Is Leyla more dangerous than the sinister activist, Goderich Mann? When Karl and Charlotte undertake an exotic, perilous journey to rescue Emil, they unearth secrets that threaten disaster for vampire kind.
Karl chose Prague as his hunting ground tonight, travelling there swiftly through the Crystal Ring. On most nights, he journeyed far from the house he shared with Charlotte, a chalet high in the Bernese Oberland. Feed too close to home, and rumours would begin.
Not that they’d always resisted temptation.
He loved Prague’s beautiful old buildings with their red roofs and majestic pastel walls, all the elaborate churches. He liked to walk slowly among the night crowds, his mind gradually emptying of all thoughts as his blood-thirst grew.
A group of smartly dressed men and women gathered in the doorway of a hotel, apparently heading out for supper. As Karl approached, one woman caught his gaze and froze, her dark eyes shining. Her attention stayed locked on him as he passed as if her companions had vanished.
She might see a handsome face in shadow beneath the brim of his hat, some kind of tantalising promise in his eyes. That was a vampire’s deceptive allure. Instant, heart-stopping desire for a stranger: he’d seen the reaction so often that it made his heart sink a little.
Now he only had to stop and smile to have his victim for the night. The man at her side might be her husband, but she’d still find a way to escape: anything to be with the dark-haired stranger whose face made her forget to breathe or blink.
Eventually she did blink, languidly, like a cat.
Karl turned and hurried away through the crowd.
Every vampire had their own way of hunting. In the past, Karl had been tormented by his conscience, but he’d never let it rule him. Thirst conquered guilt every time. Unlike some, he wasn’t inclined to seduce and torment his victims first. He aimed to feed with as little distress to his prey as possible.
He did not always succeed.
He was still a vampire, after all. When the need arose, he could be as soft, emotionless and lethally cold as snow.
In a back street, he saw the silhouette of a young man bent over the engine of a very old motor car. The scent of oil and fuel and sweat twined around Karl as he approached. He seized the man from behind, fed swiftly— Outside time as blood filled him with delicious crimson flames…
Then he laid the man gently down onto the cobblestones, hoping he would not die, and that his nightmares would not be unbearable. Quick and soundless, Karl walked away without once looking at his face.
“You might have offered to mend his car first,” said a familiar male voice from the shadows.
Karl halted as Pierre and Ilona stepped out in front of him, two fashionably dressed dark figures against blackness, outlined by splinters of light from nearby windows. They were arm in arm: Pierre, his wayward friend who’d rarely been anything but trouble, and Ilona, Karl’s daughter.
For years, she’d rejected Karl in angry punishment for the terrible wrong he’d done her: transforming her without her consent, simply because he couldn’t bear to see her grow old and die. That was a mistake he would never make again.
With Charlotte, he’d made very sure she was aware in advance of the dangers and horrors of immortality, as well as the pleasures.
Lately, Karl and Ilona had reached a truce, almost full reconciliation. Almost. Seeing them, he felt resigned joy mixed with the sadness of all their past conflicts. They exchanged greetings: a light kiss on the cheek for Pierre, two kisses and an embrace for his daughter.
“What a pleasant coincidence,” Karl said softly. “What brings you here?”
Pierre shrugged. “We all have to be somewhere, my friend. And Prague’s one of our favourite cities, as it is yours, so not a very great coincidence.”
“You would have to be on the other side of the world for me not to sense your presence, beloved Father,” Ilona said with a cool smile.
“Walk with me,” said Karl, glancing back.
“Ah, you still like to leave the crime scene as swiftly as possible,” said Pierre, rather too loudly for Karl’s liking.
“No crime scene, I hope,” Karl replied. “Merely a young man who wonders why he passed out. He should have nothing worse than a few days of fever.”
“With delicious fever-dreams about you, I hope,” said Pierre.
The three of them strolled through Wenceslas Square. Rain sifted down, sparkling against the grand ornate buildings. “How is Charlotte, my beloved Ophelia?” Pierre asked.
“Still happier not to be called Ophelia.”
Pierre grinned. “Hard luck. If I wish to give her a romantic nickname, I will, especially if it annoys her. Is she well?”
“Very well,” said Karl. “We are both alarmingly content and happy.”
“That’s heart-warming,” said Ilona. “And Violette?”
“We’ve not seen much of her lately. She’s busy with her ballet academy in Lucerne, and touring again. She throws herself into work rather than brood, but Charlotte and I prefer a quiet life, at least for the time being. Why do you ask? If you are bored and planning mischief, please keep well away from us.” Karl spoke with polite menace.
“So suspicious!” Pierre rolled his eyes.
“We might be looking for mischief,” said Ilona, “but not here. We thought of trying Russia for a while, just to see how the revolution is progressing.”
She gave a sweetly demonic smile.
“And if that’s no fun, there is China… India…”
“I don’t much care where we go, as long as there’s mindless amusement to be had, and a rich supply of human blood.”
“So we found you to say auf Wiedersehen, Father,” said Ilona. “It’s only for a year or so, I expect. But if you can’t find us – assuming you might ever wish to find us – you’ll know why.”
Karl took his daughter’s arm and drew her aside. He wasn’t particularly shocked by her news, but he was surprised – considering how much trouble Pierre and Ilona had caused in their time – to realise he would miss them.
“Ilona?” he said gently. “All I can say is that I wish you a pleasant journey and a swift return.”
“Swift return? I thought you’d be glad to have us out of your hair, dear Karl.”
“Only because…”
“We cause you so much grief and disruption?”
“Well, I can’t deny that, but I think we’ve all grown up since Violette came among us. We’ve no need to fight among ourselves anymore.”
“True. And I do love you, Father,” she murmured. “But all of this new-found wisdom and solidarity among vampires will not stop me having fun. What? Why are you frowning at me?”
“I’m not, but…” Karl glanced at Pierre, who was gazing into the air and waiting with an exaggerated show of patience. “Am I imagining this, or are the two of you going as a couple?”
Ilona laughed. “Oh, did I forget to tell you? The wedding invitation is in the post! Will you give me away, Father?”
“Very amusing. You and Pierre don’t even like each other.”
“Nonsense.” She gave an insouciant lift of her eyebrows. “I can bear him for… minutes at a time. Longer, if he’s busy pleasing me. He’s handsome enough, and surprisingly attentive…”
“Spare me the details,” Karl interrupted drily. He knew that Ilona and Pierre were casual lovers, but preferred to put the thought out of his mind.
“Father, he’s lonely. So am I, a little. We’ll be perfectly happy together, at least until I can’t stand him a moment longer. Then I’ll take an axe to his neck and find some luscious young Russian Cossack to amuse me instead.”
With a teasing grin, she kissed him and went back to Pierre. Karl, finding nothing else to say, only shook his head. His heart gave a slight tug as his wilful daughter began to walk away with the hopeless rogue, Pierre, of all people.
“What shall it be?” Pierre said. “Taxi cab, horse and carriage, train? I’m not travelling through the Crystal Ring.” He turned and called back over his shoulder, “Au revoir, Karl. Stay out of the other-realm. It’s like hell tonight.”
Karl ignored the warning.
Later, replete with blood, he drifted through the Crystal Ring above Prague. He felt the cold flow of ether over his flesh, saw his own hands outstretched like claws against the stormy purple cloudscape. The other-realm distorted his human form into a slender amorphous shape, a blend of winged demon and jet-black serpent. After a hundred years and more he should be used to it, but the change still amazed him.
He hoped Ilona would be happy, with or without Pierre.
He undulated through Raqia more as if swimming than flying. He longed to float into a trance – the closest vampires came to sleep – but the Ring was too stormy. Massive thunderheads surrounded him. The void between them was an ocean of thick blue fog cloaking the Earth. He rose and dropped on rough air currents. No hope of rest tonight. Better to make for home before the storm carried him away.
Even his extra-sensitive sight could not penetrate the murk. All that helped him to navigate was the Earth’s magnetic field: faint ribbons of light that mapped the Crystal Ring on to the contours of the real world. The seventh sense.
With fearful exhilaration, Karl turned headlong into the gale.
The Crystal Ring was the natural habitat of vampires, but that did not make it safe. Every time they came here, they ran the risk of staying too long, growing too cold and exhausted to escape.
According to Charlotte, Raqia was the massed subconscious of humankind, formed from their dreams, nightmares and myths. As the zeitgeist shifted, Raqia echoed the changes in its own surreal way. Clouds became fortresses, phantom armies marched across the vast sky, angels manifested only to go mad and vanish again. Disconsolate voices echoed from nowhere.
Looking up, Karl saw a clear space in the fog and a dozen columns of red and silver light shooting up from the Earth towards the unseen heights of the Weisskalt.
What did that mean?
Sometimes Raqia threw out mirages of pure, enigmatic beauty. Everyone had theories, but no one really knew. Was it God, or the Devil, or mankind itself playing unconscious games?
Full of wonder, mystery and danger, the Crystal Ring was as addictive as blood itself.
All he wanted now was to be at home with Charlotte.
Although he tried not to distress his victims, he had tormented Charlotte beyond reason, thanks to the simple misfortune of falling in love. Eventually, against all his instincts, he’d transformed Charlotte rather than lose her. Karl thanked all the power of the universe that she’d survived, but he had vowed never to transform anyone, ever again. The initiation held too much danger and pain. Last year he’d witnessed a rash attempt by a power-hungry madman to turn a large number of humans into his own vampire army. The experiment had ended in horrific failure. The Crystal Ring itself would not allow too many vampires to exist.
And that is no bad thing, Karl thought. We are predators, after all. The Earth needs no more of us, especially if something worse is brewing in the human world. Up here, ever since Violette opened our eyes to the dangers, I sense mankind sleepwalking from one devastating war to the next and there is not a damned thing we can do to stop them. A cynic might conclude that the sole purpose of vampires is to feed on the remains of humanity, like vultures on carrion.
He fought to stay on course as the storm closed in. Karl could see nothing but wild indigo cloud. When he looked up, though, he saw a new apparition: an ebony mass, flickering with blood-red lightning… A shape that coalesced out of nothing.
As he watched, it dived straight towards him – a coal-black comet the size of a house.
Karl swerved, thrown sideways by turbulence. Hot damp air filled his lungs. Powerful instinct told him that the thing was sentient, and intent on killing him.
With an instant survival reflex, he arced out of its path. His hands formed claws, his fangs unsheathed. He was ready to fight – but the entity went roaring straight past, vanishing into the muddy lower layers of the atmosphere.
Karl took a few moments to recover from the shock. An illusion, no doubt, but the encounter left him with a clear impression of a gigantic death-like figure in a hooded robe, with a huge skull head and a staff like a lightning bolt.
Only an energy-projection, someone’s dream. Not really there.
Whatever it was, it left turmoil in its wake. Raqia began to roil violently, the storm whipping up into the worst tempest he’d ever encountered. He lost his sense of direction. Couldn’t see, let alone navigate.
Enough of this mad, nightmarish troposphere. All he wanted was the firelight of his own parlour and Charlotte’s arms around him… Focus on her, he told himself, closing his eyes. Focus on Charlotte, a tiny golden beacon so far away…
If only he could find his way back to Earth.
Described as “the most horrifying love story ever!” by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, The Hive is a cross-genre thriller starring Gabriel Basso (Kings of Summer, Super 8), Kathryn Prescott (MTV’s Finding Carter, Skins), Jacob Zachar (Greek) and Gabrielle Walsh (The Vampire Diaries) that received rave reviews after its debut at Fantastic Fest.
When Camp Yellow Jacket falls into chaos, teen counselor Adam wakes up in a boarded up cabin with no memory of who or where he is. His only clue as to what’s happening are the notes he’s scrawled for himself on the walls and the disturbing physical transformation he must overcome. The only memories he has aren’t his own, yet those memories may be the key to Adam’s survival.
The film turns genre convention on its head to tell a story that taps into the anxiety and emotions we’ve discovered in a post-online world. In the same way George Romero sought to comment on consumerism in the 1970’s, Dave Yarovesky has found a parable for the digital age.
Upon the release of the trailer, music visionary and executive producer Steve Aoki said, “I love music because it connects people all over the world, making them feel the same shared feelings of joy or sadness or excitement. But music isn’t the only thing that connects us; a film can make us laugh at the same time, cry at the same time or… scream at the same time.“ Aoki continued, “I’m excited to make people scream with our new movie Nerdist Presents: The Hive. I’m an executive producer on the film and you can hear tracks from my album, Neon Future, in the movie.”
Adam Rymer, president of Nerdist Industries and Legendary Digital Networks, echoed Aoki’s enthusiasm saying, “The film’s balance of horror, comedy, sci-fi and romance is fresh and perfect for the Nerdist audience. We’re excited to share this unique film with the world in a way that only Nerdist Industries can.“
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