by Leo Romero
A woman sweeping her porch noticed them heading her way and immediately stood upright and vanished into her house, slamming the door shut behind her.
“The people here are scared,” Alicia stated. “They don’t know who to trust. Los Verdugos have got control of their farms, their livelihoods.”
As they passed by, scared eyes peered at them through the corners of windows. Frightened residents grabbed their children and scurried into their houses. Dom felt bad for them. They were terrified of ending up like those back at the bridge. They couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad, caught in a constant state of fear. It made him even more determined to put things right.
They moved past the village into a vast arid area circled by mountains. Up high on the hill was a huge white building, surrounded by walls. It was imposing, dominant, glaring down at the neighboring towns like a tyrant.
“That’s Castillo Serpiente,” Alicia stated, her face pinched with hate. “We’ll stop here and go by foot the rest of the way. It’ll be quieter.”
She patted her open palm down on the hood of the Humvee and it came to a stop. Rafa threw up his palms and the tailing vehicles all stopped. Alicia curled her arm inward, indicating for everyone to disembark, before she herself dismounted the Humvee. The throng all got out of their respective vehicles and gathered at the foot of the hill. They split into three groups; Dom and Trixie staying with Alicia and Rafa. The plan was to take differing paths up to the villa and attack it from three angles; the idea was to keep everyone already up there penned in so Víbora couldn’t make an escape.
With the instructions set, each group went their separate ways. Alicia, Dom, Trixie, and Rafa were to head there from the front. They set off, the blazing sun relentless, the heat of the dirt road burning Dom’s feet through his sneakers. He soldiered on, drinking water like a fish, the buzzing of grasshoppers and the odd hiss of snakes hot in his ears.
The dirt path veered upward in a steeper climb. As they made their way up, they passed some kind of shrine. Alicia and Rafa moved past it like it wasn’t there, their focus on Castillo Serpiente, but Trixie stopped and stared. Dom went and stood next to her. It was a stone statue of what looked like a woman. Fangs protruded from her parted lips, her eyes two carved swirls like whirlpools. Her hair was wild, jagged thorns. Wrapped around her waist was a skirt made of severed arms. Clutched in each hand were writhing snakes, attacking one another high above her head. It was a depiction of a demon.
At its base was a bowl of rotting meat and fruit, swarming with flies, a foul smell emanating from it.
“What in the hell’s this?” Trixie asked.
Alicia stopped, turned back and laid eyes on the statue. Her top lip curled up. “The cartels make these shrines for her.”
“Magdalena,” Dom said with a nod.
“I don’t know,” Alicia said. “I suppose so. They worship her. She is like their god.”
Dom stared at the statue in disgust. “What’s all that rotten stuff in the bowl?”
“They give her offerings of flesh,” Alicia answered.
“Oh-kay,” Dom replied, raising his eyebrows.
“What’s that around her neck?” Trixie asked, noting the stringed items wrapped around it.
Dom squinted as he scrutinized the statue closer. “Looks like fangs,” he said.
Dom glanced at Trixie.
“The Fangs of Moroz,” Dom said with a nod.
Alicia shrugged. “I don’t know what they are. All the statues have that on them. Big fangs on a chain around her neck. Maybe it means something. Who cares? This thing makes me feel sick.” She spat in the direction of the statue. It landed in the bowl of rotten slop, sending flies darting left and right.
Dom stared hard at the statue. Magdalena’s eyes suddenly appeared to whirl and move as if alive; the fangs around her neck seemed to glow. The Fangs of Moroz. He nodded. That’s what they were after, why Vincent sent them down here. She wears them around her neck?
A shiver crawled up Dom’s spine.
“Come on, let’s go,” Alicia said before turning away from the shrine, Rafa following her.
Dom and Trixie stayed for a second or two longer, staring at the depiction of an ancient vampire. Magdalena.
“She looks like a whole loada fun, huh?” Dom said.
“A stunner!” Trixie retorted.
Dom gulped. “I think maybe you should be the one to face her.”
Trixie stared at him agape. “Me? Hey, I faced off the last one, remember?”
“Yeah, but—”
“But what?”
“I was stuck in a room with him for hours. Man, you didn’t see what he did.”
“I can imagine. Which is why I took him out.”
Dom sighed. “Okay, okay, we’ll face her together,” he conceded. He glanced back at the statue, at the hatred that had been encapsulated on her face. His eyes then fell upon the severed arms hanging off her waist. “We gotta find her first though.”
“We’ll find her,” Trixie said with a nod. “And we’ll put her out of her misery too.”
“Are you two coming?” Alicia shouted at them over her shoulder. “Or you making an offering?”
Trixie’s lip turned up in revulsion.
“Yeah, we’re coming, Alicia,” Dom replied. He grabbed Trixie by the upper arm. “Come on,” he said in a soft voice. “Let’s leave Miss World alone.”
Trixie chortled as Dom led her away.
As they went, Dom swore he could feel those carved swirls for eyes burning into his back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
They reached the outer wall of the villa grounds.
The other two parties radioed in to say they’d nearly made it to their respective sides of the wall. As Dom, Trixie, Alicia, and Rafa were attacking from the front, they made sure to avoid the main gates, where guards would be stationed. They stuck to the trees and bushes outside the wall for cover. Dom pressed himself up against the wall, looking left and right. Apart from the grasshoppers and other wildlife, the place was silent. From where they were, the surrounding towns were in sight; this was the castle up on the hill from where the vampire terrorized the neighboring villages. Just like those old movies, except this was in the searing heat and not cold old Europe.
“Rafa!” Alicia called in a hoarse whisper.
Rafa turned her way.
“Lift me up.”
Rafa nodded and placed his guns on the ground. He went to the wall, bent down and interlocked his fingers, making his hands into a stirrup. Alicia used it to hoist herself up to the summit of the wall. She peered over. “They got guys out in front,” she said after a few seconds. “They don’t look alert.”
“How many?” Trixie asked.
“Maybe ten. I can’t see anyone else. We’ll catch them by surprise and then deal with whoever else is in there.” She got on her radio and conversed with the other parties “Atacar!” she then said to them all, short and sharp.
This was it. The plan was go. Dom watched Rafa boost Alicia up higher. She climbed up onto the wall and ducked down. After a quick scan left and right, she eased herself down the other side.
“Now you!” Rafa said, holding out his hands.
Trixie glanced at Dom before she went and allowed Rafa to hoist her up over the wall. Dom then followed, grabbing Rafa’s guns first. He made it up on the wall where he had a quick survey of the scene ahead. A fat villa was sitting in the near distance up a set of stone steps; armed guards loitered on the patio outside, some patrolling languidly, others lying on their asses, snoozing in the sun. Between both parties was a whole lot of cut, sun-dried lawn.
It was almost picture-perfect, and that was how he hoped it stayed.
He lowered the guns down to the girls who’d hidden behind the thicket of bushes surrounding the perimeter of the inner wall. He then turned back and reached down to give Rafa a helping hand up.
The moment Rafa took his hand, a loud voice cut through the air. By the time the cry registered i
n Dom’s mind, gunfire rang out. The wall just below him ruptured. The vibrations made him duck on instinct; he released Rafa’s hand, who fell back down to the ground with a grunt. Dom, now squatting on the wall, spun to face the villa with wide eyes.
He watched agape as the guys who had previously been lazing around on the patio were scrambling to their feet and taking menacing positions. One of them was ready and aiming his assault rifle. It exploded into fire. Dom screamed, covering his head. The wall beneath him soaked up a line of bullets. He gazed down at the peppered wall in numb disbelief; it looked like something from a Dick Tracy comic book.
I’m a sitting duck, he realized in horror. He spun his head the other way; Rafa was back on his feet. He was patting the air ahead of him with force, his teeth clenched. He was telling Dom to get the hell off the wall. Dom dropped off the wall like a lead balloon, just as the gunfire rang out once more. The bullets shot through the space above the wall he’d just been occupying, hitting trees instead of his head.
He hopped to his feet and stayed low behind a bush, scanning the area ahead of him with hot eyes. He was expecting more bullets to head his way, but the coast looked clear; the cartel guys had vanished from view.
What’s going on? Dom asked himself.
He was answered by a loud boom shattering the air. It was swiftly followed up by a hollow crash to Dom’s left. He whipped his head that way. There was now a big hole in the wall, hot dust and smoke billowing from it. Dom stared at it in bewilderment. Another intense bang punctured the atmosphere. Dom snapped his head toward the villa; the ground around ten feet away erupted, soil splattering all over the lawn. He stared at the smoking crater in the ground, perplexed.
“Cannons!” Alicia screamed.
Cannons? Dom echoed in his mind, hardly able to believe what he just heard.
That unceremonious boom bludgeoned the locale once more and another cannonball went whistling through the air. Dom’s eyes widened in terror. He ducked, covering his head. A whoosh of air above him whipped his hair back as the cannonball whistled over him. A crash behind him made him spin. The wall had been smashed open again in an astringent cloud of dust and smoke.
“Cannons!” Dom said in a loud, scared voice, suddenly a true believer.
“Get cover!” Alicia shouted.
Dom darted for the nearest tree and pressed himself up against it. The explosions continued, relentless. Another cannonball smashed into the wall, making a huge hole. When the smoke cleared, Rafa stuck his head through the hole from the outer side of the wall. He looked around with a dumb stare. “Ay caramba,” he said, crossing himself.
“DUCK!” Dom shouted.
The cannon blasted again.
Rafa’s jaw dropped. He ducked back down. The cannonball struck the wall, making an even bigger hole. Rafa’s face appeared in the gap; he was now coated with plaster dust like a donut sprinkled with powdered sugar. He coughed hard under the thick dust cloud. “What the hell is this?” he asked in between coughs, his watery eyes brimming with confusion.
“They’ve got cannons,” Alicia shouted back over her shoulder. She grabbed one of Rafa’a AK-47s and began firing it off toward the villa, spraying the whole area without fear. Her toned arm flexed and her breasts jiggled under the pressure.
Dom watched her open-mouthed. Man, she’s a real action babe.
He caught Trixie’s disapproving stare; she was glaring at him, her mouth a slit as he admired Alicia in action.
Dom gave her a shrug and mouthed the word, ‘what?’ before turning his attention back to Alicia.
Alicia emptied the magazine and lowered the gun. She studied the front of the villa with keen eyes. The cannon fire had come to a stop. The guys aiming their guns had either gone into retreat or hiding. Dom grinned; she’d managed to clear the area for them.
Alicia got on her radio. “Atacar!”
Rafa took the cue. He leaped through the demolished wall and grabbed his other AK. He got to work, peppering the patio. Bodies scrambled left and right for cover. From his position, Dom scanned the area ahead. He spotted the cannons set up to the left and right of the steps leading up to the villa entrance. Their round mouths were poking out of small, purpose built enclosures. A couple of guys were ducked down around each of them; one guy was pulling the cannons back to load up, while the other was doing the igniting. The one on the left was loaded, then pushed forward into position. A few seconds later, it exploded in a blast of smoke. Dom ducked. The projectile ruined the top of a tree over to the right, getting wedged inside its trunk in a hot, smoky rupture. The smell of scorched wood filled the air.
Dom growled to himself. They needed to take the cannons out if they were going to have any chance of getting in the villa itself.
The one on the right then fired; Rafa dived behind a bush. The wall behind them took more punishment. Rafa vanished in the ensuing dust cloud. When it cleared, Rafa turned and stared at the damaged wall open-mouthed. He crossed himself, then pointed up at the sky.
“We’ve gotta take out those cannons,” Dom stated, scampering bent over toward Trixie.
Trixie slipped off her bullet-proof vest. “Wait here,” she said before sneaking off.
“Trixie! Trixie, where you going?” Dom shouted.
Trixie didn’t answer, instead, she vanished into the bushes.
Dom turned to Alicia and gave her a frustrated shrug, just as her radio crackled into life. She answered it. “Si?”
Some Spanish came through the crackle. Alicia responded in a stern tone.
“What was that?” Dom asked.
“They got cannons at the back too,” Alicia told him.
“Great,” Dom lamented. Something then caught his eye. It was Trixie. She was crawling snake-like through the bushes. She’d made it near to the lawn. Soon she’d be in no-man’s land. “God, what’s she doing?” Dom asked, grabbing his head. It was way too dangerous out there, way too easy to either catch a stray one or get pummeled with the goddamn cannons.
His concerned eyes flicked to the villa; some of the cartel guys were coming out of hiding, thinking the coast was clear. One of them pointed their way before firing off rounds. The bushes around them rattled.
“Rafa!” Alicia screamed.
Rafa took his cue. He stood, and began firing off retaliatory rounds, showering the whole area. The Los Verdugos guys ducked back down and the standoff ensued once more. It was tit-for-tat, but with the cannons on their side, they had the advantage.
And that meant it was only a matter of time before the autodefensa were taken out.
Trixie then emerged from the bushes and into no man’s land. Dom watched her in alarm. She was out in the open, exposed, an easy target. A hand shot up to his mouth; his heart hammered like a bass drum. He didn’t wanna watch; his fists clenched and unclenched on the air.
Oh, Christ, Trixie, what the hell are you doing? What the hell are you doing?
Trixie didn’t wanna be outdone by this Alicia girl. She could be just as adept on the battlefield and it was the perfect time to show it. Now that the cartel guys were back in the shadows, she took advantage of the lull in the battle and did her thing. She crawled out from the bushes and hopped up onto her feet. She sucked in a huge breath and went into a full frontal flip. In the blink of an eye, she was halfway across the sun-dried lawn. As she moved, lacerating pain erupted in her palms. She gritted her teeth; it wasn’t time for pain. She knew she had to make it to the steps leading up to the villa or it was curtains. Just a few seconds of agony was all it took; any negative thoughts would destroy her flow and leave her exposed. Instead, she kept her focus on each and every flip as if her life depended on it.
She moved like a shadow toward those steps.
The cannon on the left burst into fire.
As she flipped over, she caught a glimpse of the lawn behind her exploding in a mass of mud and smoke. The right cannon then went off. But, the slow, cumbersome performance of the cannon was no match for her speed. The ground erupted
somewhere behind her.
The haven of the steps came into view; the closer she got, the less angle the cannons had to turn and shoot her. She focused in on those steps, the pain in her palms rocketing. Her determination drove her on, her will to survive overriding the agony. She put every ounce of effort into a final leap, pushing hard off her screeching palms.
Make it, Trixie! Ignore the pain! Make it!
She went head over heels, her feet landing triumphantly on the first step leading up to the villa. Now she was out of the range of the cannons.
Before she had a chance to congratulate herself, a cartel thug came racing down the steps. On seeing her, he recoiled. It gave Trixie just enough time; she raced up the steps, making a beeline for him. She threw out a hand, grabbed his ankle, and with a yelp, yanked him off his feet. The thug hit the steps back-first with an ug!, his gun falling from his grip.
She shot up to him and grabbed his tee. “Come on! Up!” she screamed at him. By the time his woozy eyes focused in on her, she was tugging him to his feet. She spun him and wrapped an arm around his neck, causing his tongue to pop out of his mouth. She dragged him up the remainder of the steps, just as some other thugs came running her way. She whipped her dart gun from her belt and began firing off tranqs, using the thug in her grip as a shield. She tagged a couple of cartel before they had a chance to fire their assault rifles. They collapsed to the ground amongst one or two other bodies Alicia and Rafa had already dropped. One of them staggered back and stumbled into the small pond to the left with a splash.
More thugs came streaming out of the villa to join their buddies, fully armed and agitated.
Panic erupted in Trixie’s mind. She’d bitten off more than she could chew; there were way too many of them, way too armed. An ominous rumble to her left made her head spin. One of the guys who’d been operating the cannon was desperately trying to roll it out and turn it her way, and he was halfway there. Across the patio, the other cannon guy was doing the same thing. Other thugs were helping him, getting the job done faster. The others were all aiming their guns at her, the only thing stopping them from killing her was the thug in her grip. Eventually they’d sacrifice him just to get to her, she knew it. For now it was a standoff until they got those cannons aimed her way.
