by I D Johnson
“Thank you,” Jordan said, standing and taking Van’s small, but lethal, hand in his own. Jamie followed him out of the tent, and as soon as they stepped beneath the moonlit sky, a wolf howled in the distance. Both of them turned their heads, clearly wondering the same thing; did Dracula know they were coming for him?
Jamie spent the next two days helping Jordan determine who to group together and which of Van’s list of assignments would be best for each team. There were several names that Jamie recognized, but the ones he had worked with most, besides his sister, were from the London team. He wasn’t surprised at all to see that Ward and Aaron would both be there. “Do you think we can get away with giving them a lesser suited Healer?” Jordan had asked as the list of Guardians blessed with that particular trait dwindled.
It was a difficult question. Jamie knew that both men were fully capable of doing their job quickly and without a mess. It was really more a question of whether or not he felt the Hunters assigned to them would be able to keep from getting themselves wounded. When Jordan explained he’d assigned them to clear out the deepest lair of the building, the one Van believed to be housing three temptresses, Jamie thought it was the perfect assignment for the pair, though he didn’t know much about the others on the team. He hated making such tough calls.
“Who do we have left?” Jamie asked, studying the list Jordan had made. None of the Healers on the list were particularly strong, but a thought did occur to him. “If you give them Morris, who is about the lowest level of Healer I’ve ever encountered, you can give them Christian as well. They’re both from Philly.”
“Christian is no Healer,” Jordan reminded the doctor.
“Oh, believe me, I know,” Jamie almost laughed. “But he’s very talented, and I’m most positive he won’t waiver in the face of the temptresses.” Jamie didn’t know Christian Henry well, but every time he’d been around the man, he’d thought he seemed a bit uncomfortable around women. He couldn’t imagine the Guardian falling under their spell.
“All right then,” Jordan nodded, and they moved on to the next team.
That wasn’t the end of it, however. After hours of discussion and moving people around, they decided they’d finally come to final decision just before the last of the teams was to arrive.
Jamie walked out of the tent he and Jordan had been sharing into a bustling city of makeshift housing, consisting of tents, tarps, and lean-tos. Most of these people had only just arrived that day and were planning on leaving the next, should their mission be completed. Jamie prayed that it would be. Dracula had been wreaking havoc on parts of Europe from Romania to England for decades. It was time he finally met his second--or was it third?--death at the hand of a silver stake through his chest cavity.
“Hey, Jamie!”
He didn’t have to turn around to know whose voice was billowing through the night sky, but he turned anyway in time to see his sister cutting through a crowd of meandering Hunters and Guardians making their way to the large tent Van had arranged for them all to meet under. It seemed dozens of people were already making their way inside and taking seats. While Jamie would have a seat up front with the rest of the Healers, he wished he could use that as an excuse not to talk to her, not at length anyway. He plastered a smile on his face and greeted her. “Hello, Margie. It’s nice to see you.”
She was dressed in black leggings and knee high boots, no tunic this time, only a form fitting bustier with a puffy white shirt beneath the tight fitting black and red satin material. She looked like a pirate of some sort in Jamie’s opinion, but he kept the thought to himself. Her hair was just as curly and unruly as ever, though she had it pulled up on top of her head secured somehow beneath a small black hat, complete with a large feather. “How are you?” she asked, slamming him in the arm hard enough for him to have to heal himself. “I hear you’re all they can talk about these days in KC.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that,” he replied with a shrug as he let loose of his arm. “But I hear you’ve done a bang up job in Moscow.”
“Yeah, I have,” she agreed. “Are we on the same team here? I bet not, not if you had anything to do with it.” She laughed, but they both knew it was true.
“I believe Jordan has you clearing the ground level layer with your teammates from Russia and a few Americans,” Jamie replied, looking back toward the tent that was beginning to fill up.
“Perfect!” she exclaimed. “So long as I get in on the action.”
“My understanding is there will be plenty of action for everyone. I think we should head in.” He saw a few familiar faces, including Ward and Aaron, filing into the tent, but neither of them was looking his way.
“All right. Let me go get my teammates. They want to meet you, though.”
“I’m sure they do,” he replied, watching her walk backward in the direction she’d come. “Perhaps later. And hopefully not due to any injuries.” Margie nodded, and he assumed she’d be just fine letting him go upon his merry way.
Once everyone was inside, Jordan delivered a quick greeting and then handed things over to Van. She spared no punches as she explained their mission. Jamie kept his eyes focused right ahead, not wanting to inadvertently make eye contact with Margie or any of her friends. As far as he was concerned, his sister was just another Guardian from another country there to make an impact and do her part in bringing in a lethal Vampire.
At the end of her speech, Van answered a few questions and then they called for all of the Leaders to make their way to the front. Jordan, who had been sitting a few rows in front of Jamie turned and gestured for him to come as well. Reluctantly, Jamie made his way forward, not because he didn’t want to be seen as a Leader; he was the head of all of the Healers after all, but he knew Margie would be there.
She behaved herself as Van gave special instructions and Jordan handed out team assignments to everyone. Jamie was pleased to see Ward and greeted him, as well as a few of the other Leaders he’d worked with over the years. Once they’d all cleared out to assemble their teams, Jordan kept him at his side and turned to Van. “What’s your read?” he asked her, quietly.
Van nodded. “I think we can do it,” she said, her voice unwavering. “I think we will lose a quarter, maybe close to half of the Hunters we send through the perimeter.”
Jordan’s eyes grew wide, and Jamie realized his own mouth was hanging agape. “Half?” Jordan repeated. Jamie did some quick math. He knew they’d purposely requested more Guardians than Hunters. He figured there were likely fifty Hunters, and of those, only about thirty would be sent into the castle. “Fifteen casualties is a lot,” Jamie muttered.
Taking a step closer to him, Van tipped her head up slightly so she could look him in the eye. “I have lost twice that many on my own over the years, throwing pitiful forces in his direction. If we lose every single one of them and take him out, it will have been worth it. He has killed thousands.” She turned on her heel, bringing her black cape out behind her, which brushed across the front of his jacket, as she marched off. A few steps away, she turned and faced him again, shouting, “And, yes, that does include me.”
After moments of trying, Jamie still couldn’t formulate a response. Jordan chuckled quietly. “She’s passionate, that Van.”
“I’ll say,” he replied, thinking Jordan was just laughing to lighten the mood.
“Don’t worry about her, though. I think her estimate is high. She doesn’t know what you can do.”
“Yeah, but… there’s just one of me. And I can’t be everywhere all at once.”
They began to walk toward the opening of the tent. “You have your medical bag, don’t you?” he asked.
“I do,” Jamie confirmed. Through the flaps, they could see the teams gathering and heading up the mountainside, most of them in eerie silence.
“Only use your power when you must. Save your Healing powers for those who need it most. Trust in those you’ve trained and the others we’ve recruited. They may not all be as po
werful as you are, but they can do their part.”
The moonlight glinted off of Jordan’s hair, and Jamie noticed the silver touches a little more than normal. He nodded, realizing his Leader was right. They could do this; he could do this. “I’ll head up now,” he said. “I’m going with Van’s group.”
“Take care. I’ll be waiting here. Send word if need be.”
Jamie nodded. He knew Jordan was letting Van handle the attack from here out, and he couldn’t blame him; she was the expert after all, but thoughts of marching up that mountain without his Leader made him more than a little anxious. He knew this wasn’t going to be as easy as they were all hoping. No one but Van, and perhaps the rest of her team, seemed to know the powers of darkness they were about to engage with.
Chapter 24
Wallachia, Romania, 1894
After having collected his medical bag from his tent, Jamie caught up with Van, Claude, a tiny waif of a woman named Vanessa whom he learned was the runner of the group, and the rest of Van’s team. Each of them looked vicious or hardened in a different way and he felt oddly out of place. Luckily, Van had made it very clear he was only there to Heal, not to fight.
The castle loomed in front of them, and within about a hundred yards of the towering structure, they paused to observe. Moonlight glinted off of stone as six or seven turrets reached into the sky. The iron gate, joining two imposing lengths of stone wall nearly twenty feet high, would be no problem for any of them; it was what lie beyond the barrier that had Jamie feeling more frightened than he could remember being for years. While he was still fairly certain there was nothing on the other side of that fortress wall that could kill him, pain was always a deterrent. And he also thought it was quite possible a Hunter, distracted in the heat of battle, might accidentally take out a Guardian or two. He hoped not to be among the numbers. The thought of being hit by a Hunter was always in the back of his mind.
He hadn’t seen a lot of revolvers. Most of those assembled here preferred old school weapons; stakes, crossbows, even Holy Water. Jamie was armed with a silver tipped blade, but he didn’t think he’d need it. More important to his role this night was the medical bag he carried with him.
“Are we ready?” Van asked, not turning to look behind her for an answer as she pressed on, up the steepest part of the incline to the iron gates.
Once they reached them, she gestured with her hand and Claude tore them asunder, leaving them wide open. “That was easy,” Jamie muttered, though he hoped no one heard him. Vanessa, who had been standing nearby, gave a spritely giggle, and he thought she didn’t seem to fit the rest of her group. She was lithe and wiry, dressed in a tight fitting black outfit that left little to the imagination, but he assumed it was because she wouldn’t want anything slowing her down.
They’d passed through the ranks of those who would hold the position on the mountain, forming the perimeter, should Dracula get past the attacking forces. Behind them, Jamie could hear the rest of the troops getting into place. Once the advanced guard had penetrated the lair, Vanessa would give the signal for the rest of the teams to attack. They all knew there would be no element of surprise. Dracula and his band of ghouls certainly knew they were coming.
Jamie remembered the attack in Georgia and wished he had some of Bo’s silver bombs, though he didn’t know if they would do any good. They seemed like better options than the team of seven who were moving into position now, despite the fact that they all looked foreboding, all except for Vanessa, and of course, he looked like a surgeon of medium-height with no real skills other than putting people back together again. Vlad would take one look out his window and laugh if he focused on the Healer’s frame coming to attack him.
Van gave some hand signals Jamie wasn’t familiar with, but he decided to stay with Vanessa as she seemed like the one most like him, so they ducked to the left as Claude and their leader approached the castle door. As they moved in position to attempt to knock it down, the door was lowered by chain, as if there used to be a mote here, and the raven-haired warrior and her second-hand man jumped out of the way just in time to keep from being crushed beneath it.
At first, it appeared as if they were being invited in by an unknown host; nothing stirred within the castle, though Jamie did inhale a lung full of the stench of dead. He wondered how many human bodies might lie within the castle walls, but since they’d been told thousands of villagers had disappeared from the surrounding area over the last few decades, he couldn’t imagine anything less than a pile of bones high enough to reach the cellar ceiling.
Once again, Van took hesitant steps forward, and a she reached the edge of the doorway, a shriek filled the air. What looked to be nearly a dozen Vampires came flying out of the interior, pouring into the courtyard, all of them taking flight, something Jamie had never seen before, again causing the Hunters and Guardians to duck out of the way. Men and women, old and young alike, with fangs visible as they arched low in the sky began their own assault on those who would breech their fortress.
The Vampires didn’t seem to get the memo that he wasn’t there to fight, and an older woman in a dress his own grandmother might’ve worn at the turn of the last century came straight for him. Jamie didn’t hesitate to pull his knife from his jacket pocket and swing it in her general direction. She screeched again and then began to cackle, but she persisted. With his left hand, he grabbed ahold of her upper arm as she reached with talon like claws for his face. Dodging out of the way, he jabbed with his knife, connecting to the soft tissue just above her left breast. He knew he’d hit the intended spot when she gave one last scream and burst into ash, temporarily blinding him.
Unlike the others, Jamie could clear his own vision pretty quickly as part of his Healing skills. He surveyed the yard and saw the others making quick work of the flying Vampires. Van drew her crossbow and brought down two more easily, and Claude took one out just as those razor-sharp claws tore into the arm of one of the Hunters. When the assailants were all taken care of, Jamie rushed toward the bleeding woman. “No, I’m okay,” she insisted. “Save it for someone else.”
“At least let me bandage it,” he insisted. “I’ll put on gloves.”
She was a tall red-headed woman with muscles he found himself envious of, but he could tell she was in pain. She nodded and he dropped his bag on the ground, digging through it to find gloves, which he slid on before ripping open what was left of her sleeve and applying a quick bandage. Once he was satisfied that she wouldn’t lose any more blood, he nodded at Van, and she led them toward the castle.
Jamie slipped his gloves off and stuffed him into his pocket as he followed Van inside. Two of their team carried torches; otherwise, they would’ve had to rely only on their night vision, which was slightly better than most humans, though that was one area Jamie hoped to find a way to improve. The interior of the castle was illuminated by gaslights and candles, though they were few and far between, and as they entered the foyer, Jamie took a moment to let his eyes adjust. The room was beautifully decorated with elaborate antiques, murals of both the historical and grotesque variety, and a chandelier which cast an eerie glow on the space from up above.
Before Van could give any orders, a deafening clatter from the room in front of them resounded through the castle, and suddenly, they were under attack again. This time, it wasn’t just the flying Vampires from before, but three large, gray wolves snarled at them from the staircase, a mist hung in the air, and the more Jamie stared at it, the more he thought he saw faces forming before his eyes. Van let out a shout in a language he did not understand, likely Dutch, and the two sides collided in battle.
Though he’d been given careful instructions not to engage unless he had to, Jamie didn’t feel right standing there watching as the likes of Claude and Van took on two or three Vampires at once. They both chopped through them as if this was something they did each day before tea, and perhaps it was, but Jamie noticed that some of them didn’t go down as easily as he expected. A slice to
the heart or to the throat was not enough to end them. They’d simply dissipate and reform. He kept his declarations to himself and jumped into the fray, doing his best to keep an eye on the Hunters.
As he battled one of the mist people, he watched out of the corner of his eye as a wolf lunged at Van from off of the stairs. Vanessa ran over and knocked the giant canine off of their Leader’s leg, but there was a gaping wound. Van turned and shot it with her crossbow while simultaneously using her knife to cut down the Vampire that was lunging for her neck. Growing tired of the game he was playing with the mist, Jamie reached for what he assumed would be the Vampire’s neck and was satisfied to hear a crunching sound as his hands met what appeared to be only air. A few seconds later, the mist was gone completely, and so was his assailant. Knowing this worked, he moved on to the next, one that was tangling with the muscular red-headed woman, and between the two of them, they managed to twist that one’s head off as well.
The other two wolves were both attacking Claude. He was knocking over furniture, attempting to slow them as he parried around the room. Jamie could see the problem. He’d somehow managed to drop his sword. It was lying on the ground near the stairwell where the wolves had originally appeared. There were two other vampires between himself and the weapon. Taking a lesson from his sister, Jamie drew a deep breath and pulled a second knife out of his pocket. He’d only seen Margie do this once, but he assumed if she could do it, so could he. He ran full force at the two attacking Vampires. While one was a woman and the other a man, they appeared to be hovering at about the same height. Their fangs gleamed from the light of the chandelier as he launched himself at them, doing a mid-air somersault and bringing his knives down so that they entered into the spinal column in the back of their necks. He twisted both blades as he landed on his feet, severing both of their heads in the process. In one fluid motion, he stuffed the knives back into their sheaths and picked up Claude’s sword, spinning and tossing it to the giant, who caught it nimbly and then, with one powerful swing, took off the head of both lobos who fell to the ground, squealing like pups before they turned to ash.
