by Jason Tucker
“We’re getting close,” Vincent said.
“Good,” said Nicolette. She turned around in her seat to look at the three vampires in the back. “Do exactly as I say when we get there.”
Chapter Nineteen
The cord was tighter than it needed to be. Having Rachelle’s foot in his back, heel grinding into his spine, didn’t feel any better. His sister and Del were dead - or undead - for all he knew. And the vampires were coming to finish him. He didn’t know how they knew where to find him. Maybe the girl had tortured Del to find out. And here was Rachelle stepping on him, pointing a gun at his head, still playing some ridiculous game trying to show him and the rest of her little world how she was in charge now and how she was better and badder than her father.
Of course, her father had never done anything quite so stupid, and Joey was about to tell her that when he heard a ruckus coming from upstairs. Maybe the vampires had already arrived. At least he might get to see the vampires kill Rachelle. That was better than nothing.
Only it didn’t sound like vampires, not from the cussing and hollering he heard. It was Del.
“What the hell are you stupid sons of bitches doing in my house,” Del said.
It sounded to Joey as though he was still upstairs. Yelling at Rachelle’s guards from the sound of it. Joey tried to crane his neck so that he could get a better look at the ladder. If Del was alive then Caroline might be alive too. Of course, that might not matter with Rachelle around.
“Let me down into my own damn bunker,” Del said. “This woman needs help.”
A few moments later, he could see Del’s feet descending the ladder.
“Well, shit,” Del said. “This is just what I needed.”
“Hey, Del, how’s it going. You have visitors by the way,” Joey said. Rachelle kicked the back of his head just hard enough to sting. He groaned. “What about Caroline?”
“She’s here,” Del said. “Upstairs and laying down in my bedroom. I’m grabbing some first aid stuff from my stash.”
“She’s hurt?” Joey struggled, but it did no good.
“Not too bad,” Del said. “Dammit, Carlos, get out of my damn way you big ugly lummox. Just some scratches and cuts.”
“Did she get bitten?” Rachelle asked.
“No,” Del said. “No bites, just torn up. Now, dammit, Rachelle, get your overgrown baboon out of my way so I can tend to her wounds, and let Joey up.”
“Don’t talk to me like that,” she said.
Joey felt the pressure she was putting on him lessen. She hated when anyone questioned her. “Del, if you aren’t careful, she might just take one of your fingers to show how badass she is. Nothing says I’m in charge like cutting off body parts.”
“Shut up,” Rachelle said.
“He needs to see her. It’s his sister,” Del said. “And we have bigger things to worry about right now.”
“We gotta go, boss,” Carlos said. “We have to get out of here before the vampires get here.”
“Wait, what do you mean before the vampires get here?” Del said.
“You dropped your phone,” Joey said. “She called and says she’s on her way.”
“Shit, we can’t be here,” Del said. “I put the lights on upstairs, but I don’t want to put all my faith in them. I saw what her gang did to a couple of cops, and I don’t want to see it again. I sure as hell don’t want to be on the receiving end of that.”
“Come on, Rachelle, let me up and out of these bonds. I promise I’ll let you torture me or kill me later,” Joey said.
“Maybe I’ll get what I want anyway,” Rachelle said. She turned to Carlos and nodded. “We’re out of here. Let the vampire deal with them. We’ll head back home and see how it all plays out.”
“Hell yes,” Carlos said. “Maybe the little bloodsucker will forget about us.”
“The vampire doesn’t seem the forgiving type,” Joey said. “Kinda like someone else I know.”
Rachelle bent down beside him, seething, her face only inches away from his. Her breath smelled like cilantro, avocado and carne asada, with just a hint of mint gum in a lame attempt to cover up the smell. Joey heard the flicking sound of her knife as she snapped it open. He knew the sound well. It was the same sound he’d heard right before she’d taken his finger the last time.
“There isn’t time for this nonsense,” Del said. “Those things could be outside right now.”
Joey could see that it didn’t matter to Rachelle. Joey felt the blade slice through his shirt and into his chest, causing a sharp, burning and itching sensation. He wanted to struggle against her, but he knew if he did that the she would just enjoy it.
“One more,” she said, drawing her knife along his jawline, cutting into him as she went. Then she stood, licked the blade and followed Carlos up the ladder.
Joey gritted his teeth and nodded at Del, who shook his head and said, “I told you she was nuts. Now, let’s get you unbound so we can get the hell out of here before it’s too late.”
As Del cut Joey’s bonds, a shout from upstairs told them that they might have missed their window.
Chapter Twenty
Rachelle looked out of Del’s front windows. The UV lights were obnoxiously bright, and she could not see anything in the darkness beyond them. At least not at first. Then she thought she caught movement just outside Del’s gate. People looking into the lot. Maybe not people, she thought.
The cars, along with Del’s piece of shit truck, were parked inside, safe in the bright glow of the UV lights. The two guards she’d brought with her were already outside, guns drawn and looking into the dark. Rachelle looked over at Carlos.
“Get to the cars and get the hell out of here?” she said.
“I don’t know,” Carlos said. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“You think staying here is actually better?”
He shrugged. “There’s only one way out - that gate. And you know they are out there just as well as I do. As soon as we open the gate they’re going to be right there. I think we should just stay here until sunup.”
“Did you leave your balls somewhere?” she asked. “You think Del and Joey are sitting down there twiddling their thumbs? Del’s got weapons down there. I don’t think Joey’s going to want to have us here overnight either, not after what we did to him.”
“You didn’t have to cut him,” Carlos said.
“Damn, you’re as bad as he is,” she said, pushing toward the door. “Just do what I tell you. We’re getting out of here. We’ll run the fuckers over if we have to and make a stand back on Laurel Canyon. But I sure as hell won’t die in this shitty little hovel.”
A sound from behind them made both Rachelle and Carlos spin. Standing in the little hall that led from the front room to the kitchen was a woman. Rachelle recognized her.
“What’s happening?” Caroline asked. She was bloody and leaned against the wall for support. “Where’s my brother and what the hell did he do?”
“He pissed off the wrong people, sweetie,” Rachelle said. “And he dragged you to hell with him. Enjoy. As for us, we’re getting out of here. Come on, Carlos.”
“Boss,” Carlos said. He was pointing out the window. “Something’s happening.”
Rachelle returned to the window and saw that the two men outside now had their guns drawn and they were shouting something that she couldn’t understand. A few seconds later the pop of gunfire rang out in the darkness erupted and the UV lights and then the spotlights went out one by one. Then the men outside started screaming.
“They’re coming,” Carlos said.
“That’s just perfect,” Rachelle said.
Chapter Twenty-One
The damnable lights were gone, but Vincent had no trouble seeing the two men standing in the center of the Del’s yard. They kept spinning, shaking and quaking, as they searched for the vampires. Vincent moved quickly and silently toward them, knowing that the humans would be unable to see him thanks to the sudden b
lackness. The thought of killing came so easily to him now, and his limbs followed, clambering over the gate. Together, he and Robens took down one of the men before he could squeeze off a shot. Freddy, Hester and Nicolette were on the other.
No time for blood and flesh, Vincent thought. He reached down and grabbed the unknown man’s head in his hands. He twisted and separated the head from the shoulders easily with a sickening crunch. He felt the warm blood wash over his hands, and it took every ounce of his willpower not to stop what he was doing and lap at them with his tongue. Instead of succumbing, he gripped the head in his hand and threw it at the side of Del’s house. It crashed through a window. Vincent felt a growl of triumph rumble in his throat. The thought of being on the winning side of anything was as strange to him as his new life as a vampire.
Nicolette laughed and tittered as she followed suit and threw the other man’s head through the broken window. In that moment, she reminded Vincent of a child, just some kid throwing a ball with her friends. Of course, the ball in this case was a dead man’s head. And she was certainly no little child. Vincent was still not even sure how he felt about her. Would he follow her or set out on his own? She had the knowledge and the skills he needed in order to survive. Once again, he had no choice and there was no time to even think about it.
The five vampires raced across the yard toward the gaping maw of the broken window. Vincent knew that Del had all manner of weapons in there, and he braced himself for what he thought would be the inevitable peppering from gunfire that he would receive as he ran closer and closer.
Only no gunfire erupted. Nothing happened, and seconds later, he and the others were standing in Del’s living room. The place stank of tea and canned ravioli. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe the men outside were a ruse and Del and the others weren’t even in the house. He sniffed the air again and thought he could out familiar scents. Del was there, as it was his home. But he could smell and separate scents of other humans as well. Carlos… Giovanni… and Joey. He shuddered when he caught Joey’s scent, even though it made no sense to do so. Joey was just a human after all.
“They are here, hiding,” Nicolette said. “Find them.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Joey knew that Caroline was avoiding his gaze as Del was bandaging her wounds. He tried to catch her eyes and talk with her, but she just kept turning away. Carlos, Giovanni and his sister had fled down the ladder and into the bunker as soon as the vamps had started shooting out the spotlights and the UV lights. They tightened the hatch and locked it from the inside so that no one would be able to open it. At least no one with normal human strength would be able to open it, he reasoned. He did not know about angry, bloodthirsty vampires. Even Del was unsure how long the hatch would last under an assault. Cops would respond to the gunfire, but even that might not dissuade that crazy little girl.
Already, they could hear the thump… thud… thump of the things smashing the top of the hatch. Eventually, they would make their way into the bunker.
“What’s the plan?” Giovanni asked.
“What do you mean?” Joey asked. “I don’t think Del really has a contingency plan for vampires.”
“Actually,” Del said, dabbing peroxide onto a deep laceration on Caroline’s shoulder. She did not wince or flinch. “I have an idea or two.”
“You gonna enlighten us, old man?” Rachelle said.
“It involves bladed weapons and explosions, followed by running like rats through a dark maze. And since I don’t know how long it’s going to take those things to rip the lid off of that hatch, it’s best that we move quick,” he said. He motioned for Joey and handed him bandaged and gauze. “Joey, you take over patching your sister up, and I’ll gather what we need. Carlos, you watch that hatch. Giovanni, I’m going to need you to help me carry some things.”
Joey sat beside Caroline. He hadn’t seen her in so long, and the last thing she’d ever said to him was that she never wanted to speak with him again. From the look on her face, it did not seem as though she was going to end the embargo. He couldn’t really blame her though. It was his fault that she was here and bleeding in this bunker with murderers, gunrunners and a madwoman, with bloodsuckers just above them. Christ, he was lucky she didn’t just decide to kill him herself. He was not the type to have ever felt much guilt for the things he’d done in life, but today was changing things, opening his eyes to all of the pain for which he was the root cause.
He moved he hair away from the back of her neck to check for more wounds, and he found one. It was not a bite, thankfully. Still, it unnerved him and sent a chill sliding through him. Gouged into the flesh at the base of his sister’s neck was a word.
TWO
He poured peroxide over the wound, which looked as though it had been made with fingernails. He couldn’t stand the thought of that little monster hurting his sister like that, her nasty, grimy nails digging into the flesh. The peroxide bubbled violently. He then applied a thick layer of Neosporin and covered it all with a bandage. He wasn’t a medic, but it would have to do for now. They did not have time to waste. The creatures were still coming.
Thump…thud… thump.
“Alright,” Del said, as he and Rachelle returned from another part of the bunker. He was carrying what looked to be some sort of mine, and Rachelle was holding a large cloth bundle that clanked when she moved. “I’m going to set up the proximity mines near the base of the ladder. When one or two of those things get down here, they’ll blow. Vampires or not, it’s gonna blow ‘em to kingdom come.”
“What about us?” Carlos asked. “I don’t want to be here when those things go off.”
“We won’t be. We’ll be taking the back door out of here, and try to get as far away from this place as possible while they are picking up their pieces.”
“Through the sewers,” Joey said. Brilliant, as long as Del really knew his way out. The sun didn’t rise in the sewers, so the vampires would be able to keep hunting them. “What about the blades?”
I figure that in the sewers, blades are going to be better for a couple of reasons. They aren’t going to deafen us, and they can shear limbs a lot more easily than that peashooter you have. I don’t know if vampires can grow them back, but if they can, I imagine it will take a while. Take off a head if we can. That’s what the legends say, right. Take off the head.”
“I thought that was for zombies, man,” Carlos said.
“I imagine not having a head is going to be a bad day for just about anything,” Rachelle said. She dropped the bundle onto the floor and unwrapped it. Inside were several machetes and a couple of hatchets. Most looked like rejects from an Army surplus store, but a couple looked like high quality handmade Del specials. “Pick something pretty.”
Joey grabbed one of Del’s handmade machetes for himself and another for Caroline. She looked at the blade with as much disgust as she did Joey.
“Look, darling,” Rachelle said. “No one is going to have time to babysit you. You look like you’ve already seen that these things don’t play nice, so you might want to take one. You can save your hate for Joey for later. Look at me, that’s just what I’m doing. Hell, we could even start a club.”
Caroline took the machete, but she kept silent. With the blade in hand, she moved off the couch and away from Joey to stand with Rachelle and Carlos.
Thump… thud… thump… crunch.
They were getting closer, Joey thought. They needed to get out of there now, get through the sewers and then eventually to the streets. After that… he just hoped there was an after that.
“Let’s get out of here,” Del said, ushering everyone through the door into the passage that led to the drainage system beneath Los Angeles. He handed each a small UV flashlight as they went. “Use these to slow the bastards down a bit, and that way maybe we can cut them.”
As soon as Joey was through, Del turned and locked large metal door, hopefully buying them just a bit more time.
Chapter Twenty-Three
> Robens, Hester, and Freddy pounded on the hatch. It was the only place the others could have gone, and their scent was thick around it. It took nearly fifteen minutes of smashing their fists into the thing before it started to give way. The vampires’ fists grew bloody and slick as they beat on the hatch, but it did not slow them. Vincent imagined they were healing almost as quickly as they were breaking the skin.
Finally, Robens growled and ripped away the hatch, exposing the inside of the bunker, a place that Vincent had heard about but never actually been. Del’s bunker and workshop held all sorts of wonders, and he imagined it had quite a few implements of pain as well. Vincent wasn’t really ready to test his immortality, but from the looks on the faces of the others, they looked eager to leap into the bunker. They seemed more animal than human. Feral things unlike him and Nicolette.
Fodder.
Hester and Freddy jumped down first, not bothering to use the ladder. Nicolette licked her lips and started to follow. She was halfway down the ladder when it happened.
Light and noise bloomed like a terrible fiery flower before his eyes. The fire caused an instinctive reaction inside of him.
Fear.
Fire could kill.
He pushed himself backwards and away from the gout of fire that shot upward from the hatch. As he fell, he saw the fire engulf Robens’ face. He lay on his back for several minutes. He couldn’t feel his heart, which he thought should be hammering in his chest. Of course, he was already dead, so his heart wasn’t beating at all. When he sat up, he could see Robens’, still moving and on his feet. Half of his face was gone though, exposing the skull and half a mouth full of wickedly sharp teeth. The flesh was slowly starting to knit itself together, but Vincent noticed it seemed to be taking longer than usual. Fire looked like a real bitch.
