by P. J. Burgy
Lizzie did the same, her flashlight in one hand and her taser in the other. She came to a halt at the back of the truck, heart pounding right up against her ribs as she searched the sky, the cold air filling her lungs as she took in deep breaths.
The snapped crossbow landed on the snowy road, bouncing once before lying still.
Teddy gurgled and cried out weakly somewhere in the void above them, the moon and stars once again failing to cast any light on the thing above them.
“Shall I break his neck? Bite him? Empty him?” Martin asked, his voice coming from all directions and none at all.
“Martin! Put him down!” Lizzie yelled.
A low, grating laugh rolled out of his throat. “Poor phrasing. If I drop him from this high, he’ll pop like a grape. Is that what you want?”
“Don’t you hurt my brother!” Helena cried.
“Where is he?” Bill asked.
Lizzie nodded toward the sky. “Up there… He can fly.”
“Shit on me.”
Teddy gurgled again.
“Martin,” Lizzie said. “If you put him down – safely – you can have me, okay?” She crouched to put the taser on the ground and stood again, scanning the sky with the flashlight again. “Just don’t hurt the kid.”
Helena grabbed her arm, but Lizzie gave her a gentle push to the side, walking away from the flares and the truck. She came to the fallen tree and caught Martin in her flashlight.
Bill’s hand reached back for the shotgun in the holster.
Teddy struggled in Martin’s grasp, the two twenty feet in the air. His arm hooked under the young man’s jaw, holding him up but suffocating him in the process.
“Teddy!” Helena cried again.
“Martin, please.” Lizzie set the flashlight down and raised both of her hands.
He sank ten feet before casually tossing Teddy to the side, letting him fall the rest of the way to the ground. His knee crunched as it broke on impact, and Teddy groaned, barely conscious as he rolled to a stop.
Helena ran to her brother and so did Bill. They dragged him back to the truck as fast as they could, Helena breaking away just before Bill could heave Teddy into the backseat. She held her crucifix aloft and sprinted toward Lizzie, who sent her a sharp glare, sending a hand out toward the girl.
“No, Helena. Get in the truck. This is over,” Lizzie said.
Martin landed gingerly on the ground next to her, head tilted. “Took you long enough, my love. That was an awful lot of trouble.”
She kept her eyes on the ground. “It has to stop.”
“Take off those necklaces,” he said. “We can leave right now and never look back. No one else has to die tonight.”
She put her flashlight in her back pocket. Hands trembling as she brought them to her neck, Lizzie reached behind to begin unclasping the first of the three, thin silver chains. One fell to the ground softly and Martin nodded in appreciation, gesturing for her to continue with a clawed hand.
She lifted her gaze to his face as she worked on the second clasp and inhaled sharply through her teeth. Those eyes, black pits with bright white pinprick pupils, appeared skewed, monstrous. His teeth were fangs – all of them, not just his canines. Long and sharp and hanging from his parted lips. She’d expected him to be deathly pale, but he wasn’t. She remembered poor Officer Daniels and clenched her jaw.
“Go on,” Martin said, top lip lifting.
She’d paused on the second clasp. It released and the necklace fell into the snow at her feet, joining the other.
On the third clasp, Lizzie dropped her chin and shut her eyes. She heard Helena’s whimper from close by. A struggle. Bill must have been corralling her into the truck with her brother.
“Lizzie.” Martin’s voice dropped an octave. “Do it.”
‘BOOM’ – a blast deafened her. Lizzie’s eardrums might’ve ruptured. She felt a raw wet splash across her cheeks and opened her eyes, hands covering her ears as the screaming echoes from the shotgun bounced around inside her skull.
Martin stumbled to the side, half of his head missing – black and red and slimy, bones white, pale brains and gray matter all hanging out and spilling across his shoulders as he produced an awful, high pitched wail. His jaw hung loose, his one visible eye swirling around in the socket.
Bill mouthed words at her, yelling with a voice that sounded muffled to her wounded ears. “For fuck’s sake, girl! Move!” He aimed the shotgun and shot Martin a second time – ‘BLAM’, point blank, turning his upper back into exposed raw meat – as she skirted to the left, slipping on snow, and making a mad dash for the truck.
Martin made that terrible noise again and whirled on Bill. What was left of his mutilated mouth formed a grimace, the remaining teeth bared. Black drool oozed from his torn lips.
Reloading wasn’t an option. Bill grunted, prepared to meet Martin head on, shoulders low as the vampire grabbed him by his throat. With one fluid motion, Martin separated Bill’s head from the rest of his body, claws digging deep into his flesh. He flung the head at the truck, roaring, and tossed the body to the side like the stem of a dandelion. Blood sprayed onto the snow.
Lizzie skidded into the side of the truck, shrieking when she saw the bright red stains against the white road. Bill’s head smacked into the flank of the Ford and tumbled away, the eyes open in shock. Grabbing for the door handle, she found herself frozen. She’d looked at Martin and now she couldn’t look away.
“LIZZIE.” Martin screamed, his face reforming. Tendons regrew. Skin slithered across his bones. Veins and muscle bulged, swelling with blood.
“Hey.” Teddy’s voice.
Martin turned.
Teddy had managed to hobble over, his brow glistening his sweat as he brandished the flamethrower. “Fuck you.” He pulled the lever and sent out a stream of fire onto Martin.
He lit up like a torch, shrieking as the flames rose and engulfed his body. The fire spun in a maelstrom around him, the smoke bright white as Martin lunged for Teddy.
Helena appeared in the way, crucifix up. “Double fuck you.”
That puppeteer above and behind him must have yanked on his strings especially hard because he flew up, still covered in flames, and let out a long and agonized wail.
Lizzie squinted at the sight of him spiraling about, the flames lessening the longer he flailed about in the sky.
“Move!” Helena ran up to her. “The church is up ahead and on the left. We’ve gotta run to it!”
Teddy grumbled, limping behind her. “Wait for me!”
“Come on, lean on me,” Lizzie said, offering him her shoulder and waving him over. He took it, his weight pulling on her as she helped him along.
They had to crawl over the tree, Teddy crying out in pain as he tumbled over to the other side. He’d landed on his injured leg.
Helena joined Teddy on the other side, offering her shoulder as well and the three jogged down the dark snowy road for the church that lay ahead.
Behind them, Martin howled.
Chapter 16
Lizzie shined the flashlight ahead of them as they hurried down the road, her bent back aching from Teddy’s weight. Even with Helena’s assistance, he was still heavy and plodded clumsily between them, groaning and whining as he put pressure on his fractured knee. Teddy clung to the makeshift flamethrower and his arm swung to the side, throwing off his balance. He had his backpack as well, adding to the load.
“What… what time is it?” Lizzie asked.
“Gotta be after midnight by now,” Helena replied.
“What if the church is locked up?”
Teddy groaned. “Then we wait ‘til dawn in the cemetery.”
“The cemetery? With all the dead people?”
Helena nodded, grimacing. “Still holy ground.”
A low sigh escaped Lizzie. “Bill…”
“Bill was a real hero,” Teddy said, licking his lips and clenching his jaw. Every time he put pressure on the bad leg, he winced.
�
�He was friends with my Dad.”
“No time for talk. Just move. He’s behind us.” Helena grunted. She shifted her shoulder and made an unhappy noise in her throat. “We’re almost there.”
Lizzie kept her flashlight trained ahead of them, scanning the road as they hobbled together in a line. Teddy huffed from the pain, pulling down on her more and more the longer they traveled. Her shoulders screamed.
It had gone dead silent behind them, and Lizzie wondered where Martin was. He wouldn’t have abandoned the chase that easily. No way. The last she’d seen him, he’d still been on fire though, so maybe the bastard was healing out there in the shadows. Maybe he was biting into Bill’s still warm body, feeding after he’d taken so much damage.
‘Lost so much blood…’
She imagined Martin crouching over the headless corpse in the snow, the flares shining stark red across his blackened form. Little trails of smoke wafted away from his burnt shoulders as he fed, the sucking sounds wet and desperate.
Somehow, the Martin in her unsettling fantasy sensed he was being watched and lifted his head, blood dripping from his fanged mouth. He tilted his head, straining to look in her direction with black pits instead of eyes. ‘Lizzie, do you see me? How can you see me? We haven’t bonded yet. How do you see-’
She tripped over nothing, staggered, and gave Teddy a jolt. He whimpered. Lizzie grimaced. “Sorry.”
The church appeared on the left after a clutch of tall dark trees and the moon glanced brightly on the stained-glass window above the doors. Old and pointed with a cross firmly affixed to the tip of the little steeple, St. Matthews was a welcome sight to the group and Helena’s stamina renewed with a contagious vigor. She motioned with her free hand and urged Teddy to hurry.
They turned onto the path leading up to the parking lot. The walled in cemetery next door had been gated – never locked, always open – and a separate and smaller road branched off to the right leading to the graves within. The clergy house connected to the church itself, barely visible from where they stood.
The small hill caused Teddy some grief. Up ahead, the parking lot opened – barely plowed and treacherous for the young man’s shambling gait – and the closed, wooden doors waited.
Halfway across the lot with twenty yards to go, Martin dropped down from the sky and stood on the snow before them. He didn’t sink into it more than an inch if anything. A good ten feet separated him from his prey, and he watched them carefully.
“This entire ordeal has been extremely aggravating. I want you to know that,” he said.
His face had regrown, but his ruined coat and black silk shirt had not survived the flames unscathed. His slacks must have melted into his flesh, the fibers worn through and hanging in dripping sections. Part of his bare shoulder had been exposed, as had his left thigh.
Lizzie scowled, seeing whisps of smoke yet wafting from him, soft embers still dying in the cold. Her fear rose in her throat, and she went stiff.
Helena held up her crucifix. “Out of the way, asshole.”
Martin tilted his head, regarding her with those pinprick pupils. He bared his fangs, clearly affected but holding his ground. “I will let you pass. I am compelled to move out of your way after all. You can hide in that building for a short time if it pleases you. I have all night.”
“Get outta the way then,” Helena muttered.
“They won’t hurt you, Lizzie. I’ve given them strict orders to bring you back to me unharmed,” he said, his grin growing wide. “Your friends are going to die tonight and it’s your fault.”
“What are you talking about?” Lizzie swallowed thickly.
“He’s just… fuckin’ with you…” Teddy said. He tried to raise the flamethrower, but his strength gave out midway.
Martin’s grin turned sickly sweet. “Aren’t you curious about where I was for so long a time, my precious one? Hmm? What was I doing when you were squatting in that filthy little store?”
Lizzie stiffened, her shoulder hurting badly from Teddy’s weight. “What did you do, Martin?”
“Oh, you didn’t see?”
“What?” Lizzie blinked rapidly.
“Our connection is quite strong, isn’t it? I know you saw. I could feel you there. It wasn’t the first time. Somehow, we’ve already bonded.” The bright red stains on his chin and mouth contrasted sharply against the white of his fangs.
Her jaw went lax. “I saw…”
A low laugh, like rolling gravel, escaped him. “They’re coming. Holy ground and wooden churches won’t stop them. Neither will your pathetic trinkets. They’ll be here soon.”
“Martin?” She gawked at him.
Helena growled. “Get outta our way!”
He snickered and then simply lifted into the air, hands to the side apologetically. “It’s only a matter of time now.”
Lizzie let out a low growl herself. “I’ll get you for what you did to Margo. I will.”
“What I did to her? I didn’t put an arrow in her skull or set her on fire, Lizzie. No, that was all you. You and your little friends. She was happier. So much happier. Then you killed her,” Martin said, shrugging down at them. “You humans really are so arrogant.”
“Ignore him!” Helena barked. She pushed ahead, dragging her brother and by proxy Lizzie closer to the stone steps of the church. “He’s just trying to bait you.”
Lizzie craned her head, looking up and back as Martin levitated his way over their heads and lighted in the parking lot near the roadway out. He stuck his hands in his semi-functional pockets and had a good chuckle, amused at his own antics.
Helena banged her fist against the church doors when she couldn’t open them. Teddy sat on the steps, whimpering and clutching at his swollen knee.
Lizzie, however, kept her eyes on Martin. He smiled and waved to her, his claws wiggling in the air. She glowered at him.
Another fierce pounding on the door elicited a response from within. Someone called out for them to be patient.
Father Alvin opened the right door. He stared at them and blinked like he was trying out a new set of eyes. “Ah, Lizzie? And Helena? Teddy? What are you doing here at this hour?”
“We need to get inside!” Helena cried. “We need sanctuary from that servant of evil!” She pointed back at Martin where he stood in the parking lot.
Martin waved.
“Ah,” Father Alvin furrowed his brow. “I… see.”
“That’s the vampire, Father!” she said.
“Kids, Lizzie, ah, if this is some sort of joke…”
“They’re telling the truth. He’s a vampire,” Lizzie said.
Father Alvin exhaled and pushed the door open all the way. He’d thrown his clothes on in a hurry by the disheveled look of his sweater and slacks. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he shook his head slowly. “Bad enough that the phones and internet are down, but you’re all so bored that you’d pull a stunt like this.”
“Not a prank,” Teddy said, fighting to his feet. “I’m hurt really bad. Can I please come in and sit? It’s cold out here…”
“My son, yes, - you’re lucky I have a generator outside to keep this church nice and warm – but I’ll be telling your father about this tomorrow. Helena, these games stopped being funny a long time ago,” Father Alvin glared at her. He glanced out at Martin again. “Who is that? Is he in on this?”
Teddy limped inside, groaning. He took a seat in a pew.
“I told you, that’s the vampire!” the girl exclaimed.
“Get in before you freeze to death!” Father Alvin gave her a hard push and then did the same to Lizzie. “Go on. I’m going to go have a chat with this fellow. I don’t like these games.”
“No, don’t go out there!” Lizzie grabbed his arm.
Father Alvin shook her off. “Go sit down. I expected better from you, Elizabeth. You were always a bit macabre as a child, but it was harmless enough. Apparently letting you cultivate that darkness set you on a bad path. You’re too old for these antics. Ge
t inside and I’ll be back.”
“Father, no!” Helena scrambled to get ahold of his sleeve, and he gave her a light thump on the head.
“Stop it!” he hollered. The girl backed down and he glared angrily at her, then her brother – twisted around to stare from the last pew. “If you don’t go sit down right away, I’ll make this a police matter. I don’t want to, but I will. Go sit down!”
Helena’s eyes brimmed with tears. “But…”
“Stop it!” He spun on his heel and walked in his slippers and socks through the snow, grunting the entire way through the parking lot. He approached the man in the burnt coat and bare shoulder, head low. The closer he came, the slower Father Alvin trudged through the snow. It seemed to take forever to reach him, as if the parking lot were stretching out further and further from the church.
Those eyes urged him on, promising Father Alvin that he was almost there – only a few more steps. Keep going.
“Why is he following him?” Helena hissed in Lizzie’s ear.
The priest did indeed follow Martin. The vampire floated down the snowy road, his shoes skating over the top of the high snow, still facing Father Alvin. The priest plodded along to catch up, acting as if it were all completely normal.
Father Alvin stopped ten feet from Martin, almost at where the church lane met the main road, down the hill.
From the church, Lizzie watched, heart pounding. Father Alvin studied Martin, slowly becoming cognizant of the other’s haggard appearance. In the silence of the night and the clean, thick snow, their voices carried back to the open church doors where Helena and Lizzie stood shuddering.
“You’re injured,” Father Alvin said, noting the torn clothes.
Martin tilted his head. “I’m fine. See? No blood.” He held up a hand and turned it back and forth, his claws long and sharp.
Father Alvin surely must have noticed the black eyes and the fangs. He took a step backward, posture lowering. “Ah, you… what is wrong with your eyes?”
“What’s wrong with my eyes, Father?”
“They’re… they’re so dark.”
“Hmm. All the better to see with,” Martin replied.
