Madeline turned her attention back to the old man who was wearing an ear-to-ear smile. “You have been watching me?”
“My name is Black Feather.” He began. “I was a warrior of the Seneca Wolf Clan in 1760. I was attacked by a wolf, much like the ones you see here. I came down with a fever and died, or so everyone thought. The only one with me when I turned was my grandfather, our medicine man. I tried to feed on him until he calmed me down. He realized immediately what I was and sent me to an enemy camp. There, I made my first kill and brought the body back to my grandfather. He wrapped the body in hides and it was burned in a funeral pyre the next day. No one questioned whether the body was truly me. He kept me hidden for years, using me as a weapon against the enemies of our tribe. I became a legend to be feared. The Ghost of Black Feather stood for vengeance and retribution. My legend was used in stories to scare little children. Only my grandfather and I knew the truth. Before he died, he told me that the end of my days would be marked by the White Wolf. He told me that she would come to me with the fox,” he nodded towards Julia with her blazing red hair, “the eagle,” he nodded towards Ginny, conjuring up memories of the scream that had made the head of a hell dog split open just an hour earlier, “And the orphan.” He nodded towards the little girl. “Oh, how I’ve waited for this glorious day.” He said with another triumphant smile.
Madeline felt uncomfortable and nervous. She was unsure what he was getting at. Either he was going to kill her to eliminate the threat or he was offering something she had no want or need of. “I see you are confused.” Black Feather said. “I am tired. This life has become arduous at best.” He got to his feet with an amazing amount of virility and stood with his arms clasped behind his back. “My children know you. They have been following you for me for some time. They will serve you now. They are most reliable and noble servants.” He walked around them and towards the double doors they had entered when they first came in. “My time here is done. I have a date with the sun, my first in over two hundred years.” He said over his shoulder as he got closer to the doors. “Tonight, I will visit the Sky Woman and I will be at peace once more.” His hand was on the door now. “It is your time Wolf Queen.” He was nearly whispering but the room was so quiet his voice was still crystal clear.
She hopped up from the blanket and turned to face him. “My time for what?” She almost yelled.
He turned slowly and with a huge grin said, “To rule.” And with that he turned and left. The big door shut behind him with a loud whump that echoed through the huge room and left her with hundreds of yellow eyes waiting expectantly, for what, she didn’t know. An order? A mission? Rule? Her, a queen? What in God’s name was she supposed to do with all this?
Chapter 31
“Get to the truck!” He screamed over the roar of gunfire. They had withdrawn nearly all the way to the truck, Ledge dragging Sylvia the whole way.
“No!” She yelled. “We need him!” She wrenched herself free and bolted back towards the door of the mansion trying to go back in for Charlie.
He caught her again, just before a hell dog could rip her open, the huge arc of its swing coming close enough to flick a wisp of her hair. Ledge poked the barrel of his sawed-off shotgun in its chest and pulled the trigger. It flew back, bits of red flesh and spatter decorating the wall behind. He dragged Sylvia back to the truck again. This time, she fought less. Hell dogs were pouring out of the door in a steady stream now. Ledge could hear their scraping feet behind him.
As they closed in on the rear of the truck, the doors flew violently open and time seemed to slow. Avery was positioned behind the .50 caliber machine gun that Charlie had insisted they take along. Avery screamed something at them. “Get down?” Ledge’s eyes went wide when he realized what was happening. He threw Sylvia to the ground and landed on top of her just as the first blasts of the machine gun ripped through the air over their heads. Something wet splashed across his face. He looked up as much as he dared to and saw the hell dogs falling like dominoes behind them. Huge chunks of stone exploded from the side of the house like they were being hit by a sledge hammer as the rounds that didn’t find their mark blasted into the side of the house.
“Ledge! Get us out of here!” He heard Avery scream over the rap, rap, rap of the machine gun.
Time sped up again and Ledge found himself shaking off the shock of how close they came to being cut down by the powerful machine gun. He scrambled under the machine gun fire and jumped into the front seat of the truck, praying Sylvia wouldn’t need any more coaxing. Luckily, she didn’t. She was already in the passenger seat of the truck when he climbed inside. With no time to waste, he fired up the engine and threw it into drive. The tires squealed and the truck sped down the driveway.
Avery kept firing the machine gun out the back of the truck, picking off hell dogs whenever he could. “Yeah!” He yelled. “Charlie was right! This thing sure can sling some lead!” The machine gun fire suddenly ceased. “Damn! Out of ammo!” With one great shove, Avery pushed the heavy machine gun out the back doors, tripod and all. It rattled down the driveway and rolled off into the ditch as Avery pulled the rear doors shut.
“We’re not out of the woods, yet!” Sylvia yelled. Hell dogs were emerging from the trees on either side of the driveway and pelting themselves at the side of the truck, causing it to yaw and shake. They busted through the gate at the end of the driveway and the hell dogs began to pull back. Ledge watched the rearview mirror as they slowly stopped chasing then turned back towards the mansion.
As the truck rumbled down the road and the gravity of their situation took root, the tension in the truck began to mount. No one spoke. They had barely made it out alive and now their numbers were reduced by one.
Avery was the first to break the tension like he so often was wont to do. “I know he was a thorn in my side, but he was helpful from time to time. I daresay he saved our lives today by making us lug that damn fifty cal. all over the place.”
“We needed him.” Sylvia piped in abruptly. “Damnit! We should have gone back.”
“And done what?” Avery asked. “Died with him? No, no my dear. We did the right thing. One death is definitely preferable to four.”
They all settled into uncomfortable silence. Sylvia knew he was right. They all did. Like it or not, it was a sane decision during a time of chaos. Little more than they could hope for in the midst of a fire fight. The silence continued for the entire ride back to the motel.
When they arrived at the motel, however, it was instantly apparent that something was wrong. The window to the room they had been taking shelter in was smashed open. The three vampires jumped out of the SUV and readied their weapons. Sylvia motioned for them to spread out. They closed in on the motel room from either side, moved in and checked the small bathroom for any signs of survivors. The only bodies in the room were those of a small group of hell dogs. Sylvia breathed a sigh of relief. “They must have escaped. There’s no sign of them here.”
“Either that or they were taken.” Avery said and Sylvia shot him an angry glare.
“We can’t go on that assumption.” She said. “Ledge, take the truck and see if you can find them in the immediate area. Avery, you stay with me. We need to clean this mess up so the place doesn’t burn down in the morning and pick a new room for shelter.”
Ledge didn’t like the thought of leaving the two of them alone together. His friend had been making it his mission to push as many of Sylvia’s buttons as he could of late. He worried that he might return to find just one of them still alive. Begrudgingly, he got in the big truck and started circling the area, hoping to see signs of the women they had lost.
Occasionally he would catch sight of hell dogs in various stages of mutation but they thankfully kept to themselves. At one point he even saw a group of armed humans patrolling the neighborhood, gunning down any hell dogs they could find. He kept them at a safe distance. Frightened people in a mob are dangerous and unpredictable. He had no interest in encou
ntering them. He found nothing in the immediate area so he decided to edge down the road they had travelled while on their way to Glover’s mansion. The streets were dark and filled with debris he had to creep around with the big vehicle. Everything from broken down cars and semis to refrigerators and furniture hindered his path.
He pushed past a large dumpster in the middle of the road and came face to face with a huge group of hell dogs that stood in his path. His heart leapt when he realized they had already seen him even though none of them moved to attack. He pounded the pedal of the truck to the floor and spun it around in a hard hundred and eighty degree turn but there was an even larger group of hell dogs filling in the area that had been behind him. He was trapped! Just when things seemed the bleakest, a woman jumped in front of the big truck and Ledge stopped cold. He recognized the long white hair and deep blue eyes. She wore a casual smile and sauntered up to the window of his truck as though she hadn’t a care in the world. Ledge swallowed the large lump in his throat and readied the shotgun under his arm. If today was his last day, he was definitely going to make a mess for them on his way out. He hit the window switch on the car door and waited for the window to roll all the way down. “Madeline.” He nodded to her. “Sylvia sent me to look for you. Everything alright?” He asked motioning to her entourage.
“Oh them?” She asked. “Yes, they’re with me.”
Ledge was a little surprised but tried to play aloof. “Something we should know?”
“Ever hear of someone named Black Feather?”
Ledge’s eyes opened wide at the name. “I thought he was dead.”
“Apparently, not yet. But he plans to be, come morning.”
“I see. And how does this have anything to do with him?”
“These are… or were his minions. They are now mine. He gave them to me.”
“Gave them to you? How is this possible?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s what he wanted.”
Ledge felt less than comfortable with the situation. “Sylvia’s not going to like this. What are we supposed to do now?” He asked.
“You are welcome to stay with us if you like. There is safety in numbers and I daresay we have plenty of those.”
Ledge eyed the hell dogs warily. He looked in his rearview mirror at the dozens of yellow eyes watching expectantly. Dozens more watched from the road in front of the truck. He sighed seeing little choice in the matter. “Alright. I’ll go get them. Will your friends…?”
“Yes, they’ll let you pass.”
“Thank you.”
She set down the last hell dog corpse in the parking lot near the street. The night was quiet. Very few lights were left. The humans had redirected all the electricity to the city and left the surrounding neighborhoods without power. She thought back to the ill-fated trip to the mansion and lost herself in thought. For an instant, when the back doors of the truck had flown open and she had seen Avery sitting behind the machine gun, she thought maybe he intended to kill them as well. Maybe he did. Maybe he had missed. But if he wanted them dead, why try to make it look like an accident? What could he possibly have to gain by killing them? She heard a clunk and a thud coming from the new room they had chosen to take refuge in. Avery was moving things around inside and boarding up the windows as best he could while she moved the bodies. He had been pushing her buttons so often lately that she thought it best if they worked on different tasks for a while. Now she wondered if she could trust him at all. He and Ledge were close. What if they were both against her? That was the main reason she had split them up and sent Ledge to look for the women. Not only had she lost Charlie, whom she knew had no allegiance to any of them, but the women too. At least Julia had some ties to her. And if Julia stood by her side, odds were that Madeline would, too. But they weren’t here and she was on her own. Sylvia knew the odds that Ledge would find them were slim, if he even tried at all.
“At last, Mon Cheri. We are alone.” Avery stood nearly a foot taller than she. His jet-black hair slicked back with one long lock hanging down across his forehead. “What could we possibly do to pass the time, ey?” He asked with a wink. If she had to admit, she had always been attracted to his looks. He was incredibly handsome in a noir sort of way, with his pale skin and hard jaw; his piercing black eyes. But the thought of allowing her guard to drop long enough to get close to him made her shudder. She had no intention of being a notch in his bedpost or a corpse on his list.
She raised one eyebrow and folded her arms under her breasts, hiking them up in order to look inviting, and more importantly, distracting. Her hand found the butt of the forty-five-caliber handgun in her shoulder holster while his eyes were drawn to her chest. If he noticed the hand on her gun, he showed no sign of it. “I think we should keep our minds set on the task at hand, don’t you?” She asked.
He put his hand on his heart and took a couple of exaggerated steps backwards. “Mon Cheri! You wound me!” He said with a grin. “I have only the most noble of intentions!” He said in his most proud and commandeering voice. “I just meant we could continue to fortify our living arrangements. If you took that to mean something else, perhaps it is your own urges you should consider.”
“Ha!” She chuckled. “My own urges involve staying alive. Maybe you should consider that!”
He smiled. “Yes, of course. Self-preservation is always my number one priority.”
I bet it is! She thought.
They stood in silence for a few seconds before he asked. “So, do you think the Golem has found Original Blood?”
Eureka! She thought. At last, it comes out! Why hadn’t she figured it out sooner? He’s after Original Blood! Why wouldn’t he be? Everyone else wanted it. Why should Avery be immune to the draw of power? She would probably be safe until they found it. After that, all bets were off. She’d better tread lightly. “I think so. Either that or he knows who has it. He’s already powerful. If he finds it, there’ll be no stopping him.”
“So, we find it first. Then we find him.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Any idea who has it or where we can find them? You’ve been watching Julia’s dreams for weeks now.”
He didn’t trust her, either. That much was obvious. He didn’t trust that she was telling them everything. He was right not to, but she hadn’t told him all of it because she didn’t trust him. A precarious situation but one she liked her odds in. She was privy to the right information and as long as she had it and he needed it, she would be relatively safe. She kept a straight face. She had always been good at poker. “Nothing new, no. Just a description of the Golem that we saw.” Tall, slender, black hair, pale skin. “And some nonsense about Charlie being a key piece to the puzzle, which doesn’t bode well for us anymore.”
He nodded. “So, what’s our next move?”
She was about to answer when they heard a familiar engine purring in the distance. Their black SUV came roaring around the corner and pulled up next to them, stopping abruptly. Ledge jumped out of the driver seat, leaving the engine running.
“You’re not going to believe this.” He said. “The women escaped and found Black Feather.”
Sylvia’s jaw fell open. “The Black Feather?”
“The same. He had amassed an army of hell dogs and he just gave them to Madeline. Do you believe this? She said he wanted to die so he gave them up. She said we can stay with them.”
They all stood in stunned silence for a while. Sylvia had different scenarios whirling around in her mind. If this was true, the risk of shacking up with a bunch of hell dogs was tremendous, but was it any worse than staying with only two allies? Neither of which she felt she could count on. If Madeline had an army of hell dogs at her disposal, Sylvia might be able to coax her into helping them find Original Blood while offering some protection against treachery. She blew out a long sigh. “Let’s go.” She said.
“What? You can’t be serious!” Avery was beside himself. “It’s suicide!”
“Doubtful. M
adeline has no reason to betray us. We won’t last long out here with just the three of us.”
“What if they are just luring us in for the kill?” He asked.
“I doubt that, Avery.” This time it was Ledge who spoke. “There are so many of them. The three of us wouldn’t go very far towards feeding them. I doubt they’d need to go to such lengths to catch a meal. I admit, I’m uneasy about going over there, but Sylvia has a point. It would make things safer if it’s true. I say we give it a shot, as shocked as I am.”
“Fine. But I don’t like it at all. I’ll be armed to the teeth.”
“We all will.” She said. “Let’s pack up and move out.”
Chapter 32
Charlie woke to a few swift taps of his cheeks. He looked up, still groggy. A husky, ugly man came into focus. The man shined a light in his eyes and smacked him one more time, harder. His eyes focused and he gave the ugly man a sneer. “He’s awake, Sir.” The ugly man said over his shoulder and stepped to the side. The room was dark aside from pockets of light thrown off by candles in various places about the room. The pockets of light revealed little about the geography of the place. A fire roared somewhere behind him and sent angry shadows groping around the room.
An old man sat on the opposite end of an immaculately polished dinner table. Charlie shook the chair he was seated in, testing the thick rope tied tight around his chest. His wrists pried against the two sets of handcuffs that held his hands behind his back. The intoxicating smell of a juicy, freshly cooked steak welled up in Charlie’s nose and his stomach grumbled. The old man set down his knife and fork without taking a bite of his meal and looked at Charlie.
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