by Drew D'Amato
Andrew and Stephen flew down behind some chairs and transformed again back into their human form. Vlad and Jericho didn’t see them. They were looking off toward the bathroom the two men had gone into. Then a figure approached Andrew and Stephen from behind.
6
The Crusaders ate caviar, but drank only water. They were also on high alert. They did not believe that just two vampires were at this airport right now, but they didn’t think the others were this close. Then one of them noticed four men across from them. Two in a booth facing them, the other two sat in chairs with their backs to them. They were dressed in all black with almost all of them with long hair. Could they be vampires? There was one way to tell for sure.
The man took out his cell phone that had a camera on it. He folded his arms and kept the camera underneath them to hide it. He snapped three quick pictures in their direction. When he checked his phone the proof was there. He looked at three pictures of an empty booth, even though his eyes told him four men sat there. They weren’t able to be photographed—they were vampires.
“Men,” the cameraman said under his breath to his compatriots. “There are four vampires in the booth across from us.”
“How do you know?” another one asked.
He titled his phone so that they could see the pictures.
“So what do we do?” a third asked. “We don’t have any weapons on us.”
“Nothing for now. We don’t want to do anything to alert them. But if we need to…” The man paused and looked reflectively at the fork in his hand. It flipped it over and noticed the name Gorham etched on the back of it.
“This is some nice silverware.”
THREE
1
Vlad and Jericho waited by the pail as Peterson entered the bathroom with the other Crusader. They kept their eyes peeled, but aside from the other Crusaders Peterson met with, there wasn’t much more to see.
“So what do you think about this?” Jericho asked Vlad.
“Something’s rotten in Denmark.”
“What do you mean, just because he didn’t want to become a vampire back there? I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want that on my plate right now with everything else he is about to pull off.”
“It’s not just that, this whole plan seems weak. I’m curious as to how he pulls off this whole switch without any of the other Crusaders finding it funny.”
“Well the other Crusader didn’t object and walked with him into the bathroom. So maybe if we knew their boss, this story about wanting the coffer together wouldn’t seem that odd? As far as the switch goes, as long he gets the coffer all in one bag I don’t care how smooth the actual switch is. Peterson will escape with us, and the Crusaders will be stuck wondering what just happened. An airport is not an ideal location, but it also keeps their side handicapped too. Our group still has weapons. I doubt their side has any with them.”
“I’m looking for our cavalry right now.”
“Michael was supposed to let Malachi know when we were making the switch. But you’re right; I don’t see any of them down here either.”
“Text Malachi yourself.”
Jericho took out his phone. He was about to start typing when he looked at Vlad. “You seem a bit off, master.”
“Maybe I’m just spreading myself too thin.” He smiled. Jericho’s eyes opened in amusement realizing what Vlad meant. Before he could smile himself, Vlad grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him down.
A bullet crashed through the window next to them leaving a spider crack. The hole was at the height of Vlad’s heart when he was standing.
2
A Porsche SUV was parked on the street across from the airport. The window behind the driver’s seat was opened. Inside the car, sat a Crusader with a high-powered Barrett M82 Sniper rifle loaded with silver bullets. He squeezed the trigger and missed.
“Vlad ducked,” he said. “I don’t know how.”
“Well keep firing until you kill him, we won’t get a second chance,” said the Crusader riding shotgun.
Then the door behind the passenger seat was opened from someone outside. The figure grabbed the sniper out of the car and took the gun from him. The driver of the Porsche panicked and drove off. The attacker aimed the rifle from the sniper in one hand and fired at the car speeding away. One shot hit the gas tank of the car. The car blew up and flipped over.
The sniper, held at the neck by attacker’s left hand, squirmed in a frenzied panic.
“I just saw you inside, how the hell did you get out here?”
“There’s a lot of me going around,” Vlad said with a smile.
Vlad crushed his neck and let his lifeless body fall. He turned to his left to Andrew and Stephen who were also outside with him. “Stephen, go see if those two survived; Andrew, tell Malachi it’s on and to get down here.”
The driver of the car had died on impact. The one sitting shotgun had some breath left in him. He crawled out the car, and opened his cellphone. He texted the Crusaders up in the Caviar House: Target is still alive, take all necessary action.
He hit send and then welcomed a bullet to the back of his head. Stephen stood up and looked back at Vlad and Andrew. “They are all dead.”
“They are dead,” Vlad said. “But far from all of them.”
3
Malachi stared at the strange men across from them. One of them had received a text and looked down on his phone to read it. Gregory who sat across from Malachi didn’t notice Malachi staring behind him. His face was buried in the menu, as was Daniel’s who also sat with his back to the Crusaders. Matthew, sitting next to Malachi faced the Crusaders, too, but he had taken a moment to glance at the menu also. Malachi was hungry, but not for food. He was focused on the Crusaders when their waitress came to the end of the table between Daniel and him. He glanced over to speak to her, and then everything happened so fast.
Two of the Crusaders made their move toward their table. They threw their water at the vampires. It was not regular water, it was holy water. Malachi saw the men bless it themselves earlier. It splashed all over the back of Gregory and Daniel’s head and a good amount also got onto Matthew’s face, too. It burned their skin like acid. In the sudden shock, the Crusaders were able to stab silver forks through Gregory and Daniel’s back in the confusion. They both disappeared.
Matthew screamed in pain. Malachi thought quickly. He pulled out his Uzi from its holster under his arm and shot under the table. The two Crusaders fell dead. As one fell he crashed onto the waitress who then fell onto Malachi’s lap.
“They have weapons,” a third Crusader said. As Malachi pushed the waitress off him, the remaining four Crusaders used this moment to escape out of the restaurant.
“C’mon, lets go before the Border Guard get involved,” Malachi told Matthew.
“I’m having a tough time seeing.” Matthew’s face was still burned, but moved like a liquid as it was trying to heal itself.
“Don’t worry it will heal, let’s go.”
They ran out of the restaurant after the Crusaders. The people in the place stood frozen in fear and confusion. Did those two men just disappear?
4
Jericho and Vlad had stayed on the ground after the first shot. They heard more gunshots and the explosion of the SUV out front. Vlad took everything in. To his right he found the bullet that almost ended his life. It had ricocheted off the steel garbage pail that he was standing next to. He grabbed it and put it in his pocket. He turned left and saw the panicked crowd of the airport running in all directions trying to make sense out of everything. Jericho however kept his eyes focused on the bathroom, waiting for Peterson to come out.
Vlad turned his attention to the four other Crusaders. They had gone to their luggage, which were loaded with weapons. They moved quickly but to Vlad it seemed like forever. They would have all been dead by now if he had his gun on him. Vlad and Jericho were mixed in with the frantically running air travelers. The two stayed on the ground in the prone posit
ion behind the trashcan. He hoped they would take a while to find him. They didn’t.
They had never taken their eyes off him. They had Vlad and Jericho pinned down. Vlad scrambled to think of what to do next. It would take a few seconds to get himself, Andrew and Stephen back inside the airport—seconds he didn’t have. Two of the Crusaders aimed their guns at them. The other two inspected the scene looking for any other vampires or security guards to come into the scene. Vlad welcomed the presence of security guards right then. Their bullets couldn’t kill him, but they could kill the Crusaders. His blood was draining every moment that passed. He didn’t have much power left. He was in no position to pull a trick. Does it end like this?
Michael threw a steak knife at one of the shooters. The second Crusader turned in Michael’s direction to shoot—Altitude’s entrance from the basement level—but Michael and Deacon had ducked out of sight. Four men, who Vlad suspected might also be Crusaders, came into the view running down the escalators, but they had no guns. Malachi and Matthew followed them with Border Guards racing after them. In one shot Malachi took out the eye and the back of the brain of the second shooter aimed at Vlad. Matthew missed with his shots. His face was disfigured. It looked like it was trying to heal itself, but his sight was still not good. He fired blindly.
Border Guards came out from the customs office opposite of the windows.
Jericho was still focused on the bathroom.
In the chaos Vlad saw the four other Crusaders starting to make their way toward the remaining two with the weapons. The two with the weapons fired back at Malachi and Matthew. Malachi dodged the bullets and fell off the escalator to the floor. Matthew’s sight wasn’t clear, and he was killed as he tried to make his way down the escalator.
Everything that happened next, happened in rapid fire. The Border Guards shot and killed the two Crusaders left with the guns. The four weaponless Crusaders paused in their movement when they saw their other comrades killed by the Border Guards. They were trying to devise a way to get to the suitcases with weapons. Michael and Deacon grabbed a Crusader each from behind. Michael twisted one’s neck. Deacon punched his hand right through the other’s chest. The other two broke out and ran toward the suitcases full of weapons. Malachi shot one in the head. Then the Border Guards turned their attention on him. Malachi was shot three times in the chest with regular lead bullets. He fell down to feign like he was human, but he would be on the move soon enough.
The last remaining Crusader was about to run by Vlad, unaware that the master vampire was right at his feet. Vlad threw his arm out and tripped him. He grapped the man around his neck and pulled him closer to him.
“How many of you are there left?” Vlad asked him.
“You have no idea what we have in store for you.”
5
Outside, Vlad in his second form instructed Stephen to wait by the window next to the bathroom Peterson and the other Crusader had disappeared into. When they get out, kill them on sight. He instructed Andrew to go back into the airport and get the rest of his men out. It was getting too hot.
They had to move, not leave, but relocate. Those Crusaders would have to leave the airport sometime and they would follow them, but right now they had to get out of there. No more innocents had to die. Vlad’s secord form waited outside. He started to get tired. The trick of splitting himself into two different forms was draining his blood fast, which was why he barely used this trick. The world was starting to get dark around the edges. His time was short.
6
Michael, Deacon, and Malachi—who gave up on playing dead—followed Andrew back outside. Jericho and Vlad were the only two left inside the airport.
“Jericho we got to get out of here.” Vlad was starting to trail off like he was going to sleep.
“Vlad, what’s wrong with you?”
“I need blood.”
“You have some right next to you.”
The Crusader heard this and struggled to get free of Vlad’s grip, but Vlad had enough strength to still keep the grip on his neck.
“I can’t do it until I am one again.”
“Well then get yourself together—literally.”
The Crusader who had the Blood of the Betrayer came out of the bathroom with a Heckler and Koch MP5 in his arms. Before he could take one shot he caught a bullet to his temple. Stephen killed him by shooting through the window from outside.
“Jericho, we have to get out of here.”
Jericho still stared at the bathroom door. “No, I put you in harms way. I promised you the coffer. I’m getting you the coffer.”
“We have to wait them out. I’m sure he is waiting in there with a rifle loaded with a silver bullet pointed at whoever goes through that door. Now is the time to move.”
And then the airport was hit with a thunder of silver bullets.
7
Malachi, Michael, Deacon, Andrew, and the second form of Vlad stood at the Southwest end of the wall of windows. Stephen was at the other end of the wall. Barreling down the street from the Northwest came a white Volkswagon Sharan minivan. Stephen started to make his way toward the others when the side door of the van slid open. An XM214 microgun—basically a modern day Gatlin gun—was mounted in the middle seat and loaded with silver bullets. The gun was capable of firing up to 4000 rounds a minute. The Crusaders put it to the test.
It annihilated Stephen as he tried to make his way to his five friends. The gun hit almost anyone who was standing up inside the airport. It would make it to the other end of the airport’s driveway in a matter of seconds.
“Men, get the hell out of here,” Vlad ordered. “We’ll meet up later. Just get somewhere safe, away from the heat.” He stumbled as he walked. His energy was draining but he had to get back together. The minivan raced toward him.
Malachi and Michael led Andrew and Deacon up in the air as the four quickly flew to safety. Vlad could barely move. With the strength he had, he slapped himself to wake up. The minivan was approaching. He used whatever energy he had and ran through the window the sniper had fired the first shot through, a few meters before the minivan got to that window. He crashed and landed on top of his own body, becoming one again.
Once he was reuinited with his other form he looked at the Crusader in his grip. He dug his teeth into his neck and drained him of all of his blood, then clawed off the skin on his neck. Vlad snapped back to life like he had just injected himself with ten gallons of an energy drink.
“Jericho we have to get out of here.”
The bullets destroyed the windows, people, and everything inside that was not on the ground.
“Not until we get the the coffer.”
“If we stand up we will die.”
“Then we wait.”
The range of the bullets was now at the midpoint of the airport, close to them. Anybody not on the grown by then was shot by one of the thousands of bullets. Two border guards tried to fire back at the minivan, but only ended up getting killed when the van passed their way. Peterson made his way out of the bathroom with his backpack on him. He moved behind the path of the bullets. He ran to the open suitcase of weapons, grabbed a handgun, and then ran out of sight, deeper into the airport.
“Jericho,” Vlad said.
“Vlad, I owe ya.”
The bullets passed over their heads, and reached the southwest end of the airport. Jericho stood up and chased after Peterson. Vlad looked around at the carnage—the death of innocents caused by the Crusaders. And I’m the bad guy.
Vlad stepped through a shattered window. The Minivan put itself in reverse and sped backwards. They were coming back for a second run to make sure everyone was dead. Vlad would not allow that.
He flew into the air and crashed through the back window of the van. The bullets stopped. He re-emerged out of the front window with two decapitated heads in his hands. There was just a driver and a shooter in the car. He flew through the car too quickly for either to respond and ripped off both of their heads. He dr
opped the heads to the ground as he flew up to the top of the airport.
The very top of the airport, above the Altitude restaurant proper, was a triangular glass prism that was the free observation deck. It was called terrasse publique and ran horizontally along the top of the airport. Passengers, while waiting for a flight, could hang out up there and get the same view of the Jura Mountains that was offered inside Altitude, without having to pay for a high priced meal. He found Peterson inside, backed into one end of it with a handgun pointed at Jericho.
Vlad wanted to act. He couldn’t let Jericho die, but any sudden action by him might be responsible for Jericho’s death. He had to trust Jericho.
8
Jericho stared down Peterson. Peterson hit the back of the glass wall. Peterson did not expect Jericho to be following him. He thought Jericho was dead by now or at least would have lost Peterson in the chaos. His plan was to get to the departures area, and when everything calmed down he would throw away his gun and act like he had nothing to do with anything that happened. Just a man waiting for his flight. But Jericho could not be deterred. Peterson was glad he kept the gun with him.
He had his gun pointed dead at Jericho. The circumstance was similar to when these two first met.
“Before I kill you, I want to know why you betrayed us? Don’t you want to be a vampire?” Jericho asked.
“Before you kill me? Do you not see who has the gun?”
“Yes, someone with poor aim.”
“Well Jericho, before I kill you, I will tell you why I betrayed you. I don’t want to be your vampire. I don’t want to be evil.”
“Evil, I saw your men butcher an entire airport, what’s your definition of evil?”
“To save mankind it is a worthy sacrifice.”
“What do you know about sacrifice and saving mankind? You are highly mistaken about this war.”
“And you are highly mistaken in my marksmanship.”
