by Drew D'Amato
Malachi stared into Gabriel’s eyes. He heard the sound of the footsteps too. He would wait Malachi out, let him get flanked. He would hesitate, that would be his mistake.
Malachi grabbed both of Jericho’s Silver Desert Eagles from their holsters. In the past Gabriel had always been faster than Malachi—the Radusons were always faster than Vlad’s men—but not now, not after Vlad had been reborn again. Gabriel didn’t even get a chance to get his gun out of the holster. Malachi shot a round from each gun, center mast at Gabriel. He disappeared, killed by the guns of Jericho.
The other Radusons had made it up to the floor. There was no furniture, nothing to hide behind. He couldn’t handle 13 Radusons by himself, not in an open room like this. He jumped into the air and turned into a gnat, hiding in the pitch-black room.
The Radusons got into the room guns blazing but nothing to shoot at. Malachi knew he did not have much energy, but he wouldn’t have to hold out for too long. Pretty soon one way or another, this war would finally be over.
3
Vlad entered the top floor, the forty-fifth. Empty, black, but he knew Radu was in here, somewhere. He also felt he wouldn’t have to look too hard for him. To his left sat an old oak desk, Richard’s. He looked deeper into the room. In the back-left corner stood a dark metallic silhouette. He focused on the silhouette at first but then came the sound of footsteps from his right. He turned and in the blue shadow tint of vampire sight he saw Radu come out of the bathroom in the southwest corner. He had both his arms behind his back under his black cape.
“Brother, I knew you would make it here.”
“Is that why you left your number?”
“Of course. I was not going to wait around for whenever you would find me to make your move. And you would make your move. You are a man who would die before surrender.”
“And you were confident enough to think that if I came here you would win?”
“Of course. Vlad, I am surprised you actually made it through Gabriel and all the men before me.”
“Well one floor was just sleeping vampires.”
“Oh that. Those were your vampires.”
“What?”
“You really should get to know your own people. Those were the ones who didn’t like your idea of becoming a human again. You wiped them all out and didn’t remember any of them. That put a smile on my face. How little you care about your own people.”
“You just let them die.”
“It was worth it for you to kill them. Besides, I didn’t like the idea of them enjoying my reign anyway. Traitors. You got too many traitors on your side. That is your downfall.”
“And you’d rather have me kill my old soldiers, than kill me when you had a chance. Your arrogance is your downfall.
“Oh, I’m not too scared of a human killing me.”
Vlad remained silent.
“Ah, but you are not a human, or you wouldn’t be able to see me in this darkness. So how did you become a vampire again? The Crusaders kept the Blood for themselves didn’t they? That is what happened in the Vatican, isn’t it?”
“Yes, brother. I gave up my love, a peaceful life I finally had, just so that I could kill you. And you were cocky enough to think that you could stop me.” Vlad drew one of his gold Desert Eagles.
“Oh brother, that’s not the way we fight up here.”
Those words froze Vlad in his place. Radu could not have had any idea what impact those words had on him. Just a crazy coincidence, Vlad resolved and snapped back. He started to squeeze the trigger.
“C’mon Vlad, we have been fighting this war for years. Is this the way you want it to end?”
“As long as it ends with you dying.” Vlad found though that something subconsciously stopped him from pulling the trigger. “What do you have in mind?”
Radu pulled out two identical three-foot long broad swords he had behind his back.
“Like the way we used to kill, before there were these noisy guns. I have one for you. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years. I assure you, they are both made of silver.”
Radu threw off his back cape. He was shirtless and his chest was covered in tattoos of ancient symbols that would frighten anyone who understood them. He also had on a pair of black pants and was barefoot. Vlad tightened his tie with his free hand.
“I have no guns on me, I assure you.” Radu turned around to show him that he had no guns hiding behind his back.
Vlad held his gun low by his waist, thinking. This may be anti-climatic, but vanity is a deadly sin. He could kill him now, and how many times before had Radu gotten away from him? Besides there was too much at stake. The world deserved more than for its fate to be decided by one sword battle.
“Sorry brother, again your arrogance is your downfall.”
Vlad went to pull the trigger, but Radu was already on the move. He ducked under the shot and swung his sword as quick as lightning, cutting off the barrel of the gun.
“You know, I could have killed you when you walked in here. I could have killed you as a human, but I offered you the chance to stay human and be with your love. I have shown you mercy, and we both know it. Now take the fucking sword!”
He had another gun on him. He could move farther away and shoot to kill, but for some reason at that moment he really did feel he owed this last request to his younger brother.
“It’s okay Radu, I have my own.” Vlad unsheathed his sword from behind him.
He held it in front of him with both hands ready for an attack. Radu’s pupils grew. Fear rushed through his body. He’s scared, now that he got what he wanted?
Radu had always respected his brother as a swordsman. He was better than him, from back when they were kids. Radu had to have something else planned. He wouldn’t agree to a situation that put him at a disadvantage.
“Well, pardon me then if I use both,” Radu said. Now he had his advantage.
Radu’s swords moved around like the bottom of a blender. Both blades turned in one motion toward him like a fatal fan. Vlad responded fast. He blocked the strike from Radu’s left and then jumped back to avoid the right. With the room’s fifteen-foot high ceiling, Vlad could not use his advantage of flying against Radu. Radu jumped over to him. Vlad rolled back when he landed and had about eight feet between him and Radu. Radu smiled and the two jumped at each other.
Radu swung one time with each sword. Vlad parried both strikes. They landed seven feet away from each other. Radu held both swords in front of him. His left arm held its sword low like a shield and he held his hand behind his head running horizontal. Vlad held his one sword the same way Radu held his right. His left elbow around his chin, his hands gripped the handle that was about an inch away from the top of his head. The blade ran horizontal with the tip pointing down at Radu. There was a pause.
Go for your gun, screamed in Vlad’s head.
Radu, as if hearing that thought rushed at Vlad again. CLING, CLING, CLING, high-low-high and then they stepped back from each other. Vlad could only block, he couldn’t strike. He would leave himself open for a counter-strike from Radu’s other sword, if he didn’t connect. He had to get one of the swords out of Radu’s hands.
They circled around each other.
“You have gotten quicker, is this an upgrade?” Radu asked sarcastically.
“Watch this.”
Vlad extended his arm out at Radu. The invisible force that had pushed over humans but never affected a Raduson before, this time knocked Radu on his ass. His swords fell out of his hands.
He came after Radu. Radu only had time to grab one sword.
Vlad swung to his right, Radu was able to block it. Vlad spun backwards to his left in a circle and swung as he came forward again. Radu blocked that one too and was standing again. They locked swords. Radu grunted. Vlad could see on Radu’s knuckles sharp, two-inch cones of bone sticking out. Since most battles were fought with guns he hadn’t had to use this trick for a few centuries.
Radu pushed away and
then came back with an array of swings. Vlad blocked the first aimed at his right breast. He ducked under the second for his head. On the next swing, Radu came low and he jumped over it. When he landed, Radu punched him square in his right peck with the bone pyramids on his hand. Vlad fell back from the instant pain.
“I hadn’t fought without a gun in years. I forgot about these babies,” Radu said kissing his right hand.
“Those little spikes aren’t going to do you any good. You sucked at hand-to-hand combat,” Vlad said as his chest healed.
“You’re right, but you know what I am good at?” Radu took a thrust at Vlad, straight for his heart. Vlad jumped back, high in the air, as his only way to avoid it. On his way down from the jump he felt a sharp pain in his back. A blade of some sort had cut through his back and came out of his chest. The blade pierced his body about three inches down from his right shoulder and about two inches in from his right armpit. He didn’t stay in the air for long. Gravity brought his body down to the floor and the blade cut through his body with some resistance like gutting a fish. The blade came out of the top of his right shoulder.
“Backstabbing.” Radu said with a smirk.
Vlad looked up to see what had stabbed him. There the dark figure stood. The culprit was Richard’s medieval knight suit that he loved. The metallic silhouette Vlad had noticed when he first entered the room. The figure of the suit held the sword by the handle low. The sword’s blade stretched about three feet long like the swords the vampires used. The tip of the sword ended at about the height of the helmet for the suit. Vlad had landed right on it.
He lay there looking up at the suit and started to lose some feeling in his right arm. It would heal, but first he had to disengage himself from the sword. His blood had run low fighting in the darkness, using his vampire sight. He was in pain, and he was weak. He didn’t have the strength to stand up. He thought to himself: This will be the end of me.
Radu smirked, looking at his slain brother lying in pain. Radu had him right where he wanted him.
4
Malachi’s energy had also gotten low. His view was starting to get dark, unable to use his vampire sight in the blackness of the room. He couldn’t keep up with being transformed as a gnat. The Radusons searched around the room aimlessly. Malachi heard their conversations as they debated what to do next.
Maybe Gabriel killed him.
But where was Gabriel then?
Maybe he went up to help master.
Should we go up and help him too?
Why not, we’re not doing anything here?
The Radusons started to make their way toward the west stairwell. The vampires were going after Vlad. Malachi couldn’t let them.
He quickly changed back to human form, and threw a grenade from each hand into both the northwest and southwest corners of the room. The Radusons turned back to fire at him. He transformed quickly back into a gnat to escape their bullets. His was only a gnat for second and then, without choosing to, he changed back into a human. He closed his eyes and waited for bullets to be fired back at him, but none came.
He took a good look at the room and was shocked with what he found—sunlight.
The grenades had blown up parts of the west, south and north walls. There were holes in the walls, small fires scattered around the floor, and rubble covered the doorway of the west stairwell. The fire alarm was now going off. The bullets the Radusons fired back at him put holes in the east wall. The bright morning sunlight came in from the east wall, entering the room like water consuming a beach house. The sunlight had killed whomever the grenades didn’t. Malachi dropped his jaw at the simplicity he had been blind to.
He walked over to a piece of glass, careful to avoid the fire caused by the grenades. He picked up the seven-cornered piece that looked like a star. All the edges were uneven, all sharp, and something covered one side of it. He studied it. A piece of glass from the windows, and on one side of it was paint. Black, dark, deep paint, like the kind used to paint on ships or tanks, covered the inside half of the glass. He held the glass up to the sun coming through a broken window. It was so dark that no light could pass through it, which was what its purpose was.
He tried to communicate to Vlad telepathically. He couldn’t do it in a room filled with sunlight. He walked over to the west stairwell, but the rubble blocking the doorway was also on fire. He couldn’t risk moving it.
He said in a resigned tone, “Vlad, tell me you know about the fucking windows.”
5
Vlad lay there under the knight’s armor, wounded. It had been quiet downstairs for a while. He hoped Malachi was still alive, he hoped Malachi would be on his way back up here. He hoped because now that was all he had left—hope.
Radu sized him up with both hands on his sword.
“You know what’s coming next,” Radu said.
Vlad could not even reply. He was using whatever energy he had left to see. He was too low on blood to get up, heal, and fight back. Radu was ready to swing the final blow. He looked like Babe Ruth coming to bat. Vlad remembered the image of that personally. His life was too long to flash before his eyes. His mind flashed to an image of Jasmine’s face and then he thought: This is how it ends.
Radu thrust the sword right into Vlad’s heart. Vlad waited for the end, but instead all he saw was a confused look on Radu’s face. The sword had entered through the center of his chest. He couldn’t have missed. There was only one explanation and Vlad started laughing.
“You cheating bastard. No wonder I saw fear in your eyes when I pulled out my own sword. The sword you intended for me to use was not made of pure silver, was it?”
Radu’s face changed from confusion, to shock, to anger. When he lost both his swords he reached for the closest one to protect himself. He had grabbed the useless one. He left the sword in Vlad’s chest and ran to the pure silver one in the middle of the room.
“It doesn’t matter, you have no more strength to heal, nevermind fight back,” Radu said as he picked up the pure silver sword thirty feet away from Vlad. “Do you have any last words, brother?”
“These won’t be my last,” Vlad said.
Radu was right he didn’t have the strength to heal, barely the strength to stand up. But he did have the strength to grab the other gold Desert Eagle from its holster. He shot at Radu before he could get within striking distance.
Radu ducked out of the way of the shots. The bullets instead hit one of the windows behind Radu. The window shattered and sunlight came through. Radu, without delay, dashed to the dark, northwest corner of the room where the oak desk stood.
Vlad realized the true reason why Radu did not want to fight with guns. The broken windows were walls of acid for Radu. Radu couldn’t afford to fight with guns.
The sunlight allowed Vlad not to spend any energy on his vampire sight. Saving the energy he was able to get himself up and rip his body away from the suit of armor. He took the non-silver sword out of his chest. He took off his jacket and shirt. Standing with no swords in his body, his wounds were allowed to heal. He picked his sword up off the ground and sheathed it.
He gave Radu too much of a fair fight. He was no longer handicapping him. He fired at Radu. Radu dodged the bullets running around the west end of the room. Vlad missed on all his shots but he wasn’t too concerned. He had destroyed most of the windows on the west and north walls. Since it was the morning still, not much of the light entered the room from these sides of the building.
“So, I guess you know why we don’t fight like that up here,” Radu said still trying to keep his dignity.
“Because that’s the way I win.”
They stared at each other. Vlad stood there amazed at Radu’s confidence. Vlad squeezed his trigger—nothing, empty—he pulled it a few more times out of disbelief. He had no idea he was that low on bullets. He had used everything to destroy the windows. Radu smiled. He reached and grabbed a gun in the desk behind him, which was why he originally went to this corner of the roo
m. He swung the Colt .45 around and aimed it at Vlad.
“So there’s no reason for me not to use this now, I guess,” Radu said.
Then there was an explosion downstairs. The shock disrupted Radu’s aim, and he hit the suit of armor instead. The fire alarm started to go off. Radu paid no attention to the chaos going on around him, and decided to move closer to make his shot strike true. He had more to lose if he missed. He picked up his true silver blade with his free hand as he got closer to Vlad. Vlad did not run. Vlad stood there with his empty gun, next to the suit of armor and in front of a painted window on the east wall.
“Guess our children are still fighting,” Radu said. “That’s okay, it will all be over soon.” Radu squeezed the trigger. Vlad performed his only defense. He used whatever energy he had left and transformed into mist—the trick that spent the most of the vampire’s energy. He used everything he had left, which was just enough. The bullets didn’t know this and they had to hit something, so they did. They hit and broke a window on the east wall behind where Vlad had stood and not too far away from Radu. The sun flushed in. The light only managed to touch some of Radu’s leg. Smoke rose up from his leg like acid had just fallen on it.
Vlad reappeared and swung his sword at Radu’s right hand. The hit shattered the gun into pieces. Radu lifted the sword in his left hand to block Vlad’s next strike and then threw the handle of his gun at Vlad’s face. Vlad ducked the handle, and Radu used this chance to dash toward the cover of dark of the south wall, in front of the unbroken windows.
Vlad came at him with three massive strikes. Radu blocked each one with his sword, but each strike moved him back a little more toward the windows. Vlad came with a fourth swing from his right. Radu blocked it and the two were locked in a bind. With both swords pushing against each other, Radu with his strength started to get the upper-hand. The two brothers locked eyes.
“Good bye brother,” Vlad said.
Vlad spun backwards, swinging the sword clockwise 360 degrees, bringing a long horizontal strike, hip high, to Radu’s right. In fear Radu jumped back—a mistake. In his jump, his body crashed through a window on the south wall behind him. His body started to fall down to the earth. His body burned as he fell, dissolving on its way to the Earth like a small meteorite entering the atmosphere. By the time the glass hit Pearl Street below Radu was no more.
