The Night Killers

by Senese, Rebecca M.

  She came in fast and low, knocking him off balance. He fell on his left, using the impact to roll away but she stayed with him. He landed on his back and the vampire was there, snarling in his face. Teeth snapped at his neck. He smelled her rank breath as he held her back. Her razor like claws dug into the flesh of his shoulders. He felt his skin break. The scent of blood make the vampire go even crazier. Josh needed both hands to hold her back. He couldn’t reach his stake, dammit.

  The vampire shrieked. Black blood poured from her mouth and spattered onto Josh’s chest and face. He shoved hard and her body sagged off away to his left. Above him, Sami stood clutching a stake.

  “Lying down on the job again I see,” she said.

  “Good to see you too,” he said. “Leave any for me?”

  “Plenty.”

  He jumped to his feet and pulled out two stakes. “Great. Let’s do some damage.”

  They headed into the fray. Ted was still sweeping the area with fire. The Sister was finishing with a smaller male. Rick slammed the driver’s side door into a male, then slipped out and sent a stake spinning into its heart. Another male loamed up from behind him. Sami, already on the move, leapt into the air, landing a kick to the back knees of the male. He went down with a roar. Rick spun to his right and sank a stake into the vampire’s chest.

  Josh grabbed up his gun, loaded and aimed at a vampire climbing the back of the van. Just another moment and the cage swiveled, giving Josh the perfect shot. He squeezed the trigger. The vampire fell off the van.

  Some days he just loved the squad.

  After fifteen minutes, the last of the flames sputtered out but orange still lit up the sky. Only when the remaining vampires took flight did Josh realize it was the sun.

  The Sister came up beside him, wiping her hands on a cloth. “Good morning, Josh.”

  He grinned. “Good morning to you, Sister.”

  “Do you think they’ve got the fixings for waffles in this lab?” she said. “I’ve got a craving for waffles.”

  “I’ll find you something, Sister,” he said.

  Ted climbed down from the cage. Rick and Sami met by the back of the van she’d driven. From their stance, Josh thought they might like some privacy. He gave a whistle and waved Ted over.

  “What’s up?” Ted said.

  “I think they’d just like a moment,” Josh said.

  But that moment wasn’t to be. The back of the van opened and several children stepped out. Even from this distance, Josh could tell there was something about them. They reminded him of Katey and Marc. He shuddered. More infected.

  He counted four stepping out, leaving the door hanging open. He waited but no one else emerged. His hand tightened on his gun. He started moving toward the back of the van.

  As he reached it, Sami turned and he saw the look on her face. The disquiet that tightened his fingers clenched at his stomach.

  “Where’s Peter?” he said. “Where’s Lucy?”

  “Oh Josh, I’m sorry. The vampires were coming, they smelled me. He insisted I had to go and bring the children out. I only made it out with four of them. Some scattered but the others…” She shook her head, her long braids shuddered around her face.

  “What happened to Peter?” Josh said.

  Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

  “We go after him.” Rick’s voice caught Josh’s attention. “We gear up and head out. No one gets left behind. The Night Killers take care of their own.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The hand brushed his arm with a feather light touch, drawing him closer to wakefulness but he fought it. His arm jerked, knocking the hand away. An incoherent mumble came from his lips. He kept his eyes closed tight.

  The touch returned, this time more insistent. His mumble grew in volume and became words.

  “Sick, Mom, don wanna go ta school.”

  A warm breath blew across his neck and into his ear. “No school today,” a voice purred.

  His eyelids fluttered. Half glimpses invaded his brain. Grey, uneven walls. Glowglobe up near the ceiling. A figure crouched over him. Not Mom…

  Not Mom with razor nails and sharp fangs, snarling, reaching for him…

  He jerked awake. His body spasmed pushing the figure away. He scurried back, along the edge of the bed, piling blankets and sheets between them, anything between…

  “Peter, it’s okay. It’s me.” A woman. Brown hair poking out from under her turban. Familiar. As she reached a hand out to him, he caught the scent of her skin and memory flooded in. Lucy.

  He took a deep breath to still his pounding heart. Seeing he wasn’t trying to get away again, she climbed up on the bed toward him. Her hand touched his bare knee, reminding him of other touches, other times. The nightmare faded.

  “It’s okay now,” she said. “It’s all right.”

  Her arms drew him in and he went to her, burying his face against her neck and in the loose strands of her hair. One hand reached up and tugged at her turban. The fabric parted, releasing her hair in cascades of waves that surrounded his face. He breathed in the scent of her hair, her skin. Underneath, he still smelled her blood like an undercurrent but it wasn’t the sharp desire it had been. Just awareness now. Just knowing it was her.

  Her hands stroked his back, his bare back. He’d been sleeping naked. Unusual for him. Normally he wore pants. One less thing to think about putting on in an emergency.

  “Everything’s all right now.” Her voice murmured in his ear. Her tongue flicked his ear lobe. Her lips trailed along his jaw to his chin. He caught a glimpse of her blue eyes (blue?) before she kissed him. Lips softly parted his until her tongue teased out.

  Her hands tightened on his back. Pressure pushed him down on the bed. The skin of her breasts pressed against his chest. His hand moved along her thigh, up her side to find her breast. Fingers closed on her nipple, pinching every so lightly. She arched her back, breath sucking in and blowing out. The scent of her flooded him. Heavy. Decaying. Her hands stroked his chest, moving down his pelvis. Her thighs open, poised above him as her hand grasped his penis, only half erect.

  She stroked him as she kissed his neck. His skin prickled against the sharpness of her teeth. He stared up at the rock ceiling. Odd. The lab ceiling had all looked finished to him.

  His erection hardened. Her lips closed on one of his nipples, sucking at it. He felt the wetness of her thighs. He glanced down at her head and stroked her blond hair. Her pelvis moved as she positioned herself and started to lower. The scent of her…

  Was wrong! He grabbed her shoulders and threw her away. The woman landed on her back. With a snarl, she leapt to her feet. One hand tossed the blond hair off her face and he recognized her. Tracy Severin.

  “What the hell?” he said. She jumped onto the bed. Peter scurried back but she was blocking the entry.

  “I told him we should have just killed you,” she hissed. She swiped at him. He ducked back, felt the air move an inch from his nose.

  A fast glance showed him there was nothing in the room except the bed and hovering glowglobe. Nothing to use as a weapon. The smile that curled her lips showed him she knew it. She stepped down off the mattress, circling around him.

  He had to stall her somehow. “Why not just kill me?” he said. “Your people killed those children. Seems like a waste to infect them and then kill them.”

  She growled. “Your fault. Twisting them with your words. But we have better experiments now.”

  “Experiments for what?”

  She lunged but he dodged away, grabbing for the bed sheet. He wrapped it around his hands holding it out between them.

  “That wouldn’t do you any good,” she said. “I’ll slash right through that to get to you.”

  “I know,” he said. “But if you were going to, you’d have done it already. So why the little charade?” He nodded at the bed.

  She laughed. “Thought you might like some fun.”

  “I didn’t know
vampires had a sense of humor.” He backed away, still twisting the bed sheet between his hands.

  A scowl replaced the smile on her face. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I know you want to kill me and someone won’t let you. It wouldn’t be Elliott by any chance?”

  She snarled at him. In the middle of it, he leapt up, flipping the bed sheet up over his head. It snagged the glowglobe. As he landed, she was flying at him, claws extended, teeth flashing. He swung the globe. It hit her in the face. Energy sparked and exploded. Tracy shrieked as flames engulfed her head. Her hair whooshed into a blaze. He jumped back as she staggered around the room, screaming. Her hands went up to her head, trying to pat out the flames. Her leg hit the bed and she fell over on it. The blanket began smoldering.

  With the fire the only light in the room, Peter found his way to the entry. As with most of the other rooms there was no door. The hall in either direction was cloaked in darkness but he had to move. Any minute Tracy’s screams and the scent of scorched flesh would bring vampires running. Pick one. He went right.

  He hurried along, keeping one hand on the wall to guide him. He had to find Lucy, get out and get some clothes.

  Already he could feel the presence of the vampires, strong and clear. Tracy was no longer blocking him. The fire had effectively ruined her concentration. He slowed and stopped, his hand on the wall.

  He took a deep breath and allowed his mind to fully open. The vampires’ essences dripped around him like brackish decay, thicker in some areas, almost non existent in others. They had traveled all through these caves, leaving their mark everywhere like desiccated spoor but now he could tell where they were.

  Lucy, he thought. More deep breathing. Relax and open. He imagined tendrils of his mind moving through the twists and turns of the caverns and halls, seeking her familiar feel. He would know her with the slight whiff of vampire distorting her presence, making it just that much different from the others. Even now as he sunk deeper into his trance he was starting to be able to distinguish between different vampires, the ones who had fed and the ones who needed to feed, the ones who were mindless like savage animals and the ones who plotted. Yes, he could feel their difference, a tang to their essence, a variation like a blip across the screen. They had definite intelligence. That made them more dangerous than the savage ones.

  Lucy, he reminded himself. Find Lucy. She had to be here unless Elliott had spirited her away. But wouldn’t the children have told him that? Maybe they didn’t know, a tiny voice of doubt whispered in the back of his mind. His breathing faltered. He felt his hand on the rock, his bare feet on the dirt. No, he couldn’t let go of it yet. He pushed that thought away and took a deeper breath. Sink. Sink down now.

  Now he ignored the moving vampire presences and concentrated on finding only one, only her. The vampires faded like smoke as he focused. His mind heightened in ways it never had before. He was aware of his body: the cool rock against the palm of his hand, the matted dirt floor under his heels, the stagnant air the pressed against his bare skin. At the same time, he felt his attention soar outward, tracing through the labyrinth of caves as he focused on the essence of Lucy. He felt traces of her, like suggestions in the wind. He focused harder, keeping his excitement in check. Be relieved later, for now find her.

  The suggestions thickened and soon he pinpointed her. Yes, there! He had her now. The familiar feel of her settled into his mind. Now how he just had to get there from here.

  Peter opened his eyes. Darkness pressed in on him again but it didn’t matter. He knew these caves now, all the twists and turns. Unfortunately, the fastest way to get to Lucy meant going back and he sensed the vampires converging on his cell. They’d find Tracy’s smoldering remains any time.

  He moved forward, automatically retracing a new path. His feet hurried along the dirt floor, avoiding dipping and protruding rocks. In his mind, he could see the way with an almost infrared glow.

  Up ahead he felt the presence of vampires coming this way. He retreated several paces, to an empty alcove where he crouched down against the rock. It dug into his shoulder blades as he tried to make himself as small as possible. He thought of himself as a part of the alcove, another rock extruding outward. Dirt, darkness, emptiness. He heard a whisper of fabric as the vampires raced by.

  When he was sure they’d gone, he stood up. His knees popped making him freeze. Nothing reacted to the noise that had sounded as loud as a gunshot to him. Silence. They hadn’t felt him, he realized, not at all. He was invisible. Like a jammer.

  Just further proof of how close he’d come to being a full vampire. He wasn’t human anymore, not completely, so what was he? Something new, something to be figured out later.

  He headed off again, following his inner sight. Several more times he had to hide himself from the vampires, listening as they scurried past. None of them reacted to him at all. None of them sensed him or saw him. The full vampires couldn’t see him but the infected children had. Did that mean he was more like them? Just another question he had to push away for now.

  Around a bend, Lucy’s presence burned bright. Around her, he sensed several vampires. Guarding her, no doubt. He still hadn’t found any clothes, never mind weapons. He would have to deal with them another way.

  He crept as close as he could to the edge of the bend. Concentrating, he could tell there were four vampires. All stationary, standing at four corners in a box formation. Lucy shone in the center and Peter could feel she was unconscious.

  Now came the tricky part. He had to touch their minds and manipulate their perceptions without them being aware of it. At least the last time, the vampires knew he was in the room. This was altogether different.

  He had to do it. There was no other way. But how? A panicked part of his mind tried to rise up. He’d never done anything like this before. He couldn’t possibly do this, no one could.

  Stop! He reined his galloping thoughts in. He would figure it out. Lucy needed him to, he owed her. If not for her, he would be dead or worse now.

  A deep breath slowed the racing of his heart. The stuffy air dried the sweat along his body. The last time he’d been able to look at the vampires, actually picture them being crushed under a ceiling of stakes. The visualizing had been easy. Now he couldn’t even seen the vampires, wasn’t even sure of their exact positions. And once he started he knew he would become visible to the four he was concentrating on. Would he be able to kill them before they found him?

  There was only one way to find out or he could leave her behind. No, impossible. He rejected it even as the thought tried to worm its way into his consciousness. This wasn’t just about saving himself. He’d come out here to get her. The Night Killers took care of their own and for him, that now included her.

  His shoulders pulled back as he took a deeper breath. The worm of doubt had sunk without a nibble. Now he would release the shark in his mind to devour these vampires.

  Their presence burned in his mind like dark red embers. He focused on those embers but without the visual, they waved with the burning feel of frost on his skin. He imagined a hot wind encasing those frigid embers, isolating them from each other. They struggled and he felt awareness turning toward him. They’d felt him now. He had only moments.

  He increased the wind, focusing it into razor points, sharpened into thin needles, sharp as stakes. Snarls assaulted his ears. He concentrated on feeling, worked on ignoring the noise. The snarls turned to roars, moving closer to the curve before him.

  Sandstorm, he thought. A thousand pinpricks like stakes piercing flesh and bone, tearing into muscle tissue and organ. The wind took on its own howl as the roars shifted up octaves into shrieks. The four embers began to blur, melting together, scattering in his mind. Each faded as his windstorm shredded through.

  After a moment, the shrieks died, leaving only the echo of his howling wind. He felt it inside his head, wanting to break free, to rip through the entire cavern complex, to race across the desert and shred anyth
ing in its path.

  No, pull back. The wind didn’t listen. His grasp on his mind began to slip. Panic choked him. His mind was racing, dragging along his heart and body. He could feel both teetering on the edge. A heart attack would stop the wind for sure but he still wouldn’t have saved Lucy.

  The thought of her reined the wind in. He opened himself to feel her again and she was there, still unconscious, a presence just around the corner. He’d come to get her out, he reminded himself. Dying wouldn’t accomplish that.

  He became aware of his body on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. His heart still pounded fast in chest but several deep breathes settled it down. The muscles in his arms and legs shook with exertion. Sweat dripped from his skin. He reached one hand to the rock and dragged himself up. His palms slipped on the rock until he could get purchase. Standing on his feet, he leaned against the rock, resting a moment.

  What would have happened if he’d let go, he wondered. The thought terrified him. He’d never felt such power before and he didn’t want it. Something in Lucy’s vaccine had unleashed this within him. He had to find a way to stop it.

  First get out of here. He pushed himself away from the wall and using his internal sight, rounded the corner. His foot slipped but he righted himself. Lucy lay in the center of this area. As he moved forward, his hand trailed along a table. The surface was wet and sticky. This was some kind of room. Maybe there was light. He reached out with his senses and found something that could be a glowglobe hovering near the ceiling. He focused on turning it on.

  Light erupted in the room.

  Red drenched the walls and surfaces. Bits of flesh and bone stuck in the mess like a chunky stew. Shreds of fabric lay on the dirt floor. The stench rose, a mix of iron and bile and bowel. Peter noticed he was standing in a puddle of blood. He started to gag and take a step back. He had done this. Something within in him had unleashed this horror.