by I D Johnson
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Jamie looked around to see they were, once again, Vampire clear. Ash blew around on the floor, some of it floating out the door. “Holy hell,” Van said in her thick accent. “The doctor is a soldier.”
Not able to think of anything to say in response, Jamie straightened his coat and nodded at her. Van laughed and then, turning to her runner, she said, “Go! Signal the attack.”
While Jamie had seen some fast Guardians in his day, there was no doubt Vanessa was the fleetest of foot he’d ever seen. There was only a slight disturbance in the air as she exited the castle door, and a few millisecond later, he heard the agreed upon signal from outside by the gates.
“Come on,” Van said, gesturing with her arm. “We go upstairs. That’s where he’s liable to be.”
Jamie didn’t hesitate to follow behind them, but he did decide he wanted to be last; that way, if anything snuck up from behind, it wouldn’t be a Hunter who became the initial target. He hung a few steps back until he realized he wasn’t alone. Putting his hand on the hilt of his blade he turned quickly to find Vanessa smiling at him. “I liked your flip,” she said, giggling.
“Uh, thanks,” he whispered in return.
“Where did you learn to do that?”
Telling her the truth somehow seemed like it would make him less of a man. “Practice,” he said, with a nod. She smiled and he let her go in front of him, not just because that way he’d be last again but because then he could keep an eye on her. She took a few steps and then turned and smiled at him coyly over her shoulder.
If they hadn’t been in the middle of infiltrating a castle full of Vampires, he might’ve taken a moment to weigh the possibilities, but as soon as Van and Claude reached the top of the stairs, a resounding crash echoed down the hallway as more Vampires of the flying variety burst out of doors on either side of the hallway. They were quickly joined by more wolves and mists, and Jamie didn’t see how they would ever work their way out of this situation.
Footsteps behind him drew his attention back to the stairs as the other teams who were designated to help clear this area arrived, and he breathed easier, especially when he saw the first person up the stairs was Margie. “Get out of the way, little brother,” she shouted as she ran by. “Real men have arrived.”
Jamie was certain she meant herself and stifled a laugh. There was no time for it. Though he was supposed to avoid combat, he was quickly engaged with another mist monster, which he dispatched and then headed off after Van and the rest of their group as they pushed deeper into the castle, leaving the ghouls in the hallway to Margie and the others.
Van seemed to know exactly where she was going, and before long, they reached an interior chamber, hidden behind a secret panel she was somehow able to access. They all came to a sudden halt at the realization of what lie before them. A coffin, large, black, made of marble or some other heavy stone, atop a riser, surrounded by lit candelabras in an otherwise dark room seemed to reveal the location of the beast they hunted.
They were all silent for a moment, anticipating an attack. When none came, Van took a step forward. As she did so, the lid to the coffin came shooting off, knocking half their team over and trapping them beneath the heavy stone. Jamie dodged out of the way, dragging Vanessa by the arm as he did so, and there before them, the most gruesome face he’d ever seen began to materialize as gray vapor traveled in thick plumes out of the coffin to form a body floating in the air above it.
The man’s face was old and haggard, his jowls saggy, and blood stained his teeth and mouth. His eyes were black, a stark contrast to his pale skin, and his hair was long and white, though set in intricate curls, almost like a judge’s wig. His fingernails were easily twice the length of his hands, and as he stared at them, dressed in a bright red velvet dressing gown, there was no doubt in Jamie’s mind who they were looking at.
Before Van could even draw her weapon, Dracula moved right at her, scratching her face so deeply blood spurted across the room. Instinctively, she covered the wound while the others who were still standing prepared to fight. Dracula grabbed the injured arm of the woman Jamie had healed earlier and ripped it clean from her body while reaching for the neck of another Hunter who was standing nearby. A Guardian sent a silver-tipped arrow from his crossbow into Dracula’s chest, but he pulled it out and threw it back, hitting the Guardian in the stomach. Chaos broke out as Dracula headed toward the door, holding the decapitated head of the Hunter he’d attacked in one hand as he floated by.
“Stop him!” Van shouted, and Vanessa, who was the quickest, shot out into the hallway. She was able to slow him down a bit by propelling herself onto his shoulders, but he jerked away from her, just as Van’s crossbow fired several shots, each hitting their target, Dracula’s torso, but none seeming to injure him as much as Van had wanted.
The woman whose arm had been severed moved to give chase as the last of the team staggered from beneath the marble coffin lid. Jamie surveyed the body on the floor and knew he couldn’t help that Hunter, but if he didn’t do something for this woman, she’d bleed to death. “You need a tourniquet,” he said, moving in front of her.
“I’ll be all right,” she insisted, trying to move past him. Shouting from the hallway told him that the others had noticed Dracula attempting to make his way through the castle. She was eager to return to the fray but beads of sweat had broken out across her forehead.
“Sit down and let me fix it, or you will die,” Jamie insisted, his voice even, his tone as serious as possible.
With a sigh, she made to move to the floor and collapsed. Jamie caught her and sat her down near the coffin lid. Opening his bag, he took out the materials he would need to temporarily stop the bleeding, but before he began, he ran his hand quickly over the ends of the blood vessels from her now stump of an arm. While it wouldn’t heal her completely, it would help, and hopefully lessen the pain. He then put on his gloves and went about applying the tourniquet. Once done, he took a canteen out of his bag and made her drink some water. “There,” he said. “But you need to take it easy. You’ll be of no help if you don’t.”
She looked to her friend whose body still lie bleeding all over the stone floor. “And what of Brit? He gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
“Brit was very brave,” Jamie agreed, though he hardly knew the man, “but this is not your final battle. They’ll stop him.” Jamie was confident in the statement; he knew enough of the personnel involved here to believe this was Dracula’s last night on Earth, this time around anyway.
Standing, Jamie reached a hand out and helped her to her feet, steadying her. From the sounds of it, most of the fighting had moved back down the stairs, and he wasn’t surprised at all to see the woman pick up her weapon and rush off, though she was still a little woozy.
Out in the hallway, Jamie saw a few other Healers tending to Hunters with missing limbs, deep wounds, and broken bones. Seeing that most of the wounded were all right for the time being, he rushed over to the stairwell just in time to see Van leap from about halfway up the spiraling staircase to the bottom, screaming as she did so to “Stop him!”
Jamie couldn’t see what was happening around the bend at the bottom of the stairs, but he heard what sounded like the heavy front doors slam shut and then a whooshing sound, followed by a colossal crash. That part of the building shook slightly. He took off down the stairs but was halted at the sight of Van and Claude engaged with Dracula, who was now part mist, part old man. Claude had him by the legs, and Van had a firm grip on his head. She gave a command in Dutch, which Jamie thought must be one of the tactics they used regularly of counter-twisting. It seemed to take longer than normal, as Dracula’s head was simply not detaching from his body.
Out of nowhere, Margie flew from across the room, her head bleeding, as she slammed a large wooden stake, topped with silver, through his chest cavity. The monster gave a deafening roar, and as if the silver had somehow weakened him, he burst into ash, spraying particles o
f black soot all over the three of them, up the stairs, and across the floor.
The halls of the castle grew eerily silent, as if the rest of the Vampires either imploded along with him, or he was the last of them. Van, who looked more tired than Jamie expected, turned and looked at Margie, offering his sister her hand, and then she clapped Claude on the shoulder before saying, “Let us clear the building.” She looked up at Jamie and tipped her head and then hurried off, he assumed to make sure that was the end of it.
After the initial silence wore off, the sounds of groaning and cries for help began to fill his ears, and Jamie realized there were more wounded and dying Hunters than he’d initially recognized. Shouts from up the stairs drew his attention, and he ran back the way he’d come to find a Hunter with a broken leg bleeding out in one of the bedrooms.
For the next hour or so, he worked as tirelessly as he could to make sure anyone who needed immediate attention received it. He only used his special abilities a few times, in hopes that saving his powers for the worst cases or giving just a little to more people would keep him from draining himself. He saw a few other Healers sprawled out on the floor or draped across beds who had given all they had, and he was glad it was them and not him.
As he finished up with the last Hunter upstairs, Van approached him, meeting him halfway down the hallway. “Your powers are amazing,” she said, her accent thick. “I think Nella will be all right, thanks to you.”
He assumed that was the woman who had lost her arm. “I’m just thankful you were able to get him, and I was around to witness it,” he replied.
She nodded, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. “There are a few Hunters in the basement who might need our attention, but can you take a look at the Guardian Dracula threw into the fireplace mantel first? He hasn’t moved since he was tossed over there, and I want to make sure he’s all right. If it hadn’t been for him, Dracula would’ve escaped.”
“Oh?” Jamie asked, following her as she headed back down the stairs.
“Yes, he closed the doors just in time and prevented Dracula from getting away from Claude and I.”
“I’m happy to take a look,” Jamie replied as their heavy boots echoed down the stairs.
“Your sister is quite capable as well,” Van said as they passed Margie downstairs. She was tending to an injured Hunter. She couldn’t heal, but she could bandage.
“Yes, she is,” Jamie agreed, “though I’m surprised she claimed me.”
Van laughed. “She didn’t. I know more than you might think.”
She took a few steps across the room, and Jamie saw exactly who she was talking about. A laugh bubbled up in his throat, and he had to stop himself from sounding very rude or immature. Van turned and looked at him. “Why is an injured Guardian funny?” she asked, a dark eyebrow raised.
“Because… I know him,” Jamie said, controlling his laughter. “And I’m not surprised at all he threw himself between Dracula and an escape, but it is kind of funny to see him sprawled out on the floor.”
Van stared at the doctor for a moment. “You will help him, yes?”
“Yes,” Jamie assured her. “I will help him.”
She nodded and headed off back toward the interior of the castle, and Jamie approached his sleeping friend.
Aaron was lying on the floor beneath a massive fireplace, his head cradled in the lap of a fairly attractive blonde woman. “Hit his head, did he?” Jamie asked her.
“Yes,” she replied, clearly concerned. “I’ve been trying to wake him, but….”
“He’ll be fine,” Jamie assured her, reaching into his pocket for his gloves. He was willing to help the man who’d killed Jack the Ripper, but there was no sense using his powers to do so. He reached into his bag and pulled out some smelling salts. A few seconds later, Aaron sputtered back to life. “Aaron?” Jamie called “Open your eyes.”
The Guardian blinked a few times and then made a groaning noise like his head hurt.
The woman who was holding his head said, “Stay still,” and he looked up at her, a questioning expression on his face.
“He’s all right,” Jamie assured her “I’m sure he has a concussion, but he’ll recover.”
“A conc—what?” the blonde asked, not pulling her eyes away from the face of the handsome man she was clearly very worried about.
“A concussion. It just means his brain moved around a bit inside of his skull.” Jamie still wasn’t sure she had any idea what he was talking about.
She made a funny face and then said, “Oh, well, I guess that’s one way to verify he has one.”
After a long night, Jamie couldn’t help but laugh. “Ha, ha, good one.” Maybe he hadn’t given the woman enough credit.
Without even opening his eyes, Aaron mumbled, “Stop making jokes at my expense, woman voice.”
“Aaron, it’s me, Catherine,” she called. “Are you all right? Do you want to try to sit up?”
He seemed to want to try, so Jamie took one shoulder, Catherine the other, and in a few moments, he was sitting up, though Jamie noticed his pupils were still dilated.
“How are you feeling?” Jamie asked, staring into his eyes for a moment.
“Okay,” Aaron muttered.
“I didn’t do anything to heal you, just assessed the damage. Do you think I need to do anything else?” He pulled up one eyelid and stared into his eye for a second.
“No,” Aaron replied. It was weak, but Jamie knew he’d be fine. There may still be Hunters who could use his help.
“All right then. I’m off,” he said. “Let me know if he needs anything,” he added to Catherine as he hurried off, headed toward the basement. He hadn’t checked the lower levels to see if there were Hunters who needed his attention.
For the most part, he was fairly certain they had things under control, which was a testament to his team. He hurried down a concrete stairwell, saw a few Healers working diligently, and both gave him signals that they were all right, so he headed further down.
When he’d originally been asked to serve as the Leader of the Healers, the thought Jordan had a screw loose, but when he saw how cohesively his team worked, how many more Healers there were now than there had been a year ago, and how much better they were at their jobs, he felt as if he had truly made a difference. It was all he could do to keep Kit’s words from filling his mind, the idea that he would never be a leader had been planted there by her, but as Jamie went about assessing the rest of his team, he realized she was wrong. And if she’d been wrong about that, perhaps she’d been wrong about other things, too. Perhaps he really was worthy of love, worthy of finding someone who could live the rest of her life with him, regardless of whether or not she would live eternally as he would.
There wasn’t too much time to ponder these ideas as he found another Hunter in need of attention and went about helping a Healer cauterize yet another severed arm, but one thing was for sure, he was ready to move on and put Kit and his old ideas of himself in the past.
Chapter 25
Springfield, Missouri, USA, 1925
A thousand twinkling stars hung overhead, and that was all the light that illuminated the densely wooded area out in the middle of nowhere. The sounds of dogs howling from a nearby farm filled the otherwise silent night, and Jamie nervously stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
“It’s around here somewhere. Shouldn’t be too difficult to find,” Jordan assured him, looking through a pair of binoculars the best he could between tree branches.
“Well, you did send Christian to look for it,” Janette muttered under her breath, and Jamie stifled a laugh. It had only been a few months since the Philadelphia native joined their team in KC, but so far Jamie and the rest of them had found him very technologically savvy but not very good with common sense tasks, such as finding the opening to a cave in the middle of thick foliage by starlight.
“He’s not so bad,” Jordan said defensively. “Not bad at all.”
“Oh
, I know.” Janette took a nervous step forward. “Aaron said he worked well for him all these years. I’m sure he’ll be just fine.” After Aaron helped destroy Dracula in Walachia, Jordan had appointed the Irishman as the Area Leader of Southampton. Christian had been instrumental to many of Aaron’s hunts, and when he’d shown interest in working on some of the projects Jamie was currently working on, including perfecting the silver bullet and a communication device, Christian had been transferred to Kansas City. He was a bit of an acquired taste, however, and Jamie, like the others, was still figuring him out.
Hannah was the only one who seemed to have no problem whatsoever with him. “Why don’t I go over there with him?” she asked, laying a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “I think he’s a bit lost.”
“I only wanted to send in one person so we don’t alert the Vampires,” the Leader reminded her.
“I’ll be quiet.” Hannah was always quiet, so there wasn’t much he could say in response. She stepped past them and hurried over to where they could barely see the top of Christian’s blond head over a crest in the hilly ground.
Other than Janette, there was only one other Hunter with them, a younger girl by the name of Maryann, and they hadn’t decided whether or not she would stay in KC or go elsewhere. So far, she wasn’t exactly impressive, but she had completed her training, and headquarters was in desperate need of good Hunters. Janette had voiced to Jamie on more than one occasion that she was hopeful the young brunette would work out.
About five minutes after she’d left, Hannah was back. “We found the opening,” she said, her voice hardly a whisper. “It really is only about a foot, maybe two wide, and six inches high.”
“Wonderful,” Janette muttered.
“Well, if the vampires can squeeze through it, I suppose we can, too,” Jordan reminded them.
