, in our human form, and bring them to our area and give them housing, supplies, blood, and teach them how to become a vampire…so to speak.”

“So is that what Rose thought you were doing with me?”

Rogan nodded. “Yeah.  Because I did that to her.”

A slightly confused expression now appeared on Nora’s face as she then inquired, “So…what was all the talk of a daily payment about?”

Rogan looked away for a second before then saying, “You sure you want to know?”

“Yes I do.  If I’m going to be staying with you for a while, I might as well know what kind of vampire I’m staying with.”

“O.k.” Rogan sighed. “Well, as payment for taking care of them, each of the fledglings was required to supply us with…blood daily.”

“Blood?!”

“Yes.  You know that when a vampire bites a human in their human-like form, it takes a few weeks for them to change as opposed to changing instantly if they were bit by the hellion form.  Well, in those few weeks, the blood is still….technically human.  So we take it, sell it, and its profit for Dagon as well as supply for the rest of the community.”

Nora now looked away from Rogan and glanced through one of the windows that framed the view of Rose’s house nearby. “So you aren’t really helping anybody…you’re pretending so you can get blood and multiply your species…” she spoke in a saddened tone.

“I used to do that.  But yes, that is the gist of it.  It’s called human farming,” Rogan answered, looking over at her.

“That’s horrible,” Nora spoke again, still not looking over at him.

“I’d disagree but I won’t,” Rogan said, “One of the reasons I quit Dagon’s brood was that I wasn’t happy with the things I was doing.  I didn’t like who I was becoming.  I was becoming like Dagon…someone who was only concerned with…himself.”

“Wow…hard to imagine,” Nora coldly stated as she now looked back at him.

“Yeah well…” Rogan then turned around to grab one last thing.

“So…” Nora then spoke up again, “Why is Rose the only one still here?  Why does this neighborhood look so horrible now?”

“Well, when I quit Dagon’s brood he stopped funding this area.  And he never assigned it to anyone else because he hoped I’d come back.  He wanted me to see how it was going to shit so I’d come back to fix it again.”

“But you wouldn’t?” Nora softly asked.

Rogan lifted a small radio from the side table next to them and turned back to her. “Yeah, I wouldn’t.  All the other vampires moved out.  Went to better places.  Rose…she’s got problems.  She’s having a hard time being independent.  In hindsight…I probably shouldn’t have turned her…” Nora noticed him now staring at Rose’s house through the window.  He sighed as he did and Nora almost felt sorry for him for a second.

“So…is that why you wanted the blood from my freezer?  For her?”

Rogan now broke his gaze from the window and let it fall on Nora again. “Mostly for her…yeah I guess.” He then proceeded to walk towards the door.

Nora stood for a few seconds before smiling and then began to follow him, that is, until Rogan opened the door ajar and instantly cursed. “Shit!” he exclaimed as he peaked out the slight opening.

“What is it?” Nora questioned, trying to look over his shoulder but Rogan stuck his hand out and pushed her back.

“No, stay in here,” Rogan commanded.

“What is it?” Nora repeated her question.

“It’s some of Dagon’s brood.  Come to check and see if I’m here, I’d guess.”

“What do we do?”

Rogan shut the door and then turned to look back at Nora. “You just stay in here and stay away from the door or windows.  I’ll try to get rid of them.”

“O.k.” Nora said as she then began to walk into the adjacent room to hide, “Be careful,” she then added, turning to look at him for a second.

Rogan just nodded and then waved her away.  Nora responded by continuing into the other room and watched as Rogan opened the door, stood up straight, and walked out.

The two figures approached as Rogan shut the door behind him and stood in front of his house.

“Well, look who it is.  Turned out it was pretty easy to find you after all!” one of the vampires who came into view stated.

Rogan scoffed at his comment. “What made you think I needed to be found?”

The two vampires ceased their approach and now stood in front of Rogan.  They each wore a long black trench coat that was buttoned up.  One of them wore sunglasses and had slicked back brown hair and grinned at Rogan with much smugness, showing his fangs clearly.  The other was slightly shorter than the first and he also had brown hair but his was tousled all over his head.  He wore no sunglasses but instead a friendlier expression on his face.

Unbeknownst to Rogan, Nora was crouched under a window in the house, hiding but also listening and watching.  She instantly noticed one of the vampires outside as being one that was with Rogan when she encountered him at the hospital several months ago.

“So…what do you guys want anyway?” Rogan now blurted.

The taller vampire chuckled. “Why don’t you tell us?”

“I have nothing to tell,” Rogan quickly retorted, “So why don’t you tell me why you’re here so I can then kick you’re asses out of here!”

The taller vampire laughed harder this time. “You kill me, Rogan!”

“Out with it, Aaron!” Rogan now shouted at him angrily.

“Dagon wants to see you,” the smaller vampire now stated.

Aaron now stopped his laughing and nodded, “Yeah, what Jay said.”

“So Dagon’s sent his goons to come get me?  Why does he want to see me anyway?” Rogan spoke as he crossed his arms.

“We were hoping you could shed some light on that,” Aaron said slyly, “There are rumors going around ya know…”

“Oh really?  Like what exactly?”

“Why don’t you tell us?”

There was silence for a few seconds as Aaron and Rogan stared at each other angrily.  Jay just stood off to the side with a worried expression on his face until Rogan then broke the silence, “I’m not saying a damn word so you better get to why you’re here and why Dagon wants to see me real quick because I’ve got places to be.”

“The only place you have to be is at Dagon’s so you can beg for your life!” Aaron angrily barked, his hands turning into fists as he shouted.

“I’ve never begged for anything from Dagon and I’m not about to start now,” Rogan sneered, “Just tell me what he wants, Aaron, or you can go back to Dagon and tell him to drag his dumbass vampire butt back here and tell me himself.”

“Gah!” Aaron grunted, throwing his arms up in the air angrily.  He kicked the ground in frustration before then staring back up at Rogan and saying, “You won’t have that stupid smug look on your face for long!  Dagon knows what you’ve done!  He’s heard about the human girl!  We all have!”

Rogan’s eyes widened slightly but he instantly covered his worry by shifting his stance a bit and said, “What exactly has he heard?”

“That you healed a human girl!  That you preformed the Vinculum and you’re hiding her!” Aaron snapped.

Rogan chuckled half-heartedly and answered, “Who the hell told him that?  You guys should know me better than to think I’d be involved with any human!”

“Some of his guys saw you!  They saw you last night at her house!  They saw you kill other vampires and then heal her!”

“They actually saw that?”

“Well…” Aaron now stuttered, “They definitely saw you kill the other vampires.”

“But they didn’t see me heal anyone did they?”

Aaron didn’t respond but instead mumbled some inaudible things under his breath and crossed his arms in frustration.

“Looks like you have a lot of evidence behind you,” Rogan responded sarcastically, “Call me again when you have better proof of anything.  Then maybe I’ll go talk to Dagon.  Until then, get off of my property.”

“So what if we don’t have proof you healed anyone? We have proof of you being with that human girl!  Lots of vampire’s saw you!  And Dagon’s still pretty angry at you for killing his guys!”  Aaron now snapped back.

“I didn’t kill any of his brood, Aaron, you know that.  I only killed the vampire goons that Dagon uses to do his stupid dirty work for him.”

“You killed Shane.”

Rogan stood silent for only a moment.  He narrowed his eyes down at Aaron before then saying, “Shane was a dumbass.”

“He was still part of the brood, Rogan.  And Dagon’s pissed. Because you killed Shane after he tried to kill that human girl everyone’s seen you with.  Don’t try to deny it.”

“Whatever.  I’m still not going to see him.  You can go back and tell him to come to me if he really wants to talk.  And next time he should have some more evidence against me other than ‘what some other vampires saw’.”

Aaron then let out a huge frustrated yell that made even Nora, who was inside, shake a bit.  “Fine!” he then screamed at Rogan, “Fine, you have it your way!  But when Dagon comes after you, you’ll be wishing otherwise!” He then turned around and started to walk off.  “Come on, Jay!” he quickly added.

Jay, who had been standing silently this whole time now spoke, “I’ll catch up to you in a minute, Aaron.”

Aaron stopped in his tracks for a second to turn back to look at Jay puzzlingly.  He then glanced at Rogan one more time before then scoffing, “Whatever,” and turning back around to leave.

Jay then proceeded to walk up to Rogan and stand right next to him. “Hey, man, I’m sorry about Aaron.”

“Don’t apologize for him.  He’s always been a dick,” Rogan responded.

Jay laughed slightly at this but then got serious as he spoke again, “Yeah well, he’s not wrong.  You don’t want to have Dagon mad at you.”

“I can take care of myself, Jay,” Rogan said.

“I know, I know, but…” Jay hesitated a second before going on, “But I’m worried about you.  As a friend.  And I want to know what’s really going on.  I’ve heard so many things and I need to know.  So can you talk to me?  Not as a vampire to Dagon’s brood member.  But friend to friend?”

Rogan sighed a bit and scratched the back of his neck, looking away from Jay.

“Come on,” Jay said, realizing Rogan wasn’t going to say anything, “Are you really hiding a human girl?”

“Look,” Rogan then spoke up looking at him, “I can’t tell you everything.  Not because you still work for Dagon, but because I don’t want you involved.  But if I’m going to tell you anything, you have to answer something for me first.”

“Sure, anything.”

“Tell me why most of the vampires that I’ve seen around me lately are all working for Dagon?”

“W-what do you mean by that?”

Rogan glanced to the side for a second before responding, “If I’m going to admit to being around a human girl, you have to tell me why all those vampires I’ve been fighting away from her just happen to be working for Dagon.”  Rogan looked directly into Jay’s eyes as he spoke the last sentence.

“I…” was all Jay could get out.

“Jay, I’m serious.  Don’t think I never noticed.  He’s done this to me before.  Tried to mess up everything in my life just because I won’t work for him anymore!  And now he’s after her, isn’t he?”

“I…” Jay stammered, still looking down.  He then looked up at Rogan who was