by Phil Maxey
I followed her. It wasn’t long before I was walking up the steps of the turn of the century police station with her and Alyssa who wore a pleasant looking dress with flowers on it. The vamp couldn’t have looked less like herself if she tried, but I was still taken by her appearance.
The lobby of the old station was largely empty with only an elderly woman seated on a bench behind us. Her eyes closed and her lips quivered as she breathed through her mouth. My heightened senses allowed me to almost see a small cloud of alcoholic fumes hanging over her.
“We’re here to see detective Haver or Jenkins,” said Fletcher to the sergeant at the desk. “I am Fletcher Hayward, attorney for Mr. Hell-Lock and Miss Hodges.”
The balding officer looked up briefly on hearing my name, then pushed a clipboard with a sign-in sheet on it forward across the counter. “Sign and date. I think Haver’s gone home for the night, but Jenkins is upstairs. I’ll let him know you’re here. Take a seat, but try not to wake Belle over there. I can’t be dealing with her shit again.”
“Umm, sure,” said Fletcher. She quickly signed and passed the clipboard to Alyssa then me as the sergeant picked up a landline phone.
We sat in seats, away from the sleeping old woman. A light flickered above our head, then returned to full illumination. One of Alyssa’s boots, the one item of clothing she couldn’t let go of, bounced up and down as she sat one leg over the other. I wondered if she was impatient to go outside, into the coming night, racing across rooftops and fighting the legions of the undead.. or maybe she was just hungry.
Jenkins appeared across the lobby, and waved us towards him. As we started to follow him down a dimly lit corridor the hairs on the back of my neck made me turn around. Belle was sitting bolt upright and looking directly at me.
We arrived at a room with one table and not enough chairs. He offered to get more, but Fletcher said she’s happy to stand. We made our way inside and sat.
The detective placed a folder down, and a cup of coffee he had been carrying. Every move he made seem labored. He grinned at me. “Your name is Sean Knight or Sebastian Hell-Lock?”
“Sebastian Hell-Lock.”
His grin continued as he sat. “So that was a false name you gave us yesterday?”
“I was confused… I’m Sebastian Hell-Lock.”
“Well you must be, because Sebastian Hell-Lock is dead. Unless you just happen to have his exact name?”
“He… I’m not dead. I was away, now I’m back.”
“Right…”
“We have filed proceedings with the court that will eventually prove the identity of the man sitting in front of you, detective,” said Fletcher.
He pulled the folder open, then rotated it so we could see the photo cut from a newspaper. He placed a finger on the black-and-white image. “And how you going to explain him looking nothing like this Mr. Hell-Lock?”
“That will be explained in court.”
He frowned and turned the folder back towards himself. “Right… Anyway, seeing you don’t have an ID to prove you are who you say you are, I’m just going to call you Joe. That alight with you Joe?”
I sighed. “Whatever makes this go faster.”
“Good. And you were brought into St. Leonards yesterday at around noon, with multiple broken bones. And your elderly friend, was even in worse shape. A man who called it in, said he saw the both of you laid out on a sidewalk. Near some library. So, I presume you remember—”
“I don’t.”
“What?”
“I don’t remember anything.” I pointed to my dark uncombed hair. “Took a knock. Wiped the last twenty-four hours clear out.”
He leaned back and took a sip of his coffee, his eyes not leaving me. “Right. You know of a reason why people would want to hurt you?”
“Nope. I’ve been sleeping rough. Minding my own business.”
“I see.” He looked at Alyssa. “You’re Mr. Groves daughter correct?” She nodded. “How is Mr. Groves. I understand he discharged himself.”
That was news to Alyssa and me.
“He’s getting better.”
“That’s good to hear, but… why was an old professor, found unconscious on the sidewalk, on fifth avenue, with Joe here. You see that’s the part of this I’m having trouble understanding. A possible, actually you know what? I would say a likely scenario, is that Joe here had lured your father there—” My face grew tight despite Fletcher’s words replaying in my mind to keep my cool. ‘It’s their job to get under your skin, don’t let them,’ she said. “— Somehow, and then attacked him. How Joe ended up getting hurt. That’s a mystery. Perhaps your old man is stronger than he looks. Maybe Joe here had a partner…” The detective looked back at me then returned to Alyssa whose heart rate was increasing by the second. “Maybe both of you—” Alyssa’s nails which had grown a full half inch during Jenkin’s last accusation without him realizing it, started to dig into the wood of the table.
“I think I’ve heard enough of this,” said Fletcher. “You clearly don’t have any idea of what happened. You are spewing fantasy with the hope that my clients will tell you something you want to hear. Mr. Groves and Mr. Hell-Lock are acquaintances. They were brutally attacked and Mr. Hell-Lock had his watch damaged, a watch that had been in his family for generations, and the professor—”
A scream rang out in the distance.
A flicker of concern flashed across the detective’s face, but he looked down at the photos and documents in the folder. Far too much to only have been collected since the incident in the library.
The light above our heads dimmed, plunging all of us into darkness then went back to full brightness. Jenkins grumbled something about the wiring of the building, and went to talk again when a gunshot rang out. He sprang to his feet, his hand reaching for his own firearm. He walked to the door. “Stay here!” he said then slipped outside.
“They’re here,” said Alyssa. She looked at me. “Can you feel them?”
The room was colder, I could feel that. “The drunk woman, sleeping it off in the waiting room. She looked at me before we came in here.”
“Shit,” said Alyssa. “Then we need to go.”
More screams echoed through the halls outside, along with laughing. We moved to the door which I opened and hurried outside. Left took us back to the lobby, right to another exit. They moved right, but I hesitated.
“Come on, lets go!” said Alyssa.
I scanned the way we came in. Three human heartbeats and something else. Whatever the fourth entity was, the humans were terrified. I moved to the left.
“What are you doing!” shouted Alyssa.
“I don’t know,” I said, pushing open the door to the entrance lobby.
Jenkins and another male in uniform had their handguns trained on something at the opposite end of the lobby. Something was the best description I could quickly give to the monster, which held the desk sergeant around his neck with an angular arm and spindly fingers. Its head was twice as large, its eyes were dark slits and its mouth appeared to extend beyond the borders of its skull.
Jenkins used his free hand to try to edge closer to the hostage taker. “Belle, there’s something wrong with you. Let the sergeant—” He then realized Belle was ignoring his request because she was now transfixed by the new arrival. Me.
I walked fully into the room. “Yeah Belle, let him go.” I knew I was looking at one of the damned. The old woman was gone, replaced by a creature that had taken possession of her body. Even her scent had changed.
Alyssa and Fletcher entered the room behind me, the former pulling up her dress, revealing her dagger in a sheath attached to her thigh. She pulled the blade which immediately shone bright.
The thing smiled. “Hell-Lock…” It spoke with a voice so deep it sounded masculine.
Jenkins looked at me, confusion across his face.
The hostage’s eyes darted around the concerned faces. Blood trickled down his neck where the monster’s needle sharp cl
aw had punctured his skin.
“You can’t win this phantom,” said Alyssa, her body almost shaking with hatred.
The thing’s eyes slid towards her. “Still sore over what happened to your mother, child?”
A flash of recognition moved across the vamp’s face. “You…” she said.
The phantom scoffed. “Oh no, it was not I that did that. But when us creatures from beyond, do really good work, work that affects humans for generations… well word gets around…”
Alyssa went to charge forward, but I flicked my hand out stopping her.
Jenkins looked at all three of us. “What the fuck is going on!”
The phantom looked back at me. “Did you know in ancient Egypt they did not even have a term for ‘demon’? Back then, beings from beyond the veil were accepted as part of the natural order of things, celebrated even as a necessary… evil.”
Commotion came from my left. More officers appeared, all instantly drawing their guns and pointing them in the same direction. Some talked into radios.
I walked forward, past Jenkins so I was only a few yards from what used to be Belle. “What the fuck do you want with me?”
“Sir! Get out of the way!” shouted the detective.
It smiled again. “Two opposing forces contained within one vessel oozing with power. Once the seal is broken, will they tear you apart? I wonder… or will something useful emerge?”
I moved forward in a blur, pulling the officer free and grabbing the thing by its throat and threw it across the room, where it slammed up against a message board. Everything crashed to the ground and all the weapons in the room converged on the place where it landed, but on the weathered black and white tiled floor was only the lifeless body of an old woman.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The city’s lights twinkled in the distance as I pulled the oars back and forth. Luckily the East river was calm for the time of year and the small wooden boat we borrowed cut through the waves towards our destination. Alyssa sat up front, looking at the island we were heading towards. After our encounter with the old woman she had become even more quiet than usual.
“So what’s Fortican’s problem with Salazar,” I said between heaves.
“They got history.”
“I gathered. What specifically.”
“They used to work together, before things went bad between them.”
Things must have gone real bad.
“What did the phantom mean, when he talked about—”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Get ready, the rocks start before you think.”
On queue something slammed into the hull and scrapped along the bottom. I did my best to slow our momentum, but the waves pushed us forward anyway. Being so close to shore Alyssa jumped out, landing like a cat in a foot of water and on uneven ground, and I threw the rope to her. She jumped again, this time landing on the shore and lodged it under a rock. I tried to reenact her maneuver but instead landed awkwardly and grimaced. “Wait up!” I said, but she was already moving up the bank, towards the trees which circled the island.
I scrambled up the slope, using my enhanced vision to see an opening amongst the foliage and made my way through the branches, coming into light cast by burning torches.
“Woah…” I looked up at gothic revival walls of an old hospital. Four-stories high, with top floor windows that allowed a clear view of the night sky behind. The guts of the place were missing.
Alyssa was standing near the entrance, which towered above her. “Come on,” she said, then pushed a wooden door inwards, and moved inside. I followed but could feel them watching. I even had a good idea in what empty windows the vamps were observing me from.
I moved through the Victorian doorway into a large open area, which for most of its history had been enclosed. A staircase weaved upwards stopping off at the various floors, and a myriad of shadow laden hallways branched off. Alyssa was already in conversation with the tall vamp rockstar. I looked up at the other members of his band, who were perched at various heights.
“You boys lost?” I shouted, hoping someone would get the joke. Salazar’s eyes fixed on me and Alyssa stepped back as the big guy walked forward. I stiffened my back.
He stopped a few feet away, smiled then walked forward again with his arms opened and gave me a hug so tight I thought I heard something crack. He stepped away and looked back to Alyssa. “Alyssa tells me even though you are a demon, the void has not completely consumed you. So welcome to my home.”
“Err… thanks.”
“She also tells me it has not been long since, you became…” He waved his fingers at my boots. “This.”
“Yeah… This.”
He stroked his goatee. “Hmm usually I can tell what kind of demon a being is, but with you… It is confusing. I get the scent of many from you. Whatever you are, I have not come across your kind before. And I have come across many demons…” He was smiling again, but his eyes betrayed it.
“So you’re going to help us?” I said, losing patience with his curiosity.
“If Fletcher keeps her word, then yes. Come, join me inside.” He turned, facing Alyssa. I walked with him and we all moved through a large doorway into a room that had a ceiling. It also had furniture, chairs and tables which appeared to belong to an era even older than the walls around us. The table was covered in dishes with meat on. I also spotted glasses with a red liquid that from the fumes, actually was wine. The double doors behind us closed, making me feel a little trapped. A hand came down hard on my shoulder. “Take a seat. Eat. Drink.”
“I’m good.”
Salazar tried to hide his frown, but sat and started biting into a leg of some animal. At least I think it was an animal. He looked at Alyssa. “Surely you will not ignore this feast as well?”
“You know I can’t.”
He dropped the leg and smiled again. “One day you will return to me, daughter.”
I looked at her, shocked.
He looked at me, with the same large smile. “Oh you do not know? I made her into the magnificent creature she is today.”
She briefly looked down. “This is serious Salazar. They have one of the seals.”
He shook his head. “The seals are a child’s bedtime story. Made up by the holy men of the old world to confuse the minds of human and paranormal alike. Only fanatics on both sides believe they are real.”
Alyssa went to talk again, but I stepped forward. “What if you’re wrong?”
The vampire looked at me with dismissive eyes. “Do you know how many years I have walked this earth baby demon? From when ships were made from trees. And in all my time I had not come across any of these so-called seals.”
“Tell him about your family…” said Alyssa.
I looked at her then back to the other vamp. “I think they were involved with the Knights of Exile…”
Salazar raised his hands. “Like I said, fanatics!” He looked at Alyssa. “Why do you persist with these fairytales?”
“I’ve seen things Salazar… creatures that I thought were just scary stories…”
The irony of standing in a forgotten Victorian hospital in the middle of the night with two vampires, one of which was talking about ‘scary stories’ was not lost on me.
“Meh! You have been with the old Englishman for too long, daughter!”
“Please stop calling me that.”
“Why? Are you ashamed of me?”
She slammed her hands down on the long table. “Salazar, I need your help.”
His expression softened to one that for once I believed was real. “And Fortacan believes this demon’s family was involved with the knights?”
“He does…”
He sat back with a rueful expression, then looked at me. “And you believe this watch of yours, is one of the seals? And this Octavian company has it?”
“My grandfather’s watch contained something… I don’t know what. But yes, that was a seal, and they now have it. We need to get it back befo
re Halloween.” I didn’t mean to make my explanation sound funny, but Salazar burst out laughing anyway.
“Halloween? Ha, of course you do. Fine… yes. We will help you retrieve your ‘seal’ young demon, from this—”
“They had a drude…” said Alyssa.
“A drude? I have come across a few in my time. They are involved with extremely dark magic… Not creatures you want to tangle with.” He looked away. “Okay. I will… make enquiries of this Octavian group and we will meet again, but for now at least drink some wine!”
*****
Salazar offered to take us back to the larger human ‘infested’ island but I felt confident of my seafaring skills and the moon provided enough light to navigate. I took my hands off the oars and laid all the way back, looking up at the stars. It reminded me of the moment I was stabbed. Strangely I was with the same person.
“What are you doing?” said my savior. “We need to get back.”
“I think that’s Orion…”
“We don’t have time for this.”
“The thing in the fifth precinct—”
“I told you I—”
“Don’t want to talk about it. Yeah I know. But seeing you know about my past, I think it’s fair I know about yours. The phantom knew—”
She stood, making the boat wobble, and I sat up in unison. “Life’s not fair. But I guess you never knew that until you became a demon.” And with that, she dived into the water.
“Hey!” I looked around into the oily depths, wondering if I should dive in too, then spotted a wake behind what looked like a torpedo moving fast to the dock. “Vampires swim?” A few seconds later Alyssa sprang from the waves and landed on the artificial shore, then walked up the steps to the path above, not looking back once. “Shit…” I said under my breath, and started to row again.
Once I made it to the wooden jetty, then stepped onto the dock she was nowhere to be seen, so I tied the boat back to the post we took it from and made my way back up to the lights and sounds of the city.
No wonder there’s so many paranormals here, I thought. It had gone 1 a.m. but the streets were still thriving.
