by Jen Pretty
“Hey, have you seen Vaughn?” I asked.
The human spun on his heel to face me. “Oh, yes. He is in his room.”
“Ok, where is his room?” I asked. The man bit his lip like he wasn't sure he should tell me.
“It’s on the third floor. First door on your right.”
“Thank you,” I replied — odd human.
I climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” I heard Vaughn say from beyond the door.
I opened it to find him laying on the bed in a robe shuffling through pages.
“Oh. Hi Lark,” he said sitting up and putting his pages aside. “I thought you were someone else.”
“I’m sorry, I can talk to you later,” I said, closing the door.
“No, it's fine. Come in.”
It was awkward talking to him when he was undressed.
“I was going to update you. We didn’t get very far before we ran into a fallen vampire. I took care of him. I thought you should know.”
“Thank you. One of my vampires reported seeing Vernon in the Red Square today.”
“Shit, we were close to him. I need to get back out there. I don’t know how he is hiding from me.”
There was a knock at the door just before it swung open to reveal a tall, slim woman who looked like a model. She was wearing a short trench coat, and high heels and I imagined not much else.
She smiled at me and then said something in Russian to Vaughn. His face went pink, and he shook his head. I looked back at the woman, then back to Vaughn.
“I’ll…talk to you later, Vaughn.”
He said nothing as I scurried out the door.
I did not want to know.
I gathered the team, and we hit an outdoor supply store on our way back to the tunnels.
Decked out in a waterproof outfit, the sales clerk guaranteed to keep me dry in the tunnels, I stepped down the steel ladder and into the darkness.
This time we wandered the tunnels heading north. Leaving the beaten paths, we walking for hours. Our new headlamps did a wonderful job of lighting the tunnels, showing the old bricks and stalactites. We were like proper diggers now, but we weren’t here for exploration. We were hunting. I sent out my senses a few times, but apart from the occasional vampire that seemed to be above us, I didn't pick up anything.
The dampness and cold were getting to me, and it was getting late, but I sent out my senses one last time expecting to feel nothing when I felt a tug. Durga pulled my senses back in and pushed my feet into a run. I was clunky running in a full waterproof get up but tore through the tunnels. Water splashed and echoed through the tunnel until it opened into a mining cave. There were rail tracks on the ground and up ahead, and the water dried until we were running over rotting wooden railway sleepers between the tracks. We rounded the next corner to find the tunnel widened before it narrowed again into a small boarded up cave opening. Someone had ripped one board down, so there was enough space for a person to get through. I slid to a stop and climbed between the boards when I saw dozens of glowing red eyes. Arms reached out for me as one latched on from behind, ripping me back through the opening. I didn’t have time to thank Ninel though, as a horde of fallen vampires flooded out of the cave, breaking the remaining boards.
My knife flashed into my hands, and my vision turned crimson. Durga was keen to play. The vampires were on us in a second. I slashed and stabbed at them. One got a hold of my right arm and clamped its filthy teeth down, puncturing my brand-new waterproof coat and flesh beneath. I switched my knife to my left hand and stabbed the vampire in the top of his head. When he reared back, I stabbed him in the throat and his blood mixed with mine to run down my arm. He collapsed to the ground. I felt no pain, but the blood on my right hand made my grip slippery. The sounds of battle and death filled the tunnels. My heart raced in my chest, pushing me to move faster and fight harder. As I plunged my knife toward the next vampire, my grip slipped. I had never dropped my knife before, but when it hit the ground, the horde of vampires took me down, slamming my head off the steel railway track. The yells and screams from the team faded for a minute as the sharp ringing in my skull dazed me.
As soon as my mind cleared, Durga blasted forward, dividing my arms and multiplying them until I was in a sea of vampires and fighting them with all of my weapons at once. Singh had pressed his way to the front, and Durga pulled my lips into a smile as she watched him tear the head off a vampire. Our arms swung with grace as we stood with the poise of centuries of battles, slaying decrepit vampire after vampire. When silence fell, and we had vanquished our quarry, she receded but not before she looked to Ninel and smiled.
Ninel was still smiling as my vision returned to normal. A river of red ran at our feet along with a sea of bodies. Blood stained Singh's white coat, matching the walls. The lion purred as he licked his talons, sitting in a puddle of blood.
“Well, that was fun,” Alex said as he sheathed his knife and tried to wipe the blood from his face, smearing it around like war paint.
We picked our way back out of the tunnel, stepping over the fallen vampires we had slaughtered. I had never seen so many in one place before. Rogues grouped up, but the fallen seemed to be solitary. I glanced back at the small tunnel they had come from.
“Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?” Drew asked.
I stopped walking and tried to see past the ruined wood that was still partially blocking the small tunnel.
“You think they were guarding something?” I asked.
Drew shrugged his shoulders. The rest of the team noticed we stopped and came back to join the discussion.
“Is old mine shaft. Could be very long,” Vilen said.
“We’re here now, might as well look,” I said.
I worked my way back through the vampire bodies and stepped through the wider hole they made in the wood that had blocked the entrance to the old shaft. The ceiling was low. I had to stoop, the guys had to crawl, and it was not a smooth floor. The uneven ground was rough between the rail tracks. After an hour of slow progress, the ceiling opened, but it came to a dead end.
“Complete waste of time.” I kicked a rock, frustrated. I needed a break from this crap. We turned around and picked our way back out of the mine shaft.
When we approached the entrance of the tunnel, Ninel, who had been leading the way, froze, staring out the broken doorway.
“What is it?” I asked pressing past Vilen’s broad back to peek around Ninel’s shoulder.
All the bodies of the fallen vampires had vanished.
“Oh, shit.” Drew voiced it perfectly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The whole walk back I couldn't stop thinking about the disappearing bodies. Something weird was going on in these tunnels. There were at least thirty dead vampires. All of them removed while we were down that mine shaft without a trace. I wanted to turn around, go back and look again, like I had missed something. We went over the area before we left, though. They had vanished. It was a damn mystery.
At the Hummer, we stripped out of our waterproof suits. We rinsed off most of the blood by wading into the Neglinnaya river before we exited. Each of the outfits came with a patch kit, so Vilen said he would patch up the arm of my suit where the vampire had torn it.
I was silent on the way back to Vaughn’s mansion. The strange experience in the tunnel played over in my mind.
We went back down into the tunnels the next day. As we rounded a corner, the sound of music reverberated through the tunnel. I followed it until we came upon a large space filled with vampires. Like the first large group we found, there were some humans in the mix, Unlike the first group, this one was accompanied by the scent of blood hanging in the air.
“What the hell?” I whispered from the doorway to the square room. It looked like a theatre. The ground sloped downward, and the vampires danced and lurched around each other.
“Let’s go a different way,” Ninel said in my ear.
Durga rose up
and flashed my eyes to red. The scent of blood was strong enough that Durga was not going to leave without an explanation.
She shoved me forward into the writhing crowd. Vampires on all sides stopped dancing and backed away as I marched through. The further I walked into the space, the stronger the scent was.
“Durga,” I heard whispered over and over. I was pretty obvious with my red eyes, but Durga’s rage increased as we moved forward and my arms split, producing weapons.
A vampire screamed and tried to run away, but my muscle had barricaded the entrance.
Vampires cowered, and the music stopped abruptly.
“Please, Durga, we don’t kill anyone!” a vampire cried out from the front.
Durga pushed me in the direction of the voice. What I found at the front was the biggest shock of my life.
There were dozens of humans, with knives in their hands and small cuts on their nearly naked bodies. Their eyes were lidded like they were drunk or high. I stopped walking and watched as one slid the knife across his arm and offered it to a vampire that was standing behind him as if he was oblivious to the fact all the vampires were staring at me.
“What is going on here?” Durga’s voice echoed through the now silent room. No answer was forthcoming, so she moved me forward towards a human. “What are you doing?” she asked a woman dressed in only a sports bra and shorts. Her arms had several shallow cuts, and there was one on her thigh that was weeping.
“I’m feeding them,” she said in a dreamy voice.
Durga retreated, satisfied that the human was here of her own will. This, of course, left me with the mess she created here.
I scratched my neck and turned to face the room full of frightened vampires. When they saw my eyes had returned to normal, they relaxed.
“Alright, uhm, sorry to interrupt. Carry on,” I said as I made my way back to the entrance where the team was waiting.
Oops.
The next two weeks went by. We found no more fallen vampires. Even though we went back to the start of the mine shaft several times, it was always empty and looked untouched. Durga was always pushing me towards the door, determined to find the bloody buffalo demon, but I had long since lost my interest in everything to do with Moscow. That is how I found myself in a bar at three AM.
“One more,” I called to the bartender who had looked ready to cut me off after my last drink. He brought me another but admonished me in Russian. His face a mask of disapproval. I didn’t speak Russian, so I didn’t feel the slightest bit chastised.
I sipped my drink and stared at myself in the mirror that lined the wall behind the liquor bottles. Right in front of me, there was a bottle missing, leaving a gap so I could see my reflection. I had pulled my straight dark hair up into a ponytail several hours ago; before our most recent stomp through the dank tunnels. Wisps of hair had escaped the elastic, making me look like I had been through a hurricane. With no makeup on, my pale features were even starker. The alcohol didn't add colour to my cheeks like most people. I wished my skin was more olive like my mother’s had been. I got her hair; I remembered that much about her. She had the same dark straight hair that slid over her shoulders. She would hold it back with one hand when she reached into the oven to get out dinner or when she bent over to pick up the toys I had left on the floor. Her hair. What a silly thing to remember.
I downed the last of my drink and turned away from the mirror. The stool beside me was empty, and I wished that Frankie was there. His magic had limits. I knew thinking about him wouldn’t bring him here, but I thought about him and wished, anyway. Taking out my phone, I read over his last text messages. I typed him a new message, but deleted it and put my phone away. Drunk texts would be regrets in the morning. Maybe I wasn't drunk enough yet.
“Are you ready to go home yet?” Ninel asked from the barstool on the other side of me.
“No, unless by home, you mean America.” I snorted a laugh. “I don't have a home there anymore either. So, I guess this bar is my home now.”
“We close in one hour,” The Russian man behind the bar said. I guess he spoke English after all.
“You hear that, Ninel? In one hour, I will be homeless. Maybe I’ll make the sewers my home. I can curl up with the giant mythical rat at night.”
“That is not a myth,” Alex said sliding onto Frankie’s stool. I scowled at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“It is a myth,” the bartender said.
“I have seen it!” Alex protested. He was loud. His voice rang in my ears, and I gave him a shove.
“Move down one seat!” I said. He looked at me for a moment and then slid over. Frankie's seat was once again vacant. That didn’t last though. The other annoying man in my life, Singh plopped down on the bar stool, rested an elbow on the bar and his head in his hand, so he was looking at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Is this the new improved Lark?” He asked.
“Who said I needed improving? I was happier before all this crap came into my life.”
“Were you?” he asked, a mocking look of disbelief on his face.
“Shut up,” I said, turning back to my mirror. “And get out of Frankie’s seat.”
I looked the same. My head was heavy, so I let it fall forward to the bar a little too hard. The impact sent a ring through my ears, but I was numb enough it didn't hurt. I lifted my head and let it fall a few more times on the hard, brass bar.
I wanted to go home but I couldn’t. At least not until I found this buffalo and Vernon and killed them and then hunted down Vincent to make sure he was ok. He could be dead, for all I knew; Despite Vaughn’s assurances.
“Come on, Kitten. Time for bed,” Singh said, sliding my arm around his shoulders. There was no way I could walk like that, he was too tall, but when Ninel wrapped my other arm over his shoulders, and the two of them stood up, they suspended me off the ground like a hammock between two trees. They walked a few paces before I yelled at them to put me down. They did, because, in this day and age, they are likely to get their asses kicked by the bouncers if they didn’t, but Singh kept his arm around me, ushering me to the door. The night air was bitter. The wind whipped down the street and blew rain in my face. It was early spring, but mother nature didn’t seem to know that. Some tulips had sprouted in the gardens around the city. They were hardier than I was. I watched the ones outside the bar sway in the breeze. Their lush green leaves were whipping about. The flower heads were still closed tight, waiting for their perfect moment to bloom and show the world they had beaten the odds and survived beneath frozen soil all winter. They mocked me with their strength and determination.
“Stop scowling at the vegetation and get in the damn vehicle,” Singh said.
I scowled at him, then got in the damn vehicle. Since when was Singh the voice of reason. I thought he had settled on the being the one who voted for naps. Maybe my binge drinking was cutting into his nap time.
That thought proved correct when I collapsed on my bed, and a white lion collapsed beside me. Within minutes he was snoring away, hogging all the blankets. I had long since learned not to bother fighting with the big jerk. I curled around him and let my eyes drift closed.
When my eyes opened again, the sun was streaming through the open window blinds. I rolled over and hid my head under the pillow, realizing only a moment later that I was alone in the room. I hadn’t been alone in a room, or a bed in weeks. Stretched out like a starfish, I occupied all the bed. I pulled the blankets up over my head, and they came untucked from the bottom with a quick tug, so I was in a peaceful dim fort. No more sun searing my retinas and the heat of my cocoon was delicious.
My phone made a blip, alerting me to a text message. I snuck one arm out of my cocoon and fumbled around on the bedside table until my fingers found the cell phone and then pulled it back into my secret oasis. The light from the screen was almost as bright as the sun, but I squinted at it with one eye and read the bleary text. It was from Frankie.
“I
miss you, hope you will be home soon,” he wrote.
I wanted to say I missed him too, but Durga’s warning had left me cautious of what I was doing and saying. Dying for a guy was stupid.
I typed a reply and then deleted it. As I was about to put the phone down, Durga took over and sent Frankie a text. I watched as the words appeared on the small screen and tried to stop her before she hit send, but it was too late. Holy fuck! “Holy fuck!” I repeated out loud as Durga slid back into her place inside me, pleased as punch.
“I want that too,” Frankie replied. Durga had no chill. Now Frankie thought I wanted way more from him than I ever imagined and he wanted that too. No more text privileges for Durga. I might as well drunk-text with her around. I popped my arm out of the blanket and threw my phone across the room.
“Ouch. what the hell?”
I popped the blanket down to see who I had hit. It was only Drew, so I pulled the blanket back up and curled up in my fort. My super blanket fort of invisibility.
“Are you still drunk?” he asked.
"Maybe,” I muttered. It would be better if I were. But it was possible I was losing my mind and just didn’t care anymore.
“Maybe we need a day off, you know today is the Victory Day Parade. Why don’t we spend the day on the streets instead of under them?”
I peeked out from the corner of the blanket. That might be fun.
“Come on, get yourself cleaned up, it smells like a bar in here.”
I threw a pillow at him, and he squealed before dashing out of the room and closing the door behind him. After worming my way out from under the blankets, I staggered to the washroom. As the shower warmed up, steam billowed over the curtain, and I turned to look at myself in the mirror. I looked drunk still, but the start of a hangover headache was coming on. I rifled through the cabinets until I found pain relievers and popped a couple. Durga wouldn’t heal my hangover unless necessary for vampire killing, so I would suffer until I took something. I swallowed the pills down with a few glasses of water for good measure. My shower was quick. With no interest in drying my hair today, I tied it up wet. I could wear my hat. It was sunny out, and the warm weather had arrived. It wasn’t hot, but it wasn’t arctic anymore either.
