“Charlie.” He said. “Charlie Cutter.”
She looked up at him with a big, devilish grin. “Thought so.” She said. Something clubbed at his midsection like a cinder block and knocked the wind out of him. When he staggered back a few steps, she had his forty-five in her hand and it was all he could do to throw a quick roundhouse kick and knock it from her hands. She let out a sharp cry and thrust herself at him, releasing a barrage of punches that he was totally unprepared for. He dodged and blocked, losing ground with every strike. A few punches met their mark and sent him reeling. When he felt his back touch the brick wall of the alley he dodged again and heard her fist hit the bricks but she never stopped coming at him. She was like some crazed she-beast! Finally, he was able to retaliate and caught her in the jaw with a good uppercut that seemed to slow her down a bit. His dad had always taught him not to hit girls but this situation seemed like one his dad had never anticipated. He dodged a few more punches then caught her in the stomach with a front kick and roundhouse in the side of the head that sent her to the ground but she quickly got back up and charged again. Time to put an end to this! He thought. He spun away from her attack, simultaneously drawing his knife from its sheath and shoved it up into her ribcage from behind as her momentum carried her past him. He gave the knife a little twist and wrenched it free.
She stood with a look of shock as though she had just jumped into icy cold water and slowly turned to face him. She gulped at the air but a watery sucking sound came from the hole in her back. He had hit the lung he was aiming for. She dropped to her knees but the fright in her eyes turned to a maniacal smile and she gave a soundless laugh. He dropped the knife and caught her before she could fall on her face.
“Who sent you?” He yelled in her face.
She smiled and her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. “And now he knows where you are.” Her eyes moved up the building behind him and he looked up to see what she had seen. The shape of a head disappeared behind the rooftop of a tall apartment building. When he looked back at the woman, she shuddered and her body went lifeless.
He laid her down and stormed back to the truck. That’s what I get for trying to do a good deed! He thought. He couldn’t decide who the woman meant by ‘he’. Was it the Golem? Was Dannus lying when he said the Golem didn’t really exist? Was she talking about Kinder? Dannus’ words echoed in his mind. ‘I’m quite certain he will find you.’ Dannus had said. Maybe Dannus wasn’t lying. Either way, it was obvious Charlie had enemies during the day and at night now. There was no question in his mind that the woman had been a gifted. She was way too fast and strong to be anything else. He rubbed his jaw where she had caught him with a solid right hand during the melee. He climbed back into the truck and fired up the engine. Better try to find some friends or things are going to get ugly. He thought.
He threw the truck in gear and began inching down the road against the flow of the stream of people watching the rooftops for any prying eyes that might be watching where he was running to. It wasn’t long before he saw a familiar SUV parked outside of a large elementary school. He wasn’t sure if it was the right one or not. After all, big black SUVs weren’t exactly uncommon these days. But he decided to check to make sure. It wasn’t long after he spotted the SUV that he saw Julia and Virginia standing outside the building with the little girl they had found. They seemed to be watching the hoard of people moving down the road and pointing out certain people to the little girl. He couldn’t keep the smile from coming. What are the odds? He thought. The sunlight through the windshield glinted off of something in the cup holder of the truck and he looked down to see Al’s crucifix. Memories of his old friend came flooding back to him. “Maybe you’re looking out for me after all, hey, old buddy?” He clasped the crucifix around his neck and pulled the truck up next to Julia. “Hey, pretty lady. Know where I could find a nice place to stay in this town?”
Virginia looked at him with a scowl but Julia’s eyes popped wide open and she ran to him and gave him a big hug through the window of the police truck. “Charlie!” She squealed. “They told us you were dead!”
Charlie was suddenly caught in a bit of a quandary. He had been so sure he’d never find them that he hadn’t decided what he was going to tell them if he did. “No.” He said returning the hug and trying to think on the fly. “I found a back door while all the hell dogs were after the vamps.” He thought that would cover him for now. “How did you guys get here? Where is everyone?”
He listened intently as Julia told him all about Black Feather and how her sister killed the hell dogs that attacked them and how her mother was now the Wolf Queen or some nonsense like that. It was a crazy story and in any other time or place, would’ve been totally unbelievable, but Charlie chalked it up to just another day of what-the-hell-will-happen-next?
“So, what are you guys doing out here?” Charlie asked her.
“We’re looking for Hannah’s mom. That’s the little girl’s name. We were hoping with all the people walking by that we might get lucky.” Then her lips turned down in a frown. “I know it’s silly to think that we’d be able to find her out here. I was just thinking that if we don’t have hope, then what’s left?”
“It’s not silly.” Charlie said with a sigh and rubbed the crucifix on his chest. He watched Ginny who had moved away from the conversation with Hannah in her arms. She giggled a bit as the little girl grabbed her nose and pretended to pull it off and eat it. Hannah laughed and squirmed as Virginia tickled her little side and smiled at her. “Unbelievable.” He said under his breath.
“What?” Julia asked.
“It’s just the last time I saw her she was…” He shook his head. “And now this. It just doesn’t make sense. Last time I saw her, your dad wanted to do a little experiment and…” He trailed off as another piece of the puzzle started to become clearer.
“What is it?” Julia asked him.
“Something that’s been gnawing at me lately. Remember that story Ledge told us about Original Blood? If you were going to look for the oldest bloodlines in the world, why would you look in Wisconsin, of all places? Where would you look?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’d look at the Cradle of Civilization.” Julia said. “Isn’t that where scientists think everything began? The Middle East or Africa, somewhere?”
“Exactly.” Charlie nodded.
Chapter 33
It was quiet and dark and Sylvia was getting the most peaceful rest she had gotten in several days. She didn’t really need to rest but it didn’t hurt either. She was much more comfortable around the hell dogs than she thought she would be. They provided her with a small bit of comfort and security. Something she no longer felt when she was alone with Avery and Ledge. She was sitting alone with her back to the gymnasium wall when Avery sidled up and sat down next to her. He seemed to be close-by an awful lot lately and it was beginning to make her nervous. He set his hand down on her knee which she promptly shoved off onto the floor. “What do you want, Avery?”
“So cold, Sylvia. Even for you.” He said with a grin. Oh, how he loved getting under her skin. “Ledge tells me you’ve been busy chatting Queen Madeline’s ear off, lately. What do you two have so much to talk about?”
“Nothing that concerns you… or Ledge for that matter.” He was far too concerned with what she was doing these days.
She was getting defensive whenever he would approach her and was beginning to feel like he would break through her calm and cool demeanor without much effort until a commotion broke out amongst the hell dogs. Someone had entered the room and was making their way towards Madeline. Queen Madeline. She scoffed at the idea in her mind. Leave it to Black Feather to always want to shake things up. She thought.
She got up to see what all the commotion was about but couldn’t see over the looming forms of hell dogs in front of her. She pushed and shoved her way to the front as the big animals moved aside. She emerged to see what was going on and her jaw dropped open. She felt like she�
�d seen a ghost. “Charlie.” She whispered under her breath as a smile grew across her face. How?
She watched as Madeline greeted him with a big hug. “We heard you were killed. How did you make it out of there alive?” Madeline asked him.
Charlie explained that he was able to retreat into an upstairs room while the hell dogs were preoccupied and snuck out a window. He turned to look at Sylvia with an accusatory stare but she held her ground. They had made the right choice. She knew that. She was just happy he had made it out safely. She had been racking her brain trying to devise a way to go about her mission without him and now it seemed her plan was viable once more. Then he said something to Madeline that came as quite the surprise.
“Madeline, if you truly have control of all of these hell dogs, I have a favor to ask.”
“Oh?” Madeline asked. She nodded and waited so he went on.
“I know where my friend, Maggie, is. I need your help to get her back.”
Madeline nodded in stern contemplation. “After everything you’ve done, I don’t see how I could refuse you, Charlie. What do you need?”
Charlie gave a long sigh. “I’m not sure exactly. I know who has her, but not where he is. I was hoping someone,” he glanced at Sylvia, “might know where Ronald Kinder is.”
How did he know that name? Sylvia was caught totally off guard. “How did you hear that name?” She blurted out.
He turned to face her. “I ran into a vampire in the mansion. I figured he was working for the Golem so after a little coaxing he was babbling all kinds of information.”
“What was the vampire’s name?” She asked. His story seemed unlikely. All the windows in the mansion had bars. The only place he could have escaped from was the balcony door they had used to enter from. He was hiding something.
“It wasn’t Ronald Kinder, I can tell you that much. I was in a bit of a hurry at that point.” He made a condescending smirk at her and then returned his attention to Madeline. “I need to find out where this Kinder is and I need you to help me fight him. I thought maybe with your army here, we might stand a chance. I don’t know what kind of defenses he has.”
“I know where to find him.” Sylvia said. This was perfect. She tried hard not to let her elation show. Charlie looked at her and raised one eyebrow. “Julia had a dream the other day. I saw Kinder and I saw his stronghold. I didn’t know what it meant then, but I do now.”
“I don’t remember that dream.” Julia said.
“You don’t remember all of them, child. That’s why I’m here to help you watch.” Two could play at this game.
“That’s perfect.” Charlie said. “Where is it? I’ll go during the day. I’ll drag that bastard out into the sunlight myself.”
“Not a wise decision. He surely has gifteds guarding him during the day and I don’t trust you to not try to rush in there during the daylight.” Sylvia wasn’t about to give away the one piece of information that still kept her valuable at this point.
“She’s right, Charlie.” Madeline chimed in. “We know you too well. You won’t be able to wait for help if you know where she is. We already thought we lost you once and I doubt you’ll be much help to Maggie if you’re dead.”
Charlie clearly wasn’t happy but didn’t protest, either.
Madeline continued. “Get some rest. Gear up with whatever you think you need. We’ll leave at sundown.”
Charlie stormed off. He heard Madeline yell ‘at sundown!’ behind him. He waved his hand overhead dismissively. He went out to the hallway and slumped down against the wall. He hadn’t realized how much he missed Maggie until Dannus mentioned her. With all the commotion going on, it was easy to forget what his real objective was. God, he hoped she was alright. Knowing she was within reach made him that much more worried. The urgency of the situation couldn’t be understated. He had picked up a ruler he saw lying on the ground and was tracing lines in a pile of dust when a hell dog walked up to him hesitantly.
He looked up at it and slowly reached for his gun. The thing waved its hands, claws?, in the air. “What do you want?” He asked it.
It sat down across from him. He had never had the time to study one this close without being in full-fledged fight mode. It pointed at itself and then put its arms in a cradle position across its chest.
“I don’t understand.” He looked down and kept poking at the dust pile with the ruler. The hell dog tapped his hand and when he looked up, it made the same gesture with its hands. When he still didn’t understand, the thing took the ruler from him and began to write in the dust. The writing was child-like and hard to read but he could just make it out. “Me, Mom? You’re a mom?”
It nodded and Charlie swore he could see a tear in the corner of its eye. It pointed to the other room where the vampires were resting. “You’re one of the vampires’ mom?”
It shook its head, no. It pointed again and smeared the dust. Began to write in the dust. Girl. H-A-N-N…
“Hannah? You’re Hannah’s mom?” It nodded. Charlie was blown away. He slumped back against the wall and let out a loud breath. “You have got to be kidding me.” Dannus was telling the truth, then. This was real. He had said some of the hell dogs were still quite intelligent and could remember some of their lives as humans. He looked deep into the eyes of this beast sitting in front of him and couldn’t begin to imagine the personal hell she was in. Her daughter sat in the next room and she couldn’t hold her. Did she even want Hannah to know? How could they have any semblance of a mother daughter relationship when she was this thing? This incredible, horrifying thing? She was more likely to give Hannah nightmares than any feelings of security.
“What do you want of me?” He asked her.
The beast let out a sigh and shook its head. It shrugged its shoulders and dropped its hands uselessly in its lap.
“You just needed someone to know?” He asked her.
It nodded. And this time, Charlie could see the tears clearly running from its eyes. He was in awe. His heart broke for this mother.
“What’s your name?”
She scribbled in the dust again, S-H-A-R-O-N.
“Nice to meet you, Sharon.” He paused. Not sure what to say next. “I’m so sorry. This must be hell for you.”
Sharon nodded.
“Do you want me to tell Hannah? To tell the others?”
Sharon wrote, Not yet. Not sure.
Charlie nodded. “Alright. But, can you wear something so I can tell you apart from the others?”
Sharon looked around and seemed to spy something useful. She walked a few steps away and came back with a small pink jacket. She tore a long strip from it and tried to tie it around her neck but fumbled with her big claws getting in the way. He reached over to tie it for her. He tied it in a cute little bow.
“This will work. If you need anything, find me. And when you are ready to tell them, we will.”
The wolf was crying again. Suddenly, Sharon reached to him and pulled him close in an embrace. It was probably the weirdest but most riveting experience of Charlie’s life.
Sharon got up and walked away, disappearing into the maw of darkness down the hallway. Charlie let his head fall back against the wall and blew out another loud breath. His world had been rocked. This changed everything. When they were mindless beasts, it was easy to kill them. Now, there was a chance they were just innocent people trapped in terrible prisons. Forced, against their will, to live as monsters or starve. This. Changed. Everything.
Chapter 34
“Will you sit down already? You’re making me nervous.” Julia said to him.
Charlie had been pacing for quite a while. He tried to sleep but kept having nightmares of torn and bloody battlefields littered with bodies. He’d see nothing but devastation and char for miles. The whole time he could hear Dannus cackling in the background. “I just can’t sit here waiting. It’s not my style.” He replied.
“I watched a documentary on snipers once. It said they can wait for days for one chance
to take out their targets. Didn’t they teach any of that to you?” She asked.
“Yeah, but this is different. There’s never been someone I cared about waiting at the other end of a mission.” He sat down next to Julia and drew a long machete from the sheath on his hip. He checked the edge with his thumb and drew the whetstone from the separate pocket on the sheath when he decided it wasn’t sharp enough. Actually, it was plenty sharp enough. He needed something to keep his mind active or his frustration would start to seep back in. To make matters worse, he couldn’t stop thinking of Sharon either. He didn’t think there was any way of making that right. Here you are Hannah! I found your Mom! And she’s a monster. Have fun with that! How in the world could he help them?
“And what do you plan to do with that thing?” Julia asked him.
He smiled when he initially took the comment the wrong way. “Been a while since a woman asked me that question.”
She laughed and punched him in the arm. “Pig!” She said with a smile. “You know what I meant.”
“Well, guns are great, but this baby won’t jam up and it definitely won’t run out of ammo.” He replied.
“Think you’ll need it?”
“Not if all goes as planned. But the first rule of combat is: Nothing ever goes as planned.”
“Charlie.” Sylvia was calling him from somewhere across the room, near a small lantern they had set up. He got up and walked over to where she was mulling over a large drawing with the rough outline of a building on it. “This is as much as I can remember about Kinder’s mansion.” She said. The other vampires were taking up places around her as well. Ledge stood with his meaty arms folded across his chest, scowling down over the big scar on his nose at the map. Avery leaned backwards in a ridiculously small chair he had found somewhere in the school.
Original Blood Page 35
