City of Light & Steam Read online

  Yes, the sick had been named vampires, but they were a far cry from the devils of horror stories. They were humans who had been forced to do the unthinkable to survive – to file their teeth to sharp fangs and to hunt in the night.

  “It was not always this way,” he muttered aloud.

  “Sire?”

  “Nothing, Tempest. Rest your pretty head.”

  Closing his eyes, Silas waited for the dreams to come. Yet, only the one thought did.

  It was not always this way.

  In the beginning, the first solar cycle really, the uninfected had lined up to donate their lifeblood to the sick. Soon, the sick began to dominate the healthy. Knowledge of how it spread was unknown, and the sick grew in number more rapidly than could be contained. It was an infected who told the world leaders it was in the air. It was one of his own who helped the powers of the world create safe spaces to escape the toxin.

  Once the healthy realized they were putting their lives at risk with every blood donation they gave, they grew selfish. They started locking themselves inside metal rooms. Healthy people came out only in the day, when the heat from the sun was like fire on the sick’s weakened skin. Silas and his kind became feral, like the animals that slept on the street. Soon those ill needed to take the blood when and how they could. Silas could scarcely remember the moment the ill became anything other than the helpless victims they began as. They had revolted.

  We are so much more. We must take back our lives. Forget the shadows. We’ll move inward . . . to the city.

  ***

  The first rays of pink sunlight filtered across his face, and Benjamin flinched at the sudden brightness. A hazy fog lingered as he opened his eyes. A sort of daze only an overworked brain could be taxed with. Most of the night was lost to his memory, save for a few breaks to the loo, and for nourishment.

  Nothing had worked. The damned bulb still did nothing more than illuminate the chamber.

  He had swapped from his stool to an impressive chair to give his back support after his second trip the loo, but his body was angry with him, anyway. Leaning back in the chair made his back crack from the tension of being hunched over for so many hours. With a yawn, Benjamin pulled the magnifiers from his face and focused on adjusting his neck to rid it of pain as well.

  “Not surprising. You’re more than a few years past ten and thirty. Of course, your body can’t handle sitting upright for over half a day.” Groaning, he reached down to his toes and nearly purred with pleasure in response to the tug on his muscles.

  There was just enough time to relieve himself before Stella showed up. Rising from the chair, he stretched to the ceiling, just for good measure. Benjamin’s evening had been a waste of time and energy, and he began to believe he might need the help he didn’t wish to ask for – the support no one in his guild ever acknowledged, but always sought after.

  “Stella!” He nearly yelped as he crashed into his sister just as he stepped out of the chamber.

  Her amusement was loud and echoed off the metal walls of the guild hallway. “Truly, brother, I told you I’d be back near dawn.” She lifted a finger and pointed to the window in his work chamber, “You see, I’m even a few minutes late.”

  “Time for a run to the loo?”

  His sister deigned to roll her eyes. “No. I have to be back here for a meeting at a quarter past eleven and I need to wash clean.” Her tone indicated it wasn’t another frolic with the woman from the evening.

  “Bloody hell, Stella.”

  “Not my problem you won’t let me leave alone.”

  He suppressed a low growl. Since Christopher had met his end, he hadn’t let his sister out of his sight if it was close to when the beasts claimed the streets. There was no point in arguing, she’d simply continue to point out that if he worked more like an average inventor, he would have taken a break before.

  Fucking sisters.

  “Mornin’, Abbotts.” Jonathan Turner called with a wave as they passed by him as they entered the lift. The senior cook was unusually early.

  “Someone special is coming, aren’t they?” Benjamin pinned a stare on his sister and leaned against the railing to stabilize himself as the lift dropped to the main floor.

  “An investor.” She didn’t elaborate. Business Stella was quite a different marvel than playful Stella, and he’d learned long ago not to tamper with her when she was tight-lipped.

  “After you,” ushering Stella out of the lift, he gave a polite salute to a group of apprentices huddled waiting to get on, rather than trudge up the flights of stairs.

  The lift was at the back end of the guild, deliberately. Its location would allow them some means of escape if vampires ever found their way in, and it gave them a suitable time to fasten on the appropriate gear. The components in the air that caused the necrotizing disease still lingered requiring the safety even during an escape, and Benjamin wasn’t certain there would ever be a day when they weren’t found in the air.

  Without speaking, he and his sister donned their goggles. The rose-tinted lenses were meant to block out the rays of the sun and the blast of steam, as opposed to his clear, magnifying ones for work matters. Just before the airlock, they grabbed their mouthpieces from the prospective cubbies and fastened them over their mouths as well.

  “All set then?” Stella’s hand hovered over the button to the secondary door – the exit.

  The Electric Guild, as well as many other buildings in the city – in the world – had an exit and an entrance. There was no way to safely lock out the toxin if people were continually coming and going. The system allowed everyone to function safely.

  A process we have thanks only to the Steam Guild. He mused before a nod to his sister. The guilds no longer mingled, but some inventions had only been created when the most brilliant minds worked together. Without the steam to propel the hydraulics outside a building, the electric starter on the inner door was useless. Of course, in time, the Electric Guild had elevated the design, but without the collaboration, the system would not have been invented at all.

  On a swoosh, the door opened, beckoning them inside with false bright yellow walls and a picture of his family on the other door. The first door shut just as noisily behind the pair, and the sixty-second timer appeared on the wall.

  “Do you still remember when this wasn’t necessary? When we could open a door without pause, crack open a window, or feel the sun on our face? Our entire face?” His sister had been young when the world changed, and he honestly prayed she had some memory of better days.

  “I have a distant memory of it, yes. I, like so many others, hope for a day when we can return to that. The alchemists have been hard at work for so many years without a cure, and it is unlikely we will ever see that day.” The wistfulness in her words was not common.

  “I will make my invention work. We will start there.”

  The creatures humanity christened as vampires after the legend they were similar too were not created by a bite. Only exposure to the toxin that created the disease could create the genetic mutation that lead to death, or something much worse. Vampires could not multiply or turn another creature – human or animal. So, if his invention would finally work, they could begin to rid the world of at least one of its problems.

  The chime of the timer stopped Benjamin before he could continue the conversation, and the outer door slid open, revealing a brilliant pink sky as it slowly shifted to a warm orange glow. Benjamin hadn’t expected a steammobile to be waiting as they exited.

  “You weren’t jesting about needing to make haste home.”

  Stella tossed him a grin over her shoulder and moved quickly toward the awaiting transport without a word.

  He was still amazed the Steam Guild had given humanity perhaps the most vital tool in their war against the disease and the vampires, a speedy means of transportation. Opening the metal door for Stella, he allowed her to close it before walking ‘round to the other side and entered to take the seat beside her. Not all
could afford the luxury of a steammobile, let alone a driver, but the Abbott’s weren’t just anybody.

  “To the Abbott Estate, please.” A yawn escaped his sister, and he smirked. She was going to have a very long day ahead of her. “Benjamin, I’m going to take a small nap. Do not play any mischief on me.”

  Chuckling, he nodded. “I swear I will not harm you or seek to trick you for my amusement.” Patting her hand, Benjamin leaned back in the seat as the vehicle began to move. A cloud of steam grew visible as he glanced out the window. “Leave your goggles on so you will not have to put them back on once more to exit.”

  Another yawn was all the response he got before she closed her eyes.

  Stella and all the other little sisters and brothers deserve a safe world. Their children deserve a safe world, as will their children’s children. His hand clenched, his knuckles turning white as anger at his previous failure weighed heavily upon him. Turning his stare out the window, he hoped to let the sleepy motions of morning in the city distract him as they often did after a long and treacherous day.

  They’d barely traveled one street over when the carriage came to a jolted stop.

  “Sir, we must stop.” The driver’s voice, an unknown servant, came through the communication window between the chauffeur's cabin and his. There was no mistaking the twinge of fear in the servant’s words.

  Benjamin went ramrod straight. It was not possible they would need to appear abandoned to avoid a vampire attack, the sun was too high in the sky. “Why?”

  Silence met his question.

  “Excuse me, I have asked you a question.”

  Again silence, though Benjamin heard a noise outside the transport. He didn’t think, merely sprung the door open and leaped out, thankful he’d made Stella leave her eye gear on.

  There was nothing on the side of the mobile, but just ahead he saw why they had stopped. His stomach rolled as he took in the damage from a vampire attack far too close to his guild.

  An image of Christopher slammed into his mind – his throat slashed open and not a drop of blood to be found save for the few splatter marks on his cravat. Of his cousin’s frozen blue-eyed stare, and the terror etched in his eyes. It had been a horrid death, and Benjamin’s stomach lurched, knowing others had suffered it as well.

  The victims held money. He knew as much from the body count on the ground and the seemingly new steammobile – one he’d never seen previously. Whether they’d dared to be out too close to dawn or had been foolish enough to travel in the night was uncertain. Four bodies lay on the ground, three with no signs of life and no blood around them. Six piles of ash lay, indicating the sun’s rays disintegrated the diseased. Their sensitive skin and bone had burned away, but he knew the piles of dust meant they’d not escaped.

  “But were they dead before, or was this one of the fresh attacks we’ve had reported?”

  Two overturned sections revealed the victims rode in a transport similar to his. A fifth body, a man who had apparently fought to the end, lay sprawled out on top of a luxurious velvet seat, which was crimson thanks to his blood soaking the seat.

  “Someone or something stopped the monsters before they finished their work.” He looked back out at the piles of ash. “Dead before the sunrise then.”

  “This one! She is still alive.” The driver called, bending over the body furthest away from a group of three men. Men who had been guards before their death if the guns by their sides were any indication.

  Without hesitation, Benjamin raced over and nearly tripped over the person’s feet. Looking closer, he saw a woman, scarcely older than Stella, lying in a pool of blood. Blood had long since stopped seeping from her neck into the cracks of the stony street – and the wound appeared to have coagulated as well. Dried blood splattered across her white shirt and tan breeches – odd attire for one riding in such an expensive mobile. He let the thought go as he continued to assess the woman, trying to see any sign of life. Bruises marred her arms, and goggles had been ripped from her face, thankfully, her mask remained on, ensuring she was safe from harm if she somehow survived.

  “She has a pulse, then?”

  The driver looked up, his skin barely visible under the mask, but fear and concern in the depths of his eyes.

  “Yes. Feel for yourself.”

  “There is entirely no need for that.” Scooting the man over merely by getting closer, Benjamin scooped the young lady up in his arms. A small, weak groan escaped her, almost inaudible from the cover of the mask. “Take my sister home. I must get this one to the guild.”

  “Sir, you will make better time in the transport.”

  “Yes, and my sister will kill me for daring to make her late.” He stood, noticing how light the woman was despite her curvy form. “Go!”

  As he barked the command, he began to jog, still cradling the woman against his body as he did. Benjamin’s footfalls felt as if they dented the rocky street he ran on, not from weight but from speed.

  The city came life around him, and soon, the streets would fill with steammobiles and get in his way, get in the way of saving the young woman in his arms.

  I’ve never been so bloody thankful to be near the guild.

  Turning the corner, the woman in his arms stirred as if slowly waking.

  Please not now, lord only knows what she will think if she awakes in a strange man’s arms after being attacked.

  The Electric Guild loomed up ahead, and he forced himself to move faster.

  The air in Benjamin’s lungs seemed to vanish, and he started to notice the burn of oxygen loss as he ran. The masks were not meant for rapid breathing, and they could not filter out the toxin quickly enough.

  Do. Not. Slow. Down.

  Meters from the door, he shouted at the group of workers waiting to get in.

  “Vampire attack. Get out of the way.”

  He only could see the expression on one of the women’s faces, but he knew the shock and terror were present on each person.

  Slamming his knee into the button, he swayed to and fro while waiting for it to open. Finally, the door did, with agonizing slowness as his oxygen grew low. He’d overpowered the mask, and the door had not yet closed to begin the purification timer. He had to hold his breath or suffer a fate worse than death.

  You have to risk it. God, forgive me.

  When the outer door closed, he once again used his knee to trigger a door, the emergency button overrode the timer, and he prayed anyone near the entrance was smart enough to have their masks on. The heavy door slammed viciously shut behind him, locking all the workers outside for the time being.

  Sirens blared, as was protocol for when the override engaged. Thankfully, no one created a scene. All guild members were trained to leave the doorway should the sirens begin, and they did.

  Sweat dripped down Benjamin’s right cheek as the need for air compelled him to rip his mask off. With it, came a rush of sweet oxygen, but he barely allowed himself to take in two breaths before racing toward the lift.

  “Everything is fine outside,” he gasped, forcing himself to slow his breathing as he stepped onto the second lift. Speaking to a guard before they could ask a question, he forced himself to breathe easily. “This woman needs Martin – quickly – and I was running out of air. I’ll make amends later. There is a life to save this moment.”

  No one said anything, which was so very different. Benjamin was not his cousin. People did not fear him, they conversed with him.

  “Yes, understood. I will make the announcement through the speaker so the panic ceases, and no one alerts the guard or Scotland Yard.” The man pushed the button for the fifth floor – restorative.

  Benjamin had no idea who the man who spoke was but nodded just the same.

  When the door slid open, he rushed out. “Martin! Martin, I need blood. This woman was attacked and somehow survived. I need a transfusion!” Benjamin bellowed as he ran once more with the still unconscious woman in his arms.

  “Ben! Here!” Martin
Abbott, the guild’s head physician, poked his head out of a chamber three doors ahead of Benjamin on the left and then disappeared back in.

  By the time Benjamin entered the room, his uncle had already grabbed a bag of blood and worked to insert the needle. The device, powered solely by electricity, had been the first invention in eighteen forty-eight after the two Great Guilds had ceased to work as a team. The machine had been created with the same secret that destroyed the peace between the guilds, but it hadn’t mattered. All that mattered was that the device could save lives.

  As gently as he could, Benajmin lay the woman down, still not knowing if she had woken at any point. Her eyes remained closed now, and if not for the rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought she perished.

  “Benjamin, assistance.” Martin wasn’t asking. He thrust the needle into his nephew’s hand.

  Benjamin froze, unsure of what his physician uncle expected his scientist hands to be capable of doing. “I’ve never done this.”

  His uncle continued scrubbing his arms, not even looking over at Benjamin once. “Look down at the woman. You’ll figure it out. Take off her mask as well.”

  Swallowing, he let his gaze shift to the victim lying prone on the table. She wasn’t nearly as small as he’s thought. In fact, she appeared to be approximately his height and had childbearing hips that gave away her age. She’s going to die if you keep looking at her and don’t figure the blasted needle placement out.

  Pushing out a breath, he did what he knew he couldn’t blunder up, removed the mask. He extended her arm and looked at the juncture, at her elbow. Without thinking, he ran a finger over the ghostly pale skin. He was not a warrior, he was not a medical practitioner, and he had never been in charge of saving even a single life in his thirty and two years. “How do I find a vein in a woman who’s lost so much blood?”