I was suddenly sprinting, holding my satchel tight to my hip. In the background of the phone, I heard a faint sound of shattering glass followed by shouts of alarm and Alucard laughing uproariously like a psycho.
A Gateway suddenly ripped into existence beneath the Willow tree.
“How long will it remain open?” Talon demanded, sprinting beside me and motioning for the dragons to join us – even though it was obviously what they had been waiting for, judging by their complete and utter lack of surprise to have a Gateway erupt in front of them, right where they had been staring.
I shrugged. The Gateways made by the Tiny Balls weren’t all entirely consistent. Sometimes they remained open for a few seconds, and other times for longer. “It all depends on how old Alucard’s Balls are,” I shouted between breaths.
The Reds burst out laughing.
I shot them a stern look. “Gee, fancy seeing you three here,” I snapped. “Almost like you knew about it.”
Yahn grinned. “Toe-tah-lee, yah? Porcu-shine asked us to help and stuff.”
Then they were jogging beside us, the Reds dressed in new-age grunge tees and ripped jeans. They had dark circles under their eyes, as if they hadn’t slept a lot recently. Yahn let out a breath, eyes glinting with anticipation, and suddenly shifted into his dragon form, a small, candy-painted dragon the size of a few Bull Mastiffs mashed together. For a dragon, that was small.
With each step, his scales began to change hues, merging with the scenery around him, until he was practically invisible by the third step. Then he was simply gone, right as we reached the front of the Gateway.
“Jump,” I snarled.
And we all leapt through the Gateway, ready for… well, I didn’t know what.
Maybe the Desperate Vampires of St. Louis Reunion episodes.
But would it be the usually calmer and polite part one, the chaotic part two, or…
The Apocalyptic Reunion – Part Three.
Chapter 34
The four of us who were visible, skidded to a halt, eyes darting back and forth for immediate dangers. Yahn was presumably beside us, hopefully, because the Gateway winked out a moment later. I let out a sigh of relief that it hadn’t closed while we were mid-jump.
I realized we were in a large antiquated room, and we were standing atop one of those long, elegant thirty-person dining tables. At our feet, in the center of the table, was a staked vampire lying on his back.
His own severed head was neatly placed on his chest, and the head wore a white fedora. He looked surprised, startled, and generally unhappy to have his head detached.
About two dozen vampires sat in chairs lining either side of the table, staring up at us like we had just interrupted the evening prayer. Alucard, seated at the head of the table, began a very slow, steady clap.
I kept my face impassive, regarding Alucard for a few moments in silence. Then, I nodded my head slightly. I turned to the vampires glaring up at us. They looked anxious and pissed. Especially at my companions.
Because Talon was standing beside me with the butt of his milky white spear resting on the table’s surface, right in the glowing pool of blood oozing from the decapitated vampire’s body. He glared down at the vampires, lip curled back faintly. Then he knelt, dipped a paw in the blood, and slowly drew two faint lines from his forehead down to his cheeks, bisecting his eyes.
Finally, he held his paw to his mouth, and licked off the last of the blood, purring loudly.
The Reds stood still, hands at their sides, their faces entirely blank, as if emotionless statues. No one looked pleased to be here, especially not at the way Alucard had greeted them – I glanced down at the body quickly – in such an extravagant manner, decapitating one of their own.
“King Temple, I thank you for joining us,” Alucard drawled in a loud, booming voice, dipping his head again. “And Talon the Devourer, always a pleasure to meet a kindred spirit,” he murmured, leaning forward with a sinister grin. Alucard’s eyes drifted to the unassuming Reds, and he smirked playfully. “And two… feisty redheads,” he said, discreetly meeting my eyes. “But we can get to them later,” he suggested meaningfully.
I nodded slowly, getting the hint. He had something planned, and he didn’t want me ruining it. I’d play ball. Because he’d set the table for me, and it would be incredibly rude to disrupt his dinner party.
Alucard glanced to either side of the table, addressing the vampires. “We should be on our best behavior, my friends. They’re only children, after all. And obviously not right in the head.”
I glanced back to find the Reds flanking me on either side, a pace back. They stared blankly at nothing, as if they were blind, deaf, and dumb. I was going to have to play catch-up, because the Reds were the exact opposite of emotionless, so they were obviously in on Alucard’s game. Several of the vampires sniffed disdainfully, maybe disappointed that the Reds weren’t appetizers – peace offerings.
I swept the room, taking note of everyone present. They represented all factions. Some old, some young, and dressed entirely different from one another. They kind of looked like a random sampling of people you might spot in a quaint coffee shop – all different professions, ages, shapes, sizes, and colors. A college professor type, several in suits, a handful of young adults, a tattooed heiress of sorts, and even a few gray hairs. One woman in particular looked older than the rest, her hair entirely white, but her dark mahogany skin was as flawless as her companions. Vampires were the worst. They aged so beautifully, so when I said a few were gray hairs, they still had a twenty-something’s perfect skin complexion.
The elderly woman watched me very intently. Not angrily or malevolently, but very… aware. Then she smiled faintly, dipping her head. Usually, with monsters, that was not a good development. But only time would tell if her gesture had been amusement or a threat.
Not seeing the point in staring down at everyone any longer, I hopped off the table, and held out a hand to the Reds. They each took it graciously, stepping from the table to a chair, to the floor, faces dumbly blank. Then, they silently stepped back behind me, resuming their earlier positions.
Talon leapt off the table in an effortless backflip, his spear whirling beside him, and landed in a crouch, slamming the butt of his blade into the floorboards, making the white blade quiver in the air like a tuning fork.
My eyes flicked to the vibrating blade, lingering on the place where a Devourer would likely fit. Eyeless, Anubis had called it. I could almost make out a faint circle where one would fit. Or… maybe where one had once been set into the blade. Presumably, a blue one, if Anubis was to be believed.
I set my hand on my satchel, ready to grab my own spear if necessary. I could fit any number of things into my satchel, and had taken to stashing my new spear there, along with a dozen other dangerous items I had personally acquired over the years. The three items from my parents, for example, although I didn’t talk about them with anyone.
I wasn’t used to grabbing a weapon when shit went down, but I’d been thinking about the spear a lot since I woke up. Anubis had been very adamant about it being vital to defeating Mordred, so I’d decided to keep it close. And, magic in a dim confined room with so many people around us could result in friendly fire. But with my backup, I highly doubted my spear would be necessary. With three dragons, Talon, and hopefully Alucard, I was confident we could kill two-dozen vampires in a minute or two, max.
From what I’d heard, the vampires of St. Louis were fragmented without a Master, and ripe for the picking. Enter Alucard, head of the table. It looked like he was ready to claim his throne, whether in blood or with an easy smile was yet to be determined. But the decapitated centerpiece on the table seemed like a good indicator of his plan.
To follow in my footsteps and become King Fanger with a wooden stake for an exclamation point.
So, it was probably wise to be ready for a scrap. Because many of these vampires looked old, and supernatural things that looked old were usually much more powerf
ul.
I was mildly surprised no one had seemed to pick up on what the Reds truly were, or that a third, chameleon dragon was lurking unseen around us.
I waited for the festivities to commence. After a few moments, heads began slowly swiveling to Alucard, growing anxious and impatient as well.
“All the big-shots are present, yes?” Alucard asked, loud enough for all to hear, absently drumming his fingers on the table.
Everyone at the table murmured their agreement, but it was pretty obvious old feuds were alive and well – hateful, malicious looks passed back and forth between what looked like the most unlikely of fellow vampires.
One man, who looked like the stereotypical vampire overlord – long blonde hair, metrosexual clothing, and smug arrogance permanently etched onto his features – seemed to be getting a lot of discreet sidelong glances. Both fearful and hateful.
I dubbed him Blonde-Angst.
The little old lady was getting a whole lot of non-looks, people pointedly avoiding looking at her so bluntly that they might as well have shouted they were paying very close attention, and that something was up.
“Great,” Alucard drawled, kicking his boots up onto the table. “Saves me time. Now, everyone is going to write down the name of the most hated person present, excluding myself, naturally,” he chuckled. His was the only laugh. “Oh, and our guests. This is a fanger-only vote.”
“And why do we have guests present? This should be an internal discussion,” the beautiful raven-haired heiress purred, adjusting the shoulder strap of her flowery sundress, and fingering her hair coyly. “Unless he intends to share?” she added, turning her smile to the Reds.
They didn’t even blink back, just stared ahead into the middle distance like automatons.
I smiled at her. “Sharing is my favorite,” I told her, and something about my tone made her wilt slightly. The elderly black woman chuckled huskily, shaking her head at me, somehow earning the ire of her fellow vampires, even though they still weren’t looking at her directly.
The Blonde-Angst vampire gripped the table hard, his nails biting into the wood. I rolled my eyes at him, and turned back to Alucard, wondering exactly what he was up to.
“It’s cute…” Alucard began, slowly turning to look at the raven-haired heiress. She smiled hungrily at his faint grin. “That you think this is a discussion,” he finished in a soft tone.
Her smile withered away and died. No one else moved.
“Well?” Alucard asked absently, shuffling through a deck of large cards he had apparently pulled out of his pocket. When no one spoke, he looked up, frowning. “If you can’t handle a simple request like writing a fucking name down, you’ll probably get to see your first sunrise soon,” he told them in a bored tone. “I promise, it’s truly unforgettable.”
“We don’t have any paper,” the older black woman said with a grandmother’s smirk. “Or pens.” She somehow managed to say it politely, not appearing to be mocking him for his obvious oversight.
Alucard climbed to his feet with a frown. I was already reaching down into my satchel to see if I had anything that might help, when I heard a loud thud and a splintering crunch. I looked up to see Alucard had torn a massive painting of some Victorian Lord and Lady from the wall, letting it drop to the floor. It was easily ten-feet-tall, and the frame was now ruined. He splayed his fingers to reveal claws, and swiftly sliced vertically through the painting a few times, tearing it into ribbons. Then he sliced again in the opposite direction, effectively making scratch paper for everyone.
From a painting that had to have been worth thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Who owned this place, anyway? And where was it? Maybe that was why Alucard had chosen our method of transportation, knowing it prevented me from pinpointing the address on a map. Clever.
Alucard scooped up the pieces, ignoring the indignant squawks from several of the vampires seated at the table, and then he began walking from chair to chair, handing everyone a piece. He ended up near the body of the dead vampire and reached into the man’s lapel pocket where a pen was poking out the top. He frowned thoughtfully at the body, clicking the pen several times absently, and then he grinned. He plucked the hat off the vampire’s detached head, dropped the pen inside the fedora, and then slid it across the table at Blonde-Angst. The vampire caught it, using the motion to flip his hair back like a shampoo commercial, but his lips were set in a thin line.
Alucard walked back to his seat. “Pass the pen when you’re finished and toss your paper into the hat. I’ll tally them in two minutes and announce the winner.”
“Winner?” a man in a suit spoke in what sounded like a sophisticated air, absently checking the ruby cufflinks on his sleeves.
Alucard waved his hand vaguely, focused on inspecting and shuffling the deck of cards in his hands. “Less talky, more writey,” he murmured distractedly.
Talon shot me a questioning look, but I shook my head, not having an explanation for him, and knowing I was unable to voice it even if I had understood.
“I want to know who the fuck you think you are,” one of the younger, hipper vampires beside Blonde-Angst said. “Why are we playing his games?” he snapped, turning to his fellow vampires.
Alucard paused his shuffling and slowly looked up, locking eyes with the kid. Well, not kid, but I guessed I was turning into an old man, because he looked to be barely into his twenties, and that seemed horribly young to me. Since he was a vampire, he was likely a few decades older than me, but there was no way to be sure other than asking him outright.
“He didn’t want to play my game either,” Alucard said in a hurt tone, slowly extending his finger to point at the dead vampire on the table. The room grew silent. “Sixty seconds,” Alucard said cheerfully, resuming his shuffling of the deck. The pen quickly began passing down the line, the vampires suddenly realizing that the two-minute time limit had actually been a command, not a suggestion.
I watched them thoughtfully, noticing that Mr. Blonde-Angst was subtly shooting threatening looks at those writing down their chosen names. I didn’t say anything out loud, because I was just a spectator, and didn’t really care, but it was obvious he was trying to manipulate the vote somehow.
The elderly grandmother was at the end of the line, so she began to knit as she waited her turn at the pen. The needles looked suspiciously like bone, and not the cute, store-bought type of bone. I was pretty sure I saw bloodstains and toothmarks on them. I shivered involuntarily. Grandmas were scary, but bloodsucking grandmas were something else.
She finally got her turn, and scribbled down a name without hesitation, tossing it into the hat and resuming her knitting. The pretty raven-haired heiress scoffed at the old lady and stood to retrieve the hat, horribly put-out that she’d had to do anything other than look pretty.
She walked up to Alucard with the hat, careful to sway and roll her hips as she moved.
He didn’t even look up from his cards, just gestured for her to set it down before him. I saw her jaws clench, but she silently obeyed before returning to her seat.
Finally, Alucard sighed and set his cards down on the table. Then he began rifling through the papers, putting them in stacks, presumably tallying up votes for the written names.
I found myself very interested in the cards, because he had left them face-up, and they weren’t traditional playing cards. They were Tarot Cards of some flavor. They didn’t feel magical or anything, so I relaxed.
Alucard lifted up the hat after a few moments, shaking it out to show everyone it was empty. Then he slapped it on his head, ignoring the blood spatter on the brim as he tilted it at a rakish angle. He leaned back in his chair and kicked his boots back up onto the table, surveying all the faces watching him.
He settled his gaze on the little old lady, but she didn’t bother looking up. With every head in the room turning to follow Alucard’s gaze, she obviously noticed. Click, click, click…
Alucard shrugged apologetically. “I thought it
would be you,” he admitted, sounding sad. She nodded absently, still not looking up or ceasing her knitting. She looked entirely at peace.
Alucard dropped his boots with a sigh and then walked over to her, rolling his shoulders in preparation, clutching the deck of cards in one hand. I bit my tongue, reminding myself that I had no say in the matter. The vampires needed their own Master. If that was going to be Alucard, I couldn’t swoop in and overrule him during his first meeting with them. In what was essentially his coronation festival.
His boots thumped across the floor in a measured, steady beat like a death march.
Grandma Fang kept right on clicking her needles, and I began to wonder if she was playing a game as well. If she was about to lunge up and stab Alucard in the heart or something. Maybe those stakes were wood, not bone…
Chapter 35
The air in the room was tense, several scooting their chairs back slightly from their fellow vampires, but no one voiced a word of protest. Blonde-Angst was one of the only smiles in the room. Alucard reached the old woman and let out a resigned breath.
Talon’s tail began to twitch impatiently, flicking back and forth, and even the Reds were discreetly paying attention, now.
Alucard leaned over and placed a hand over hers, ending the incessant clicking. She slowly looked up at him, not a flicker of fear in her eyes.
Then Alucard was kneeling beside her, and he lifted her hand to his lips, kissing the back of it as gently as one would kiss a sleeping baby’s forehead. Her eyes widened at the gesture, but even more so when Alucard slowly leaned in for her neck. Her chin quivered, but she did open her neck for him to bite her, or whatever flavor of execution he had in store for her.
Instead, he whispered something into her ear. Then he withdrew, staring into her startled face.
Horseman Page 20
