Read Online Adrift 3: Rising (Adrift Series) by K.R. Griffiths - Free Book Online Page B

Herb saw the answer clearly. It was written plainly across Dan’s face.
    Dan remained silent, and stayed that way for what felt like an eternity.
    “I saw the river aboard the Oceanus, the first time one of the vampires tried to break into my mind. I saw it again in London, but it was different. When I was in the vampire’s head…” Dan’s voice thickened. He swallowed audibly. “When I was in the vampire’s head, I think it saw the river, too, not just me. I think the river was speaking to it. Not controlling it exactly, but...I don’t know.” he shrugged. “I think the river is real. I think it is…how they communicate.”
    He shook his head again, slowly.
    “No, that’s not it. It’s more like something that is communicating with them. With all of them.”
    Herb frowned.
    “I don’t understand.”
    Dan snorted a humourless laugh.
    “That makes two of us. It’s hard to explain.” He paused, heaving a deep sigh, as though searching for the right words. “You know how ant nests operate?”
    Herb’s frown deepened.
    “I saw a show about it once,” Dan said, becoming more animated. “The ants have a queen, right? Each nest has a queen. And all the ants, all the soldiers and workers and flying ants, all the different types, they all operate in perfect harmony, because they are all directed by her. They work together, but it is the queen that lays down the rules, the queen who controls the whole nest. She is connected to all the other ants, and all her little footsoldiers are like one huge organism. I think the vampires work the same way. They are like insects. The ones we see are the soldiers, but something out there is commanding them. Organising them.”
    “So…each nest of vampires has a queen?”
    Dan grunted.
    “I think all the nests have one queen. I think the whole world is one nest. All the vampires, all over the planet, they are all in thrall to this one entity. They all swim in the black river. It is the river that directs them, that gives them purpose. The river that organises them; tells them when to wake, when to breed, when to attack.”
    “A river ,” Herb repeated dubiously. The tale Dan was spinning was incredible, and difficult to believe, but it was abundantly clear that Dan believed it. As far as Herb knew, there was nothing in the history of the Order that suggested the existence of a vampire ruler, but that proved nothing. Virtually everything the Order believed had already turned out to be a lie, or poor guesswork.
    Could this really be true?
    Dan chuckled darkly.
    “I’m sure it’s not a river. That’s just what I see it as. Maybe that is how my mind makes sense of it, I don’t know. I think what I see as the river is the voice of their…leader, their queen, whatever you want to call it. Their god. When it speaks, I can hear it, just like they can.”
    “And can you understand it? What it is saying?”
    “No. When I see the river, the only thing I understand is that it is terrifying. Beyond my comprehension.” Dan shuddered visibly. “I don’t think the human mind is designed to understand it. But I think if we can kill it, we can affect all the vampires, maybe every single one.”
    “Affect how?” Herb said.
    Dan shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I’m making leaps in the dark here.”
    Herb snorted. “Yeah, that sounds familiar. Seems like my whole life has been one long leap in the dark, so why change now?”
    He grinned, but the humour was forced. Dan believed what he was saying, but Dan had also just got through telling them that he had spent years in therapy. That he suffered from brain damage. He used words like post-traumatic stress and insanity.
    “Let’s say this is true,” Herb said. “I guess if there is something that connects them all, it stands to reason that taking out that connection would harm them. But would it stop them? Kill them? That all sounds like movie-logic to me,” Herb’s expression was dubious, “if any of it is even