Vampire Civilization Ch. 04

"Eternity sucks when you don't have any friends," Salomon Clayborn said aloud, and the solitary vampire looked at the City of Accra, Ghana, from the promontory. Four million people called metropolitan Accra home prior to the nuclear war which engulfed North America, and the African city was largely unscathed. The United States of America and Canada had fallen, Europe was barely hanging on, and not much was known about the situation in Asia, but Africa was thriving.

While humans from the West reacted harshly to the revelation of vampires in their midst, Africans had always known that there were unnatural things disguised as ordinary people living among them. Salomon sometimes wished he'd been born in a different time, but what good is wishing anyways? Six feet two inches tall, dark-skinned, lean and athletic, Salomon was born on the island of Jamaica circa 1892. He became a vampire in 1925 and existence had been a thrill ride ever since.

Like all of the Undead, Salomon stopped aging upon becoming a vampire and would always look like a tall black man in his mid-thirties. Such are the blessings of seemingly eternal life. In the 128 years since he'd first seen the light of day, Salomon had journeyed the earth and seen much of the world. For a vampire, the world is a playground full of adventure. The nuclear war which nearly destroyed North America and pitted human against vampire could have been avoided, if cooler heads had prevailed on both sides.

Salomon had come to the City of Accra, Ghana, with one mission. He intended to kill the Elders. This wasn't an easy proposition, since the immortal female vampire triad, consisting of Lilac, Amore and Rama, was more than capable of dispatching with Salomon on his best day. The Elders are the queens of the vampire underworld. They'd been around since the time of the Pyramids. They'd been old when Julius Caesar and his Roman legions walked the earth. They'd seen empires rise and fall. The power of the Elders was redoubtable.

There are many vampire factions vying for power in North America, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and probably Asia and Oceania. With the humans rising against them, the Undead should unite but nope, they continued to look after their fiefdoms rather than mount a collective effort against the humans. Salomon knew that some vampires wanted to unite against the humans, and knew this wouldn't be possible during the current state of the affairs. The Elders were the problem.

In the human world, certain entities such as the Vatican, the CIA and the FBI, along with Interpol, are great gatherings of knowledge and power. The Elders fulfill that function for the vampire world. They have fabulous wealth, power and influence. They live in an underground city, with legions of blood suckers serving them. The Elders should direct the vampires to unite against humanity. The fact that the Elders were willing to let the vampire race go extinct pissed Salomon off royally. For this reason, the Elders had to be removed.

"What troubles you?" asked Tamara Amponsah, and Salomon looked at the young Ghanaian beauty and smiled, for she was something to behold. According to Ghanaian lore, there are women and men born with the ability to control supernatural forces, and such people are referred to as the Mistresses and Masters of the Sunsum, or witchcraft. Tall and curvy, with dark skin and long, neatly braided black hair, Tamara resembled Tennis icon Serena Williams, one of Salomon's favorite celebrities, back in the days before the nuclear fallout. One look into Tamara's eyes and Salomon knew that she was no ordinary mortal, and her beauty had nothing to do with it.

Vampires aren't the only unnatural creatures that walk the earth. There are demons, spirits, werewolves, and monsters of various lore and origin. Salomon was convinced that a lot of humans born with special abilities have at least some unnatural blood in their veins. Lots of monsters have had offspring with humans, and those half-human, half-monster entities tended to be extremely powerful, while looking perfectly human most of the time. A lot of vampires distrusted the half-breeds, and with good reason. Salomon found a kindred spirit in Tamara the witch.

"I've got the world on my shoulders," Salomon replied with a sigh, and Tamara pressed her curvy body against his while looking into the vampire's eyes. A proud son of Jamaica, and an experienced vampire warrior, Salomon is a serious player in the post apocalyptic world. The Jamaican vampire wants to see the vampire community and the other supernatural creatures unite against the humans. The planet earth is ripe for the taking. Of course, the various breeds of unnatural, human-like monsters have never seen the big picture and they've never united against their common foes.

Salomon feared that the day would come when the human legions would exterminate the vampires, and then the others would be next. Why couldn't anyone else see his damned logic? Tamara gently laid her hand against Salomon's forehead, and the vampire tensed, sensing the witch's attempt at entering his mind. Salomon briefly resisted but Tamara pressed on. Even by Sunsum ( witch ) standards, Tamara was powerful.

"Salomon, I believe in you, but you must stop with the doubt and the fear," Tamara said, only he heard her voice in his mind rather than in his ears. Salomon blinked, and Tamara smiled, removing her hand from his forehead, but not necessarily breaking her telepathic link with him. Across the nation of Ghana, and much of West Africa, women and men with Sunsum powers were feared and admired at the same time. They could read minds, or move objects with their minds. They could induce a heart attack, or heal grievous injuries with a simple touch. Salomon respected Tamara's powers. The lovely Ghanaian gal wasn't just a good friend and lover, she was also one of Salomon's greatest allies. Thanks to Tamara, Salomon finally had a chance to achieve his almighty objective. While Americans, Canadians and Europeans are at war with the Undead, in Africa, things continue on as before.

The vampires of Africa have no desire to subjugate the human populations that have protected and respected them for eons. Everyone in the City of Accra, Ghana, knows that the ancient female vampires known as the Elders reside in an underground complex below the Capital, and no one disturbs them. In Africa, balance is everything. Humans don't hunt monsters, and monsters don't threaten human supremacy over the mundane world. It's an ancient truce that has existed for eons.

"Tamara, if I don't do this, the vampires will never unite against the humans in America, Canada and Europe, and my species is doomed," Salomon said, and Tamara nodded. She showed him something on her cell phone, and the Jamaican vampire smiled. Tamara had gone to places like Nigeria, and South Africa, and gathered many powerful explosives. She'd given Salomon enough explosives to destroy the underground lair housing the Elders.

If Salomon's plan was successful, he would destroy the Elders and proclaim himself the King of the Vampires. As lord of the vampires, Salomon Clayborn would unite every vampire on the planet earth against the humans and lead them to total domination of the entire globe. Salomon intended the supernatural entities of the world to rule the humans openly. In a world where monsters rule and humans serve, vampires would be first among equals, and Salomon Clayborn would be their king for all eternity...

"You will be king, my love," Tamara said, and Salomon nodded, steeling himself for what was to come. The two lovers headed home and made passionate love. The following night, Salomon, Tamara and their acolytes descended upon the underground city housing the three female vampire Elders. Rama, Amore and Lilac were in for a surprise. Salomon and Tamara had enough explosives to destroy the vampire Elders lair several times over.

When the co-conspirators got there, however, they experienced a nasty surprise. The three female vampire Elders were gone, as were their mounds of gold, diamond and other buried treasure. The small army of vampires that served the Elders was also gone. Tamara and Salomon looked around, wondering what was going on. A feeling of icy dread crept into Salomon's chest, and this unnerving since the Jamaican vampire hadn't experienced a heartbeat or drawn breath in over a century. What the fuck was going on?

"The Elders are gone but they sent you a message," came a voice, and Salomon and Tamara and their acolytes gasped as a figure emerged from the darkness. A tall, attractive and curvaceous woman with dark bronze skin, long dark hair and chestnut eyes faced the co-conspirators. The lady was not a vampire, this much Salomon could tell. He and Tamara exchanged a look of puzzlement as they confronted the new arrival.

There were Arabs and Europeans living in the City of Accra, Ghana, since many had been in the region around the time of the nuclear war. Since the Elders had their tentacles into everything, Salomon and Tamara weren't surprised to see a foreign woman in their employ. Still, there was something disturbing about the lovely Arab lady with the scary smile. She stood there, looking at the gathered co-conspirators without an ounce of fear.

"What is your message, bitch?" Salomon demanded, and the Jamaican vampire walked up to the Arab woman, who continued to smile. Tamara looked at Salomon as he approached the woman, who smiled at him. The Ghanaian witch tensed, sensing something awful was coming. Without a word, Tamara ran out of the cavern, leaving Salomon and their companions to deal with the crazy Arab lady. Salomon bared his fangs, ready to tear the Arab lady limb from limb. He would make the bitch tell him where the vampire Elders had gone, and then he would drink her blood.

The Arab lady smiled, and then disrobed, revealing a sinfully sexy body...and much more. Fright washed over Salomon, who recoiled and shouted a warning to his acolytes. Moments later, an explosion caused the entire complex to fall upon Salomon and his acolytes. Tamara the witch ran as fast as she could and was close to reaching the surface when the place went boom. The Ghanaian witch used her telekinetic powers to create a force field around herself as the entire world seemingly went Ka-Boom. In the midst of it all, Tamara lost consciousness. When the Ghanaian witch regained consciousness, she was in a different chamber, and there were three people in there with her. Well, they weren't people, but whatever. Rama, Amore and Lilac, the female vampire Elders looked at the witch whom their servants had brought before them in their new, top secret lair.

"Let us feed on the blood of a traitorous witch," Rama said to her sisters, and Lilac laughed while Amore grinned ferally. The three female vampire Elders, each one many thousands of years old, descended upon Tamara Amponsah. The Ghanaian witch tried to fight, but she was too weak after the ordeal she'd endured inside the underground complex. She also sustained injuries during the explosion, since her telekinetic powers only went so far. Rama grabbed Tamara and held her while Lilac bit into her neck, and Amore bit into her inner thigh. The three ancient female vampires fed upon the witch, and found her blood to be magically delicious, pun intended.

Sated after their sumptuous meal, the three ancient female vampires returned to their quarters, and began to plot their revenge against those who sought to destroy them. Salomon Clayborn the Jamaican vampire was dead, but he hadn't acted alone. The Elders vowed to destroy the traitors, and seize direct control of the vampire race. There's only so much insolence that these powerful vampires will tolerate on the part of upstarts with delusions of grandeur. Those who attack the triad of queens had better not miss, lest they pay the dire consequences...