Old Vampires Die Hard

by J A Campbell

  “The pack will handle it,” Martin said as he came in the door, barefoot but clad in his jeans.

  Hawk followed.

  “I think we got the leader,” Hawk said. He held out his arm, showing a slowly healing scrape.

  “Good. Then I believe everyone is accounted for.” Martin sank down in one of the kitchen chairs. I went to the refrigerator and got him a beer.

  I was starting to get hungry, but I would have to wait.

  “I will make one last circuit and then I must return to Charleston. Unless you have other need of me?” Hawk said.

  “No, thank you, Hawk.” I let go of Jin and gave him a quick hug.

  He also hugged Jin, whispering something in her ear that she nodded to, and Kevin. Walter offered him a hand to shake, and, surprisingly, so did Martin.

  “Hawk, your House is welcome in our territory any time, just, ah, let us know you’re coming,” Martin said.

  Hawk smiled. “Likewise.” Then he was gone, literally.

  “Show-off,” I muttered.

  “Does he always do that?” Martin asked.

  I shook my head. “Rarely.”

  “I’m going to go check on Geoff, then get my people out of your hair, Walter.” He sucked down the beer and got up, placing the bottle by the sink before leaving the room.

  “I need a shower.” Kevin left and Walter looked at the table, where an impressive number of guns lay.

  “I’m just going to make sure these are loaded in case we have any more visitors. Jin, why don’t you and Kat walk the tree line one last time?” Walter said.

  Clearly, I needed to talk to her.

  We took the long set of steps from the porch down to the ground and headed for a quick walk around the house. Though I kept my senses alert, I wasn’t too worried since Hawk had just swept the area.

  “I killed one of the werewolves,” Jin said quietly. She stared at her hands. “I shot him. He was going to kill us.”

  I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “You did what you had to do, honey.”

  “I know. I just feel like I should feel something. I don’t.”

  “You might later, but even if you don’t, it’s okay.” I kept my arm around her as we walked.

  “What happened the first time you killed someone?” Jin asked.

  How to answer that? I think she meant the first time I did it deliberately, instead of out of sheer desperation to escape a situation that was going to kill me in short order.

  “Well, I was hungry and my brother and I were out for a little revenge on some people who preyed on humans. We hunted them down and I killed one of them. He took the other. I thought I would feel relief, pleasure, something...mostly I just wasn’t hungry anymore.” I smiled at her. “That by itself was nice, but otherwise I felt very little. We didn’t normally kill when we went hunting, but that time we were specifically out for revenge. It bothered me for a while.”

  “Do you get used to it?”

  I sighed. “Yes, I think you do, if you do it enough. Comparing my experiences with what you might experience is different. I was born in a vastly different time, among other things.”

  “Yeah, I get it, Mom.” She leaned in to me. “I asked Grandpa. He said you learn to accept it. You know that you’re helping people.”

  “Wise words.”

  She smiled, then yawned. “I can’t believe how exhausted I am after all this.”

  “Why don’t you go to bed? You did good today and I’m proud of you, honey. Alex and Charity would be proud of you.”

  “You think so?”

  I squished her tightly. “I know so.”

  “Can’t breathe.”

  “Go, get a shower and go to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  I watched until she was in the house, then leaned up against a tree, contemplating hunting up some deer.

  Car doors slammed and people drove away. The werewolves. All but Martin, who headed over toward me.

  “I want to thank you,” he said. “We couldn’t have done that so easily without you. Maybe not at all. And thanks for Tommy.”

  “Don’t ever mention it again and we’ll be even.”

  “Of course. Are you doing okay? Injured or anything?”

  “Only self-inflicted.”

  “Do you need anything?” he asked hesitantly.

  Frowning, I turned and looked at him.

  “I, uh, wanted to thank you somehow, but I wasn’t sure how. I thought maybe getting blood might be difficult out here. Are you hungry?” He ran his hand through his hair and avoided eye contact.

  “Are you offering?” I asked quietly.

  “Yeah. It’s the least I can do.”

  He didn’t sound happy about it and I almost turned him down, but the thought of fresh blood from a willing person, werewolf or not, was too much to pass up.

  “Yeah, that’d be great, if you’re sure.” I gestured for him to follow me into the woods.

  He did and offered me his arm.

  “Thank you,” I said before biting down and groaning slightly as the fresh blood hit my system.

  Things hadn’t turned out so badly, after all.

  Enforcer

  Mid-2000s

  “Ekatarine.”

  “Judas, hello.” I narrowed my eyes. For many years, we had kept our contact minimal because of the fear the other vampire Houses had of ours. We were different, an unknown that they didn’t understand, and so they had tried to destroy us.

  Judas had drawn the distasteful task of convincing the rest of the vampire world that, with Justin gone, we were now just like any other House. They were still afraid, but at least they thought they knew how to deal with us. They were wrong, of course, but whatever.

  “I’m surprised to hear from you,” I added a bored tone in case anyone listened in. I didn’t know where he was calling from.

  “Kitten,” he said.

  I growled at the nickname and he laughed, but that did let me know we were safe to talk.

  “What’s up, Brother?”

  “Maybe I just wanted to hear your voice, changed though it is.”

  I didn’t use my native accent anymore, except on rare occasions.

  “Judas, you aren’t in the habit of calling me just for fun.”

  “True. I’ve spoken with Hawk. It is time to remind the European vampires that we still have teeth.”

  “Oh?” Intrigued despite where I thought he was going with this, I straightened with interest.

  “The Council wants to have an official American Enforcer.”

  “Oh?” I said again, arching an eyebrow even though he couldn’t see.

  “I proposed you.”

  I remained silent for a moment and Judas didn’t speak. At first, I simply tried to process his words. Then the possibilities tumbled around my mind.

  “I won’t work for the Council,” I finally said.

  “Ekatarine, this is the road to our revenge,” he said softly. “The pieces are in place. We know who was behind the plot. Play the game for a few years; then we strike. I know you’ve taken some of some of the smaller pawns. It’s time to go for the big game.”

  “What does this entail?” He had me and he knew it.

  “You will keep doing what you do best. Simply with a bit more direction, I suppose.”

  “Isn’t there a test or something?”

  “Yes. Octavius and Rhiannon are already heading your way to administer the test.”

  “Tell me about it.” I sighed.

  “You fight Octavius. He decides if you’re good enough.”

  I could hear the smile in Judas’ voice. Octavius was the Council’s head enforcer. Supposedly he was the biggest, baddest vampire out there. The only way to get his job was to kill him. He was a dick, and I had no desire to work with him. I reconsidered giving in to Judas’s request.

  He must have sensed my hesitation.

  “Kitten, I’m not asking you to work under Octavius. I want you to kill him.”r />
  “You do? But then…”

  “Yes. You take his position.”

  “But…” I didn’t want his job.

  “I’ve confirmed it. He killed Justin.”

  Suddenly, I very much wanted his job.

  “And Kitten, make it look easy.”

  After a minute to control my emotions, I replied. “I will.”

  Judas was serious about making a move on the Council. And he wanted them terrified. He wouldn’t make the move without Hawk’s approval, so I knew the Mongolian vampire was in on the plan.

  I stared at the phone for a minute or so before I stood and looked out the window. I needed to get the kids out of town. We had managed to keep their existence relatively secret. That wouldn’t last, but I didn’t need this to be the time when they found out about Jin and Kevin.

  They also didn’t need to know I could deal with sunlight. Time to put the heavy curtains back up.

  Hawk was waiting for me when Jin and I stopped by the club later that night.

  I had told the kids what was going on and they were leaving for their grandpa’s in the morning. Octavius and Rhiannon would likely arrive the following evening. Hawk would be expected to host them, but I couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t come by the bed and breakfast. It would be harder to keep Jin and Kevin from them if they did, but I could only do so much.

  He smiled at me. His smile widened when his gaze fell on Jin. He hugged both of us and led us back to a large room in the back, which we had used for years for training.

  “I suppose you would like to brush up on a real fight?”

  “Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to fight an older vampire, and Judas wants it to look easy.”

  If anything, Hawk’s grin widened. “You can take Octavius, and I suspect you will suitably impress Rhiannon. He is good, but you’re better.”

  And Hawk could still take me if he really wanted to.

  “Jin, why don’t you watch from the office?” Hawk suggested.

  “Sure.” She left. The office had a plexiglas window.

  “You wanted to scare her a little?” Hawk asked.

  I shrugged. “I want her to know what exactly we can do. She needs to be prepared.”

  “If you ever let her out on her own,” Hawk said.

  I shrugged, not prepared for that discussion.

  “Ready?” He seemed to be looking forward to beating the crap out of me.

  I was looking forward to the fight, too.

  I managed to hold my own. I suspected Hawk could only have won that fight conclusively if we were willing to do some serious damage to each other, and we weren’t. It really had been a while since I had fought him seriously, but I spent a portion of every day I wasn’t actually hunting vampires in training how to kill them, so I shouldn’t have been that surprised.

  He grinned when I gave him a hand up off the floor. “Your hard work is really showing.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled back.

  Jin threw open the office door and ran out. “Wow, I could barely follow about half of that.”

  She wasn’t quite giving me the reaction I had hoped for.

  Hawk arched an eyebrow and I shrugged. Oh well.

  “They will be here tomorrow. I suspect you should simply expect to be attacked at any point. Normally, there are rules, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they ignore them here. Were you not already going to kill Octavius, I would be recommending it, anyway. They want you dead and this is a good excuse.”

  “Why?” Jin asked.

  “They’re already afraid of her, and they know she’s not tamed as they think Judas is. This is a calculated move on our part. They don’t know that.” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Get some rest. Get Jin and Kevin out of here for the week.”

  “We’re going to Grandpa’s,” Jin replied.

  “As much as he has managed to deal with your mom being a vampire, I wouldn’t mention this move to him. He will be safer not knowing.”

  “Okay,” Jin said. I could hear the hint of worry in her voice that I had hoped for earlier.

  Hawk bid us farewell and we headed back to my house. I wasn’t going to let myself worry. The kids would be fine if something did happen to me, but I would be fine and I knew it.

  House Veronis was ready to step up. They should have left us alone, but we were finally ready to fight back.

  “Will you have to move to England?” Jin asked over the growl of my Firebird’s engine.

  “No. Though, I may have to visit.” I twisted my lips to let her know what I thought about that, if my tone wasn’t clear enough.

  Jin laughed. “You like being scary. Just be yourself and it will be fine.”

  I chuckled. She was right, of course.

  “You’ll be careful, right?” She said quietly as we pulled into the parking area of my bed and breakfast. I listened to the gravel crunch under my tires for a moment before answering. “Yes, honey. I will.”

  “Good. So, what does it mean if you become the main enforcer?”

  “Dealing with politics, but Judas will insulate me from it as much as he can. Maybe having to tell a few lesser enforcers what to do. That sort of thing. I’m not real sure.”

  “Will we ever get to meet him?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I hope so.” Jin got out of the car once I had it parked in the garage and headed for the house. She seemed optimistic. That was good. I didn’t want her to worry about me.

  The kids left in the morning, making the house feel empty. I closed and locked their rooms, knowing it wouldn’t keep a determined human out, let alone a vampire, but it was the best I could do. I also took down all the pictures of the kids and had a cleaning service come through and deep clean. The smell of the cleaning chemicals would linger for a few days and cover the trace the kids left behind and would hopefully be sufficiently annoying that the vampires wouldn’t stay long if they came over at all.

  Judas called to tell me that their flight had landed the night before without issues and that they would arrive on schedule about an hour after sunset.

  Then I had nothing left to do except wait.

  Which I didn’t do well at all, so I finally headed out for Hawk’s club. He would have told me if they had arrived early, probably. It was still a few hours to dark and I took Kevin’s car. They had taken Jin’s truck to their Grandpa’s, and I just didn’t want to bring the Firebird to this sort of potential danger. I was probably being overly paranoid, but I felt better leaving it in the garage.

  Hawk was awake when I arrived and he gave me a quick one-armed hug before handing me a pint glass full of dark liquid. I sniffed and took a quick sip. It was blood. Human, laced with his.

  “Is that legal?” I asked.

  “You need a boost after all that crap you normally drink,” he replied, referring to the cow’s blood I usually drank and not actually answering the question.

  I drank the rest and the potency of his blood hit me. I shut my eyes, savoring it for a moment. He was right. I had felt fine before, but now I felt energized. It would stick with me for a fair bit of time.

  Finished, I rinsed the glass behind the bar and put it in the dishwasher. It was already full.

  Hawk surprised me by hitting the power button on the machine. Not technically legal, then, or at least he didn’t want Rhiannon to find out.

  “I know Judas wants you to make it look easy, but it is more important to win,” Hawk said. It would probably be the only hint of caution I would get from him. We both knew this was the exact reason I had turned myself into a weapon, and the only acceptable outcome was for me to win.

  I nodded. “I will feel him out before I get fancy.”

  He gripped my shoulder and we headed down into the sublevels to wait.

  “Do we go up to greet them?” I asked when we sensed their arrival.

  A moment later one of the younger vampires who ran the place named Matt appeared and bowed slightly to us.

  “Your g
uests have arrived.”

  “Please escort them down to us.” Hawk answered the young vampire’s unasked question and mine at the same time.

  Matt turned and left.

  “Pushing things, are we?”

  “We’re making a statement today,” Hawk said. “We may as well start with it.”

  I grinned. By not meeting them at the door, we were declaring ourselves better. It was something Houses often did in their own territory, so it wouldn’t be remarked on until later, but I knew Rhiannon and Octavius would notice. We were declaring that Eastern America was ours, as we were the only House who were here in force. That put House Veronis in charge of territory on both sides of the Atlantic.

  Matt led our guests down and managed to handle himself well. I could tell he was afraid, but only because I knew Matt pretty well. Hawk and Victor, who wasn’t here at the moment, and I were the only House vampires the staff had ever met before and they were all worried.

  Normally a House-run establishment would only employ House vampires, but this was America, and so we employed—and paid well—Outsiders, as long as they behaved by our rules. It was a good deal for them, but Rhiannon and Octavius would assume that they were actually part of House Veronis. And the staff had been warned to behave as such for their own protection.

  The House vampires wouldn’t harm our House while they were our guests, but they might a mere Outsider employee. We would protect our own, even if they were employees instead of blood, but it would be better for everyone if we didn’t have to.

  Rhiannon was a slender, pale-skinned woman with stylish short black hair and hard brown eyes. Every angle of her face, from the cosmetically-accented sharp cheekbones to the hawkish nose and the way she looked down it, proclaimed arrogance. Her brow was furrowed in annoyance.

  Good.

  Octavius was shorter, powerfully built, with dark curls and skin that managed to maintain its dark olive Mediterranean complexion despite centuries in the dark. His eyes roved around, assessing, dangerous. He was a talented fighter, but his legend was such that no one had dared challenge him in a long time.