Judge of the Damned (Vampire Storm, Book 1)

by Nick S. Thomas

  Marshall looked up through the driver’s side. The last biker was bringing his bike to a stop. Bill climbed out of the smashed rear window, the glass cutting into his hands as he went through. He slumped over the tailgate and snuck around to the side of the SUV. Looking carefully around the vehicle he could see the dark figure approaching the smashed Crown Vic, not realising he had climbed out.

  The ominous and unrelenting biker had his Mac 10 in hand, approaching with sinister intent, it was clear he meant to finish off anyone who was still alive. Reaching the passenger door of the vehicle, he looked in at the two detectives. Matthews was just starting to wake, groaning from the pains and bruises in his body. He woke to see a barrel of a gun pointing at him.

  Three shots rang out from Bill’s Mateba, riddling the attacker’s body with silver. The biker spasmed slightly from the shots, causing him to drop the Ingram. The man slumped onto the side of the car, before regaining his footing as if the shots had done little. Matthews watched as Bill leapt on him from behind, driving his silver fighting knife downwards into the man’s collarbone, temporarily incapacitating him.

  Bill ripped the helmet from the biker’s head. His skin was pasty and pale, but almost immediately began to sizzle at the sight of daylight. Marshall had proven his point. He knocked the stunned Vampire down onto its back. He pulled out his wooden stake and with both hands drove it down into the heart of the creature, killing it instantly.

  “Jesus, I thought you were fucking crazy!”

  “Sorry, I wish for your sake you had been right,” said Bill.

  The detective looked over to his partner who was slumped over the steering wheel. The car’s interior was covered in blood from the head wounds, his partner was long gone.

  “Will you come in with me? We can help,” said Matthews.

  “No, you can see what I am up against. I’ll have to break many more laws before my work is done.”

  “They shot at cops, this has gone further than a simple vendetta.”

  “Those bastards will hurt anyone they have to in order to get to me, the less people around me the better. I ‘m sorry about your partner, I tried to warn you, but this is a fucked up situation.”

  “How much more trouble can we expect from these assholes?”

  “They are monsters, wanting to kill me is only their latest hobby. We have to accept Vampires are a scourge of our society, we must begin to treat them as what they are.”

  “Easier said than done. Some of them run half the city!”

  “Not for long.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Heard of Karl Rainer?” asked Bill.

  “Of course.”

  “He is behind all of this, he’s going down!”

  “Jesus, he’s got more power than the Mayor, you won’t get near him.”

  “Maybe.”

  Marshall could hear sirens in the distance, the sound of support and help coming to them. In past years that sound had been a reassuring one, but no longer. The day’s events had shown that he was to be treated as a criminal by the authorities, and there was nothing he could do about it. Marshall had to be above the law to accomplish what he needed, what everyone else was incapable of doing.

  “I’ve got to go.”

  “You can’t leave. You have just witnessed a major crime.”

  “Sorry, Matthews.”

  “It’s Frank.”

  “Frank, you know what I have to do.”

  “Alright, Bill, but you need anything you let me know, you hear? You know I can’t cover up the fact that you were here? Too much evidence!”

  “I know, don’t worry about me.”

  Marshall pulled out the stake and knife from his victim and placed them back within his belt. He picked up the Mateba from the ground and holstered it. He walked away from the scene, looking back at his newfound friend as he left. It would be a long walk back to his bike, especially as he couldn’t take the direct route, all of which would now be part of a crime scene.

  Along the way, Bill gave some thought as to his attackers. They had all been Vampires, meaning it was considered to be an important job. The fact that they were willing to kill police officers along the way suggested that they knew who they were dealing with, and were willing to go to any length to kill him.

  He was only sure he had killed one of the three attackers. The other two could easily have survived the day. The one face he saw was not one he recognised. Rainer would have sent his best after Bill, meaning he must have spread his men thin through the city in order to catch him.

  It was early afternoon when he finally reached his Harley and the old church. He looked at it, once more reminding himself of the sheer bitter hatred he had of Rainer. As much as he was hunting Rainer and his associates, Bill also was being hunted. Looking around, the street was empty. He pulled out his Mateba, emptying the spent cases to the ground and loaded in a fresh load.

  The morning’s events had proven to him quite how much risk he faced. Whilst Rainer wanted him dead, the authorities wanted him on a number of charges, and the Church wanted to stop his killing spree.

  Bill had few friends left in the world, almost nobody understood what he was doing and why, but that didn’t matter. Marshall was not just avenging the death of his friends and family, but also bringing the city’s worst criminals to justice. He climbed onto his bike. The bruises from the week before had mostly gone, replaced with a new set in different locations. He looked down at his leather jacket. It was slashed where the bullet had clipped his arm.

  Feeling for the wound, there was some blood at the top of his arm. The bullet had skimmed off a few millimetres of flesh, but done no substantial damage at all. Marshall had just miraculously survived another assassination attempt. Yet again, he had bled, but still lived to tell the tale. It was as if God would not allow him to be killed. Bill was more confident than ever that he was on the right path.

  His mind went back to the gunfight and the death of Simmons, Matthews’ partner. He had not gotten to know him, but he seemed a decent man. Bill regretted deeply the death of a fine detective, but there was nothing he could do, nothing but remove the threat for good.

  Firing up the Harley, Bill rode on down the road, leaving his ruined church in his wake. It was time to get some more firepower. He rode on back to the lockup. Marshall had lost his M249 the night before which he regretted, as it was a formidable weapon, but the loss was unavoidable. He rolled his bike into the garage and went to dig out the first aid box. He patched up his arm whilst sitting in the armoury, looking at the fine collections of weapons he had acquired, carefully considering what he needed.

  One particular item on the wall appealed to him greatly, a Milkor MGL. It was a six shot revolver grenade launcher, firing 40mm grenades. The odd-looking weapon looked like a supersized revolver, as if a handgun for a giant. Marshall had acquired the MGL from an army friend two years before, but had never had a legitimate reason to use it. The MGL was a device for causing absolute destruction, at least with the high explosive shells that he had.

  As a project, soon after receiving it Bill built up twelve silver-headed grenades to use in the Milkor. They featured the same high explosive cores, but with silver fragmentation sections. Vampires healed themselves, that was certain, but Bill had always wondered if a direct hit with a weapon such as the Milkor would simply destroy enough of them which they could not heal, a theory he was eager to test.

  There was no concealed way to carry the Milkor on his bike. He spent the next hour bolting two large hard cases onto his bike either side, they looked like saddle bags. He fitted the Milkor into one of the cases, a DSA SA58 OSW into the other. The SA58 was a modern variant of the good old FN FAL, it packed a hell of a bunch, especially with the long thirty round mags he had.

  Marshall realised how foolish he had been, travelling in public with so little hardware. Being stopped by the cops was not his concern, they would arrest and charge him no matter what they found about his person. The law no lo
nger had any boundaries for him. Bill would only live by his moral standards.

  The sun was going down and he found himself looking forward to seeing Harriet again. He still could not fully understand why he trusted her so easily, but his instincts would have nothing else. He reloaded the speed loaders for his Mateba and hit the street, heading for Murphy’s bar.

  Walking towards the bar, Marshall thought about the attempt on his life earlier that day. The fact that the Vampires were hunting for him during the day surely meant they had no idea where he was living. Going back to the church was a huge mistake, an obvious place for them to find him. Even so, the Vampires that attacked him, knew that he had been picked up by the detectives.

  It was certain that Simmons and Matthews were not in bed with the Vamps, but somebody in their precinct must be. They would have called in his sighting before approaching and arresting him. Bill was only lucky that the Vampires had impatiently attacked him with the few men in the area, for had they waited until he was at the precinct he would have had his back against the wall.

  Stepping through the door of the bar, Harriet was sitting with a drink at their usual table, a second beer opposite her waiting for him. He grinned and walked over to join her.

  “This is becoming a routine,” he said.

  “How’d you get on today?”

  “Not too great.”

  He sat down opposite her, taking up his beer. Her sharp eyes picked up the hole in the sleeve of his coat, and the wide bandage beneath it, she looked surprisingly concerned.

  “Bit early for a fight isn’t it?”

  He followed her eyes to the wound on his arm.

  “Today didn’t exactly go as planned. Cops arrested me for the murder of my family, but Rainer’s goons found us before we got to the precinct.”

  “Shit, he must have more than a few cops on his payroll.”

  “Yeah.”

  “This could be a problem, if they want you for murder your face could be all over the news stations.”

  “No, I very much doubt that. Rainer will want to keep the fact that I am alive as quiet as possible, it would make him look weak to the rest of the Lords.”

  “Well they’re gonna find out soon enough.”

  “Not if he can kill me quickly, which is what he tried to do today.”

  “The Lords are not something I had considered, will they come after us if we manage to kill Rainer?”

  “I’d say almost certainly. Whether they like him or not, they couldn’t be seen to be losing power and control.”

  “What then?”

  “Then we kill every one of the bastards!”

  “Is this going to be our lives from now on? Many would call us serial killers for what we are doing?”

  “Well, they’re already dead.”

  Harriet dipped her head as Bill realised, too late, what he was saying. Through the friendship they had quickly built, it was easy to forget what she was.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Yes, yes you did. I don’t disagree, just because I am one of them it doesn’t mean I have to act like them.”

  Bill nodded in agreement. He had always wondered if Vampires had souls, he suspected not, considering how despicable and unrelenting they could be. Maybe Harriet had somehow managed to keep her soul, remaining human in heart. Perhaps she was sent by God to help him? He didn’t broach the subject, it was clear that she would have little respect for God, feeling utterly betrayed.

  Chapter 8

  Marshall had been searching the web and his files all morning, looking for any further information on Rainer and his Coven. He wanted info on where they lived, where they slept, where they spent any of their time. Despite details of their businesses, there was little available on their personal lives.

  Picking up his mobile phone, Bill called his friend Tommy. He had wanted to keep his old friends out of the fight as much as possible, but the situation was getting ever more dangerous and he needed some leads.

  “Hey, Tommy.”

  “Bill, how’s it going?”

  “Alright, listen, I need some info.”

  “Yeah, shoot.”

  “I’m looking for Rainer and any of his Coven, I need any intel you can give me as to their location.”

  “Alright, when do you need it by?”

  “Soon as you can.”

  “Will do.”

  “Tommy?”

  “Yeah, Bill.”

  “Thanks. There’s a bar just outside town to the East called Mackenzie’s, you know it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Meet me there at eight, with anything you can get your hands on.”

  “Will do.”

  Marshall put the phone down. Despite having few people left that he could rely on, he knew Tommy would always have his back. He wished he could bring him in on the fight, but it was not a fair risk to put his best friend through, even more so the man’s family. Marshall did a quick search on detective Frank Matthews with his laptop. Within seconds, he knew the man’s precinct.

  Sitting back in his chair, Bill thought about Matthews. He was wary of trusting cops, as despite having the right intentions, they were forever restricted by the law and also had little understanding of the conflict with the Vampires. The drama of the previous day had proven that Frank was a good man and he needed the trust and counsel of such men. Bill called up the precinct.

  “Please put me through to Detective Frank Matthews.”

  “Can I ask who is calling?” asked the operator.

  “John Williams, I’m a friend.”

  “Please hold.”

  The phone went silent for a few seconds until it was picked up by a familiar voice.

  “Hello? Who is this?” asked Matthews.

  “Hi, Frank, can you talk?” asked Bill.

  “Jesus, Bill, you know how much shit I’d be in if anyone knew we were talking?”

  “Yeah, sorry, just needed a few minutes of your time.”

  “Alright, go.”

  “I’ve been thinking about yesterday. Did you call in my sighting before approaching?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “You appreciate that the three guys that attacked us knew where we were and who was in the car?”

  “You suggesting someone in my precinct was involved?”

  “I know they are, how else could they have gotten that info?”

  “Shit, this doesn’t get any better does it?”

  “Sorry, haven’t got any good news for you. Rainer has his hand in most things that go on in this city, and he will not stop until I’m dead.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Just your job, you have corruption in your house, root it out.”

  “Alright, will do what I can. Bill? I didn’t thank you for yesterday.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. Your partner Simmons, when’s the funeral?”

  “In two days. Why?”

  “I would like to pay my respects, if I’m still around.”

  “You shouldn’t be around any cops, as far as they are concerned you are a criminal at large.”

  “I’ll figure something out, what time?”

  “It’s at two.”

  “Alright, see ya, Frank.”

  Marshall put the phone down. He felt guilt for the death of Simmons, but he also knew that many more would follow him until he could end Rainer for good. Rainer was nothing more than a mob boss and a leader of organised crime. He had a number of genuine businesses that bolstered his dubious ones, and enough power and wealth to buy off and control anyone who would stand against him. Rainer saw himself as above the law, and it was true he was. It was only further confirmation that Bill was doing the right thing, he needed to live outside the law to fight Rainer.

  The afternoon was a long boring wait, with nothing for Marshall to do. He was wary of showing his face during the light of day, and had no leads to follow. He watched the news story of the two events he had been involved
in over the last few days, but it revealed nothing new to him.

  The sun was again going down and he had an hour before his meeting with Tommy. Despite having absolute trust in his old friend, he was all too aware that others might follow him to their meet. Bill rode on down to Murphy’s to meet Harriet at their usual spot. He arrived just as she was pulling up outside.

  “Hey, Bill, this is early for you.”

  “Listen up, I have a meeting planned with an old friend in an hour.”

  “So?”

  “I need you to back me up.”

  “Why are you meeting him if you don’t trust him?”

  “It’s not him I’m worried about.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Got any new leads for me?” asked Bill.

  “Yeah, have a lead on where a couple of the Coven sleep, a house out in the suburbs.”

  “How solid is the info?”

  “Concrete.”

  “Alright, that’s a good start. We’re heading for a bar called Mackenzie’s, know where it is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright, we have no idea what surveillance we’ll be under if any. When we get close I want you to split, hold up in the car park and be discreet, any sign of trouble you call me, ok?”

  “Sure.”

  “Alright, let’s move out.”

  The engines of their bikes fired up and they blasted on down the road. Marshall had an odd feeling in his gut. He was using a Vampire as surveillance during a meet with his best friend, a surprising turn of events. He wondered if he had been blinded by Harriet’s beauty, unable to see past her charm. So far, he had no reason at all to doubt anything she had said or done. On top of that, she had helped kill Vampires and hurt Rainer.

  Whatever he felt, he had to trust someone, or he would be alone in the world. At a time when so many of the people who should have his back were working against him, taking unusual friends and allies maybe didn’t seem so strange.

  As Bill approached the isolated bar outside the city, Harriet peeled off, making her own way to the place. He pulled up into the parking lot, already seeing the familiar sight of Tommy’s Harley parked out front. There were a fair number of cars and trucks parked there. It was a popular spot to get some simple food and drink.