The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter II
“How long will it be before we get into the city?” She asked the driver that she had seduced into taking her to the megacity.
“I love you,” he sighed.
“How long?” Annoyed, she asked again.
“About thirty minutes,” he replied with love-struck eyes.
“Good,” May said quietly, fingering her fangs as hunger set in again. “Once we get into the city, could you stop at a clothing store?”
“Anything for you, my love,” the driver replied, romantic love in his eyes over hypnotized vision.
*Why did I have to pick a romantic?* she asked herself while looking at her face in the mirror. Since she had fed last, her face had filled back out; she would be able to make a good impression when she got to the dinner.
Part IX: Cold Heat
The aristocracy were teeming at the dinner, along with the affluent and the famous in the city’s privileged class. Clayden mingled blindly with all his new admirers—kissing his ass, browning their noses. Thank-you’s and high praise floated easily from the mouths of all he met.
Offers of money for product endorsements abounded from the business oligarchy, book deals from literary gatekeepers, acting offers—a plethora of opportunities were thrown in his face. He just smiled and listened, nodded and smiled, but he could not take anything lightly. The weight that had been put upon his shoulders, his judgment, and his actions weighed heavily on his psyche—almost to the point that he wanted to laugh uncontrollably, take his clothes off, and dance around naked, taking a long “fuck off” piss in the champagne fountain.
It was simply too much to handle, but he held himself back from fleeing because it was his duty. Lord Seth walked up to Clayden, shaking hands and mingling on the way there.
“How are you feeling?” Seth asked Clayden.
“Overwhelmed,” he replied, scanning his surroundings, looking for a corner to hide in until the dinner. He was getting hungry because he had lost his appetite at lunch.
“Clayden, look that way.” Seth pointed behind Clayden. He turned himself around. “Do you see the woman in the dark red dress?”
The dress flowed down past her knees, exposing the sight of her long, slender pale legs. Clayden scanned farther up to her small, full chest, and finally to her ghostly white face. Dark eyebrows and lashes highlighted her deep blue, cat-like eyes staring back into his. Her mouth, abnormally large and filled with striking white teeth, smiled back at him. Black hair flowed down her back, snaking around her waist in a thick braid, undulating when she motioned slightly.
“Yes,” Clayden replied without emotion.
“She’s going to help you,” Seth paused. “She promised me she wouldn’t suck all the blood from your body,” Seth laughed.
“Thanks for the assurance, but with her looks I may just want to give her my blood,” Clayden replied sarcastically, while laughing mildly into his drink. Seth laughed with him.
“Isn’t she talking to the Matriarch?”
“I believe she is,” Seth laughed. “I wonder if she suspects?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, as you know, the second most powerful person in the city is the Matriarch. She’s just waiting for the chance to take control of the city from me.”
“And how would she do that?” Clayden inquired.
“If she could coerce the people into believing that I was a heretic—that my battle with Necrem turned me into one of his minions, therefore proving me an enemy of the humanity, giving her Inquisition dominion to pass its judgment on me,” Seth finished with annoyed interest, sipping his drink.
“Well, are you a minion then?” Clayden inquired with a smirk on his face.
Seth slapped him on the back, laughing heartily as they made their way toward the Matriarch and the vampire.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet the man who spearheaded the victorious assault on the Titan,” Josephine, the Grand Matriarch, congratulated Clayden as they shook hands.
“Thank you, but it was really my friend Carter,” Clayden paused under the cold eyes of the Matriarch and the seductive glance of the vampire. “He gave his life. I recognize him as a hero also and hold his sacrifice in highest regard.”
“Gentlemen, I would like you to meet my new friend,” the Matriarch held out the vampires hand to Lord Seth, and he kissed it gently. “May, this is the famous Lord Seth.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” she smiled. “In my city, your accomplishments are legendary.”
“And this is Commander Clayden of the Hyperion, the destroyer of Titans,” the Matriarch’s sarcastically placed flattery dissolved sourly on Clayden, as he took May’s hand and kissed it gently while she smiled upon him, each silently contemplating their hidden agenda, their secret.
“May, I say that your beauty humbles me.”
“You may. And you, Mr. Clayden, I’m sure you will become a legend in your own right,” May responded with heavy praise, eyes deeply piercing, but unsettling.
“As I was explaining to the lady earlier, the Inquisition is more than about purging the world of those vile creatures that taint the human race, whose existence is an obscenity against nature,” Josephine paused, holding her graying hair braided with gold and gems, and hardening her glance on Lord Seth.
“The Inquisition is also about bringing the sisterhood of humanity together to have faith in our continuing purity. Strength lies in purity, in purity lies power, and that power shall rid the Earth of the Titans, vanish the immortals back into a realm where they shall never return to bother us again, and destroy the monsters that plague humanity.”
The crowd had hushed to a near silence. The Grand Matriarch seized this opportunity, being a keen politician, and thrust up her arm.
“Because they are the ones who keep us in fear of the night! To purge them means to destroy our fear, and once we’ve conquered fear, our enemies shall quake beneath our onslaught!” The crowd roared, clapped, and screamed, cheering the Matriarch’s speech.
“Dinner will be served in five minutes,” the intercom struggled to get over the frenzied noise. “Please take your seats.”
“Tonight, after the dinner, you will go with May. You will begin your quest at once,” Lord Seth said to Clayden during the frenzied cheer of the crowds between speeches of the aristocrats and heroes of the last battle. “I don’t know how much time is left. You must find the Warmaster as quickly as you can.”
“I’ll try my best,” he assured Seth.
“NO, you have no choice; you must, or all you know shall vanish. But be careful; Josephine has spies everywhere. Watch every step you make from now on—trust no one. If the Matriarch finds out that I have dealings with the vampires, she will use it to destroy me and take control of the city,” Seth contemplated, pausing for a moment. “If she gets control of the city, all is lost.”
“What would happen?”
“I’m not too sure; I could not see that far,” he said, smiling and toasting the camera that was now pointed at him. “But I know she is a human and female supremacist and sadist. The population is fooled by her outward appearance, but they have not seen the underground and the crimes she commits against sanity,” Seth finished, clearly disturbed. “She has become the great devourer.”
As the dinner ended, the lights lowered, and the hypnotic rhythm of the small orchestra pervaded the large hall. Clayden spotted May walking toward a champagne table as his heart filled with desire. He pushed his way to her, praise following him while making his way to her.
“Would the lady grace me with a dance?” he asked cordially, extending his arm.
“I’d be delighted,” she responded, sizing up Clayden’s blood with an iron glance.
They gracefully swayed on the dance floor, lost in the fray of dancers.
“Are you afraid of me?” she asked.
“Yes, but you are also afraid of me,” he whispered back to her.
She laughed. “I could break your neck right now. The only reason I do not is because I am honor-bound to Seth.”
“I am aware of this, but be warned: our journey will be treacherous—more for you than I,” the commander told her seriously, disquieting May and creating an unsettling feeling in her veins.
“How so?” she inquired.
“I do not know,” he replied, unnerved, newly awakened to a force within him.
As they danced, Clayden could feel her cold skin, devoid of any warmth, but noticed the fire in her eyes, and this warmed him. Although she sucked the life-force out of the living, she was not evil.
Written ~ 1997. © Jacob A. Pickard 2025. All rights reserved. This work is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, republished, excerpted, or used for academic, commercial, or derivative purposes without written permission.
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