by Justin Sloan
The half-vampire was chained to the wall, fully nude, and his eyes had a malicious black and red glow to them. Yet, there was a look of defiance to him.
“Are you still with us, Matthew?” Mauro asked, ignoring the gasps from the other two as their normal eyes adjusted to the darkness.
“I’m fighting it even now,” Matthew said. “But yes, and the sooner you can get me out of here, the better.”
“I’ll get the portal open,” Destiny said, looking away. “You two get him free and put some clothes on him.”
She turned and made a motion in the air, only nothing happened.
“It wouldn’t work,” Matthew said, coughing and massaging his hands as the chains came free. Mauro took off his coat and wrapped it around Matthew. “Thanks. But nothing you try here will work, not until we’re free of this place.”
“You escaped once before, right?” Mauro asked.
“It won’t work the same way. They’ve taken a version of the temple from the Shadow Realm, another dimension or another level of the afterlife, depending on how you want to think about it, and inverted it into our world.”
Ricky cursed under his breath, and Mauro turned, thinking. The darkness was growing darker, somehow, and he knew that meant they had to hurry.
“Wait,” Destiny said, her voice hopeful. “If Grundy traveled out of here, he had to have used a similar manner as we do, only based on different magic.”
“Your point?” Ricky asked.
“We might not be able to open our own portals here, because of the Shadow Realm stuff, but if we could find the remnants of his magic and latch onto it, we can ride it out of here, even find out where he’s gone.”
“And since we’re in the Shadow Realm,” Matthew said, his beaten voice suddenly rising with hope as well, “we’re technically in the exact same spot as Grundy when he left. Yeah, it’s complicated,” he said at a look from Mauro, “but it could work.”
“Then by all means,” Mauro said to Destiny. “But hurry.”
She closed her eyes, making gestures in the air with her hands, as if she were tracing a star one minute, then a circle, then lines in various directions. A grunt of pain escaped her lips, but she continued on.
As she did so, four vampire forms moved through the walls, Rosita in the lead.
“STOP HER!” the vampire yelled when she saw what was happening, but it was too late—with a lurch, everything froze, and the four of them, Destiny, Ricky, Matthew, and Mauro, were hurtling through the sky and over mountains. Then, with a flash of light, they found themselves in a parking lot surrounded by warehouses and shipping crates, the ocean nearby.
Mauro stared around, confused, and then realized the shapes in the dark were werewolves and soldiers with guns.
“Quick,” he hissed, and ushered the rest of them behind a truck. He then realized that he was wearing entirely too many layers for this type of weather—as it was quite warm, in spite of the cool ocean breeze—so he removed his outer pants and handed them to Matthew, who still hadn’t been wearing any.
“I was about to say,” Matthew whispered, and Mauro was glad to see his eyes were returning to normal, with only a glint of black swirling around in the whites.
“Where are we?” Ricky asked, peeking around the truck. “And what the hell is going on?”
“My best guess,” Mauro said, “is that this is where we sent Katherine and the others. But the fact that we don’t see her and there seems to be a search party ongoing doesn’t bode well for us.”
Matthew finished adjusting his outfit and said, “Trust me, she’s a survivor.”
Mauro almost laughed at that. “You would certainly know.”
They shared a humored but slightly uncomfortable look until Ricky cleared his throat and said, “Gang, we got movement.”
Mauro crept over to join him, and smiled. “We may just be in luck.”
At the far end of the parking lot, light was shining as if from several doors at once, and people were stepping out. Guardians.
Chapter 22
Katherine paused at the road, glancing back to see why the pursuing soldiers had turned around. She strained her eyes to see, then noticed weird light coming back from the parking lot.
Suddenly, shots were being fired!
People were yelling and werewolves were growling.
“What the hell is happening back there?” Triston said.
“Backup just arrived,” she replied with a grin. “Come on.”
She pulled him by the hand, going back toward the sounds, but he hesitated, pulling back on her.
“And if it’s not them?”
With a roll of her eyes, she pointed at the lights, now fading, and the men and women running about with a slight glow to them.
“If that’s not the Guardians, then I’m a were-rat, okay?” She frowned at the look he gave her. “Meaning it’s them.”
He breathed deep, then furrowed his brow. “Screw it, let’s get back into the fight then.”
The sound of combat continued as they ran, and soon they overcame a soldier who had his rifle slung around one arm, aiming in on two people ahead. No room for mercy here, Katherine transformed as she ran and pounced on the man, driving him into the asphalt and then slamming his head a second time just to be sure.
Three werewolves appeared from her left, and Triston intercepted one while the other two converged on Katherine.
She wasn’t worried about two measly werewolves, but she was still relieved to see a sword suddenly appear through one of their chests. The owner of the sword pulled it back as the sword burst into flames and left the werewolf to run off in a burning mess.
It was a young woman, or maybe a girl in her late teens, wearing what looked like gold armor, carrying a shield with an intricately designed tree on it, and of course, the flaming sword.
Without hesitating, she continued the attack, but came right at Katherine!
Triston had taken care of the second werewolf as Katherine disposed of hers, then turned with a growl when he saw what was happening.
“I don’t know why you’re fighting yourselves,” the girl said, taking up a defensive stance so that both of them were in her line of sight. “Explain or die.”
Katherine took a step forward, claws at the ready. Nobody threatened her life, not even some Guardian, but then Merriam appeared at the girl’s side and said, “Not them!”
The girl looked up at her, confused, but let the sword fall.
“They’re who we are here to help,” Merriam said. She nodded to the two werewolves. “Katherine, Triston, allow me to introduce you to Allie Strom.”
Katherine looked between the two of them, confused, and then transformed back to herself.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Where the hell did Daniel and the others get off to?”
Allie looked at her skeptically. “You do realize there’s a bit of a war going on here, or at least it looks that way to me.”
“Just so you know,” Merriam motioned Allie on, so the girl gave them a nod and ran off to attack more werewolves and soldiers, “she used to be much sweeter. Usually is, but I think the recent demon hunt wore her down. Some sort of dark spirit has been causing problems, and lately it’s been Allie that gets the job.”
A group of regular looking people ran by—new werewolves, Katherine figured, simply running for their lives.
“She’s right, we should get this over with,” Katherine said. “But…?”
“Daniel and Rivera found me, but Troy and Davies hadn’t made it. They’d been captured.” Merriam stepped out of the way as a werewolf leaped for her. A moment later a bear appeared and mauled the werewolf, and then went to all fours and approached them, standing guard beside Merriam. She nodded, then continued, “We didn’t realize you were in such a situation until Daniel came back to check and right away returned, shouting about chaos and saying we’d better bring everyone we could. So, here we are.”
“And the legendary Allie Strom,” Kather
ine said, impressed as she watched Allie deal with three werewolves at once.
“We figured it was serious, so we called her back from her hunt.”
“And our situation wasn’t serious enough to warrant her aid?” a deep voice said, and they turned to see Ricky running their way, a rifle in his hands and Mauro charging up behind him, taking down foes as they approached. Ricky stopped to fire back at a soldier, making a direct hit.
Destiny and Matthew brought up the rear.
“You did it,” Katherine said in awe to Mauro, still in werewolf form. Then she turned to Matthew and threw her arms around him. “Damn good to have you back on the team.”
He blushed and nodded, while nearby, Triston, still in werewolf form, grunted and backed up toward them, ready for any other attackers.
“We’ve had a hell of a time,” Matthew said. “And… bad news. Grundy is here.”
“I know,” Katherine said, motioning to the warehouse. “We saw him, in there.”
“Then what are we all waiting around here for?” Merriam said, already walking that direction. “Let’s kick his vampire butt.”
“Merriam, come on,” Ricky said, motioning to Matthew.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Matthew said. “I’m only half.”
Katherine laughed and picked up the pace, returning to her werewolf form as she ran.
They passed Daniel and two other Guardians who were taking turns against several werewolves, but who paused to cheer them on and say they’d join them in a second. Next, they saw Rivera, who had several soldiers pinned down behind a car. She shouted out, “Get some!” and then shot one of the soldier’s feet.
At the entrance to the warehouse, Allie caught back up with them and smiled.
“I’m guessing that vampire’s on our side too?” Allie asked Merriam, who laughed.
“You’ve missed a lot,” Merriam said. “Catching up on beauty sleep?”
“Damn straight, if by beauty sleep you mean banishing evil beings from our world, then yes.” She stopped her joking to look over at Katherine. “Sorry about that back there. Caught me off guard is all. Ready to kick butt?”
“Sounds like you know me too well!” Katherine growled, and together they led the group in.
At the base of the stage, a new line of men and women had just received the serum and, even as Katherine watched, they began to twitch and start the transformation to werewolves.
Grundy was there, standing with arms folded and glaring, but he rolled his eyes, more annoyed than anything else.
Werewolf Adrian came charging in through a side door and saw them, then howled. He suddenly had a handful of werewolves at his side, and then they were charging. Rumos and the other mind-controlled werewolves charged from the other direction, and Katherine had to shout over the stampeding of their feet as the two groups of werewolves rushed in from both sides.
“Don’t kill the ones with purple in their eyes! It means they’re under his control.”
“Any more complications you want to throw in there?” Allie said with a smile.
“Yeah, stay out of my way,” Katherine said, and she charged Adrian to meet him head on.
“As long as you stay out of mine!” Allie yelled after her, and then spun to take out the other side.
Matthew was shooting with his silver bullets, careful to only take down the ones without the purple to their eyes and moving closer to confront Grundy with each step.
A siege of werewolves came at them, and like two walls they collided. The scent of blood and wet fur filled the room, and people shooting didn’t even know where to shoot anymore.
Most of the shots didn’t matter anyway, since they weren’t silver bullets. But it was bad news if a Guardian got hit. Merriam directed a group of her people to take out the shooters while Katherine and her team dealt with the werewolves.
A strike hit her across the face, drawing blood, and she looked up to see Adrian. She plowed into him, taking him to the ground, while Triston took out a werewolf nearby and Mauro leaped over her to tackle two more.
Adrian flipped her over and came at her on all fours, but she was ready and caught him with a knee to the face. He fell to the ground, so she hefted him up by the leg and spun, then released him into a group of three other attackers.
When he recovered, she was already almost on him. But this time it was his turn to catch her by surprise as two others caught her in midair and slammed her to the ground. It hurt like hell.
Head ringing, she struggled to break free from their grasp while Adrian’s foot came down at her.
A shot rang out, and the werewolf to her left fell dead by one of Matthew’s silver bullets. The other one backed up, then ran, leaving Adrian for Katherine to deal with.
Adrian’s foot landed inches from her face, his claws following suit to tear at her shoulder as she spun and stood.
“Kat!” Matthew shouted, then tossed her the silver knife. She transformed back into a human, caught it, and whirled to sink it into Adrian’s back, right between the shoulder blades.
His shriek filled the warehouse, causing all to pause and stare in horror. Their leader collapsed to his knees, trying to grasp the blade in his back. Katherine wouldn’t allow him the pleasure, so she stepped up, slapped a hand away, and then shoved him to the floor, face-first. She lifted her foot and then brought it down hard on the handle of the blade, so that it sank halfway up to the handle.
There was no way that could have missed his heart.
When he stopped twitching and turned into a human, dead, half his werewolves fled.
A shout sounded from the front of the room. Grundy stood there, a stone glowing from a pendant around his neck and gems around the hem of his sleeves. He floated forward and purple light shot out from his hands, hitting those that were fleeing and dropping them to the ground.
With another shout, he pointed at Katherine and the purple light burst forth. Allie leaped into her path with her shield, rebounding the light so that it hit Grundy instead, knocking him to the ground.
He recovered instantly, but his stones were cracked and the purple light gone. His voice was guttural as he shouted in frustration, then charged.
Katherine turned to see that Rumos and the others were free from their spells, so she shouted, “On me!”
To her relief, it only took them a second to realize what was going on, and do as she asked. Now she had a large force of werewolves, and Grundy’s were either dead or backing up, frightened.
Grundy made contact with Allie’s shield, a force that sent her skidding backwards, but then she charged, sword bursting into flame as she brought it down at him. He dove aside, only to find he’d put himself right into Katherine’s path as she transformed into a werewolf again and attacked.
More werewolves were stepping back, bending a knee, or simply watching to see who would win now. The people there who still hadn’t taken the serum cowered in the corner, while Merriam and her Guardians formed a circle around Grundy on one side, Matthew, Katherine, Allie, Triston, and the rest of them on the other.
“It’s over, Grundy,” Allie said, wielding her fiery sword. “One good hit with this, and you’re toast.”
He hissed her way, but Katherine wasn’t one for talking in the middle of a fight. She threw the silver blade and transformed immediately after, mid-run, but before the blade could reach him, he was gone.
She turned to see him appear behind her, but then Triston attacked. The blow seemed to hurt, but Grundy simply spun and flung Triston so that he went skidding away.
Now it was Mauro’s turn, and Allie and Matthew charged a split second later.
Grundy was twisting and turning, fangs extended and eyes glowing bright red with pupils of pure black.
“Did you really think you could stand against me?” he shouted, laughing now. “ME?”
He kept deflecting their blows, holding them off, but then Katherine saw her opening—he had his back turned to Allie, who was moving forward with her flaming sword.
He went flying back and, Allie bracing herself just in time with sword raised, impaled himself on the blade of fire.
His shrieks filled the room as he shot up to the ceiling, a flaming mess that scampered across it as if searching for a way out. He fell to the ground and writhed, then stood and flung himself toward Katherine.
“Catch,” Allie said, tossing her shield as if it were merely a Frisbee.
Katherine caught it with one hand and strapped it on, then braced herself so that the flaming form of Grundy hit with a clang. As he stumbled back, flailing and continuing to shriek, she spun, shield out, and used its edge to remove the vampire’s head from his body.
The head fell nearby, while the body collapsed to its knees, then slowly fell sideways.
As soon as it was over, the flames vanished.
“Holy crab cakes,” Allie said, looking at the mess.
“Don’t make me hungry,” Daniel said, standing up beside her. “You know how I feel about crab cakes.”
Allie gave him a hug and a punch in the shoulder. “It’s good to see you, but seriously? Not the right time.”
Daniel shrugged and then started asking her all about some mission that made no sense to Katherine. All she felt was relief that it was over.
She turned to find Triston, and was glad to see him standing there, looking proud.
“Damn,” he said, nodding with a smirk. “That was both gross and impressive.”
“Gross? Oh, the whole flaming vampire and head chopped off thing?” She looked back at the body, then at the surrounding people and werewolves, who all seemed to be waiting for her to say something. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
They both looked over to see Troy and Davies approaching. Troy hesitated next to Triston, glancing at him nervously.
“I’m the same me,” Triston said. “With just a tad more power.”
“You could’ve told me,” Troy said.
“With the way you two talk about werewolves and anything you don’t understand?” Triston scoffed. “Give me a break.”
