by Alex Dire
A head exploded. Three spears stabbed through the smoke, pricking both Declan and Rufus. An instant later, two of the attackers screamed at the ends of Rufus’ knives, and the third reeled away with the smash of Declan’s hammer.
Declan’s rage took a terrible toll on Skeete’s crew. His rage, however, outlasted his special weapon. A vampire ran at him from his flank. Declan swung and landed a blow to the side of his head. But no light. No explosion of brains and fire. The vampire reeled, stood up and came again. Declan swung again, hitting his center. The hammer landed with a thud and a crack of ribs. He reeled back again. This time the enemy struggled to get back up.
Two more vampires came at Declan. He struck one. The second careened into him. They tumbled back toward Norman. Rufus lifted the thing off Declan and threw him across the room. A point pierced Rufus’ shoulder. A woman pushed at the spear. Rufus growled, twisted and stabbed her in the chest.
A soldier thrust her long, ornate stake at Rufus, savaging his throat. He coughed and sprayed blood through the wound.
Norman pushed himself up and sprung at the soldier. They rolled away from Rufus. The soldier straddled him and slid a knife from her belt, raising it in the air. She plunged it down. Norman caught her wrist with both hands, pushing back. She growled pushing harder. Her green eyes glowed with malice. Norman was older, but she was so strong. His teeth ground together as he resisted.
Norman's eyes flicked around, searching for anything. Rufus knelt on the ground gripping his throat with one hand and pushing off a vampire with the other. Declan swung his hammer in frenzied half-circles. Enemies closed around.
The soldier’s knife pushed closer to Norman’s chest. He looked into her eyes, he saw her will. It floated. He reached. He slipped. So tired. He reached again. She punched him in the stomach with her free hand as she doubled her grip on the knife.
Norman winced and lost his focus. She smiled. She knew. She could feel it. Norman tried to resist, but the knife inched closed. Norman flicked his eyes about again. A shard of broken glass lay right next to his head. He could reach it. But the knife point pricked his chest. If he moved a hand away to grasp the glass, the wooden tip would plunge through his heart.
Norman’s face trembled with effort. The tip of the knife sliced through a layer of skin. It scrapped and tore. Not clean like metal. Norman grunted spittle. He closed his eyes and summoned what strength he had left.
The soldier growled through her teeth. Norman could hold her no longer. His strength failed. He closed his eyes. He would meet his fate. What would become of his Nymphs, he wondered, seeing their faces in his mind.
The final thrust did not come, though. He felt the point in his skin, but it ceased pushing. He opened his eyes. The soldier looked at him. No, she looked through him. She was far away. Her muscles relaxed. Norman had thought he’d lost her will. He was sure of it. Norman batted at the stake which skittered across the floor. He slipped out from under the large soldier.
Sitting up, he looked to the breach in the wall of the chamber. Felicia stood, forehead furled, sweat dripping from her brow.
All the enemy vampires stood dazed, motionless. Rufus tore the various pointed wooden object from his body. Declan shoved off a vampire that had his hands around his neck.
“Felicia!" said Declan. He ran to her but stopped when she did not respond. It was as if she didn't see him. "How are you doing this?" He looked to Norman. "Did you teach her this?"
Norman shook his head. She’d only had a fraction of his ability in all her attempts. Had she practiced? When?
Felicia moved her mouth to speak, to command. Then she stopped before a word could escape. She snapped her glance to Norman. Declan looked at him as well. Rufus too. No not at him. Past him. Norman turned. Behind him the map lay on the floor, crumpled and folded from combat. It glowed blue. The squiggles and characters on its surface swirled and changed. The glow expanded. Norman stepped back to avoid being swallowed by it.
The light moved like smoke, swirling and changing as if it had a will of its own.
“How is this happening?” said Norman.
Rufus pointed to Felicia. “It’s her.”
The glow condensed into an image. It was a blue sphere. Continents and oceans formed from its surface. Within was a five-pointed star with an eye in the center. The tip of each point intersected the perimeter of the globe indicating a spot on earth. A white point of light shone at each of the five locations.
“What the hell is this?” said Declan at full volume.
Felicia twitched at Declan’s voice. She shook her head as if coming out of a trance. Skeete’s horde seemed to wake up as well. The globe swirled back to random light and receded into the map. The room returned to what it had been.
“Shit," said Norman. He dashed over and snatched the map. Skeete leapt from the other side of the room, but Norman got there first. He had no idea what he'd just seen, but clearly, Skeete wanted it badly, and he wasn't going to let that happen.
“Norman,” she shouted in mid-flight, but Rufus punched her out of the air, sending her sailing.
The rest of Skeete’s vampires resumed their attack. Declan swung his hammer, Knocking vampires about.
“To the breach!” said Norman.
Rufus nodded and batted away a vampire that had made a thrust at him.
They all retreated but Declan who smashed his way deeper into the chamber, deeper into the horde of enemy vampires.
“Declan!” shouted Norman.
The boy continued his rampage. His blood-soaked clothes stuck to his body from his many bleeding wounds. He managed to fight them all to a radius around him. But he only had two eyes and a vampire stuck him from behind with a long pole. The blow landed just below his rib cage. Declan roared and twisted, but the vampire held firm to the spear.
“No!” screamed Felicia. She leaped over the horde, landing next to Declan. She charged the perimeter of the ring and stabbed at the one with her dagger. He fell to the floor, convulsing.
Norman ran toward the cluster of vampires. “Felicia!” A mass rammed him from the side, and he tumbled off course. Two hands gripped him around the neck and lifted him off the floor, feet dangling.
“I’m going to squeeze the life out of you.” The enhanced soldier’s green eyes bored into him. Her jaw was clenched with wrath.
Norman scratched at her fingers trying to get underneath them, to pry them loose. She swung him through the air smashing his face against the stone wall. The cartilage in his nose shattered. Her iron hands released him and he slipped to the ground.
He looked up at the soldier. Anger dripped from her lips. “I’m going to…”
Rufus grabbed under her arms and sent her sailing across the room, mowing a hole in the horde that surrounded Declan and Felicia.
“We need to get out,” said Norman. “We need to get this map out.”
Rufus nodded. He turned to the breach.
“Wait, we need to get them.” Norman pointed at the hoard that had tightened around his two Nymphs.
Rufus gripped Norman by the collar. “Go. I’ll get them. Get that map out of here. Take it to Nebulous.”
“Wait…” said Norman. But Rufus was gone, rushing into the enemy horde.
Norman fought the urge to bolt after him, to help his progeny. The feeling was strong. But the map. Why did Skeete want it so badly, badly enough to abandon all her machinations? Norman dashed to the breach in the wall to escape. Rufus would protect his Nymphs. The three of them were better fighters than he was anyway.
Norman reached the opening and stepped through. The urge to look back nearly overcame him. Trust Rufus. Trust Felicia. He stepped through with the other foot. He bit the inside of his cheek and ignored the sounds of fighting behind him. The choice was made.
“Norman!” Skeete’s voice belted the name which echoed through the chamber and tunnels. It froze Norman in place. The room behind him fell quiet.
Norman turned back to the silent chamber.
Skeete gripped Felicia around the neck with an arm and held a stake at her chest with the other. “Leaving so soon?”
47
Monsters
Declan and Rufus both stood frozen.
“Let her go,” said Norman.
Skeete’s smile returned. Anger and bile bubbled up in Norman’s chest. He didn’t know if he would tear her head off or puke.
“Of course,” she said. “But first, the map.”
“No,” said Rufus. He blurred out of the main mass of vampires to Norman’s side. He spoke quietly to Norman. “Go.”
“She’s my kin,” said Norman. He ached to free Felicia, to end the horror he could feel in her.
“You’re more than that, now.”
“I have to save her.”
“You have to save all of us,” said Rufus.
Norman looked to Declan. He shook his head. Anguish dripped from the boy’s face.
Rufus was right. All of vampiredom looked to Norman now. They looked to him to stop that bill and to end Skeete’s reign of extermination.
Something Skeete had said struck him to his bones. ‘Relieve our pain.’ Norman felt she intended to take them all down, including herself. Some type of mass homicide/suicide. Somehow the map played a part in this, and Norman possessed it. He could hide, but she’d come for it.
A whisper echoed through the sewers behind him. Norman twitched his head to the side, searching. He wasn’t alone in there. Skeete’s reinforcements. If he didn’t flee now, he might lose his chance.
But the cost. Felicia.
“So be it,” said Norman.
He turned to the tunnel. The smell of rot repelled him.
He looked back to Rufus who nodded.
Norman looked down, shoulders slumping. He pulled the map from his pocket. The wrinkles and folds in the thick parchment repaired themselves. What the hell is this thing?
He lifted his head and met Skeete’s gaze, holding the map out before him. “Here. Take it.”
“No,” said Rufus.
Norman took long confident steps toward the cluster of enemy vampires that surrounded Skeete, locking eyes with Declan as he passed him.
He stopped before Skeete.
“See, Norman. I knew you’d do the right thing.”
“I give you this map, and you let Felicia go? Let us all go?”
“Of course,” she said with false incredulity.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
Skeete shook her head. “Oh, Norman. You’re such a Nymph sometimes. Once I have that map, I have no need to kill you. I have no need for any of this.”
So be it. Norman stretched out his hand, offering the rolled parchment.
Skeete unwound her arm from around Felicia’s neck and reached.
Norman pulled the map back.
Skeete tipped her head. Her smile widened. She released Felicia.
Felicia grasped her throat and breathed deep. Norman pulled her to him.
Skeete snatched the map. She unrolled it. Her eyes darted all around its squiggles and weird characters.
Norman pulled Felicia and slowly backed away.
Skeete turned and strode into the hall at the back of the chamber, gazing down at the unfolded map. The vampires in the room looked about at each other. Declan held his hammer. He shifted his grip, looking to Norman for direction.
Skeete receded into the darkness. Before her form became completely obscured, she lifted her head from her musings, as if aroused from a trance. “Oh, I almost forgot. Kill them all.”
Norman twisted his neck about, searching for the best escape. He'd sacrificed the map for Felicia. He had to get her to safety, to get them all to safety.
The chamber exploded with sound and fury as the enemy vampires re-ignited the combat. Norman ran with Felicia toward the breach, but four vampires blocked their way, drawing back stakes to attack.
Rufus stood at the breach behind them. He could get out. He was practically there. No. He was a soldier. He charged back in. It almost seemed that he wanted to die in a hopeless cause, sometimes.
Rufus slid his knife into the back of one of the vampires who moved in on Norman and Felicia.
He screamed and crumpled to the floor.
A woman screamed through the room and plowed into Rufus from the side, driving a small stake into his side.
Three vampires leapt at Norman and Felicia. He pushed her out of the way and two of the vampires landed on him stabbing down at his chest. He punched and twisted, feeling the points slice and push through the skin on his face and chest. He lurched to avoid a deadly blow and shoved one away. The other’s weight drove him to the floor. Norman managed to twist and land on top.
He grasped the stake and wrestled with the vampire. Norman was older and overpowered him, thrusting the stake into his heart.
He pushed himself to his knees. Rufus still had the woman attached to his side, plunging the knife in and out. He practically ignored her as he repelled spear thrusts from the enhanced soldier. Norman knew Rufus could fend him off one on one, but he bled so much.
Norman dashed to help his friend, but Felicia’s scream stopped him. She had a stake sticking up out of her shoulder. She shuddered and fell to the ground. Norman rushed the attacking vampire, plowing into his back. They tumbled to the floor.
Norman stood and yanked the wood from Felicia’s shoulder. She screamed and blood sprayed from the wound for a moment before it began to heal.
He then fell, stake first, upon the startled vampire on the floor, driving the spike through his chest. These vampires were so young. They didn’t know how to fight and had barely begun to harness their strength. But there were so many of them. And two enhanced V’s left.
Norman flicked his glance around the chamber.
A half dozen vampires had backed Declan against a wall. He swung his hammer around, make a semicircular perimeter. It wouldn’t hold.
Rufus had two vampires clinging to his body now. He'd snapped the enhanced V's spear in half. Rufus swung and stabbed at the soldiers with the two broken lengths. The second enhanced vampire crept up behind him with her wooden assassin's blade.
Six more vampires began to encircle Norman and Felicia, hissing and snarling. In the hall where Skeete had been, only darkness. Where would she go? Felicia backed up against the wall. Norman stood in front of her.
Felicia stepped forward. “I can fight, Mr. Bernard.”
Of course she could.
A vampire threw a spear. Norman dodged. Just as he moved out of the way, another blurred in from the side and stabbed him in the neck with a stake.
Felicia gripped the thug and tore him off. She screamed and turned. A point stuck from her back. Norman pulled the stake out of his neck. He’d lost so much blood already.
He turned and yanked the stake out of Felecia. She gripped her attacker.
Two more vampires grabbed at Norman’s arms. He tried to stab, but they held him firm.
“Rufus!” shouted Norman.
Rufus turned. Too late. The super-V slit his throat with her wooden knife. Blood showered down from his neck. He lurched shaking the two vampires off him, clutching at the wooden gash. In a desperate move, he flicked a knife from his belt at the soldier. She batted it out of the air.
Norman shook as well, trying to free himself from the two vampires as two more closed in with stakes ready to thrust.
Felicia punched and tore at two vampires. There was nowhere to fall back to. More enemies rushed in.
Norman pulled himself against the grasping vampires. His back hit stone. He kicked at his enemies’ legs and smashed his head against one who grasped him. The stunned vampire fell back, but two more moved in to replace him. One of them sliced a stake across Norman’s arm. He howled at the searing cut. His arm shook in spasms.
A second stab came at his chest. Norman dropped to the floor to avoid the blow. The vampires closed in over him.
A vampire stood over him with a long spear raised over his hea
d. His face spat pure malice. He hissed and roared as he drove the stake down. Norman closed his eyes.
A bang. A scream. More screams around the room. The spear-wielding vampire fell on top of him, dead. Blood oozed from the attackers back all over Norman.
The room fell silent as all eyes turned to the breach, the source of the sound. Norman shoved the body off and pushed himself to his feet.
There stood two of the men in silvery chain mail armor.
Behind them, in a line, stood a row of figures in hooded sweatshirts. One had some sort of shotgun. Smoke rose from its muzzle in a line toward the ceiling. He cocked the gun and pulled back his hood. “Which one of you bitches is next?” said Chubs.
48
Heroes
A moment of quiet ensued. The enemy vampires hesitated, glancing around to each other.
The silence broke when the two enhanced soldiers leapt through the air at the thirteen hooded figures. Two of them raised foot-long tubes to their mouths. They blew. Thoomp. Darts shot out. The soldiers smashed against the wall and careened to the ground, screaming. Their skin dried and crumpled like late autumn leaves, their screams became gurgles.
Chubs’ shotgun exploded again. Fire and sparks shot from its muzzle. A vampire’s chest exploded in flames and blood as he screamed his way to hell.
“Go to work, ladies,” said Chubs.
The hooded figures sprang across the chamber, lurching into the thickest mass of Skeete’s thugs. The instant they landed, they fought. Punching, kicking, stabbing, biting. So fast.
How was this possible? Norman remembered the hooded figures at the press conference who had fought off Skeete’s assassination attempt. And the man Felicia had told Norman about from the alley, who’d come to her aid.
Chubs? Norman had often wondered what had become of the boy, regretting he couldn’t convince him to return to school. Night School could never have taught him to do this, though.
