by Resca Rojas
“That was four weeks ago. Besides, you ate my finger. We have a mutual enemy. How about this; I’ll help you kill the vampire who killed your mom, and then, we take out Kayla.”
“How do you know about my mom?”
“Fifteen years ago I was passing by thru this town with Garrett. We stayed one night in a hotel, and he wondered off. Few hours later, he comes back with blood stains from gunshots and laughing. Saying how he killed a woman and scared two kids. Bragged how he ran away from the cops. I felt shitty so I did some research after we left. All I remember was the last name. Kordovah. When I saw your tattoo and remembered that it was in this town, I figured you had to be one of the little kids from that night.”
“What are the odds… But you are going to have to offer me something better. My brother is already being helped by another double agent, they’re about to kill him.”
“What’s his name, this vampire that is helping your brother?”
“Mason.”
“We have to go. Now” Nero helped Klayton out of the room and then after they exited the building, they got on Nero’s car; a black Camero. He began to drive at top speed.
“Where the hell are we going?”
“To the other end of the town. I have two people who are waiting for me. I came by myself towards you the moment I picked up your scent.”
Klayton said nothing as he was still reeling from the spell.
A few minutes later and they arrived in front of a bank. Two people came out, each with a duffle bag.
Nero exited the car and was now face to face with Mila and Antonio. He pointed at Klayton and said, “This is the Kordovah who bit my finger off. Now I know why there are so many vampires here. Kayla wants revenge by attacking his hometown.”
“Is he okay?” Mila asked.
Nero, Antonio, “I need you to heal him.”
“You sure?”
“We are going to need him as much as he needs us. They’ve been played by Mason. Crafty son of a bitch. I think he is luring Dante to his death to win over Kayla and win a spot at her table. Can you heal him and take us to his brother?”
“Yeah, here,” he handed Nero the duffle bag that was full of money. “Put it in the trunk. While I heal him.”
Antonio walked towards the passenger seat and opened the door Klayton was half asleep, and his face had turned very pale.
“My mom, saved my mom,” Klayton murmured in pain as he was hallucinating.
Antonio placed his left hand on Klayton’s forehead. “What the hell happened to him?”
“He said that he used a spell to get here.” Antonio sad nothing as he began to heal Klayton. Nero placed the duffle bags of money in the trunk.
“He’s gaining consciousness.” Antonio said.
Nero went to them, “Okay. Klayton?”
“What?” He was healing quickly.
“Can you remember where your brother was heading?”
“We were going to an abandoned military base in Texas.”
“For what?”
“You know for what. We are going to kill Kayla, that’s where she is. You know that.”
Nero looked at Antonio then back at Klayton. “Kayla isn’t there. With all the mess that has been happening, she relocated to a private island. There are vampires hidden everywhere in the world. But the only one that sticks out that would be in Texas would be an Elite named Mason.”
“Mason as in, vampire with a small scar in his nose?”’
“Yeah. He does black operations for Kayla. Right now he is helping her take out some vampires that had started to build a small rebellion against her.”
The ones that we have been taking out. “Shit. That’s him.”
Klayton looked at Nero, “Mason has been using us to do his work. I wonder when he planned on killing us.. Would he gain something for doing that?”
“Yeah. He would probably blame it on lycans and look like the hero that hunted them down.”’
“My phone fried when I got teleported over here. Can I please use anyone else’s phone?”
Mila handed him her phone and he dialed his brother’s number. “Dante when you get this act fast. Mason is not who he is. He Ruby us.”
He ended the call and then looked at Nero. “Can any of you teleport me to my safe house?
“I can take one with me, or send two. After that I’ll be out of energy for a bit.”
Mila could tell that Nero was hesitant about leaving her behind. She reassured him by saying, “Nero, take him with you. Toni and I will catch up. It’s fine. Really.”
He walked over to her and gave her a passionate kiss. “Take the first flight. Okay? Shouldn’t take so long.”
Antonio had gone to the trunk and grabbed a machete, a pump-up shot gun, and then handed it to Klayton.
“Thanks, dude. For my health and doing this for me.” Antonio nodded.
Nero walked to Klayton, “You ready to kick some ass?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about before.”
“It’s fine. Antonio healed me.” He showed him his hand.
Klayton grinned.
Antonio got between Nero and Klayton and placed his hands on their shoulders. In a split-second they appeared up in the sky falling down into a forest.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Klayton screamed while Nero remained focused as he looked where he was going to land.
Klayton transformed into a lycan to reduce the damage that he was going take from such a heavy fall, and his screams turned into aggressive growls as he braced for impact.
As Nero began to hit a tree, he reached for several branches until he was able to hold onto one that could support him. He looked down and analyzed that he was now twenty feet from the ground.
He let go of the branch and landed on the ground with ease.
Klayton landed face first.
Their weapons landed nearby and Nero went to fetch them.
In his lycan form, Klayton had his back on the ground and he was staring at the sky as Nero walked to him and looked down. “Let’s go. Get off your ass.”
Klayton returned to his human form, now half-naked with all of his clothes teared up.
Second damn time I get teleported today.” He wiped the vomit from his lip. “Last time this happened, I got constipated for a week.”
Nero said. “Come on, dude.” He turned to look at the at the direction of the house. He could smell wood burning and in the distant, he was able to picked up several heartbeats.
“They are not too far away.”
“Hey, wait.”
“Nero looked at him. “What?
“We kill Mason, and then what?”
“Take out Kayla and Garrett. We need to bring balance back to the supernatural world.”
“I like the sound of that.” They ran as fast as they could, with both of them arriving on time only a few feet away from the house.
20
Dante had just finished listening to the voicemail that his brother had left him. Ruby was a character in one of their favorite TV shows who pretended to be someone that she was not, and in the ended, she betrayed the brothers. He had to get Lilly and Marianne out of the cabin and somewhere safe.
He turned to exit the room, but Mason was now a few feet away from him by the door.
Dante had to try his best to pretend that everything was okay. “Hey, man, you ready?”
“Who is Ruby?”
Dante froze.
“Come on. I heard the voicemail. I sensed when you slowed down your heartbeat. Something is wrong.”
Dante placed his hands inside the pocket of his hoodie and began to grow his claws out. Ha had no guns or any other sort of weapons near him but his himself.
“I really wish that things did not end like this. I really liked you Dante. I was going to kill everyone but you. I’d figure that eventually I could win you over. We kill Kayla and everyone else, then we’d be kings.”
“You’re only out there for yourself, bastard.”
“Hmm. Gues
s you’re right when you truly think about it.” He paused, then said, “You know, you’re going to be the first Lycan that I ever kill.”
Mason moved quickly and dashed forward, stabbing Dante in the stomach with a stainless sharp steel blade.
“Steel beats wolf, right?” Mason twisted the blade around while he kept it inside Dante. “Right?!” He spoke louder as the blade pierced Dante deeper into his stomach.
He removed the knife and continued to repeatedly stab Dante six more times before stopping.
Dante groaned and gasped for air as he dropped to his knees. Mason kneeled and hugged him against him. He whispered to him, “I will give your brother and Ethan very quick deaths. The girls are welcomed to join me, and if they don’t, I’ll kill them too.”
Dante tried to speak, but instead of words it was blood that came out of his mouth as he coughed and spat.
Mason stepped back and laughed, “I can’t hear you, speak up.” He slapped Dante’s cheek multiple times to prevent him from losing consciousness. He leaned his ear directly at Dante, taunting him to tell him what was on his mind.
Dante used all the strength that he had left to launch himself forward and bite Mason’s ear off. Mason screamed in agonizing pain while Dante grinned and spat the ear to the floor.
With anger and hatred in his heart, he tried to stab Dante, but missed as he charged at him. Mason stumbled against the wall, but managed to balance himself quickly.
He tried charging at Dante one more time, and when he did, Dante deflected Mason’s attack, removed his blade from his hands and threw it on the ground.
Mason was now leaning against a wall and with his other hand, he was covering where his ear used to be. He felt dizzy. “What did you do to me? You’re supposed to be dying.”
“Silver bullets and weapons does hurt a Lycan, but it would have been no difference if it was made of iron or copper. It’s a myth.” Dante stood up, his wounds now healing.
“Impossible.”
“Did you or any of your friends ever killed a Lycan before with those methods?” Mason said nothing. “Exactly.”
Dante grabbed Mason by the neck and then lifted him up. “But I did bite you and what they say about Lycans biting vampires is definitely true.”
Mason was trying to free himself by punching Dante’s arms, but the grip around his neck only got tighter, making it harder for him to breath.
Dante tossed Mason thru the window which was on the second floor of the house. The glass cut the traitor’s face as he landed on the ground in front of Marianne’s pickup truck, She had just come back with Lillian from running errands. They quickly exited the vehicle and ran towards Mason to see if he was okay.
“Hey! Mason, are we being attacked?!” She tried waking him up while Lillian ran to the front door, where she planned to go inside to see if Dante was in danger.
Before she could enter the house, Dante walked outside with a machete in his hand.
“Dante, what’s wrong?”
“He’s been playing us all along.”
When Marianne overheard Dante, she quickly withdrew her gun and aimed it at Mason, but he tripped her and she felt onto the ground.
He then placed his hands on the sides of Marianne’s head and snapped her neck.
“No!” Yelled Lillian. Mason picked up the gun and unloaded four bullets on Marianne’s temple.
“Can you two just stop?” Mason cried out. “I never wanted to kill you guys. I wanted to start my own family, and I had you guys in my mind. But Klayton messed it up.”
“You’re full of crap, you know that? No matter how you say it, you’re a piece of shit.”
Birds flew out of the trees as loud and thunderous footsteps were approaching.
“What the hell is that?” Mason asked.
Dante stepped a little bit back with Lilly. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped behind Mason. He turned around to look at the werewolf who was looking down on him with menacing eyes.
Out of weapons and options, Mason decided to run away.
But when he turned around, Klayton swung his arm and scratched his back with deep cuts. Mason yelled as he was in excruciating pain and fell to the ground.
Intoxicated with lycanthrope poison in his bloodstreams, his face cut with broken glass, and now that his back had a deep cut, he tried to crawl away as his breathing became heavy.
As he was trying to escape, a heavy boot stepped on his hand. He screamed in pain and looked up. It was Nero.
“We have been looking for you.” Mason said in disbelief as he did not expect to see Nero here.
“Well, here I am.” Nero looked at Klayton, “Do we kill him?”
Klayton looked at his brother and Lillian to see how they felt about that action. They both nodded in approval and Klayton said, “However you want to, do it.” Klayton walked over to Marianne’s body and Lillian went to him while Dante remained still, looking at the man who had made a fool out of him.
Nero took out his machete and let the blade gently kiss Mason’s neck before pulling his arm back, ready for a full swing to decapitate him.
“Wait! I can help with Kayla!” Mason pleaded.
Nero looked at Dante, who see if Klayton changed his mind about killing Mason. Klayton nodded to Nero for him to end it.
The Elite looked down on Mason and said, “Compare to what Kayla would do to you if she knew the mess that you’ve made, I am giving you mercy.” Mason looked down in defeat. Nero swung the machete and decapitated him.
Lillian held Klayton’s hand, with their fingers interlocked. “Klay, we have to end this. All of it. It’s getting out of control.”
21
Four days ago, they killed Mason. Since then, the Kordovahs and their friends have moved to their new headquarters, which was a yacht that was owned by Nero.
Klayton was laying down on the bed by himself when he decided to go for a walk. He grabbed his water bottle and went to the yacht’s deck. He smiled when he saw Nero leaning against the rails as he was staring out into the ocean.
“The only thing I envy about not having lycanthrope is how guys stay warm no matter how cold it is.” Nero said as he sensed Klayton close to him. Nero was protecting himself from the cold with a heavy winter coat.
Klayton stood a few feet from Nero and said nothing. This was the first time that he was ever in the middle of the ocean, and he wondered if his mom ever did. He missed her now more than ever.
“What’s up, dude? Everything okay? I’m sorry that she left you.”
“A part of me is angry that she left without saying goodbye, but the other half of me is happy though. She’s gone, but that means that no harm will come to her.”
“You’re not mad that she took some of your money?”
“No.” He drank his water. “I want her to be okay. I think that she made the right choice with how she left. My stubborn, prideful, and selfish ass would have done anything to keep her here. I stopped being angry when I realized that Lilly was better off without us. I just hope that she is precautious and can control her blood lust.”
“You still want war with Kayla?” Nero said.
“No. I want to kill the vampire that murdered my mother.”
Nero looked at him and asked, “How far are you willing to go for that?”
“There are other people out there with a similar story to mine.”
“Meaning what exactly?”
“I think that a lot of people have lost relatives and loved ones due to a vampire’s lust for blood. Think about it. How many kids have grown up confused and scared? How many of them have become huntsmen? Killing Garrett won’t bring back my mom. I know that. But it is going to be one less evil in this world.”
“If you could go back to being human, would you?”
“No one would ever want to go back after experiencing what we have.”
Nero finished his beer. “That’s true. I would never change anything about my vampirism. I got millions, I’m hard to kill and I can enjoy life a
s I please.”
“One thing is for sure though; whatever happens, if it goes our way or not, it is going to be talked about forever.”
●●●
Fay had induced himself in a self-made coma so that he could recharge his powers. The sounds that everyone was making outside of his room were the reasons why he suddenly woke up. The boat was hundreds of miles away from the shore and the group had nothing to worry about as Antonio and Fay had created a warding spell around them that prevented anyone from seeing or sensing them.
Fay entered the kitchen and sat on a chair in front of Nero and Mila who were having breakfast together. He used his magic to open the kitchen cabinet and then made a large plate levitate towards him.
He used his powers to make the fridge door open, and then he levitated the pancake syrup and it gently placed itself on the table. He placed some of the pancakes that were on a plate on the table into his own plate.
As he was about to take the first bite of his food, Nero asked, “Do they set rules on power manipulation for Warlocks?”
“Yeah, but I don’t really care.” Fay before stuffing his mouth big a with bite of the pancake.
“Can your people trace you?” Mila wondered.
“Yes, but I created an enchantment spell and placed it on my ribs. It’s a warding spell like the one Antonio and I casted on this boat. Hey, how close are we from land?”
“Not too far. We are going to head to land at night. Less attention from unwanted eyes.” Nero said.
“How does Kayla have that many followers?”
“She rescues people. Hell, I was one of them. A hopeless veteran with PTSD living in the streets, smelling like piss.”
“How did you meet her?” Nero smiled and then gave a brief summary of everything that he has gone thru with her.
“If she did all that, and rescued you from your miserable life,-”
“Hey- “ Mila was a little irritated with how Fay said that.
Nero chuckled as he placed his hand on her thigh and caressed her, “It’s okay babe, I thought that was funny.”
“Well, if she gave you all that, and you have become such a powerful vampire with a crap-ton of money, why would you- “
