"Just give me a reasonable chance, and keep the gods out of this," I replied. I saw a smile on Tyr's face, and there was another exchange that I could not understand, between him and the woman I figure must be Cihuacoatl.
Finally Tyr said, "You chose well, nephew. It is done." and time started again. Just that fast Tyr was gone, Cihuacoatl was gone, and two unexpected beings popped up on either side of my little band. One I recognized immediately, Jeremiah Hennessey, the Lycan member of the Seattle council. The other was a short little dude, about five foot four, and looked vaguely Hindi. He looked at me and smiled, flashing fangs. OK, we can do introductions later, right now we have a whole shit-load of scorpions moving this way. Or at least we did. While I was looking to see who had shown up to join our merry little band, Mary was busy. I heard her saying something about Esevon, while I was looking at our newest members. Then all hell broke loose. There was a great thundering from off to my left, and suddenly all I could see was dust and buffalo. Lots of buffalo. When they went by, there was nothing but a trampled place where the scorpions used to be. I was in full Baresark mode now, but I could think through it, which was a nice change. I heard Marina say something else as I charged toward her, and a force of some sort hit me and bounced. She stopped laughing. Lars tried calling the lightning at the Civatateo, which seemed to hurt them a little, but didn't take them out of the fight. I was charging full on against Marina, figuring to take her out, then worry about her backup at leisure.
Suddenly, there was one of the Civatateo in my way, she had shifted and was coming in on a stooping attack. Time seemed to slow down, I had all the time in the world, and all I could see was this huge condor. The detail was amazing, I could see the individual scales, on talons that were a good foot across. No peripheral vision, but I didn't need it right now. As the bird came in, I tried to duck and realized I was moving in slow motion too, but still fast enough. I stepped aside, and chopped as the bird came in. There was a huge shock to my left arm, and the condor crashed into the ground where I was standing a few heartbeats ago. The Civatateo shifted as she tumbled through the dirt, and stood as a woman, but she stood on one foot, the other ended at the knee. She brought up her hands in claws and hissed at me, then the fight began in earnest. It didn't last long, the loss of a leg kept her from being very effective, and I had no mercy in me. A shot with the axe took her lead arm, the follow through with the sword took her head. As she fell to the dust, and dissolved into dust herself, I looked around. The damn tunnel vision was still there, but my perspective had widened somewhat. I saw Mary and another Civatateo in mortal combat, Mary had gotten a tomahawk and a shield from somewhere, and was squared off in a duel. Jeremiah had another one on the ground, and looked like he was trying to tear her head off with his bare hands. The little Vamp that had came along with him had just thrown the biggest damn dagger I had ever seen at a third Civatateo, and I watched the wildest thing I had seen yet tonight. The freaking dagger followed the bitch like it was a target seeker. In a second it was over. The dagger hit the Civatateo in the neck, severing it, then came back to the little guy's hand. Pete had the final Civatateo squared off with him, she was still in bird mode, and was trying to stoop on him without getting chopped in half by the machete. That just left Lars. I looked around and saw him and Marina going at it, he was thrusting with the spear, blocking with the sword. She was throwing some sort of magic at him, it looked like a fireball of some sort. I charged across the battlefield to help Lars, figuring that if we took out the head bitch, her crew would bag ass. The magic dagger flew past my head, headed for Marina, and hit an invisible wall in front of her. It fell to the ground smoking. By then, I was up to the battle.
I heard something behind me, I whirled to see what it was, and was hit. One of the Civatateo raked my face with both sets of talons. I didn't see where she'd come from, but one of my allies had to be down. I could barely see between the blood and the fact that a hunk of my scalp was hanging over one eye. I knew that when I came out of battle rage this was going to hurt like Hel, but I ripped the chunk off so I could see again. The Civatateo wheeled in the sky and dove on me again. Lars had turned when I was hit, and that gave Marina the shot she was looking for. From out of nowhere, and I mean literally out of thin air, she pulled an obsidian edged club, and smashed Lars in the side of the head with it. Evan from the ground I could tell this was a mortal wound, the side of Lars' skull was crushed in from his eye socket down to his jaw line.
From the ground, I screamed "You fucking BITCH!" and hurled my axe. She moved to block it with the club, and for just that second all of her attention was on me. The last thing I saw was Lars sinking his spear into her chest, and swinging for her head with the sword. Half his face gone, but he was BY THE GODS going to bring an honor guard. The Civatateo hit me again.
As the Civatateo's claws hit my back, Lars' sword found it's mark. There was a brilliant flash, and a giant explosion. My eyes, already the worse for wear, went blurry for a few seconds. When I could see again, we were back on the damn, and the whole world was erupting in gunfire. The gunfire lasted for what seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds. Then I was hit by something. I looked down to see a piece of inner thigh dissolving into dust. It seemed to be raining pieces of bird bitch. It also seemed to be getting darker somehow. Which was a good trick since sundown was hours ago. I heard our chopper coming in, full bore, no stealth. The L.T. was yelling something about Med-Evac, Officers down. I sort of wondered about that, I knew I should find out who it was and do first aid, but somehow I just couldn't seem to care.
Someone else from the team, I couldn't tell who for some reason, was yelling at someone: "Freeze. On your face, place your arms straight out from your side, palms up." I couldn't see who they were talking to though, and couldn't quite figure it out, all the bird bitches were dead…. But it was getting cold, and I was tired, really tired. Gods, I hope the boss doesn't mind if I take a little nap.
19
I opened my eyes some unknown time later to find myself in a large room, full of men and women drinking and carousing and having a grand old time. Straight in front of me as I picked myself up off the floor was Lars, looking much younger and in a whole lot better shape that he looked when last I saw him. On his arm was a gorgeous buxom redhead with a smile that could be used for toothpaste ads. "SHIT. Well, it was a fun run while it lasted." I didn't realize I had said that out loud until Lars responded.
"No, John, you're not dead. I just needed a word with you before you woke up. Oh, by the way, meet your great aunt, Robyn. John, it seems you were my assignment."
"Huh?" Hey, it wasn't the wittiest repartee, but what do you expect from someone that just woke up in Val-Freaking-halla?
"You remember me saying that I was told I had something to do before I die?" Lars continued.
"Yeah."
"Well, you were it. Congratulations boy, you're my relief."
"Uh, 'scuse me?"
"As a guardian, John. You are the new guardian."
"But…"
"Yeah I know, 'You're not ready'. Cry me a river, boy. I wasn't either. No one is. But you have the watch. I'm allowed," Lars said. Then Tyr strode over to interrupt.
"Make that rather, REQUIRED," stated Tyr with a laugh.
"OK, fine. I'm required to continue your training, and look in on you from time to time. I'll be seeing you in your dreams. Oh, and look in the woodshed."
Then I woke up… again. This time made more sense, I guess. I was looking at acoustic tile overhead, and could see one hell of a big bandage in my peripheral vision. I turned my head and saw Lt. Murphy sitting in the chair beside my bed, asleep. I turned the other way, and I could see Pete in the other bed in the room. He looked like shit. He was in a half-body cast, and had an IV drip. His head had bandages on top like mine, and there was a nice set of stitches that ran down the left side of his face. Well, at least he was alive. I must have made a noise, because Pam woke up.
"Welcome back to the living, John
," she said as she stood up. "You scared the shit out of me. They had to juice you twice to get your heart started."
"How long was I out of it?" I asked.
"It's only been about eight hours. Pete is OK, they had to sew him back up a bit, but he'll be fine. Mary is all right too, but she's in a room down the hall, with a few stitches and a concussion. John, I have some bad news for you though." Pam had that 'I hate to be the one to tell you this,' tone in her voice, so I interrupted.
"I know, Uncle Lars is dead."
"Uh, yeah. How did you know? He was still alive when you all came back from wherever you went."
"Pam, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"All right, I'll drop it. But I want a full report. A written one as soon as you're able, a verbal now. What the HELL happened? What was Mr. Scalagrimson even doing there? The last time I saw him was at the house. What the hell possessed you to bring an old man like that into a battlefield? We saw the bullets go through the suspect without touching her, we heard her talk to you, then you touched Mary, there was a flash, Pete grabbed into the flash, and suddenly Lars was there, then you were all gone. A second later you were all back, looking like you had been in an axe fight with just a pocket knife, your uncle had the side of his face caved in, there was some kind of huge bird trying to tear you to shreds, and there were two other guys with you."
I told her a slightly edited version of what had happened from my perspective, including that fact that those two other guys were Vampires, and one was a council member. I left out the whole 'God' thing, that was just too much to dump in her lap. I made it sound like the Vampire community had decided to assist in our problem out of an interest in good public relations.
"Yes, I knew who Mr. Hennessey was. I recognized him from photographs. The other gentleman was Mister Al-Jahra, a Castillos Vampire of some repute. He's a known lieutenant and enforcer for Viggo Sorenson. They are also under care at the moment. I will pass along that if they feel up to leaving this evening, they are free to go." She visibly shifted tracks. "John, you still haven't explained what you thought you were doing bringing your uncle into this."
I explained that I didn't exactly choose to bring him in. That short of locking him up, I couldn't keep him out. I further explained that he was a mage, and that I was sure that I needed some magical backup, so I didn't fight too hard. I wasn't sure that I had heard the end of this, but she let it drop for the moment. Shortly there after she explained that she was dead on her feet, and went home to get some sleep.
*****
The next couple of days passed in a bit of a blur. I remember a couple of the guys from the department coming by a couple times, but mostly I tried to sleep through the healing process. Painkillers don't work too well on us fuzzy types, so the best I could do was sleep through it.
*****
On the third day, Mary came in, she hadn't been hurt quite as badly as Pete and I. She filled in a few of the blanks. It seems that the Civatateo that had been fighting with Pete had knocked him out, then attacked me. I guess defending Marina was higher on her list than killing Pete. That was fine by me. Mary had killed hers and was on the way to help out when Lars got Marina. When Marina died, we all popped back into normal space, as if the only thing holding us to whatever place we were was her will. Before Mary went home that evening, she did the laying on of hands thing to Pete and I. She mentioned that this wouldn't do quite as well as a more, shall we say, intimate contact, but that it should help. Then I drifted off again.
*****
When I woke again it was night, and Viggo was standing at the foot of my bed. I felt a whole lot better, but I wasn't quite up to getting out of bed yet. The Don and I had a nice little talk though. He appreciated that I had given credit for his crew's assistance to the desire of the 'Vampire community to assist the law in bringing these miscreants to justice'. When I explained that I had not requested his help explicitly, in my call for backup, he gave a wry smile.
"John," he said, "I have an understanding with the higher powers, I am not an evil being. Just…pragmatic. I may not always be on your side, or on the side of the law, but I will always be on the side of Justice. You understand that I could not come to your aid myself, so I sent two of my able associates. One had actively volunteered for the job, the other has some certain skills that I was sure would be of assistance. Abdul, you see, was a student of the Old Man of the Mountain long ago. He may very well be the second most deadly Vampire I know."
I didn't ask who was the first, I was pretty sure I was looking at him. He went on to explain that he viewed our debt as even, but that I would be welcome in the council chambers at any time. Calling first would be 'considered a courtesy' but was unnecessary if time pressed. Shortly later he bid me good evening, and 'took his leave'. I went back to sleep.
*****
The next morning I woke to a far less welcome visitor. You know you live a weird life when you would far rather see the Grandmaster Vampire of the city than a representative of our Government. This particular boil on the ass of law enforcement introduced himself as Special Agent Johnson, FPI. They wanted my body. This was a recruitment pitch! I guess the FPI was uncomfortable with a magic-using cop that wasn't under their thumb. Too damn bad! I really couldn't care less how unhappy the FPI was. No, strike that, the more unhappy they were, the better I liked it. Johnson eventually left, with veiled threats about how much more difficult my life would be working for the PSP than working for his agency. That and not so veiled promises of how well they would treat me, and how good I would have it. I almost asked if I would be allowed to grow a beard, as I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror to shave. I figured that would be pushing it too far though, I mean after all, I was still in the hospital bed.
*****
That afternoon, I had my next set of important visitors. The FSRT showed up, with my old C.O. from the Teams in tow. I thought this was a pleasure visit at first. The last time I had seen Commander O'Brien he had been a Lieutenant with Team Twelve, specializing in arctic and sub-arctic work. He had been incredibly useful in gathering intelligence on harbors in cold water, you see he's a Selkie. Yes that's right, the SEAL lieutenant became, (wait for it), a seal. We did a lot of work a bit north of Seoul. Then O'Brien posted a sentry outside. Guess this wasn't a social call after all. He had invited himself along with the rest of the FSRT to debrief us on the MV Shanghai Princess incident.
His brief went sort of like this. "OK guys, I'm here to tell you all what happened with the Shanghai Princess. At 19:30 hours on the day in question, the commanding officer of the Princess met a boarding party from the Evergreen Point. During the inspection, the team of the Evergreen Point came upon a crewman who had just become very ill, with an unknown disease. The Captain decided to hold the inspection team in quarantine along with the crew. While he was trying to explain this situation to the US Government, his vessel caught fire, for reasons unknown. The Coast Guard boarding crew, not understanding why they were being held, took this opportunity to escape from capture, stole a life boat, and ran for it. Regrettably the crew of the Princess was unable to fight the fire successfully, and the fire eventually got to a series of containers carrying fertilizer. The resultant explosion destroyed the watertight integrity of the vessel and it sank with all hands. That will be all."
Now in twenty-five years of bullshit stories, whitewashes, and cover-ups, this was one of the worst pieces of unadulterated CRAP I had ever heard. My hand shot up of its own volition, and the entire rest of the Team's hands were going up just as fast. The Commander looked us each in the eye, one by one, and said in a loud voice, "I said, that will be all." Then he turned and left. We all just stared at each other dumbfounded.
Bob was the first to react. "That Will Be All? What a complete crock of shit! I've never heard such a complete and total load of bullshit in my life. And I've heard a lot of bullshit!"
I replied for all of us when I said, "Yeah, but that's the last any of us will ever hear about
it." Of course I was wrong, but that's another story.
*****
I spent a couple more days enduring the 'tender mercies' of Harbor View Hospital, before I became enough of a pain in the butt that they let me go. By the time I was authorized to leave, my scalp had mostly regenerated, though it was still way to sensitive for words to describe. Mary stopped by daily, which was nice. No, strike that, nice doesn't begin to cover it. She picked me up and took me home when they released me. Someone had gotten my truck back home, but getting me back was something else again. When we pulled up the drive, I remembered Uncle Lars telling me to look in the wood shop during that vision/dream/whatever. So I got out of her Honda Civic Hybrid and went over to the shop. Inside I found a six foot long oaken model of a Norse Longboat, and two pieces of paper. The first one read:
Dear John,
By the time you find this, I will be with Robyn, and happier on the whole. This is how I wanted to go out, do not mourn for me. Besides, I expect I will still be a pain in your ass from time to time, Thor has asked me to help Tyr with your continuing training. Think of me as your own personal messenger from the gods.
Harvest Of Evil Page 24
