by Gerald Lopez
“I’ve got an uneasy feeling about things there, Ger. If need be, how long would it take us to go to New Orleans to help.”
“I heard that,” Deegan said. “Too long and you’re supposed to stay here under our protection.”
“If things go bad, Samuel said the new vamps would make a move on this place,” Rory said.
“That sounds about right,” Gerard said as he played with Lochlan’s fingers. Lochlan giggled. “I know what you’re getting at—better to stop them there than here.”
“If you had to, Rory, do you feel you can fight?” Deegan said.
“I know I can,” Rory said. “But not feeling like this.”
“He needs fresh blood, honey,” Deegan said, then walked into the dining room and took Lochlan.
Gerard bared his neck. “You won’t need much, Rory. Leave me enough to fight on.”
Rory handed Sean to Gerard then bit Gerard’s neck and drank from it. He stopped after a few seconds and sealed the wound.
“Could we run fast enough to get to Orleans?” Rory said.
“Not without downing two or three of the bottles of blood in your refrigerator,” Gerard said as he rocked an unhappy and scowling Sean.
“That’s all? It doesn’t seem like very much.”
“That’s enough to practically transport you there in the blink of an eye,” Deegan said. “You really do have some major concerns.”
SAMUEL LOOKED AROUND the neighborhood he’d just driven into. There were small raised, shotgun style homes on both sides of the street. Some of the dwellings were vacant while others had lights on inside. One or two people who sat on their porches waved to him, while others eyed him suspiciously. He’d gotten close enough to the meeting place that he could pick up Cesare and Janelle’s scent. Paul Gauthius and two other vampires, whose scents seemed familiar, waited there as well. When Samuel parked his truck in front of the designated meeting place—a blue shotgun house, he spotted Paul on the porch. After getting out of the truck, Samuel walked up to the porch and greeted Paul who had dressed in black slacks and a black turtleneck.
“You’re dressed in similar fashion to Janelle,” Paul said to Samuel as he looked him over. “Comfortable brown shorts, a V-neck T-shirt, and sneakers. Clothes that are easy to move in—very clever of you.”
“And you look like a priest all in black,” Samuel said and smiled.
“I never forget the days when I had to hide in the shadows. It’s easy to blend into the night dressed in black. I’m an old-fashioned man, it’s difficult for me to change and adjust to these times.”
“You used to live in Egypt, from what I understand. It should be no big deal for you to wear shorts, Paul. Why exactly are you helping us?”
“You’ve just come right out and said what’s on your mind—I like that,” Paul said. “Things need to change, I’m not sure how but I know they need to change. My people don’t belong in the new world—not yet, maybe not ever. I never sent that snake to kill you, Samuel. Vasilius did and he was punished for it. A punishment he never forgot.”
“From what I’ve heard, you were quite capable of sending that snake yourself.”
“Probably so, but I didn’t.”
“What’s going on with you? You don’t seem much like the man I’ve heard about who was a cruel menace and enjoyed torturing both people and vampires.”
“Oh, I used to be that man, believe me. I had a major ax to grind against Jehovah God and I tortured his people every chance I got. And enjoyed every second of it. The more pain I inflicted the more I enjoyed it.”
“Why?” Samuel said, then sat in a chair.
Paul looked out over the porch then turned to face Samuel and leaned against the rail. He smiled then spoke.
“I grew up in Egypt when the Hebrews were there—God’s chosen ones. Lived alongside them. When the plagues came my family and I endured and survived all of them except one.”
Samuel saw Paul’s eyes glaze over as if he were some place else.
“He was so young,” Paul said. “My absolute joy in life and my pride. I had grown boastful and arrogant when it came to him—my firstborn son. Our pharaoh’s arrogance matched my own in strength. He had a pride so strong that he wouldn’t give in to Jehovah and his wishes. Nothing could save our sons that night… that horrible night when death came to all firstborn sons of Egypt except those protected by the lamb’s blood. I vowed vengeance on that long ago evening. Vengeance against the god of the Jews—the god who slew my boy. I became a vampire and my maker and I turned my wife and my remaining children. Throughout the ages we enjoyed torturing God’s people.”
“What happened then?”
“Jehovah God wouldn’t let go of me or my family. We went to the crucifixion. I wanted to see God’s only son being killed in front of me like mine had been.”
“Did you witness it all?”
“Yes. The savage, in humane beating, the sword being pierced through his side, his agonizing last hours on the cross. It didn’t bring me the joy or satisfaction I thought it would. You see he willingly accepted his fate… all of it. And in his eyes I saw nothing but the purest love. It really pissed me off.”
Samuel couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t blame you for laughing, Samuel. “The way that Jesus could look at even me with love just made me angry inside and I’m not even sure why. I went after God’s people with an anger bordering on insanity. You can’t imagine the tortures we came up with during the Spanish inquisition.”
“You must’ve loved the Nazis then,” Samuel said.
“No. Even I couldn’t love them. My family and I helped the resistance in Europe.”
“I don’t get it,” Samuel said. “The Nazis were all about wiping out God’s people.”
Cesare walked onto the porch dressed in khaki slacks, sneakers, and a T-shirt. “It was because of Hannah and Joseph,” Cesare said.
“Yes, old friend, you’re correct,” Paul said, then turned to Samuel. “A rival vampire clan raped, tortured, and chopped my daughter Hannah into pieces. The pieces of her body were delivered to my home and shown to me and my loving wife.”
Samuel gasped. “What a terrible thing to do to someone’s daughter.”
“Yes, and they still had my son, my youngest son,” Paul said. “My wife swore Jehova had taken vengeance on our household for all that we had done. The only one in this world that could move me was her, and when she pleaded with me to pray and beg forgiveness from the God of the Jews, I did. In my heart I knew my wife wouldn’t be able to live with the loss of another child. I fought, pleaded, and begged God for his help. In the end he turned out to be a gracious and just god. One of his people found my son and brought him home—good as new.”
“You and your family changed that day,” Cesare said. “But others in your group did not.”
“No, and through the years I’ve managed to keep them contained and restricted. I let others believe I was still the harsh, bullying monster I had always been, so I could slowly try to reform my people. All the while Vasilius worked against me, never forgetting the punishment I had dealt him. He’d been humiliated, and had sworn to destroy me and take over as leader of our sect. He’s dead now but his people here continue his work. They must be utterly destroyed before they take over the new world.”
“They know we’re here,” Cesare said. “There’s no element of surprise… and their numbers are larger than we thought.”
“How many of us versus them?” Samuel said.
“Six of us, at least fifty of them,” Cesare said. “We’ll be meeting them in a warehouse that’s used for storing Mardi Gras parade floats. The meeting’s to discuss a truce or partnership of sorts—a pretense on both our parts, of course.”
“Of course,” Samuel said then turned to Paul. “I guess it really must’ve pissed you off when Jesus rose from the dead.”
Paul and Cesare laughed then Paul spoke.
“Actually no man on earth deserved it more… and he was Je
hovah’s son. On the cross that day Jesus had take on all of the sorrows and grief of the world. You could see that along with the love in his eyes.”
Cesare and Samuel were silent.
“At that moment,” Paul said. “When I looked at Jesus on the cross for a second all I wanted was to be loved by him. It took me a while to come around to the truth of that. But I finally feel a part of his family.”
“That’s good,” Cesare said. “Remember you’re a part of ours tonight and fight your best.”
“I will,” Paul said. “I have a wife waiting back home for my return.”
“You still sound just as excited as ever to go back to Ashyra, that’s wonderful,” Cesare said.
“I think I could love her for all eternity and it still wouldn’t be long enough.”
Samuel heard what Paul said, and it made him think about Rory and how much he loved him.
“We’d better go inside,” Cesare said, “our tactician has some words to share with us.”
The only pieces of furniture in the home were a table and some chairs surrounding it. Standing beside Janelle was a large and imposing black man dressed in sweatpants, a T-shirt and sneakers. Next to him a slender, short female of mixed race dressed in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and sneakers smiled at Samuel and waved.
“Well if it isn’t our Florida boy, Samuel,” the man said and smiled.
“Nelson!” Samuel said then walked up to the man and gave him a hug before he turned to the woman. “Luisa, you still putting up with this guy?” He pointed to Nelson then hugged Luisa. “I didn’t know you two were back in New Orleans.”
“It’s good to see you again, Samuel,” Luisa said. “And yeah, we’re back. Just in time too. These new vamps are trying to make a mess of things.”
“Well now they have us to deal with,” Nelson said. “It hasn’t been easy coming back here. I remember my old days as a slave, but we needed to return.”
“I was a free woman of color in those days,” Luisa said. “But I remember the quadroon balls. In any case those days are gone and we need to worry about today.”
“Have you got any news, Janelle?” Cesare said.
Samuel noticed that Paul had been right about he and Janelle being dressed in similar fashion. She had on black shorts and a baggy T-shirt but instead of sneakers she wore black slip on shoes. He saw Janelle lean over a diagram of the warehouse and the surrounding area that sat spread out on the table.
“We’ve seriously underestimated the number of newly-made vampires in this area,” Janelle said. “There are at least seventy-five to one hundred located in this vicinity.”
“My God,” Paul said. “Vasilius really wanted to attempt going after control of the states.”
“Can we handle that many?” Samuel said.
“We’ve got reinforcements,” Janelle said. “There are some local vampires covering the area around the warehouse. And the Kaelian monks of St. Patrick’s monastery are sending a handful of their best fighting men to help.”
“Kaelian monks?” Samuel said.
“Veronique and Kaelin founded an order of monks during their time in the old West,” Cesare said. “Being a more reclusive order, they don’t usually get involved in these things. It’ll be good to have their help.”
“They’ll be concentrating on the areas outside of the warehouse along with the local vampires,” Janelle said. “They’ll be fighting in this area.” She used a pen to encircle the area a few blocks away from the warehouse on the map. “We’ll have our hands full with any vampires inside the warehouse waiting to ambush us and those in the immediate vicinity. Our best chance in this is to make it to the center of the warehouse and fight together in a circle. Each one of us concentrating on the area directly in front of us. If we split up we’re too vulnerable. We need to make the new vampires come to us then deal with them.”
“Why am I reminded of that story about the Trojan horse,” Nelson said. “Could there be vampires hidden inside the floats in the warehouse waiting to attack?”
“I would count on that being a very real possibility,” Janelle said. “There will be no rules tonight except for one. Kill or be killed.”
Chapter 37
Battle Time
THE FLOAT WAREHOUSE was located at the end of a long, narrow street in an area full of warehouses. Samuel, Paul, and Luisa had ridden to the location in Samuel’s truck. They’d followed behind the others who were in Nelson’s SUV.
“Everyone check your weapons,” Paul said while gripping the silver sword at his side.
“Nelson and I had better get busy finding worthy people to turn into vampires here when everything is over,” Luisa said. “We need more of us here.”
Samuel looked at her and noticed she held a scythe similar to his. “Hey, that’s my weapon of choice.”
“And such a good choice that Nelson and I decided to steal your idea and got some of our own. Besides I’m not handy with a sword like Paul, Janelle, and Cesare are.”
“That’s only because we grew up using swords,” Paul said. “The energy around this place is frantic. It’s as if we’re entering a busy hive of bees. We must be careful to not focus on all the noise in the minds of the new vampires or we’ll be lost.”
Once Samuel parked the truck and put the emergency brake on, he got out, followed by Paul and Luisa. Their group quickly walked through the parking lot that was wet and covered with puddles from a recent rainstorm. There were no stars out. and only a street lamp or two kept things from being pitch black. Samuel felt surrounded by watchful eyes and hoped that the monks would indeed show up to help keep the young vampires at bay.
“Ready?” Cesare said once the two groups were together by the entrance.
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Luisa said.
Cesare opened the door to the warehouse, the group walked inside, and slowly made their way through the warehouse. They stayed close together while looking all around them. For safety reasons they didn’t communicate with one another. The young vampires might pick up on their thoughts. There were numerous aisles filled with floats and other pariphernalia, all of which cast ominous shadows in the space. Nelson spotted a float in the shape of a large horse, pointed to it, and rolled his eyes. Finally they made it to the center of the warehouse which appeared to be relatively clear. In front of them they saw a float shaped like a pirate ship, behind them they noticed a float depicting a child’s playroom with a giant baby doll dressed in pink. Samuel looked up at the high ceiling. Ropes and other objects such as decorations and pieces of floats dangled down. The giant baby doll reminded him of Aileen when he looked at it.
Stay alert. Cesare had put that thought into Samuel’s mind as the sound of someone laughing insanely was heard from in front of them. Seconds later someone swung toward them on a rope from the direction of the pirate ship. Another person came up behind them.
“Give a girl a hand up, will you?” Janelle said to Cesare.
As soon as Cesare had lowered his hand Janelle used it as a step to thrust herself into the air in time to sever the first oncoming young vampire in half with her sword. Before the second one got to them, about ten young vampires came running toward Cesare and the others.
They had amazing speed and Samuel barely had a chance to catch his breath as he swung at the approaching hoard. Two young vampires headed his way. Their eyes looked wild as if they were animals, rather than humans turned vampires. The woman fell quickly by Samuel’s blade, but the man had a strength almost equal to Samuel’s . The new vampire deflected his blows successfully. Samuel surprised the vampire with a kick to the gut that winded him long enough for Samuel to deliver a death blow. Luisa was by Samuel’s side now and they looked in front of them at the dead bodies on the ground.
“Their plan is to attack us in waves with fresh recruits to wear us down,” Janelle said.
“Behind you!” Paul said to Samuel and Luisa.
Samuel turned in time to see young vampires breaking out of the body of the giant
baby doll and others coming from the side aisle. He and Luisa ran forward to fight the vampires that had been behind them while the others dealt with the young vampires coming from the side.
Luisa took out two vampires who were in front of her while Samuel fought with three that surrounded him. He wasn’t expecting the blow from above. It’d been fast and had caught him while he’d been busy with two strong, young vampires. A female vampire had swung down from above and entangled Samuel in some ropes. The more he struggled to get free the more he got tangled up in the ropes.
Samuel felt his feet being lifted from the ground and he couldn’t free himself. It couldn’t end like this, he couldn’t leave Rory alone not when he and the kids needed him. He struggled again to free himself from the ropes but just succeeded in dropping the scythe he held. When he felt a young vampires blade going through his skin he screamed out in pain. Internally his mind screamed out for Rory.
“WHAT’S WRONG, RORY?” Gerard said. “You don’t look good.”
It’s like I’m picking up on something,” Rory said. “It’s not just in my mind. Samuel and the others are in trouble. I think I heard Samuel call my name.” He started walking back to his seat at the table when his right knee gave out and he had to lean on a chair for support. Deegan went to his side and helped him.
“What’s wrong?” Deegan said.
“I felt something in my leg, but not my leg,” Rory said.
“Clear your mind and focus on your leg,” Gerard said. “What is it that you feel happening?”
Rory shuddered then yelled out as if in pain. “My leg! They cut off my leg! No… not my leg—Samuel’s leg. He’s hurt!”
“What do we do?” Deegan said to Gerard.
“I don’t know. They already have help in the area. There’s no way we can get to them in time.”
“There is one way,” Rory said.
WHILE RORY AND Gerard were downing bottles of blood from the refrigerator, Deegan put bottles of blood into a duffel bag. The twins were in their crib crying, and Aileen sat in her high chair eating crackers.
