by Justin Sloan
“Sorry,” she told the body as she cleaned the sword on his shirt. “You are working for them. I don’t imagine you were innocent, but if I’m wrong, then blink twice.”
The man’s dying face contorted, then lost all life.
Valerie looked into the compound and muttered, “Huh, zero blinks. Good to know.”
Cammie and two of her larger Weres caught up to Valerie. These two Weres Valerie was starting to refer to as Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.
It’s amazing how one of the most virulent parts of old Earth that stayed around was pop culture.
The first she nicknamed Godzilla, because of his size. The second because, what he lacked for in size, he made up for in fancy body armor, a sighted rifle that looked more Swiss army knife than gun, and night vision goggles with strange attachments she’d never seen before. She decided she’d call him “Mech” for short.
“One down,” Godzilla said. “At least a dozen more to go.”
“Confirmed,” Mech said, holding something against his ear. He pointed at the surrounding wall, and only then did Valerie notice the cameras pointed their way. “Let’s just say so much for your sneak attack.”
“You’re listening in on them?” Valerie asked. At a nod, she continued, “Any chance you can send a message back, saying to go screw themselves?”
He chuckled. “Sorry. But I can convey the same message with my rifle.”
“Let’s inform them of how we feel then,” she said, just as a side door burst open and four security guards, looking like special forces, rushed out. More appeared at windows above, rifles at the ready.
“This is gonna hurt,” Cammie said.
“Keep a smile on your face and it’ll hurt less,” Valerie said.
Eyes wide, Cammie looked at her quickly before turning her focus back on the people, “What, really?”
Valerie smirked, “Probably not, but it’ll definitely make them think you’re a psychopath, and that could work to our advantage. Ready?”
Cammie looked back at her like she was bat-shit-crazy, but then nodded.
Valerie made sure to smile wide, knowing the look of her fangs and glowing red eyes had to be a bit unnerving, and then charged. Bullets pulverized the cement at her feet, chips and fragments stinging her legs. More bullets, one whizzing by her ear and another grazing Godzilla’s thigh, but Valerie was in her zone now, dodging shots and moving at speeds only seen by those who would die moments later.
Phhtt—a shot went off and a man dropped from one of the windows. Great, Sandra had just given away her position. It’d better be worth it.
Valerie saw that suppressive fire had Mech pinned down over by the guard post, so she sheathed her sword as she charged the building. Putting all of herself into a mighty leap, she pushed off of one of the guards with a kick that made his head cave in and sent him sprawling, dead before he hit the ground. She grabbed hold of the second story windowsill, pulled herself up, and then used it to leap up to the next.
Here she held on one-handed as she drew her pistol and shot point blank, dropping three men. By the time the fourth was able to process what had just happened, she’d swung up and sunk her teeth into his neck.
If this fighting was going to keep up, she’d need the energy.
Waste not, want not.
A warmth flowed through her and she closed her eyes in ecstasy, feeling his last heart beat as it went thump-thump… thump-thump… thump……thump, then ending.
She dropped him, feeling the rush of reality come back over her, put her foot under his rifle, kicked it up and caught it. The guy that was on the ground below didn’t know what hit him when she unloaded a good portion of a clip into the top of his head.
“That was my kill!” Mecha yelled out, disappointment in his voice.
“Take the next five, and stop your bitching!” she called back, then signaled Sandra with a wave. She hoped the woman would find a new hiding spot, in case anyone spotted her location.
“We coming up to you, or you coming down to us?” Cammie called back to her.
“Clear the first floor,” Valerie replied. “I’ll find Diego and any others I can.”
And with that, she turned into the darkness of the building, her hunting grounds, and ran in.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Urvant Headquarters
Darkness certainly didn’t bother Valerie — but something about being alone in these long, narrow hallways terrified the crap out of her.
If Diego wasn’t in here, or wasn’t alive when she found him, there’d be some heads rolling tonight. The thought of what that would do to Sandra was too much. It was cute, those two.
When they’d been together, nothing. At least, nothing that she had noticed. But now that they were separated, there was a little something in Sandra’s expression every time that the topic of Diego came up. In fact, he was probably what she was thinking about whenever Valerie caught her staring off into space.
Valerie chuckled, and then remembered where she was and rolled her eyes.
It wasn’t time for chuckling; this was the time for killing.
“Diego?” she called out, knowing it was stupid, but also knowing she had no idea how to find him otherwise.
At first she heard only silence, but then a loud metal clanging came from nearby, then again, until one of several doors in the hallways opened up.
Damn. Certainly not Diego.
Out walked three large Weres, followed by two smaller, Asian Weres.
Now she knew why she didn’t like these narrow hallways—there was no room to draw her sword, let alone swing it.
The first Were came at her, and she took a step back. “You don’t have to fight for them!”
He just snarled and pulled two knives from his jacket. She dodged the strikes with ease. Although he was fast, a fast Were was still slow compared to the speed of a potent vampire with her strength.
“Do you hear me?” she asked him, trying one more time. “We have Weres that have escaped, and so can you!”
“Only way I’m leaving this place is in a body bag, lady,” he grunted, slashing at her again.
“Have it your way then.” She leapt forward, catching the momentum of his swing and maneuvering it with a joint twist that sent his own knife into his opposite thigh. Now she had him with his arm across his body, so she kicked in his knee and, as he grunted in surprise, she snapped his neck.
“Screw that!” The next Were, seeing his friend put down so easily, pulled out his pistol. By the time he was randomly firing down the hallway, she was already beside him. He felt metal touching his temple and turned in surprise.
BANG!
His brain matter flew across the two Asian Weres as they transformed into tigers, but Valerie was already backing up. Now she saw an advantage this hallway could provide her.
The narrowness meant the tigers could only attack one at a time. The last standing Were noticed this too and shouted a warning to his companions, but they were already charging.
Valerie considered her options fast—a pistol shot would probably only wound it, and since she didn’t have silver bullets, it’d heal, fast.
She could try to take them on hand-to-hand, since her strength was still likely better than either of these two. But if they managed to get in a good swipe, she could be in some real trouble.
She didn’t have room to draw her sword in the normal way, so instead of facing them head on, Valerie spun and took two fast steps. She dropped to one knee. Leaning forward and looking over her shoulder, she held the sword hilt so that the blade went out behind her.
As she’d hoped, the first tiger impaled itself right onto the blade. She jumped forward, pulling the blade free, and then turned, pistol in hand to empty a clip into the second tiger before it had a chance to climb over its friend’s body. With every shot exploding more brain matter from the tiger’s head, she was pretty sure that pussycat wouldn’t be bothering her again this night.
“What are you?” the last one asked, m
outh agape.
She smiled. “Redemption, if you play your hand right. The last woman you’ll see alive if you don’t.”
He nodded with a glance down at his fallen friends.
“Diego,” she said. “The Were prisoner that was just recently brought in.”
“Of—of course.” He pointed to the hallways ahead. “Third on the left.”
“You’re taking me to him, you understand?” she commanded.
He seemed to be suddenly in a daze, but he nodded and turned, walking ahead of her. The mess around the tigers was nasty, but she worked her way through it and was soon following the Were into the hallway.
“Eddie, that you?” a voice said from the end. “Shit, you hear all that racket? This is not the time.”
“Stop talking,” Eddie said, voice shaky.
“No man, we’re royally screwed here, I got the chief on the—”
His face went ghostly white when he saw Valerie walking behind Eddie.
“What the hell is going on down there?” a voice demanded from the other side of a radio device the Peace Enforcer was holding.
“Tell the rest of the Enforcers we need them, now!” the Enforcer cried into the radio, but Valerie kicked his chest, knocking him back to bounce off the wall and caught the radio before it hit the floor.
“Who am I talking to?” she demanded, her voice grim. Glancing at the doors opening on the far ends of the connecting hallways, where more Enforcers were entering. “Reveal yourself before I ma—”
“Reveal myself?” the voice said, cackling with laughter. “You think I have anything to fear from you? Everyone calls me Crusher, but the real name’s Commander Richard Strake. I run this city, you worthless blood bag. Come find me at Enforcer HQ, where all my police and Enforcers will be waiting to bring me your head, if you make it out of that place alive… which I doubt. Matter of fact—boys?”
“Most of us are here, boss,” the man called out, struggling to stand in spite of the bruised ribs he likely had.
“Good. Go ahead and drain her for me. I want first drink off this one.”
Smiles all around, including from Valerie, as gunshots sounded not far off.
“Let’s make this quick, boys.” She twitched her fingers next to her pistol as if about to draw. “You all strike me as a bag full of dick tips, and I’d hate to have to introduce my friends to such a pitiful selection.”
Only one person wasn’t smiling, she noticed. Eddie. He was backing up, as if hoping to not be noticed. She couldn’t blame him, after everything he’d just seen her do. She’d run from herself, too. Maybe she’d let him live after this… maybe.
The first Enforcer came at her, pulling out a metal rod that didn’t look intimidating at first, until the end lit up and electricity sparked across the tip, casting bright flashes in the hallway.
Another did the same from the hallway to her right, and she sensed someone behind her followed suit. A quick glance around showed her that this wasn’t the optimal spot for defense.
“If this was easy,” she murmured, “it wouldn’t need me.”
She left the pistol holstered and charged, dodging the Enforcer’s attack and rolling to the side so that she disarmed him and snatched the rod. Without breaking stride, she swept his feet out from under him and then brought the rod back to connect with his back as he fell. It sent him flailing and screeching in pain, right into two attackers from the right.
“Ooh, fun toy,” she said, smile growing fiercer.
What followed was more of a fireworks show than an actual fight, as she played eenie-miney-moe with them and they took turns getting zapped across the hallways. Electricity sparked almost non-stop as more of them charged her, but soon they were all either passed out or shaking on the floor, too terrified to go close, and the whole area smelled of burnt skin and hair.
“Thanks for the show, it’s been fun,” she said, smiling to see one of the doors open and a familiar face stick her head in—it was Cammie.
At first Cammie looked amazed, then just laughed.
“Didn’t save any of the fun for me?”
“Well, if you hadn’t taken your sweet time—”
PHHT! The sound of a rod charging should have given her enough warning, but she had lost her situational awareness so the rod shocked her in her back, and sent her flying into an open door. Her body caused the door to slam shut, and she collapsed on the floor. She still wasn’t totally processing what was happening as she looked around in a daze.
All she knew for sure was that the electric rods freakin’ hurt!
Then Cammie was roaring, throwing open the door she had been behind. Valerie noticed Eddie, standing in the doorway with the rod still sparking.
That little rat bastard!
Before Cammie could reach him, Valerie scrambled up and across the room, still twitching, and yanked him off the ground, electric rod swiped aside so it clattered to the floor. Her fingers squeezed his neck and she felt her fangs salivating.
“And to think, I’d considered letting you live,” she hissed.
He glared down at her, and then she heard a click and felt a weight lessen at her side—the little dick had just taken her pistol and meant to shoot her with it!
Oh, hell no.
She didn’t even give him the pleasure of her vampire kiss, but just squeezed and watched with a mixture of amazement and horror as her maddened strength caused his head to pop off his body. She stepped back as blood spurted, his body dropping to the ground, and stared at her hand in shock.
“How in the world did you do that?” Cammie asked, as around them, more than one Enforcer vomited.
Great, now the place smelled like burnt hair, blood, and vomit.
She normally would like the smell of blood, but she was too horrified at her own strength and what she had just done with it.
She turned to one that had just finished puking and pulled his head back by the hair.
“The young man, Asian, just brought in here.” She pulled his head back farther, to show him that she could pull it off with ease, and so that he saw her red, glowing eyes.
“The—there,” the man said, pointing to a middle door that hadn’t been opened.
“Your team?” Valerie asked Cammie.
“They’re still fighting it out outside, but I was in a hurry to help you. Clearly,” she said, looking around, “you didn’t need me.”
“I’d preferred you hadn’t seen this,” she said with a glance back at the headless Were. “Keep these in check. Kill them if you must.”
“And you?” she asked to Valerie’s back.
“I’m rescuing my friend,” was her response as she opened the first door.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The room before Valerie was long and wide, with no lights but the dim glow of tubes and machines as they pumped the blood of vampires. The vampires were strapped to tables, tubes in their veins and collars around their necks. Every one of them looked like barely more than skeletons beneath their skin, and she would have thought them dead if their eyes didn’t follow her—wide, tortured eyes that pleaded for an end.
