“Of your deal with the vampires?” Jane pondered the thought, staring out at the builders as they worked. A small part of me was nostalgic for construction work. In between hunts as a Blood Hunter, I had been forced to work on construction sites to pay for fuel and food. Graham had mocked me ceaselessly, while weighing down bricks and being a general nuisance. I hated it then, but time had a way of changing perspectives.
Jane finally spoke, as if giving a lecture.
“A real leader sometimes has to be the bad guy. To make hard decisions. Unpopular decisions. The right decision isn’t always the one everyone wants. A leader needs to do what it takes. No matter if it brings scorn or fame.”
I couldn’t help but snort.
“Rich coming from a politician.”
Jane looked shocked, as if she’d never seen me joke before, then smiled, faintly.
“Democracy is the best system we’ve got that doesn’t involve mage juntas. But it has many flaws. It doesn’t allow leaders to make the unpopular choice. Even if it is the right one. I was a politician, but I always admired hunters. Because they were allowed to do what it takes to defend this city. They didn’t have to look pretty for the cameras. They didn’t have to lie or play dress-up. They killed evil. Gruesomely. They made a difference, regardless of the polls.”
“But, is my decision the right decision? I know it’s unpopular.”
She shrugged. “It is not up to me to say or think. In peace time, we can quibble about principles and petty policy. But this is war. In war, you do what it takes to survive.”
She straightened her skirt and turned, stopping to look me in the eyes.
“I suspect that we will all realise this near the end. And then we will know if your decision was the right one.”
I knew what I’d do to protect Cindy and the others. And I didn’t care if they loved me for it, so long as they were safe.
But I also knew another thing. It didn’t matter if my decision was the right one if nobody else thought so. This may not be a democracy, but I still needed the faith of Kat’s…my soldiers.
To win this, to survive, we had to work together.
I came to a simple conclusion among the cacophony of construction, and as the sun bathed the Earth.
I needed them to follow me. I needed them to understand my decision. And I had to go and see Brett.
Chapter 20. Rivalry
The glass of a rifle scope glinted in the sunlight from the rooftop of the hospital. Henri. Guarding this once civilian hospital with an eagle eye. Losing an eye hadn’t ruined his skills. It had only made him harder.
That saddened me. He had been innocent, and oh-so-polite when he had joined the Crusaders. But now…he was becoming more and more like me. Not something I desired in the worst of men.
The Crusaders standing guard by the double doors of the hospital eyed me and did not salute as I entered. I didn’t press them. They were standing guard. Doing something. That was enough for now. I didn’t need to push them to respect me. So long as they did their jobs.
“Mr Giles-Mgebe,” the receptionist greeted, with a smile. The purifiers were much more pleasant to me than the Crusaders now were. They extended the respect they had for my wife to me. Even if the Crusaders had basically expropriated this hospital for our use. At least we’d paid to move all the patients to other facilities. We didn’t want them caught in any crossfire. “Are you looking for your wife?”
“Not at the moment, Gloria. Thank you. I’m heading up.”
Gloria frowned. “She still isn’t awake, I’m afraid. Cindy suspects it is just a matter of time. The curse took its toll.”
I nodded in understanding but still proceeded up the stairway to where Kat lay. On the stairs, I passed the wizard – Pranish.
I’d first met the wizard years ago. A bit after I’d met Kat. His girlfriend, now a werewolf topping the earning charts among the Crusaders, had been kidnapped by vampires. Kat, with nowhere else to turn, asked Brett and me for help. We obliged.
I remembered a quiet boy wearing a grey sweater vest. He’d been shaking. Positively vibrating with panic, as he tore through a little notepad. The type you buy at a stationary shop.
I’d worried then. Thought we’d have to babysit this guy. I had Brett’s word that Kat knew what she was doing, and I’d heard stories about her. But Pranish…Pranish was an unknown. As far as I could tell, he was just some geek whose friend had been kidnapped.
Then he’d tossed a fireball so hot it incinerated a squad of ghouls in seconds.
I changed my estimation of him immediately. Since then, Pranish had been not just a mastermind within the Crusaders, thinking up magical solutions to all our problems, but a heavy hitter when the weyline was good.
Kat kept talking about how Kyong could replace most of us with his force magic. I said the same thing about Pranish.
Pranish nodded in greeting but kept going down the stairs. We hardly ever spoke. Even when we had played pool at the Gravekeeper, we usually did so in silence. Just the way I liked it.
But that was a different time. A time for quiet. When I did not have the responsibilities of leadership.
“Pranish,” I called. He stopped, surprised, and turned towards me.
“How’s the pack holding up?” I asked, my words sounding a little forced.
Pranish looked a tad confused and then nodded, as if he’d figured something out.
“Trudie is worried. It’s hurting her ability to control the beast. Don’t worry, though! She’s strong. She’ll handle it. And we’re used to almost losing Kat. We knew her when she wasn’t indestructible.”
It was easy to forget sometimes that Kat had once been, well, normal.
“Did you come to see her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I came to help with the warding. The purifiers are good at warding against dark spirits and demons, which we always need to worry about, but their wards against infiltration magic is lacking.”
I didn’t realise! Count on Pranish to think of something like that.
“Are the wards sorted now, then?”
“They will be. I need to go pick up some supplies in Old Town. Then I’ll be right back.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Pranish. We…I appreciate it.”
Pranish smiled, faintly. “It’s what I do.”
We both turned to go our separate ways, when Pranish stopped and turned back to me.
“I know it must have been difficult to make your decision, Guy. But good things aren’t won easily. Before Trudie was turned, I was convinced that werewolves were all evil, starving beasts. Perhaps, this will let us learn a little bit more about vampires.”
Without waiting for a response, Pranish rounded the corner and left.
In a way, that quick exchange steadied me. Many doubted me, but more and more of the people who mattered were still with me. I wondered what Kat would think when she awoke. And it was when. I did not toy with the impossible idea of if.
She was going to come back. She always did.
I ascended the stairs somehow lighter than before. As if a weight had been lifted. But the real fight was yet to come.
I respected Pranish and Jane, but they weren’t my brother. And, as much as they may see what I had to do, I couldn’t say the same about Brett. He had been a different man this past while. Perhaps, the man I’d met all those years ago in the Karoo desert. A man I’d befriended and fought alongside against the forces we despised.
But, I had changed. And I knew who I had to fight for now.
Orange, fading light pooled into the hallway as I ascended the stairs. Had it really been a full day already? It couldn’t be dusk just yet. But I checked my watch. It was. At least, Ukwesaba was slain and Sanguineas was eliminating his surviving cronies. But, the recent memories of the onslaught were still with me. The dark held terrors. It had not yet fully set, and I already missed the sun.
I found myself staring out the window, towards the setting sun, as I felt a presence loom nearby.
Kr
ieg stood silently by Kat’s door. His expression was, at first, impassive. But I was the king of hiding my emotions. I saw through Krieg’s façade. I saw the judgement. The hate.
Of course, I never expected anything else from him. But I had never cared. Brett was my concern.
I nodded in greeting to him. He did not nod back. No matter. I stepped forward to pass, and he blocked my way.
“Excuse me.”
He did not respond. I took a step back, and resisted sighing. After taking on the leadership role, I now knew why Kat sighed so much.
“Speak, Corpsman,” I said, simply.
Krieg nodded, as if happy to be acknowledge by the title.
“I think you know where we stand. But I can’t call you a Blood Hunter anymore. I’m not sure what to call you,” Krieg spat.
“Commander, substitute-commander, or Mr Giles-Mgebe,” I offered. “I don’t care.”
“It doesn’t say what you really are, or what you’ve done. The Last Light dealing with werewolves is one thing. They’re dogs. You can tame them. You can give them treats and they’ll roll over. But vampires…” he shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it. “I’d much rather make a deal with a demon.”
“Cindy would advise against that.”
“If she’s fine with your decision, then I don’t want to hear a fucking word from her.”
Something crunched as I twitched. Krieg’s eyes widened, as I stepped forward.
“You can insult me, you can question me, you can even fight me if you want,” I replied, coldly, as I stared him right in the eyes. “But if you dare say even the slightest negative thing about my wife…I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
He tried to maintain my stare. I didn’t know what he’d seen in his life. Not really. We only knew the roads we’d walked down ourselves. But you can learn a lot from someone’s eyes. I saw anger in Krieg’s. Anger, fear, and loss. He winced and blinked.
“Let me pass,” I commanded, firmly.
“56 is a great man,” Krieg said, standing firm, even if his voice was softer. “He would have done the right thing. He wouldn’t have betrayed what really matters.”
“And what really matters to you?”
“There is evil in this world, and it must be destroyed. No matter the cost.”
No doubt in his voice. No wavering in his convictions.
But that only emboldened mine.
“I do not slay monsters because I hate them. I do it because I love others. We aren’t killers, Krieg. We’re protectors. It’s what we’re meant to be.”
“Then you are naïve. You can’t protect anyone, at all, if a single vampire still draws breath. Working with them…you’ve betrayed us.”
“I know what it is like to hate.”
“I doubt that,” Krieg growled.
I ignored him. “I know what it is like to hate and I know how little good it does. It wasn’t just vampires who killed my mother and took my home from me. It was Zulus. It was my distant cousins so obsessed with their power that they’d do anything to win. Even if it meant burning an innocent woman alive and sending her son to become a slave-soldier.”
I clenched my fist, feeling shards of glass in my hand. I’d crushed my phone. I didn’t feel any pain. But the anger I had held had subsided, as memories came flooding back.
Impi killing my neighbours, my friends, my family. Mqanduli, burning. And the Zulu Empire’s flag flying above it all…
But I also remembered a young impi, who would have been my age if he’d lived today. Sifiso had been everything I hated – but he became my friend. And he’d died protecting me.
“We can change, Krieg. And we can let go of the hate. No one is the same. Everyone has their own lives, their own troubles…and no one is evil all the time.”
“The Zulus are human. They aren’t like vamps. It is the nature of bloodsuckers to be unforgivable. They aren’t like us!”
“They used to be. And perhaps, that humanity is still in them.”
Krieg went silent. I thought I’d managed to get through to him.
“You’re too soft to lead,” he hissed.
Seems I was wrong.
“You will destroy us all,” he continued. “You think you can work with monsters? You think we can change? That we can stop remembering what they did to us?! The hate should never end. Not until they’ve paid for all their crimes. All of them! 56…Brett understands that! He should have been left in charge! Not you.”
I thought his words would enrage me. But they didn’t. I felt sad. Sad for him. Because as he yelled, tears fell from his eyes.
“I would never wish this burden on my friend, Krieg. Now, step aside.”
Krieg shook his head.
“I won’t let you hurt him.”
“I never would.”
“You would…you will…he’s Corps. He’s one of us. He’ll never forget.”
“Maybe…that’s the problem.”
I didn’t know if Krieg contemplated my words, as he stared into the abyss.
Wait…no. Not the abyss. Over my shoulder. At…
The air was taken out of me as Krieg tackled me to the ground. A bullet shattered the window, thudding into the wall.
The sun was not yet fully set – but it seemed our enemies had grown impatient.
Chapter 21. Chaos
Krieg rolled off me as he drew his gun. More bullets flew through the windows, peppering the inner wall. I drew my own, now feeling the shards in my hand. Shit, I was an idiot! It had been so long since I’d lost my cool. Typical that it would finally happen at a time like this.
An explosion detonated somewhere in the distance, setting off a car alarm. Shouting erupted throughout the hospital. I heard the bang of Henri’s sniper rifle. Again, and again.
“Vampires?!” Krieg asked, eyes mad.
“The suns still up! But they may be working for vamps.”
Crashes sounded in Kat’s room, followed by gunfire. Brett!
“Cover the hall!” I ordered. Krieg did not object, as he crawled over to the window and peeked over, opening fire.
I waited for a lull and reached up to open the door.
Brett crouched by the window, firing a rifle at attackers below. He had pushed Kat’s bed and life support machines further into the room, away from the window.
I dashed past our commander. She looked peaceful. I hoped she was enjoying her nap while we faced this.
I collided with the wall, crouching with my back to it as I quickly bandaged my hand.
Brett eyed my wound, and then raised his head to open fire with another burst.
“I can see three hiding in the parking lot…” He said, not even wincing as shards fell by his head, a rifle-shot breaking the glass. “Sniper by the white jeep. I saw more surrounding the hospital.”
“Who are they?” I asked.
“Humans,” Brett replied. “No uniforms. Thugs, I think. Or mercenaries.”
“There’s still a bounty out on Kat and my heads.”
Brett sneered, as he reloaded a fresh magazine. “Then they’re gonna have to come and earn them.”
He fired off another volley. Hand bandaged, I peeked over and opened fire with my pistols. At this range, I was expecting to just provide suppressive fire to help Brett. But my friend didn’t seem to need it as he drilled a hole in the sniper’s head, downing him behind the jeep.
“Have you sent out an alert?” Brett asked.
“I lost my phone,” I lied.
Brett shrugged and then fired two more bursts before ducking again to avoid some fire.
Bullets whizzing overhead, Brett and I sat with our backs against the wall. It brought back memories. Perhaps, it wasn’t the time or place, but if not now, when?
“I’m sorry, Brett,” I said, somehow speaking just above the cacophony of gunfire. “For breaking our promise. For working with them.”
Brett peeked over and opened fire. I joined him and we downed two more attackers. But more flooded in. Where were
the fucking police when you needed them?
A jeep cleared a hedge, crushing the foliage, and skidded to a halt in the parking lot. Its black tinted window opened, revealing the barrel of a machine gun. Brett and I tried to fire but had to duck as the gun rained death towards us. Thank German engineering for these thick walls!
“I haven’t been in my right mind, Guy,” Brett said, as we reloaded. “It’s just…I can’t lose her. Just thinking about it makes me go insane. It makes me forget. And it made me forget. But I remember now.”
He looked at me, seriously.
“I don’t want to lose you either.”
“You won’t, brother.”
In unison, we opened fire. The machine gunner fell, finger still on the trigger, firing off its rounds into the sky. A Crusader-marked car rammed it out of the way. Miraculously, Heather dived out of the backseat, beheading one of the thugs and then skewering another.
Brett and I shifted targets to aim at some new gunmen, their beads on our comrade. But it wasn’t needed. Kyong almost flew out of the car, lifting a shield of force magic that stopped the bullets in their tracks. The Crusaders had arrived!
“Besides,” I said, ducking back down to reload. “Kat would kill me if I tried to shirk my job by dying.”
Brett laughed, and then smiled.
“She was right. You know? Putting you in charge.”
I smiled back. “So, am I forgiven?”
“There is nothing to forgive.”
Our tender moment was interrupted by another explosion. Brett’s face went serious, as he crawled towards Kat’s bed.
“That was inside the building,” he said.
“Stay here. I’ll investigate.”
Brett nodded. I exited the room. Krieg was nowhere to be seen. I carefully looked out the window. It was dark now. The streetlights revealed corpses. A lot of them. It must have been a hefty bounty for all of them to be willing to split it among this many. Well, good for them that they’d have to split it between increasingly fewer people.
Keeping low, pistols at the ready, I kept moving. The explosion had definitely come from inside. A breach, possibly? But none had followed. Even the gunfire had become muffled. Farther away.
Children of Blood (Kat Drummond Book 13) Page 16
