The Vampire War

by Eric S. Brown

  Tonya nodded solemnly, accepting the group’s decision.

  “As soon as she’s recovered from her burns, I want you at her side, Tonya,” Donald ordered. “We need the info in her head as quickly as we can get it.”

  “I understand,” Tonya sighed. “I’ll be ready.”

  “In the meantime, Hank, you have a lot of work ahead of you repairing our remaining Psi-mechs.”

  “Consider me on it, boss.” Hank nodded. The tele-mechanic got up and left the meeting room to get started.

  “What about the rest of us?” Ringer asked.

  Donald shrugged. “Perhaps you should prepare yourselves for the battle we all know lies ahead.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 17

  Katherine woke up screaming. The nurse attending her in the medical section of Psi-Mechs, Inc.’s base nearly jumped out of her skin. Tonya Bellmore, who sat next to Katherine’s bed, didn’t so much as flinch. She reached out with her mind, calming both of them down.

  “Glad to see you’re awake,” Tonya said while telepathically urging the nurse to leave the room. The nurse complied without argument.

  “Tonya?” Katherine asked, becoming aware of where she was.

  “It’s okay,” the telepath assured her. “You took a pretty good hit, but you’re fine.”

  “Did we get that bastard?” Katherine shifted around in her bed, propping herself upright on her pillow.

  “Elick?” Tonya asked, then shook her head sadly. “No. He managed to escape.”

  “I hope I was the only casualty on our side,” Katherine commented.

  “We lost four more Psi-mechs and their pilots during the battle outside the base,” Tonya informed her.

  “We can’t afford to keep losing people.” Katherine frowned.

  “Or Psi-mechs,” Tonya added. “As it stands, according to Hank, we only have six fully combat-ready Psi-mechs left.”

  “What’s happened to us?” Katherine shook her head, her voice full of sorrow.

  “We went to war with a god,” Tonya stated plainly. “You don’t do that and come out unscathed.”

  “It seems like we’re barely hanging on,” Katherine said.

  “I would say that’s relative.” Tonya laughed. “Anyone else other than Psi-Mechs, Inc. would have lost the war already. Sure we’ve taken some hard hits, but we’re still in the fight.”

  Tonya thought for a moment before speaking again. “You’re having doubts?”

  “No. We’re the only thing standing between Mavet and the end of the world,” Katherine told her. “It’s just…”

  “Losing people is never an easy thing, Katherine,” Tonya said. “We’ve all lost people we care about in this war. Mercy, Frank, Abby, even Sharpton…all of them from the hired mercs to the Psi-mech pilots…their deaths weren’t in vain. Because of them, we’re still here, and Mavet hasn’t won yet.”

  Katherine studied the telepath carefully. “You’re not here just to make sure I am okay, are you?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Tonya said with a frown. “The base was a dead end in terms of learning more about Mavet’s plans or his location. It was the only real lead we had.”

  “So you need to go digging inside my head again,” Katherine said.

  “I am sorry for it, but yes,” Tonya admitted. “It’s the only hope we have right now, Katherine.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” Katherine asked. “Let’s get it over with.”

  The nurse returned to the room carrying a syringe.

  “Uh…what the heck is that?” Katherine asked, eyeing her.

  “Oh, just your meds, sweetie,” the nurse purred. “It’ll make you all better.”

  “She’s better now,” Tonya said, getting to her feet. She could feel the evil coming off the nurse. The woman was no longer herself. The presence inside her was old and powerful.

  “No, no,” the nurse said, “no use arguing. Doctor’s orders.”

  “What are you?” Tonya demanded of the nurse.

  The nurse met her eyes. In that moment, a telepathic blast of energy struck Tonya’s mental defenses hard enough to send her reeling over backward into her chair.

  Katherine leaped from the bed at the nurse, her fangs bared and the nails of her hands elongated into razor-sharp claws. The nurse snatched her mid-leap, using her own momentum against her, and she flung Katherine into the wall. It cracked from the impact, nearly giving way, and Katherine bounced away from it onto the floor. She recovered almost instantly, her glowing red eyes whipping around to where the nurse still stood.

  “It’s a demon, Katherine!” Tonya warned, rubbing at her aching temples from where the thing had nearly crushed her mind.

  The nurse’s laughter was deep and inhuman. “Please allow me to introduce myself…” the nurse half sang, smiling. “My name is Nazar, and lord Mavet sent me to make sure you wouldn’t be causing him any more trouble.”

  “I can’t reach the others!” Tonya warned Katherine. “She’s shutting me down!”

  “You have me outnumbered already,” Nazar said, giggling. “Can’t you humans ever be content?”

  Tonya went for the pistol holstered on her hip, but the possessed nurse moved to her side with impossible speed. As Tonya’s pistol cleared the holster, the nurse tore it from her grasp, and it crumpled beneath the force of the nurse’s grip. Nazar tossed the pistol aside.

  Katherine lunged to her feet, going for the door. It slammed shut in front of her. Katherine ripped the knob off in her attempt to open it.

  “No one is going anywhere until we’re done!” The nurse cackled like a madwoman.

  The door shook in its frame as Katherine rammed her shoulder against it with all her vampiric strength. It should have shattered into splinters, but instead it held firm.

  “I hate magic,” Katherine rasped, knowing the door would be impossible to get through until the demon was either dead or driven away.

  “And I hate you, Ms. Grimm,” the nurse said. “Nothing personal, really. I hate all you human trash.”

  “I’m not human,” Katherine snarled, charging the nurse.

  The nurse dodged the first swipe of Katherine’s claws, jerking her upper body out of their path. Twisting in the other direction, she dodged her second swing, too.

  “But you’re not really a vampire either, Katherine,” the nurse told her before lashing out with a kick that sent Katherine crashing into the door behind her. The kick would have been fatal to a human. As it was, Katherine could feel her ribcage knitting itself back together inside her chest as she struggled to breathe.

  Tonya engaged the demon telepathically, attempting to take control of it. The nurse’s expression contorted into one of extreme pain. The nurse was fighting the demon, too, and Tonya could hear her crying out, trapped inside her own mind and body by the demon, unable to do anything but watch what was happening. Tonya added her own power to the nurse’s effort to shake the demon loose from her mind. It wasn’t enough.

  Nazar flung the syringe still clutched in the nurse’s hand at Tonya. Its point sunk into Tonya’s right shoulder like a knife, breaking her concentration. Tonya yelped and staggered sideways. She yanked the syringe out of her shoulder. The contents were still inside it, or she would have been dead.

  Free of Tonya’s efforts to drive it from its host body, Nazar jumped onto the room’s ceiling, hanging there by the nurse’s fingernails, which had grown into claws like Katherine’s. The demon looked down at Tonya and Katherine, studying them.

  “I have to admit,” Nazar chuckled, “you two sure know how to put up a good fight.”

  Katherine moved in a blur to the side of the bed she’d been lying in, snatched up Tonya’s chair, and swung it upward at the demon-possessed nurse on the ceiling. The chair shattered against the spot the demon had occupied. Nazar was already moving across the ceiling like some sort of demented spider in human form.

  Tonya had moved to the room’s door and was trying to force it open. A vain effort, real
ly, given that Katherine’s vampiric strength hadn’t been able to budge it, but she had to try. The nurse dropped onto the floor behind her; Tonya heard Nazar land. She ducked as the nurse’s clenched fist hammered into the door above her head. The wood of the magically-barred door cracked but didn’t give.

  “Tricky one, aren’t you?” Nazar cackled. “But I think it’s time you were dead.”

  Tonya felt her breath leave her body as the demon-possessed nurse caught hold of her and slammed her back against the door, and the world spun before Tonya’s eyes. It took everything she had to stay conscious after such a blow, and she saw the nurse’s jaw unhinge from its joints, growing wide like a snake’s as it came toward her.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Katherine shrieked, grabbing the nurse and throwing her away from the telepath. Tonya crumpled to the floor as the nurse smashed into the side of the bed. Katherine was on the nurse before the demon could bring the woman’s body back to its feet.

  “Let her go, demon, or I will end you both right now!” Katherine screeched into the nurse’s face, her eyes blazing hot and red.

  The nurse’s claws dug into the flesh of Katherine’s arms as she grabbed hold of them, pulling Katherine even closer to her. “You think a lot of yourself, Ms. Grimm… but the truth is, you’re not half as strong as you could be.”

  The bones of Katherine’s arms snapped and broke as the demon nurse twisted them both sideways. Katherine grunted from the pain, her eyes going wide.

  “I will have you now!” Nazar shrieked, tendrils of dark energy springing forth from the nurse’s eyes and open mouth toward her.

  The door to the room blew inward in a shower of wooden splinters above where Tonya lay, and Ringer walked calmly into the room.

  A shield of crackling telekinetic energy formed, blocking the tendrils of darkness from entering Katherine. They receded into the nurse’s mouth and eyes.

  “You!” the demon-possessed nurse croaked.

  Ringer didn’t respond with words. Instead, he lifted the nurse’s body with his mind and tossed it against the far wall, holding it there with the power of his mind. The demon-possessed nurse howled and cried, struggling, but couldn’t break free.

  “You okay?” Ringer asked Katherine.

  “I am now.” She smiled up at him.

  Hank and Scott had entered the room after Ringer. Scott was hunched over, attending to Tonya, who’d been wounded by Ringer’s entrance. Several splinters from the door protruded from her back, with blood seeping around them through the jacket she wore.

  “You can’t stop me!” the demon nurse squealed. “I am eternal!”

  Hank moved to where Ringer’s telekinesis held the demon, and he placed a small device on the nurse’s forehead. “We’ll see about that,” the tele-mechanic replied.

  As Hank reached back to tap out a code on the small device’s keypad, the demon snapped at him. The demon couldn’t reach him, though; Ringer held it firmly in place. Opening its mouth as if to roar, the demon shot out a long, black, slime-covered tongue at the tele-mechanic.

  “Ringer!” Hank yelled, but the telekinetic was already on it.

  Catching the tongue with his telekinesis, Ringer tore it from the demon’s mouth, and the tongue went flying to land with a wet splat on the floor.

  “Thanks, man,” Hank said, looking relieved as he reached for the device again. His fingers danced over its keypad.

  “What are you doing?” the demon managed to ask, even without a tongue. Its voice was thick with fear.

  “I’m setting her free, and sending you home.” Hank grinned.

  The small device whirred as it built up power, and it discharged the energy into the nurse. Her body flopped about beneath Ringer’s telekinetic hold on her. Nazar gave a final, painful scream, and was gone.

  “That’s the last we’ll see of that thing,” Hank announced proudly.

  “No. It’s not,” Donald said, stepping into the room.

  Hank scowled at the young precog but kept his mouth shut.

  “Donald!” Katherine cried out and raced to embrace her adopted son.

  “Mother,” Donald said. “We have discussed this.”

  Katherine pulled away from him, looking sad.

  “How is Tonya?” Donald asked Scott, who was still tending to her.

  “She’ll live,” the lead pilot told him.

  “That’s not what I asked,” Donald stared at Scott. “I’m aware that she will live. I asked how she was.”

  “She took some shrapnel for the door, and it looks like a pretty good blow before that.” Scott shrugged. “Nothing too bad, though. She should be on her feet again soon.”

  The young precog nodded, then turned back to Katherine. “Mother, we cannot wait for Tonya to recover. We need the information within your mind now.”

  “And how do you propose to get it without our resident telepath?” Ringer asked.

  “I think you know,” Donald commented. “Call him, Ringer.”

  “You want me to call Jimi?” Ringer stared at Donald. “I don’t even know if he’s still on this plane. We haven’t seen or heard from him since the stuff that went down with the worm monster.”

  “He’s on Earth,” Donald told the telekinetic, “and he will come for you.”

  “I’m not a telepath, Donald,” Ringer protested.

  “That doesn’t matter.” The young precog shook his head. “The Mothman, like many in the supernatural world, have taken a keen interest in you, Ringer. If you reach out to him, he will come.”

  “Okay, I’ll try,” Ringer conceded.

  Ringer concentrated on the Mothman, attempting to touch the entity’s mind and call him to where they were.

  A ghostly apparition came floating downward through the ceiling to land on the floor between Ringer and Donald. The aura of the Mothman instantly put them all at ease, which was impressive, given the Mothman’s appearance. Giant ten-foot wings extended from his back, and his bulbous eyes burned red in the darkness. The Mothman’s mouth was part bird’s beak, part razored teeth, and part insectoid. Everyone in the room could only stare, transfixed, at the cosmic being who had entered their presence.

  “Been a while, hasn’t it, Ringer?” Jimi asked, his voice like the sweetest chords of divine music. “I told you things would work out just fine with that monster, didn’t I?”

  “We’ve got a new problem now, Jimi,” Ringer said, plucking a cigarette from the pocket of his jacket and lighting up.

  “You temporal beings always do,” the Mothman said, sighing.

  “Nonetheless,” Donald interrupted. “We need you to…”

  “Kid, I know what you need.” The Mothman said, sounding annoyed.

  “Then you’ll help us?” Donald asked.

  “I don’t need to rip my way into your mother’s mind to tell you where Mavet is, Donald.” The Mothman gave a mental sigh that everyone present heard within their heads. “He’s close to my own stomping grounds. There’s so much mystical energy building there, you’d have to be a rock not to feel it.”

  “Where is he?” Donald demanded gruffly.

  The aura the Mothman was giving off switched from peaceful to perturbed and then back again.

  “Watch it, kiddo,” the Mothman cautioned Donald. “If I wasn’t aware of how desperate you are and what’s at stake…I might have lost my temper with that one.”

  “I’m sorry,” Donald said.

  “You’re not, not really, but I accept your apology anyway.” The Mothman rose to hover several inches above the floor of the room. “He’s in North Carolina. You’ll find him easily enough if you go looking.”

  The Mothman turned in the air to give Ringer a final look. “See you around, Ringer.”

  And then he was gone, his astral form fading away to nothingness.

  “North Carolina,” Ringer heard Donald mutter, then the young precog was all action, barking commands.

  “Hank, I need full sweeps of the western part of the state as soon as possible! Scott
, have your pilots suited up and ready. And someone find Eddie! We’re going to need him!” Donald ordered, then darted out of the room.

  “That kid is either going to win this war for us, or get us all killed,” Ringer commented, watching Donald go.

  “Let’s hope for the former,” Hank said.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 18

  Hank ran the scans of western North Carolina that Donald had asked for. The Mothman hadn’t been kidding about the energy there. The results of the scans were some of the strangest Hank had ever seen. All of them were concentrated in a remote area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, making it easy to pinpoint their epicenter, which pleased Donald greatly. They now had a target.

  Scott, his pilots, and Hank’s tech crew were hard at work trying to get more Psi-mech suits operational. Going after Mavet’s new base of operations with only four mechs felt like a suicide run. Scott longed for the days when the company had had dozens of mechs at its disposal and the manpower to keep them running. He’d suggested hiring mercs for support in the attack on Mavet’s new base to Donald, but the young precog had coldly reminded him that any new mercs they hired at this point would be little more than cannon fodder. Their disbelief in the supernatural, regardless of how many briefings they had beforehand, would render them useless. They wouldn’t stand a chance against even young vampires, much less the sort of masters everyone was expecting Mavet had surrounded himself with.

  The demon that called itself Nazar was still out there, too. Hank hadn’t destroyed it. The tele-mechanic had merely sent it back its plane of origin. It would return eventually and would be looking for vengeance when it did. The poor nurse Nazar had possessed was going to live, but the med staff and Tonya both agreed that the woman would never be the same. The amount of trauma she’d undergone, in mind and body alike, would scar her for the rest of her life. And as good as Hank was, creating a cybernetic tongue just wasn’t a feasible thing. She was mute now, and there was no changing that. Donald was going to make sure she had more than enough money to live comfortably on as she left the company, if she opted to leave, and Scott supposed that was something. Everyone who worked for Psi-Mechs, Inc. knew the risks that came with the job when they joined on, but honestly, no one ever really thought it would be them who ended up in a body bag, or worse.