Vampire Esquire's War (Book 2)

by Michael Wells Jr.

  Elder considered this for a moment. “And they want to blame that on me.”

  “Correct.”

  “Then what do they want to do?”

  “Pave the way for the vampires of course,” said Pierre. “But the legislation is a diversion from the source of the real threat.”

  “The human trafficking and the private prisons.”

  “That’s right. We have destroyed thousands of vampires, but the vampire hives pop up every day, and Lenin’s vampires take less than a day in some instances to reach viability. Now they aren’t strong enough initially to take on humans. They need at least a year to reach fully strength.”

  “But what is full strength?”

  “About ten times human strength.”

  “So a halfway viable vampire is still five times human strength, but they can be defeated. Humans can defeat a partially formed vampire before the point of maximum viability.”

  “I see,” said President Elder.

  “If they are born too soon, and many of them are, then we can defeat them.”

  “I agree.”

  “And we think Lenin will have to replenish his troops with even weaker vampires. His boldness will be his downfall.”

  Militarily, Elder felt better. Politically, however, he felt vulnerable. The president knew he’d won because Inman was such a weak candidate, not because the people were with him. No mandates here––not at all. And Elder felt the disgruntled mood of the country.

  Even though he’d lost the presidential election, Mark Inman still had a great deal of status in the Republican Party. So they’d elected him Speaker of the House. Inman’s first job was to introduce an omnibus bill to repeal health care and slash funding for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. The bill had passed in both the Senate and House with veto-proof majorities.

  _________________

  Roland Walker and William Magnum walked into the Oval Office. Valkyrie couldn’t make it due to a solo mission. She was a loner that way sometimes.

  “Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to see you. I wish it were under better circumstances, but if circumstances had been good in the first place we might never have met.”

  Pierre responded, “That’s true, but I’ve learned you have to move forward. Things can be a slog sometimes, but there is a way out.”

  Elder smiled warmly and said, “Pierre, if you had told me when I started hunting vampires I would become friends with a vampire, I never would have believed you.”

  “The threat of apocalypse makes for strange bedfellows.”

  “Indeed,” said President Elder.”

  Roland Walker and William Magnum stepped forward. Both men wore black combat boots and black military fatigues. They could have been in Special Forces. When on the hunt, the men would carry cross bows and quivers filled with silver bolts on their backs. Guns loaded with silver bullets were affixed to their sides, and the belts they wore held clips filled with extra rounds of silver bullets. On the opposite hip each man wore a silver stake that measured about two and a half feet in length. Magnum preferred this weapon, but Roland preferred the crossbow.

  “No offense, Pierre, but when are we going to get to kill some more nasty vampires?” asked Magnum plaintively. Everyone laughed, and the statement, although sincere, served to lighten the mood in the room. Magnum’s gruff sincerity always served to focus everyone on the cause.

  “Soon enough, Magnum, but I hope we ill be ready for the war we know is coming. I do worry about all of the poor people. They will be easy prey for the vampires, who will be looking to turn them. Once that happens, God help us all.”

  Nothing more needed to be said. The men knew their mission. They had to prepare the military in top-secret fashion to fight vampires. This meant more vampire hunts.

  By the time Pierre, Roland and Magnum left the White House they were ready to kill vampires. Even Pierre wanted to kill vampires, the Restoration vampires, but mainly Lenin’s vampires. He viewed these vampires––the ones who wanted to enslave humans––as a scourge on the vampire population.

  “Pierre, where in D.C. do you think we most want to visit in order to get rid of as many of Lenin’s vampires as possible?” said Magnum.

  Pierre didn’t respond.

  _____________

  Roland stopped as they strode down Pennsylvania Avenue. To look at this motley crew clad in long coats and black, no one would have ever expected they’d met with the president moments ago on matters not only of national security but of world security as well.

  Life was ugly––very ugly. And no guarantees existed. Everything could result in chaos, thought Roland. Here as they sat on the brink of chaos Roland wanted validation.

  “Pierre, I don’t mean to be offensive, but most vampires want to destroy us.”

  Pierre paused, gathering his words. This needed to be handled delicately; every now and again he had to respond to such comments. He could not be a vampire who was friendly to humans and not endure some jibes.

  “I do not disagree. Some vampires, in fact many vampires, suffer from blood lust without regard for the humans they destroy. Such is the more vicious side of their nature, and this is unfortunate. But I ask you: if humans were placed in a situation where they had to kill for their food, wouldn’t they behave similarly?”

  Roland glowered.

  “Roland, I don’t know what to tell you. I am not proud of what I was. I did many horrible things, things that will trouble me for many hundreds of years after you are dead and gone. Eternity is a long time to think about your mistakes.

  “But I am different now. And you asked what it is that makes me different now? After all this time I changed, and I did this for my love, who I lost almost two thousands years ago. Quinta is what keeps me going. Her memory makes me remember my humanity. I remember I was not always this way.” Pierre waved a hand across his body as if to reveal his true form, which was obvious to all three men.

  Roland started blankly at Pierre, and then his jaw loosened. “I’ve just seen so much. Life hasn’t been easy. I guess that makes me mistrustful of people, and I trust vampires even less.”

  All three men looked at each other and laughed nervously. Each realized neither humans nor vampires were particularly trustworthy.

  The men walked for awhile until they came to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop. “This is where we are supposed to go. It is where some of the newest vampires hang out, and Valkyrie is here,” said Pierre.

  “I know vampires like to stay in the Metro tunnels because it is always dark, easy to hide, and there are people they can pluck away late at night. Since DC’s murder rate is so high no one thinks anything of it or realizes vampires are doing it,” said Magnum.

  Roland looked down the stairs, and he started to walk forward, a bounce in his step. “Let’s see what’s down here. It may be nothing.”

  The three men descended the steps. It was after ten on a Wednesday, and there weren’t too many people. Many of the professional people had already gone home; some high-level civil servants and lawyers walked around chatting on their iPhones or typing away on expensive laptops or iPads, oblivious to the rest of the world.

  ___________

  Roland, Pierre, and Magnum walked all the way down the waiting and boarding area to the part of the wall where the train came out. They gazed into the darkness and waited for the Metro train to arrive, and, when the people boarded, they discretely hopped down into the passageway. No one noticed.

  They walked in silence guided by a small penlight Roland held.

  Pierre motioned for the men to crouch down. “I sense something, but I don’t see anything yet.”

  Before Pierre could say anymore a creature shot out like cannonball, knocking Roland against the wall. Roland reached for his silver stake, but he couldn’t pull it free. A man (or what had been a man) with pallid skin and sunken eyes hissed at Roland as he grasped him with pale hands. The man’s canine teeth dropped down into fangs.

  “Restoration vampi
res,” snarled Pierre.

  Magnum tore a silver stake off his belt, and he stabbed the vampire from behind. The vampire exploded like a full tick, coating Roland with blood and vampire entrails.

  Pierre flinched even though the danger appeared to be over. But the danger hadn’t passed.

  “To your right,” Pierre yelled. Both Magnum and Roland whipped around to see dozens of other vampires closing the distance quickly. In the dark, they could see the vampires’ eyes glowing, a horrifying sight.

  Roland stood up and tore and arrow from his quiver and fired it with the crossbow. A vampire exploded, and its guts hissed as the silver continued to burn what remained. Then Roland pulled out his sidearm, and fired several direct shots into other approaching vampires.

  The vampires fell down, stunned but not dead. Magnum charged forward wielding his silver stake like an ancient swordsmen. “Take this, mother fuckers,” he cried as he stabbed wounded vampire after wounded vampire, blood spraying in all directions and coating his body.

  When Magnum and Roland finished all that was left was vampire matter and old clothes.

  Pierre leaned over and examined the clothes with the penlight. “These are some ratty clothes, and they aren’t ratty because they’ve been worn by vampires. Homeless people wore these. These vampires used to be homeless people.”

  The three men didn’t say a word. No one needed to say anything at all. Vampires had begun to expand their ranks in Washington, which was part of Lenin’s plan. And he hadn’t even gotten started yet.

  ____________________________________

  Valkyrie was on the other side of the Foggy Bottom Metro stop down the opposite end of the tunnel. She couldn’t be a lone wolf––even if she liked to work alone at times–– she felt loyal to Magnum and Roland. Sometimes she got separated from them because she pushed too far ahead. She would have to survive until she could get some help.

  She was used to tunnels, metro and subway tunnels especially. Subway tunnels held rats and now vampires. Perhaps they always held vampires. There couldn’t have been a more perfect place for vampires to hide. They built nests in the black tunnels.

  People went missing every day in American’s largest cities, and they often vanished in tunnels because vampires took them. But most people didn’t know to be wary of subways for this reason. At least they didn’t know yet.

  She glanced both ways as she jumped on the tracks and headed up the tunnel. She reached back and unsheathed both of her silver swords. She preferred the swords to the stakes when she hunted alone. Decapitation was her method of killing. It was quick, and it didn’t leave her sword stuck in a vampire body. This allowed her to be ready for the next wave of vampire attackers.

  She walked towards the darkness. It wasn’t full dark because small track lighting lined the top of the curved tunnel. She really should signal for help from the others, but she wanted to do this herself. She couldn’t be viewed as a weak girl. She was strong, a strong lesbian woman.

  Nothing happened. She kept walking now a few hundred feet into the tunnel. She switched on her LED light, and it emitted a strong light, spreading out at right and left angles covering a span of fifteen to twenty feet.

  Up ahead she saw what appeared to be metal doors turned on their sides. She knew these contained vampire coffins. Sleeping in, she thought. “Lazy assholes,” she said.

  In one fluid movement, she leaped into the air and turned a flip, landing in front of the first door. Her continued gymnastics training made her more agile, and that helped with vampires.

  She reached out and grabbed a black, wrought iron ring connected to a gargoyle. She pulled hard, and the iron door moved towards her scrapping against the stone wall making a sound like stones sliding against each other. I wonder if this is what it sounded like when Jesus’s tombstone rolled back, she thought, an incongruous comparison.

  Inside sat a stone coffin with brass handles. It didn’t move. Given the dust on the coffin, it had been here for awhile. It had been waiting for the right time, but the vampire inside would never get the opportunity to hunt and feast on humans, not if Valkyrie had anything to do with it.

  She tore off the top of the coffin. A naked female vampire’s eyes opened. It had gray skin and blue veins running throughout its body. When its eyes adjusted, it hissed. But before it could move forward, Valkyrie cut off its head in one swift movement. There wasn’t as much blood as usual. Strange, she thought. It is almost like this vampire was weaker.

  She saw a small plate inside the coffin. It read Paris 1815. How long has this coffin been down here? she thought, and are there others that have been waiting this long or longer too?

  Chapter 15

  Vladimir Lenin stepped out of his limo into the underground parking garage of a large resort outside of Washington, D.C. on the Virginia side near Arlington.

  “It is a pleasure to see you, sir,” said David Taylor. “I had hoped for a better outcome in the election, but our plan B should prove decisive.”

  Lenin smiled. “Yes, it should. I know we are going earlier than the other Restoration Vampires in Europe would prefer, but we cannot waste time. They will agree with me once they see the results.”

  “Would you like to survey your progeny, sir?”

  “Yes, I would.”

  Taylor took Lenin down a dimly lit hallway towards and elevator. This was no resort, nor would there ever be at any of the locations throughout the world built in conjunction with Drum Industries.

  The elevator went down eight floors in what was supposed to be (on paper) a giant indoor casino and aquarium. Virginia planned to legalize gambling in this one spot with a special provision that allowed for gambling in underground facilities.

  Lenin was gambling in other ways. He was betting his progeny would be enough now to take over Washington, D.C., and, subsequently, the United States.

  The doors opened, and David Taylor signaled for Lenin to walk down a hallway. Lenin could hear screeching and hissing. He walked forward to see an open area that appeared like the filed of a domed stadium filled with bodies.

  In unison the bodies stood up, and both male and female forms grinned to reveal fangs. In the fluorescent light, Lenin could see the fangs of thousands of vampires glow.

  “My children, you have grown. So many of you, too.”

  The vampires seemed to coo like babies.

  “You are my weapons of mass destruction! My enemies from within! ISIS is nothing compared to you.” The vampires roared. Lenin glanced over at David Taylor, who grinned and said, “They are the great, silent majority Nixon spoke of.”

  “Yes they are,” laughed Lenin, “but they are vocal.”

  ______________________________

  Thomas Watson had lost track of the number of people he had turned into vampires. As instructed by Lenin he had spent a considerable amount of time in the poorer, black neighborhoods in Washington, turning poor, yet physically strong, black people into vampires. And he felt strong ties to his progeny, progeny loyal to him and, through blood, to Lenin as well. All of them would be useful in the cause.

  Watson believed Washington would be easy to take, for he had put it well on its way to securing a larger percentage of the population. The key was to leave just enough humans for a continual food source. In captivation, humans could only be tapped for their blood so often, otherwise they would bleed out.

  “Thomas, this is Fletcher,” the voice came through Watson’s iPhone. “I just met with Lenin. He’s pleased about the way things are progressing. Obviously something needs to be done about the president eventually, but the numbers are such that taking over the White House appears practicable, especially with your help.”

  Watson had dreaded this, and, as much as he worried about it, the reality was much worse. He felt the full weight of his mortal death and the relationships. In death he had no real purpose; he felt pulled in different directions, mired in contradictions.

  Although he felt more of an allegiance to vampires, he stil
l felt loyalty to President Elder. He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of regret about what happened even though he enjoyed being a vampire. The day would come where he would have to betray President Thomas Elder, and that day was close at hand.

  “I know this isn’t easy for you,” said Fletcher. “It is difficult to break ties with humans we cared for, but it is necessary.

  Watson breathed out slowly. He knew Fletcher was right. He didn’t like what Fletcher said, but Watson had no other choice unless he wanted to cease to exist altogether. Ceasing to exist may not be a bad thing, he thought.

  Not showing much emotion, Watson said, “Lots of things haven’t been easy since I’ve been a vampire, but I’ve also found some aspects of existence easier than while I was alive.” But he knew he would eventually be forced to possibly kill his friend, Thomas Elder, or betray him while someone else killed him. Either way he would rather cease to exist.

  “Same way with me.”

  Never one to stray too far from the topic, Fletcher addressed the issue at hand.

  “Vladimir Lenin has consulted some of the greatest legal minds in the vampire community. They are of the position your permission to enter the White House has never been retracted in person. It can’t be done unless the president retracts permission in person to you.”

  Why did this matter? Did they want him to kill the president?

  “This could prove quite useful, and I don’t believe the president suspects you are a vampire. You conceal it so well.”

  Fletcher started speaking slowly and methodically as if he were a lawyer ticking off the points necessary to win an argument. “We believe this means you can give others permission to enter the White House even if they haven’t been invited. I’m sure you can understand why this would be of concern to Mr. Lenin.”

  “I do. Yeah. It makes sense.”

  The intricacies of vampire law fascinated Thomas Watson. Vampire law was a strange mixture of technical statutes, social customs and gentility. Quite odd considering the barbarity of vampirism. Hard to believe creatures who sucked blood out of living people could ever be civilized.