by Mark Tufo
“She had it coming,” I told her evenly, wondering if she could feel the thrum of my blood.
“I expected more.”
“He gets that a lot,” BT said. He was as tense as I’d ever seen him. I swear I could hear his muscles rippling in preparation for a fight.
“Meredith and the kids and the dog have nothing to do with this. Let them go, and we’ll deal with this, whatever this is.” I thought about saying “fight,” but if they weren’t here to kill us, I had no desire to put the thought into their head.
“That is where you are wrong, spawn of Tomas.” Her face took on a scowling countenance. “There is a price that must be paid.”
“Must be paid … in blood,” the other said, licking her lips suggestively.
“I can get you some chickens or something.” I was stalling. I was terrified. I no sooner wanted to get into a melee with them than I wanted to get into a shark tank with chum as clothing.
Henry had upped his game and started barking. He must have sensed something was about to break; that, or he was getting tired and he needed this to all be over so he could take a nap. The spell was broken as she looked to Henry. Sly dog, he knew what was up.
“Kids, run!” I yelled, firing even as I brought the rifle up. I blew massive holes in the drywall as I sought vampire tissue to sink my lead into. Things slowed down to agonizingly frustrating slices of moments. Meredith turned to the others and started shoving them along. Payne moved with a speed I hadn’t seen since Eliza. Her hand wrapped around Dizz’s neck, and his eyes bulged as she applied extreme force. BT fired on the other vampire, who had not moved. She almost looked indignant that someone would even have the nerve to do such a thing.
Meredith and Dizz were off to our side. Henry had somehow sunk his teeth into Payne’s calf. BT had put two bullets into the vamp I would find out was named Sophia. I grabbed my Ka-bar, letting my rifle fall to the floor.
“He is mine!” Payne shouted. “He is the first in a long line of recompenses.”
Where my knife should have struck temple, it whistled through the air, the memory of a laugh the only thing there to let me know she’d ever even been here. Henry had been wrenched free from his tooth hold, he came to a yelping stop against the far wall.
Sophia moved a step closer to BT before turning to join Payne, who had departed. BT swore as his rifle jammed. He got so pissed he hurled it at Sophia’s head. She turned back around and swatted it away as if it were an errant hair on a slight breeze. The smile that pulled her lips back and revealed her fangs, will forever be etched in my memory. No one in the history of the world had ever gazed upon another with such malice. Psychopathic murderers had more mercy harbored within themselves. Sophia did not kill to sustain her existence; she killed for the sheer pleasure she derived from it. The food source was just an added bonus. Payne and Dizz were gone, so I went toward the only other target I had left. There was not one part of me that didn’t think she was going to crumple me like an old soda can. Didn’t stop me though. I’d not gone more than a step when I heard the explosion; the side of her closest to me blew out as her pelvis was destroyed by a twelve-gauge shotgun slug. Travis stood in the frame of the outside door, the smoking gun in his hands. Sophia screamed out in a savage guttural sound that reeked of pain and fury. Vampire or not, she was going to need some time to recover from such a grievous injury.
“Again!” I screamed to Travis. Her hip was basically a mosh pit of loose parts gliding around in a stew of meat, and still she stood. Her leg collapsed when Travis fired again. Her eyes rolled back even as she went down. The smart thing would have been to start sawing through her neck as fast as possible, removing her fucking psychotic head. I didn’t—for two reasons: one was Gary and the other was Dizz, both of whom I had to believe were still alive. I didn’t know if vampires negotiated, but I had to try. BT had come up alongside me, his barrel nearly touching Sophia’s head. I grabbed it from him. Trading my knife, I turned it around and pummeled the butt stock into her, seven or eight times until she fell over unconscious. Her beauty had been diminished significantly with her nose lying flat against her cheek and at least one orbital socket broken. Her lips were split and bleeding, and I’d started the scalping process, as her hairline was beginning to separate from her head. A normal person wouldn’t make it, but already I could see the healing process beginning in her.
“Nice job, Travis. Grab something to tie her up with.”
BT propped her up in a folding chair, and I wrapped her in over three hundred feet of rope. She looked like a mummy by the time I was done. Hardly any of her showed through the blue nylon of the repelling line. The stuff was rated at over 1000 pounds of tensile strength, I had to believe this would hold her. Tommy came back just as I was finishing off the last knot.
“Charity got away.”
“I don’t give a shit about Charity. Where’s Gary?”
“She took him.” His head hung low.
“Is he still alive?” I nearly choked getting those most distasteful of words out.
“I believe him to be.”
“Well then, we have something to bargain for.”
“What happened to Sophia?” Tommy lifted her head up.
“She’s a Yankees fan. I had to.” I told him. “Will these ropes hold?”
He pulled on them. “For a while. She’s awake.”
I stepped back once I realized just how close to her I was. I didn’t notice any change other than her nose was straightening back out.
Tommy slapped her hard enough to rattle my fillings.
“Tomas!” She hissed. “Sister fucker! Sister fucker!” She said it two more times before I brought the rifle above my head.
“Say it again, and I’m going to keep hitting you until your head looks like gruel.”
She laughed. “My sisters will not fuck me, they will save me.”
“Helping others is not a strong suit for them.” Tommy told her. “They will leave you here to rot.”
She started to laugh. “Those they took will rot much faster than I.”
BT placed the edge of my blade against her neck. “I will saw your head off.”
“Please,” she said in the high-pitched voice of a little girl. “I’m so afraid.” And then she started laughing again.
“What’s the matter with her?” I asked.
“Not everyone comes through the transition intact.” Tommy said.
“Shit, Talbot, you’re proof of that.” BT said.
“You’re holding a knife against a vampire’s throat and you still have time to give me crap?” I saw his shoulders shrug.
“We should just kill her,” Dennis said, he had come to join us.
“And what of Gary and Dizz?”
He wanted to say “they’re already dead,” but he just didn’t have it in him.
“I bet they’re delicious!” Sophia licked her lips.
I backhanded her hard enough to break two knuckles. Her blood sprayed against the far wall, and still she laughed. I walked away, wincing at the pain in my hand.
“What do you want to do?” BT had come up next to me and spoke softly.
“I want to go and get them. You need to stay and watch that crazy one.”
“Guard duty? Come on, man.” BT said.
“I need Tommy with me, if anyone can find them it’s him. And I need someone here that has the mental and physical abilities to do what needs to be done if we don’t return.”
“Mike, you know they’re not going to trade out. Let’s just be done with her, and then we can all go.”
“And if they get past us, who defends this household … Trip?”
“Fuck you, man. You really know where to hit a man. I wouldn’t let that man guard an anthill. Probably bring it inside so he could watch it from the comfort of his couch.”
“Tommy, we need to go,” I said, turning back around. He didn’t ask where; he already knew. His body language showed that he thought this a futile effort, but he did not say “no
.”
“They’re already dead, and soon you will be as well.” Sophia said, her manic laughing finally stopping. “You do know what happens to those that die without a soul, do you not, Michael of the Talbot line?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure, but maybe you can tell me when you join us. BT, we’re not back in an hour, cut her fucking head off as painfully as possible.” Maybe it was the flat way I delivered the words or just what the words intoned, but for once she shut the hell up.
It was easy enough to follow the blood trail as we left Ron’s property. I tried not to think about what that kind of blood loss would do to somebody. I was convinced if we could get to them soon enough, we would be able to save them. I believed that very thought right up until I saw a body impaled against a large oak. A branch as thick as my forearm was protruding from his chest. The fact that he was upside down only added to the horror of the moment.
“He was dead before this was done to him.” Tommy stepped closer.
“Is that supposed to make it better?” It was a rage-filled question. If Tommy said anything, I think I would have jumped on him both literally and figuratively. Instead, he tenderly reached up and pulled the boy free and then laid him down on the leaf-strewn ground.
“Let’s go,” I told him, trying to shut out the cold wind that blew within and around me.
“He must be buried.”
“And he will be. He’s dead, he can’t get any deader. I want to try and make sure that doesn’t happen to my brother.”
Tommy took one long, mournful look at Dizz before we departed. We pushed on, moving faster through the Maine woods than we had a right to. Tommy pressed on hard. Everything looked the same to me; I was not sure what trail he was following, but as long as it wasn’t a blood one, I was okay with it. I was so intent on staying on Tommy’s heels I never even realized when it had become difficult to see them. Darkness wasn’t creeping up on us as much as it had enveloped us completely in its gloomy embrace. A horror director would have lost his shit with how perfectly this scene was setting itself up. Clouds had covered the stars, and a small sliver of moon peeked through a thick fog that had rolled in. I could hear the ocean off to our right, lapping against the rocky coast. A lighthouse should have been blaring a warning to wayward ships. The night was still; the only thing moving was the heavy mist around us, the only sound that of the tide.
Anger still burned brightly in me, but I’d be lying if I said fear wasn’t wriggling its finger around inside my skull. They could be within an arm’s length, and at least I’d never know. Tommy with his va-dar (vampire radar) most likely could tell.
So when he answered, “Not sure,” when I asked, “Where to?” I was more than concerned.
“Help” floated through the air much like the fog around us. The sound diffused and spread among the water droplets, making it impossible to tell from which direction it had come. I wasn’t even sure if it was Gary’s voice. That was answered soon enough when we heard a snippet of Bon Jovi.
“What are they doing?” I turned quickly around, trying to locate the source of the sound.
“They’re playing with us. They know we’re here. They’re trying to scare us.”
“Trying?” I said to him. “Where’s Sophia?” I shouted. Funny how quickly they stopped playing the music. The resultant quiet was even more terrifying.
“Help!” That was indeed Gary. I was somewhat relieved because he was still alive. But that was like being happy for a mouse in a cobra enclosure. It was only a matter of time.
“Gary, we’re going to get you out of this mess.”
There was cruel laughter in response.
“What is it with vampires and laughing? Sophia stopped laughing when we were through with her!”
“Liar!”
“That’s Charity.” Tommy said. There was a downward lilt to his voice as he said her name.
“That’s her name?”
Tommy sighed, “Yes.”
“Yeah, that’s like naming me Tactful,” I said to him. “I’ve killed one vampire, what’s another?” I shouted out.
“I will rip you from the heavens if you have harmed her!”
“That is a threat you cannot keep!”
A sound came from her that could have curdled sour milk. Apparently I was getting under her skin, although, all things being equal, I was definitely more scared. I don’t know what sway the vamps held over the elements, if any, but the clouds split to reveal a crescent moon and a sprinkling of light dusted us just as the mist in front of us began to swirl independent of any sign of wind. It pulled back like a curtain on a stage to reveal a major player in this drama. Payne in all her magnificent, evil glory stood before us. Tommy grabbed my arm as I began to raise it.
“Where’s my brother?” I tried to push past Tommy. He would not allow me any closer.
“Tomas, it is so good to see you after all these years.” She smiled at him. It looked genuine enough. If given a different set of circumstances, I could almost believe that they were friends long ago and that had not seen each other in many moons. “I was saddened to hear of your loss. Your sister was a special vampire. Did you take it hard, especially after having devoted so much of your life to protect her?”
“I realize now that I should have spent more time trying to end her suffering than to let her inflict it upon so many others.”
“You have been washed out by walking among the chaff, dear Tomas. Your sister was wrong in letting you stride the world so long with one foot in our world and one foot in theirs.” She scoffed at that last part while pointing to me. “And now you honor her memory by protecting the one that slayed her? You have betrayed yourself as well as us all.”
Tommy seemed to sag under the assault of her words. I took that as my opportunity. “I am going to shove my fist in your mouth.” I got past his arm bar.
“There is much resemblance in you to my dear Victor. The fire of humanity burned so brightly through him. I was curious to see what would happen when it mingled with my lineage. He hated me for that.” She reached out and ran her fingers along the side of my cheek. “I think he would have rather died violently that day rather than have the life I gave him.”
“Life? You call this life? Watching all those I love around me grow old and die and knowing I’ll never be able to join them in the afterlife?”
“Love? Love is a myth. You have been granted immortality, the chance to shape your destiny as you see fit.”
“Destiny? You don’t shape destiny.”
“Oh, my foolish child, you have so much to learn. You are like a babe playing with his blocks for the first time.”
“I would like my brother back.” I was fighting to keep her out of my mind. No matter what she said, her words had a soothing effect as she attempted to control me.
“He is no longer your brother. You belong to another world now. Join with me. I could show you so much that you have missed.”
“I have no desire to see your world. I caught a glimpse of Eliza’s. You can keep it.”
“It is true Eliza had a different take. She let her past dictate her future. There is so much more than endless revenge and retribution. There are places that mortals cannot travel within this realm, grand things they cannot do. I am offering you the opportunity to bear witness to it all.”
“At what cost?”
She smiled.
“The cost of my family? You want me to just hand them all over to you?”
“That would be easier on us and on them, yes. There is little you can do to prevent it.”
“You killed a boy, a fucking innocent boy and then stuck him on a tree like a fucking ornament!”
“I was proving a point: the hopelessness of your situation. Your family will be treated with more respect if they are given over willingly.”
I forced her from my head. I was happy to see a glimpse of a wince on her face as I did so. “Don’t be trying your mind voodoo shit on me.”
“Is that your doing?
” She turned to Tommy.
“It was not. He has more power than he knows or is willing to tap into.”
There was concern in Payne; I could feel it coming off of her.
“I could kill you both where you stand.”
“Probably could, although Sophia won’t live another half an hour if you do.” I told her.
She looked on the edge of rage.
“Didn’t think immortals could die. My friend has this huge blade right now stuck in the crook of her neck. I don’t check in, and he just saws through that flesh like he was butchering a hog.”
“You cannot!”
“Sure I can. I hate what I’ve become, but I hate you and your kind even more. If it were the last thing I did on this planet, I would consider it a victory.”
Charity came out from the shadows. “Let me kill the impudent one, and we will go and save her.” Much like Tommy had done to me, Payne reached out and halted Charity’s progress.
“I want Gary back, you want Sophia. We can exchange them and then you can continue on with your little fact finding mission. Then you kill us or we kill you. Personally, I like our odds; we’re not some little village in 1760 France that has no clue the monsters you are. Each of us is armed, willing to fight—and more importantly, we know how to fight.”
She went exactly where I’d hoped she would not. “How long do you think it would take for me to create an army of vampires? We could tear through your paltry defenses before the sun sets. You have to think bigger than survival in terms of days, Michael. You do not understand the vastness of the universe, the secrets awaiting your exploration. It is so much bigger than the life you are so reluctant to let go of.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “I know how well your kind plays with each other. That three of you are together is a rarity, and you want to let loose a few dozen? And then what? You’re going to try and rein them in? I already know man is becoming a rare commodity. How are you planning on feeding all those mouths? And new vampires, they are oh so very hungry, they’ll mow through the population like hungry teenagers through a refrigerator stocked with snacks. Raise an army, my ass. You’d no sooner do that than you would suck on a rat for a meal.”
