Drake quickly assessed the situation. The only vehicle on the street was the SUV with the black-painted windows parked one hundred feet away. He could not see in, so he could not determine if or how many vampires were inside. He assumed the worst, which with his luck meant that when the doors opened the undead would pour out of the SUV like a clown car from hell. And all he had for weapons were two stakes and the garrote he kept in his pocket. Taking one of the stakes from its pouch under his jacket, Drake held the weapon so it was concealed by his arm and slowly approached the vehicle.
The banging of a door to his right startled him. He turned to see Jessica race out of the morgue and onto the sidewalk. By the look of fear on her face, he could tell that things had gone FUBAR inside. He rushed up to her. At first, Jessica pulled back until she realized it was Drake approaching. She raced into his arms.
Jessica sobbed. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“Are you all right?”
Jessica nodded. “They murdered Bill. One of them tore his throat out. I’d be dead, too, if Alison hadn’t shown up.”
“Is Alison okay?”
“I think so. She’s already killed two of them. Two more are inside.”
Drake stepped back and placed his hand under Jessica’s chin, gently lifting her head. “I have to help Alison. I want you to…”
Jessica’s scream cut off Drake. He turned around. Three vampires got out of the SUV and stalked toward them. Two snuffies and the red-headed master from the Metro.
“Nice to see you again, hunter.” Toni morphed into a vampire. “We have a score to settle.”
ALISON CAME AROUND SLOWLY, still disoriented from being thrown into the door jam. The aches from the other night had returned, this time with a vengeance. She raised herself into a sitting position, vaguely aware of the cold tile floor beneath her.
She suddenly remembered her battle with the master, and realized that she had not killed him. She scanned the corridor, expecting to see him closing in for the kill. Thankfully, she was alone.
“He doesn’t pay me enough for this shit.”
Struggling to her feet, Alison looked around for the broken chair leg, picking it up from where Ion had thrown it. While heading outside, she came across a fire fighting station recessed into the wall, complete with coiled hose and an axe. The glass door was locked. Using the end of the chair leg, she shattered the glass, then stuck the makeshift stake between the waistline of her pants and the small of her back. Alison removed the axe from its hooks. Brandishing it in both hands, she took off after the master.
DRAKE STOOD IN FRONT OF JESSICA. He felt her hands on his shoulders. They were trembling.
“How cute. The hunter is protecting his whore.” Toni’s voice became cold and menacing as she commanded the vampires. “You two get the bitch. The hunter is mine.”
The three vampires spread out as they drew closer. Drake could handle a pair of vampires or a master, but not all three at once. He reached under his jacket, grabbing a stake with the other hand. Thinking Drake was reaching for another pistol loaded with holy water bullets, Toni stopped short and growled. The other two vampires stopped and looked to her for guidance.
The door to the morgue banged open. Ion staggered out, feeling around with his hands as he stumbled his way onto the sidewalk. Blood and fluid flowed from his eye sockets. When the master raised his lids, Drake could see the ruptured eyeballs. Ion looked around through sightless eyes.
“Toni, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
Ion looked in the direction of the voice. “Do you have the reporter?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
Toni and the other two vampires turned to Jessica. Under her breath, Jessica muttered, “Shit.”
“We’re in a world of it,” said Drake.
“What do we do now?”
“Run.”
The two vampires lunged. Drake darted forward, aiming the stake in his right hand at the nearest vampire’s heart. The vampire blocked Drake’s thrust with a swing of its left arm, and in the process left itself wide open. Drake plunged the stake in his left hand into the vampire’s chest. It bled out and crumbled to ash. Drake turned to the other vampire, but it had already drawn too close. It smacked Drake across the face with such force that he spun around, sprawling to the sidewalk. The stakes flew out of his hands and rolled into the gutter.
Jessica used the vampires’ attack to make a break for safety. She did not get far. Toni blocked her path. Jessica threw a punch, but Toni grabbed her fist and twisted Jessica’s arm until she faced the opposite direction. Clutching Jessica by the hair, Toni slammed the woman’s head into a nearby telephone pole with enough force to knock her out. Still clutching Jessica’s hair, Toni dragged the unconscious woman back to the SUV and tossed her in back.
The second vampire continued its attack on Drake. As Drake struggled to his feet, the vampire reached down and grabbed him by the front of the throat, lifted him off the pavement, and shoved him against the wall. Drake clutched at the hand around his throat but could not break the grip. Its fingers tightened, cutting off the supply of oxygen.
Something approached from the right. Drake expected to see the red-headed master closing in to deliver the fatal blow. But out of the corner of his eye he saw her helping Ion, one arm around his waist and the other holding his hand, as she escorted him back to the SUV and helped him into the passenger’s seat. Drake tried to turn his head to get a better view of what approached, but the vampire’s grip was too strong. His vision started to blur.
Drake heard the whoosh of an object slicing through the air and the dull thud of metal against skin, followed by a bone-chilling howl. The grip around his neck loosened enough to allow in air. Drake fell to his knees, gasping for breath, then raised his head.
Alison stood beside him, an axe gripped in both hands. Blood and gore covered the blade. She had cut off the vampire’s arm above the elbow. Holding the bloody stump with its good hand, it turned to Alison and snarled. Alison raised the axe and brought it down hard on the vampire’s head, cleaving it down to its upper jaw. The blow made a sickening sound as the vampire’s skull cracked and its brain was rendered. A howl came from its lips that sounded as if hell itself had screamed. Alison tried to dislodge the axe, but the vampire’s thrashing around only imbedded it deeper. Placing one foot on its chest, she used the extra leverage and yanked. The axe slid out with a squish, splattering her with blood and gore. Brandishing the axe like a baseball bat, Alison gave one final swing, slicing through the vampire’s neck. Its head separated from its body. Both the torso and head fell to the ground, each disintegrating into a cloud of ash.
“Are you okay?” Alison asked as she helped Drake to his feet.
“I’ve been worse.” The severed hand and forearm still clung to Drake’s neck. He pulled it off. The limb crumbled to dust in his hand. “Where’s Jessica?”
“She’s with the masters.” Alison motioned toward the SUV that raced down the street. “I couldn’t save both of you. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.”
“What do you think they want with her?”
“I don’t know.” Drake took a step and faltered, still shaky from his near strangulation. “Whatever it is, they want her alive, otherwise why go through the trouble of kidnapping her?”
“Come on. My car’s parked around the corner.” Alison took Drake by the hand and led him away. “We better get out of here before the police show up.”
10.
CONSCIOUSNESS CAME BACK TO JESSICA SLOWLY. She entered that transitional state when the mind is uncertain whether or not it’s awake. Her short-term memory tried to sort out reality from nightmare, though in this instance they blended with a horrifying familiarity. She remembered the attack in the morgue. Alison and Drake coming to her rescue. That third-rate Vampira slamming her against the lamp post and knocking her out. She still had the headache to remind her of that. The throbbing in
her temple grew worse when she tried to open her eyes, so she kept them shut.
Jessica sniffed. She detected the lingering odor of sewerage, yet felt no dampness or heard no dripping water. In fact, she was vaguely aware of lying on something soft. She flattened her hand and glided it along the surface. Silk. Silk sheets, to be exact.
Despite the pain in her temple, Jessica sat up and opened her eyes. The room began spinning. She swallowed hard to prevent herself from vomiting, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. After a moment, the dizziness stopped. This time, Jessica tried opening her eyes slowly. Her vision wobbled, and it took a few seconds for the blurred corners of the room to come into focus.
“Finally.”
Jessica turned her head to the left. The red-headed master who had knocked her unconscious sat in a wing-backed chair beside the bed sat. Jessica lay in a weathered four-poster bed, the only other piece of furniture in the bedroom. The three windows off to her right were all painted black on the inside, just as in the SUV. She noticed two doors, a smaller one directly behind the master, and a larger one opposite the foot of the bed. She assumed that one probably led to safety. In her condition, she would never be able to beat the vampire to the door. Better to die on her feet, though, than to stay in bed and wait for these things to subject her to God knows what.
Rolling to the side of the bed, Jessica swung her feet onto the floor and stood, using one of the bedposts for support. The room began to spin. Pushing her legs forward, Jessica staggered across the room until she fell into the door. As she turned the knob, she looked back at the master. The vampire just sat there, staring at her with disdain. Jessica opened the door and ran out.
And collided with a pair of snuffies guarding the hallway. One of the vampires hissed at Jessica, its mouth open so wide it could have bitten off her entire face. Decayed flesh odored its breath. The second vampire shoved Jessica back into the room and toward the bed. Jessica tumbled backward onto the mattress, exhausted.
Toni stood up and looked over at the hissing vampire. “Go get Ion.”
It scurried off to obey. The second vampire stood near the foot of the bed, its eyes fixed on Jessica.
“Why do I smell like a sewer?” asked Jessica.
“Because that’s how we brought you here.”
“Where’s here?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Jessica did not like the ominous implications of that answer. “What are you going to do to me?”
“If I had my way, you’d be our next meal.” Toni stood and joined the second snuffy, leering at Jessica. “Fortunately for you, Ion has other plans.”
“What plans?”
“Why don’t you ask me yourself.”
Jessica turned to the door. She recognized that master that had been blinded in the morgue. Except now its eyes were intact. “You can see?”
“Of course.”
“But your eyes were gouged out.”
“Didn’t Professor Reese tell you? Masters can regenerate their wounds.”
Toni huffed.
“Most of their wounds,” Ion corrected himself. “It’s one of the reasons we live as long as we do. But I’m being rude. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ion Zielenska, master of this coven. This is Antoinette Varela, my bride.”
“What do you intend to do to me?”
Ion strolled over to the bed and sat down beside Jessica. “First, we’re going to use you as bait to entrap the hunters.”
“What makes you think they’ll come after me?”
Ion laughed. “They will.”
Jessica knew they would. Drake already had put his life on the line numerous times for people he did not even know. He even tried to save her once. She felt certain he would try again.
“You said ‘first’,” asked Jessica. “What’ll happen second?”
“Then you’ll become a master, like us.”
“You mean I’ll become your bride?”
“You’re quite beautiful, but I already have a bride.” Ion reached out a hand and used the back of his fingers to gently stroke Jessica’s cheek. His skin felt cold and clammy against hers. She drew back in revulsion. Ion did not let the gesture offend him. “Once you’re a master, I plan to send you back to Boston to resurrect the coven that Drake destroyed. It’ll be my final insult to him.”
Jessica remembered what Reese told her about a person having to feed off a master to become one themselves, and thus could only be turned of their own free will. “It won’t work. I don’t want to become one of the undead, and you can’t force me.”
“True.” Ion’s charm gave way to a subdued menace. “But I can think of ways to inflict such pain, ways to torture the flesh and crush the spirit, so that in time you will beg me to make you a master and put you out of your mortal torment.”
Jessica did not fool herself about this being an idle threat.
“Don’t worry about the future.” Ion cupped Jessica’s cheek in his right hand. “Right now, get some rest while I make the final arrangements for tonight.”
Standing, Ion went to leave the bedroom, with Toni right behind. He stopped in the doorway and turned back to Jessica. “And don’t try to escape. The guards have their orders to stop you, but not to keep you safe. They won’t kill you, but you’ll wish they had.”
As Ion closed the door, Jessica crawled backwards onto the pillows. She knew she could not get away. She loathed the idea of waiting around for someone to rescue her, but in this situation she had little choice. To try and fight her way out would get her killed, at best. At worst…. She tried not to think about it. Her best course of action was to sit tight and bide time. When Drake came to her rescue, then she would fight back. She probably would do little to help out the hunters in the coming battle. She probably would not come out of it alive. But that did not matter.
Jessica intended to go down fighting.
* * *
DRAKE PACED NERVOUSLY between the window in his office and his desk. Alison sat behind the latter, the telephone receiver cradled between her ear and shoulder. Drake stared at Alison, as if that would expedite her conversation, then strolled back to the window to stare out at the back alley. Alison had turned her back on Drake, ignoring him. Jim sat on the sofa underneath the picture of Nosferatu, absent-mindedly thumbing through a gun supply catalogue.
Jessica had been kidnapped nearly twenty-four hours earlier. Since then, nothing had happened. No message from the vampires telling him what to do next. No clues as to where to find and rescue Jessica. Not even a body to provide finality. He hated being helpless.
When Alison finally completed her call, Drake barely gave her time to hang up the receiver. “What did Smith say? Who does the SUV belong to? Where can we find them?”
“Slow down.” Alison raised her palms and motioned for Drake to calm himself. “Smith ran a check on the SUV’s license plate. It belongs to a middle-aged couple from Fairfax who are on vacation in Aruba. The police contacted them at their hotel. They said they had parked their SUV at Reagan National three days ago.”
“So the vampires stole the SUV?”
“Looks that way.”
“Damn.” Drake walked back to the window and stared out. “Then why haven’t we heard from them?”
“Maybe they don’t intend to contact us,” Jim answered hesitantly. “Maybe she’s already… already….”
“Dead?”
Jim nodded, then dropped his head. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Drake leaned against the sill. “Normally you’d be right. But if they wanted to kill her, they could have done that at the morgue. The master was willing to sacrifice five snuffies to kidnap Jessica. Why?”
“I can answer that.” The words were spoken through a gurgle, as if coming from under water. They all turned to the door to the outer office.
Bill stood in the doorway, or what remained of him. The pallid face, furrowed forehead, and blood-red eyes told them that the photographer had joined the ranks of the
undead. What shocked them was the means of his conversion. Bill’s throat had been ripped out, leaving a fist-sized hole surrounded by tattered flesh and muscle. Blood stained the front of his shirt, spotted with chunks of decaying gore.
Jim jumped off the sofa. He pulled a stake from under his jacket and started to lunge at the vampire. It turned and hissed. Jim hesitated, not out of fear but revulsion because, when it hissed, its vocal chords could be seen vibrating in the back of its throat.
Drake raced forward and stepped in front of Jim.
“That’s right, hunter,” Bill gurgled. “Heel your puppy before I neuter it.”
Jim tried to lunge at the creature, but Drake held him back. Still keeping a hand firmly gripped on Jim’s arm, Drake turned to the monstrous intruder. “What do you want?”
“I’m here to relay a message from my master.” Bill entered the room, taunting them with his very presence. “We have your precious Jessica.”
“Is she alive?”
Bill responded in a slow, threatening voice that produced an air bubble of blood. “For now.” He stepped close to Drake, putting his face directly into the hunter’s. “Whether she stays that way depends on you.”
“Go on.”
“My master plans on turning Jessica tonight at Wolf Trap in Virginia. Do you know it?”
“Yes. At the main theater?”
Bill nodded, his neck squishing as he did so. “It’ll be quite a performance.”
“Why there?” asked Drake.
“Because it’s desolate. There’ll be no one around to get in the way.”
“What time?”
“Midnight.”
“That’s in less than five hours,” said Jim.
“The puppy can tell time,” said Bill. “What other tricks have you taught it?”
Jim tried to go after the vampire, but Drake held him back again.
“You’ll get your chance, puppy. My master is giving you the opportunity to save Jessica. The hunters against the coven. If you win, you save Jessica. If you lose, the bitch joins us as a master. Who knows. You might even live long enough to have her turn one of you.”
The Vampire Hunters: Book I of The Vampire Hunters Trilogy Page 20
