Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1)

by Gabriel Beyers

  Jerusa turned her back to the assembly line, not wishing to have the black water out of her sight for even a moment. It seemed more a toxic sludge than mere water, and Jerusa imagined it reaching up to snatch her foot, pulling her down into an endless sticky blackness. Jerusa didn’t need to breathe any more, nor could she be suffocated. How terrible would it be to be bound in darkness for an eternity with no hope of escape and no ability to die? She could think of nothing worse.

  As they passed the midpoint of the narrow path beside the pit, something stirred in the water. It wasn’t a large movement, but just enough to create a small eddy in the center of the pit. A few bubbles trickled to the surface. Jerusa stopped dead, causing Thad and Foster to nudge into her. She caught Taos by the shoulder before he could get outside of her reach.

  “What’s wrong?” Taos asked. His voice was low and annoyed. He didn’t like being bottlenecked between the assembly line and the water-filled pit.

  Jerusa pointed to where the water had stirred. “I saw something moving in the water. There were bubbles.”

  Thad sent the light skipping across the surface, but it merely illuminated the film of translucent oil slicks dancing upon the black water like migrating jellyfish. “Maybe it was just a frog,” he said, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself. “Could’ve been a turtle or even a muskrat.”

  “I don’t think so,” Jerusa said. “It seemed bigger than that.”

  Taos shushed them, then stood staring across the pit as he listened for the slightest sound. The building became eerily silent, as if the black water absorbed all sound. Jerusa cleared her throat just to test the theory.

  “Maybe we should keep going,” Foster said.

  Jerusa nodded to Taos. “My mind must just be playing tricks on me. Let’s go.”

  Alicia appeared on the water, her eyes wide, her mouth drawn tight with fear.

  “Don’t go yet,” a voice whispered in Jerusa’s ear. “You won’t want to miss this.”

  The grouped flinched at the sound of Suhail’s voice, but it was too late to flee.

  Suhail perched above them, hidden in a small recess in the assembly line machinery directly behind Jerusa. He snatched Jerusa by the hair at the nape of her neck, hauling her off of the ground and dragging her up a steel beam. The others moved to grab her legs, but just then, Kole exploded up out of the water-filled pit, landing where Jerusa had been only seconds before.

  The pain in her skull was near unbearable, as though someone had set her head on fire. Jerusa struggled to free herself from Suhail’s grip, but could not wrench her hair free from his fingers. Suhail climbed almost to the ceiling of the building, hanging by his free hand from a support girder. He dangled Jerusa over the open floor like a treat for a hungry crocodile, giving her an all-too-clear view of what was happening below.

  Kole clung to the wall formed by the assembly line, balancing on his remaining leg. He lashed out at Thad, but the water raining down from his ragged clothes made the concrete slick and he faltered to his knee. Thad thrust the flashlight into Kole’s face and the close proximity and intensity of the beam was more than his savage eyes could take.

  Kole threw his hands up before his face as an ear-splitting screech echoed through the hollow building. Foster grabbed Thad and tossed him like a feather pillow on top of the assembly line machinery, out of harm’s way.

  Taos and Foster turned and fled in opposite directions away from Kole and off of the narrow walkway next to the pit. Kole regained his sight, sniffed the air like a hunting wolf, then jumped up into the small alcove in the machinery where Suhail had been hiding. He jumped again, landing on top of the machinery, right next to Thad.

  Thad scurried backward on his hands and feet. Kole rushed to overtake him. Thad brought the flashlight beam up, but Kole anticipated this move and batted it out of his hand. The flashlight tumbled over and over, sending its beam dancing all around until it hit the pit and the black water swallowed it whole.

  Kole snapped his powerful jaws at Thad in what appeared to be a mocking gesture. It seemed that savages were capable of taking pleasure in the fear of their prey. He mounted Thad like a spider preparing to spin its web. He took Thad’s head in his hands.

  “No,” Jerusa screamed as she beat against Suhail’s grip. “Leave him alone,” she said to Kole, but the savage ignored her. “Help! Please, somebody help him.”

  Suhail laughed. “Yes. Call for help. Call for Silvanus. Beg him to come and save you. Because if he doesn’t appear, then when Kole is finished with your friends, I will feed you to him last. Call to him. Call to Silvanus.”

  Kole lunged for Thad’s throat, but before his teeth could meet flesh, Foster leapt onto his back. With one quick thrust, Foster rammed his garden shears into the side of Kole’s neck, and downward through his collarbone. Kole bucked like a mad horse, throwing Foster back and knocking Thad off of the assembly line machinery.

  Kole spun on his remaining knee to face Foster. He grasped the handles of the shears and pulled them from his neck with a sickening slurp. The blades were painted with Kole’s thick crimson blood, and it oozed in slow drips over the handles and across his hand. Kole tossed the garden shears away and they vanished with a loud clank into the dusty shadows.

  Foster was backed up to the edge of the machinery, facing the water-filled pit. Kole was too close for him to make a successful run in any direction. Kole seemed to realize this as well, because he crept closer, in a slow, methodical crawl.

  Taos landed on top of the machinery, bringing a loud bellow from the metal shell. Jerusa had been struggling to free herself again and hadn’t noticed from where he had come, but she had never been happier to see the blond giant in all the short time she had known him.

  “Hey, boss, remember me?” Taos asked with a mocking grin. He swirled the container of gas around before him, soliciting a hiss from Kole. “I think it’s time for a cookout.” Taos squeezed the lever atop the container and the nozzle opened with a burp of gasoline fumes that Jerusa could smell from up high.

  Kole snapped as he raised a single hand toward Taos. The air between Kole and Taos became distorted as an intense and near invisible fire exploded between them. Taos, realizing a bit too late what was happening, dropped the container, and tried to jump, but the flame ignited the gas fumes and set off a small but powerful explosion.

  Foster stood frozen with shock at the revelation that Kole the savage still retained his pyro-kinesis. It must have been news to them all. Even Suhail gasped in awe of the explosion.

  Jerusa didn’t know just how much of Kole’s mind remained in the festering shell of his body, whether there was a residual consciousness awakened by the brain matter he had devoured, or if the savage entity was in complete control. Whichever it was, Kole had enough presence of mind to take advantage of Foster’s stunned shock.

  Kole rushed Foster, leaping through the air like a pouncing tiger. Foster had no weapon to defend himself with, but he didn’t turn and run. Kole and Foster collided in midair. They landed in a twisted knot. Kole lunged at Foster, nearly clamping down on his neck with his poisonous teeth. Foster shifted just in time, cracked Kole in the head with his fist, but was unable to dislodge him. They turned over and over, trading bone-cracking blows. As the battle raged one, it became clear to Foster that he couldn’t overpower Kole on his own.

  Foster locked his hands together and smashed Kole in the face, dealing the savage enough damage to cause him to release his grip. Foster leapt to his feet and ran, but Kole was not far behind him. Kole caught Foster in the ribs, wrapped his arms around his chest, and the pair tumbled off the edge of the pit and vanished beneath the surface of the black water.

  The air fled from Jerusa’s lungs in an uncontrolled scream so loud it threatened to deafen the surrounding town. She thrashed with all of her strength, tearing against Suhail’s grip, almost relishing the fiery pain spilling from her head, dulling the hole of anguish in her soul. Jerusa tried to make her hair rip loose by sheer force
of will, but her vampiric body would not allow it.

  The water in the pit raged, washing up over the rim in tumultuous waves. The scent of blood filled the air. It enraged Jerusa, both out of desire and anger, knowing that it was Foster’s blood that she smelled. The water settled into a gentle roll and Kole came slithering out of the pit like a demon born from a womb of darkness.

  Kole rolled over onto his back, heaving and panting as if in great pain. His leg began to regenerate and Jerusa felt her stomach roll, not because of the grotesquery of the act, but because she knew that the tissue he was using to regrow his leg had come from Foster.

  And there was no scenario where this worked out well for Foster. Either he was beneath the water undergoing the change from vampire to savage, or Kole had claimed his brain as well, which meant —

  Jerusa couldn’t bear to think about it. The collapsing hole within her chest burned with instant white-hot fury. She punched and kicked the air, numb now to the pain in her scalp. She wanted to hurt someone, anyone, make them pay for Foster’s death.

  She reached up and took hold of Suhail’s wrist with both hands. She called for Alicia to come, to appear and help her. And the ghost was there, standing in midair in her eternal prom dress, her face a mask of anger, her skin a glowing lamp.

  Suhail looked up at Alicia with a start, but his shock faded fast. “You do have a truly unique gift, fledgling. One that might have found you favor with the Stewards. But if you do not call Silvanus right now, they will never witness it.”

  The light emanating from Alicia intensified, focused. She rushed at Suhail, diving at him as though she meant to tackle him. But even though Suhail could see Alicia through Jerusa’s touch, Alicia was still just a ghost. She passed through Suhail without stirring a single hair on his head.

  Suhail laughed. “A wonderful show, really, it is, but this is my last warning. Call Silvanus here to us or I will toss you down to Kole.”

  Something leapt through the darkness just then and took hold of Suhail. For a moment, Jerusa feared that Kole had climbed the beam while they were distracted with Alicia, but he was still writhing on the floor as his leg completed its regeneration. Jerusa tried to see who the attacker was, but Suhail, unwilling to release either the girder or Jerusa, kicked back and forth attempting to dislodge whoever was on his back.

  The foul odor of savage blood filled the air around them. There came a sound of metal scissoring together, followed by Suhail’s howl of pain. And then they were falling, all three of them, down toward the fire burning atop the machinery, down toward Kole and his newly formed leg.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Once again, had Jerusa been mortal, the fall from the high girder to the top of the machinery would have killed her. Instead, her vampiric body absorbed the impact and immediately went to repairing the damage done. It still hurt, though.

  The world buzzed around her head like an annoying fly. Jerusa sat up, swatting at the disjointed images her rattled brain tried to piece together. Or maybe it was the smoke from the fire. Someone was on their knees near the fire, screaming in rage.

  Jerusa fought off a swoon and focused her thoughts, willing her senses to recalibrate. There were two others atop the machinery with her, one on his knees near the fire, the other just to her left.

  Suhail clutched his right arm to his chest as he stared into the fire at a black and twisting mass. It looked like a large spider, twitching in the flames until finally it was consumed and fell into a pile of glowing ash. That was when Jerusa noticed Suhail’s hand was missing above the wrist.

  A moan caught her attention and she turned to the person to her left. Shufah pushed to her knees, still clutching the blood-covered garden shears she had used to sever her brother’s hand and bring them all tumbling to the ground.

  Jerusa rushed to help Shufah up. Her dress was in tatters, stained with dirt and blood. Her face was swollen, her jaw shattered, her teeth missing. Oozing cuts and dark bruises covered her tiny frame. One eye seemed forged of blood. She had not fared so well in the battle with her brother, but she had survived and had come to Jerusa’s rescue.

  Jerusa held Shufah tight to her chest, the tears welling thick in her eyes. She bent to kiss her forehead, but before her lips could touch Shufah’s feverish flesh, a hand took hold of Jerusa’s hair once more and jerked her head backward.

  Suhail dragged Jerusa across the top of the machinery by her hair like an insane caveman. “She took my hand,” he said, the firelight fueling the maniacal glow in his eyes. “Burned it in the fire. First, I’m going to burn you, then I’m going to burn her.”

  Jerusa could feel the heat of the fire growing. The stench of scorched metal, melting paint, and singed flesh hung heavy in the air. She clawed with her hands, kicked with her feet, fighting with all that she had to slow her journey to the fire, but there was nothing to grab hold of and Suhail’s strength was far above anything she had imagined.

  Just as Suhail was about to heave Jerusa into the fire, Taos leapt to the top of the machinery, clubbing Suhail in the face with his right hand. Suhail released Jerusa’s hair in an attempt to block the blow, but Taos’s attack sent him cartwheeling head over feet until he landed on his back near Shufah.

  Taos extended a charred and mangled hand and Jerusa took it without delay. The explosion had burned away most of his blond hair and had left his face and hands blistered and blackened. Jerusa took solace in knowing that the vampire spirit would eventually return Taos and Shufah to their eternal beauty, but the pain they endured right now broke her heart.

  Suhail climbed to his feet. “You are going to regret that, Taos. You should never have betrayed me.”

  Taos ushered Jerusa to the side and slightly behind him. He stood, prepared for the attack, but instead of rushing forward, Suhail turned and kicked his sister in the head.

  Shufah flipped over onto her back, dazed and moaning. Suhail raised his foot to stomp on her face, but Shufah held up the garden shears. Suhail stopped, dropped his foot, and stared at the blades glistening red with blood. He said something to his sister in a language Jerusa couldn’t understand, though she got the impression it was not a compliment. Shufah waved the blades at him, though more as if she wanted him to see something rather than threatening him with them. A raspy laugh rolled out of her broken mouth. She responded to him in the same language, then with a flip of her wrist, she sent the shears tumbling through the air to splash down in the black water of the pit where the remains of her lover, Foster, lay.

  Whatever Shufah had said, it greatly affected Suhail, causing him to stumble backward as if drunk. He squeezed the bloody stub at the end of his arm. Jerusa wondered if his hand would regenerate on its own, or would he have to replace the tissue as a savage would? He had been terribly upset when the fire had reduced his severed hand to ashes. Perhaps Shufah had condemned him to an eternal scar, a blight in the eyes of the Stewards.

  Movement near the pit-side edge of the machinery caught Jerusa’s attention. She grabbed Taos’s fire-charred arm in an involuntary startled action, causing him to wince in pain. He followed her gaze and cursed aloud at what he saw.

  Kole stood on the edge of the machinery, his withered lips pulled back in that demonic grin, his blood-filled eyes shining with the dwindling firelight. A tremor like a rolling muscle spasm overtook him. It was as though he were running a systems check on his body, testing what worked and what didn’t. He regarded them each in turn as a low, rolling groan, like the croak of a bullfrog, fell from his mouth.

  They all stood frozen, as if by their paralysis they could somehow become invisible to Kole. The bare skin of his new leg and the healed wound in his chest still held the skin tones of Kole’s victims, giving him an almost piebald complexion. The tremor ran its course. Kole looked at each of them again, perhaps judging his options, then made a run at Suhail and Shufah.

  Suhail dove over the edge of the machinery, rolling across the dust-carpeted concrete floor, stumbled to his feet and vanished into th
e shadows. Kole continued on, unperturbed, snatching up Shufah as she struggled to follow her brother.

  Jerusa screamed as she rushed for Shufah. Taos tried to stop her, but she forced her way around his hulking form, smashing away his grasping hands. The entire world took on a strange, pulsing slow-motion quality, as though she were viewing life frame by frame in sync with her heart. Shufah struggled against Kole, who had her arms pinned in a crushing embrace. Kole’s mouth was open, fangs exposed, head drawn back like a cobra preparing to strike. Taos shouted her name. Thad cried out from somewhere in the darkness below. The sound of Suhail escaping through the plywood cover of one of the first floor windows echoed to the ceiling and back down. The light outside held a hint of predawn glow. And running beside her, keeping pace, was Alicia.

  Jerusa wrapped both of her hands around Kole’s neck as she collided with him. The impact sent the three of them tumbling over the edge and smashing onto the concrete floor below. As they barrel-rolled over one another, Shufah was ejected from the mix. Jerusa squeezed tight, crushing the bones in Kole’s throat. He let out a garbled cry, but never once faltered in his attack against her.

  They continued on, each struggling to gain the upper position. Kole tore at Jerusa’s hand, breaking several fingers, but she would not let go. He gouged at her eyes, hammered at her arms, smashed at her face with teeth-shattering punches. Jerusa landed on her back with Kole sitting upon her chest.

  Jerusa’s grip weakened and Kole lunged in to bite her face. She shifted to the side and the crack of Kole’s venomous teeth clacking together thundered in her ear. Kole grasped Jerusa’s throat in both hands, digging his talon-like fingers into the sides of her neck. Her strength was waning. She couldn’t hold out much longer.

  A light shone over Jerusa’s head and Kole screeched in pain. Alicia stood just above her head, and she was not alone. Beside the ghost girl in her eternal prom dress stood Foster, whole and perfect, his skin as resplendent as the noonday sun.