Blood Retribution

by Aimée Thurlo

“Revenge is for amateurs, Officer Hawk, but it was satisfying to see that CIA bastard get what he deserved. I’m so glad it’s finally …” Her voice trailed off, as if she had something more to say, then changed her mind.

  “Why are you calling, Elka? You know you’re never going to be able to get to me. I’m the hunter now. This is my state and I know every hiding place, night or day. You’re all alone, but I have many friends and allies,” Lee said.

  “I just wanted to hear your voice, Officer Hawk, before I go. You and that FBI woman are responsible for what happened to my brother and my friends. When they died, any chance of saving my husband’s life was lost.” Elka’s voice was wavering a bit now, showing more emotion.

  “They were killers who knew the risks and paid the price for their crimes. You, too, will be facing death or imprisonment sooner than you think if you decide to stick around,” Lee replied. He looked at his watch. A trace had already had time to go through, he thought.

  “My family was well suited for our work, Officer Hawk, and you as well for yours. I’m not sure about Agent Lopez though. Is it in her blood, like it is with you?” Elka was being cryptic now, fishing for information. If Diane had become a vampire, it would be easier to explain how they were able to defeat Elka’s family.

  “You’ll find that out for yourself, Elka, if you stick around,” Lee said.

  “Perhaps,” Elka said. “I’ll be in touch—one way or the other.” She hung up.

  “Why did she stay on the line so long?” Diane asked immediately. “She had to know we’re tracing the call.”

  Bridget shook her head. “She was either using a public phone or her cell. Elka would never let you track her down so easily.”

  Lee’s cell phone rang before he could reply.

  It was Lieutenant Richmond. “Lee, she called from a private home in Placitas, according to the information I have. We’re getting together a team and will rendezvous at the Foothills shopping center a mile from the location. The home address is 303 Juniper Trail. Meet us at the rendezvous site.”

  “Agent Lopez and I are getting ready now,” Lee confirmed, then disconnected the call. “They have a location.”

  “She’s not going to be there,” Diane said, shaking her head in disbelief.

  “I’m not so sure. If she’s suicidal or hoping to get one last shot at us, literally, she’ll be waiting. Get loaded for bear, Diane. She wants a confrontation, so let’s give it to her.” Lee grabbed two additional ammo clips from a drawer in the kitchen.

  “I hope you both get out of this alive, I really do, but I’m not going to stick around,” Bridget said, her voice steady. “In spite of what Elka is, she did value me more than my biological family ever did, so I don’t want to be around when she dies—or either of you, if the worst happens.”

  “Will you be taking off right away?” Lee asked, putting on his raid jacket, gloves, and cap, then checking his handheld radio. Diane was ready now too, it seemed.

  “No. I’ll wait until dark. So, depending on when you return, I may still be here. But I wanted to say good-bye now, just in case we don’t see each other again.” Bridget started to give Diane a quick hug, then changed her mind and made it a handshake. She then kissed Lee on the cheek. “Good luck.”

  worse-case scenario, Bridget already knows where Elka is because they planned it that way,” Diane said as they hurried north on the Interstate. “Maybe shell show up, join Elka, and try to kill us.”

  Lee shook his head, not taking his eyes off the traffic. “My gut feeling is that she’s for real. Several times she had the opportunity to make a move against us and she hasn’t. But, having said that, you noticed that I didn’t give her the address and did my best to make sure she didn’t overhear it on the phone.”

  From their northeastern location in Albuquerque it took less than twenty minutes to arrive in Placitas, an eclectic community of old settlers and crackpots, former hippie communes, and a few modern cookie-cutter housing developments extending up into the foothills of the northern end of the Sandia Mountains.

  Diane took another look at the map section she’d folded out to read as Lee drove east up Highway 165. “There’s the shopping center on the left. Looks like we beat the crowd.”

  As they passed by, Lee could see several SUVs and pickups that appeared to belong to civilians, plus one county sheriff’s vehicle parked at the end of the lot farthest from the businesses.

  “There’s a small subdivision to our right up ahead. I can see some new houses among the pine trees. According to your map Juniper Trail is the second road coming up. It makes a half circle, then comes back to the highway farther east.”

  “What’s the plan?” Diane asked. “Other than go up to the door and knock?”

  “Why not? If she’s taken over somebody’s home, there could be hostages,” Lee said. “And if we wait outside, the FBI and everyone else will show up. We need to immobilize her as quickly as possible, then make sure she doesn’t have the chance to heal herself. With Logan looking over our shoulders, we can’t exactly decapitate her. Second-best option would be several shots to the head and heart, enough to literally destroy either organ.”

  “We’re playing it her way, though, Lee. She’s a vampire, so calling during the daytime is also pressuring you to risk being caught outside. Elka doesn’t know you’re only a half vampire and can stay outside much longer than she can. If she’s looking for a confrontation, it’s meant to be inside that house—and soon.”

  “Okay. It’s a trap, we know it’s a trap, she knows we know it’s a trap. The cards have been dealt. We now have to play them out,” Lee replied. “I just hope she’s not planning on setting off a bomb or something like that.”

  “There’s the house up ahead, I think.” Diane pointed down the street, then looked over at Lee. “I forgot about bombs, until now. Thanks for bringing it up.”

  “Hey, what are friends for?”

  Right up against the side of the mountain was a large three-story wood-frame and stucco home with a steep metal pitched roof and several fireplaces. Balconies extended out from two upper-story rooms, one, probably a bedroom, which looked out across the valley to the west. There were no vehicles in the driveway or at the curb.

  “How’d she get here?” Diane wondered aloud. “Walk?”

  “Maybe she came over from another street, or is already long gone. We still have to check out the house.” Lee looked up and down the block and around the curve where the street looped back toward the highway. An expensive-looking SUV was in the driveway on the opposite side of the street two houses down.

  “How’s this for tactics?” Lee suggested. “If she’s still inside, Elka will be expecting normal law enforcement to surround the residence and assault all the entrances simultaneously—unless contact is made and a hostage is spotted. Let’s just rush the door we least expect her to have covered. I’ll go first, you cover my back.”

  “We’re wearing our vests, but don’t give her a clear head shot or we’re screwed,” Diane replied, her expression grim.

  “I’ll go in first and you cover me while we sweep the house. I’m probably as fast as she is, if not faster.” Lee pulled up in the middle of the driveway, almost touching the double garage door with the bumper. If her car was inside, she’d have to move his first in order to flee by vehicle.

  “She entered through the front, probably kicked it in,” Diane pointed out as they both exited the car, her on the side facing the main entrance. Lee, coming around the rear of their vehicle, could see the heavy carved wooden door slightly ajar. The doorjamb was shattered. There was an alarm system, even one of those little signs stuck into the ground announcing the security. If the alarm had gone off, they certainly hadn’t been notified by radio.

  “Follow me,” he whispered, running around the side of the house. The house was xeriscaped with different shades and textures of gravel, Southwest shrubs, and flowers, but there was also a flagstone walk that led around back. Lee stayed on the flagstones t
o avoid the crunchy noise. A narrow, covered walkway between two wings of the house led through a glass door into what looked like a library or home office. Nobody was visible inside.

  Lee tried the knob, but it was locked. He stepped back and kicked the door right in the center of the clear panel. It was Plexiglas, and broke loose around the edges of the doorframe, falling back onto the carpet in one piece.

  Diane caught up with him just then, and directed her pistol toward the exit into a hallway as Lee stepped through the opening into the office. A chair was wedged against the knob of a narrow office door, probably a closet judging from the location. He could hear tapping and muffled speech within.

  He took a quick look around. Elka wasn’t hiding behind the desk, and except for the closet, there were no other places to conceal herself. The curtain was askew.

  Lee had to use quite a bit of force to yank the chair away from the closet door. Huddled together on the floor inside were a man and woman, bound and gagged, in their nightclothes.

  While Diane kept watch on the hall, Lee cut the couple’s bonds with his dagger, then helped them to their feet and out of the closet. The couple, Hispanics in their early fifties, took off their own gags.

  “Anyone else here besides you?” Lee whispered to the man.

  “Just that bitch who did this to us,” the woman whispered back harshly before her husband could speak.

  “Go down the street to a neighbor’s house and get inside. More police are coming,” Lee whispered, turning the woman toward the opening he’d created in the door. They left immediately, slipping through the damaged door without comment.

  Lee joined Diane in the short hallway leading to the rest of the house and took a quick look around the corner. It was dark, at least for nonvampires. Ahead was a longer hall leading to a central area, possibly a den or the living room.

  Halfway down the hall on the opposite side Lee could smell scented soap. The open doorway probably led into a laundry room. He tiptoed down the carpeted hall, keeping his pistol pointed toward the doorway. Diane was crouched low on the opposite side to the hall, covering the far end of the hall and the central space beyond.

  Using hand signals, Lee indicated that he was going to check out the scented room. In a heartbeat he was crouched by the entrance. He took a quick look, ducking back before a trigger could be pulled. It was obviously a laundry room with updated appliances and other high-end features, but there were no humans or vampires hiding inside.

  Lee turned and looked at Diane, shaking his head. Advancing to the end of the hall, Diane covering him, Lee looked out into a large den or family room. An enormous television and bookshelf filled most of a flagstone wall, and on the opposite side of the room was a large sofa unit and several easy chairs. In the center of the floor was a standard pool table, and in the corner a wide stairway with oak steps circled up to a wide landing with a dark railing. At the base of the stairs was another door, leading to the garage based upon its location.

  “I was hoping you two wouldn’t wait for the others to arrive. After all, you’re probably the only ones who know how important it is to really kill me,” Elka called down the stairwell from one of the upper floors. “You’d better hurry. If you don’t kill me before the others arrive, I might just surrender to someone else and let them take me to jail.”

  Lee and Diane exchanged glances as she moved forward, even with him now. There were two more floors, based upon the windows they’d seen when driving up, but the voice had been faint. She could have been on the third floor, but had to have been close to the stairwell to hear them at all.

  “I heard you release the Moras. They seem like such a loving couple. I hated putting them in the closet, but I didn’t want them to get in the way when you two arrived,” Elka said.

  Lee moved up the stairs quickly. At the top of the landing was a huge living room with a big fireplace. In one direction was an open area containing a dining table, and beyond, a shiny, expensive kitchen. At the opposite end were a glass wall and sliding doors leading out to a balcony overlooking the valley to the west.

  “Up here, children,” Elka called from the third floor.

  Lee glanced up the stairwell, but no one was visible. Taking very light steps, he inched upward. Once his head was just above the level of the third floor, which was hardwood, Lee stopped and looked around cautiously. Down the hall on his right was a set of double doors, possibly the master bedroom.

  In the opposite direction was another, almost identical hall, but with three open doorways, one on either side, and a third at the end. That room appeared to be almost empty except for the edge of a barely visible metal contraption that reminded him of exercise equipment. Moving off the stairs, he flattened himself against the wall of the hallway containing the open doors and waited, keeping his pistol ready. He wasn’t worried about the closed doors at the moment.

  Diane, fast but not nearly as quick or light on her feet, came up now, took a look, then stepped off the stairs and took a position against the opposite wall. She was crouched, pistol ready, covering the open doors ahead of them.

  He waited for her to catch her breath.

  “You’re pretty light on your feet for a human, Agent Lopez, but I can tell the difference,” Elka said. “Until now I didn’t know that Nez hadn’t turned you.”

  Lee and Diane waited, not saying a word. Two minutes went by while they listened, trying to detect any movement that would verify exactly where she was. Lee thought she might be in the second room down, but he couldn’t be certain.

  “You know why I killed Rogers, don’t you? He was the worst kind of man—weak, a user. I let him shoot me, then scraped him with my bloody fingernail. Fool, he was so grateful I was shot and not him that he probably never even noticed what I’d done. Did you see it? He went up in flames like the Hindenberg” Elka laughed. This time her voice was strong and steady, full of purpose.

  They waited for Elka to speak again and it didn’t take long. “I could be gone by now, you know. I was going to retire. But I just had to try and see if I could get you too, Nez. Even if I don’t, it won’t really matter that much. I’ve had a good, very long life. And I still won. I’ve already killed the man who destroyed my family.”

  Lee heard a vehicle pull up outside, then maybe two or three more.

  Elka heard them too. The hardwood floor creaked slightly, and then the tip of a pistol barrel appeared beside the doorjamb at waist level. Diane had been looking in just the right direction. She fired one shot, hitting the pistol close to the muzzle and knocking it out of Elka’s hand.

  Lee ran forward and dove into the room, coming to his feet in a roll with his pistol up just as a figure in a blue jumpsuit ran through an adjoining door into the end room. He followed Elka at a run, thinking she wouldn’t expect immediate pursuit.

  Elka flashed across the brightly lit exercise room, enhanced by two wide, nearly ceiling-height windows on each of the exterior walls. Diane fired from back down the hall as Elka passed across her sights, missing Elka by a few inches and striking the wall between windows.

  The tall, red-haired vampire drew a backup pistol from her pocket and fired two shots as she ducked behind what looked like a juice bar on casters. Lee dodged, firing back. He missed Elka but a blender exploded on the counter and the window behind the bar broke, cascading down to the floor like a waterfall of glass.

  Diane appeared beside the hall door, low to the ground, straining to locate Elka. Lee moved forward again, pistol aimed at the bar. If Elka poked her head out, she was dead.

  “Cover me!” he shouted. Lee jammed his pistol back in the holster and dove into the room.

  Elka risked a quick look and Diane snapped off a shot. The bullet missed, taking out the biggest remaining sliver of the six-foot-high window.

  Lee rose from the floor and charged like an offensive tackle, striking the bar with his shoulder and pushing it toward the window. Elka grunted from the impact and stuck her pistol out, firing blindly. Bullets erupted
from through the wood panel, and Lee felt the impact of one striking his vest. He churned forward, driving with his legs and shoulder, forcing the bar all the way to the wall. Elka screamed as she crashed into the window opening, but Lee kept pushing.

  Diane arrived just then and jammed her shoulder into the bar, adding to the pressure, forcing the bar forward. Elka lost the contest, slipping on the glass-littered carpet. She toppled out of the window backward. The portable bar followed her down the outside of the building, taking part of the window frame with it.

  Lee looked out and saw Elka hit the gravel just before the bar did. The heavy piece of furniture struck her on the head and upper body before shattering into pieces.

  He felt his neck getting warm and ducked back inside out of the direct sunlight. He’d lost his cap in the other room.

  Elka tried to scream, perhaps, but her head had been sliced open by the impact of the bar top and the cry came out muffled, as if her mouth were half full. Then she lay still and silent, apparently unconscious. Four officers in blue raid jackets ran up, aiming their assault weapons and pistols at the woman. No one fired, but they kept their distance, waiting and watching, apparently respecting what they’d all heard concerning Elka’s resilience. Finally someone yelled, “Medic!” Still, nobody moved any closer.

  Within seconds Elka’s head began to darken, her hair shriveling into black coils. Then came smoke. Everyone below took a step back. Suddenly the wounds on her face burst into flames, spreading quickly. There was a loud moan, more like a rumble as she began to thrash around wildly; then the sound died abruptly. Lee stepped back, deciding it was time to find his cap, but Diane remained at the window for a moment.

  “All clear,” she shouted down to the officers, then turned back to Lee, who’d found his cap. “You sure you’re wearing enough sunblock?”

  He nodded. “I’ll find a way to stand in the shade, though.”

  “Let’s try to do the debrief inside, just in case. I’ve seen enough roasting flesh today to last me a lifetime.” Diane looked at him anxiously.