by P. S. Power
“I only need one room. That and the sitting room?” He had the funds, since he’d actually been making decent money from his various professions over the last four months or so. His client base was small, being only about a thousand people, which didn't give him constant work. It still added up, so he could afford to spend a few hundred dollars per day on things, without it being a hardship at all.
The woman, who was a tiny bit plump, without it being a major health problem, giggled,
“Okay, I can set that up. So, we’re meeting in your room for dinner?”
He nodded.
“Why not? I’d like the company. It never hurts to have friends. That’s the saying, isn’t it?” She didn’t confirm that, becoming serious, instead. He had to hand over his card, to pay for the first day. She seemed impressed with something, even though she didn’t tell him what that was.
It was clear that the woman might not join him for a meal of course, joking with him aside. That was fine as well. He was used to being alone, after all. Not constantly, but enough that it wasn’t a shock to his system.
“Do you have wi-fi here?” He hadn’t asked before, since it would be nice, but might not be that important, over all. He was used to studying, especially at night and had missed doing that for several nights in a row. The woman, who hadn’t given her name, smiled then, nodding.
“Sure. The password is anchor. Here’s your key. Just swipe the card at the door, you get two of them. Do you have anyone with you?”
That was a different question to ask, so he shook his head.
“I’m alone. Well, unless you come for dinner? Eight, wasn’t it?”
The woman blushed, then nodded.
“Sure, if you’re honestly asking. I’m Kendra, by the way. You’re Liam… Um… Frankenstein? That’s a bit of a different last name, isn’t it?” She seemed to be asking if it was fake, except that his I.D. had said that it was what he was called.
He just nodded at her, indicating that he understood what she was really asking.
“It’s a family thing, unfortunately. It’s even funnier now that I’m a doctor. I was just thinking about changing it, to be honest. Yesterday. That’s a bit of a hassle or I would have done it already.” That was true enough, and was waved away by the lady behind the desk.
Kendra.
“It’s a good enough name. Famous, too. I’ll, um, see you later?”
He nodded, then left, to repark the SUV, since the sign said he needed to, and then carry his bags up to his room. If he wasn’t eating until later, at eight, that left him time to shower, get his computer up, then watched the waves in the distance through his window.
It truly was a magnificent view.
Chapter three
Liam moved back a step when the large man hit him in the face. He had something in his hand that actually made contact. Something metal. As he moved, Liam noticed that it seemed to be a small metal bar of some kind. Not a knife. It was a club or bludgeon, rounded and dull in color. About a foot and a half long. Pain flared, and faded, as he took several more steps back. As that happened, three people rushed into the room.
None of them were Kendra, he noticed.
They were men and while not all of them were as large as the first fellow, the other two were still bigger than Liam by at least six inches and several pounds. The largest man moved in again, roughly swinging his weapon again, looking fierce. Liam watched it come at him, smiled and snagged the wrist from the air. Without moving his feet, Liam pulled the arm down twisting the bones, since he wasn’t allowing any movement other than his own, placing a huge amount of force on the elbow of the attacker. It popped rewardingly.
The fellow screamed, bellowing in pain, as the tool he had fell to the floor. One of the other men came at him then, followed by the last man, who was still in the open door. Guarding it, so that no one could escape. Liam simply moved forward, striking the fellow in front with an open palm to the chest. It blasted him back into the other fellow, leaving all three attackers on the floor of the room, the door being held open by the bodies of two of them, even as the first man fought at his waist, going for a different weapon with his right hand. The uninjured one.
“Fucker!” The man screamed as he lunged with the blade. It was the kind that folded out, and seemed to be of medium quality. At least it broke when Liam removed it from the other man’s hand, crushing the handle fairly easily. Not bothering to remove it all the way from the warm fingers first. The metal and wood handle cracked, leaving nothing much to hold on to, when he was finished with the move.
While the gentleman still had his left hand wrapped around it. This time he screamed, much like a wounded animal, instead of the more masculine sound that had taken place the first time, with the other weapon. One of the men in the door tried to rally, seeming intent on running away, rather than pressing in for battle. Not knowing what to do, Liam stepped over the man he’d struck, grabbing the last one by the shirt and pulling him into the room. That allowed the door to shut, finally.
It was only then that he realized that the men all seemed to have fangs.
The one he was holding tried to struggle away, his teeth out, seeming crazed. Liam simply slapped him. One time. So hard that the floor nearly buckled under the weight of the move. Dead or not, that man didn't climb to his feet again. Instead all three men just stayed down, one of them still whimpering, due to the pain of his hand being crushed into something that had to resemble a bag of bone chips. It would heal, in time, if he could stay alive that long.
Liam spoke gently, his high voice relaxed. It wasn’t as if the events had left him feeling tense or anything, after all.
“Hello! I was expecting someone else… Kendra? Is she all right?” The most likely scenario would be that she’d called the men in for some reason. At first, when the door opened and he was hit, he’d suspected that she’d set him up to be robbed. It could be happenstance but the men had come promptly at eight. That was a bit too exacting to be happenstance. Even if they’d seen him earlier, when he’d checked in, the odds of them being there precisely at the time he was supposed to have a meeting for diner would be rather low.
Even with these fellows being undead like they were, all matching in that they had dark hair in different shades and light skin, which probably matched what most had going on in the part of the world they were residing in, the fact that they were vampires stood out. Honestly, Liam would have been hard pressed to find that type of person specifically in the area, unless someone told him who to contact. Yet, there they were, decorating the floor of his hotel.
Coming to visit on his very first day there. After no more than a few hours of darkness having come yet. Meaning they hadn’t had a lot of time to get ready for the adventure they’d set themselves. They also didn’t have any rope, chains or tape. So, if the intent had been to capture him, they would have failed. Not that they wouldn’t have anyway. Securing him with that kind of thing wouldn’t really do much to stop him, after all.
The first man recovered enough to speak coherently first. That was good, because he’d also been the noisy one, gasping and mewling as he held his arms out awkwardly.
“We sent her home. She had word that we were to be contacted if she saw you. The money…” The man grimaced then and shook his head. “Clearly that’s so high because you aren’t just going to die easily. It’s a shame, even split three ways, fifty million would be a nice little nest egg.”
Liam let his head tilt to the side then.
“Money? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Can you explain?” He thought he had the basic idea down, but that didn't mean he couldn’t use more than was being given at the moment.
Thankfully, the large man, who was probably about six-six and nearly three hundred pounds, his vampire canine teeth still protruding, seemed willing to explain what he knew.
“The word went out that there was a bounty for your death or capture. If your body is presented, the one with it gets fifty million. We pick
ed up the order yesterday. It was just luck that one of Sam’s blood freaks works here and saw the short man with yellow eyes like this. It was on the Under-Page.” There was a shrug and a wince, since the being was still in pain, it seemed.
That made more sense, so he went to his laptop and set up the VPN he needed as well as the Tor browser. Halfway through he had to get up and hit the second man again, this time in the head, slamming him into the floor so hard that something in it warped and broke from the impact. He stopped moving, but no blood tried to come out. Then, it probably wouldn’t, unless Liam ripped off body parts. Even then it would just trickle, instead of gushing. The dead didn’t have beating hearts.
He waved at the others.
“Let me look this up? Then we can decide what to do with you.” The simple answer would be to kill them, for making an attempt on his life.
On the good side, he didn't have to do that kind of thing at all. It wasn’t a good or wholesome thing, them trying to kill him. It was, however, understandable. Many people might try for him, given the incentive on the table. Once he had the dark web access up, he plugged in the Under-Page address from memory. Sure enough, right there on the front of it, to the right-hand side, was an announcement that anyone killing or taking him prisoner and presenting him alive to an unknown source, reachable from that page via link, would get fifty million U.S. dollars. That was being held in escrow, which meant that the funds were verified already and not just a trick. It made it seem a bit more real.
He smiled. It got the two conscious vampires to stiffen up a bit, even if it probably wasn’t fierce or means seeming.
“I see now. Or, well, I don’t really. There isn’t a lot of evidence as to who is doing this. Let me check something? I’ll try not to be long, I promise.” He let the words come out sounding sweet, even if that was fake. The men on the floor didn’t move a lot. Not even to attempt running again.
There was, when he checked, a similar message on several of the other boards that he had the addresses to. All had a description of him as well as his full name. All of it, as it showed on his documents. Liam Alan Frankenstein. It even pointed out that he was doctor or possibly a dentist. Not both though, as was the actual case. The ad also didn’t list him as a board-certified lawyer. That meant whoever had placed the order for his death didn’t have perfect understanding of who and what he was. Unless doing things that way was a lie or trick, somehow.
Not that the presentation of the advertisement online didn’t tell him a lot about who had set it up in the first place. They were a person with a large amount of resources, who understood how to use the deep web, including dark web financial features. They were also setting him up to be gone after by supernatural people. He couldn’t tell if that was exclusive or not. Human hit men could have been contacted as well. Liam didn’t know where to check for that and bumping around the deep web was nearly impossible as far as things like that went. You had to know where to go on the deep web, since Google wasn’t able to index the pages there.
He took his computer down, placing it in one of his still packed bags, and then looked at the men there.
“I need to speak to the leader of this area, on your side of things. How would I do that, do you know? Over the phone, preferably.” He waited, not expecting a lot of help in getting that done. That, or one of the men there was going to turn out to be the local vampire chief. There were three of them, after all.
Given how few of that kind existed in the world at all, that was a huge number. The equivalent of several million humans having come to visit him at once.
The largest one sighed, not seeming too pleased with the turn of events, for some reason.
“That would be William. Will Sturges. I have a number for him. What do you have planned? I don’t know that he’ll pay much of a ransom for us. I wouldn’t, if I were him. We screwed up and failed. His best bet would be in throwing in with whatever you want.” The man seemed humble about that.
It was probably both truth and a lie at the same time. After all, vampires weren’t known for their humility.
Liam didn't bother answering, since he was the one in charge for the moment. He waved his hand, palm up, demanding the digits be provided, as he pulled his cell phone to make a call. They were given, if grudgingly. Really, it sounded nearly sullen.
When the phone was answered, after seven rings, the man who spoke sounded polite. Almost kind, even.
“Good evening. How may I help you?” There was an accent to the whole thing, though it was soft enough not to be a problem when it came to understanding the man. He seemed a bit as if he was from Eastern Europe. Not that Liam was an expert at such things.
The topic had come up in his research a few times so he’d listened to a few dozen examples of different accents online. Some of the older people, especially the vampires, had different diphthongs going on. Most of that type weren’t from America, after all. They were too old for that to have been an option.
Being cheerful, Liam spoke.
“Hello. Is this William Sturges?”
“Yes.” That was all that was said on the matter.
So he continued, that being the obvious indication of the moment.
“Ah, good. I’m Liam Frankenstein. Several, three specifically, of your vampires tried to kill me a few moments ago. It seems that there’s a bounty on my head, that they saw online? At least I think the plan was to kill me. They didn’t have any restraints with them. Let me…” He looked at the large vampire and smiled. “You were trying to kill me, correct?”
The man groaned a bit. Not in pain. It sounded frustrated. A bit embarrassed, as well.
“Um, yeah. That was the plan. It sounded easier to do than taking you alive.”
The vamp on the phone growled a bit.
“Manny. Who else is there? Are they still alive?”
The words didn’t seem to be for Liam, the large vampire answering directly. As if he’d easily heard what was said.
“Sam and Decard. They, we’re all injured. Badly. My arms are useless. I think Sam had his chest crushed and Decard is down with a broken neck. We… We aren’t fighting our way out of here. This guy is untouched, by the way. Totally. It took him about ten seconds for all of us. Maybe less than that.”
A soft hiss came from the phone then.
“I understand. So, Mr. Frankenstein, what would you have of me to gain the release of my people?”
He thought for a moment, and then shrugged, his face light and relaxed. At least that was the expression he was going for. There was no reason for him to be angry about it.
“Can you come and pick them up? That and a promise not to attack me again, or mention where I’ve been, would be good. At least for a few days. Is that acceptable?” He didn't add that he could also kill them and dispose of them in the ocean.
That kind of thing was, clearly, an option. Simply not one that he wanted to take if merely having their leader come and remove them could work as well. Instead of instantly agreeing, the vampire on the phone coughed.
“I might send some people to retrieve them? It would seem that being in your presence might not be the best of plans, if it can be avoided. Still, that is kindly of you, allowing them to live. Is there any particular reason for that? If someone tried for me that way, I don’t think I’d be as understanding.” The man seemed serious about the idea.
Almost as if he were suggesting that Liam murder his own people. Probably attempting to form an alliance with him, since he was, in some ways, more powerful than the three that had come for him. That would get the attention of the vampire, he had to think.
“Truly? I don’t really. The fact is that there’s no reason to kill them. They can’t fulfill this order and while I understand the allure of a large sum of money, I don’t think they will be trying it again. Not tonight. Queen Narran might want to caution people not to try it again. Or not. We’ve met, but that doesn’t mean she won’t support such an effort. It would depend on the politics, behind the scen
es. No one even told me that I had a price on my head, until Manny here mentioned it, so I might not be in the loop that way.”
He was, Liam knew, over-sharing. As if the man on the phone were already in with him on things. Instead of growling and pretending that was a weakness, the man chuckled a bit.
“Ah. Well, I will send some people along then. You are near the town here?”
He was as it turned out, in the same area, so gave the hotel and the room number. Then, after the other man hung up, he waited. It was tempting to simply load the car and go, which was his ultimate plan for the evening. The vampires were, slowly, healing and managing to stir a bit. Not enough to be a threat though. What they did manage, fairly well, was keeping their mouths shut. They did it for several hours, not even moaning or acting afraid. All of them were able to at least sit up, by the time a knock came on the door.
That was soft and polite. This time, Liam used the little peep hole, to see who was there. It was a woman, who had curly blonde hair and a long, thin face. She wasn’t attractive, particularly, though she seemed young, which helped. About the same age he looked. Which for a vampire, meant nothing. There were visible fangs, which was a good sign.
He opened the door slowly, ready to slam it in her face if a weapon came out. She just waited there, seeming a little bit tense. Not nervous in a real-world sense. Just as if she didn't know what was going to happen, so was trying to stay ready to fight or run.
On seeing him, she stared for a moment, first at his eyes, then she glanced at his hands and feet. It was done quickly, as he did much the same in return. She was in a long coat, that had a buff color to it. A thing which probably wouldn’t be warm enough for most humans, even if it wasn’t that chilly at the beach. The wind would suck heat away from the flesh. If you had warmth at all to start with.
