Jack Templar and the Lord of the Vampires

by Jeff Gunhus

  If they thought to freak me out by taking their scarves off…they were right.

  I did what any self-respecting monster hunter would do.

  I turned and ran away.

  While they’d been going through the theatrical reveal of their weird faces, I’d slowly backed away and edged to the far side of the roof. I tried to make it seem a natural reaction of the horror of seeing them, which was easy enough because I was pretty horrified. But I was also getting myself in position to escape. This was even more important as the monsters carrying Eva and T-Rex suddenly disappeared from sight.

  I turned and sprinted toward the nearest rooftop edge and jumped. Clicking sounds erupted from the Creach, and I had no doubt they were in pursuit right behind me. I couldn’t afford to look because it would cost me a half step. I ran as fast as I could, using my rising sense of panic. I might already be too late because the Creach had already taken Eva and T-Rex back down to the street. I rushed to the last spot I’d seen them and hoped Daniel and the others had found them when they came off the roof.

  That hope disappeared when I caught a glimpse of Daniel, Will and Xavier sprinting on the street below me, following my path the best they could. My stomach sank. If the Creach had disappeared into the souk, there was no way we’d ever find them.

  I reached the last place I’d seen the Creach, and I couldn’t believe my luck. Down below, buildings hemmed in a large courtyard on all four sides. Numerous archways, doors and alleys opened up to the area, but it was completely empty. Except, that is, for two figures sitting on the ground in the middle with bags still tied to their heads. Eva and T-Rex.

  A warning bell went off in my head as I realized I’d stopped for a second too long to take in the sight. I felt a blade cutting through the air toward me. I spun around, the sword I’d stolen raised in defense.

  But there was nothing there.

  No attack. No sword.

  The Creach following me had disappeared like smoke lost to the wind.

  Even with the adrenaline surging through me and even with my excitement at seeing my two friends safe, I couldn’t help but wonder why they’d left. Why they’d given up their prize so easily. It didn’t make any sense.

  Whether it made sense or not, I wasn’t about to complain. I spotted a set of handholds carved into the sandstone building I was on and used them to climb down to the square. As I did, Daniel, Will and Xavier ran into the square through one of the many arches that opened from tunnels through the buildings.

  By the time I reached the bottom, they were already untying Eva and T-Rex. Eva gave Daniel a quick hug on seeing him. I’d be lying if said I didn’t feel a little pang on seeing that. I mean, I was the one who had raced over the rooftops, fighting monsters and nearly dying a dozen times. Daniel had taken a pleasant run through the city, and he was getting the credit for being the hero. As quickly as the feeling had come, it was gone, replaced with the joy of seeing my friends all together again. Will handed me my sword I’d dropped earlier and gave me a fist pump.

  “A little sloppy, losing your sword like that,” Will said, grinning. “Good thing I’m around to clean up your messes.”

  I gave him a grin and handed him the sword I’d taken from the Creach. “Here. A present for you. Try not to hurt yourself with it.” Will made a few cuts through the air with the blade and nodded appreciatively. I turned to Eva. “Any idea why they let you go?” I asked.

  “No clue,” Eva said. “I got in a few good punches on the ones carrying me, but I doubt that was it.”

  “Maybe they got tired of carrying T-Rex,” Will chimed in. He rubbed T-Rex’s belly and then put an arm around him. It was clear making a joke was Will’s way to fend off his other emotions. Suddenly his eyes welled with tears. “I thought you were a goner, man.”

  “You and me both,” T-Rex said. “What were those things?”

  “Djinn,” Xavier said. “Desert spirits. They are in the same species as vampires but have one foot in the demon world as well.”

  I shuddered as I pictured the grotesque faces behind the scarves. I have no doubt that a demon’s soul burned behind those yellow eyes.

  “But why would they just leave us like that?” Will asked.

  “I guess we’ll never know,” I said.

  Daniel slowly drew his sword. “Oh, I wouldn’t count on that,” he said, indicating toward the roofline above us.

  There, surrounding us on all sides, standing on the edges of the buildings, in the windows, blocking every exit from the courtyard, were djinn. Dozens and dozens of them, their black robes billowing in the wind.

  We were totally surrounded.

  Chapter Five

  We formed a circle, standing back to back in a defensive posture. Every weapon we had at the ready. The djinn stood on the walls around us in deadly silence. A hot desert breeze kicked up sand and blew it across the courtyard.

  “Xavier?” I asked. “Any ideas?” As the brains of our little enterprise I hoped he might have some insight into the djinn and, ideally, have a way out of this mess.

  “N-no,” he stammered. “I have a couple of smoke screen bombs, but that won’t do anything for us. There are too many of them.”

  “I say we choose one of the exit tunnels and fight our way out,” Daniel said.

  I thought about how fast the djinn I’d fought were and the effortless way they’d cleared the vast distances of the jumps. I didn’t think we’d make it more than a few steps if we tried to escape. But we wouldn’t survive fighting them head-on either.

  “Eva?” I asked.

  “I agree,” she whispered. “The exit in front of me only has two of them. It’s our only chance.”

  “Okay,” I said. “We make a run for it. On three. One…two…THREE!”

  As soon as we took one step forward, every djinn jumped in unison. Despite the horror of it all, it was a weirdly beautiful sight. Dozens of billowing black robes streaked though the air and landed at once to create a perfect square around us. On some unspoken command, they all pulled two blades, pointed their swords at us, and took a step forward.

  This squeezed the square tighter.

  Another step and it was tighter still.

  Step after step, they advanced until the shape turned into a thick circle around us, three or four djinn deep.

  I tried to swallow but my throat had gone completely dry. This was beyond bad. This was the end.

  “I’m sorry,” I said hoarsely. “I’m so sorry.”

  Just then, a voice cut through the air and filled the courtyard.

  “Halla! Halla!”

  Even though spoken in Arabic, the tone was strong and defiant. It was the tone of command. I scanned the courtyard to see where it had come from, but I couldn’t track it. With the acoustics in the courtyard it seemed to come from everywhere.

  The djinn froze in place.

  The voice came again, louder this time. The tone laced with threat.

  “Halla, djinn.”

  Low clicking sounds rose from the djinn as something was communicated through their ranks.

  A section of the circle around us opened towards one of the archways that led back to the souk. The voice bellowed again. This time I caught the word djinn several times inside the Arabic.

  One of the djinn took a step toward the passageway and stabbed the ground with its sword. Surprisingly, it spoke out in English, its voice a hissing sound like you’d expect if a snake spoke. “Who calls the djinn by the ancient names? Show yourself.”

  From the dark passageway strode a figure that caused my mouth to literally gape open like a fish out of water.

  It was the old man from the café.

  Only now he stood up straight and strong, his head held up proudly, his eyes on fire. He gripped a heavy broadsword in one hand and a small ax in the other. His appearance unnerved the djinn. They shuffled their feet back a couple of steps.

  “You know my name and I know yours,” the old man bellowed. “Flee before me or feel my wrath o
nce again. Djinn al-akba imb salim.”

  The djinn wailed and screamed, grasping their heads as if they’d caught fire.

  “Djinn al-akba imb salim,” the old man shouted, his arms now raised over his head like a wizard casting a spell.

  The shrieking grew deafening. We covered our ears as the pitch rose higher and higher. Finally, the djinn turned in unison and fled. Some clambered through window openings. Others crawled straight up the walls. Anything to escape the old man reciting the strange words.

  Within seconds, the courtyard was deserted and the wailing was gone. Only the soft sound of the desert breeze remained.

  The old man walked up to us and looked us over.

  “You lot certainly managed to get into trouble in a hurry,” he stated. “Come on, the djinn are easily frightened. But they will be back. And they will not scare so easily a second time.”

  “Wait,” Eva said, “who are you?”

  The old man grinned. He jerked his head toward me. “What? He didn’t tell you? I’m Gregor. Pleased to save you all from certain death. Now let’s go.”

  Gregor strode from the courtyard, leaving us staring blankly at him. After a few steps he noticed we hadn’t moved. “That is unless you’d rather wait here and fight that lot on your own when they come back. It’s up to you.”

  “Uh,” T-Rex said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going with him.”

  That was enough to break us out of our shock. We quickly followed the old man out of the courtyard. Eva walked next to me.

  “That’s Gregor?” she said. “The actual Gregor? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Aquinas swore me to secrecy. Sorry,” I replied.

  “You don’t know who he is, do you?” she asked, incredulous.

  I shrugged. “Some old monster hunter.”

  “Some old…” Eva shook her head. “He’s a legend,” she gushed. “I mean, literally. As in, there are books and books written about him, songs sung, poems written. I mean, the things he’s done are so outrageous that most people think it’s no more than a fairy tale.” She grabbed my arm. “Wait, did you get to talk to him inside the café?”

  “Yeah,” I said, remembering the way the old man had made a fool out of me. “I talked to him.”

  “What did he say? What’s he like?” she asked.

  My head was still swimming. So the man who had laughed at me for looking for Gregor, the one who had posted a sign that said No Gregor Here in his café, actually was the real Gregor. The audacity of hiding in plain sight boggled my mind.

  “He was quite a character,” I said to Eva, meaning it differently than she thought.

  Eva smiled. As we followed the strange, old monster hunter back through the souk, all I could think was that Gregor was either brilliant or completely off his rocker. I guessed I was about to find out which it was in the hours ahead.

  ***

  “Yes, you could say I’m a bit crazy,” Gregor said. “I’ve been called worse before. And maybe those worse names were a bit more accurate.”

  We were in the apartment upstairs from the café. It was a dark, mysterious space, jammed with furniture, bookshelves, and tables covered with bizarre artifacts from around the world. Many of these were housed in glass jars. One held a small, dried up bat with talons as long as its body. Another contained a snake with human eyes.

  Preservative filled many of the jars and the specimens floating in these were the really weird stuff. An eel with five heads. A baby pig with claws instead of hooves. A huge spider with fingers where its legs should have been. I shuddered at the sight of the last one. My last run-in with spiders during the Trial of the Caves had been enough to give me nightmares for the last few weeks.

  While all of us were interested in the jars, Xavier acted so excited I thought we were going to have to restrain him. He flew from one table to the next, pressing his face against the glass and studying the specimens. He muttered a stream of archaic names the rest of us couldn’t understand. Gregor nodded appreciatively, obviously proud of his collection.

  “An Aurelian Baylak?” Xavier exclaimed when he saw a stuffed three-legged ostrich. He turned to see a raven with a third Cyclops eye in the center of its forehead. “And a Wizenraven?” he whispered. “How is it possible? All these exist only in the oldest books.”

  “Not true, young one,” Gregor said. “They exist in the world, just not where humans tend to tread. Or at least tread and then live to tell of it.”

  “So, it’s true, then,” Eva said. “You’re Gregor. The actual Gregor.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that,” the old man said. “I’m certain there are other men named Gregor in the world. I suspect they feel their claim to the name is as strong as my own.” He smiled. “But if you mean am I the Gregor of the Black Watch, the famous vampire hunter about whom books have been written and songs have been sung, then yes. I am Gregor. At your service, m’lady.”

  Will and T-Rex snickered, and she shot them a withering look.

  Will shrugged. “Sorry…m’lady.”

  I thought Eva might throttle him right there, but Gregor diffused the situation with a low, throaty laugh. “It’s true, I come from a different age. I try to forget the modern world exists…in the hope the world will return the favor and forget me.”

  I noticed Gregor glance at Daniel, sizing him up. Daniel had been silent since the djinn attack and was now keeping to himself to the side of the group. Something was bothering him. I wondered if it was the same thing bothering me. Of course, I was thankful Gregor had arrived and sent the djinn away, but it was clear that Gregor had put us into harm’s way to begin with.

  “Is that why you put our lives at risk by sending us away so we’d walk into an attack?” I asked, finding it impossible to keep my anger to myself. “Because you wanted to be left alone?”

  “Easy boy,” Gregor growled. “You may wear the Templar Ring and come with Aquinas’s blessing, but you’re in my home now. You’d best watch your tone.”

  “My tone?” I replied. “You mean like the tone you had when you mocked me in the café? Had all those men laughing at us?”

  “Hiding in plain sight. Sometimes it’s the best way to throw off your enemies,” Gregor explained. “It worked, didn’t it? You left ready to tell your friends that Gregor doesn’t exist. That he’s some kind of fairy tale. Which would have been only a half-lie or half-truth depending on how you look at things. I didn’t know a group of djinn were following you.”

  “How did you do it?” Eva asked, stepping forward. “How did you get them to run?”

  Gregor dismissed the question with a wave of his hand. “It was nothing. Just a little old-country hocus-pocus.”

  “It was the Ibn Al-Lar chant, wasn’t it?” Xavier blurted out.

  Gregor looked surprised. “How could you have known that?”

  “Master Aquinas gave me full access to her library when I was five,” Xavier said. “I know things.”

  “What’s the Ibn Al-whatever chant?” Will asked.

  Gregor gestured for Xavier to go ahead. “It comes from the Bedouin, the nomadic desert tribes that roam Northern Africa and Arabia. They knew the djinn well and were harassed by them constantly. Finally, a powerful Sheikh named…wait, it’ll come to me…”

  “Ahmed el-Tayeb,” Gregor helped.

  “That’s right,” Xavier said, looking a little embarrassed. “El-Tayeb grew so tired of the djinn bothering his people that he went into the desert alone and demanded an audience with their leader. For forty days and forty nights, he waited, calling to the djinn with an ancient song called the Ibn Al-Lar.”

  “The chant you used today,” T-Rex said, eager to participate somehow.

  “The lord of all the djinn finally showed himself. He came to destroy this human sheikh who dared to challenge him in the open desert and who sang the Ibn Al-Lar that was painful to his ears.

  “The djinn arrived as a powerful dust storm and covered El-Tayeb with sand, but still the sheikh
sang. The djinn killed the sheikh’s camels and spilled his water casks, condemning him to die on the hot sands. But still the sheikh sang. The djinn called the scorpions and the snakes from their hiding places and had them attack and bite the sheikh over and over again. But his song never stopped.

  “Finally, overwhelmed by the bravery of this human, the lord of the djinn appeared before him and offered to make him one of their own because they, like vampires, can live forever.” Xavier paused for effect, waiting for a few long beats before continuing. “The sheikh stopped his song long enough to thank the djinn lord for his offer, but asked for something else instead. Only that the djinn would spare his tribe from any further harassment. The djinn lord marveled that the sheikh was so selfless and granted his wish. But he knew his own kind to be rash and mischievous, so he told the sheikh that the Ibn Al-Lar would be the mark of the sheikh’s tribe and that djinn the world over would know it guaranteed safe passage. But it was to be for the sheikh’s tribe only and so kept a secret. For centuries since, the sheikh’s tribe kept the Ibn Al-Lar close at hand, and they have not been bothered by the djinn since.”

  Gregor clapped his hands. “A keen mind and a knack for telling a tale. You’ll go far in the world, my young friend.”

  “So, if it was such a secret, how did you come to know the song?” Daniel asked. It was the first time he’d said anything since we were inside. His voice had a strange tone to it, as if he was baiting Gregor with the question.

  “I could tell you, but your voice tells me you’ve already guessed, monster hunter,” Gregor said, squaring his shoulders toward Daniel. “Do you want to do this dance? Or do you want to just say it?”

  “I know about you. My father told me you were a traitor. He called you the Great Betrayer for what you did.” Daniel never spoke of his father who he had seen killed along with his brothers at the hands of werewolves. I only knew about it because he’d told me the story during his fever after the screecher attack. His face flushed red as he spoke. “You were the sheikh in the story, weren’t you?” Daniel asked. “But that’s not the true story of what happened, is it?”