Damned and Cursed | Book 10 | Fallen Skye

by Bullion, Glenn

  It sounded like it came from within the wall.

  “I do.”

  “It took us years to get the mix right. It won’t burn a vampire, but freeze them. Locks every muscle.” He looked at her with curiosity and concern. “We’ve brought dozens of vamps in here. To study, gather info—”

  “To torture and experiment on.”

  “Whatever. How come you aren’t affected?”

  A good question. Victoria assumed it was Kevin’s magic, protecting her from the day. That same protection extended to ultra-violet.

  “You don’t get to ask questions.” She retrieved his phone with her free hand and shoved it in his chest. “Turn it off.”

  She watched him carefully, to make sure he did nothing but follow instructions. He launched a smartphone app, and with a few presses, the light returned to normal. The hum vanished. The sight terrified her. Humans had come so far. The implications of such a weapon were staggering. In the past, humans only had stakes and hammers. Then firearms came. Now, they were moving toward disabling their kind with phones, technology.

  Travis gasped as his body returned to him. Victoria didn’t dare take her attention from Rian. She spoke without turning her head.

  “You okay back there?”

  “Yeah.” His speech warped as his fangs grew. “I’m going to kill him.”

  She didn’t argue.

  “Yes, you are. But, first … ” She looked around the lab and took a breath. It was almost overwhelming, a rare feeling for her. So many questions. “Who is funding this?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just one of the brains. Adam is always on the phone. Pulling strings, talking to people more important than me.”

  The list of possibilities was long. The government, the military, a private investor.

  “Everything here. It needs to be destroyed. Every computer, every hard drive.”

  Rian rolled his eyes.

  “This isn’t the seventies. You think this room isn’t backed up every twenty minutes? Wipe out everything here. They’ll just have a new one up and running in weeks.”

  Victoria sighed.

  “Oh, well. Weeks will have to do.”

  With a simple shove, Rian went sprawling across the floor. She grabbed a desktop computer and almost had the side ripped off when she paused.

  Something touched her ears.

  Glancing at Travis, he too had his ear tilted toward the ceiling. Quiet shuffling, creaking floorboards.

  Victoria glared at Rian. He wore a smug smile.

  “The second you walked in, alarms went off. Automated text messages.” He shook his head, feigning sadness. “Vampires. Still living in the fifteenth century. Adam is up there with twenty men. You’ll be dead in ten.”

  She returned his smile.

  “Good, good. They can help me destroy this place.”

  She moved quickly, reaching for him. One hand under his chin, the other on the back of his head. A violent twist, and his body went limp. Travis jumped at the sudden ferocity.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I know you wanted to kill him.”

  “It’s … quite alright.”

  “Have you ever had to fight for your life before, Travis?”

  “Uh, until this … not really. And as you can tell, I didn’t do a good job. I’m only fifty years old. And you’re … not, are you?”

  “Just a little older. We need to move. Now, before they get in position and pin us in.”

  With that, Victoria ran. She wasn’t sure if Travis followed or not. The dark hallway moved past in a blur. She didn’t bother using the ladder. With one leap, she jumped upward, through the open door, and into the old supervisor’s office. Three men were in the corners, not ready for her at all. They wore masks, night-vision goggles, dark combat gear, carried what looked to be rather large guns. One gasped in shock. Victoria attacked, slashing him twice. Once across the thigh, and another across the face. Blood flew onto his companions.

  They opened fire. For the second time that night, she was shot several times. Shoving aside the pain, she ran into the open warehouse.

  Rian wasn’t lying. Men were everywhere.

  More gunfire. With blinding speed, she moved in between rusted, dead equipment. A bullet penetrated her calf, and something that felt much larger found the flesh above her hip. She stumbled, but didn’t fall. She moved into the shadows and scurried up toward the ceiling, using whatever she could find. Gripping a metal beam, she kicked off the wall and grabbed the bottom of a rafter with one hand. Victoria positioned herself on top of the crisscrossing steel, hidden from eyes below.

  The vampire hunters shouted in confusion. The one Victoria attacked cried in pain as his partner tended to him. Flashlights whirled about the corners and the ceiling. She made no movement, gave them nothing to see. Peering up at the ceiling just above her, she took stock of her injuries. Her side hurt the worst. The slug inside caused major discomfort. She couldn’t afford to take many more shots like that.

  There was commotion beneath her. She turned on the rafter to see Travis running from the supervisor’s office. He attacked several on the way out before sprinting into another office. His form was sloppy, his instincts dull, but she’d seen worse.

  A familiar voice spoke. It was calm, collected, as he gave direction.

  “There’s two of them. Cover that office. Do not engage. Guard the exits.”

  Adam pulled off his mask. He pointed his light above him, searching for Victoria. She didn’t risk seeing in the dark. The glow might reveal her. She remained perfectly still, making sure her wounds didn’t drip blood.

  “I know you can hear me.” He didn’t bother raising his voice, well aware of the senses of his intended audience. “Whoever you are, it’s over. And not just for you, here, tonight. Your kind is over. You’ve terrorized us enough.”

  Victoria smiled.

  She didn’t have magic. She didn’t have demonic powers, with an army of demons at her disposal.

  But she was a vampire.

  She had the darkness. She had space to work, claws, and fangs.

  That was all she needed.

  Go to work, she did.

  Victoria rolled over and fell to the floor below. The landing wasn’t without pain. She landed on her hands and knees, the stinging sensation reverberating through her joints. Her side ached. She needed more blood.

  There was plenty of that to go around.

  The first five or six hunters went down quickly and quietly. She struck from the shadows, broke a neck or two, took what blood she needed.

  After that, a random hunter spotted her, and the gunfire started.

  Victoria took her share of punishment. She always did. A shot to the leg, another to the shoulder. Her pace of attack slowed, but it didn’t stop. She continued to feed as she went, healing as the seconds allowed. The wound above her hip was still there. She’d need a lot of blood for her body to reject the massive slug inside her.

  There was one moment they had her at a disadvantage. Three of them had her pinned behind a mass of ruined cubicle walls. She reached out, taking a round to the wrist, and pulled two mattresses onto the pile for extra protection. Waiting patiently, she listened to them reload.

  Finally, some welcome help arrived.

  Travis disarmed two of them, and the third ran. Victoria peered out from behind the mattresses and allowed herself a small smile. It was an amusing sight to see a man wearing only underwear in battle. They didn’t say a word. Victoria gave him a nod of appreciation before moving once again.

  As it always did, the numbers advantage eventually ran out for the humans. The gunfire slowed, instead replaced by terrified breathing and hiding. Instead of guarding the exits, they were running for them. Victoria let a few of them escape. Two or three vampire hunters didn’t concern her.

  Only their leader did.

  She’d left Adam alive, taken down during the middle of the fray. Travis joined her as she grabbed Adam by the ankle and dragged him across the floor. To hi
s credit, Adam was still defiant. He cursed at Victoria and spit at her along the way.

  She threw him into a raggedy office chair, covered in old urine and semen. A trail of blood ran down his face. One eye was swollen shut.

  Victoria got right to the point. No greetings, no pleasantries.

  “Who do you work for?”

  The response was a middle finger.

  Victoria snatched him and snapped it. Travis winced.

  Adam cried in pain and let out a few curses. Victoria gave him a moment, just a small one, to collect himself. She grabbed him by the throat.

  “Who?”

  “I actually never met them,” he said, his breathing labored. Despite the agony, he smiled. “That’s the beauty of the Internet, of the world we live in. There are so many people who want to kill you, and have the power and money to do it. What you saw down there. That’s not a work in progress. We’re done. Pretty soon, we’ll be able to kill you with just a flashlight. Think about that.”

  Victoria did think about it. It terrified her.

  She gestured to Travis.

  “Get one of those flamethrowers,” she said, pointing at a nearby corpse.

  “Torching the place—” Adam shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Killing me, same thing. We’ve won.”

  “Yeah. Rian told us.”

  Victoria braced herself for the upcoming pain. Taking a deep breath, she dug into her side, pushing through flesh. It felt like it took a year to find the bullet. She pulled out what appeared to be the largest slug she’d ever seen. Blood ran down her shorts, onto her bare leg, the floor.

  “So,” Adam said. “What now—?”

  She pounced. Travis was approaching with the flamethrower, and stopped. Victoria drained him completely, then let his corpse fall to the floor, erection and all. She wiped at her mouth, getting blood on the back of her arm. Travis watched as she tentatively retrieved her own flamethrower. She was slow, very cautious. Fire was something vampires weren’t fond of.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

  “Help me,” she said. “We’ll burn it all.”

  “But you heard him. They’ve already—”

  “I know, I know.” She tried to latch onto something, anything, positive. “But maybe this will slow them down. Either way, this particular group of assholes won’t be kidnapping and tormenting any more of us.”

  Making their way back to the lab, Travis pointed his weapon and almost squeezed the trigger. Victoria stopped him. She approached the dust on the examination tables, and some on the floor. Her eyes teared up as she looked up at Travis.

  “Did you know them?”

  “No,” he said sadly. “I … saw them, kind of. It’s weird. When that light hits you, it’s like time stops. But there are moments you’re aware.”

  She nodded grimly. Standing at his side, they unleashed a spray of flame.

  In mere minutes, the room was falling apart. The floor above collapsed on the lab, taking the bodies of Rian and his henchman companion with it. Victoria and Travis watched, neither saying a word. She was the one to break the silence.

  “Thank you for the help.”

  “Sure. I’m not sure you really needed it, though. You were amazing.”

  She laughed.

  “What’s next for you?”

  “I’m not sure how smart this is, but I … want to see Karen.”

  “I had some doubts about her, too. But I think she is okay.”

  Travis nodded.

  “And you? Where do you go from here?”

  Victoria sighed. She didn’t feel victorious. An ominous feeling haunted her, as if the status quo in the supernatural world was about to shift dramatically.

  But, besides some cleanup, her case was technically closed. No more vampires would go missing. At least not in Buck, Wyoming.

  “I’m going home.”

  CHAPTER 3

  SOME PASSENGERS APPLAUDED and cheered as they touched down at BWI Airport. Victoria had only recently begun flying with the general populace, thanks to the wonderful gift from Kevin. In the past, her flights involved so much preparation and security. Flying at night, hiding from the sun. Taking every precaution to guarantee nothing went wrong, that she wouldn’t get stranded at a hangar with the sun eating away at the shadows. That was no longer an issue. The first time she heard applause at landing, the practice amused her.

  But after leaving Wyoming, flying back to Baltimore, she understood it. She clapped herself, thrilled at leaving the company of the married man seated next to her, constantly flirting.

  “Time to see how much of our luggage they lost,” the man, named Scott, quipped.

  Victoria laughed politely and stretched the truth somewhat.

  “Goodbye, Scott. It was nice meeting you.”

  She rose to leave, and Scott grabbed her arm. She had to bite her lip, to prevent from biting him.

  “Listen, Victoria—” She regretted giving him her actual name. “I don’t have to be home for a few hours. Would you like to get a drink?”

  “As tempting as a drink is, I’ll have to pass. I don’t think your wife would like that very much.”

  “She’s probably out having her own drink right now.”

  “Ah,” Victoria said, smiling. “Then you should find her, join her.”

  With that, she escaped. She sent a text message to Zoey as she left the tunnel. By the time she picked up her luggage, made her way through the throngs of people, and reached the outside, Zoey would be there. Having a ride ready to go felt much better than leaving her precious Porsche alone and scared, surrounded by unfamiliar cars at airport parking.

  Victoria sat on a bench outside, enjoying the cool breeze. It was nine at night. The sun had set, and darkness claimed the sky. Victoria’s favorite time. Feeling the sun was amazing, and she would never take that for granted as she joined humanity during their waking hours. But there was something about the night. The way cities lit up, yet the shadows took over.

  Twenty minutes passed. Checking her phone again, she frowned when she saw Zoey hadn’t responded. She grumbled as a single complaint escaped her lips.

  “Teenagers.”

  One more simple text message.

  Come get me.

  She concluded it with a smiley face.

  Victoria tried to think of anything that could have gone wrong. The Jeep she was letting Zoey drive was in excellent condition. Zoey didn’t throw wild parties, hadn’t made many friends yet in Baltimore. She assured Victoria that all she had to do was let her know when she landed. They’d traded texts earlier in the day. Victoria sent Zoey her flight information, so she was aware of her plans.

  Another concerned text went by with no response. She called her, but there was no answer. Worry pushed aside frustration. Was she okay?

  Her phone rang. Victoria answered without looking at the caller ID, surprised at her own protective feelings.

  “Zoey?” she said. “Where the hell are you?”

  A male voice spoke instead.

  “Victoria. It’s me.”

  It had been almost a month since they last spoke.

  “Frank?”

  Frank was the proprietor of the Vermilion, what he described as Tinder for vampires and humans. Humans offered blood, vampires accepted, Frank made money, and the exchange benefited all parties involved. Sometimes, that was all there was, but Frank, as sleazy as he could be, had put much thought into his business. There were soundproof rooms, comfortable beds, a recording option for later viewing. Clients could take their kink to another level, if they wanted.

  Victoria helped Frank when needed, for her own reasons. The paltry one percent she collected for her guidance was nothing. But the Vermilion was becoming a must be place for vampires in Baltimore. It helped her keep the local vampire population in line. Careless murders happened much less when, for a small fee, a vampire could simply buy the blood and companionship they desired.

  “Yeah.” Frank was tired, his voice stressed. Hi
s faults aside, she never questioned his work ethic or dedication. He sometimes spent nights at his business. “Listen, I need you to get down here.”

  “Even if I wanted to after a four-hour flight, I can’t. I’m stuck at the airport, waiting for Zoey.”

  “She’s here.”

  She gripped the phone tighter.

  “Is she okay? Did someone hurt her?” An equally terrible thought came. Zoey was learning quickly. She used the Vermilion and a willing partner to practice feeding without hurting a human. She’d gotten quite good, and Victoria was very proud. But the girl was young. “Did she hurt someone else?”

  “She’s fine. I think. Just a little rattled.”

  There was a commotion in the background. People shouting and arguing, what sounded like a fight.

  “I’m sorry. But I have to go. Please, though, can you stop by? I’ll send Michael to the airport to get you.”

  Michael was a newborn vampire, worked security. Victoria and he had their rough moments in the beginning. While the thought of riding with someone she’d beaten to a pulp was amusing, she couldn’t wait that long. Her nerves were frayed.

  “Don’t bother. I’ll catch an Uber. Be there soon.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Just take care of Zoey.”

  “Oh, I’m quite sure she can take care of herself.”

  Victoria frowned. That answered her question. Zoey had hurt someone else.

  *****

  The nightclub that operated above the Vermilion was obnoxiously loud. As hurried as Victoria was, she had to pause a moment upon entering. Resting a hand on the wall, she closed her eyes and focused. It was difficult to push out the noise, and her head throbbed. It was then she knew she needed to rest. Too many cases in quick succession, too much time away from home. Conversations she didn’t want to hear flooded her brain. The sound of pool tables, dancing, drinking, humans grinding on one another. A couple was even having sex in the bathroom. The flashing lights and noises were getting to her.

  She could use one of the Vermilion’s soundproof bedrooms.

  Pushing her way through humans, and even one or two vampires, she made her way to the basement stairs on the far side. Eric, the doorman, sat on a stool, enjoying the sights of the club. Victoria had beaten him before, too. He gave a curt nod as she approached, managed something that resembled a smile.