by Drew D'Amato
2
On the runway of Gatwick Airport, two men in leather jackets seemed to appear out of nowhere from behind a plane. Jericho saw the Learjet that had 5632H on it.
“That’s our plane.”
The two walked over to the staircase leading to the door of the plane. As they walked up the stairs, a young dark-haired man stood in the doorway.
“Didn’t bother you, did we, James?” Jericho asked.
“I ended my night early, but I didn’t expect to hear from you guys until tomorrow.”
“Well, we ran into some old friends. The others decided to stay longer with them. You’re not drunk, are you?”
“No, I didn’t drink tonight. Lucky for us I guess.”
“Yes, very lucky.”
These vampires still feared plane crashes. Fire was one way to kill them, along with silver. There were also other methods, but fire was the one that made them share some of the same fears humans had when it came to air travel. Christian symbols have power over these vampires and fire represents the Holy Spirit. From Matthew 3:11:
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire.
The three of them walked onto the one-year-old Learjet, able to make the leap over the big pond from Europe to America within a night. This one had seats that reclined almost completely, a big-screen TV, a well-stocked fridge, a beige carpeted floor, and a bedroom in the back. They sat in the reclining seats in front of the TV. James followed in behind them.
James, a man in his late twenties, looked more like an experienced bartender than a personal pilot. He was the kind of guy who liked extreme sports like skydiving and snowboarding. He liked his adventurous lifestyle that he got to live from working as a personal pilot for these men and seeing all different parts of the world—he might feel different about his job if he knew he serviced the undead.
“What movies we got here?’ Michael asked James.
“Apocalypse Now, Saw VI, The Lost Boys,” James answered.
“Good movies.” Jericho replied.
“Those movies will just get me thirsty,” Michael said. “Too much blood in them.”
Jericho smiled at Michael as Michael reclined back in his seat. Playing on James’ ignorance was a joke amongst the family—so explained The Lost Boys in the DVD library. James didn’t like vampires or vampire movies, and that made the joke more of a hoot. Over the years James had commented negatively on the show True Blood, the Twilight saga, the career of Anne Rice, and how stupid the concept of vampires were altogether. The amused family would agree with him, but laugh to themselves, wondering what his reaction would be if he ever knew the truth.
Jericho was happy now; he was safe and on his way home. He always counted his blessings.
“Gentlemen,” James started. “Before you get too comfortable, you may want to see what your Master has planned for you guys in the bedroom.”
The two got up, unsure what to expect, and walked to the bedroom in the back of the plane. They heard voices from the bedroom. They followed the voices, opened the door to the bedroom, and found three sexy women in the bed: a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette. Jericho and Michael looked back at James with wide smiles.
“It’s a long flight back to LA guys,” James said with a smile, and then closed the cockpit door.
THREE
1
The vampires rode north on the 101, toward their home in the West Mesa area of Santa Barbara. The driver of the limo—another vampire named Rex with short black hair and green eyes—got off the 405, cutting through Ventura, and aimed to get on the 101 toward their home. Off Route 225, away from the rest of the houses in the area, lay a dirt road that led to the closest vestige of a modern-day castle.
Many times people had driven down this road expecting to find a cool place to relax, smoke a joint, or just make out; they didn’t expect to see warning signs telling them to turn around or risk being shot. The stretch of land leading to the house had trees on both sides whose branches hung down, touching each other above the center of the street, giving the feeling of entering a tunnel. Soon the house came into view—a mansion made out of stone.
The Corinthian columns stood strong in the front of the house. Cement gargoyles sat on the top of them to help give a medieval aura to the place. The outside walls were colored a light gray. A flight of stairs led up from the driveway to the front door. The walls of the castle were fifty feet, or four stories high. There were no windows bigger than nine square feet anywhere in the building. There was, however, a balcony on the fourth floor in the front of the house.
The limo pulled up to the gate of this mansion/castle. The ten foot high, gold-plated spiked gate opened in from the center. The limo passed through the gate and toward the house. There was an eight-car garage on the left side of the house that Rex would pull the limo into, but first he was going to let Jericho and Michael out.
“Master wants to see you two as soon as you get in,” Rex told them from the driver’s carriage.
“We expected that, thanks,” Jericho said.
Rex pulled the limo around the cul de sac of the driveway to let them out. In the center of the cul-de-sac was a fountain. The fountain’s marble pool was ten feet wide. An eight-foot high oriental style glass dragon stood in the center of it. The dragon faced the visitors with its two wings extended and it mouth open in rage as water poured out of it. The whole image was so much that guests tended to not notice the two large fangs in its mouth. From the rear, one could observe a cross on its back. It was hard to believe that something as pure as water came out of it.
From outside they heard the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. For those familiar with the weaknesses of vampires, it may not appear wise for one to live on the coast. Running water is also dangerous for a vampire. Total immersion in running water (living water) destroys them. This is another reason for vampires to fear intercontinental flights. Running water is actually sacred. Like fire it also represents the Holy Spirit. From John 7:38:
And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scriptures has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
Living water is moving, running water; so while a pool, Jacuzzi, or even bottled water is safe for a vampire, oceans and seas are dangerous, they are the Holy Spirit. Being the case then, why would the vampires choose to live on the coast if the ocean is as dangerous for them as a human living near acid or an active volcano? If your only threat is an attack on your life from other vampires, living on the coast becomes a strategic position. It limits the directions from which they can be attacked. As an added bonus, young women tended to like beach houses.
2
Michael and Jericho walked into the foyer of the house from the front door. To the left was the dining room; straight ahead of them was a wide staircase. Under the staircase was a closet. The main staircase went up a level, and then a landing went around the other three walls. Doors to other rooms stood apart every few feet on the walls of the second floor. The stairs to the next level were steeper, as they did not lead to the third floor, but skipped it and went to the fourth. The third floor had to be reached by another part of the house.
On the fourth floor a glass door opened to the balcony to the front yard. The balcony was only a yard in length, not even worth it to stand on. This balcony did not have any sort of gate to keep an onlooker inside. The balcony was more of a landing pad.
The black and white marble heated tiles on the main floor reflected the light from the $20,000 crystal chandelier. The chandelier hung all the way down from the ceiling to the second floor, and cast a soft light on everything in the room. The walls were painted an off-white color. Paintings from Picasso and Monet decorated most of the walls. The floor had a sharp red carpet on it. All the lights and heat controls were state of the art, and controlled by a main box next to the front door. The kitchen on the right end o
f the west wall opposite them had a light on, but no one was in there.
“He’s probably in the office,” Jericho said.
They did not walk up the stairs, but went across the foyer to a door on the left end of the wall with the doorway to the kitchen. Perpendicular to this door, on the south wall, was a door that led downstairs to the garage. At the bottom of the stairs to the garage was another door to a “training area” that was under the foyer and dining room.
Michael and Jericho opened the door and then slid a metal gate to one side. They entered a small elevator. There were only two buttons, up and down. This elevator was the only way to the third floor. To their master’s office.
They rode the elevator to the office. Dark wooden trimmed, dark green painted walls. The office was actually two rooms, a bigger room the elevator opened into, and a smaller office to their left. Opposite the elevator were windows that viewed the front yard of the house. Antiques from all different parts of the world and time decorated this room. The Gadsen flag hung from the ceiling. In a glass frame a medical scalpel hung on a wall. An assortment of medieval weapons and armor lied around the room to darken the mood.
To the right of them was a bookshelf with an extensive collection of first-edition books in it. The Holy Bible sat in the same collection with The Communist Manifesto, Macbeth, The Tell Tale Heart, Einstein’s Science and Religion, The Koran, Pet Sematary, The Gospel of Judas: Second Edition, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, and Hannibal along with other great books. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was not among the collection.
They walked left through an archway to a smaller room. A big three-foot-high oak desk was opposite the archway. Above the desk a middle age era broadsword with expensive gems in the hilt rested in a glass case on the wall. On the desk sat a 27” flat screen TV that also doubled as a computer monitor, with the tower and the keyboard of the computer inside the desk. The leather chair was turned and faced the wall. The chair did an about-face and the occupier in the chair smiled at the two.
A figure with long black hair that rested back in a ponytail stared at them. His dark black eyes sat back in his face. The figure’s age appeared to be in the late thirties, early forties. He had a thin mustache, and hair on his chin that did not connect with the mustache. He had a good build to his body. His skin had a light, white tone to it; just enough white that told you this man had not tanned in a while.
“How was your flight?” the figure asked.
“Interesting,” Jericho said. “Those hookers caught a flight back to England once we landed. They should be back home by tomorrow at some point. How much did it cost to get whores like that to do a transatlantic flight?” Jericho asked.
“Ten thousand each, pocket money. All three of them will be on the flight back?”
The two vampires nodded their heads.
“Good, I had a feeling you guys needed a relaxing, refreshing flight, but not refreshing enough to murder. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to lose your appetite. I hope you liked the twenty hour night you guys experienced with the flight.”
“Thank you master, the long night was good.”
“I do what I can. When I talked to you, you sounded like you were in trouble. What was wrong?”
“Just some farmers mad about their sheep.”
“Do these same farmers still exist as we speak?”
“Yes, we escaped with no harm to anyone.”
“Good.”
The conversation had the element of a lower officer reporting back his general. The figure stood up from the chair and walked toward the biggest window in the castle to the left hand side of Jericho and Michael. He looked out it, toward the ocean.
“So which side drew first?” he asked, not turning from the view of the water.
“Jake would be the one to tell you that, but he’s not with us anymore.”
“Well at least you guys got out. Jericho, you’re the most important to me, and Michael you’re next. It would be hard to keep this war going on without you two. Do you think they knew ahead of time about your whereabouts?”
“It didn’t seem like that, just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Yes, funny how that seems to happen quite often. Now, more importantly, did the Crusaders really discover the coffer?”
“According to our source they did.”
“In the middle of the Dead Sea, it’s amazing they were able to discover it.”
“They’ve been searching for decades. With the right technology and a bit of luck anything is possible.”
“Yes, anything is.”
There was a pause.
“Master.” Michael spoke for the first time. “I don’t know if we should still have this meeting.”
“Michael, we have had this meeting every fifty years since 1762. This will be our sixth one. We have had these even during times worse than this. It is the one tradition we have between the two sides. And with this new discovery that affects both sides, it is even more imperative that we meet. Besides, if we do not show up, it will be an all-out war.”
“And what is it we have now? We do not fight every time the opportunity presents itself? This is a war, and we will never settle on peace.”
“So what are you saying, Michael?” He looked at Michael with a hard stare as he turned from the window. He already knew what Michael was talking about. His answer would be no, but he still liked to hear him ask it.
“I’m saying we set them up at the meeting. Take him out, take them all out. If we don’t, he will. That is what he has planned.”
“We tried that in 1913. Do you remember the repercussions from that decision?”
Michael nodded obediently.
Their master continued. “We also have some very important issues to discuss. The last meeting was fifty years ago. The world is more different now than it has ever been between meetings. With this new technology, these sides cannot continue to fight. Our secret will eventually be revealed. Besides, maybe he can understand life is better now, allowing these human to produce goods that we use to live in luxury, and not enslaving them.”
“His idea of luxury is absolute power and you know this,” Michael said. “This year the meeting is on our turf, let’s take advantage of it.”
“No, this discovery of the coffer is too important. It puts both sides at risk, it puts the whole world at risk. We have to work together to stop the Crusaders. We must unite now.”
Jericho moved closer to his master, about a foot in front of him now. “Master, I have been with you for centuries. We’ve seen a lot of men die. We’ve won and we’ve lost, but you know we stand a better chance working against these Crusaders on our own than with him. There is no reasoning with this man. Let’s get him and end this, then we have nothing else to worry about.”
“And what if we don’t succeed at the meeting, and he escapes? Then what? Then we will be fighting a two-front war. No, we will bring an olive branch to the meeting and if he does not accept it then we will destroy him with it. Now, I mentioned before that I did not want you to lose your appetite. There is a meal for you guys in the basement.”
“I was looking for something fresh,” Michael said.
“Oh this is pretty fresh. Two escaped cons from San Quentin, caught trying to make their way down to Mexico. The other men from the house captured them, and I told them to save ‘em for you two. You deserve it.”
Michael and Jericho thanked their master and walked to the elevator. As the doors to the elevator closed, their master sat back down in his chair. He had an important phone call to make.
3
Back in a London diner, an old cop sat at a booth waiting for someone. He pulled his tea bag in and out of the teacup. It was almost ten o’clock in the morning. He was in his early fifties and has seen his share of crime during his stay on the force. He was Detective Chief Inspector Louis Warburton of the Metropolian Police Service (MPS) of Greater London. He worked for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area
of Whitechapel was in this borough, the old stomping ground of Jack the Ripper.
He was not a big man. He had the average weight to him that a man would have after being on the earth for fifty years and stopped giving a shit. The cigarettes also helped to keep him only thirty pounds overweight. He drank his tea, paying no mind to anyone. He rubbed his hand over the arch of his head that was now bald, unlike the sides. Over twenty years on the force can do that to anyone. No meal was in front of him. He wasn’t there for lunch. A waitress stopped at the table.
“You sure you don’t want anything, love?” the waitress asked.
“No, maybe just a tea for my friend. He should be here soon.”
“Okay.”
She walked away. A thin young man in his twenties stepped into the diner out of the rain. Rain in England is as common as tourists in Las Vegas. The man in the doorway shook some water out of his full head of hair and then noticed the Chief Inspector. He walked over to him. This man was Detective Inspector Robert Peterson, one of the youngest detectives in the MPS. Peterson sat down in the booth across from him.
“Chief, did you hear about the murders in the club last night?”
“At Domas…yes.”
“Witnesses say seven or eight men were carrying guns, but all their bodies vanished. Their clothes, everything that they were wearing, vanished—into thin air. No one has found any of them. At first it seems unbelievable, but enough people have testified to seeing the same thing. Also the bullets, Chief, they were silver.”
Peterson talked with heavy enthusiasm and curiosity but this story did not surprise the Chief Inspector at all. He still had a frown on his face as he played with his tea bag in his cup. The waitress came to the table with the other tea. She placed it in front of Peterson and walked away without saying anything. Peterson was too focused on his story to thank the Chief.
