Vampire Esquire's War (Book 2)

by Michael Wells Jr.

  They flew over the South Lawn undetected towards the White House and the showdown with President Elder, the vampire hunters and Pierre Leblanc.

  Vladimir Lenin learned from Thomas Watson that Pierre Leblanc was working against him. Lenin sent telepathic messages to Watson, who hadn’t learned to block them yet. Use your defenses. Let us enter. Do not shoot us. You can shoot near us, but don’t stop us. No one will know until it is too late. We should not be detected anyway.

  Vladimir believed he was the only vampire living who was three thousand years old. He’d heard of Leblanc before, but he didn’t think he’d ever met him, although Leblanc reminded him of Quintus. He thought Quintus long dead, but he didn’t know definitively. And he never assumed anything. Not ever. Not anymore.

  Humans would fight like hell to maintain control of the world, as they always had. Yes they were weak and inferior to vampires, but humans were numerous. Their superior numbers accounted for their successes in spite of their obvious weaknesses. This frustrated Vladimir to no end. The inferior should not defeat the superior.

  As he rushed towards the White House, undetected, gliding over the lawn, he wondered if this event—if any event––would validate his existence. Could any man or vampire be defined by a singular moment?

  Vladimir doubted the concept of derivative permission to enter the White House, although he thought it would hold for now. He knew Pierre Leblanc would raise the issue before the Vampire Council in Rome. The Council met in a secret chamber under the Roman Forum. It didn’t convene regularly, and its rules were so complicated and arcane that few vampire lawyers even bothered to bring motions before it.

  Lenin could see the White House growing closer. He would face and kill Elder soon.

  Chapter 27

  After Lenin and his henchmen passed, Valkyrie noticed a woman emerge from the Apex Consulting front door. She was small with olive skin that was somehow also pale as if it had been painted with an opaque white paint. Everything about her said she was out of place and uncomfortable in this place as if she had been transported from an era many years ago, yet she radiated power and a worldliness indicating she knew how to handle the situation.

  Valkyrie decided to follow the woman. The woman turned and walked quickly down the street going away from the White House and Lenin’s group as if she were trying to escape something. Maybe she is going to meet with someone, thought Valkyrie, but I better follow her. Something about her says she knows something.

  As Valkyrie began to follow her, the woman turned around and stared at her. She bore fangs, but then she flew off. Valkyrie couldn’t see what direction she went in, but she was gone.

  Vampire, thought Valkyrie. But who is she, and where is she going? And why didn’t she attack me?

  Then Valkyrie ran into someone.

  “I’m so sorry,” said the woman.

  “No problem,” said Valkyrie. She was annoyed at the woman.

  “Are you the vampire hunter, Valkyrie?”

  “Yes…I suppose there’s no point hiding it now,” she said to the woman.

  “My name is Bridgett.”

  “I knew you looked familiar,” smiled Valkyrie. She thought Bridgett was beautiful. The feeling was mutual.

  “Valkyrie, I’m glad I bumped into you, and I would love to exchange pleasantries, but Thomas Watson is a vampire.”

  “What the fuck?” Valkyrie was momentarily speechless, and she forgot about the mysterious. “Did you try communicating that to people at the White House?”

  “I did, but all cell phone communication is down. Somehow Nero cut out all smartphone communication.”

  “Fuck, no one will be checking their e-mail either. We need to get to the White House and tell people. Goddam Watson is going to let Vladimir Lenin into the damn White House!”

  _________________________________

  Even as the events rushed towards their conclusion, Pierre couldn’t help but remember and reflect on the path to this place.

  It had been so long since Pierre felt any emotion for anything in the present. For hundreds of years he’d felt affection for the past. He “lived” mired in the past as its tentacles wrapped around the secret places in his mind. These secret places rarely stayed hidden; they often springing forth, enwrapping his mind, and they didn’t let go.

  Pierre he didn’t know what to call the end of existence. Or was it death? Hadn’t he died along time ago? Weren’t all vampires powerful creatures yet weak for they had no meaning? No reason to go on other than existence itself? Existence meant something but only if he could derive love from it—new love. He was tired of living in the past.

  Pierre understood life possessed many nebulous concepts. So did existence––his existence––but the concept of what it was to be a vampire proved the most elusive of all. Vampires had to keep going. Keep moving. Otherwise they perished. T heir existence depended up on inertia. Move forward, always forward. And inertia depended upon velocity. The faster the inertia, the greater the velocity.

  As they rushed the president towards safety, he wondered if his almost two millennia of existence was to prevent the killing of the president. If the president was killed and the United States taken over by vampires, was the entire world damned? He felt so.

  Even though the past existed long ago, it had a conscious and recent presence to him. And he felt he would face it soon, very soon. One way or another he would reconcile the past, and sometimes reconciliation didn’t mean making things better but an acceptance of the truth whatever it may be. Sometimes knowing the truth, be it good or bad, could make it more bearable.

  Pierre would know the truth soon.

  _______________________________________

  The president needed to be guarded. If the president were killed or taken prisoner, then all order would be lost and never restored. But Magnum and Roland wouldn’t allow this. Thomas Watson was oddly absent.

  Magnum spoke. “The whole damn thing is about President Elder. He threatens the established order. Vampires have been preying upon weak and disenfranchised humans for centuries. And most leaders haven’t done shit about it. The only reason the vampires haven’t taken over is they can’t get their shit together. This time is different.”

  Roland didn’t speak. He thought it better to let Magnum finish.

  “President Elder came along. He said, ‘Fuck you’ to the established order. Let’s help out the poor people. Let’s give them health care and more government benefits. Let’s empower them. That’s some dangerous shit to vampires. They want a weak food supply.”

  It made sense to Roland. He’d never thought about it that way.

  “Roland, President Elder is the symbol of all vampires hate: he’s empowering people. He’s making sure more people don’t fall prey to the evil vampires.”

  “Vampires have breached the perimeter!” shouted a Secret Service Agent.

  Thomas Watson rushed in. “Change of plans Mr. President,” he said. “We are going to the Oval Office.”

  “What?” said Magnum. “If vampires are already in here, it will be easier to access it. The bunker is reinforced by silver. Vampires won’t be able to enter.”

  “So is the Oval Office. Who the fuck are you to question me?” snarled Watson with uncharacteristic anger. He punched Magnum and knocked him against the wall. “Get out of my way Magnum. Get the president to the Oval Office. Now!” he shouted to the other Secret Service agents.

  President Elder turned around and looked at Magnum. He raised his eyebrows as if to say, “Whatever they want. I’m not in control anymore.”

  Roland rushed ahead to protect the president. The chaos of battle, thought Magnum. But something was different about Watson. Why would he take the president to a more exposed place?

  Pierre was ahead of them in Oval Office. He hadn’t seen the altercation nor had he directly seen Thomas Watson in some time. That would change.

  ______________________

  Thomas Watson didn’t like being compared to a Tro
jan horse for a number of reasons. He also hated the treachery implied in the term. Even though he would be betraying the president, he wasn’t sure if he could call it betrayal, as true betrayal required free will. And he didn’t have much free will.

  There’s not need to be ashamed Mr. Watson. I’m probably the most adept being you will ever come across when it comes to reading people, Lenin said in his mind. You are a vampire now. You are the key to my plans. I need for you to open the door to the Oval Office so I can complete my task.

  _________________________________

  The president’s announcement was first met with disbelief, and then the harsh reality set in. Widespread panics ensued and mass exoduses took place in almost every city as if vampires, already present in many places through out the country, could be somehow left behind in the cities.

  Most people didn’t believe they could escape vampires, but they stood a much better chance at surviving if they occupied less populated places. Or so they thought.

  They hadn’t counted on the armies of vampires flooding out of the private prisons and from human trafficking sites, but humans fought back. And the weakened vampires put up less resistance than originally thought. People were resourceful as they strapped the fine silver to their bodies and wore silver jewelry to further weaken the vampires.

  This guerilla warfare by bands of citizens, law enforcement personnel, and members of the Society of Silver Stake slowed the vampires. More importantly, it kept vampires from reproducing.

  The panic in Southern California subsided somewhat as reports of the vampire defeat spread out over the Twitterverse, Internet and on television; although smartphones were disabled in the east, the west coast was able to get them up and running. It helped spread information. Even though humans still feared vampires and felt great shock, the human victory steeled them in their resolve. And they knew where the conflicts were taking place. The more egalitarian communication of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs served to blunt the vampire onslaught with the ultimate weapon against irrational fears and real fears: knowledge. Knowledge and education would save the masses.

  Washington, D.C., now felt its first wave of vampire attacks. The future for humans seemed less hopeful than it did in Southern California, and the final battle would take place fittingly in Washington—the new Rome.

  But humans, at least most humans, didn’t know about the Society of the Silver Stake and all the efforts that had been made to combat the onslaught for communications had been cut off.

  Other than the White House, Washington had been reduced to the Middle Ages. No electricity. No running water. It would be a “slog in the mud,” so to speak.

  Human fears in Washington were exacerbated by the fact that vampires were not relegated to only the evening and early morning hours. Most of the vampires could roam about in the daylight, impervious to the Sun.

  Vladimir Lenin’s superior bloodline created the multitude of vampires unfazed by sunlight. This flew in the face of all known vampire lore, the key word being lore, yet the bloodline was not as superior as Lenin hoped. His blood had been watered down much like the inbred bloodlines of the European ruling house.

  Human accounts of vampire attacks on the Mall, in office buildings and on the Metro abounded.

  Stories of men and women wielding what appeared to be silver stakes spread. These men and women drove these stakes through vampires, creating huge splatters of vampire blood and goo wherever such battles took place.

  Vampire hunters began trending on Twitter, in the west and the news picked up reports of mysterious vampire hunters destroying vampires. Sources inside the highest levels of government would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an elite trained group of vampire hunters. But these stories gave people hope, and the stories stymied somewhat the mass exodus from Washington as well as the panic. Word of mouth spread the stories.

  _____________________

  President Elder reached the Oval Office. He sat in his chair and began working. He had to continue to be president and not panic. Things needed to get done.

  “I’m sure people are worried,” the President said to Pierre. The president stood up and walked over to the sitting area. “I suppose I should stay away from windows.” He was already tired of being confined to his office. Other key advisors stood near President and Pierre.

  “As they should be sir, but I believe humans have the upper hand and will ultimately prevail in the battle, but we need to start considering what we do once humans prevail,” said Pierre.

  ___________________________

  Aaron Burr did not stay in Los Angeles for long; too much work needed to be done. He took a Lear jet, leased by the Society of the Silver Stake, and he arrived back in Washington within a few hours. n a few hours, he would be back.

  Chapter 28

  Aaron Burr was the last one to make it into the White House before it went on lockdown. He walked into the Oval Office room, and Roland Walker and Magnum greeted him warmly. Vampire hunters shared camaraderie non-hunters would never understand.

  “Congratulations on a very successful hunting campaign gentlemen,” said Magnum. “And you are here none too soon.”

  Alexander Hamilton was there too, and he said, “Thank you Mr. Magnum, but we can’t take all the credit. The Society of the Silver Stake makes our job a lot easier.”

  “That’s true Mr. Hamilton, but the Society does so well because it has able men like you and Mr. Burr to lead it.”

  Both Hamilton and Burr nodded their heads, and then they smiled sheepishly. Although both men possessed famous monikers, they didn’t appear to possess the egos of either of their namesakes. But they did possess the military acumen of Hamilton and Burr, both of whom were highly successful military leaders.

  Roland, Magnum, Hamilton and Burr walked along the perimeter of the White House where silver lined barricades had been set up. A fifty-foot high wall went around the White House, about fifty feet from the White House itself.

  Hundreds of men, tanks and guns filled with silver bullets sat atop the wall and in several lines behind the wall. Getting to the wall would be easier than getting past the wall.

  “The White House is being attacked for the first time since the War of 1812,” said Hamilton.

  In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Roland felt ebullient. While others feared for the worst and prepared for the possible end of civilization, Roland saw opportunity. The chance for redemption had eluded him too often in his life.

  He’d killed for the wrong reasons. But for his potential when it came to vampire hunting, he would be rotting in prison now. While he had redeemed himself somewhat by destroying many vampires, he still felt he needed to do something more.

  Without thinking, Magnum, already tense over the pressure of protecting the leader of the free world, responded nastily, “Roland, I know you’ve got a lot to make up for in your life, but it’s no time to be hasty here.”

  The comment stung, and, without thinking, Roland swung his right fist at Magnum. Not expecting the blow, Magnum was coldcocked. He fell to the ground.

  Hamilton and Burr pulled Roland back. “You son of a bitch,” said Roland, calmer now.

  Magnum stood up holding his lip. “I shouldn’t have said that. I deserved that punch, but this is not the time for fighting amongst ourselves with those vampires out there and the whole fucking world hanging in the balance.”

  Hamilton and Burr shouted in unison, “Look up. The vampires are flying over the wall and coming down on us. Draw your stakes!”

  _________________________________

  “Mr. President, don’t you think you’d be better off not working in the Oval Office,” said Pierre Leblanc. “We can try and move you now to the situation room.”

  President Elder slammed his hand on the dark cherry desk, and an inkwell jumped. “Pierre, I’m not leaving the Oval Office. They will have to face me here, because I’m not backing down. I’m going to stare down these scoundrels, even if it kills me. But t
hey can’t go past the door. I haven’t given them permission yet.”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you Mr. President,” Pierre said in a placating tone.

  President Elder’s flash of anger passed, and he reverted back to his stoic, although still friendly, demeanor. “I know you are on my side. Obviously I’m under a lot of pressure.”

  Pierre nodded, “I understand, Mr. President.”

  “What is going to happen soon has never happened in the history of this country. It will certainly be the first time in recorded history.”

  President Elder started to speak again. Then he closed his mouth as if he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. “I’m not only troubled by the vampire human war, but I wonder how we will keep the peace. What do we do once the war is over?”

  “Therein squats the toad, as the saying goes.”

  President Elder laughed at the hackneyed expression. Then he grew serious. “It is the lingering problem. Lots of humans and vampires alike will want vengeance.”

  “True, but private blood banks should help some.”

  “But what about when there is a blood shortage? How do we preserve the peace then?”

  Pierre didn’t know the answers. “Let’s win the war first. We will think about peace later.”

  _____________________________________

  “God, there are a lot of them,” yelled Roland.

  “Of course there are,” said Magnum. He drew a sword and chopped of one vampire’s head with his right hand as he stabbed another vampire with his left. Then he readied himself for another attack.

  Three vampires bounded over the wall and dodge spraying bullets. Before he had much time to think, one vampire dove towards him, but Magnum swung his sword and cut off the beast’s head.

  “I never liked vampires. They give other bats a bad name. I had a pet bat as a kid,” said Magnum. “I will tell you about it if we survive this shit.” Then he swung his sword and chopped off the head of another vampire that jumped at him.