by Eve Paludan
From across the street, I could see where Sharky got his nickname. When he opened his mouth to yell at Ace for Paloma being gone, I could see two or more rows of teeth in his mouth—like a shark had many rows of teeth, one behind the other. Man, that was one creepy-looking mouth. He must have gotten the facial scars before he was turned—it looked like someone had cut him with a knife from forehead to chin, right down the bridge of his nose. His broad nose looked like it had been broken a time or two. A Fu Manchu mustache framed his large-lipped mouth and he had a scraggly thin beard.
Sharky’s body was massive—not fat, but bulky muscle. Maybe before he was a vampire, he’d been a linebacker. He was one beefy, terrifying vampire.
Sharky kept checking his phone and yelling at Ace about Paloma and another of his vampires being off his radar. It was pretty clear he was talking about Justine. They were off his grid and he was freaking out.
I tried not to get overconfident. Taking Sharky down was not going to be easy. I would have to outsmart him.
Ace was carrying a doctor-type leather bag, which I assumed meant he was going with Sharky to give a tattoo with a micro-tracking device to a newly created vampire. Or maybe they were pushing drugs. Or both.
I followed them through heavy traffic, always staying about one traffic light behind. It was easy to keep spotting Ace’s beat-up red Chevy pickup truck among mostly sedans in Koreatown. Many of the retail signs were in Korean. Only the street signs let me know I was still in metro Los Angeles.
They found a place to park on the street, next to a huge apartment building. Old brick, crumbling façade and no air conditioning. Everyone’s windows were open to the night that was filled with the sounds of video games as well as the smells of kimchi and dirty diapers.
Once I saw which building they’d entered, I parked, too, about a block away. They got into the elevator as I watched from across the street. I squinted to see the reflection in the elevator mirror of the button that Ace had pressed.
B is for basement.
I hoped that henchmen weren’t down there, too.
“Dracula.” I said his name as more of a prayer than a summons, but as I crossed the street, I heard a flapping sound. I looked up just in time to see a large winged creature land on top of the building and then shrink down into an old guy who looked like a naked, pale Sid Caesar.
I took the elevator to the roof door and let him in, just as he finished dressing. From the bag he carried, he put on a black cape with a big white cross on the back.
“You rang, Fang?”
I felt embarrassed, but grateful he’d showed up. “Kind of.”
“This better be important.”
“It is.”
“Good, because I was about to drink the blood of a slain enemy usurper who dared to call himself Dracula.”
“As if,” I said. “Didn’t he know there can be only one Dracula?”
“You’re right.” He painfully clamped a hand on my shoulder, his talon-like fingernails tearing my shirt a bit. “Why are we here in this smelly tenement?”
I got Dracula up to speed. “A little girl named Carrie may be a prisoner in the basement. She’s six years old and a vampire is enslaving her vampire parents. This same vile vampire kidnapped and tortured my potential girlfriend. He kept her prisoner in a dungeon for a year before he kicked her to the curb when he was tired of abusing her and feeding her. He holds vampire gladiator games where the winners feed on the dead losers. He even sells pay-per-view of it all.”
“What a blasphemous waste of vampiresses.”
“Agreed.”
“How is he photographing them?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Let’s do this,” Dracula said.
I suggested, “We should first find the girl and make sure she’s safe before we kill him. And please don’t kill her father, a vampire named Ace with tattoos of bats on his forearms.”
“Got it. Who’s our quarry tonight?”
“A huge guy named Sharky. I don’t know his real name, but he has two or more rows of teeth, one behind the other, like a shark. And when he opens his mouth, it’s a big maw of darkness and sharp teeth. His forehead looks almost like a hammerhead shark, come to think of it. And his shout is like the roar of a lion.”
Dracula looked like he was going to be sick.
“You know him?” I asked.
“That vampire is my sworn enemy. Good thing you summoned me, Fang. He eats lesser vampires for breakfast.”
“Lesser vampires?”
“That’s what we call the ones who don’t fly. Like you.”
I’m a lesser vampire? “Please be exaggerating.”
“I’m not.” Dracula got out his ever-refilling flask. “I think you better take three swallows of my dragon’s blood.”
“Three?”
“You’re going to need this to battle him with me.”
I took three swallows and felt the power rush through me. I handed back the flask. “Oh, that’s good stuff. Thanks, Dracul.”
Dracula nodded. “The effect should last for a week or so. We’ll need every bit of strength to take him down.”
“Who is this Sharky vampire anyway?” I asked. “And what does he want?”
“This is an age-old war between him and me, a struggle for position, power and turf.” Dracula’s scary eyes met mine, and in them, for the first time since I’d known him, there was a glimmer of fear. “If you think I’m terrifying, you’d better gird your loins.”
“Do what?” I checked my fly, but it was already zipped.
Dracula rolled his eyes. “It means make ready for battle.”
“With whom?”
“A long time ago, Sharky was an emperor named Genghis Khan.”
“Did you really say Genghis Khan?”
“He calls himself Sharky, but that’s who he is. You should know that I have never been able to take him down on my own,” Dracula said. “We’ve battled several times.”
“That’s daunting, though obviously, he hasn’t killed you either.”
“That’s because I fly faster than he does.”
“You retreated?”
“I did when it became clear that I couldn’t win. Even more daunting, it’s been years since I have attempted to take him down. Previously, it was always in a defense position. I’ve lost numerous colleagues and friends and one lover in the pursuit of killing him.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I don’t want any more losses. This is the first time I’m going against him with just one other. You.”
“It’s your first time on the offensive against Khan?”
“Yes. We’ll have the element of surprise, which is how he’s always gotten the upper hand in our battles.”
“You’re putting a lot of trust in me.”
“You’re my right hand in this, Fang.”
“I’m honored, but since brute force hasn’t worked in the past, what’s your plan?”
“Help me trick him.”
Chapter 17
As I pressed the button to call the elevator and tapped my foot, Dracula said, “I hate elevators. They remind me of being trapped in my coffin that one time.”
“Let’s take the stairs to the basement.”
“This building smells like it’s full of unwashed vampires under compulsions,” he said, putting his cape over his nose.
“It does. How did Sharky get to be so powerful?”
“Back in his Genghis Khan days, he was related to about eight percent of the people in the known world.”
The origin of that horror dawned on me. “What a monster.”
“Then and still. After he killed his enemies in battle, he didn’t just kidnap their women and girls. He used them to build an army of descendants, many of whom served him, willingly or not. He grew to be one of the most ruthless conquerors in the history of the world and a large part of his army—his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons—looked just like him. By the time he was ne
arly at the end of his mortal life, the sea of faces on the battlefield had developed a distinctive and similar look that shook the confidence of his enemies.”
I shuddered at the unimaginable horror of Khan. “Go on.”
“Only becoming a vampire halted his mission to make a world power driven by his own biological army.”
“But now, this megalomaniac just makes other vampires.”
“Lots of them. But even after all of these centuries, he’s still biologically related to about half a percent of the world’s population.”
“At least he can’t make more genocidal soldier offspring.”
“On the contrary, it’s his obsession to find his distant relatives through DNA-gathering genealogy web sites and make them into his vampire army.”
Like Ace, his distant cousin, I realized and shuddered at how he was using modern data to further his ancient campaign.
Dracula continued, “He has always had a constant mindset: kill, conquer and recruit.”
I shook my head. “How many vampires has he created?”
“Thousands, maybe ten thousand. Some of his created vampires can fly and they have other powers, too. Dark ones.”
“Darker than you?”
Dracula gave me a pissed-off look. “I’m on the side of light. They are servants of dark masters and the devil is their god.”
“But doesn’t good always trump evil?”
“It’s getting harder and harder to prove that,” he replied. “Once, he had a harem of thousands of women who were the spoils of war. That apparently hasn’t changed. He kidnaps women, usually prostitutes or the homeless, and if he doesn’t turn them or kill them, they become feeders. Or the ones he tires of who might still live after his abuse, he trafficks them.”
“Is there no limit to his evil?” I asked.
“It seems not.”
“His weaknesses?”
“Greed. He hasn’t got a shred of mercy or compassion in him. His legacy of filth and evil are legendary among mercenaries who seek to emulate him. If there is blood in it, or profit, he seizes it without forethought of consequences.”
“How do you know all of this about Genghis Khan aka Sharky?”
“I’m the leader of The Order of the Dragon, which began centuries ago. Over the years, we have evolved into an intelligence operation that is the vampire equivalent of MI6, if you know what that is.”
“Of course I do. Real-life James Bond kind of stuff.”
“But much more sophisticated and higher tech than you’ve ever heard me speak of. If you’re interested, I have a job opening for an agent trainee.”
Wow, did Dracula just offer me a job? “With all due respect, I have my hands full with the blood club right now. I wouldn’t mind going on a mission now and then, though, so I can learn from you. And help rid the world of the evilest vampires. But please don’t stick me in some trainee program. I would want to be by your side. Like this.”
Dracula smiled with all of his teeth, which were yellow and intimidating. “I’ll take your request under advisement. This won’t be the last of our conversations on the subject.”
He clasped my shoulder hard and we paused on the landing, listening.
I didn’t hear anything. “Clear below us.”
He took away his freezing hand. “Picture this, Fang. It was the Year of our Lord 1477 and I was a newly undead vampire, the first one ever created. On a foggy night, I went to a castle on the Danube, to a riverbank meeting of The Order of the Dragon, which I was determined would not be disbanded because of my mortal death.”
“What was the Order created for?”
“To keep the Eastern influence from spreading into Croatia and Hungary. It was our aim to grow, defend, and preserve Christianity. These days, I have a broader view. The Order of the Dragon pursues, protects and preserves goodness—and is an active moving force in the destruction of evil. Now, my warriors are vampires of many religions and beliefs.”
I tilted my head. “Sometimes you have to reinvent yourself in order to survive.”
“Wise words for one so young in undeath.”
I briefly bowed my head in respect, and then nodded for him to continue.
“Back then, the Eastern threat was more obvious, more urgent. We had no offensive missions, not like now. It was all defense. At that time, the enemy was on the march, headed for our people, our cities. Even though I was undead already, The Order was deep into discussion of how things could and should continue. We had lost many members and I was in a quandary. We all were.”
“I can imagine things were getting dire, with troops heading for your cities, burning, killing, pillaging and taking the women and children, especially with your reduced fighting force.”
“Exactly. During our discussion on the banks of the Danube, we heard the sounds of many predatory birds. When we looked up in the sky, we saw perhaps a thousand flying vampires, all created by Genghis Khan.”
“I can’t even imagine that sight. Excuse me, Dracul, but if you were the first vampire, then how did Genghis Khan become a vampire unless you created him?”
“It is a closely guarded secret of The Order of the Dragon, but I will tell you. I was created as a vampire by a force of Light whose name I cannot speak; he wanted a creature on Earth who would be a guardian of certain bloodlines. But the devil was jealous and he sought to have his own vampires, so he created a vampire by way of the force of Darkness and he made many of them because none measured up to the original, who was and is me.”
I was amazed. “Go on, please.”
“The first of them created by the force of darkness was Genghis Khan, and he was the most prolific vampire that ever existed and he still is. I choose carefully who should become one of us. He recruited everyone with a pulse that he could possibly use to his own ends.”
“Thank you for telling me that you are created from light and he was created from darkness. It makes sense.”
Dracula nodded. “So, it was terrifying to see what Khan the first dark vampire created in his quest for power and territory. All of his creations, when shapeshifted for travel, looked like near-prehistoric birds with blue-black feathers and twenty-foot wingspans. Their talons were even naturally sheathed in silver battle prongs. That flock of death was coming for me and for everyone I held dear in the Order. Khan was determined to wipe out The Order of the Dragon so he could take over the world without any opposition whatsoever. The only thing that kept him from making millions of vampires was that he would not be able to feed an army of that size.”
“Jesus.”
“Don’t swear again in that vein, Fang, or I’ll have to hurt you.”
“My deep apology, Lord Dracul. I won’t do it again. What happened that night?”
We kept going deeper toward the basement as we talked and the stairs now had sewage dripping from the pipes—it smelled worse and worse as we descended.
Dracula kept on with his tale. “It was a massacre and I barely escaped in my bloody undead form. In fact, they left me for dead. Some of my colleagues and friends were not so fortunate. They were killed or captured and never heard from again. Only five of us lived to tell the tale and begin anew with The Order of the Dragon. The four others were mortal and they all volunteered to become vampires of light created by me to keep the Order going, and to keep up the fight for the cause of goodness, mercy and protection of a certain bloodline.”
“That was very noble and loyal of them.”
“The hallmark of loyalty is to give your life for a cause, but not to die whilst doing it.”
“Agreed.” I thought of Justine in her flying form. “I have to tell you something that might be important, Dracul.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“I don’t know if it’s important in the big picture, but my new vampiress friend was created by Khan. She’s the giant bird type of flying vampire with the blue-black feathers and the silvery battle talons. I’ve seen her in that form.”
“And you tell
me this now? Did she set up this scenario tonight as a trap for me?”
“She doesn’t even know I summoned you tonight.”
“If he created her, she knows. She might have even put it in your head to summon me, a casual suggestion, perhaps, that I would be of assistance in some dangerous matters?”
It was true, but I stuck up for her. “Yes, she did, but she loathes him! He tortured her and kept her prisoner for a year.”
“Until she gave in?”
I thought about that for a moment. “That’s in the past. She wants him dead now. Her entity is pressing her to assassinate him.”
“Of course she wants him dead. They all do. But the ones he creates are compelled to do his bidding. And I am his sworn enemy. I don’t know if I quite trust your new girlfriend.”
“I trust Justine.”
“Why, because you’ve bedded her?”
“No, I haven’t. Not yet. But she’s innately good. Even if she were compelled, she would not betray me or those I care for.”
“She can’t possibly overcome a compulsion by him. We’re talking about Genghis Khan, the vampire emperor.”
“Justine is very strong. Very smart. Very loyal.”
“Fang, it’s extremely dangerous to trust the compelled blood-created servant of your enemy.”
“I would bet my life on her loyalty.”
“By coming here tonight, you already have.”
I didn’t want to believe what he was saying about Justine could be true.
We reached the fire door of the stairwell just before the basement level. We stopped, listened.
I whispered, “I hear a little girl crying behind this steel door.”
“I hear her, too. She’s begging them not to bite her.”
“Those gutless, godless murderers!” I said in Dracula’s lingo so he wouldn’t make good his threat to hurt me for swearing.
“Indeed.” Dracula paused. “This situation reeks of entrapment. The little girl is bait.”
Oh, God. I knew he was right. I looked around us.
“What do you seek, Fang?”
“Something to use for a weapon. I don’t exactly carry around silver.”
“But I do.” He opened a sack from which he took out two silver daggers with bone handles and handed them to me, handles first. Their ornate scabbards were decorated with dragon heralds. “These short swords belong to The Order of the Dragon.”
