The junk filled haven of the Kraemer stronghold loomed in front of me like some sort of low priced Medieval castle. The smell was damn near enough to make me useless; an odd combination of trash and cooking meat. Even as much as I liked steak, the smell coming off the barbeque inside the gates was far from appetizing. I choked down the need to vomit and kept going.
Knowing the reception I’d get the moment I was spotted, I was trying to figure out if I should go all Warg on this place or enter under the white flag. My inner partner in crime was making his intentions known, but, as much as I wanted to, I decided against transforming. I was going to let that be my final play. Instead, I walked right up to the gates and pushed my way in. The high pitched squeal of metal on metal would alert every Kraemer in the place that company had arrived.
By the time I got to the main area, three Kraemers were waiting for me; Kevin, his father Lionel, and his older brother Elmo. Kevin pointed a gun at me the moment he realized who it was. “You!” he yelled out. “You got some nerve showing up here, freak.”
Kevin, glad to see he hadn’t changed at all. I also noticed a steel cane with a rubber handle sticking in the ground beside him. He’d never recover from my gunshot. I held up both hands, showing I wasn’t carrying any weapons. “Not that you care, but I came in peace.”
“And you’ll leave in pieces,” replied Elmo. He didn’t look big, that is until he transformed. He once threatened to rip out my entrails and eat them. I believed him too.
“Boys, I think we should give the former sheriff a few moments of our time,” Lionel spoke, reasonably.
During the trial, I pulled him aside and genuinely apologized for the harm I did. I think that one moment of goodwill just bought me another. Knowing I had just seconds, “I’m here to buy some sleeping gas and explosives, if you have them.”
“You can’t be serious.” Kevin hadn’t dropped the gun, but his finger moved off the trigger. “You came to the wrong place, Victor. We don’t mess with that stuff, not since you put me away.”
Did everyone forget about my heightened senses? “I can smell traces of the gas around the yard, Kevin. If you’re going to lie to me, just say you sold it all before I came breaking in.”
At that he lowered his weapon completely. “That’s what I hate about you the most, that damn nose.”
Lionel snapped his fingers and Elmo walked back towards one of the garages adjacent to the house. “You’re not law enforcement anymore, so this can’t be an official sting – if your father or brother is hiding just out of view.”
“I came here alone. They don’t even know I’m back in town,” I told them truthfully.
“Kevin, search the perimeter,” Lionel barked. Kevin, never taking his eyes off of me, began to limp off in the direction I came in. With both of his sons gone, Lionel tensed up a bit. “I don’t like this, Inglewood. Before we enter into some sort of negotiation, I want to know why you came here.”
“Kevin’s MO was sleeping gas. I respected the fact that he never killed during any of his robberies.”
The older wolf nodded. “And what do you need with some sleeping gas bombs? That’s what I’m assuming you’re to build with the goods you’ve asked about.”
“That’s right, sir.” The one thing I learned is showing your elders respect always kept them on your side. Lionel, gruff as he could be, was on my side. “I have a problem that needs to be taken care of, once and for all.”
“Can’t imagine who pissed you off. You always struck me as a ‘sunshine comes out of your ass’ kind of guy.” Man, how things had changed since my last dealings with them. “Who’s the target?”
I wasn’t a fan of twenty questions, but I needed the supplies more than they needed to sell them to me. “The vampires; the coven in Phoenix, to be more specific.”
“Vampires,” he answered with a hint of bitterness. “Those neck biters running around thinking they’re better than the werewolves...” he drifted off. “I don’t know what the hell you’re up to, but if you’re going to stick it to them, I’m all for it.”
“No one’s here, dad.” Kevin returned. “You’re truly insane, Inglewood, coming here with no backup.”
“My backup is the money which I can transfer into your account.”
Elmo was on his way back, too. In his hands were a few bottles of the sleeping gas and two devices I assumed were the bombs to set it off with. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
I inspected the stuff he was holding out. “All you do is slide the bottles into the devices and let them do their work?”
Kevin pointed to a keypad on the top. “This is the timer. You can set it up to an hour in advance. I wouldn’t be anywhere in the vicinity of this stuff when it goes off, it’d put an elephant down.”
Satisfied, I pulled out my phone. “My backer has given me the funds – how much is this bundle going to cost?”
“For you, we’ll give you the ‘shot in the leg’ discount of ten grand,” Kevin responded. He pulled up his pant leg and I could see the nasty scar running up his thigh from where the bullet stuck in his leg.
Before I could answer, he pulled out his gun and put a slug right in my leg. I dropped, hard. Gritting through the pain, “I wouldn’t have done that if I were you.”
“Why’s that, Inglewood?”
I started to transform into the Warg. The Victor Inglewood they knew couldn’t transform. The moment I completed the transformation, Elmo and Lionel had backed away, leaving Kevin to deal with his actions. I got up in his face and roared, scaring the piss out of him, literally. In that moment, I could’ve snapped his neck with my jaws. The Warg wanted nothing more than to snuff the life out of this maggot.
Then I called off the dog and became Victor once more. “You’re lucky he’s not in charge,” I told him. “My buddy wanted to eat you and spit out the bones.”
“Y-you can transform!” he barely got out. The gun was on the ground and his pants were good and soiled. “Since when could you do that?!”
Lionel stepped in front of his son. “Thank you for not killing my idiot son,” he said to me. “For his stupidity, how about we take five grand and call it a night?”
Elmo seemed okay with that, his face white as a ghost. “Deal,” I accepted. “Just tell me the bank account I’m sending the money to.”
Ten minutes later, the Kraemers had their money and I had the supplies. I loaded them into the small backseat of the Mustang; for some reason the trunk wasn’t opening. I’d have to look at that later. Once I was back on to the road towards the mine, the Warg had a few words to share with me. “Your weakness is going to get us killed one day.”
“My kindness keeps us alive more often than you realize.”
“When will you accept you are a killer!” He roared so loud internally, that I almost went off the road. There was a decent amount of morning traffic, so I needed to keep it together. “Or do you only cross over when you feel you are righteously obligated to?”
I didn’t need to justify myself to him, no matter what he thought. “My choices on my own. If you don’t agree with them, just keep your mouth shut.”
“You need me, Victor.” No longer yelling, the Warg seemed to be trying to rationalize this argument.
“And why is that?”
“Without me, you are not even a wolf, just a laughing stock.” That burned me up, but he didn’t give me a chance to fire back. “I know your feelings as well as you do. I know that is exactly how you felt.”
“What do you want; a thank you card? My undying appreciation?”
The Mustang stopped at a red light. The rumble of the engine was the only soothing noise I heard. “You surround yourself with power figures, ones who relish in the kill. One day, you keep hanging around these alpha predators and you might become their food. That is why you need me.”
When the light hit green, I opened up the engine and floored it. I didn’t give the Warg any response. It was bad enough what he told me seemed quite reasonable. The la
st thing I needed right now was any doubt in myself and the very few people I could call friends.
Chapter 33
It was game day. The sun had just snuck under the horizon and Rissa was awake. The only thing left to do was get to Liz’s building and set the gas bombs. Once they were in place, we could take our time sneaking up to the conference room where the vampires would be setting up a new council. It was at this point that the plan was a bit divided.
Isa was all about killing them all. I wasn’t surprised; she’d been done wrong by the current crop of vampires for years. I knew she had her own daemons in the closest, but she’d overcome a lot to get to the point she was at now. Rissa, who wasn’t quite on the murderous rampage she’d been on, and I less wanted to draw blood. Our idea was to hit them where it hurt, show them we weren’t to be trifled with and part with everyone still waking up the next day.
The conversation was still going strong even in the last hours. “Vic, Rissa, do you think if we allow even one of them to live, that they’ll not hunt you down after?”
“The point is we show them we are stronger. Prey doesn’t attack those who eat them.”
I liked the way Rissa put that. “We break their spirits the way they tried to break ours.” Neverland, Alcatraz… the vampire council sure did like to put people in awful locations. “They’ve never been hit in the nose so hard that it bleeds. After tonight, they’ll never want to cross the three of us again.”
Isa wasn’t convinced but seemed to drop it. “I’m not going to say I’m right, but remember, I’ve been around a lot longer than both of you.”
“And your experiences have jaded you, rightfully so,” I added quickly. “Just trust us, please?”
“Okay,” she relented.
We loaded up our gear into the Mustang and left the fly by night hotel we’d used for the day to rest up and organize. Being back on the road, it felt good. It felt like this was about to end.
I parked the car about a mile from the hotel, in the lot of one of those big box stores. From my time as the inspector, I knew a mile ahead was where Liz’s security cameras picked up the action on the street. My car was too obvious and would get an immediate ping. Plus, it was easier to avoid the hot spots on foot, as I could navigate some of the backstreets and get us there without setting anything off. We each grabbed a bag from the trunk on our way out of the parking lot.
It wasn’t a straight shot to Liz’s building, but it was an easy walk. We got a few weird looks as we were dressed in long, black clothing, but in a city this big, most people had seen weirder. As the front of the building became visible, I stopped and pointed.
As both girls looked, I explained who they had manning the front. “That’s Liz’s new inspector, Rosette. She’s the witch I warned you about.”
When I’d gone over the details of security, the witch had been brought up. Isa at the time didn’t seem to care. But the look in her eyes tonight told a different story. “It would be easy for me to sneak over there and kill the witch.”
“No,” I said firmly. “Rosette is a friend and good person. We’re not killing her, or anyone, remember?”
The heat of the moment died down. “Yes, I remember. Sometimes the intensity of these moments can get the better of someone.”
“I’m feeling the same way, like jittery and such,” Rissa told her.
“That feeling will go away once everything begins.”
It was time to go over everything one last time before we split up. “Rissa, when we go through the back entrance, I need you to find the security room on the main level. My access pin number is 7577. Once you’re there, get the security cameras offline as quickly as you can.”
“Got it.”
“Once that’s done, make your way to the maintenance staircase and meet up with Isa. She’ll have our path cleared.”
Isa cracked her knuckles a bit menacingly. “And I promise none of the vampires will be dead, just unable to defend themselves.”
All I could do is shake my head. “Good – in the meantime, I’ll go into the subbasement and set the smoke bombs into the vents. I’ll set the timer for thirty minutes, which should give us plenty of time to get to the top and be ready when they go off.”
“Rissa and I will meet you outside the conference room, correct?”
“Yep. If we’re lucky, the sleeping gas will have most of them knocked out and we can just grab Liz and Cristof, and then get the hell out of here.” Phew, this was coming together. “I have no idea how long these hardware store masks will hold off the air, but it’s the best we got.”
We were set. We rounded around the building, taking the scenic route to the back. There was only one guard, who was busy smoking with his back to us. I walked right up to him and popped him at the base of the skull with Roscoe. He dropped and I grabbed his walkie-talkie.
We each put in our ear pieces. Isa pressed the button to open the channel and yelled. “Can everyone hear me?” she asked.
“It works best if we’re not standing next to each other,” I laughed. But the channel did open up as we each had static due to how close we were to each other when she pressed the button.
With the walkie-talkie, I’d be able to keep us in the loop. “The moment of truth is upon us…” I plugged in my code and the door lock went from red to green. We were in.
Rissa was looking quite nervous. “If you stay away from the main lobby, you should be fine.” I handed her a hunting knife, made of silver of course. “You know how to handle that, right?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“If you get in trouble, just call me on the ear piece, I’ll come up as fast as I can,” I said.
“I will, too,” Isa told her.
With a bit of renewed confidence, she grabbed the door that led from the back entrance and into the hallway. She gave us her best confident smile and left. “I hope she’ll be okay,” I said to Isa.
“She’ll be fine.”
We were at a crossroads. To the left was the door to the maintenance staircase and where we’d be splitting up. “Let’s do this quickly and quietly. I want to be out of here within the hour.”
She agreed and then reached over and kissed me. “Good luck, Vic.”
“You too.”
We went through the door and into the dimly lit stairwell. She stealthy went upwards and I wasn’t one to dally. I took the way down and went down two flights to the subbasement. Again, I punched in my code and the door opened. This was insane, the lack of security measures they had in place. I wonder why I didn’t suggest a change in protocol.
I flipped on the lights to the mechanical room. There was the tank-less water heaters against one wall with the HVAC units against the other. I dropped my bag and pulled out the two devices. They’d fit perfectly in the return air space and once they went off, would fill this building full of gas. It took a few minutes to unscrew both return air grills and place the devices. I set the timer and placed the grills back, pleased with my efficiency.
It was only when I stood that I realized things had been going too smoothly. Phil Ruud was hovering over me, his black sunglasses on and his leather gloved hands ready to dish out a beating. He stopped me from getting back to my feet.
“Evening Phil, funny to see you down here.”
“Vic,” his deep voice grumbled softly. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh a little of this and a little of that,” I answered with a touch of sarcasm.
“Hmph.” Typical Phil answer. “Only know that I am doing this against my better wishes.”
“Doing what?”
He then sucker punched me in the stomach, hard. I doubled over, all the air driven out of my body. So, it was going to be like that huh?
Chapter 34
I didn’t say this often, but the Warg was a true blessing. The daemon filled me back with energy from his own supply. That allowed me to breathe in fresh air a lot faster. I was ready for the second punch, one which I caught with my hand. I held it as
I got back to my feet. “That was kind of shitty, Phil.”
He didn’t answer. Phil ripped his hand out of my grip and took off his sunglasses. His bright blue eyes were in the process of turning red. Fangs extended past his bottom lip. “Reno said you kicked his ass.”
“I enjoyed that, well, as much as I could.”
“I’m glad to see your skills have improved.”
Only a street fight with Phil could turn into a compliment session. “Your skills are up to snuff, too.”
To prove it, he extended his front leg and kicked me in the shin. He was so damn tall that he had the advantage in terms of distance. If I wanted to get a good, clean punch in, I’d have to wade through some dangerous waters. No problem.
I ducked his next punch and jumped into his chest. He wrapped one arm around me while I started throwing haymakers into his gut. The dude had abs of steel, because my fist wasn’t doing any damage. Phil, annoyed with my little pitter patters, tossed me away. I landed next to the air handlers and my head bounced on the edge of the metal box. That hurt.
He walked over to me and put his foot against my chest. “What did you put into the air system?”
“An air purifier to help improve the quality of the oxygen we’re breathing. Can never be too safe.”
His foot pressed down just a bit harder. “Vic, don’t make me do this.”
It was he who was pushing me towards a point I didn’t want to go towards. “Phil, just let me up, okay?” When it became clear he wasn’t going to, I had one last difficult decision to make. “I’m sorry man; this is going to hurt – a lot.”
Phil had never witnessed my inner daemon. He immediately jumped back as I disappeared and was soon replaced by a large, black hellhound. My transition didn’t go deep enough where I wasn’t in control, but the Warg was front and present. “Kill him quickly and move on.”
“We’re not killing him, just incapacitating him.”
Our inner dialogue kept our attention busy enough that we didn’t see Phil making a flying leap at us and punching our shared face hard. So much for him being scared by the monster I’d become. He landed beside our front leg and delivered a hard kick. Those two hits would’ve been enough to put down just about anything walking on the Earth.
The Daemon Within Page 17
