by Justin Sloan
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Old Manhattan Docks
Royland and Cammie had been casing out the docks for most of the night, teetering on the point between exhaustion and just wanting to give up, when Cammie’s ears perked up.
She recognized that voice.
Slowly, she crept to the side of a shipping crate and poked her head around it, then quickly pulled back.
“It’s her,” she whispered to Royland.
He snuck up next to her, pressing up almost against her body as he leaned out to have a look. His scent, like oak and iron, pulled at her and in spite of the odd coupling, made her want more.
“Did you just sniff me?” he asked.
“Barely perceptively,” she replied, biting her lower lip.
“Maybe to a regular human.” He pointed at his teeth and let his fangs show. “Vampire.”
She could feel herself blushing again, the heat rising to her cheeks, and hated it. Why did she lose herself around this vampire? Thinking back to their sparring in the underground hideout, before they had made their move on Enforcer HQ, she remembered. The way he hadn’t been afraid to hold back against her, knowing she could hold her own, made her see what kind of man he was.
While she was always flirtatious, she was the first to admit, it rarely meant anything. But with this guy?
She licked her lips and pulled him in for a quick kiss. He stared at her wide-eyed, and chuckled.
“Didn’t we talk about me making the first move?”
“Not my style,” she said with a shrug, then nodded over her shoulder. “What do we do about traitor girl over there?”
He frowned. “You kiss me out of the blue, and then change the subject like that?”
She smiled seductively. “We can keep going, but then she might escape.”
Royland just shook his head. “You… either have problems, or are really amazing. I’m still trying to decide which. Probably a little of both. Now, can we focus?”
“Your loss,” she said, and then moved around the shipping crate before she could see his reaction. Part of all this was just in good fun, but she actually liked this guy, and was starting to worry that her brash nature might scare him off.
Focus, she told herself as she crouch-walked toward where they had spotted Ella.
“That’s not good enough,” Ella said, and Cammie ducked down beside a stairwell, close enough to hear but stay out of sight.
“I can get you to the border of Old Portugal,” a man said. “For what you’re paying, no farther.”
Cammie and Royland shared a look. This wasn’t what they expected at all. With a shrug, Cammie stood.
“Portugal, Ella?” she said.
Ella and Peterson froze, hands on holsters, but didn’t draw. The man they were talking with, a tall man with a long, leather jacket and a captain’s hat typical of those sailing the blimps, took a step back, hands up.
“I don’t need any trouble on this trip,” he said. “You promised extra protection, not danger.”
“It’s fine,” Ella said, taking her hand away from her pistol and motioning for Peterson to do the same. “Give us a minute.”
The captain nodded, but only stepped back a few feet before stopping to wait. Cammie ignored him, approaching Ella.
“All of this was just to run away?” Cammie asked.
Ella’s eyes darted between Cammie and Royland, and where there was usually defiance, now she seemed nervous. It was a weird emotion to see from her.
“We’re fed up,” Ella said. “All of this back and forth, it’s too much. And even if we wanted to settle in, be part of the community now, we don’t support it. But we’re done fighting, so please, just pretend you didn’t see us.”
“You’re not planning some crazy scheme, joining up with pirates or something?” Royland asked.
“Pirates?” the captain asked, leaning back into the conversation.
“No!” Ella looked to him, pleadingly. “We have nothing to do with pirates, I swear.” She turned back to Cammie and Royland, hands out. “Just let us go. It’s over right? I heard that Morgan called for peace, and I’m sure once that meeting’s over, everyone will be happy, everything back as it was.”
“The meeting’s over.” Cammie sniffed, then cleared her throat. “Everything is as you say.”
“See? No hard feelings, nothing to worry about. In the end, it all works out!”
Cammie’s mind flashed back to the Weres around her in the warehouse, raining down destruction on Morgan and her followers. The thought sent a shiver down her spine, but she nodded.
“Go,” Cammie said.
“What?” Royland stepped close and leaned in to whisper. “Does that sound like justice to you?”
“Valerie isn’t here. She put us in charge, and if our idea of right and wrong doesn’t always gel with hers, well, that’s part of what delegation is all about, right? Trusting those below you to make the correct choice. Not always the one you would have made.”
“I’ll point out that Valerie didn’t kill Ella when she could have,” Peterson said, speaking up for the first time since being caught. “And, I’ve always been a model cop. If you can’t stand by me vouching for my sister, then it would be hopeless. But here I am, and Cammie has made her call. Do you agree, Royland?”
They all turned to the vampire, awaiting his decision. After a moment’s thought, he nodded, and then turned to the captain and added, “See that they reach their destination.”
“Thank you,” Ella said.
Everyone turned to the captain, who harrumphed and then shook his head. “The shit I put up with in this town. I’m getting too old for it.”
He walked off with a nod to Ella and Peterson.
Ella turned to Cammie and seemed unsure what to say, so Cammie held up a hand and said, “Just go.”
Peterson nodded and the two walked off, following the captain, leaving Cammie and Royland by themselves. She ran a hand through her hair, noticing how oily it was and how much she would love to have a nice, long shower right now. Preferably, not by herself.
A quick glance at Royland made her smile, but then she remembered what he had said about making the move.
She nodded to the old port boarding zone, where some benches still remained from the old days, and took a seat.
“I’m beat,” she said.
“Too beat for maybe… stopping by the café for a night cap?” He sat beside her and noticing her hand placed conveniently for him to see, took it in his.
Her well-timed yawn added to the effect when she put her other hand on his and gently caressed it. “I’m a bit tired for going out.”
His eyes flitted down to her back, across her body, and up to her hopeful eyes. “I suppose, I mean… I did buy one of Sandra’s bottles of wine, and I do have it in my room.”
“If you promise to behave yourself,” she said, doing her best not to laugh. The result, judging by the longing in his eyes, was more of a seductive smile.
He stood and held out his arm for her to take.
Always best to let the guy think he is in charge, she thought to herself. She wrapped her arm in his and followed him back to what, she would be sure was a night that, would make her forget all the unpleasantries of the day.
Presley and Esmerelda were going to miss out, but Cammie supposed she didn’t have to share everything, at least for now. Maybe later if she wanted to spice things up, she’d invite them in, see if the vampire could handle it.
She giggled to herself.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Perfect.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Unknown City
The moonlight lit up the city which was mostly in ruins, but as Valerie and her companions approached, they spotted several residential neighborhoods in fairly good condition, and in the city itself there were several tall, window-covered buildings still standing.
The most interesting, though, was a large building
with marble stairs and columns, straight out of the old days, Valerie imagined. This would have been either a museum or where government officials conducted their business.
And at the moment, she could tell by the sudden shift in the winds, it was occupied by a vampire—a Forsaken.
She first saw him standing on the roof, looking away from them, but he must have sensed her, because he turned just as she looked up.
They locked eyes for a moment, and then he made a signal by raising his right arm and then extending it toward them.
“What the hell’s that about?” Diego asked.
His answer came in the form of what sounded like a war cry and the pounding of feet on concrete.
“There!” Valerie shouted, pointing to the nearest shelter, one of the glass buildings. “Get out of sight.”
The other two ran for it, but not her. She was already going the other way, hoping that she could distract the wild horde of people she now saw rounding the marble building. They were all barefoot and mostly nude but for loincloths for the men and what looked like potato sacks for the women.
Running fast enough to outpace them but not so fast as to lose them, she made for the marble building and the Forsaken. If he didn’t have any other information, he might at least be able to tell her where they were, once she forced it out of him.
Even as she reached the first marble column and used it to jump and push off to reach the first window’s ledge, she could feel the cold aura coming from the Forsaken above. Cold and something else. Sharp? He was already afraid.
And if he was afraid, that meant she just had to push it a tad further. She leaped up and pushed out with the fear hard, as she grabbed onto the next ledge and chicken-winged herself up.
By the time she reached the roof, she could feel the cold aura had melted into a slight chill, pulsating from him, and the words, “Who are you?” floated through the air like wisps of clouds.
She grasped onto it, smiling, and said, “I’m no one to be trifled with.”
He tilted his head. “Did… you just quote a movie?”
“A what?”
In spite of the terror in his eyes, the Forsaken laughed and shook his head. “Nothing. Something from the old days.”
“Call them off!” she demanded. There wasn’t time for this cryptic bullshit. “Now!”
He stumbled back as she pushed with the fear again, the smile vanishing instantly.
But he stood, defiantly. “Who are you? How—how did you do that? And you arrived without any sort of protective clothing.” He sniffed the air and nodded to himself. “Yes, there’s no doubt, you’re a vampire. And since you seem to have walked here… A day-walking vampire?”
“Call. Them. Off.”
She stepped forward, mere feet away, and pulled her sword.
“Yes, yes, of course.” He stood, went to the edge of the roof, and waved an arm as he shouted, “Stand down.”
Immediately the command was repeated throughout the crowd, and they all froze in place, then turned to face him.
“You see,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her, “you’re not the only one here with power. Mine just comes in a different form.”
“They’re your slaves?”
“My followers, by choice. I led them to freedom, now they follow me.”
“I have a hard time believing that.”
He shrugged. “Believe what you will, but I’ll tell you this. There are people, and there are other vampires, both of whom would enslave others to get ahead in life. I do what I can to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
“Let’s say I believe you, or that I’m at least playing along.” She went to the edge of the roof and used her vampire sight to look for Sandra and Diego, spotting them up a stairway on the side of a building. They were surrounded by this Forsaken’s warriors. Sandra gave her a meek wave. “Why’d you attack us?”
“For all I know, you’re one of these slavers. Rather, for all I knew, I should say. If they have a day-walking vampire among them who can do what you just did, I might as well surrender now, eh?”
“Eh? You from Canada?”
“I was, once.”
She rubbed her chin in thought, then remembered why they were here. “I don’t suppose we’re close to Chicago?”
He laughed. “Far as I know, it’s still a ways West. But you don’t want to go there. Some big shot and his military followers. Call themselves the Force de Guerre, force of war, I believe it means. And they can be… lacking in forgiveness, from what I hear.”
“Intolerant of injustice, from what I hear.” Valerie glanced back down at her friends, then said, “We’ll be on our way. You try to stop us, I’ll kill you.”
“See, there’s our problem,” he said. “I have your friends surrounded, and can have them killed with a wave of my hand. Seeing as you know where we are, and are super powerful, but… given that I know nothing of you, I’m not sure just letting you go is such a good idea.”
“Okay, now you listen here,” in a split-second she had him by the neck, lifting him off the ground. “I could squeeze right now and watch your head pop right off like a pea from its pod. You threaten me or my friends again, well… let’s just say I like peas.” She stared into his eyes, allowing hers to glow red and the fear to push out again, then added, “Yum.”
He looked like he was about to piss himself, and then started laughing.
She squeezed, cocking her head in confusion.
“Ack,” he held up his hands in surrender. “No, no, I’m sorry. It was a test, see? If you didn’t care about your friends, that’s how I’d know you were one of them. They have no loyalty, not the ones who are knee deep in it.”
Lowering him, she returned her eyes to normal, but didn’t loosen the grip. “A test? You want to test me? How about the fact that I didn’t kill you, but could’ve many times over.”
“That and the I’m no one to be trifled with line,” he said, his voice almost mocking her, she was certain, “yeah, I was already leaning toward trusting you anyway.”
“And how do we know we can trust you?”
He grinned, then shrugged. “Ask my people. Have I done bad things in my time as a vampire? Certainly. But in this new world, I’ve found a new calling, a new way of living. A community.”
“Fine. We need rest anyway, some real food, if you have any to spare. Some clean water, maybe?”
He nodded and motioned to the city around him. “Welcome, my lady, to Cleveland, Ohio.”
He had introduced himself as Gerald, and soon they were all acquainted. The strange Ohioans and the Forsaken sat around campfires as the vampire told them stories of the old days, of his travels, and more specifically, of his time with the slavers.
Valerie nodded, taking special interest in the subject. First her brother, then vampire hunters and bleeders, and now this? America had a long way to go still. It made her head swim, just thinking about all the work she had to do.
But as Michael’s Justice Enforcer, she intended to do everything she could.
“What do they do with the slaves, though?” Sandra asked, her voice shaking. Valerie had almost forgotten that the woman had once, effectively, been her slave.
“Sometimes they use them to simply serve, others, it’s unspeakable,” Gerald said, staring off into the fire. “One time, I found a woman being used as target practice with knives.”
“Damn,” Valerie said. It didn’t necessarily surprise her, after being involved with Donovan, but that didn’t mean it was easy to hear.
“That was the night I betrayed my kind.” Gerald lifted a stick and stirred the embers of their fire.
“You couldn’t stand to be around them after that?” Diego asked.
Gerald chuckled. “Not exactly. They were trying to kill me, see, after I rescued the woman and tore off the head of the vampire who was hurting her.”
“That’ll do it.”
Valerie nodded. “Good for you.” She was smiling, but the smile suddenly vanished as sh
e had a realization. “And the woman…?”
He shook his head. “They got her. I tried to feed her from my blood, to stop it, heal her. Even tried to make her a vampire… but it was too late.”
A moment of silence followed, but Valerie had to know.
“Did… did you ever avenge her?”
He looked up at her over the fire. “The one who did it? Yes, but the rest of them are still out there. I wouldn’t stand a chance against them, so I settled down here with the plan of helping as many people as I could to never suffer like she did.”
“And we’d follow you to our deaths, if you asked for it,” a heavyset man with bloodshot eyes said from across the fire. His dark beard was long enough to make up for the lack of hair on his head. “You ever say the word, you know we will.”
“I know this, Amos.”
The others around the table chorused their agreements, and Valerie was impressed with the loyalty and admiration in their eyes.
“There was a time,” she said, “when I thought I was the only good vampire in the world. Can you believe it? But you’ll be happy to hear, if you think like I did, you’re not.”
He seemed to be unsure, but nodded.
“You ever come to Old Manhattan, you’ll see I speak the truth,” she said. “And there’s a couple more roaming about, who you’d probably find somewhere in Europe, at this point.”
“I might take you up on that.” Gerald looked around at his followers, eyes coming to rest on Amos. “But even if everyone here would follow me, I can’t ask that of you all. This is your home.”
“It’s your home too, now,” Amos said.
Gerald nodded, then turned back to Valerie. “He’s right. But you and yours will be welcome whenever you come through this area.”
“And if I ever come calling, in need of every man and vampire I can find to stand up and fight alongside me and mine?”
“That would have to be a mighty important mission.”
Sandra cocked her head and mouthed, “What are you talking about?”
“Thing is,” Valerie added, “I don’t like the stories like the one you shared with me, about this woman you loved. I don’t like them one bit, and when I’m done here, I plan on having a united America, a land where, even if we’re divided by wastelands and ruined cities, the cities that remain will be safe-havens where anyone is welcome, as long as they pursue a life filled with honor. Do you share this dream of mine?”
