His skin was aglow, with a light fluorescence running through his veins, and his eyes were black. The soldiers were backing up on top of one another in fear of what they were witnessing. Some covered their ears in pain from Robbie’s deafening scream, while others scattered in any direction they could.
After just a couple of minutes, only Robbie and Billy still stood. Robbie had torn the entire group of soldiers to shreds. Blood and body parts covered the engine room; the floor was slippery, and the walls were dark red.
Out of the entire group of soldiers, the only ones who had remained were those who stood just beyond doorway, but before they could escape, Billy drew his two revolvers and shot them down.
On the other side of the door, Billy’s men stood silently, listening to the fight. They had no doubt that Billy and Robbie were now dead. After hearing so much screaming, they knew there was no way they could have survived.
Moments of silence turned into minutes, so they slowly opened the door to find a scene of pure horror. None of them ever had seen anything like it, and to their astonishment, Billy and Robbie were still standing. In the middle of the room, covered in blood, they were smoking cigarettes.
Robbie had returned to human form, as he couldn’t risk any of the men seeing him in his vampire state. At least for now, his true nature would remain a secret.
“Listen,” Billy told the group, “the explosives are set, but there’s a change in plans. I, along with two others, will take the bridge. Robbie, get everyone else back to the refuel vessel as fast as possible. Mike, you stay here, and when we call you, get that engineer out of his handcuffs and have him do what he needs to. Then get to the refuel vessel as quickly as possible. They’ll wait for you as long as they can.”
“You got it,” Mike said.
Robbie took the men out of the engine room, past all the bodies, and headed to the refuel vessel, while Billy and two others moved to the bridge. No swords or knives—now it was time for guns.
Eventually they got past the few soldiers they had run into and made it to the bridge. Once there, they moved in and took it so easily that at first they thought it had to be a setup.
“Everyone, get on the floor now!” Billy commanded the M.M. soldiers, as his men moved in and pushed them to the ground. “No, not you,” he said, grabbing the ship’s captain by the back of his collar. “Anchor up now!”
When Billy picked up the radio and called the engine room, Mike answered.
“Pull the anchors up,” the captain said calmly into the radio.
Moments later, after the engineer, with Mike’s gun to his head, pushed a few buttons on a keyboard, a blue light blinked on a monitor on the bridge; the words on the screen indicated the anchors were being drawn.
“I want a heading of one hundred ten degrees,” Billy told the captain.
“I don’t know who you are or what you think you know about cruise ships of this size, but if we go to one hundred ten degrees, we won’t have enough time to turn before we hit the oil rig.”
“Don’t think, sir,” Billy said calmly. “Just do as you’re told. Next, Captain, you need to order an evacuation of the ship, starting with everyone on the bridge.”
“You heard him,” the captain yelled to his men. “Get up and get the hell out!”
All the bridge personnel stood and fled as the captain flipped a black switch that controlled the ship’s intercom system. “This is your captain. I’m ordering a complete evacuation of the entire vessel at this time. Discontinue your current tasks, and depart the vessel in a orderly manner. Nothing will follow.”
“Captain, I want full speed ahead,” Billy demanded.
The captain’s hands shook as he picked up the radio and ordered the ship to twenty-two knots. After twenty-five years on the ocean, he knew today would be his last day at sea. He stood up a little taller, clenched his fists, and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he stood with his back straight, eyes forward, and hands gripping the large wooden wheel.
If I’m going to perish today, I’ll do it with honor, he thought.
The ship’s enormous engines turned with a slow, steady rumble. The engine room was abuzz when the smokestack on The Gem of the Seas puffed dark smoke. Mike and the engineer left the engine room after the captain had followed Billy’s order for full speed ahead. They made their way to the rear of the cruise ship to meet Robbie.
Rick was still in his stateroom cell, with two guards posted outside. As soon as they heard the evacuation order, however, they abandoned their posts. The moment Rick knew they were gone, he used a paper-clip to manipulate the lock, and thirty seconds later he was out of his handcuffs and smashing the door with a fire extinguisher.
Rick ran down the hall, yelling for Chris; he knew that the next five minutes was going to tell if the intelligence from L.J. would prove to true or false. Finding her on the enormous ship was a shot in the dark, but he wasn’t leaving until he knew for sure.
“Chris, Chris, its Rick. Where are you?”
He leaned against a wall, trying to figure out what to do.
Rick, my love, you always come for me.
Rick heard Chris’s voice, but when he turned around in the hallway, she was nowhere to be found.
“Chris, where are you?” he yelled again.
I’m locked in a room 3014. The door is reinforced; I can’t get out.
By then he knew the voice was in his head. She was using her mind to talk to him. He hated when she did that, but this time he was glad she had.
Rick looked at the numbers on the wall: 3000–3039. Looking to the left, he took off down the hall in a dead sprint until he saw the door he was looking for.
“Chris, are you in there?”
“Yes, I need you to get me out of here.”
Rick slammed the door several times with his shoulder, but it didn’t budge.
“Hold on, Chris.”
He ran back down the hallway until he saw what he was looking for, a red fire ax. After breaking the glass, he ran back to the door of room 3014 and chopped at the hinges with all his strength, but it wasn’t doing any good. He wasn’t even making a dent.
Angry and determined, Rick felt his body begin to change, just as Chris had done so many times. He never had received instruction or coaching, and no one knew his secret other than the person who had bitten him. Rick had freely requested that he be turned into a vampire, but Billy never had allowed it. In fact he told Rick that if he ever did drink from a vampire’s blood, he would kill him himself.
Late one evening, after Billy had refused to allow Rick to change, Rick spoke with Robbie, who took Rick aside and allowed him to drink from his blood. The only reason Robbie allowed it was because he knew that if they were going to pull off a mission of such magnitude, they’d need all the help they could get.
As Rick had been bitten so recently, everything was still new for him. Things were so different, and he felt unstoppable, as if he had taken an amazing new drug he couldn’t get enough of.
With a couple of swings of the ax, he hit the hinges so hard that he broke the head of the ax off its handle, along with the hinges.
Control, Rick thought. I need to maintain control. Before the door fell, Rick took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and forced himself to change back into his human form. After everything he’d done—how he had treated Chris—the last thing he wanted was for her to know he was now a vampire.
On the other side of the doorway, Chris stood, looking at Rick with a smile. She felt just as she had all those years ago when she was lying on the floor in that fancy house, and Rick had come back to her after being gone for so many weeks.
She ran into Rick’s arms; embracing, they kissed passionately. Chris suddenly stopped and pushed herself an arm’s distance away from him, realizing he was completely naked.
“Don’t ask,” he said.
Rick and Chris ran as fast as they could down the hallway toward the staircase. Rick knew that the bridge had to be empty by then and t
hat his men probably were at the refuel vessel with L.J. He also knew they were running out of time, as the cruise ship more than likely was now headed on its course for the oil rig.
They ran through a long hallway before Rick and Chris stopped at the pool, where he retrieved his pants. As soon as he put them on, they once again were in a dead sprint. Then it happened. Rick, rounding a corner, was struck in the forehead harder than he’d ever been hit. Suddenly everything went black.
FORTY EIGHT
On the oil rig, the eight vampires were gathered when one of their generals informed them they had a problem aboard The Gem of the Seas.
An explosion had been reported on a small boat that had been between the cruise ship and the oil rig. After that the oil rig had lost contact with the cruise ship, which was now headed straight for them.
“When did this happen?” Mr. Magnus asked calmly, displaying a fake smile.
“Sir, an officer aboard The Gem of the Seas informed me that the situation was under control, but—”
“General, are you telling me we’ve lost our ground forces and our ship, and now we’re about to lose this oil rig?”
“Mr. Magnus, I…I don’t know what to say.”
The general’s body lay on the floor after Mr. Magnus had ripped his throat from his neck.
“Anyone else have bad news?” Mr. Magnus, said wiping the blood from his fingers with a handkerchief. “You seven…I swear to God, you’ll all pay for this. I’m taking the helicopter, and I alone will rectify this situation.”
“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that, Mr. Magnus,” Mr. C. said, standing up from his seat.
“Oh, I see. Now you want to be proactive?” Mr. Magnus said, glaring at him with his black eyes.
“Sir, the sun will be up in less than an hour. If we don’t leave this deathtrap now, we’ll either be stuck in this room all night, at the bottom of the Atlantic, or cooked alive. I—we—won’t let that happen.”
The other six vampires stood up as well, looking at Mr. Magnus.
“If you take the helicopter, we’ll be stuck here. That’s not going to happen,” Mr. Black said sternly.
“You defied my orders, and look where it got us.” Mr. Magnus walked slowly to where Mr. C. stood and stopped directly in front of him, face-to-face. “After all this time, you fools actually believe I can’t replace you?”
“You don’t scare us, Mr. Magnus,” Mr. C. said calmly.
Mr. C. threw a left swing followed by a right, neither connecting with Mr. Magnus, who easily avoided both punches.
Laughing, Mr. Magnus reached out, grabbed Mr. C. by the throat, and slammed him onto the table. The other six ran to his aid as Mr. Magnus pummeled him over and over. His face covered in blood, Mr. C tried to fight back, but it was to no avail.
The other six attempted to grab Mr. Magnus, but his strength and speed were far too great for them. He easily hurled each of them across the room, all the while not letting go of his grip on Mr. C.’s throat.
When Mr. Magnus finally released Mr. C., he rolled off the table and dropped to the floor, gasping for air. He then knelt, pausing for a moment, before he leapt through the air, landing nearly ten feet away, just in front of Mr. Magnus, and slashed at his face with his razor-sharp nails.
Mr. Magnus growled in pain just before lifting Mr. C. off the floor by the collar and throwing him to the floor. Mr. C. tried to crawl away to safety, but even with all his strength and power, he was no match for Mr. Magnus. When Mr. C. turned his back to get away, Mr. Magnus ripped into his flesh, clutching his spinal column in his hand, before throwing him across the room, where he struck the wall and fell limply to the floor.
The other six vampires quickly moved toward Mr. Magnus in an effort to subdue him. Before they could reach him, however, he already had left the conference room and locked the door behind him before making his way to the helicopter.
“We’re all trapped,” Mr. Black said, as he pounded his fists on the thick metal door. “Even if we get through the door, when the sun comes up, we’ll still be stuck here without the helicopter.”
All but one of the vampires sat down at the table, waiting for whatever was to come. The only one not sitting was Mr. Black who stood in front of the large round window, looking out at the sea in front of him, as the cruise ship in the distance headed straight for them.
On The Gem of the Seas, when Rick regained consciousness, he found himself chained to a support column on the front deck of the ship.
“It’s good to see you awake. In some circles you’d be considered my enemy. I think of you more as…Well, no, you are my enemy!” Mr. Magnus said, as he hit Rick in the chest so hard that he thought his lungs were going to collapse. “Now, if I have your attention, just to your left, you’ll see a crane extended over the side of this ship. Attached to the chains, you’ll see a wooden box. Do you have any idea what’s behind door number one?
“Oh, I’m sorry. Where are my manners? I’m Mr. Magnus, and you…you’re the infamous Rick Nolan, general of the Army for the Free People of…Well, who gives a damn.”
Mr. Magnus paced around the white metal pole Rick was chained to, only stopping to adjust his suit tie, which was covered in dried blood, and to throw punches at Rick.
“Yes, I know you,” Rick said. You’re that asshole who lets all his goons fight for him. If anything you’re a coward. You want a real fight? Then untie me.”
“Always a tough guy until you find out the person you care about most in the world is locked in a cage and is about to drown.”
“I’ll kill you, you bastard,” Rick shot back, spitting blood on Mr. Magnus.
“I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in. Let me explain. I’ve spent years ridding this planet of the abominations you humans call vampires. They’re a plague, and if left unchecked, they’ll spread until nothing’s left. Yes, I could simply throw them out in the sun and be done with them, but I have bigger plans. Understand that after they drown, their souls will be in left in purgatory. Can you imagine what that would be like? Your mind and soul stuck at the bottom of the Atlantic for eternity?
“As I said I have much grander plans than simply killing them. You know, you never can tell what might happen in the future, so as long as they’re down there, they’ll be at my disposal, should I ever need an army. All I’ll have to do is pull them up. But enough talk…”
“Good, it’s about time you shut the hell up!”
Mr. Magnus reached out his hand and, with one quick tug, tore the chains that held Rick to the pole. Rick struggled to maintain his balance before falling on his hands and knees in front of him.
Filled with rage and fury, Rick wasn’t holding back any longer. His eyes black, and his mouth open, revealing his fangs, he jumped four feet up in the air, punching Mr. Magnus straight in the jaw as he came down. Mr. Magnus took the hit without so much as staggering.
“Hmm,” he said, looking at Rick for a moment before he came around hard with a right hook and struck Rick twice, once in the stomach and once in the face, knocking him back several feet. A second later Mr. Magnus was on top of Rick. He tried to defend himself by swinging punches, but it did no good, as Mr. Magnus was never where Rick thought he was. He was moving faster than he could follow with his eyes.
The fight was pathetic, lasting just two minutes before Rick fell to the floor, defeated. His face was swollen; he was unable to open his left eye; and his mouth was filled with blood. His eyes were still black and his teeth sharp, but his strength was fading.
As Rick attempted to get to his feet, Mr. Magnus grabbed him by his hair and pulled him across the deck of the ship before dropping him near the cage that held Chris. Rick tried to yell out to her but couldn’t find his voice.
Now directly in front of the oil rig, The Gem of the Seas had come into view and was steadily growing larger as it sped toward its fate.
“Why is it that I always have to do everything myself?” Mr. Magnus asked no one in particular.
> A fter taking hold of the chains that hung from a crane, Mr. Magnus ran them through the rings attached to each corner of Chris’s cage.
“I won’t lie to you, my dear,” Mr. Magnus told her. “You’ll drown, and your body will die. Hmm…you should consider this a favor on my part. You might even find having your soul trapped in purgatory at the bottom of the Atlantic to be quite peaceful. Do let me know.”
After he had attached the chains to the cage, he continued to ramble as he pushed it toward the edge of the ship.
Rick watched helplessly as everything in his world went silent, and the cage disappeared over the edge of the cruise ship. A moment later he heard the splash, and the reality of what was occurring hit him just as the cage hit the water.
Still muttering, Mr. Magnus once more adjusted his bloodstained tie as he walked toward Rick. He stopped next to where Rick lay, picked him up by the throat, and lifted him until his feet no longer were touching the ground.
Rick had no strength or energy, but he did have one thing: his willpower. As blood ran down his arm and dripped off his fingertips, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of salt packets.
“Can you swim, General?” Mr. Magnus asked, as Rick ripped open the packets of salt behind his back then threw them at Mr. Magnus’s face.
He dropped Rick and, screaming, held his face, the salt burning his flesh as if it were acid.
Suddenly Rick heard the sound of gunfire. It was Billy; he had shot Mr. Magnus twelve times in the back with his revolvers. After the last bullet ripped into Mr. Magnus, Billy dropped the smoking guns on the deck and pulled out a short-barrel shotgun. Boom, boom, boom. He fired ten slugs into Mr. Magnus’s torso, tearing his flesh from his body. When the shotgun was empty, he threw it on the deck and ran toward Mr. Magnus as fast as he could.
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