Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  “Lovely,” Winona sarcastically uttered. She then gestured towards Conner. “Anyway, let’s get this over with.”

  “Let’s do it,” Brad said as he and Willie moved to help Conner out of the car.

  Conner’s execution was swift and easy, and in an attempt to show how brave he was, he made a failed attempt not to cry out as he was immersed in flame.

  Once Conner crumbled into a glowing pile of ashes, Brad—while partially joking—asked, “So what’s next on the agenda, boss-lady?”

  Winona slightly shook her head and rolled her eyes before ignoring Brad’s joking tone and saying, “Now I need to go back to Fort Lauderdale. I need to cash in a lottery ticket, and wait for Blue Moon to give me my next assignment.”

  “Who’s Blue Moon?” Riley questioned.

  Winona had explained who Blue Moon was to Willie the night before, and after a short deliberation Winona restated, “He’s a spirit of my great-great-great-grandfather. He speaks to me in my dreams.”

  “I’m a big believer in the paranormal,” Brad began. “So don’t take what I’m going to ask the wrong way. Why do you believe that you are speaking with your great-great-great-grandfather’s spirit and not simply dreaming?”

  Winona grinned before sharing, “My cousin had asked me a similar question last Tuesday.”

  “And what was your answer?” Brad urged.

  “I died last Tuesday for a short time after being struck by lightning, and during the time I was dead, Blue Moon had appeared to me—for the first time,” Winona began. “He told me that magic ran through my veins and that I am a powerful shaman, as he was. Blue Moon had kept parchments too of his time as a shaman, and he told me where to find them. I found those parchments exactly where he had told me, and to my surprise those parchments were on how to capture and kill vampires. Then from a dream that was given to me by Blue Moon, he told me to come here and stop the three vampires.”

  “So did Blue Moon speak to you last night?” Riley asked. “In your dream?”

  “He did. During my dreams, he runs me through scenarios of me capturing and killing vampires, and so far, his scenarios are rougher than the real thing. It hasn’t even been a week yet since Blue Moon had first appeared to me, and I feel as if I’ve been going after vampires for months.”

  Riley made an acknowledging gesture before asking, “He hasn’t given you your next assignment though?”

  Winona shook her head before saying, “He did tell me to pay attention to Clydestern.”

  “Could he have said Clyde Eastern?” Willie questioned.

  Winona thought for a second before shrugging and saying, “I was waking up when Blue Moon had told me that, so I could’ve heard wrong. Who or what is Clyde Eastern?”

  “He’s the president of a new engine manufacturing company who’s selling stocks for a third of the price of the leading manufactures,” Willie began.

  “I read somewhere that Clyde’s engines are supposed to run cleaner,” Riley added.

  “If that lottery ticket that you need to cash in is worth something, perhaps Blue Moon is giving you an inside tip,” Brad began in a joking tone. “Perhaps you need to buy stock in Clyde’s engine manufacturing company.”

  “I know you’re joking, Brad, but I have a feeling that, that is actually what Blue Moon wants me to do,” Winona informed.

  “How much is that lottery ticket worth?” Riley asked.

  “Enough to take a chance at playing the stock market,” Winona said.

  “If you hit it rich, Winnie, you can pay us a salary,” Brad jokingly said.

  “Yeah,” Winona sarcastically retorted. “Don’t hold your breath.”

  “You really wouldn’t pay us?” Brad questioned.

  “This isn’t a job,” Winona began. “I was drafted… by Blue Moon, and if I didn’t feel a sense of obligation to do it, I wouldn’t be doing it. And I was more than happy to go into this alone before you and Riley volunteered to join me. So I will pay the expenses of this gig, but I’m not paying a salary.”

  Brad amusingly grinned before saying, “Okay-okay. I was actually messing with you anyway.”

  Winona politely grinned before suggesting, “Okay, well, we’re done here. So let’s go.”

  “I’m ready,” Willie said.

  “Let’s go,” Riley said before they went to their respective cars.

  Winona, Willie, Brad and Riley returned to Willie’s office. Five hours later, Winona, Brad and Riley caught a plane to Fort Lauderdale.

  Travis and his father’s funeral was Monday. It was a closed casket for both of them, and everyone who knew them had attended the services.

  Once the funeral concluded, Winona dipped into her savings, went to a store that sold new computers and bought a laptop with the latest features, a carrying bag and a backup battery. After leaving the computer store, she went and bought a mobile Internet connection for the laptop through her cell phone provider.

  Blue Moon gave Winona her next assignment that night as she slept, and the next morning, Brad, Riley and Winona—while taking her recent purchased laptop computer with her—were on a plane bound for Duluth, Minnesota.

  Only one vampire terrorized the city of Duluth, and Winona, Brad and Riley had captured and executed him within twenty-four hours.

  The three then moved onto Montana and sought out six vampires within that state; however, one of the vampires had escaped capture and fled to Canada with the news of a vampire killer.

  As the days slowly turned into weeks, Winona, Brad and Riley captured and killed over twenty vampires between Idaho and Minnesota.

  The news of a vampire killer spread rapidly within the vampire community, and before Winona could head west towards Washington State and Alaska, vampires from all parts of the world flew into the cities that Winona had cleared just to challenge her.

  Winona found that several of these new arrivals were as challenging as Blue Moon’s difficult scenarios, and in the effort to combat these vampires, Winona tested to see if Brad and Riley had the magic within them to cast the vampire incapacitating spell on the crystal balls.

  Both Brad and Riley proved to have the magic, but the duration of their magically enhanced crystal balls was slightly less than two minutes—which wasn’t the ideal weapon of choice for a large group of vampires; however, it did give Winona peace of mind that if either Brad or Riley would get separated from her during a hunt, they wouldn’t be totally defenseless against a pissed off vampire out for revenge.

  Riley had feelings for Winona since the day they met, and he never hid those feelings from her. Since Travis’s death, Winona didn’t want to think about entering into another relationship, but by early August, she found herself sexually and romantically involve with Riley.

  In a Montana hotel room, on October 31st at 5:30 A.M., Winona and Riley were awakened when Winona’s cell phone played the ring-tone that was assigned to her parents’ landline.

  The phone was on the nightstand next to Winona’s side of the bed, and without sitting up, Winona answered it in her sleeping voice, “What’s up?”

  “As the winter fast approach, the vampires are moving farther south, and there are two in Savannah, Georgia as we speak,” Shayne replied. “And they seem to be residing a few miles from your Great Aunt Bonnie’s house.”

  “Does Mom know?” Winona quickly asked as she sat up.

  “No, and I’m not going to tell her,” Shayne replied. “So I need you, Riley and Brad to get down there before anything can happen.”

  “Alright. We’ll be on the first available plane.”

  “I took the liberty of chartering you a plane,” Shayne quickly said. “Be at the airport in one hour.”

  In a tone as if she didn’t know how else to answer, she said, “Okay. Bye.” Winona hung up and placed her phone back on the nightstand.

  “What’s going on?” Riley asked before kissing Winona’s neck and shoulder in an arousing fashion.

  “My dad must’ve consulted the mirror and fo
und a couple of vampires a few miles away from my Great Aunt Bonnie’s house—Great Aunt Bonnie is my mom’s aunt.”

  Riley paused his kissing long enough to ask, “Where does your Great Aunt Bonnie live?”

  As Riley continued to kiss Winona’s shoulder, she answered, “Savannah, Georgia, and my dad has chartered us a plane. We have to be at the airport in an hour, so we don’t have time to do what you’re currently wanting to do.”

  Riley stopped kissing Winona’s shoulder before saying, “Fine.”

  Winona faced Riley with a smile before giving him a ‘good morning’ kiss.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Present day, Ellen had waited until Winona had finished her story of how she had become a vampire hunter before speaking.

  “So Blue Moon didn’t even send you here,” Ellen quickly took note of.

  “No,” Winona admitted. “Other than giving me my training dreams, Blue Moon has been quiet since I’d left Montana.”

  “So he’s indifference about you being here,” Ellen guessed.

  Winona slightly grinned before saying, “That’s one way of looking at it.”

  “So Blue Moon might know that these two aren’t dangerous,” Ellen suggested while gesturing towards the vampires.

  Winona slightly chuckled before saying, “He might… if it’s true.”

  “They’re vampires, Ellen,” Riley pointed out.

  “And excluding them, you and Brad, everyone here is either a wizard or a sorceress,” Ellen retorted. “So what’s your point?”

  “Riley, whether these two vampires are dangerous or not, Ellen wants to know for sure,” Winona said in Ellen’s behalf. “I have no problems with giving her that.”

  “They’re vampires, and I think they should be killed regardless,” Riley retorted.

  “And that would make you the killer, not them,” Ellen quickly informed.

  “If they are in fact harmless, Ellen, I’ll release them,” Winona announced. She then saw the disapproving expression across Riley’s face. “I’m not in this to kill the innocent.”

  With the same disapproving expression across his face, Riley shook his head without saying a word.

  When Ellen saw that Riley wasn’t going to respond verbally, she said, “Winona, in your story, you had mentioned that you have one of Lawrence Stone the Second’s diaries.”

  “You can call me Winnie, Ellen; most of my friends do,” Winona began. Ellen pleasantly grinned. “And I do have his diary. What about it?”

  “I’m a friend to Lawrence Stone the Second’s great-great-great granddaughters. I can prove that too, and they’ll want… a copy at least of that diary.”

  “Your friends can have it,” Winona assured her. “I don’t need it. I will need to have my dad send it through the mail though.”

  Ellen just nodded in agreement.

  When things became quiet, Ellen asked, “Are you a vampire hunter, Cory?”

  “No,” Cory said. “Until today, I didn’t know that vampires actually exist.”

  “So what were you doing when you came charging at us?” Ellen asked as the front door opened.

  “Harry?” Allyson called.

  “In here,” Harris called back.

  “So what were you doing?” Ellen repeated.

  “Spotted Pelt had whispered in my ear to get in there,” Cory said as Allyson and Sadie were stepping into the room. “I didn’t know why he wanted me to charge in, but I obeyed.”

  “Wow, there really are vampires,” Sadie said while stepping up to them.

  The two vampires looked towards Sadie.

  “My wife Allyson and my cousin Sadie,” Harris informed while gesturing towards who was who.

  “Here are the book and the crystal ball that you requested,” Allyson told Harris as she stepped up to him.

  Harris took the items.

  “We have five crystal balls,” Riley pointed out while indicating to himself, Winona and Brad.

  “Your crystal balls are apparently used as weapons against vampires,” Harris began. “I don’t want to do anything that might change that.”

  “Okay, well, let’s get started,” Brad urged while looking at Ellen. “So we can execute them once they’re found guilty of feeding on people.”

  Ellen sucked on her lips while staring indifferently at him.

  “Let’s get started,” Harris echoed. “Place one of those end tables in front of the couch.”

  “On it,” Galvin said before grabbing the closest end table to him.

  “Winnie, if you have those crystal balls with you—within this room—you might want to get them out of the room,” Ellen suggested.

  “They’re in the van,” Winona informed. “But why would that matter?”

  “Any crystals in the room will amplify the spell,” Ellen informed. “And I know this for a fact because Harris had cast the spell on Martha DeNatale. Martha had several crystal knickknacks decorating her living room, and after the spell was cast, Harris and I received over a year’s worth of her memories.”

  “Why were you casting the spell on Martha?” Brad asked. “Whoever Martha is.”

  Ellen slightly grinned before saying, “My great-grandmother was Martha’s high school math and gym teacher. Harris and I needed to know certain details about my great-grandmother—like what had happened to her, but the amplified spell shared everything from the moment Martha had met my great-grandmother to the day when my great-grandmother had gone missing. She was never missing though. My great-grandmother’s niece Vincentia had killed her. Vincentia’s whereabouts are unknown though. Anyway, through the memories that Martha had shared with me, I got to know my great-grandmother very well.”

  “That’s cool that you got to know your great-grandmother like that,” Brad said.

  Ellen just nodded with an agreeing grin.

  “This spell will cause a momentary disorientation, so everyone should find a seat—even if it’s on the floor,” Harris informed as he was placing the crystal ball and the book on incantations on the end table. “And since I’m casting the spell, I’m taking one of the armchairs.”

  “Okay” and “Alright” were the replies before everyone sat down on the floor.

  Harris stepped over to one of the armchairs and dragged it over to the table. He then sat down and picked up the book on incantations.

  Harris flipped through the book, and when he found the correct incantation he said, “Okay, here we go. So be quiet, everyone.”

  Harris recited the incantation, and after the incantation was finished, Harris asked the male vampire, “Have you ever… or do you drink human blood?”

  The color of the crystal ball changed from a clear crystal to a swirling purple and blue. Soon after that everyone in the room was experiencing the male vampire’s first several minutes as a vampire.

  “Good morning, Wesley,” he heard from behind him once his transformation into a vampire was complete.

  Wesley jumped from a laying position to a preparing-to-pounce-the-owner-of-the-voice position and growled at the twenty-something-year-old looking man who the voice had belonged to.

  “I made you, Wesley, and I can break you,” the man informed calmly. “So you had better tap into the logic side of your brain and control that urge.”

  After a short moment, Wesley found the logical side of himself, stopped growling and stood upright.

  “What did you do to me?!” Wesley demanded.

  “I made you an immortal,” he said. “Like me.”

  “Immortal?” he echoed while noticing that he was in a basement of some house. Before his inquiry could be answered, the appealing smell of blood had suddenly caught his senses.

  “You’re a vampire, Wesley,” he informed as he saw Wesley eyeing the ice chest that held several drained hospital blood bags, along with one blood bag that wasn’t completely drained.

  Wesley’s primal side regained control of him, and as he uncontrollably ghosted towards the ice chest, he announced, “That smells so entic
ing.”

  The master vampire backed up while allowing Wesley to get to the ice chest. Wesley opened it and sniffed deeply before searching through the bags for any that might contain blood.

  “I’m afraid that I’m currently out of blood,” the master vampire informed as Wesley found the bag that wasn’t completely empty. “I left a little. How odd. That’s really not like me.”

  Wesley immediately drank what little there was, and once it was drained, he tossed the empty bag to the floor and searched for more.

  “That was it,” the master vampire informed.

  “That can’t be it,” Wesley countered.

  When Wesley couldn’t find any more he angrily threw the ice chest across the room.

  “Feel better?” the master vampire questioned.

  “I feel worse,” Wesley complained. “That little bit made me even more hungry for it.”

  The master vampire grinned before picking up the bag that Wesley had drained.

  “Did you find this blood appetizing to you?”

  “Very,” Wesley quickly agreed.

  “I know where you can get more… of this particular blood,” the master vampire informed.

  “Where?” Wesley quickly demanded.

  “This blood was donated by Judge Brett Camden…”

  “My father,” Wesley interrupted.

  “Your father,” the master vampire agreed with a grin. “To have more of this blood, all you need to do is go home and follow your urge.”

  “Yes,” Wesley agreed. “I would love nothing better.”

  “Excellent,” the master vampire said. “Those six Dobermans that your dad keeps as guard dogs will now see you as a stranger. They won’t be a problem for you though. They can’t hurt you—severely, anyway. But if your father sees you as a threat, he might duck into his safe room.”

  “I have the code,” Wesley said.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” the master vampire said with a grin. “And to make sure that you get home without any… distractions, I’ll drive you there.”