The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles)

by Jeremy Croston

  “I think someone is finally ready to see us.” Liz walked back over to where I was.

  A quick check told me she had one of the tantos under her jacket. I had the other one strapped to my back as well, plus Roscoe fully loaded, and three more silver knives ready. I took a deep breath, letting the cool air in.

  I heard some more noises in the house and finally caught my first smell. Like it had come from nowhere, the musky scent had returned. It wasn’t strong, but there was just enough to know it was there. Based on this, I guessed there were two people in the house.

  “Get ready Liz, I think we are about to be greeted by our hosts.”

  I tensed up as I heard footsteps coming to the door. A turn of the knob and bright light flooded out of the house. Two men walked up and onto the porch. The first was a rather tall man, dressed like some sort of samurai, complete with some weird mask. But the second man didn’t even need to introduce himself. Salt and pepper hair, a thick mustache, and cold gray eyes met mine. Not quite as tall as me and a little on the stocky side, Warren Tucker was here.

  “Welcome to my little hide-a-way in the mountains, Victor and Elizabeth. Come with me, we have quite a bit to discuss now that you are here.”

  Chapter 30

  Before he could even take a step, I pulled out Roscoe and pointed it directly at him. “I don’t think we are going to go anywhere, Tucker. We are here, but we aren’t going to go waltzing into a trap either.”

  His eyes never left mine, “If I wanted you two daemons dead, my associate would have already delivered the final blow. But if it makes you feel better, we can hold our parlay right here for the time being.”

  “How about you cut to the chase, Tucker? You have a lot of backbone calling us up here after everything you have done to the werewolf and vampire communities.”

  “Communities?” He spit on the ground in disgust. “What you all are is the work of Satan, daemons sent from the depths of hell to corrupt man into doing your evil bidding. There is no place for you here and I will continue to do the good work needed to make sure of that.”

  As he was talking, I took a glance over at his body guard. I could see two swords sticking up from behind him. The mask, which was white with black swirled in, had two eye holes and a few small holes around the area a nose should be. The eyes staring out from behind were black as night. I could say for pretty good certainty that this was not a human.

  “You talk of us as some sort of plague, but if I had to make an educated guess, I think you have one of your self-proclaimed daemons working for you.”

  He looked back at the samurai and then back to me. He grinned as if this joke was just too good to let go. “How would I expect either of you to recognize warriors from the Light?”

  “Or is it you Tucker that can’t recognize the good from the bad anymore? This Hammer of Jehovah has twisted you so badly that you sent your own son to his death!”

  “Do not talk to me about being twisted, creature! My son sacrificed his life to a higher calling!” The veins above his eyes were now protruding, “The Hammer of Jehovah has led us to this point! Victory will soon be here for the righteous!”

  I was getting heated, but Liz put a hand on my shoulder and walked forward. “Warren, if I may be so bold, why have you brought us here to meet under the flag of truce?”

  He composed himself again and continued, “The purpose of this meeting is to show you what you are up against. Maybe seeing how futile your position is will give you the push to make the right decision.”

  I didn’t know what he was playing at, but this was what we were after. “Showing your hand isn’t a smart move in poker Tucker, so don’t mind me for doubting you here.”

  “When you hold all the aces Victor, why not show them? Now, may I show you what awaits you if you do not surrender?”

  Liz nodded at me and I holstered my gun. Tucker and the samurai guy took that as a sign they were now free to come down without the chance of hostilities. Liz and I stood close together as they passed and we fell in line a few steps behind them. They were walking towards the old processing plant.

  Taking a conversational tone with us, “Holy Methodist and the abandoned hospital provided us with a good start, but out here, we were able to expand our operation. Our failures there have paved the way to our ultimate success.”

  “Yeah, your Holy Water you’re injecting people with. We found out all about that.”

  “Victor, do not judge me for what I have accomplished. It is a time honored method to use your enemies’ strengths against them. In this case, the right amount of werewolf and vampire blood, mixed with mercury and silver nitrate provides us with the boost we need.”

  We made it to the entrance before I could get riled up once again. Tucker punched in a code to the door and it swung open. The smell of blood was borderline overwhelming. He made a gesture for us to go first, but we both just stood there. Shrugging his shoulders, him and his goon went in and we followed. It was a long hallway that had a door on the other end.

  “Now, just on the other side of this door is my greatest achievement. Beyond lies a small army of soldiers ready to extinguish the evil from this world.”

  He reached for the door and opened it. As we walked through the scene that was here in front of us was terrifying. Where the old warehouse had been was now some sort of housing facility for the monsters Tucker had created. Each was in some sort of cylinder that resembled one of those space age cryogenic tubs that freezes people.

  “What have you done, Warren?” The sound in Liz’s voice was filled with both fear and pity.

  “Elizabeth, you of all people should understand the price of war. My followers have been transformed into weapons to be used against the daemons. These are the ones who survived the process. One hundred and fifteen perfect soldiers who will do exactly as I tell them to.”

  “This is madness! All of these men will end up dying one way or another!”

  It was Tucker’s turn to look at us with pity. “You still do not understand. They would rather lay down their life to my service than live in a world corrupted by you and your spawn. Do not pretend to mourn them or understand.”

  Looking around the room, trying to look passed the twisted experiments and their blank stares; I took in the rest of the layout. At the back of the room, in the western most corner was a structure that looked to have been added on. I could hear the feint hum of power emanating from that direction. I’d bet anything that was the power source to all of this.

  “I think you have made your point, Tucker. You have an army and we don’t have anything.”

  “Are you going to surrender right now? You two can be the first, martyrs for the rest of your kind to follow.”

  My blank stare probably answered his question, but to make sure I gave him another piece of my mind. “I don’t think that will be happening today. You might think you are holding four aces, but a good card player has a few tricks up his own sleeve.”

  “I hope you realize you signed your death warrants. I am a man of my word and you are free to go today.”

  He moved out of the way and let us pass. We continued walking out the front door and headed over to my car. Liz and I got it and sat there for a few seconds.

  “You are planning something, are you not, Victor?”

  “I think I can bring this whole place down.” Her eyes lit up. “But only if you are on board.”

  “What do we need to do?”

  I was backing the car out and Tucker and his goon were standing at the entrance watching us. “The southwest corner houses some power source for this place. I’m going to drive the Mustang right into it and hopefully blow his minions sky high.”

  The look of shock on her face was priceless. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I’m about to take off in that direction. Radio Cristof and the guys and get them up here. Then hop out and hope to hell we can take these two on with no problems.”

  She nodded and I slammed the accelerator.
Looking out the window I saw Tucker’s face change from smug to terrified. I heard Liz send out the SOS and continued to plow forward. Showing your hand is never a good play, I don’t care how well off you think you are. We were closing in on the building and I gave Liz the signal to jump out. She did, but I kept my foot on the gas. I heard her yelling mixed in with Tucker’s enraged cries.

  I glanced at the speed-o-meter and saw I was pushing sixty-five. My car was seconds away from impact and I finally dove out. I rolled into the dirt and covered my head as impact was made. I must have hit something good, because within seconds multiple explosions were going off. Liz was running towards me and Tucker had dropped to his knees screaming.

  “Vic, are you okay? Answer me!”

  “Yeah, yeah I am fine. It looks like we did it.”

  I got up and dusted myself off. The processing plant was in flames. Tucker was still in the middle of the yard cursing and screaming, but his goon was nowhere to be found.

  “You wretched creatures! Your lives are now forfeit! Judgment shall strike you hard!”

  “It looks like it is just the three of us, big guy.” I pulled out Roscoe and pointed it at him, “Give me one reason why you should see another sunrise.”

  He looked up at me and laughed. “Fool, it is you who should be begging me.”

  A loud crashing noise came from behind us. The samurai goon had come flying out of the building and he had six of Tucker’s creatures with him. They stopped just short of us and the samurai pulled out one of the swords. He pointed it at Liz and me. Not knowing what else to do, I fired a shot off at him. I don’t even know if the bullet hit him, as he just stood there.

  “You two should have surrendered earlier.” Tucker was up and walking over to the goon and monster squad. “The pain in store for you now will be unimaginable. Fortuna, you may kill them now.”

  I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think the samurai laughed.

  Chapter 31

  Fortuna was an odd name for sure, but I didn’t think now would be the appropriate time to mention such things. He stepped forward with his sword still pointing at us and both Liz and I pulled out ours. His eyes moved to them for a second and again, not sure why but he seemed happy.

  Tucker had stepped back and was now standing with the rest of his monster squad, getting out of the way of the impending fight. His face was so smug that it boiled my blood. But now was not the time to worry about him.

  “Any suggestions, Liz? I’m more of a shooter, not a sword fighter.”

  “Follow my lead and act as my back up.”

  Fortuna decided that enough time had been spent here and began his attack. He sliced at Liz and she was able to block it cleanly. The dude was good, because he also was able to send a kick in my direction and it took everything I had to get out of the way. I was pretty fast, but he was on another level.

  Liz parried his blade and followed through with an attack of her own. With a much longer reach, he easily swatted it away. Using my limited werewolf skills, I jumped over him and tried to attack his head as I was in the air, but to no avail. I landed beside Liz.

  “This guy is good.”

  “Thank you for the update Victor, I had not realized.”

  He cut off our banter with another set of attacks. I jumped out of the way and Liz rolled under and was able to get a punch in. He staggered a bit and I followed up with a jump kick right into his chest. It pushed him back, but not off his feet.

  “You two are certainly entertaining, that is for sure. It may be a sin to enjoy watching you two struggle and eventually perish, but I think I will be forgiven.” Tucker’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard and I felt myself getting even angrier.

  “Calm down Vic, this is what he wants.”

  “I’ll give him what he wants.” I felt a surge of power flow through me. I flashed a feral smile at Tucker and his face went slack.

  “Impossible! What have you done?”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about and turned my attention back to Fortuna. He also stopped and was looking at me strangely. Wasting no time, we went back on the attack.

  This time, we had a little more success. Our strikes caused him to work hard to keep up with us. Liz and I danced our way through our attacks, almost like we were in total coordination. Whenever she went high, it was almost instinct telling me to go low. No words were spoken between us, just complete understanding on a higher level.

  Still, no matter what we did, we weren’t able to break through the defense Fortuna maintained. Somehow in the midst of our flurry of blades, he actually had unsheathed his second sword and was able to attack and parry both of us at the same time. To add to the scene, heat lightning was working its way across the night’s sky and dust was being whipped up into a frenzy.

  Liz fell back and I followed in line. “Our opponent is much more skilled than we are. I think our best bet at this point is to wait until back-up arrives.”

  Panting, “I agree. I don’t know how much more I have in me.”

  Fortuna had also taken a moment to recompose himself. “I have an idea Vic. I might be able to hold him off if I use the bloodletting again.”

  “Isn’t that the last resort plan? We have no guarantee that they will even get here in time.”

  Without even getting my consent, she slashed the tanto across my forearm and drew blood. In the blink of an eye she was on the cut. The time for argument was over. Fortuna and Tucker were watching with strange looks in their eyes. Before either could say or do anything, Liz pulled away and the process began.

  Her eyes went yellow, her hands formed into claws, and her canines became even more pronounced. She handed me the tanto and faced Fortuna. “Let us see what you can do now.”

  He stared back at her and I could have sworn his eyes went red for a moment. There was no time to tell Liz as she went on the attack. They met in the middle, his swords against her enhanced vampire/wolf form.

  The speed of their attacks had increased tenfold. I thought about jumping in and help, but I would have been a hindrance. However, I was not without my own problems.

  “Without your pet vampire, let’s see how you fare against one of my soldiers.”

  I turned around and Tucker was pointing at me. The closest monster left his side and charged. I braced myself and jumped over. This one was as smart as the last one and grabbed me in mid-air. A quick toss later and I was flat on my back, smarting that one.

  “Come now Victor, is that truly the best you have to offer? I was hoping to see that inner daemon come out again.”

  The monster was on top of me again, this time raining punches down. I was using the tantos as a way to block my face from becoming cottage cheese. Tucker kept raining taunts down on me the entire time.

  “I guess I was wrong about you, I figured you would at least be a worthy adversary. I guess the power provided by Heaven is much stronger than anything you can do.”

  The sheer weight of the monster was starting to suffocate me. I was in big trouble and if I had anything else, it was time to show it. I took the swords out of the protective position I had them in, eating a couple of punches in the process and stabbed them into the legs on the creature. It groaned in agony and let up just enough that I was able to slide out and get back to my feet.

  “Tucker, would you just shut the hell up! Your creatures are all the proof I need that you are the real daemon here!”

  The monster was trying to dig the swords out of his legs, but I never gave it a chance to finish. I pulled out Roscoe and put six silver bullets right into its head. It fell backwards and I went over and removed them. One final slice down on the creature, removing its head and it was over.

  Tucker was fuming, and I think he was about to send the rest of the monsters on me when a small brunette vampire fell on me. Crashing to the ground, I could see she was busted up pretty good.

  “Liz, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, but I cannot defeat him. He is too strong for us.”

/>   I looked up and saw him stalking towards us, like a large cat going towards a wounded animal. I was out of bullets and my right eye was starting to swell shut. Liz didn’t look any better with a bruised up face and cuts all over.

  “Justice shall be had this evening! May the Light of Heaven shine upon them as the burn!”

  For once, I had to agree with Tucker. It looked bad for the two of us. Fortuna, who was limping and also seemed a bit worse for wear at least, was moments away from ending us. I closed my eyes and was about to say my last words when I heard the noise of a vehicle in the distance. It was closing in fast, but no one else had heard it yet.

  “Any last words, daemons? Anything you may want to repent before we send you back to your infernal depths?”

  “Yeah, actually I do have something I want to say.”

  “Yes, proclaim your sins to me!”

  I grinned at him, “I don’t have any sins to confess, but a piece of advice.”

  “Oh, and what would that be?”

  Headlights appeared over the ridge and from this distance I could see the smug look of one Reno Tavares driving a plain black van. Tucker’s face went towards the light and it started to slowly dawn on him.

  “My advice is always have an ace up the sleeve!”

  The van charged through the gates and plowed right into Fortuna. The door slid open and Phil and Cristof pulled Liz and me in. Reno slammed the accelerator and we were out. I looked back and saw that Fortuna was already up and Tucker was losing his mind.

  “You two look awful. Just what happened up there?”

  “Cristof, we have a lot of problems.”

  He looked over at Liz, “What do you mean?”

  “Yeah boss man, didn’t you see all the big green uglies standing beside that jackass?”

  “Forget the green monsters for just a minute Reno, which we were able to destroy most of. Tucker’s bodyguard is a vampire, a very old one at that.”