The Vampire War

by Eric S. Brown

  “Run!” the woman screamed at him. And he did, but not in the direction she’d intended, apparently. Glen sprinted over to the woman and knelt next to her.

  “It’s going to be okay, ma’am. That thing is dead,” Glen told her.

  “No it’s not, officer Dubin,” she said, grabbing him and pulling him to the ground as she got to her feet, snatching up a sword he recognized as a katana from the floor. “Stay behind me.”

  From where he lay, Glen saw the monster had gotten up, too. Its head had already grown back, and its fangs were bared. It was all too much for him to handle. Glen Dubin fainted as the sword-wielding woman sprang forward to meet the leaping monster coming toward them.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 39

  The two cops were as unexpected to Katherine Grimm as they were to Mavet. As soon as they’d entered the building, Katherine had smelt them. At first, she thought her mind was playing a nasty trick on her. One of them was Frank Dubin, Psi-Mechs, Inc.’s original locator. That wasn’t possible, though, as Frank Dubin had died in the battle of New York. The company had never been able to replace Frank. He’d been the company’s locator, and finding other psychics to add to their ranks had been difficult without him. Katherine didn’t have a clue how Frank could be alive, but she smelt his blood in one of the two cops.

  As they’d moved in and engaged Mavet, Katherine got a good look at them. Neither of them was the portly locator in his trademark bowler cap. Frank’s smell was coming from the younger of the two cops. They didn’t have a prayer against the vampire god, but neither of them knew that; they treated him like any other violent perp. Mavet dispatched the senior officer quickly, but the one who smelled like Frank actually managed to take the vampire god down with a lucky shot. He ran to her. The name tag on his uniform read, “Dubin.”

  Katherine began to piece things together. The younger cop wasn’t Frank, but he had to be a relative of some kind. The smell of Frank’s bloodline was surely in him. Katherine wasn’t a locator, but her half-vampiric senses told her the kid had psychic power within him. Whether the young Dubin had been drawn to the warehouse because of it or was there by random chance didn’t matter. Katherine Grimm had loved Frank Dubin dearly. She was wasn’t about to let Mavet take the life of someone who was part of his family. Yanking the young cop to the floor since he had refused to listen to her and make a run for it, Katherine told the kid to stay behind her. Summoning up all the strength she had left, Katherine leaped up from the floor to meet Mavet as the vampire god healed from the damage the young Dubin had inflicted upon him and came at them.

  Shifting her katana around in her right hand to get a better grip on it, she met the vampire god head on. The silver blade of her sword slashed across the front of Mavet’s chest, opening a long slit. Mavet accepted the injury, not even making an attempt to avoid it, in order to get closer to her. The vampire god caught her by the wrist of her sword arm, twisting it until he was rewarded by the crack of bone and a grunt of pain from Katherine. She had no choice but to throw herself back away from him as Mavet pressed his attack. In a desperate attempt to keep the vampire god away from her, Katherine’s left foot shot upward in a high kick that caught Mavet on the underside of his chin. The kick halted his advance, but like everything else, did nothing to really hurt him. Mavet paused, wiping at the black blood leaking from the corner of his lips.

  “Katherine, your greatest weapons have already fallen,” Mavet told her. “The pilot of your new toy is trapped within his own mind, rendering his armor useless. Your telekinetic has been rendered irrelevant and taken out of the game. You have nothing left.”

  “I’m still alive,” Katherine snarled.

  “Not for long, Ms. Grimm.” Mavet laughed. “I’ve often wondered what happens when one stakes a half vampire through the heart. Do they burn, or merely die?”

  Katherine Grimm had spotted a smashed-up desk not far behind her. She continued to inch her way toward it as she retreated slowly from the vampire god.

  “You make a lot of threats, Mavet,” Katherine spat at him, “but you haven’t been able to stop me yet. In just a few hours, the sun will be up.”

  “The sun is no threat to me, little girl.” Mavet smiled. “Not anymore.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Katherine promised.

  “Now who is boasting?” Mavet laughed again.

  Katherine felt the heel of her shoe touch the edge of the shattered desk behind her. She spun, dropping to snatch up a long, pointed piece of wood. Mavet saw what she was doing and roared in anger. Katherine whirled back toward him, throwing the piece of debris like a spear at the vampire god’s heart. Mavet caught it easily.

  “If your intent is to kill me, Ms. Grimm,” Mavet showed her his fangs, “you’ll have to do much better than that.”

  Katherine was weaponless and alone against a being that had existed for millennia. Her entire body ached with pain. She was covered in burns from the magic he’d hit her with that refused to heal. Her head was swimming, and even just remaining on her feet took effort. The young cop had fainted, not that he would have been able to do anything against the vampire god. She knew it was only a matter of time until more cops arrived, but if they did so before she’d slain Mavet, he would simply wipe them out. It would be a one-sided massacre. Katherine did her best to slip into a defensive posture. Her martial arts training was the only hope she had now of even staying alive.

  “I’m done with this,” Mavet sighed, raising a hand toward her. The vampire god spoke another arcane word and the bones of Katherine’s legs blew apart inside. With dozens of white shards protruding through the flesh of her legs, Katherine fell forward onto her stomach and hands. Tears of blood flowed from her eyes, and Katherine Grimm knew she had lost. The vampire god had beaten her at last. The damage to her legs, like her burns, weren’t healing. She could no longer even stand, much less fight him.

  “It’s over, Ms. Grimm.” Mavet smirked, walking toward where she lay.

  “Donald, I’m so sorry baby.” Katherine wept quietly as she waited for the vampire god to reach her. Her strength was gone. She had no reserves left to call on. All she could do now was die at the hands of the enemy she had spent the bulk of her adult life trying to destroy.

  Mavet reached her, looking down with scorn and contempt. “You’ve cost me much, child.”

  Katherine said nothing, but she glared up at him in defiance.

  Taking Katherine by her hair, Mavet dragged her across the vast control room. Katherine screamed, not from the pain of him clutching her by the hair, but from the jostling about of the shards of bones within her legs. As they shifted about, the jagged fragments tore at her inner tissues and skin alike. Mavet spoke a series of arcane words before extending his free hand back toward the debris of a nearby shattered desk. Dozens of wooden shards rose from it, floating through the air to him as he reached the far wall with Katherine in tow.

  Mavet reached down to close a hand about her throat, lifting her body from the floor. The vampire god slammed her back against the wall, her feet dangling, unable to touch the floor below. A piece of wood from the desk flew into Mavet’s hand. He used to it impale her right shoulder, pinning it to the wall. The wooden debris he’d shoved through her held Katherine’s weight on that side as the vampire god did the same to her left. Katherine screamed both times. Tears of blood flowed even more freely from her eyes now as she watched Mavet take a step back to admire his handiwork. Katherine could tell he was far from done with her.

  Mavet flicked his hand, and eight more pieces of wooden debris flew to stab into her body. Two pierced each of her arms and legs, just above and below her elbows and knees. Katherine’s screams had become sobbing wails by the time two more pieces of debris entered her guts. They flew straight into her stomach like bullets, plunging into her intestines.

  “You deserve much worse,” Mavet whispered, leaning close her ear. “Much worse, indeed.”

  As he withdrew from her, Mavet bit off the e
ar he’d whispered into and spat it onto the floor below. Katherine was slipping into unconsciousness. To keep her with him, Mavet rammed his fingers through the skin of her stomach, between the two stakes impaling her, and yanked out a handful of intestines. The intensity of the fresh pain stirred her back awake as she stared at her own guts in the vampire god’s grasp.

  Mavet released the handful of intestines. They flopped wetly against her body, hanging out of it. “I would take your eyes, my dear, but I want my face to be the last thing you see,” Mavet purred sweetly, relishing every moment of her torture in an almost sexual manner.

  As if he’d read her thoughts about him, Mavet reached to sink the claws of his fingers into her flesh just above her knees. He raked them upward along her inner thighs, carefully avoiding the pieces of wood that pierced them above her knees. Katherine moaned as her blood spilled over her legs.

  Seeming high on her pain, Mavet leaned in closer to her again to lick her right cheek. Katherine was too weak to even try to turn her head and avoid it. She felt its cold sliminess on her skin. Mavet shuddered in pleasure at the taste of her pain and fear.

  “How sweet you are, my child,” Mavet purred. “Do you remember the nights you shared my bed? I do.”

  “Frag…” Katherine mumbled weakly but never finished what she started to say because Mavet kissed her hard. His cold lips met her own, pressing against them. His tongue altered itself, coiling about hers like a snake. When the kiss ended, Mavet’s tongue ripped hers out. Blood erupted like vomit from Katherine’s mouth, splashing over her chest.

  Mavet swallowed her tongue, then wiped his lips with the backside of his hand.

  Katherine could see in his eyes that he had peaked in his torture of her and was finished with it.

  Flicking his wrist, Mavet summoned another piece of wood into his waiting hand. Ever so quietly, and with a smile on his face, the vampire god placed its tip on her sternum between her breasts and leaned into her. The stake broke through the bone between it and her heart easily. Katherine’s body gave a final jerk as the wood slid into her heart.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 40

  Scott woke up screaming, although his voice couldn’t be heard outside the Omega Psi-mech as its exterior speakers were switched off. The blinding pain finally died down enough for him to open his eyes. His breaths came in ragged gasps as Scott gulped air into his lungs. The pain had been so intense, he hadn’t even been able to breathe while all the data from the burst Hank had hit his brain with burned in his mind.

  Scott’s vision was blurry at first, but slowly the world began to come into focus again. It had taken its toll on him, but Hank’s plan had worked. Scott was free of the vampire god’s mental hold. The back of his neck where his neural interface connected him to the Omega Psi-mech felt physically burned. He could still feel his legs, though they were gone. The two cybernetic limbs had been what housed the Omega Psi-mech before it had activated and deployed itself, engulfing him. Scott wondered how he was going to cope with their loss when the battle was over and the time came from him to disembark from the armor. That was if he survived.

  He could see that Ringer was out. Scott wondered what else he’d missed during the time Hank had whisked him away from the real world. The corpse of a cop lay sprawled out on the floor of the control room, and another cop lay not far from away from the first. The second looked to be younger and somehow still breathing. For whatever reason, Mavet had left that one alive. His eyes scanned the room through the Omega Psi-mech’s visor, searching for the vampire god and Katherine. He spotted them at the far end of the vast room. Mavet had Katherine literally nailed to the wall with pieces of jagged wood. Mavet had a stake pressed to Katherine Grimm’s heart. Scott watched the vampire god lean into her with the stake, driving it into her body. Katherine jerked as the stake entered her heart. Blood poured over the front of her clothes as the vampire god backed away from her, leaving the stake impaled between her breasts.

  “No!” Scott wailed inside the Omega Psi-mech. He brought the suit’s systems fully online once more. Mavet spun around toward him, startled, as the giant mech began to move. The vampire god’s eyes glowed a fierce red.

  “I don’t know how you freed yourself, cripple, but it doesn’t matter,” Mavet said. “Your leader is dead.”

  Scott’s answer to that was a barrage of high-powered rounds as his second autocannon rose from the Omega Psi-mech’s other shoulder. The silver bullets ripped at Mavet, sending the vampire god reeling. Scott popped the flamethrower unit embedded in the suit’s left arm and hosed Mavet with it before he could recover. The geyser of flame struck the vampire god dead on, washing over him. Mavet shrieked in pain as the fire melted the flesh of his face and arms away, setting his clothes ablaze.

  Even as Mavet burned, the armor’s autocannon continued to hammer him with rounds that dug into his body, blowing gaping holes in it. Mavet moved as if he were about to position himself to attack, but instead he tripped as a fresh barrage of bullets slammed into him. Toppling to the floor, Mavet rolled with his fall, trying to escape the fury the Omega Psi-mech continued to unleash upon him. Mavet was screaming as Scott finally disengaged the autocannon, and it sank back into the suit’s shoulder. Scott gave Mavet one last blast from the flamethrower unit before shutting it down as well. The weapon slid inside the suit’s armor once more. The blast of fire helped keep Mavet from healing himself before the Omega Psi-mech reached him.

  Mavet was still in too much pain to offer any resistance as one of the Omega Psi-mech’s giant hands closed on the top of his head, jerking him up off the floor. The vampire god’s skull cracked under the pressure the thick metal fingers exerted on it. Mavet’s eyes dislodged themselves from the sockets in sprays of blood and dangled onto his face, attached only by thin strands of sinew. Scott popped the arm blade on the suit’s free hand, planning to behead Mavet. He didn’t think even Mavet could survive that, given that the blade was silver and contained bits of wood mingled with its metal.

  Mavet howled something Scott couldn’t understand. As mangled as the vampire god’s head was, the words that came of out his mouth were so garbled Scott doubted anyone could have understood them. Whatever he’d said, though, Mavet made it clear he wasn’t out of the fight yet. The vampire god’s hands grabbed the arm of the Omega Psi-mech clutching the top of his head. Mavet used it to get to his feet and then swung the heavy suit of armor away from him by the arm, nearly tearing it away from the suit. The Omega Psi-mech thudded onto the floor, face down. Scott was jarred about inside its pilot compartment from the impact. The vampire god jumped onto the Omega Psi-mech’s back, his claws tearing at the armor. They sank into it and tore a chunk away, even as the giant mech shoved itself to its feet and shook the vampire god off.

  “Die!” Mavet screeched, flying back up from the floor into the Omega Psi-mech’s face. The vampire god’s hands blurred as they punched the mech over and over again. Each blow dented the Omega Psi-mech’s armor. Scott knew he had to act fast or he’d be dead. He countered with a single open-palm blow that met the vampire god’s chest and knocked him across the vast room. Mavet caught himself in mid-air several yards from where the Omega Psi-mech stood. The vampire god hovered there, red eyes blazing with fury.

  Scott felt the vampire god trying to telepathically claw his way into his mind again. He couldn’t allow that to happen. Even if Scott could free himself from such a hold a second time, doing so would likely kill him in the process. A launcher deployed from the Omega Psi-mech’s right arm. Two rockets erupted from it, streaking toward Mavet. The vampire god caught one of them, readjusting its course quickly in mid-flight before letting it go. The rocket soared upward into the ceiling, where it detonated above them.

  Mavet’s clenched fist met the nose of the second rocket in a last-ditch, desperate attempt to keep it from hitting his body. The vampire god’s hand disintegrated from the explosion and the shockwave knocked him onto his butt. Mavet sat there stunned, his right hand grow
ing back as the vampire god shook his head as if to clear it. Scott charged at him before Mavet could recover. He gave the vampire god a kick with a heavily-armored foot that nearly took Mavet’s head from his shoulders. Mavet’s neck snapped from the blow. The vampire god’s head hung at an unnatural angle against his shoulder.

  Mavet reached up to snap his head back into place as Scott pressed his attack, shoving an arm blade directly into the vampire god’s heart. Catching the blade in his hands before Scott could shove it all the way into him, Mavet’s palms poured black blood onto the floor at his feet. The pain the vampire god suffered from catching the blade in such a manner saved his life. Mavet broke the blade in half with a quick blow to its side. Scott recoiled. He’d been sure his strike would be a fatal one. Mavet’s unexpected success in stopping it left him off guard and off balance.

  It was his turn to suffer as Mavet leaped onto the front armor of the Omega Psi-mech and pounded a fist into its visor. The reinforced glass cracked, nearly shattering. Scott couldn’t allow that to happen. He turned the Omega Psi-mech’s head away from the vampire god as the three barrels of the suit’s chest cannons extended, their barrels nearly touching Mavet, and opened fire. Mavet’s body jerked and twitched as streams of fully-automatic fire struck him at point-blank range. As Mavet fell backward, there was little more than mangled meat left of his chest, and the white of bullet-shattered bones could be seen inside it.

  Mavet staggered away but didn’t go down. Cradling an arm over his pulverized chest, the vampire god began to chant a series of arcane words. His back split open along its middle down his spine, and black, slime-covered tentacles grew out of it. They whipped about in the air madly as Mavet found his balance again and stood up to his full height, allowing the tentacles to continue slashing through the air behind him.