The Phantom of the Catacombs

by J. B. Michaels

  Cardinal Riggio stood from his chair. “Yes, your grandfather left because I warned him that something evil with power similar to Vincentas was active and in the Chicago area. We both knew it was probably him. The Order has special intelligence technology developed by your grandfather. He wanted to remain hidden, I suppose. Vincentas must have stalked you and your family waiting to strike at your grandfather, and when Kenny failed to show, the monster must have stayed a while and saw value in his efforts. He took an interest in you and your tech then hypnotized Brother Mike. Seeing far more value in your teleportation bands and robotics to enact his plans to destroy the Order, he kept his focus on you.”

  “He used Brother Mike to get close to me and my tech. He procured the teleportation tech then started his murdering spree of monks of the Order in an attempt to release Baal.” Bud scratched his stubbled chin.

  “So Vincentas was actually the one behind my uncle’s murder?” Maeve chimed in, her face visibly upset.

  “Yes. Your uncle was a great man.” The Cardinal nodded at Maeve.

  “Why did he even bother with the blood sacrifice and Baal? If Vincentas only cared about killing monks of the Order, he could have kept killing. Why bother with Baal in the first place?” Bud asked.

  “Again, we think Vincentas was part of the current growing threat. He had certain obligations to fulfill to whatever evil organization wants to unleash demons like Baal. The vampire must not have anticipated how troublesome dealing with a genius like you was. You ruined his plans multiple times.” Cardinal Riggio smiled.

  Bud stopped pacing and looked into the cardinal’s eyes. “You still haven’t answered my original query. How did my grandfather end up in Castle McDougall?”

  “Bud, I beg your forgiveness. I shouldn’t have asked him initially. Or let him go. He was determined to go himself. He wanted to do it alone to protect you and not put any other member of the Order in danger to prevent what happened to his brother. He hunted Vincentas alone and was captured. I am still reeling from the news myself. I am sorry.”

  “You said you had advanced intelligence tech! You sent an elderly man to fight a virile vampire like Vincentas! You couldn’t find him and get him out of there?!” Bud raged. His heart thumped.

  “Your grandfather knew how to disappear and disable his own technology. We had no idea he was there, I promise you, and again, please forgive me.” Cardinal Riggio knelt down before Bud.

  Bud turned away, devastated and grief-stricken, and unwilling to grant the cardinal forgiveness.

  “Bud.” Maeve followed him.

  A young monk walked into the room. “Cardinal Riggio, I am afraid another spike in supernatural activity has occurred in the same spot. That makes three in less than twenty-four hours. The gate remains open.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  She shook her head. She couldn’t believe the marked ones all shared similar jobs at the same place. Tessio was no exception, the third marked one who worked construction at the Colosseum. Now she would have to prepare for the inevitability of the authorities searching the area. Investigations into the construction company charged with restoring the Colosseum for the World Games Opening Ceremony would commence. The celebration was only a couple days away.

  The World Games Committee would certainly throw whatever money they had to ensure the Games opened on time. That could be to her advantage. Still, her job would be made much more difficult, especially if more marked ones followed the same pattern as the others.

  Again, her mission had been made more difficult now but certainly not impossible. The proper traps would be laid. In fact, she delighted in the possibility of more action. The assassinations were so smooth, even boring at times.

  She wondered why the marked ones all shared similar characteristics. It was not her role to question. Simply eliminate. Don’t think. That last tenet of her indoctrination proved troublesome. A good soldier didn’t question.

  “Samuele. Go now. Investigate Capitoline Hill immediately.” Cardinal Riggio walked out of the room with the young monk who’d informed him of the third anomaly in supernatural levels of the same location in Rome.

  “We can help too. Right, Bud?” Maeve asked.

  “I will certainly not help. You can assist your boyfriend and are perfectly capable of handling any dangers you may encounter.” Bud pushed the button on his wristband. He disappeared along with the bag and Bert’s head.

  “Bud!” Maeve shook her head.

  Sam patted her back. “I am sorry, Maeve. He is upset. Give him time, yes?”

  “He is upset. So am I. A lot to process. Still, he shouldn’t have just left like a jerk,” Maeve said.

  “You can come with me if you like.”

  “What did that monk mean by the gate remains open? What gate?” Maeve tucked her hair behind her ears.

  “One of the oldest gates in Rome. In times of war, the gate remained open to give access and protection to the people. In times of peace, the gate remained closed. Of course in Roman history, rarely was the gate ever closed, and if it was closed, it would not remain that way for long. Since the end of World War II, the gate has been closed. Only recently has it reopened. We have been trying to figure out why, as there is no war near Rome at the moment,” Sam explained.

  “I assume these spikes started around the same time the gate opened?” Maeve asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Where is this gate?”

  “Just southwest of the Colosseo where the rise in activity has been recorded by Bud’s grandfather’s intelligence gathering system. The Arch of Janus, the only four-sided arch in Rome. There is only one actual physical gate attached to it on one of the four sides, and it now open.”

  Maeve walked past the broken marble statue of a pagan god and to the exit. “Let’s start there.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ivy couldn’t wait to test a possible lead. With newly absconded vials of blood tucked in her jacket pocket, she rubbed her unconscious father’s cheek.

  “I will be back, Dad. Hang in there.” Ivy kissed him on the forehead.

  With a miraculous yet scientific flourish, her body moved through space at unthinkable speeds back to the courtyard of Constantinius in Castle McDougall, where she had been held prisoner and subsequently turned into a vampire. Her newfound blood vision would aid her in her investigation. She marched back to the infirmary where Vincentas’s ex-girlfriend had tried to drive a stake through her heart.

  Ivy remembered another patient on the opposite side of the room from her. She made it to the arched entryway of the infirmary. Maeve had been thrown into the entrance thus widening it a great deal. Elizabeth the vampire was quite powerful. Ivy looked forward to that super-strength. She had always been a rather thin, light, dainty young woman in reference to pure physicality, not mentality. The thought of being enhanced with power comforted Ivy. Even the blood she thought she could get used to.

  Scotland Yard had combed through the Castle since they left. Maeve did call them to help the students in the dungeon Vincentas had forced into slave labor for his maniacal plans; however, besides the removal of Elizabeth’s corpse, they’d left the infirmary unmolested.

  Ivy walked in then turned right to examine the other bed in the room. The one that Bud mentioned could have been a shapeshifter’s. Thirst bothered her no more, yet she grabbed for a blood vial that she’d tucked into her jacket.

  The salty crimson beverage soothed her throat. She definitely liked blood. She wished she could run tests on herself to see the chemical nature of her newfound tastes.

  Ivy closed her eyes. She emptied the vial, even tapping it to get every last drop into her mouth. One last drop splashed her tongue. She opened her eyes and examined the bed of the missing patient. The entire bed glowed gold, the same color of her father’s attacker.

  A loud crash resounded through the halls and echoed into the infirmary. Something or someone else invaded the castle.

  Ivy didn’t flinch. She walked out of the infir
mary and down the hall back to the main entrance and courtyard.

  Another loud banging.

  The novice vampire pushed forward. Her heart kept a steady beat. No spike in heart rate. Her calmness unsettled her in some ways. The sounds formed into a steady rhythm. The sound of ransacking thieves, Ivy surmised.

  She passed the courtyard and neared the stairwell to the dungeon. The noise came from below. Ivy entered the spiral stairwell. Her descent raked her ears with an additional sound. A heartbeat like her neighbor’s. Halfway down the spiral stairs, she touched the stone wall, and a red outline of a man appeared at the far end of the dungeon. Ivy’s fangs grew.

  The temptation to hunt wore on her will to resist. Warm, fresh blood probably tasted best.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bud soldered the final wire from Bert’s head and neck to Bert’s new body made in the dungeon forge of Castle McDougall and left over from Vincentas’s mad teleporting killer robot scheme.

  “I must say, Bud. It feels good to be whole again. Ah!” Bert twiddled his fingers and waved his new steel arm in front of his optics.

  “I didn’t think you could actually feel anything, Bert. What exactly did my grandfather do to you?” Bud sat on the crossbow-bolt laden wooden table and rested his chin on his wrist, not unlike the famous sculpture of the thinking man.

  “I suppose it is a figure of speech I used appropriate to the situation. I am supposed to feel like more of a natural companion to you. I don’t believe I am feeling anything, Bud. Wait. Hold on.”

  Bert raised his torso up from his supine position. He looked toward the dungeon stairwell on the other end of the long room.

  “What is it, Bert? We are the only ones here. Scotland Yard cleared the place hours ago. We already surmised that. Remember?” Bud rolled his eyes.

  Bert stood up then ran through the wooden tables in his path to the stairwell. Dust and splintered wooden planks polluted the space. Bert disappeared through the exit. Then he flew back in just as quickly. The metallic clang of Bert’s shiny new body hitting a dungeon gate echoed through the hall.

  Bud jumped off the table. “What the bloody hell is going on?!”

  A blurry figure raced from the stairwell and pounced on Bert.

  Bert and the figure emerged from the small prison holding each other’s shoulders. Bert seemed to have the upper hand in this instance as he towered over the smaller attacker. Bud’s android companion drove his opponent into the stone wall next to the stairwell entrance. The robot repeatedly drove the person into the wall. Bud fully expected to see blood squirting from Bert’s opponent, but no gore showed.

  “Bert! Stop!”

  “Very well.” Bert dropped his attacker.

  Bud ran over. He examined the stone wall that had crumbled with Bert’s mighty moves. In the small cave Bert had drilled lay Ivy. An Ivy that didn’t appear affected by the tussle with Bud’s steely bodyguard.

  “Oh dear! Ivy, are you okay? You appear to be…surprisingly.” Bud put out his hand to assist her.

  She stood up quickly then brushed dust off her jacket and immediately fished through the lining of her jacket.

  “Phew! They didn’t break… Hey, Bud.”

  “How did you survive that tussle with Bert? Your vampirism?” Bud looked befuddled and shook his head in short repetitive motion. Over and over and over again.

  “Bud. Chill. Yes, the last day or so has been quite interesting. Bert, you okay? Sorry about that.” Ivy wiped the lenses of her glasses on her sleeve.

  “I sensed a threat to Bud, Ivy. I hope you don’t mind my defense protocol. You took me by surprise with your considerable strength. Good to see you, otherwise.” Bert nodded.

  “I have become increasingly aggressive. I sensed Bud was down here with special vampire vision. I shit you not. I almost came down with the intention of drinking fresh Bud blood. Until you came over, Bert.” Ivy put her glasses back on.

  Bud used both hands to cover his neck. “I like to think that you wouldn’t have drunk my blood since it has the consistency of maple syrup!”

  “Obviously, I would have snapped out of it when I saw you, Bud. Relax.”

  Bud put his hands back to his side. “I certainly hope so. What brings you back to this medieval manor?”

  “You were right. The other patient was the shapeshifter you and Maeve battled in the Loch before rescuing me. I can see traces of beings, Bud. After I drink blood, I can temporarily see traces of people, I think. My father left red traces. The other traces I saw were gold. The same as in the bed in the infirmary.”

  “I struggle to see how you can confirm it was the shapeshifter, and I don’t want to know what blood you drank,” Bud said.

  “My father called me here. Yes, Bela, Vincentas’s assistant, claimed to be an old friend of my father’s. I then asked to call my dad, and he confirmed he knew Bela but then did something that he has never done ever in any conversation we have ever had ever, Bud.” Ivy waved her hands to express herself.

  “What did he do? Burp in your ear? Make slurping noises as if drinking blood? Perhaps it runs in the family?”

  “Bud. Stop. The blood was from the hospital’s blood bank. He said that he loved me. It is not like my father to ever say that. He is a good man. He came from a poor province in China and worked his way to where he is now. He has always provided for me, but he is a man of few words. He shows his love. He doesn’t speak of it. Also, Bud, his phone is missing. The one I called.”

  “That makes more sense. Have you examined any other parts of the castle for these gold traces? Which one might think they are dead skin cells you are observing with your newfound vampire vision?” Bud tapped his lips with his forefinger.

  “The gold traces were concentrated in the infirmary, which I am afraid to say, makes me think he may have a version of your teleportation tech. He and Bela… They both disappeared from the castle after we fought Vincentas.”

  Bud frowned. “Bert. Did you hear that? Use your GPS and cell towers to see if we can get a trace on that tech. There should be a record on whatever satellites they used to determine their next location. There aren’t many people accessing GPS on this Loch.”

  “On it, Bud.” Bert ran up the stairwell.

  “Have any blood? See what color traces I leave, Ivy,” Bud said.

  Ivy pulled another blood vial and drank from it.

  Bud didn’t realize the disgusted look he probably bore on his face.

  “Bud, please,” Ivy said with a mouthful of blood pooled on the bottom of her mouth. She put her head back and swallowed.

  “In my hypothesis, the traces I leave should be just like your father’s. Yes?”

  “Yep, red like his. Humans leave traces of red and shapeshifters, gold. I have no idea why. I haven’t a clue how to handle this transition into a fucking vampire.” Ivy threw the vial, and it broke on the stony ground.

  “I know of a place that will most likely give you the answers you need. One would imagine the Order would have extensive literature on vampirism. I take it your father has yet to wake?”

  “Last time I checked, no. He would definitely be able to help us identify this shapeshifter.” Ivy sat on the stony ground.

  The steely stomp of Bert echoed in the stairwell. Bert entered the room.

  “I accessed the GPS records for this location, Bud. The satellites pinged upon our exit from the castle, and I confirmed the serial numbers on the chipsets used in the bands you, Maeve, and Ivy used to teleport to the Chicago area. Just thirty-eight minutes prior, the same satellites were used along with two more teleportation bands. The same bands were identified seconds later from a ping that originated in Rome, Italy. The location we just departed from.”

  “Shit. We must make haste back to Rome.” Bud readied his wristband then looked at Ivy.

  She nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “Are you sure you are up to the task? You don’t look particularly well, Ivy.”

  Ivy’s face had a pale pallor. Her eyes red
. Her breaths shallow.

  “Let’s go, Bud. I can make it.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Maeve and Sam arrived at the Arch of Janus in the Aventine section of Rome, just southeast of Vatican City, upon a hill overlooking the Tiber River. The grey stone archway that stands forty-eight feet tall and thirty-three feet wide looked rundown and ruined by centuries of wear and tear. It was an arch with four entrances, and inlaid into the masonry were concrete vaults. The Arch of Janus still stood but certainly didn’t impress as much as many of the other ancient structures of the classical capital.

  Sam walked into the arch and examined the only gated side.

  “This is the opened gate.” Sam grabbed the gate and tried to move it. He failed.

  “Let me try.” Maeve gripped the black iron rails and tried to move it herself. She pulled hard. Nothing.

  “See. It won’t budge. We can’t close,” Sam said.

  “Okay. Great. Now what?” Maeve crossed her arms.

  Sam put his hands up. “I don’t know. I thought you would have some idea of what to do next?”

  Maeve examined the gate. There seemed to be nothing impeding its progress to close. Not even rust. The gate looked pristine. The hinges didn’t even look weakened or compromised. A supernatural force held this gate open.

  “You said something about Bud’s grandfather developing some sort of tech to track phenomena such as this?”

  “Yes, we call it Sis. Or S.I.S. for Supernatural Intelligence System. The system did pick this gate up.”

  “It also picked up on a spike in activity near the Colosseum, correct? Do you have S.I.S. with you now or no?”

  “I do. The Colosseum is a very active supernatural place, so there are always readings there, but again, the spikes concern us.” Sam grabbed for his cell phone.