I'm on TDY from Hell
Page 26
It took her an hour to do just one, but she had it easy. Jeb was doing the power conduits in the center with Anton’s assistance. Their potion was much more complex with rarer ingredients. If Jezebel screwed up then they just needed to go to the nearest cemetery and dig up another grave. Jeb didn’t have that luxury.
Power conduits required a lot more of his blood to start – a full liter. On top of that was a dozen crows eyes, the heart of a newborn baby, a shard of Infernal Iron, and an ounce of plutonium of all things. A human even attempting to concoct an ætherial power conduit would die of radiation poisoning before being burned to a cinder by the powerful energy.
Unlike Jezebel’s wards, the power conduits were a brilliant gold in color. They contrasted sharply with the black interior concealment ward Anton was constructing. The ward would normally conflict with the ceremony, but by the time it was time to start the sacrifice the ward would no longer be needed, and the activation of the conduits would scorch it from the floor.
The three Infernals and two Soulless worked diligently into the early morning. Wards were not something that could be thrown up at a moment’s notice, and ideally they’d have time to settle before needing to be used. They didn’t have that much time, so they had to make do.
“Get it in place!” Vicky growled at Anton.
Everyone’s nerves were starting to fray after a night spent do intensive work.
“I’m trying.” They were securing the last banner over the exterior concealment charm in the far corner of the room and having a little trouble tying it off to one of the rafters.
“Ms. Jezebel, I’m tired.” Janitor Joe’s eyes were partially rolled into the back of his head as his body’s needs fought against Jezebel’s enthrallment.
“Soon, precious, very soon.” She patted the prostrated man’s cheek and his whole body shuddered with pleasure.
Her smile slipped as she turned away from him and focused her attention on the Soulless. They’d finally attached the banner and were giving the room one last look. The homecoming committee would find little to do when they arrived today. The banners on the walls and ceiling were already completed and hung. More giant signs were plastered over the doors. Plastic tables with cheap, white tablecloths were set up and ready for the punch the high school’s students would inevitably try to spike. It looked like just about every other budgeted school dance in the school’s history. The banners might have even been a slightly higher artistic quality since people more than a few centuries old had completed them.
The students would come to enjoy the socialization, grinding on each other, and hope to get laid, high, or drunk while the chaperones weren’t looking. They wouldn’t even notice they’d walked right into a trap, and Janitor Joe was the final piece of the puzzle.
“Joe, sweetie.” Jezebel took a seat behind the old man. She could feel his arousal spike as she ran her hands over his chest. “I need you to do something for me. Is that ok?”
“Yes, anything.” The exhaustion had vanished from the man’s eyes.
“I want you to give yourself to me fully.” She smiled as she continued to caress him, but moved her hands lower.
“Of course,” he exhaled with pleasure.
“I need you to say it. Say that you give your life to me.”
“I give my life to you.” There was no hesitation in the man’s response. He was so thoroughly caught in her web he never stood a chance.
“Good.” She nibbled on his earlobe playfully.
Joe shuddered as her teeth grazed his flesh. He arched his back, craned his neck back to look at her, and sealed his own fate. As he arched his neck, Jezebel’s hand moved from his belt up toward his head. As it moved it transformed. It shifted from the finely-manicured nails to a large, sharp talon. With an easy swipe she drew it across his throat.
Blood fountained out of the wound and onto the floor. They were sitting right in the center of the interior concealment ward. The blackness of the ward seemed to open wide and swallowed the blood as it leaked out of Joe. The ward drank up the human sacrifice and drew power from the dying janitor’s blood. Jeb stood by to make sure none of the blood made onto his power conduits, but Jezebel was a professional.
The ward consumed Janitor Joe’s blood and then his body. He was cold and dead by the time the darkness devoured him. His soul passed through it and to the realm of Prince Seere, but it was what the sacrifice did on this plane that mattered.
“We’re done here.” Jeb announced as the concealment ward and the power conduits winked out of existence. “School starts in an hour and we need to be gone before the teachers arrive.”
“I’ll stay and make sure they see me at work.” Vicky nodded as the rest of the Infernals strode out of the gym.
Anton was the last one. He gave the gym one final look and a satisfied nod before turning to Vicky. “Can you feel it?”
Vicky was feeling a lot of things. Thirsty after seeing a man bleed out was at the top of her list.
“Not that.” Anton didn’t need her answer to guess what she was thinking. “There’s something in the air, something more. Whatever is happening tonight it’s going to be big.”
“The only thing guaranteed with all these Infernals involved is that it is going to be a big bag of dicks. I got paid and that’s enough for me.” She gave the other vampire a hard stare. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Anton, but I can’t wait for you to get the hell out of my town.”
Anton didn’t reply. He just grinned, spun on his heel, and exited the building. That left Vicky all alone to sell the hardest part of the whole operation. She needed to convince the faculty that for the first time in the four years she’d attended the school that she was actually being proactive. That in itself was a miracle, and she hoped it didn’t draw too much attention.
A Dance to Die For
The school day had been hectic. Maria had no idea why teenagers got so worked up before big events like Homecoming. It was just a football game followed by dance. Sure, they got to get all dressed up and pretend they were fairy princesses, but aside from four hours gyrating awkwardly in a humid gymnasium there wasn’t much else to it.
The stoners would be playing cat and mouse with the chaperones while trying to find places to get high. The cool kids would be trying to sneak the booze they’d liberated from their parent’s liquor cabinets into the punch. The jocks would be looking to get laid, and some girls would be looking to screw the jocks. She’d been in one variation or another of high school for nearly a decade and those things hadn’t changed.
The football game wasn’t particularly good. Their team sucked, it was still humid despite fall being right around the corner, so she spent most of it just chilling with some of her “friends”. No one was really her friend aside from her half-brother – who was also a teacher and one of the chaperones. Granted, she didn’t spend any time watching the game. Her eyes were entirely on one of the cheerleaders.
Maria hated Vicky for a multitude of reasons. Her being a Soulless bitch was only one of them. Vicky had perfect skin, a body that made boys drool, and the adoration of the masses. She was a lock for Homecoming Queen. Maria didn’t care about half of that, but she was only human – well half human. She envied the evil bitch’s good looks. She’d been stuck in puberty for twelve years. Aging slowly sucked ass for a young Nephilim. Her family told her it would get better once she was older, but it was tough seeing the light at the end of the hormone and pimple tunnel.
After the game people went home and got changed into their dresses and tuxes. Maria didn’t have much of a reputation, and the little she did have she didn’t give two shits about. There was no way she was wearing a dress. Not only were they stupid, but they reduced her maneuverability. Wearing a dress and high heels would literally get her killed.
Her dad didn’t argue with her. He knew what she
was, and he wanted his little girl to be safe. Even if that little girl could beat his ass by the time she was ten. When she walked down the stairs in the female version of a tuxedo he still said she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She didn’t believe him, but it was still nice to hear.
“You look gorgeous.” A second voice appeared out of nowhere.
“Mom?” Maria couldn’t hide the smile.
Ava looked like she always did as she wrapped her child in her arms. “I wouldn’t miss this.”
“Picture.” Her father insisted. He wasn’t great with electronics, but with help he figured it out.
She was sure that was going to go on the fridge. They didn’t have a lot of family pictures for obvious reasons.
After a quick word with her father, Ava pulled Maria aside. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation in Maria’s response. “I’ve been watching her for months. I know how she acts. I know how she thinks. I know what to do.”
“It’s not that simple,” Ava said patiently. “You’re about to kill something for the first time.”
“The operative word there is ‘something’, Mom. Vicky isn’t a person. She’s a heartless, soulless bitch who treats everyone like crap and made me do all of her math homework this semester.” It got personal at the end.
Ava gave her a hard look before slowly nodding. “You have my blessing, but no human can know what is happening. If you cannot accomplish the mission discretely then you may not proceed. Do you understand?” The last sentence was unyielding.
“Yes.”
“Good. Gabriel will be there as back up. Don’t be headstrong. Use him if you need to. It’s more important that you live then you kill the Soulless. You are worth a million of them.”
“I’ll be fine, Mom.” Maria was confident. She’d done her homework.
“Ok.” Ava leaned down and kissed Maria on the head before vanishing.
She looked back at her father who always looked sad after her mother’s short visits, but he put a smile on his face and shoed her out the door. “Go have fun.”
Homecoming wasn’t going to be fun. It was going to be an opportunity to put everything she’d learned to good use. The tuxedo she was wearing was baggy for a reason. She had a pistol in a shoulder holster. The bullets were tipped with Divine Steel etched from her mother’s blade. They would cut down any Soulless in their path. She only had twelve rounds, so she needed to use them wisely.
Her blond hair was held in place by two steel rods that had been doused in bottle sunlight. They were perfectly obscured, and would be an unwelcomed surprise to anyone that got stabbed with it. Lastly, twin silver daggers were strategically placed on her person. She was more than a match for a Soulless in terms of strength and speed.
She double-checked herself in the mirror one last time before heading for her beat up old Nissan.
Of course, parking was a bitch. Everyone and their mother was at the dance, and she found herself walking toward the door with a group of junior girls who kept shooting her looks and muttering, “lesbian”. Maria didn’t pay them any attention until they reached the door.
“OMG it is freaking beautiful in here.” The lead girl, who looked like her padded tits were about to fall out of the too-small dress, gazed around the room.
The moment Maria stepped through the door she felt the tingle of magic all around her. The reason for that was the girl sitting at the entrance table selling tickets.
“Hi!” Vicky beamed at everyone including Maria. “Hey, Mary.”
“We need your tickets, and if you want you can buy raffle tickets from Tiffany. Half the proceeds are going to the local SPCA. We don’t want any of those cute little puppies to get put down. We need to find them their forever home.”
“Yeah.”
“Of course.”
“That’s so noble,” were the variety of responses to the vampire’s statement.
“Mary, so nice of you to come.” Vicky was just as pleasant to her as everyone else – somehow she was able to talk without ever removing the smile from her face – but Maria caught the fashion critique.
Like Maria, Vicky hadn’t opted for a dress, and that seemed to have altered the status quo for all females attending the event. Vicky was in a one piece of flowing fabric. It ruffled around her when she moved, and clung with every step to her perfect-ten figure. Maria could read the minds of half the girls in the room.
Maria avoided throwing up in her own mouth as she showed her ticket and paid ten bucks for the puppies. Vicky might be evil incarnate, but those puppies didn’t do anything to hurt anyone. Unable to withstand the smiling anymore, she quickly made her way into the room and scanned for Gabriel. He was standing not too far from the door watching everything. She gave him a quick smile and then tried to figure out where the best place to lay her trap was.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much privacy. The only places not under the strobing lights of the DJ were the two locker rooms that branched off the gym, and those were guarded by vigilant chaperones. It was an option, but she filed it under plan B.
She didn’t want to look too conspicuous, so she walked around and talked to a few of her acquaintances. They said a few vaguely polite comments about her baggy tux, and she returned them with half-hearted gestures toward their dresses. That about boiled down the last six months of her life: vaguely polite and half-hearted while she got close to the evil in their midst.
Vicky was on the move, and she was heading straight for the locker rooms.
Maria looked around the room, caught Gabriel’s eye, nodded to the bathroom, and started striding forward with a purpose. She hesitated at the door long enough to unbutton her blazer and grab her pistol. She moved quickly once she opened the door. She brought her gun up to eye-level and scanned from left to right. There was about fifteen feet of brick wall decorated in the school’s colors before a second door. That door opened into the locker room.
Maria advanced down the hall quickly. Her senses were heightened and focused. She could feel the vibrations in the air from the DJ’s gear. She could smell the cologne of the dead that permeated everything about Vicky. She could even smell the lingering sweat from the cheerleaders changing after the game. She wanted to gag at the last two, but she held it together. Without everyone in the gym watching her she was able to go through the second door like a boss. She practically kicked the door off its hinges and stormed into the room.
“Hey, Maria.” The lockers stood between her and Vicky. The vampire was at the sink washing her face. “Can I help you with anything?”
It barely even registered that Vicky had finally gotten her name right.
“Yeah. You can die.” As far as threats went it was a really bad one.
Vicky even thought so because she straight-up laughed. “Funny. She said once she got herself under control. I was about to say the same thing.”
A man appeared out of the locker’s shadows and charged her. If it wasn’t for her training, Maria would have frozen. She didn’t sense than man standing perfectly still until he moved or smell his scent. He’d been masked by Vicky.
As far as ambushes went, it was the first she’d experienced and seemed pretty close to perfect. Still, she pivoted, adjusted her aim, and pulled the trigger. She always wore ear protection on the range, so the sudden, jarring BOOM that echoed through the confined space made her jerk enough that the second round went high and to the right. Ul
timately, it didn’t matter. The first was on target. The Divine Steel tipped round punched into the man’s chest. Momentum carried him forward as he began to disintegrate, which showered her in his ashes.
“Oh gross!” she yelled.
She could hear screams coming from the other room. A gunshot at a school was probably the worst thing imaginable, and that had suddenly become a reality.
It was sheer luck that she was focused on her hearing because she would have missed the footsteps coming toward her. Vicky flicked on the lights and three other vampires came into focus.
“I’ll give you a choice. Come quietly with me or have tremendous pain inflicted on you before you come with me anyway. Your choice.”
She took a deep breath and surveyed her surroundings. With the lights on she had a complete view of everything. One vampire was between her and Vicky. He was a tall, older looking guy, and the way he hovered protectively near Vicky said there was some sort of relationship there. The second vampire was a short, female to her left. She just looked fast, so Maria pegged her as the most dangerous. Lastly, there was a bulky vampire to her right. He’d been hiding in the shower area.
“Option three, I kill you all.” She didn’t wait for the Soulless’ answer.
She fired on the one to her left, and she was correct. The woman was fast. She ducked under the bullet and vaulted up and over the lockers out of range. The guy to her right took advantage of the distraction and went for the tackle.
Maria spun but she was too slow. The guy got under her gun and hit her with his shoulders. It didn’t hurt much. The guy might be big-looking, but he must be a new vampire because he wasn’t that strong. Maria drove and elbow into his spine and the guy crumbled to his knees. She picked him up under the armpits and threw him at the lockers the quick vampire had vaulted over. He hit them with a bang and the whole contraption came tumbling down on top of him. He was slow to get up, and she ended him with her fourth bullet.