“The leadership of the Council,” Hanson said. “Us being forced to go along on this trip. Everything!”
“I see,” Fitzsimmons said. “Everything.” He tilted his head. “Everything it shall be. Everything you are, everything you ever were, everything you ever will be.”
The darkness behind Fitzsimmons enveloped him and he grew dim, as if black smoke was obscuring him. He didn’t move, but the cloud of blackness rose up and over the four dissenting councilors, roiling about the ceiling of the cabin. They looked upward nervously and backed away.
But it was too late. The Shadow dropped over them, and they were covered in a shroud of nothingness. They disappeared into the darkness. From out of the void, out of the emptiness, as if from a vast distance and across a vast span of time, everyone on the plane could hear horrific screams. Then the anguished shrieks were pulled apart, dissipated, scattered. There was a final small cry, and then there was silence.
The councilors popped back into view, one by one, emerging from the blackness. First was Belinda Hanson. She looked shrunken, lifeless. She walked back to the front of the plane without a sound. Then Jerome Bacher appeared, stiff and jerky as he followed her. When Bogdan Kovalev reappeared, he showed no sign of anything wrong. His face was blank, his movements steady, but he seemed somehow devoid of life. Last to reemerge was Isaac Hargraves, who didn’t look like a ten-year-old boy anymore, but an ancient, wizened old man the size of a child. They were all staring into the distance and seemed oblivious to their surroundings.
Hoss scrunched down in his seat as if that would make him invisible. Jodie’s hand dug into his arm, and next to her, Jimmy and Pete’s faces were pale with shock. He had caught the look in the eyes of the former councilors as they walked by: empty, hopeless, the aspect of the eternally damned. He saw Jared staring at him from across the aisle, his mouth open, his eyes wide. Hoss shook his head emphatically as if to say, Don’t do anything. Don’t do anything at all. Jared nodded, then followed Hoss’s example, trying to squeeze his lanky frame back down into his seat.
No one said anything for the rest of the long flight. No one moved when they refueled in New York and continued to California. In the awful silence, time seemed to disappear, and it was as if they had spent all eternity inside this small space, with the maw of complete oblivion only a few feet away.
Hoss closed his eyes. In his mind bloomed the red wave of the Wildering horde in the simulations, an inexorable tide that washed over the entire country, and then the world, seemingly in the blink of an eye. That was what this was all about, he was certain of it. The Shadow Vampires were here to create that epidemic, to make sure that nothing stopped it from happening. The Shadow had arrived to keep the Golden Vampires occupied while the world of men was overwhelmed by the Wildering infection.
Hoss was vampire. He had little sympathy for mankind, but he didn’t want them wiped out.
He blinked awake, surprised that he had nodded off. But he was exhausted. What harm could it do to sleep for a short time? He closed his eyes again.
#
Hoss was back in the Twilight wasteland, confronting the Shadow. The void swallowed his thrown spear and laughter surrounded him.
“You cannot defeat darkness with darkness,” said a voice from everywhere and nowhere. “You simply add to the darkness; you become one of us.”
Underneath his fear and confusion, Hoss was still defiant. He had spent his entire existence alone, triumphant over others of his kind. He had conquered all the vampires of Twilight. His will had overcome all resistance. “I have no wish to join you,” he said. “Kill me, if you wish, but I will not become one of you.”
“You have always been one of us, but it amuses us let a few individuals maintain the illusion of free will. The Light was defeated long ago. There is only the void, the Shadow that covers everything. You wander in a Twilight that we allow to exist so that we might know the totality of our victory.”
Hoss sensed that falseness of that claim. The Shadow would not tolerate independence. It did not voluntarily allow the suggestion of free will. Something was keeping it from the victory of total darkness.
“I exist, and all the lands beyond the walls exist, because you cannot snuff out that last resistance,” he said. “If you take me into the Shadow, I will still hold a spark of myself, and from the inside, I will destroy you. That is why you allow the Twilight; because no matter how hard you try to shroud us, you cannot completely obliterate life.”
There was a grudging silence. The voice sounded no less certain when it finally spoke. “Perhaps. But in the end, there will be the void and nothing but the void, and even our consciousness will fade, and all will be nothingness.”
“Until that time, I defy you!” Hoss shouted.
#
He woke up as the wheels of the plane hit the runway in Crescent City. Inside the plane, nothing had changed. Everyone was still quiet and frozen in fear. But inside Hoss, something had come alive. This is not the end, he thought. We must resist.
He glanced over at Jared, who must have seen something in his expression, for a look of hope came over his face. Hoss turned to Jodie, Jimmy and Pete. “Do what I do,” he said quietly.
The doors of the plane opened. Fitzsimmons stood up and told everyone to disembark. Hoss checked his watch. Even though it was only three o’clock in the afternoon, it was very dark outside. In fact, it reminded Hoss of the Twilight of his dream.
Everyone started to file out. Hoss made sure he lined up next to Jared. “Pass this along to anyone who wants out of here,” he told the other vampire. “At my signal, follow me. Whatever you do, don’t look back. Just run.”
They walked down the steps onto the tarmac of the small airport.
Hoss almost gave up then. There, lined up in a rough semblance of order, stood at least two dozen Shadow Vampires, huge, hulking beasts who radiated malevolence. Positioned in front of them was Feller, accompanied by a massive vampire who wore an ill-fitting suit. A girl in a tight, skimpy outfit stood next to the giant. Feller recognized Hoss and gave him a mocking grin.
When the plane had disgorged all its passengers, they milled about in confusion for a few moments, but everyone stopped cold as they sensed the Shadow emerging. It was as if part of the tarmac had suddenly fallen into blackness. Everyone turned toward it. Fitzsimmons emerged out of the Shadow and walked up to Feller.
“You have done well,” Fitzsimmons said. “The final battle approaches.”
“You speak for Him?” Feller asked, eyeing him. “The Master of Shadow?”
Fitzsimmons turned and looked into the Shadow. “You may speak to me as if you are speaking to the Master.”
“Good,” Feller said, looking relieved.
A born follower, Hoss thought.
“Where do we go from here?” Feller asked.
“The Master seeks the Golden Vampires,” Fitzsimmons said. “They are the only vampires he cannot see.”
“I know where to go,” Kelton said, stepping forward. “I got a call from an informant, a local cop. He told me there’s a motel on the beach where the vampires are hiding. That is where Terrill will be, I’ll bet you anything.”
Fitzsimmons eyed him doubtfully. “The Master does not have time for false leads. If you are wrong, you will have bet everything.”
“You shouldn’t speak to him that way,” said the chubby girl next to the giant.
“Shut up, Laura,” Kelton warned, his voice low.
Fitzsimmons turned his head to stare at her, and his eyes went completely black. He started to reach out his hand, and Laura backed up nervously.
Then Fitzsimmons’s head flew apart into shards of skull and chunks of brain. Black blood splattered across the faces of Kelton and Feller, who jumped back in alarm. Laura screamed.
The sound of the shot followed, and then another rang out as one of the prison vampires stumbled and fell face first onto the tarmac, a gaping hole where his heart had been.
“Now!” Hoss cried,
and ran toward the vegetation on the other side of the tarmac. Shots continued to ring out, one every few seconds, and there were shouts and cries behind Hoss and Jared and about a dozen others who followed them. Pete was among them, but when Hoss looked back, he saw Jodie watching their flight with a small smile. She shook her head slightly. Hoss’s heart sank. He’d always known Jodie had a blacker soul than him. Jimmy was standing next to her, looking around wildly as if torn about which direction to go.
Hoss kept running and dove into the heavy brush at the edge of the airstrip, followed by his friends. He crawled back and peered over a bush. No one was chasing them.
“What’s going on?” Jared said. “Did you plan this?”
Hoss laughed involuntarily. “Hell, no. I was hoping for some distraction or other, but I had no idea this was going to happen. Listen, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t much feel like giving up my free will to those black-blooded monsters.”
“We’re with you, Hoss,” Jared said fervently. The others cried out in agreement. “Fuck that!” one of the IT guys shouted. “Hell, yeah,” the lone female techie said. “Get us out of here, man,” Pete said.
Hoss nodded, relieved. “We’ve got to try to warn the vampires at the motel, try to get there first. Maybe some of them can get away. I’m telling you, we’re in over our heads. Golden Vampires. Shadow Vampires. What the hell? I want no part of it.”
“But what if the Golden Vampires are at the motel?” Jared asked.
“Let’s hope they aren’t,” Hoss said. “But anyway, I doubt the Golden Vampires will hurt us.”
“Hey, Hoss?” Pete asked. “What about Jimmy?” Hoss noticed he didn’t ask about Jodie, who he’d always thought was a little sketchy.
Hoss stared at the small figures on the tarmac. A battle seemed to be taking place. Some of the vampires were rushing toward the air traffic control tower. Shots were still ringing out, and there were at least a dozen bodies lying motionless on the ground. But there were dozens more vampires milling around, and behind them all, there was a still blackness, a void, as if part of the airport had vanished, or had become part of the night sky.
“Jimmy made his choice,” Hoss said. “We can’t help him or Jodie now.”
He ran toward the line of houses on the other side of the brush, and the others followed.
Chapter 25
Special Agents Callendar and Jeffers were picking up their sniper rifles at baggage claim when they saw the first of the medium-sized private jets land, quickly followed by two others. That caught their attention, because those kinds of jets rarely landed at little Crescent City. In fact, their speed and size pushed the limits of what the airport could accommodate.
When they saw the passengers emerge, that really caught their attention. Twenty years of vampire hunting had given them certain instincts. They ramrodded the reluctant security guard into letting them take the rifles––which the young man seemed completely uncertain about – and, grabbing the gun cases and leaving their suitcases behind in the terminal, they ascended into the air traffic control tower.
The lone air traffic controller seemed startled to see them, but deferred to their FBI badges.
“Shut it down,” Jeffers ordered briskly. “Shut down the airport.”
“But…”
“Do as he says!” Callendar shouted. He was searching for the door to the small platform outside the tower. He shoved it open and the coastal wind, ever present and always colder than he expected, hit him in the face.
All that sniper training we’ve just undergone is going to be very useful, he thought.
He swept away the cigarette butts that covered the platform; obviously, its main purpose was so smokers could evade the anti-smoking laws. He opened the sniper rifle’s case and quickly assembled the brand-new weapon. He’d just had a week of training with it, and he felt confident. It was as scoped-in as any weapon he’d ever had.
Beside him, Jeffers was doing the same thing. Neither of them spoke. Both had seen how many vampires there were. Both of them knew what was likely to happen.
But it didn’t stop them.
#
From D.C., they had been sent to Hawaii for a quick refresher course in sniper shooting. The world might be ending from a vampire infestation, but department regulations were department regulations, and they were forced to take the detour to get up to speed. They’d convinced the brass to let them tack on some long-owed vacation time to their trip, but had been in Hawaii for only a few days when they got a call from Sergeant Butler.
Butler is an idiot, Callendar thought after the caller identified himself. But he does seem to have a nose for vampires.
“Ahhh… how do I put this?” Butler stuttered. He was a little starstruck by the FBI guys. “Um… you told me to call you if I ever got wind of the vampire nest that was rumored to be around here. Well, I think I found it.”
The agents had been sitting on beach chairs in the hot sand outside their rented cabana. It was on a part of the island mostly free from tourists, and for the first time in years, Callendar wasn’t on guard every second. He looked over at Jeffers, noting the old wounds on his chest and shoulders. He knew they should stay on the island, let the sun tan away those white strips of scar tissue, let the sunlight fill their darkened souls.
Callendar almost threw the phone into the ocean. “Whoops, must have lost my phone,” he’d say when his bosses asked why he hadn’t pursue the lead.
He’d put the phone on speaker. Jeffers was shaking his head, running his hand across his throat in a gesture of negation.
“Tell me,” Callendar sighed.
“Well, there’s an old boarded-up motel down by the beach. I overheard two vampires talking about it. Frankly, I’m a little surprised I didn’t think of it myself. It’s perfect.”
Callendar remembered driving by the motel dozens of times. Why didn’t I think of that either? he wondered.
Jeffers sighed and leaned toward the phone. “Have you checked it out?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Butler admitted.
“Then don’t. We’re on our way.”
Callendar hung up. “What the hell? I thought you wanted this vacation.”
“Hey, we still got our sniper rifles. Let’s give them a little workout.”
They were waiting to take off from the airport in Hawaii when they heard about the prison breakout at the Pelican Bay supermax. The media was speculating that it had been orchestrated by anyone from white supremacists to al-Qaeda, but the minute they heard, the two FBI vampire hunters knew exactly who was responsible. Jumping twenty-foot walls lined with razor wire? Even for vampires, that was quite a feat.
Strange how vampires keep popping up lately, Callendar thought. In the first twenty-eight years of his career, he’d tracked down exactly five vampires. Three of them had been baby vamps, easy to kill; the other two had taken years to hunt down and destroy.
Now, all of a sudden, vampires seemed to be everywhere.
#
Little did we know, Callendar thought as he ratcheted the last piece onto the stock of the rifle.
“How much ammunition you got?” he asked.
“Half a box,” Jeffers answered. “Not much, but we can make a dent.”
“Yeah,” Callendar said. It wouldn’t be nearly enough, but it would make a dent.
He saw Jeffers remove one bullet from the box and put it in his pocket. He looked over casually at Callendar, who hesitated and then followed his example.
“You got a target?” Callendar asked. He was giving permission for Jeffers to shoot first. Jeffers was a slightly better shot; not by much, but enough to give him right of way.
“Yeah, I’m thinking that officious-looking bastard walking toward us.”
“Go for it,” Callendar said, taking a deep breath and setting his own sights on the biggest vampire he could find in the crowd.
Jeffers’s shot took the head off the first vampire, and Callendar quickly drilled his own target. T
hen they were both steadily firing, reloading and firing again.
Calendar worked his way through the box of ammo. Some of the vampires were running for the far side of the airport, and he almost fired at them, then decided that he’d rather kill the vampires who were running toward him.
There were a lot of them.
He was down to his last few bullets when he spotted something that didn’t look right. But he couldn’t figure out exactly what it was he was seeing––or not seeing.
“Do you see what I see?” he said.
“I don’t know,” Jeffers grunted. “What do you see?”
“I see… Hell, that’s just it. I see nothing. That is, I see what looks like nothingness. Shit, I can’t explain it.”
“Then yeah,” Jeffers said. “Now that you explain it, I see what you don’t see. Or don’t see what you don’t see. Or… Jesus, we’re screwed.”
Callendar heard a click from Jeffers’s rifle. “Sorry,” his best friend said, shrugging. “Just hoped I was wrong and there was one left in the chamber.” His best friend. That’s how they had always presented themselves to the world. Not that it had fooled anyone.
Callendar aimed into the twenty or so vampires who had nearly reached the tower, but the angle was bad and he missed. “Shit,” he muttered. “I hate my last shot to be a miss.”
He pulled out his sidearm and squeezed off six rounds, killing four of the assailants. They were so close that even a pistol could pick them off. Beside him, Jeffers was doing the same thing. He hit five of the vampires. There were still dozens coming their way. They heard the sound of footsteps on the stairwell.
“You bring a throwaway?” Callendar asked.
Jeffers shook his head.
“Me neither. Didn’t think I’d need it.”
They were quiet for a moment, and then looked into each other’s eyes. “I don’t know about you, partner, but I don’t want to become one of those things,” Callendar said softly.
The Vampire Evolution Trilogy (Book 3): Blood of Gold Page 21
