King's Blood: Vampire Descent (A Serial Novel, Part 4)

by Day, P. J.

  I left my bike helmet on the grassy knoll and yanked down on my black mask, making sure it was snug and secured. I slithered down the hill on my belly. Rocks and twigs stabbed at my midsection. I rolled and tumbled the last few feet, finally resting up against Kai’s black, hard-soled boots. Lucretius’s neck slumped and curled against an indentation on the large log like an amateur contortionist. He looked at me and whispered, “They have them across the river, but still no sign of Jenny.”

  I stared down at the floor and looked up with a moment of brief silence. “She’s dead,” I said, my voice cracking. Milton pulled his attention away from the scene across the river and looked at me with an empty stare.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I found her body, shot in the chest by an arrow, impaled to a tree.”

  Everyone looked downward for a moment as there was no time to reflect. I peered over the top edge of the mushroomed log, trying to snipe a closer look. The slender man with the familiar lift in his hip was Yi and the captured man in front of the jeep was Ted, whose face was dotted with bruises and cuts. His lower lip looked as if it was in need of stitches, as bloody drool dripped onto his collared shirt. I looked into the backseat of the jeep Ted was resting against, and Holly was sitting with her hands tied behind her back while her mouth was gagged with a white cloth. Havens Ling, dressed in a traditional Chinese army uniform, stepped out of the passenger seat of the other jeep, which had Alan and a young soldier sitting in the front seat and was parked right next to the river. Havens cleaned his crossbow with a red rag, while glaring at Ted with protruding eyes and flaring nostrils.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked, in a low murmur.

  “We need to split up,” said Milton, wearing the same style of black mask I had on. He pointed at me and said, “You come with me. We’ll crawl downstream, cross the river and approach the jeeps from behind.”

  “What about Lucretius, and Kai?”

  “They will be fine...there is no time to explain...they know what they’re doing, let’s go.”

  Milton and I crawled downstream unnoticed like serpents in the grass. The river’s muddy water rushed with violence. No human could traverse its rapids, but a vampire, that was a different story. We swam through the rushing river with ease. Milton reached the other side of the river first and held out his arm as he reached for my hand. I gripped his arm at his wrists and he pulled me in with amazing strength. We clung to the stones and rocks that jutted out from the muddy bank and muscled ourselves upstream, hidden from the activity on dry ground. We managed to position ourselves right next to the jeeps as the current battered us with branches, rocks, and whatever else the Li River contained within its bowels.

  We snuggled against muddy banks. Milton placed two of his fingers against his eyes, telling me to look out for the activity above. He tugged himself downstream along the muddy bank. I remained completely still in the river as I overheard Yi interrogate Ted in his Napoleonic cadence, “Where are the fucking vampires?”

  “I already told you; I don’t frickin’ know...”

  Yi yelled at a man who was getting some supplies from the back of the other jeep. “Alan, inject this fool. Get him loopy so he can talk.”

  “Havens, can you help me restrain Ted?” Alan said.

  Havens walked over and grabbed Ted by the throat. His entire hand wrapped around Ted’s whole neck, and Ted, by no means, had a pencil neck. Alan tapped the silvery needle of a syringe, which glinted in the sunlight, and injected a squirming Ted as he hung from Havens’s iron-tight grip. Ted screamed, spittle projected from his mouth as Alan slowly and carefully slipped the needle into his vein. I felt like jumping up from the river and pouncing on the group, but Milton, who was 30 yards downstream, sensed my anger, held his hand up and told me to wait. As Milton braved the screaming current, he threw two small blocks onto the main road, which looked completely coated in silvery adhesive. As soon as he was done, he grappled his way downstream to where I waited.

  I stared across the river. Kai—dressed in black—scurried low along the riverbank. He threw more of the same small gray cubes Milton just threw on the road downstream, a few meters upstream. Once he finished, he hustled back and joined Lucretius behind the log.

  Milton gave me an alert gaze and whispered, “As soon as you hear the signal from Lucretius, jump onto the shore, grab Ted and get him inside the jeep. Do you understand me?”

  I nodded.

  “How does that feel?” Yi asked Ted, as I noticed his eyelids beginning to sag at their sides. Yi placed his finger underneath Ted’s chin and slowly lifted his head. “I am going to ask one last time; where is Jack? Where are the Jiang-Shi?”

  Ted mumbled incoherently.

  Yi squeezed both of Ted’s cheeks with his left hand. “Come on, spit it out.”

  “Inside...the tall...mountain,” Ted said, groggier than the drunkest drunk.

  “Fuck,” Milton mouthed. He looked across the river. He watched Lucretius and Kai’s heads bobbing left to right behind the log. “Come on, Lucretius, dammit. Where is the fucking signal?”

  Milton closed his eyes tightly and waited for the signal to come. I continued to helplessly watch the activity above.

  Yi grabbed a yellow radio he had holstered onto his belt and lipped into it, “The Jiang-Shi are at Yaoshan. Mobilize everyone now.” He re-holstered his radio and walked over to Ted, giving him a slight pat on his swollen cheek. “Thank you.”

  Milton again looked across the river and shook his head at his brethren with contempt, as their delay gave Yi plenty of time to discover where the Jiang-Shi compound was located.

  After a mysterious pause in the operation, Lucretius’s signal finally came and filtered through our heads in a single, brief word; Move.

  We pushed ourselves up from the muddy banks as if the tendons in our elbows and arms were coiled springs. Simultaneously, a roaring boom with an accompanying shockwave rippled across the river like a mini-tsunami, shooting mud, water, rocks and silt through the air toward the group that was standing on the edge of the river.

  Milton quickly jumped into the driver’s seat of the jeep and turned the ignition while I grabbed Ted by the shoulder and threw him into the passenger seat. Havens, Yi and Alan were crouching next to the other jeep as the debris rained down on them like one of Moses’ plagues.

  Milton mashed the gas pedal to the floor. The tires spun, spewing mud like a broken hydrant. Milton narrowly missed the back of the other Jeep while Yi and Havens lunged out of the way of Milton’s attempt at vehicular slaughter. As we sped off onto the dirt road, I looked into the rearview mirror and Havens quickly pointed his crossbow straight at our back window. I turned around and grabbed Holly by her shoulder and yelled at her in the backseat, “Get down!”

  She fell to her side and I jumped into the backseat, covering her with my entire body. I heard the back window shatter as I was face first into Holly’s cheek. Suddenly, the jeep jerked to the left and I felt two large thuds, which propelled Holly and I up into the jeep‘s ceiling. The jeep hit an embankment and fell nose-first into the Li River. Mud and water splashed onto the cracked windshield. I pulled myself up from the backseat using Milton’s right shoulder. I looped around his head and looked at him. He had blood coming out through his nose and mouth. Havens’s arrow had punctured the back of the driver’s seat and gone through the middle of his back, narrowly missing my head as I laid on top of Holly.

  “Milton, hold on, buddy,” I yelled, as water slowly seeped into the jeep.

  I hurriedly took Holly’s gag off.

  “Jack, it’s filling up with water—please untie my hands,” she screamed.

  “Turn around, hurry,” I said. Holly quickly twisted her torso.

  I cut the plastic tie she had on her wrists with my dagger. I felt the water rushing up my leg. Ted’s head was lying up against Milton’s bloody torso and his drugged body, in between the seat and my stomach. He was streaming in and out of consciousness.

  “Holly, can you kick
out the window?”

  She nodded her head and leaned back in her seat. She winded her hips and thighs and stomped out the window with the soles of her shoes. “Help me get Ted out,” I said to Holly. I pushed Ted’s limp body over the edge of the back seat. He plopped onto her lap like a two-hundred-plus pound fish.

  I looked into her eyes as the water began to creep up to my waist. “Can you do it?” I asked.

  She nodded her head and grabbed Ted by his arm and shoulder and began pushing him out the window with all of her strength.

  The passenger window in the front seat was blocked by the mud wall of the riverbank. Realizing that I couldn’t get Milton out through the passenger window, I leaned over his wounded body and rolled down his window. Water rushed in and the jeep was now being inundated at twice the rate. As I began pushing Milton through the window, I heard a loud clank. I looked up and the silver tip of an arrow pierced through the jeep’s steel roof and stared at me a couple inches from my face. I quickly looked out the passenger window and Havens was standing on the edge of the river, his crossbow aimed squarely at us as we struggled inside the vehicle.

  I immediately looked at Holly. “Stop trying to get him out through that window,” I yelled. I poked my head through the driver’s side window. “Kai...Lucretius!” I yelled. I looked downstream, but they were no longer behind the large log. I pulled my head in and looked at Holly again.

  “The water is rising up my chest, Jack. Ted is barely breathing,” she said, in a panic.

  “Can you roll down the window behind you?” I asked.

  Holly reached back and began to look for the handle. She immediately found it and began rolling it down furiously.

  “Get ready to swim into the river, don’t let go of Ted,” I yelled, as the jeep began to completely submerge.

  “Hold your breath,” I told Milton as I lowered my body in the jeep's cabin and swam through the window. I put both my arms underneath his armpits and pulled him up and out of the jeep. As I reached the surface of the river, I felt the swoosh of an arrow whiz right by my ear.

  I quickly dove into the water again and grabbed Holly’s waist while I hooked onto Milton’s right shoulder with my left arm. I pulled Ted and Holly out from the vehicle, while Holly had her arms and legs grappled around Ted. We were immediately swept downriver by the brown, muddy rapids. “Keep his head above water,” I yelled at Holly. “Keep kicking your legs, don’t swallow the water.”

  I managed to grip Holly and Milton at the same time as we were propelled downriver by the impetuous muddy flow. I looked back and Havens was shooting arrow after arrow at us.

  “Stay afloat,” I yelled at Holly. “Once we see a large sand bar, we’ll veer left, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said, swallowing water and gulping for air.

  Luckily for us, the Li River was composed mostly of silt, rather than an abundance of rocks. I noticed a large sand bar up ahead. I tightened my grip on Holly and Milton and kicked my legs furiously to the left. “Kick, dammit!” I yelled at Holly.

  We managed to safely get up onto the sandbar. Holly stood up and dragged Ted onto the shore. I put Milton on my back and followed close behind. I turned my head and stared downriver at the group. Havens, Yi, and Alan climbed into the jeep as the soldier already had the engine running, He accelerated the vehicle downstream at full speed, heading straight toward us as we struggled out of the river. As the jeep neared its approach, an explosion tore through its undercarriage, sending the jeep flying twenty feet into the air. The jeep bounced a few times, like an overgrown tin can, finally resting upside down, thirty meters in front of us. The inside cabin of the jeep was on fire. Blood-curdling screams began to crow out from the wreckage. Alan crawled from out the window while on fire. He rolled around the mud, screaming for help, he eventually slithered head first into the water and was swallowed whole by the Li River. Yi’s head and neck were twisted in an L-shape against the roof of the jeep as it remained upside down. The nameless soldier’s mangled upper body spilled out through the broken windshield, like a flesh-covered crash-test dummy. I squinted my eyes through the heavy flames and noticed Havens’s right arm laying lifeless outside the rear window.

  “Go into the forest, now!” I yelled at Holly.

  “I’m trying, but he’s heavy!” she yelled.

  “Just go!” I said, as I tried lifting Ted with my right arm.

  I looked to the right and Lucretius and Kai came running out from the forest up ahead.

  “Where the hell were you guys?” I asked.

  “We set up more explosives downriver, just in case the jeep kept going,” Lucretius said.

  “Milton has been shot through the chest,” I said.

  “Is he still breathing?” Lucretius asked.

  “Yes, I think...”

  I reared Milton’s torso upward. Lucretius examined his back. “The entry wound is to the left of his heart. His heart is untouched,” Lucretius said. “We need to get the silver out of his system. Alcohol usually does the trick.”

  “My face is fucking peeling,” I said. “Let’s get into the forest.”

  I put Milton on my back as he let out a grunt. Kai carried Ted by the shoulders. Holly turned around and flashed me a relieved smile.

  “Are they still alive in there?” Lucretius asked, taking a small step toward the jeep.

  “Leave them,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  We crossed into the covering of trees. Holly walked ahead of us with a slight limp. Kai dragged Ted behind me, and Lucretius and I held Milton up by each of his arms.

  “Ted, can you hear me?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he slurred.

  “Can you try to walk?” I asked. I looked back and Ted couldn’t put pressure on his legs at all. “Put him on your shoulders, Kai,” I said. “We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. There might be patrols in the area.”

  There were no trails or dirt paths hidden in the thick shrubbery. Just trees and plants as far as the eye can see. We had entered the heart of the forest and with no compasses nor the position of the sun visible through the canopy—we had no idea in what direction we were heading.

  “Just stay parallel to the river,” Lucretius said. “We will eventually get to the edge of Guilin City.”

  Ahead of us, Holly’s limp seemed to be getting more pronounced.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “My ankle, it hurts so bad,” she said, grabbing her foot and with tears pooling at the edge of her eyes.

  “Sit down,” I said, as I rested a panting and wincing Milton down on the trunk of a tree.

  “We need to keep moving,” Lucretius said, darting his eyes all around our immediate area.

  “Wait,” I said, turning to Lucretius. I got on one knee and carefully took Holly’s sneaker off. As I peeled down her wet sock, I quickly noticed a bone protruding against the skin on her ankle. “Shit...” I said, wincing at the grotesqueness of her injury.

  “Luc, you’re going to have to carry Milton by yourself. Her ankle is broken.”

  “What?” Holly said, her eyes empty with shock.

  As I leaned down to pick up Holly, a loud thwack reverberated next to me. A black, composite arrow vibrated on the tree trunk, right above Milton’s head.

  “It can’t be,” I said out loud.

  Everyone collectively turned their heads toward the deep, dark woodland behind us.

  “Where did that come from?” asked Lucretius.

  Another thud was heard next to Ted’s foot. An arrow hit a large white rock on the forest floor that Kai had put Ted’s leg on.

  “Everyone spread out, now!” yelled Lucretius.

  I didn’t want to leave Holly by herself so I grabbed her arm, while holding Milton up by his chest, and helped her limp as quickly as she could toward an opening in the forest ahead.

  Lucretius and Kai slipped into the dense thicket behind me.

  Holly’s whimpers and my heavy breathing were magnified by my adrenaline, as I did
n’t know if a streaking arrow was going to penetrate my skin at any moment.

  A large waterfall became visible up ahead. There seemed to be a small indentation behind the foaming cascade. I curled my arms and carried Milton and Holly in my arms through a series of large stones and straight through the falling water. Hundreds of gallons of water poured onto my back. My upper shoulders felt like they were getting pounded by weighted sandbags. I put Milton down. The water in the pool reached his neck. “Try to stay sitting up, you can drown. Do you hear me?” I pleaded. Milton nodded his head.

  Holly placed her back against the alcove behind the waterfall. “Was that Havens?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, as I peeked through the falling water.

  At first, I couldn’t find anyone else in the forest. I saw Lucretius running toward the waterfall. “Luc!” I yelled, as I came out through the waterfall, motioning at him to join us.

  Lucretius tripped over a large stone. As soon as he began getting up and placing his right knee on the ground, a broad-shouldered man emerged from the dim, green wilderness behind him. Lucretius got on his back and put his right hand up in defense.

  “Tingzhi,” said the deep, masculine voice.

  We came out from the waterfall. Havens Ling stood a few meters away from Lucretius, who was still down. Half his face and body were covered in large blisters. He had his crossbow pointed at Lucretius’s chest.

  Lucretius slowly got up with both his hands in the air. “Bùyào pāi,” he said.