Chapter 53 Blood on the Highway

Chapter 53 Blood on the Highway
The journey from Ibadan to Lagos began quietly.

The road stretched long and open ahead of us, the afternoon sun hanging lazily in the sky as the car moved steadily along the highway. Traffic was light, and for the most part the ride was peaceful.

A small car cooler sat on the back seat behind us.

Inside it were several blood bags I had taken before leaving. They shifted slightly every time the car hit a bump in the road, the soft rustling of the plastic mixing with the hum of the engine.

Beside me in the passenger seat sat Collins.

A few weeks ago, he had been my prisoner.

Now, strangely enough, he was my companion.

Life had a strange sense of humor.

The wind blew lightly through the half-open window as we drove, and for a moment the quiet reminded me of how all of this started.

The first time I met Collins.

It was a few weeks ago.

I had been on a date with my ex-girlfriend, Priscilla. We had spent the evening at a restaurant, talking about nothing important, pretending life was normal.

When we were done and leaving the restaurant, we walked through the parking lot toward my car.

The night had been calm.

The kind of calm that makes you believe nothing could possibly go wrong.

I unlocked the car and we continued walking toward it.

Then everything happened at once.

Out of nowhere, three men rushed out from between the parked cars.

Before I could even react, one of them grabbed Priscilla and pulled her violently toward him. His face twisted unnaturally as his fangs extended, and in the next second he sank them deep into her neck.

Priscilla screamed.

The sound cut through the quiet parking lot.

At the same time, another one of them lunged at me.

His weight slammed into my chest and knocked me to the ground. My back hit the asphalt hard, and before I could push him off, his mouth was already at my neck.

His fangs pierced my skin.

But he made a mistake.

He thought I was helpless.

I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head back with all the strength I had.

Then I twisted.

There was a sickening tearing sound as his head came clean off his body.

Blood sprayed across my face and shirt as the body collapsed beside me.

I stood up slowly, still holding the severed head in my hand.

The third vampire rushed toward me with a snarl, moving faster than any human could.

But I was faster.

I swung my arm and slapped him across the face.

The force sent him flying several feet across the parking lot until his body crashed into the side of a parked car with a loud metallic dent.

The one feeding on Priscilla suddenly stopped.

He threw her lifeless body onto the ground and turned toward me, his eyes wide with fury.

But before he could even take a step—

I moved.

In the blink of an eye I was standing in front of him.

My hand shot straight through his chest.

His eyes widened in disbelief as my fingers wrapped around his heart.

For a second he just stared at me, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Then I pulled my hand out.

His heart came with it.

He collapsed onto the pavement, dead before his body even hit the ground.

I turned and walked toward the one I had slapped across the parking lot.

He was slumped against the side of the car he had crashed into. The metal was dented where his body had hit it.

When I got closer, I realized he was still alive.

Unconscious.

Lucky for him.

I grabbed him by the collar, lifted his limp body off the ground, and dragged him to the trunk of my car. I opened it, shoved him inside, and slammed it shut.

Then I turned back to Priscilla.

She was sitting on the ground where the vampire had thrown her. Her eyes were wide, trembling with shock, her breathing uneven.

She had seen everything.

That couldn’t happen.

I crouched down in front of her and gently held her face so she would look directly into my eyes.

“Listen to me,” I said calmly.

Her breathing slowed as my voice settled into her mind.

“You’re going to forget everything that just happened here tonight.”

Her eyes softened slightly.

“You never saw those men. Nothing attacked you. Nothing happened.”

She blinked slowly.

“You just finished dinner with me and you’re going home.”

She nodded faintly.

I leaned forward and kissed the bite marks on her neck.

The wounds sealed instantly, the skin healing as if they had never been there.

When I pulled away, there was no trace of the attack left on her body.

I stood up, pulled out my phone, and called her a taxi.

When the car arrived, I helped her inside and watched as it drove away into the night.

Only then did I return to my own car.

I opened the trunk.

The vampire inside was beginning to move, his eyelids twitching as consciousness slowly returned.

Before he could fully wake up, I punched him hard across the head.

His body went limp again.

Out cold.

I drove home that night with him still unconscious in the trunk.

The entire drive, one thought kept repeating in my head.

I couldn’t believe it.

What I had been searching for all this time had practically fallen into my lap.

When I got home, I dragged him inside and chained him up in one of the rooms. Thick iron restraints around his wrists and ankles, secured tightly so there was no chance of escape.

Then the real work began.

I bled him slowly over the next several days.

Not enough to kill him—just enough to weaken him.

I barely fed him anything. I wanted him weak, starving, exhausted… too drained to even think about running.

At first he refused to talk.

But pain has a way of changing people.

Day after day, I questioned him.

And when he refused to answer, I pushed harder.

Eventually the resistance broke.

That was when he finally told me everything.

About The Count.

About his family.

About the massive estate where he lived—hidden away, protected by layers of security and secrecy. A fortress filled with his royal guards, loyal henchmen, and creatures that most humans would never believe existed.

Vampires.

Other supernatural allies.

Creatures that had come from different parts of the world to serve under his command.

The place wasn’t just a home.

It was a kingdom.

And at the center of it all…

My father.

Now the man sitting beside me in the passenger seat—Collins—was the same vampire I had dragged out of that parking lot.

My former prisoner.

My unwilling guide.

Because he knew the way.

And after centuries of running from the truth, I had finally decided something.

I wasn’t running anymore.

Collins was taking me straight to the estate.

Straight to The Count.

Straight to my father.

“Are you sure you want to meet the Count?” Collins asked.

I looked at him.

But I didn’t answer.

After a few seconds, I simply turned my gaze back to the road ahead.

Collins sighed and leaned back in his seat.

“Okay,” he said. “It’s your funeral.”

I rested my arm against the door and stared out the window as the highway stretched endlessly before us.

“I’m going to end it,” I said quietly.

Collins glanced at me.

“If I die… then I die. I don’t have anything left to lose anyway.”

He gave a small whistle.

“Damn,” he muttered. “That’s deep.”

For a moment the car was silent except for the sound of the tires rolling against the road.

Then Collins spoke again.

“But the word that got around was that you were already dead.”

That made me turn and look at him.

“What?”

“Yeah,” he said casually. “Killed by your sister.”

My eyes narrowed slightly.

“Is it the one that got banished?”

He nodded.

“Yeah. That one.”

He shifted slightly in his seat before continuing.

“The story was that she had to kill you before she could be welcomed back home.”

I stared at him.

“And I heard she did,” Collins added. “Apparently she brought your body back.”

My stomach tightened.

“How?” I asked quietly.

He shrugged.

“From what I heard, the body was completely burnt up.”

Then he snapped his fingers suddenly as if remembering something.

“I think her name was…”

He paused.

“…Juliet.”

“Juliet…” I muttered under my breath.

The name stirred something in my mind.

A faint memory.

A face.

Then it clicked.

“That name sounds familiar,” I said slowly.

It had to be her.

The girl who attacked me in my house.

The one who nearly killed me… yet somehow saved my life at the same time.

I turned toward Collins.

“So that was my sister,” I said.

Collins gave a small shrug.

“Looks like it.”

For a moment I stared at the road ahead, letting the realization settle in my mind.

If she really was my sister… then everything that happened that night suddenly became more confusing.

She had come to kill me but later changed her mind.

Then she took the wrong body home and said it was me just to save my life.

I shifted slightly in my seat.

“Where is she now?” I asked.

Collins rubbed the back of his neck.

“She’s probably back home,” he said. “But honestly, I wouldn’t know.”

He glanced out the window.

“I haven’t been there in a long time, so I don’t exactly have the latest information.”

After that, the car fell into silence.

The highway stretched endlessly before us as we drove south toward Lagos.

Every now and then, Collins would lean back and reach behind him for the cooler. He would pull out one of the blood bags, bite into it, and drink it like someone casually sipping a juice pouch.

The plastic crinkled softly each time.

Then he’d toss the empty bag aside and go back to staring out the window.

Hours passed like that.

The quiet.

The road.

The occasional rustling of the cooler.

Until eventually the scenery began to change.

More buildings.

More traffic.

More life.

The distant skyline of Lagos slowly appeared on the horizon as we finally arrived in the city.

By the time we reached Lagos, it was already midnight.

The city looked completely different at that hour.

The roads were still alive with movement, headlights stretching endlessly through the streets like glowing rivers. Neon signs flickered on buildings, street vendors were still out selling food under small lamps, and the distant sound of music drifted through the warm night air.

Lagos never really slept.

Even at midnight, the city breathed.

Cars moved in clusters, buses honked impatiently, and motorcycles weaved through traffic like restless insects. Tall buildings rose against the dark sky, their windows glowing like scattered stars.

I kept driving while Collins leaned forward slightly, watching the road ahead.

“Take the next left,” he said.

I followed his directions.

“Now keep straight… don’t turn yet… yeah, this road.”

We moved farther away from the crowded parts of the city. The noise slowly faded, the streets becoming quieter as the buildings thinned out.

After a while, the bright city lights were behind us.

The roads became narrower.

Darker.

“Turn here,” Collins said again, pointing toward a small road that branched off the main one.

I slowed the car and turned onto it.

Not long after that, we saw them.

Several army trucks were parked across the road, their headlights illuminating a checkpoint. Soldiers stood around holding rifles while metal barricades blocked the path ahead.

A roadblock.

I slowed the car and looked at Collins.

“Who are those people?”

“That’s the army,” he replied casually.

“Their job is to make sure no curious intruders get through to the estate.”

I frowned slightly.

“Why would the government allow vampires to own such a huge part of Lagos?”

Collins chuckled.

“Bro… if the government wasn’t benefiting from the arrangement, it wouldn’t exist.”

That answer told me everything I needed to know.

I drove forward until the soldiers signaled for us to stop.

One of them approached the car slowly, his rifle hanging from his shoulder. He raised a bright flashlight and pointed it directly at my face, the beam blinding me for a moment.

Before I could say anything, Collins spoke.

“Officer… here.”

The soldier turned toward him and moved closer to the passenger window. He lifted the flashlight and shined it on Collins.

Collins leaned slightly toward the light.

Then he opened his mouth and revealed his fangs.

The soldier froze for a second.

Then he calmly switched off the flashlight.

He turned toward the other soldiers.

“Let them through.”

The barricade was moved aside immediately.

I pressed the accelerator and continued driving down the road.

I glanced at Collins as we drove past the checkpoint.

“That was it?” I asked. “That’s all you had to do?”

He leaned back in his seat like it was nothing.

“Yeah,” he said. “Pretty much.”

The road ahead stretched deeper into darkness as we continued driving. The city lights of Lagos were now far behind us, replaced by thick shadows and long stretches of silent land.

After a few minutes, something massive appeared ahead.

A giant iron gate.

Tall, black, and intimidating.

On both sides of it stood a towering fence that stretched far into the darkness, easily several meters high, topped with razor wire that glinted faintly under the moonlight.

The estate.

I slowly brought the car to a stop a few meters away from the gate.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then I turned to Collins.

“Thanks for bringing me here.”

He chuckled lightly.

“It’s not like I had much of a choice.”

“Still,” I said. “Thanks.”

He nodded slightly.

“Glad I could be of assistance.”

I looked at him for another second before speaking again.

“You’ve done your part. I don’t want to risk your life any further.”

I reached over and unlocked the car door.

“You can go.”

Collins smiled.

He opened the door and stepped out of the car. For a second we both nodded at each other.

Then, just like that—

He disappeared into the darkness.

I turned back toward the gate.

Took a breath.

Then I slowly drove forward.

As soon as the car stopped in front of the gate, a deep, chilling voice echoed from somewhere above.

“Step out of the vehicle.”

The voice was cold.

Authoritative.

Not a request.

A command.

I opened the door and stepped out of the car.

“Come closer,” the voice said from the other side of the gate.

It echoed through the metal bars, low and threatening.

I walked forward slowly, the gravel crunching beneath my shoes as I moved toward the sound.

The closer I got, the more I could make out a shape standing behind the gate.

Then the figure stepped forward into the dim light.

For a moment, I just stared.

The face looking back at me was… wrong.

His skin was pale and stretched tightly over sharp cheekbones, almost like something that had been dead for too long. Dark veins crawled faintly beneath the surface of his skin, and his eyes were completely black, reflecting the faint light like glass.

His mouth was slightly open, revealing rows of long, jagged fangs that didn’t look entirely human.

He looked less like a man…

…and more like a creature wearing the shape of one.

But I wasn’t afraid.

I simply stood there, looking at him.

His head tilted slightly as he studied me.

“Who are you?” the creature asked.

His voice was rough, like stones grinding together.

I didn’t hesitate.

“Tell the Count,” I said calmly,

“his son is here.”