by C. T. Phipps
The BOSS agent put his gun to her back. “I have no master. Me and the other Special Agents made a deal to protect this world from the supernatural.”
“You sold your souls to the Devil so you could fight the supernatural more effectively,” I said, looking at this guy. “Man, you got gypped.”
“Hey, that’s a slur,” Mina said.
“It is?” I asked.
“It’s from the word gypsy,” Mina said. “Which is a slur against the Romani.”
“Huh,” I said, blinking. “I did not know that.”
“Shut up!” the BOSS agent shouted. “Gog is a monster but he can be dealt with. Our deal is very specific, and we’re going to get our souls back after we destroy the vampire race. Once your evil kind are annihilated, we’ll have done our duty. You’re a corruption of America, a parasite race that is dragging down all true patriotic citizens. You infect us with our disease—”
“Take our women, leach off the government teat,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve heard all of this before I was alive. It was B.S. then, too.”
I didn’t even like vampires. I was a self-hating undead, to an extent. However, that didn’t mean the people who were trying to destroy us were any better. The people who hated the undead most tended to be not the people they preyed upon but the rich who felt they suddenly had competition. There was no one so dedicated to stopping predators than other predators. Either that or I just hated Feds.
The BOSS agent narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to step aside and let me depart in the elevator. I’m also going to be taking this foul witch with me.”
“You’re a wizard too,” Sam snapped. “A Black Witch too. I can feel the human sacrifices you’ve committed to increase your power.”
“And I’ll kill as many more as needed,” the BOSS agent said. “You have three seconds to comply.”
I tried to freeze time again, but it didn’t work. Whether it was because I was out of juice or because the guy had protection against my mojo, I couldn’t say. It made me wish I hadn’t left my M4 on the ground, though, because I really could have used it right then. Vampires were scary good at shooting straight. Blame it on the enhanced senses, and the fact recoil might as well be nonexistent.
That’s when David did something stupid.
“Arghhhh!” David shouted, charging at the BOSS agent.
“No!” I started to shout.
The BOSS agent shot Sam in the back, blood pouring from the wound. He then lifted his gun and fired multiple times into David’s chest, and one shot went into his head. That shot was the last mistake the man ever made since I was suddenly beside him and tore his throat out. I gnawed into his neck and let the blood fly out like a gusher into my mouth. I was so angry, I barely felt the blood as it poured out until his heart stopped. Barely tasted the sweet, sweet ecstasy of taking a life with my fangs. Then I ripped the BOSS agent’s head clean off and threw it to one side.
“Oh geez, wow,” Mina said, behind me.
“Apparently, I was wrong,” Thoth said, walking over to Sam’s side. “You could have killed Rebecca Plum.”
I licked my lips, tasted the messy lifeblood that was covering my mouth before looking down to see Sam bleeding out on the ground. David was also on the ground. Having to choose which to check on first, I rushed to David’s side. He had a bullet lodged into his head, and I grabbed his cold, dead hand.
“I’m sorry, man.” I closed my eyes. “I should have got him.”
“Ow,” David said.
My eyes flew open. “What? But you’re a zombie. Headshot—”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Thoth said. “His soul is bound to his body. The brain is just another useless organ.”
“How does he die then?” I asked, torn between checking on Sam now and staying with David.
“I can see sounds,” David said, licking the air. “Wow, that’s what words taste like.”
“We should probably get a pen and pry out the bullet,” Thoth said, walking to Sam’s side. “Otherwise, that’s going to be a common thing from now on.”
“Man, a rave with a bullet in my brain would be awesome!” David said, waving his hands in the air like he just didn’t care.
All around us, the cops started coming out of their fugue. They screamed, shouted, and pulled out guns thanks to the dead BOSS agent on the ground. Corrupt or not, they aimed their weapons at us, and their fingers slid up on triggers.
“Shut up and put your guns down!” I shouted, growling.
All the cops dropped their guns, got on their knees, and covered the back of their heads with their hands.
I blinked. “Did I do that?”
Yukie looked at him. “Apparently, you’ve discovered a new power.”
“Actually, all the cops here have standing mesmerism orders to obey the orders of vampires,” Thoth said.
“Oh,” I said, looking over at Thoth. Man, I’d wish I’d known that earlier. I would have been doing all sorts of crap to the NDPD. “Is she going to be alright?”
“No,” Thoth said, holding her hand. “She’s dying.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“She’s dying?” I asked, staring in horror. “Fix it!”
I hadn’t known Sam that long, but I knew she was a mother of two and someone who was about as genuinely uncorrupted as someone could be when serving Old Ones. I’d lost way too many friends over the years to want to see someone else get murdered because I wasn’t fast or strong enough to stop it.
“I am afraid that is not possible,” Thoth said, continuing to hold her hand. A small black bullet levitated from where it had fired through Sam’s back and out her front to hit the wall across the room. It hovered before me before going into Thoth’s spare hand. “She’s been injured by demonsteel.”
“What the hell is demonsteel?” I demanded, looking down at her. “She’s a witch, you’re a wizard. Cast some Cure Light Wounds or give her some blood and fix this!”
“Powerful black magic,” Thoth said, a helplessness in his voice. “It cannot be healed with magic or medical science. Only death can cure it. I imagine Gog gave his slave-priest a gun full of it to deal with us.”
“Sorry,” Sam said, looking like she was trying to use her magic to stay alive. I mean, I couldn’t say for sure, but she had that “concentrating while using magic” look. You didn’t know what it looked like until you’d seen it. “I really hate to leave you...with this problem of saving the world. I just want you to know...I blame David for this.”
I tried not to laugh so my face contorted into a fang-faced mark of shame. “Please...don’t.”
I refused to look at the pool of blood that was forming underneath her body. A part of me, the monster inside me, wanted to finish her off. I could feel her heart slowing, her life ebbing away, and I wanted to be the one to end it. I had known vampires were monsters, evil, demon-tainted creatures but this was the second time in my life I truly felt damned. I forced that urge away through sheer force of will.
“Guys!” Mina piped up. “There’s a way around this.”
I broke my gaze away from the blood and turned back to the green haired punk. “What do you mean?”
“It is not so easy as you think, Mina,” Thoth said, clearly knowing what she was thinking. Which made since she was his Bloodsworn.
“Sure it is! Turn her!” Mina said, walking up. “Make her a vampire!”
I turned back to Thoth. “Would that work?”
“Yes,” Thoth said, without emotion.
“No,” Sam said, grabbing Thoth’s shirt. “Don’t make me a vampire. Promise me.”
Thoth looked down his expression filled with infinite sadness. “I promise. I would never turn another person into one of my kind unless I was sure they knew the horrors as well as the glories. I hated God when I was turned for the fact my mother died in childbirth from carrying her Overseer rapist’s baby, for the religious hypocrisy of the plantation owners, and for the fact he let so many good men die in chains. But I h
ave seen the other side, Sam, and know that you will float on a stream of light to join your ancestors. I would not deny you the chance to reunite with them for anything.”
“Bullshit,” Mina said. “Please, Peter, don’t let her die. I like Sam. You can do the change as well.”
“What?” I said, turning my head. “I can’t turn her. I’m not strong enough!”
It was a hollow statement since even young vampires could turn their friends or family. It just resulted in them permanently weakening themselves. Plenty of people had turned their loved ones in rapid succession, only to become a pale shadow of themselves with their children weakening as well. Every creator put a fraction of their soul into their progeny, and I wasn’t sure that was figurative.
“You are, Peter,” Thoth said. “I will not stop you if you choose to do this. It is very easy to want to die a martyr’s death, Sam, but it is a very final choice. We need your help to stop Gog.”
“Ravi...destroyed himself,” Sam whispered, looking like she was ready to pass out. She was still struggling to live, though. “He used to be a loving husband and a good man. But he cared about only one thing when he became a mon...”
“Monster,” Thoth said. “You can say it. Being called a monster is a natural consequence of being one.”
“Your kids,” I said.
“What?” Sam said, having only seconds left in her life.
“You don’t want to leave your kids behind,” I said. “They won’t be anything but food if you die. Even Thoth can’t protect them forever.”
Honestly, that presumed Thoth would protect them in the first place. I liked to believe the best of my creator, but the guy just admitted to running a service to clean up murders. I got the impression he’d like to be Friendly Neighborhood VampireTM like the Count von Count or Angel, but the guy just loved being a monster way too much. No way a man shot to the top of the undead totem pole after just two hundred years without walking over a lot of bodies.
You wound me, Thoth said, telepathically. I would protect those under my fold as much as I could.
Are you telling me I’m wrong?
I am already damned, and only the Ghede have not turned their back on me among the loa. I cannot serve in heaven if I wanted to, so I will reign in hell.
Then don’t let Sam die.
You won’t.
I was about to argue with him when Sam lifted her hand toward me. She made a gesture across her neck then dropped her hand, dying. There was still a little time to revive her but not much.
“I’m taking that as medical consent,” I said, looking at Thoth. “Is this going to get me in trouble with Ashura?”
“Yes,” Thoth said.
“Gotcha,” I said, kneeling and biting the side of my wrist. I let the slightest bit of blood dribble down from it on the top of her lips. Vampire blood was thick and syrup-like, not at all like human blood but about a thousand times more potential. Vampires often bit each other during sex because there was no chance of accidents. You could only suck out a little bit, and there was almost no leakage.
The more you know, am I right?
When the blood hit Sam’s lips and trickled into her mouth, it was like magic. Strange energies started flowing from my body to her as I felt our spirits link. Sam gasped awake then grabbed my wrist, sinking fangs into it and sucking.
“Ah, watch it, I have to regenerate this shit!” I said, feeling the Red Witch start to transform.
I didn’t get to say much more because I fell to my knees. I could feel Sam as nothing more than a cold, dead, and unfeeling corpse that was being animated by my essence. It was like she was a fire I was tossing wood on, but the wood was coming from my body.
I saw her growing up in a coven of Indian American sorcerers, a lineage stretching back thousands of years, trying to stay relevant in a time when vampires were openly walking among the populace. I saw her husband, handsome guy she’d been arranged to marry since childhood. It wasn’t like a television show where it was a horrible oppressive thing. They could have said no at any time. I saw Ravi’s desperation, his transformation, and his change. It was like one of those late-night thrillers where the woman marries a guy who reveals himself to be a serial killer. I saw the real story too: she hadn’t killed him because he’d tried to sell her. That story was far better for her husband than the truth—she’d killed him because he’d tried to eat their kids. The lure of dhampyr blood was too great to resist. Ravi had signed a contract with his creator, Ashura, and someone had to pay off that debt. Ashura had enslaved her as an alternative to taking her kids to raise.
Hell, no wonder she hadn’t wanted to become a vampire.
“Peter, enough!” Thoth shouted. “Break it off.”
I managed to force Sam off of me, having given her a good chunk of the stolen energy I’d gained from Renaud. Sam immediately got up, trembling. Her eyes had become red like rubies. Her hands had extensive claws—like Lady Deathstrike in X-men 2. God, Kelly Hu. Talk about an actress I’d love to bite. She played a vampire once, too.
Sam made a monstrous noise before charging at Yuki.
“Stop!” I said, holding my hand and trying to clear my head. “This I command!”
Sam stopped in mid-leap like she hit an invisible wall and collapsed to the ground.
“This I command?” Mina asked, having stolen one of the cops’ guns and crucifix they’d hidden under their shirt.
“I’m improvising!” I said, slowly wobbling to my feet. “She going to be alright? I’ve seen vampires emerge as draugr. It ain’t pretty.”
Draugr were what happened when you weren’t strong enough to make a vampire, or the person turned was too weak to control the Need. They were cannibalistic undead, like David I guessed, but with none of his sass and all of an animal’s bestial fury.
“You are strong enough to be a creator, my scion,” Thoth said, watching the scene with cool calculating eyes. “Indeed, sometimes vampires grow stronger the more they create rather than weaker. Their creators benefit from the transformation rather than weaken as their creations grow stronger.”
“That what happened to you?” I asked.
“You are unique, Peter, in many ways.”
Thoth reached into his jacket and pulled out a plastic test tube with a screw on lid. It contained thick black blood that hummed with mystical energies. He walked over to Sam and handed it over to her. She immediately snatched it from his hands and downed it all in one big gulp.
“What is that?” I asked.
“A magic potion.”
“Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer,” I muttered. “I mean, what does it do?”
“It contains the distilled essence of an entire human life. It also is enchanted to lull the demon inside of us to sleep for a time. Useful until Youngbloods gain control of themselves.”
“Demon inside?” I asked.
“Our power comes from hell, Peter,” Thoth said, simply. “Our souls are mutated and twisted by the blood of the Elder Gods. We are demons, one and all, even if we were once human.”
“Huh,” I said, not really caring. I was too busy feeling the pain and confusion of Sam like it was my own. The potion, whatever it did, was moving through her body but not fast enough. Melissa had handled her transformation well, I blamed it on a combination of faith and being a natural hardass, but Sam was disgusted with herself.
Hungry too.
A part of me did feel another little bit of my human side die. I didn’t associate with that many mundanes anymore. David had once been my number one connection to mankind, and he was now a cannibal zombie. I hadn’t known Sam very well, but she was a leftover of Thoth’s old Bloodsworn crew, and now I was feeling her confusion as well as hunger like it was my own. What happened when Mina was turned? Would I know anybody still human? Would I care? Once you started hanging around crooks, you started thinking crooked things were okay. It was like my mama had always said. Hell, I thought that was probably 90% of what was wrong with vampires. They
reinforced each other’s bad behavior to the point they considered humans like cattle. Well, cattle you could fuck and get you to pay them for.
Okay, that metaphor went in a weird direction.
“You think?” Sam asked, looking over at me.
“Great, you can read my mind too?” I asked, looking over at her. “What is it? Just an open door for everyone to walk into and look over the contents of?”
“Your shields are kind of terrible,” Thoth said.
“There’s shields against this?” I asked.
Thoth felt his face like I was talking like an idiot, which I probably was.
Yuki stepped off David and offered her hand to him. She’d managed to pry the bullets out of his head. “You’re alright now.”
“Wait, why isn’t he dead?” I asked. “If the bullets that shot him are magical.”
“Because he’s already dead,” Thoth replied. “Like Sam is now.”
Goddamn magic for being ridiculous and full of contradictory rules. I hadn’t been this pissed off about its arbitrariness since I’d discovered I had to count the sesame seeds on a hamburger bun. Not that I spent much time in Burger King these days, but it was the principle of the thing. I once lost two hours when David had brought home his lunch, back during his living days.
I felt a spike in Sam’s anger and knew it was directed at David. “You idiot!”
David threw his hands up. “Hold on!”
Sam started slashing at him, causing him to fall back as she clawed out shards of his flesh and then started beating against his chest. David didn’t seem to be affected by the attack, save a look of guilt and shame was on his face.
“I’m sorry,” David said, trying to defend his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to screw up!”
“Stop it,” I said, looking at Sam. “Please.”
Sam was forced to stop. “It’s never going to be the same.”
“No,” I said, lowering my head. “No, it’s not.”
Sam was thinking about how she’d be rejected by her family, how she was never going to be able to feel the sun again (at least not for a couple of centuries), and that her children were now going to be more in danger than ever. She was also severed from the natural order. Her magic that had connected her to a larger universe and spirit world that now felt distant. I didn’t think she was going to be much of a help against Gog now.