I’d seen Grant when he’d been enthralled by vampires, and he’d tried to kill us when we rescued him. From what I understood, being bitten and enthralled was kind of like a drug. That made sense considering their accuracy. It was obvious that they weren’t so much shooting at Hunters as at the ceiling, the wall, and that interesting shadow that kind of reminded them of a Hunter.
I don’t like to kill innocents. I mean the whole point of monster hunting is to protect innocents, right? But every Hunter knows sometimes you can’t save them. Sometimes it’s them or you. It’s just survival. Even idiots can hit you by accident. And with all of these stray bullets, my baby was in here somewhere.
I was all out of fucks to give as I moved up behind them. I shot one of the enthralled in the back before he even knew I was there. A woman in one of those French maid costumes turned toward me, pistol in hand, and I fired a controlled pair. Unlike vampires, humans are squishy, and a couple of 5.56 rounds to the chest tends to put us right down.
My team moved across the great room, shooting vampires and their slaves. They hadn’t been prepared to get hit from this side. I reached the corner of the wall and sliced the pie, working my way around, shooting everybody who wasn’t on our team. Nik and Bell were carrying Justino between them, who had passed out from blood loss. They were heading for the front, but then I saw movement on the balcony above and signaled for them to stop. They managed to, right before someone hung a shotgun over the edge and put a bunch of buckshot holes in the hardwood where Nik would’ve been standing.
“Reminds me why I retired,” Nik shouted at me.
“Hang on,” I warned as I leaned out and looked for a target.
The enthralled pumped the shotgun and an empty hull flew over the edge. When he leaned out again, I was ready…and shot him right in the face. He flopped over the railing and plummeted to smash wetly into the floor right in front of us.
“On Monday, I’m retiring again.”
“Clear. Move!”
Nik hoisted up Justino and ran for the porch. We’d killed enough of the defenders that the Hunters there were able to rush up to cover them. The burned, blinded vampires were being taken down and beheaded. No matter how tough vampires are, sunshine is the great equalizer. There were others, smoldering and sparking, but they were retreating deeper into the mansion.
Upstairs, a baby cried.
Chapter 26
My squad rushed up the circular staircase. Coelho was shouting into his radio warning the others so they wouldn’t accidentally shoot us through the walls.
I’d heard him. I knew that was Ray. But then a door had slammed and his cry had been cut off.
Mr. Trash Bags’ trail was faintly visible on the wooden steps, but really obvious on the white carpet of the next floor. White carpet… Saturnino must have had a rule for his minions: no feeding upstairs unless you put down a tarp first. We were still filthy from the tunnel climb. These stains were never going to come out.
Unlike the basement, this area was kept immaculate. There was art on the walls and healthy potted plants. This was where Saturnino held parties and invited guests over, to wine and bribe politicians while pretending to be human. I didn’t know how that worked. Apparently, some vampires liked to live in the darkest, mustiest hole they could find, and others still tried to play-act like they were still people.
The stairs kept on going up to the top floor and so had Mr. Trash Bags. So we kept climbing too.
Off the top balcony was a long hallway. There were several doors on one side. All of them were closed. There were windows on the other, but all of them had been sealed with the armored shutters. It was still dark up here so we turned on our lights again. Below us I could hear more Hunters rushing into the house. I was down to five with me, but more would be coming to help.
From the sound, Lopes’ helicopter must have been hovering right outside.
There was a door at the very end of the hall. Over the ringing in my ears and the noise of the helicopter, I could barely hear Ray’s muffled cries coming from the other side.
“The hostage is in the northwest corner room, top floor,” Radick said into his radio. “Watch your fire.”
I shouted, but my voice came out harsh and hoarse. “Give him up, Susan. There’s no way out.” Almost as if to accentuate my point, there was a loud bang as the metal bucket smashed another of the downstairs walls. “Neither of us wants Ray to get hurt.”
Susan responded immediately. “Y’all know the story of Solomon’s judgment?”
I tried to pinpoint where her voice was coming from. I couldn’t. All of my guys had heard it and were looking around confused too. But then I realized it was in my head. It was like she was talking and psychically broadcasting at the same time.
“That’s when two women went before the king. They were concubines of the same man and each had a son. Only, one of their babies had died and now they were both claiming the living baby as her own.”
“I know the story,” I managed through clenched teeth. She was messing with our minds. It was some kind of trick. My head felt like it was going to burst, and it looked like the other Hunters were getting hit even worse.
“But Solomon was a clever one. He said she couldn’t tell who the real mother was, but since the mother of the surviving heir would have great power and status in the household, he had to make a call. So he declared that he’d cut the baby in two.”
The room was spinning. My vision was getting fuzzy. Anuncio stumbled and fell. Bell clumsily dropped the big SPAS 15 shotgun he’d taken from the submarine. Radick had to brace himself against the wall to keep from falling over.
“When Solomon said that, the woman who’d already lost her son said she was fine with cutting the baby in half. The real mother said that she’d rather the baby be given away because she only cared about his life. And, so, she got the baby.”
Through watering eyes, I saw Susan was walking toward us. She was perfection. This was the sainted mother. She was an angel. I tried to lift my gun, but my arms wouldn’t respond. One of my Hunters fell over on the carpet. I was so dizzy I couldn’t tell which one.
The Guardian’s marks began to heat up.
“Let him go, you crazy bitch!” I screamed as I fell to my knees.
She extended one gentle hand toward me. “This is exactly like Solomon’s test. You’re here risking Ray’s life, Julie. You’re the one forcing it, willing to let him get ripped in half. If you were a good mom, you’d let him go.”
The marks got so hot they felt like they on fire. The pain was intense, but it was a cleansing fire, and I could see and think again.
Which meant that I could clearly see the horror standing right in front of me.
All illusions of humanity were shed. Susan had turned herself into something that looked like a hairless bat. Her kind mouth was really filled with fangs, and her gentle hand ended in claws like knives. This twisted nightmare was the true form of a Master vampire.
“So beautiful,” Anuncio whispered.
Susan must not have realized that the spell had been broken on me, because she began to softly stroke my hair, like I was her baby again. “You have to be willing to let your children go to save them, and to save yourself.”
The marks must have given me supernatural strength because it was the fastest I’d ever moved in my life, as I yanked one of the wooden stakes from my vest and drove it into Susan’s heart.
Her glowing red eyes widened in shock. “How—”
“You should’ve taken your own advice!” Twisting the stake hard, I shoved her away.
Susan let out an unholy wail. The sound seemed to break the hold she had on most of my men. Bell scooped up the shotgun and let her have it right in the mouth.
But unfortunately not all of them. “No!” Anuncio shouted as he lifted his gun to shoot Bell. In his charmed and befuddled mind, the other Hunter had just attempted to murder a beautiful angel.
I quick drew my pistol and shot Anuncio in the leg. He st
umbled as he jerked the trigger. Bell still got hit, but he only got winged in the arm instead of getting his head blown off. Anuncio stitched full-auto holes up the wall and into the ceiling as he fell.
Shooting your teammate is harsh but it worked, because as he lay there clutching his leg, he screamed something at me. I didn’t know the language well, but it was something to the effect of what the hell?
I turned back just as Susan hit me hard enough to send me flying. I crashed into Bell and we both went rolling across the carpet.
A stake through the heart paralyzed a lesser vampire, but on Masters, it only slowed them down. She spit out a mouthful of silver buckshot pellets and started toward us.
Coelho and Radick started shooting. Susan walked right through the bullets and grabbed Coelho round the throat. The Hunter thrashed as she squeezed. Blood exploded from between her tightened fingers. She nearly popped his head off.
“Shit!” Radick tripped over his own feet as he tried to back away. “Shit!” He kept firing as he fell.
Susan reached down for his kicking legs, but then she winced and flinched back hissing.
I noticed a tiny beam of sunlight coming through one of the bullet holes Coelho had punched in the wall. Just that had been enough to scorch her skin.
Susan wasn’t going to let a little burn stop her for long though, because she still grabbed Radick by the boot. Bones crunched and Radick screamed. Then she swung him by the foot against the interior wall. He hit so hard that he smashed right through the sheetrock and out the other side, disappearing into the next room.
I picked up Bell’s shotgun, pointed it at the wall next to Susan, and fired.
At that range, a buckshot pattern isn’t much bigger than a fist, and it blasted a hole through the wall, letting more light in.
Fire danced down Susan’s unnaturally long arm as the sun hit her. She reflexively pulled back. But there was a lot of boards and dangling insulation in the way, so it wasn’t enough light. “Shoot the wall!”
Anuncio and Bell were both hurt, but they listened and went nuts. Anuncio picked up the Grayguns Sig I’d used on his leg. Bell pulled his pistol. I emptied the shotgun. Dust and splinters flew through the new beams of light as the hall brightened.
Susan was full-on smoking. Wherever the sun hit her, skin crisped and blacked to ash, and sparks drifted upwards. “You think this will stop me?” She grabbed the stake in her chest and started grinding it back and forth, trying to yank it free from her ribs. “I’ve been kind. I’ve been patient. I’ve been merciful to you for the last fucking time. I’m sick of your shit, Julie. Now you die.”
This still wasn’t enough light. I grabbed my radio.
“All outside Hunters, open fire on the top-floor hallway, north wall. Four feet high. Only the hall, not the room on the end! We need daylight.”
Susan ripped the stake out. Black blood sprayed across the white carpet.
Lighting quick, Susan lifted the stake and hurled it at me.
I caught it with one hand.
Both Susan and I stared in disbelief at my fist holding the stake. Thrown at full, uninhibited, Master vampire strength, every bone in my hand should’ve exploded. That stake should’ve gone through my whole body.
My palm didn’t even sting.
I’d pay the cost.
“Say again, over.”
“Shoot the third-floor hallway, north exterior wall. We’re hugging the floor. Now, damn it! Now!”
Lopes listened because, all of a sudden, the top of the wall above us was torn wide open. There was a minigun mounted on the helicopter and they let it rip. On the receiving end, it makes an unholy roar. It was like a super-intense hailstorm, only the hail was made of metal. All we could do was hug the carpet tight as we were pelted with fragments and cut by pieces of broken bullet jackets. I just hoped the door gunner didn’t aim low or at the room at the end of the hall as the wall got turned into Swiss cheese.
Susan had been the only one upright. Bullets shredded her, but they were nothing compared to the damage from the sudden abundance of sunlight that followed them.
Nobody knew why sunlight hurt vampires, but it hit her hard. Susan burst into flames. And it wasn’t like when we’d got her with the flamethrower. This was far worse. It was like every exposed molecule turned into a molten dot and started eating its way inward.
But she was still standing.
“You want to tear the baby in half. So be it.”
She moved so fast it was as if she’d disappeared, but the doorway at the end of the hall was torn off its hinges as she crashed through it.
“Ray!” I jumped to my feet and ran after her.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Bell shouted into his radio.
I didn’t care about the bullets zipping past me. Ray was the only thing that mattered.
By a miracle I didn’t get hit before the gunner let off. Through the door, it was just another bedroom, but placed in the center of the bed was a pile of blankets. As Susan reached for Ray, bits of her burning flesh fell of and set the sheets on fire.
“If I can’t have him, nobody will.” Her skull was visible through the fire. Her eyes were burning pits. “This is your doing, Julie.”
“No!”
Susan drove her burning fist into the mattress.
I screamed.
My whole world ended.
I can’t even begin to describe the feelings that struck me just then. It was despair and hopelessness and the worst pain I’d ever experienced, like someone had grabbed my heart and squeezed.
But Susan was confused. Burning feathers drifted through the air. The lump in the middle of the bed hadn’t been Ray at all. The thing beneath the blankets was just a pillow. “Where is—”
“Cuddle Bunny Cuddle Bunny!” Mr. Trash Bags bellowed from up above. “Protect!”
The little shoggoth was stuck to the vaulted ceiling. Dangling beneath him was Ray. Mr. Trash Bags had wrapped his tentacles around Ray’s body like a harness. My baby was actually giggling, but that turned to fear when he saw the burning vampire below him.
If the feeling that I’d just had was the most powerful sadness in the world, then what hit me now was the greatest rage imaginable. This time I didn’t feel it in my heart, but rather in the evil black marks etched on my neck and body. They flashed with an energy beyond understanding as I hurled myself at her.
I’d never hit anything that hard in my life. No regular human being had ever hit anything that hard in history.
Susan flew back like she’d been nailed by a truck. She hit the metal security shutter on the giant window so hard that it curled around her.
The two of us stood there, facing each other, her on fire and me beneath my baby, furious and consumed with dark magic.
Susan’s body was falling apart, but she was still deadly. “What has my little girl turned into?”
“I’m his Guardian.”
Susan looked up at Ray and prepared to leap. But even as fast as a Master was, as she left the ground, I tackled her around the waist. We hit the broken shutter which barely slowed us as we fell out the window.
I had my arms wrapped around the burning vampire as we crashed onto a narrow lip of roof. We rolled across the shingles. Far below us, waves crashed against rocks.
If the indirect light before had burned her, direct sunlight hit her like the wrath of God. I had to let go of her as the wave of heat burned my arms. Susan was screaming as she was consumed. I was screaming as I realized I was sliding to my death.
As I grabbed for something—anything—to hold onto, Susan went over the edge. My legs went over, then my torso. I about tore my fingerprints off trying to get purchase, but by some miracle I managed to stop my momentum, and I hung there, desperate.
As I pulled myself back up, I saw the fireball that had once been my mother sink into the ocean. She disappeared in a cloud of steam as what was left of her sunk beneath the waves.
The Huey roared by with a rush of wind. The door gunner
clearly saw me and, luckily, even as filthy, torn-up, and blood-soaked as I was, he didn’t mistake me for an undead. I pointed toward the ocean and made finger guns to indicate that he should shoot a bunch of silver at where Susan had gone down.
As Lopes’ Huey machine gunned the surf, I climbed back through the window. Mr. Trash Bags was gently lowering Ray from the ceiling. Shoggoths can stretch like a Slinky.
Hanging from the end of that bouncy strand was my baby. Ray saw me…and smiled.
Chapter 27
I took him in my arms. It was him. It was really him. He was still crying a little, but almost soundlessly, like he’d damaged his voice. I kissed his forehead. He looked unharmed, but he was going to need medical treatment. I needed to check him over and make sure there was no other damage.
I couldn’t help it. I started sobbing. It was stupid. There was still shooting downstairs, which meant the situation was still dangerous, but I was wrung out, and I had my baby back.
There were more Hunters in the bullet-riddled hallway now. They were performing first aid on Radick, Bell, and Anuncio, but everyone stopped what they were doing as they saw me walking along with Ray in my arms. I think at first because of the tears cutting a track through the grime on my face, they thought they’d failed and that I was carrying his body, and crying because of the loss. There was that moment of fear and uncertainty, but then they saw he was moving, and the Hunters grinned.
Coelho was clearly dead. The barely conscious Anuncio looked at me as I went by, and said, “Make sure he grows up, worth it.”
“He will. I promise.”
Without another word, I was surrounded by a protective cordon of Hunters. It’s a testament to the flexible minds that none of them even said anything about Mr. Trash Bags riding triumphantly on my shoulder.
I wasn’t going to let anyone else touch Ray. I wasn’t going to put him down. I wasn’t going to let him out of my arms. This young man would be lucky if I allowed him out of my sight when he was college-age.
Monster Hunter Guardian (ARC) Page 34