The image then stopped, zooming and focusing on one of the club entrances. A group of men exited the club, dragging along a young girl wearing a short, tight blue dress. She put up quite the struggle. The men all wore the same leather vests, appearing more as a group of motorcycle club bikers than typical club bouncers. They watched the club entrance, waiting anxiously for someone else to exit.
The club’s door swung open, nearly ripping from its hinges. One man stood motionless, staring directly at the girl; he didn’t look happy with the bikers. Atmoro assumed the girl was bait, and this guy was their chosen prey.
The video zoomed out to show more of the street. Atmoro was pleased with Jake’s filming skills; he was improving.
The lone man moved unlike what Atmoro had ever seen, faster than even Atmoro himself. It was clear the man wasn’t from the Light World. In a single second, the camera barely caught his movements as he grabbed the closest biker and flung him into the air. He crash landed through one of the storefront windows. Two other bikers, knives in hand, circled the man; he didn’t seem fazed by them.
Both bikers attacked at the same time, anticipating their target couldn’t fight them both at once—they were wrong.
Almost as if it was a well-choreographed fight scene, the two men lunged together. The lone man stepped forward, spun around, and grabbed each of their wrists below the knives, bending it in a way that made both men scream out. As if on cue, the two bikers fell to their knees, and each one received the other’s sharp blade deep into their shoulders.
All of this happened in a split second, and it wasn’t over yet. The bikers fell to the ground, clutching their shoulders with their unbroken hands. The lone man grabbed the closest injured biker and yanked the knife from his shoulder. He then forcefully held the biker’s other hand against a nearby tree trunk and speared the blade through his hand—pinning him to the tree. The second biker, frozen with fear, received the same fate.
Several gun shots rang out, startling Jake as he filmed; the camera jumped. More shots popped through Atmoro’s speakers. The lone man grabbed the closet motorcycle, lifted it up as if it was only a toy, and tossed it toward the gunman, who attempted to stop it with his face. A second motorcycle flew gracefully through the air, landing less gracefully on the windshield of a parked car. The gas tank exploded, and the car erupted into gasoline-fueled inferno.
Atmoro was impressed with this mystery man. His strength and speed were astonishing; it was that of a vampire. It troubled Atmoro that this vampire had such control over his thirst for human blood—he was a Shadow Vampire. Atmoro’s crew had not trained to deal with a Shadow Vampire.
The bikers, losing confidence in their attack, retreated across the street, still holding the struggling girl. A troll and two large men, clearly werewolves based on their size and movements, appeared from an alley. It was getting interesting.
Four more people emerged from the club. Atmoro recognized them immediately as the two FBI agents and the two warlocks from Madison. The vampire seemed to be on the warlocks’ side of the madness, only because he didn’t nail them to a tree in the first three seconds. Two warlocks and a Shadow Vampire working together—that was checkmate for the werewolves and the troll.
Police sirens filled the speakers, and their red and blue lights danced on the glass buildings. Without hesitation, the female warlock created a wall of flames, blocking the police cars. The fire’s intensity was too bright for the camera to handle; it took several seconds for the camera to focus correctly.
Jake’s voice could be heard through the speakers as he was filming. “Holy shit!” he yelled.
Atmoro had seen warlocks perform this same illusion before, though not of this scale. The top of the flames reached the roofs of the buildings.
Unfazed by the fire, the troll was the first to attack. It stepped into the street, earning the attention of the vampire.
Atmoro’s experience with trolls was minimal. Besides their ugliness—and this one was ugly—Atmoro also knew trolls were powerful creatures, and they could easily crush a vampire, assuming they managed to get their enormous hands on one. He was curious to see how this vampire dealt with something of that size.
The vampire took the offensive approach, attacking the troll down low. The troll crashed down, frantically swinging a giant broadsword, which the vampire easily dodged. The sword cracked the pavement, spraying about a shower of sparks.
The vampire was fast—extraordinarily fast. He leapt into the air, landing on the troll’s back as it tried to stand, and forced it back to the pavement. Leaning closer to the small screen, Atmoro watched as the vampire latched onto the troll’s head, ripping it clean off. The troll’s head and body turned to ash and fell to the street.
“Damn!” yelled Jake from behind the camera. “This is award-winning footage!”
The two werewolves weren’t discouraged by the troll’s headless fate; they advanced together. The other warlock wasted no time, and directed his full energy toward the werewolves, knocking them back twenty feet into a parked truck; the impact lifted the left side off the ground, pushing it back.
Though stunned by the blow, the werewolves were back on their feet in seconds. This warlock apparently also knew how to play with fire. He shot powerful flames down the pavement, which resembled water spraying from a large, angry hose. The warlock extended his hands in front of him, combining the fire to form one concentrated stream. He had incredible control over his powers and was too fast for the werewolves to react. The fire met the first werewolf in the middle of the street, knocking him to the ground and burning him to ash. The other werewolf retreated to avoid the same doom.
Amazed, Atmoro continued to watch as the vampire and warlocks made the task of werewolf-and-troll slaying appear easy. Near the edge of the screen, a bright flash of light caught Atmoro’s eye. The camera zoomed in to the struggling girl, who had transformed into a tiny fairy, only a few pixels on the screen.
Very interesting, thought Atmoro. Why is a vampire so interested in saving a fairy?
The fairy’s transformation left the bikers vulnerable; they no longer had a hostage to use as a body shield. The vampire attacked the bikers, targeting the one who held the struggling girl.
Gun shots cracked through the speakers. The two bikers had just shot each other. The warlocks weren’t in view, but one of them must have curved the bullets around the vampire and into the bikers. Atmoro leaned back in his chair. “Impressive,” he remarked.
What happened next took Atmoro completely by surprise. With a deadly knife, the biker slashed wildly at the vampire. The surprising part wasn’t that the vampire was able to easily dodge the blade, or that he grabbed the biker’s arm in mid swing, broke it, and then slammed it into the brick wall behind; it was surprising to him that this vampire used the knife to make a long gash in the biker’s face and then simply walked away from the fresh human blood.
The camera zoomed out suddenly to show a second troll appear from nowhere. Jake zoomed in to the far side of the street; the female FBI agent had collapsed. Atmoro watched intently as her partner removed something from her shoulder. Jake zoomed in. It was a dart. Atmoro knew from experience that the FBI agent didn’t have long to live. Not even warlocks have the power to save someone from a poisoned troll dart.
When the camera zoomed back out, Atmoro noticed that the second troll had met the same fate as the first. It had turned to ash at the foot of the vampire, just as the camera came into focus.
The vampire raced to the agent struck by the dart. He had a brief conversation, one that Atmoro wished he could have heard. Seconds later, the vampire lifted the unconscious FBI agent and was gone. The wall of fire was dropped, and a moment later, every city street light, build light, police cruiser, and anything else electric—including the video camera—went out. The screen turned black.
Atmoro dialed Jake’s cell phone.
Jake’s phone came to life; the screen lit up and the ringer sounded. Atmoro’s name flashed ac
ross the tiny screen. Jake let the phone ring several times before answering it. He enjoyed making Atmoro wait.
“Hello,” Jake answered cheerfully.
“What happened to the video?” asked Atmoro.
“I’m not sure,” Jake said. “Everything electrical just shut down for several minutes, and then just as suddenly, turned right back on.”
“Did you follow them?” Atmoro asked.
“No,” Jake said, lying. “I started in the same direction, but ran into an empty pier down at the lake. I’m pretty sure they’re on the water somewhere.”
Atmoro paused for several seconds. “OK,” he said. “It’s probably for the better. Their new friend is a Shadow Vampire. You’re not ready to deal with a vampire of that level.”
“I saw his capabilities,” Jake said, frustrated with Atmoro’s lack of confidence in him, “and there’s nothing to worry about.”
Atmoro’s voice wasn’t so pleasant as he spoke again. “No,” he said angrily, “you will not pursue this vampire any further. You did not see even a fraction of his capabilities. A vampire with his strength, speed, and control would make short work of a newborn such as you.”
Jake fought hard to keep his rage under control. “I think you,” he said, the anger lurching inside him, “underestimate my capabilities, Atmoro. Do you think because a vampire took down a few drunken bikers and some sluggish trolls, that… that he’s a super hero? This is absurd! I don’t want to be hiding in the shadows filming videos. It’s time I got into the action and got my hands a little dirty!”
Atmoro squeezed his cell phone, cracking the screen in several places. “You are talking from inexperience,” he said, insulting Jake. “This vampire would run over you as if you weren’t even there. You are not to pursue them any further. I have someone closer who will take it from here. This is the end of the discussion.”
Jake’s anger flared up. “Someone closer!” he yelled. “How many more secrets do you have, master?”
“You forget,” Atmoro replied, growing impatient with Jake’s defiance, “what I had told you from the beginning: I require your assistance for a short time, and if you disobey me, I would end your time as a vampire as quickly as it had begun. Now, you will obey me, or you will suffer the consequences.”
Jake took a few seconds to calm down. He didn’t need Atmoro second-guessing him. Truthfully, he didn’t even know Atmoro’s location, and he didn’t want to be looking over his shoulder for the next decade, wondering if Atmoro was there waiting to kill him.
“I’m sorry, Atmoro,” Jake said, attempting an apology. “I’m just a little anxious. I understand you have many more years of experience than me. I’m upset with myself for losing them at the dock. I trust your judgment, and I will wait for further instructions.”
“It is understandable,” Atmoro said, calming himself. “Do not let this happen again. I will be in touch soon. We are getting close. I can sense it.”
Jake heard the line go dead. “Nice talking to you too,” he said, shutting the laptop and sliding it back into his bag. He focused back on the water. The yacht was approximately two miles ahead, but Jake could still see its lights directly off the bow of the boat he had borrowed from the dock.
Jake figured he didn’t know where Atmoro was, so why should Atmoro know where he was? Reluctantly, Jake agreed with Atmoro when he said this Shadow Vampire may be more than what Jake could handle right now, at least, out here on open water. Jake needed to regroup and rethink his plan. He pressed a few buttons on the GPS to set the dock location he had saved before heading out to follow the yacht. He turned the steering wheel and pushed the throttle down hard, lifting the bow out of the water as the engine roared as he headed back to shore.
SEVENTEEN
The phone rang several times before going to Jess’s voice mail. “The number you are dialing has either been disconnected or is currently out of service. Please hang up and try again.”
I was using Ember’s satellite phone to call Jess from the bow of the yacht. Jess’s heart was almost certainly pounding as an unrecognizable number popped up on her phone. Her misleading phone message was just to give the illusion that the number didn’t exist. I let the message play through, then waited for a full thirty seconds of dead air before hearing the beep indicating I could leave a message.
“Jess, pick up,” I said. “It’s Aeron.”
I heard the phone line click on.
“Hey,” Jess answered. “You’re not calling from jail, are you? You better not be calling my land-line from a jail phone.”
“No,” I reassured her. “I’m on a secure satellite phone. I think maybe my phone has been tapped or compromised some way. Atmoro has been tracking us, and I need you to run some checks on our phones.”
“I already did that a few hours ago,” she said. “If Atmoro’s tracking you, he’s not doing it through your cell phones.”
“Thanks, Jess,” I said, considering the other ways through which Atmoro could be tracking us. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not. Somehow, he knew we’d be in Erie right down to the exact address, where he had trolls and werewolves waiting for us.”
“Trolls and werewolves?” she asked. “This keeps getting more exciting.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were there. I actually called you with some more pieces of the puzzle that I’m hoping you can help decode.”
“Let me just swing around here to my computer. OK, the last time we spoke, I got booted from that elf site. Let me tell you, those little creatures have kept up with technology. I seriously can’t get back into that site. I’ve tried cloning my machine and sneaking in from a few backdoors I found the first time. They were all closed up. Water tight. No way in. I even went down to this little cyber café to use a dummy machine, and unfortunately, it didn’t nearly have the security I needed. That machine is down for the count. I didn’t even get to the second firewall when the elves fried the hard drive. I don’t think I’ll be allowed back to that particular café.”
“Is there any good news?” I asked
“Not on my end,” she said, sadly. “You?”
“I have what may be the missing piece of the puzzle,” I explained. “Our new fairy friend had some very interesting information.”
“Holy shit!” Jess said excitedly. “Now you’re teamed up with vampires and fairies? We are so selling this story to some rich Hollywood film producer.”
“We?” I asked jokingly. “Let’s just get through this alive before discussing a movie deal.”
“I wonder who they’ll have play me,” Jess said, fantasizing her nonexistent movie career. “Maybe…”
“Jess!” I exclaimed, cutting her off. “You’ll just have to play yourself. No one else could possibly have enough energy to portray your character on the big screen. Now, pay attention!”
“Gotcha. Go.”
I repeated what Ember had told us about stones.
“That certainly explains a lot,” Jess remarked. “It takes our search in a whole new direction.”
“True,” I agreed. “Our new goal is to find a fallen angel, preferably before Atmoro does.”
“Aeron, I love how you make it sound as if it’s an everyday task, like you need to find the closest coffee shop to your hotel or something. Can’t your new fairy friend help?”
“She’s trying,” I said. “But we don’t want to draw much attention from the fairies. She has family members on the Light Council, but if she starts asking questions about fallen angels, they’re going to know something is up. The last thing we need is the Light Council thinking the Shadows are planning an attack.”
Images of a war between the Light World and the Shadow World flashed through my mind. The casualties of such a war would be astronomical.
“Let’s focus on finding a stone,” I suggested, still disturbed by the images. “The only good news is that Atmoro may not be able to find a stone on his own. For all we know, he’s interpreting ‘the blood of a stone�
�� as literally squeezing blood from a rock, which would explain why he risked so much to steal the nodule. Although, he must be rethinking his plan, since he’s also been killing people with names linked to precious stones.”
I tried to convince myself that Atmoro wasn’t two steps ahead of us.
“How is Kasiah doing with the loss of her sister?” Jess asked.
“Well, despite almost losing her own life tonight,” I said, “she’s holding up.”
“She’s fortunate to have you by her side.”
“I’ll keep her safe,” I responded, hoping it wasn’t a lie.
“So what’s the next step once we find a stone?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, looking at my watch—it was 2:00 am. “We’re getting together shortly to put a plan together. It’ll probably be pretty straight forward: find the stone and keep him or her out of Atmoro’s hands.”
“Any idea how many stones are out there?”
“According to Ember,” I explained, “it’s very unlikely there is more than one stone, if any at all. Fallen angels are few and far between. Atmoro has been searching for who knows how long, and he’s come up empty handed. And from what we’ve seen, he’ll stop at nothing to get his hands on the blood of an angel.”
I paused, letting my next thought sink in before saying it aloud.
“It’s possible,” I continued, letting the realism of the situation sink in, “that we may have to sacrifice the stone ourselves to keep the blood out of Atmoro’s hands.”
“Wow, that’s heavy.”
“It is,” I agreed. “I’ll make sure that’s the last resort. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that would amaze God himself.”
“Hah!” Jess laughed. “Well, if you turn any water into wine, save some for me. Knowing stone implies a person, and assuming blood is a literal translation, I can focus on finding that stone.”
“Sounds logical. Let me know the moment you find anything.”
“Will do, Aeron. I’m all over it.”
The Blood of a Stone Page 12