“Yes.”
“I thought you could only kill them with sunlight and a stake through the heart,” the man said.
“The stake thing, yes. Sunlight, no. And while fire can’t kill them, it sure as hell slows them down. You have any gasoline around here?”
“I have a can back by the woodshed.”
“Leave the crucifix with me. Go get the gasoline and a lighter or match or something.”
The man handed her the crucifix and started off toward the back yard. Jill stared the five vampires down and they looked back at her with extreme hatred.
Somewhere further off, back towards the center of Red Creek, she heard another scream ring out. Somewhere else, dogs started barking.
Saul? She sent out her mental feelers for him and was relieved to find that he was close.
We’re coming, came his reply.
Good. This is getting very bad very quickly.
The man came back to her side with a box of matches and a jug of gasoline. “Now what?” he asked.
Jill handed him the crucifix and took the gasoline. She took a few steps towards the Rogues and saw that they apparently did not know what she had planned. She uncapped the jug and splashed the gasoline out onto them. They flinched a bit in response but started for her immediately. She jumped out of the way and yelled “Strike it.”
The man lit a match and threw it at the five vampires. The flames sprung up instantly and to Jill, the wails that followed were like the sweetest music.
4
Kara had gulped down two glasses of a potent red wine that, according to Penny, was bottled in ’52. It had tasted delicious and had given her the slightest buzz. They had made their way out of the cellar and had enjoyed the bottle while sitting at Penny’s dining room table. Surprisingly, very little of their conversation had revolved around The Marked or what their duties were supposed to entail. Instead, they’d spoken about mundane things. Sadly, it was the most fun Kara had experienced in nearly a year—with the exception of her time alone with Jess as of late.
Kara was surprised to see that it was nearly midnight when she stood up from the table to leave. She had a full day of work ahead of her on top of trying to deal with everything she had learned tonight. While she would have loved to have stayed and helped her three new friends polish off another bottle of wine, she knew that it would be a bad idea.
“I suppose it is getting late,” Paul said. “I have work tomorrow, too.”
He stood with Kara and she saw that he was completely sober. She supposed he had built up quite a tolerance during the last few years.
Penny smiled and stood up as well, holding the empty bottle. “Maybe I should mail this to my ex-husband,” she said. “Maybe he’d enjoy knowing that his wine collection is being used to—”
She was interrupted by a thudding sound from the front of the house. They all jumped collectively and looked in that direction. The noise had come from the front door. Kara’s hand went to her hip for her gun, only to find that it wasn’t there. Off duty, she thought. Damn.
“I don’t guess you were expecting company, huh?” Ray asked.
“Not at this hour, no,” Penny said.
Kara placed a hand to her lips, shushing them. She then walked quietly to the doors as the thudding sound came again. By this point, it was obvious to her that someone was trying to break into the house.
She approached the door, thankful that it was the type with a small peephole near the top in the center. She quietly pressed herself against the door and looked out of the peephole. She sucked in her breath at what she saw.
There were three figures standing on the porch. There were flickers of motion behind these three, indicating that there could be many more. As she looked out, two of them smashed into the door. She jumped back in surprise. From the looks of their faces, even though the peephole’s distortion, she was certain that the figures on the porch were vampires.
She dashed away from the door and found the other three members of The Marked standing in the doorway between the dining room and the hallway. “Penny,” Kara said. “Where are those pickets you took from the fence?”
Her face was filled with terror, but there was a determined look there as well. “The cellar,” she said. “Just before the wine cellar.”
“Can you go get th—,”
She was cut off by an explosion of glass. They all turned to look, Penny screaming. The crash had come from the dining room. As they looked, two bodies went sliding to the floor, covered in glass from the destroyed dining room window. Behind them, two more came leaping into the dining room.
“Penny,” Kara said quietly. “Haul ass to the cellar and get those stakes.”
“What about us?” Paul asked.
Penny took off and one of the vampires went for her right away. Kara looked around, looking for anything to use as a weapon. The best she could find was a heavy vase that sat on a table by the front door. She picked it up and heaved it with all of her might at the vampire that was chasing after Penny. It hit him square in the back and he went to the ground in a tumble.
Ray went running after Penny, panic in his eyes. She caught up to her just as she was opening the door.
“Ray, stay here,” Kara yelled at him.
But Ray bound down the stairs with her, slamming the cellar door behind them.
Behind her, she heard Paul grunt, followed by the sound of something breaking. She looked back and saw that he had kicked the table that Kara had swiped the vase from. He kicked it again as the vampires started coming after them. One of the legs splintered and the table collapsed. He picked up the broken leg and threw it at Kara. She caught it, nodding her thanks, and turned back towards the vampires.
She saw with horror that another one had come in through the window. Five of them in all.
“What works against them?” Paul asked. “I don’t have any garlic.”
“No, that’s bullshit. I think just a stake through the heart.”
“Well shit.”
And then the five vampires had closed in on them. Kara and Paul stood back to back, Paul with his fists cocked back and ready to fight, and Kara with the stake held back like a javelin that she was ready to throw.
She then looked over the shoulders of the approaching group and wondered if maybe Ray had been onto something. Running into the cellar to hide could certainly buy them some time. And Kara felt certain that if there was some sort of vampire pandemic in Red Creek, Saul and Jill probably knew about it. She wondered how long it would take them to track down these vampires. And, more than that, she wondered how long that cellar door would hold against a vampire attack.
“Follow me,” Kara said. “Head down and tackle something.”
She didn’t know if Paul understood her but she dashed forward anyway. She hunched over slightly, driving her left shoulder into the stomach of a vampire on her left and then bringing the broken table leg straight across in a stabbing motion towards a vampire on her right. Her aim was good, tearing into its chest and drilling through the breastbone.
But the vampire on her left caught her by the arm and stopped her. She tried to pull away but its grip was surprisingly strong. Another one was closing in on her and that’s when Paul threw a hard right punch that knocked it on its ass. He then football-charged the one that was holding Kara and knocked it to the ground. Paul and the vampire wrestled frantically as Kara sprang free. Risking being caught by another of them, Kara reached down to the fallen vampire and withdrew the splintered table leg. She reeled around, threatening to slam it into whichever of the vampires came after her.
Kara ran to Paul’s aid, kicking the vampire hard in the ribs. When it shifted slightly, she used the table leg as a club and hammered it on the head. She was afraid to stab it through the back, as she didn’t want to accidentally stab Paul.
The vampire rolled to the side, dazed and the others howled behind her. Now on the other side of the group, Kara and Paul slowly backed towards the cellar.
“Stay down there,” Kara called to Penny and Ray. “We’re coming.”
Paul opened the door, their backs to the cellar as they face the vampires. The remaining four walked slowly towards them and Kara couldn’t help but wonder if they were intimidated. They walked cautiously, as if they suddenly regretted their initial attack.
Kara and Paul walked down the cellar stairs carefully, taking two steps down before Kara kicked the door closed in front of them. She bolted the lock and then turned to head down the stairs after Paul. She saw Ray and Penny standing there, holding the stakes.
“What’s the plan?” Penny asked.
“We can choose. Either the four of us take on the five of them with your stakes or we can stay here in the cellar and hope that the Bentons show up soon.”
“Will they come?” Ray asked.
“I believe they will.”
“I vote we stay down here,” Paul said. “I don’t know about all of you—well, except for Kara—but I can barely fight against a normal man…much less a vampire.”
“I hear that,” Penny said.
Ray nodded his agreement. When he did, another crashing sound came from upstairs. They all looked up, their eyes wide.
“Is that more of them?” Penny asked.
“Holy shit, how many people have they turned into vampires?” Ray asked.
Kara shrugged. “There’s no way to tell. Not down here anyway.”
“What if we’re doing nothing down here but trapping ourselves?” Paul asked.
It was a fair question to which Kara had no real answer. As she searched for one, the first blows fell on the cellar door as the growing number of vampires over their heads tried to get into the cellar.
5
Saul and Nikki met Jill on the main thoroughfare. There were signs of Red Creek slipping into chaos all around them. The night was filled with screams and gunfire. Somewhere nearby, police sirens sounded out.
“They’re turning too damned quick,” Jill told them. “And these vampires are different.”
“How so?” Saul asked.
“Well, it’s like they were taken right out of mythology. Less than five minutes ago I helped a man destroy a few of them. They were scared of a crucifix. They literally backed away when they saw it.”
“That’s interesting,” Nikki said. “That lines up with the old superstitions. Aren’t there rumors of an ancient vampire race that most of today’s myths are based on? What if the original Rogues are a descendant of that race?”
“It’s a possibility,” Saul said.
“So what the hell do we do now?” Nikki asked.
“I guess we follow the chaos,” Saul stated.
“What about Kara?” Nikki said. “If she’s with the police, we should see if there is any way that we can help them. We need to get to the center of this before it gets out of hand.”
“Good point,” Jill said. She then turned to Saul. “Do you know her scent? Can you pick it up?”
“I can try,” Saul said. He closed his eyes and seemed to think for a moment. He then turned his head slightly to the left and nodded. “This way,” he pointed.
Saul started running down the street, staying in the shadows as well as he could. Every time he heard a person screaming somewhere else in town, he imagined a batch of brand-new vampires running rampant in Red creek. Moreover, these beings were a kind of vampires unfamiliar to Saul. And that made him very nervous.
They arrived at Penny Carlisle’s house less than six minutes later. As they rushed up the driveway, all three of them heard screams and the unmistakable sounds of conflict. Even before they reached the porch, Saul could smell the very familiar scent of human fear; he was almost one hundred percent positive that one of the people inside was Kara.
Saul tried the door and found it locked. He delivered a hard kick that sent the door flying inward, two of the three hinges popping off. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting to see, but it certainly wasn’t this.
There were eleven Rogues in the house, most of who were heading into a doorway which, as far as Saul could tell, led into a basement. Screams sounded out from below, punctuated with the groans and hissing noises of the Rogues.
“My God,” Jill gasped. “Where did they all come from?”
“Red Creek,” Saul answered. “Gestalt worked that fast.”
“We can work faster,” Jill said, gripping the crowbar. Beside her, Nikki saw a small table that had been knocked over and robbed of one of its legs. With a harsh stomp, she splintered another leg and picked it up.
The noise attracted the attention of most of the Rogues. Recognizing rival vampires, they diverted their attention from the cellar door and started towards Saul, Jill and Nikki. From behind them within the darkness of the cellar, a man yelled out in pain.
The Rogues came, and Saul met them head-on.
6
Each member of The Marked held a stake, and there were three extra ones stacked in the corner of the cellar where the wine racks began to take over. The vampires had been pounding at the door for about five minutes when a large crack formed in the upper right corner. After that, the hinges started to pop loose.
“When they come,” Kara said, “Don’t let them get behind you.”
Kara could feel tension beginning to gather in the air, almost in the same way the atmosphere seems to thicken just before a storm. She knew that there were likely more of them now; she assumed the sound of another breaking window indicated as much. Kara could hear the vampires’ animalistic growls and thought it sounded like there could be as many as ten.
“Also,” Kara went on, as another thundering crack ran along the base of the door, “From what I understand, vampires that are newly turned are a little too eager to get blood. It messes with their judgment and makes them prone to making mistakes. Either put a stake through their heart or cut off their heads.”
Another crash from upstairs blew the top part of the door out of the frame, splitting it down the middle. A good portion of it went sailing down the stairs and clattered at the feet of The Marked. At the top of the stairs, the Rogues had stopped battering the door and were now crawling through the broken door.
“Be ready,” Kara said as she dashed forward up the stairs. She heard gasps of shock behind her, but she thought this would be the best way to get the jump on the Rogues.
She met the first one—a woman that looked to be in her fifties—as her second foot was coming through the door. She hissed at Kara, aware of what was coming, but was stuck. Before she could pull back through the door, Kara plunged the stake into the woman’s chest. It went in easily, almost like pushing a knife through a sponge. She wondered if it had something to do with the fact that these were all newly turned vampires.
Two more vampires were waiting behind the fallen woman. Kara took a stab at the nearest one but he was able to back away. As Kara drew back to take another stab, a third vampire crowded into the doorway and shoved her. With a shout, she went flailing backwards down the stairs. She dropped her stake to catch hold of the railing, but still toppled back halfway down the stairway.
By the time Kara had righted herself, one of the vampires had made it through the large hole in the door while two others tore it away from the hinges with a dry cracking sound.
Kara leaped back down the stairs and grabbed her stake. When she looked up, there were four vampires rushing down the stairs. Two more crowded the doorway, waiting to get in. Behind them, she could see the shapes of even more.
“My God,” Penny muttered. “How many are there?”
“Who cares?” Paul said. “Just start stabbing!”
As if to show what he meant, he clumsily stabbed out at the first vampire that stepped on the ground. The vampire was too fast, dodging the blow easily. But as it turned to attack Paul, Ray was there with his stake. His aim was way off and he ended up stabbing the Rogue in his ribs. The vampire howled and turned to face Ray, slashing out with his hands.
Kara knew that she would ha
ve the bulk of the duty. She was stronger, faster, and more trained than any of the other three. When there were four vampires on the floor, one having pinned Paul against the wall, she used hand-to-hand combat to fight them off and thanked her lucky stars that she had taken up training in the first place.
Kara delivered a devastating kick to the knee of the vampire that had pinned Paul against the wall. As it stumbled, Penny drove her stake through its back. It popped out of the other side, having pierced its heart. She shrieked as she did it, both in terror and rage.
As Kara skirted around the vampire closest to her, she saw that there were two more coming down the stairs. There were seven of them now, and potentially even more upstairs. This was not looking good.
Behind her, Ray screamed. She glanced around and saw that one of the Rogues had managed to get him by the throat. Ray tried fighting against it, but his blows were gentle and poorly aimed.
Kara grabbed the Rogue by the shoulder, spun him around, and drove her stake through his heart. As she pulled the stake out, she felt the weight of another Rogue fall upon her back. She stumbled forward, colliding with one of Penny’s wine racks. It cracked and several bottles of wine fell to the floor, shattering. Deep red wine spilled onto the floor like rivulets of blood.
Kara felt the vampire go for her neck and she fought against it. She saw that Penny, Paul, and Ray had their hands full and that she was not going to have any help. Taking in a deep breath, she ran backwards into the far wall. She heard something crunch inside the body on her back, but it did not let go. She reached up to grab its head but only came away with a handful of black hair.
The Rogue snarled, and she could feel its hot fetid breath on her neck. Kara backed it into the wall again and felt it give just the slightest bit. As she whirled her body around, trying to throw it, she saw that a vampire on the stairs had come toppling down, head over heels. There were several figures above, moving with a frenzy inside the doorway. One of them was a woman that she recognized quite well: Nikki Galimore.
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