by C. B. Miller
His shirt was ripped around his right shoulder blade, revealing a circular wound underneath. It looked like the thing latched on like a lamprey, and the flesh was rotting away. Already the injury was turning ugly shades of purple, green, and yellow.
Jerit sucked in his breath, and Xilong tensed.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Xilong said.
“It’s not. I wanted to avoid a fight, but now that it’s over, we need to do what we came here to do and get out.” Jerit growled. “When we can get back, maybe Eden can do something about your injury. I don’t even know what to call these things.”
“I do,” I whispered.
Jerit turned to me, “What?”
“They’re the Wretched.”
Chapter Two
The room was eerily silent other than our breathing and my heartbeat pounding my ears. After a few moments, Jerit frowned at the gore, motioned for Xilong to stand guard, and slowly climbed the stairs. At the top, he stepped to the side and pointed at something I couldn’t see. He waited, eyes watching the hallway as I crept the stairs. I reached the top, and turning to me, he mouthed, “What the fuck?” He pointed at something on the landing, and I took a step back down the stairway.
“I know, right? Any idea what it is?” I whispered.
“It’s messed up, man, that’s what it is,” He replied.
The top of the stairs opened into a hallway to my left and right, and the floor was littered with dozens of two to three-foot tall grey-green fleshy blobs. The cylindrical sacs were slowly dissolving into trails of hazy red mist. The mist rose another three feet before disappearing into nothingness at eye level. I took out my burner phone and snapped a few pictures along with some short video clips.
“You’ve seen Aliens before, right? Don’t these things kind of remind you of those, like some sort of egg?” I asked Jerit.
“I guess. I’m not really into that nerd stuff, and doesn’t that one look like it has a face in it?” Jerit pointed at a blob, and something pressed against the sac’s side. It looked like a cheek, part of the nose, and open mouth. We stood there in silence as we watched it slowly withered over the next few minutes, and the fleshy masses dissolved.
When the blobs melted away into stains in the carpet, Jerit pointed to each side, “Right or left?”
“I know you aren’t into the nerd stuff, but you should never split the party,” I warned.
I wasn’t saying that just because of years of gaming experience and how bad things happened when people went off their separate ways. Not too long ago, my former team decided it was best to split up while running another job for our mistress. It was a trap, and if it hadn’t been for a little bit of unexpected help, I’d be dead.
Jerit chuckled, “Yeah, I wasn’t going anywhere alone in here.”
“Oh, in that case, right.”
The right hallway led past three rooms, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, before turning to the right again and down to a rec room. This side looked like someone lived here rather than the site of some battle. Other than the occasional item knocked over and a few marks on the walls, there was nothing that would have made me think anything happened here if I hadn’t seen those biomasses before they dissolved.
Jerit let out a low whistle, “These guys had a nice place here.”
The rec room had two dart machines, a ping pong table, and a wide selection of board games. The center of the room was dominated by a hardwood gaming table. It was one of those fancy tables with a separate tabletop to cover a game in progress so it can be used for everyday things like dinner. Ten matching chairs with overstuffed leather backs and seats, complete with cup-holders and a dice tray, surrounded the table.
“Hey Jerit, there were only five vampires in Nigel’s pack, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Why get an expensive gaming table that seats ten then?” I asked. I walked over to the table and motioned for Jerit to help me with the tabletop. He moved to the other side, and together we lifted the covering to reveal a half-foot-deep playing area underneath. A star-faring role-playing game was in progress, with dice, character sheets, and figures for eight different players.
Jerit looked down at the gaming material and his brow crinkled as he flipped through the papers. “So they had some friends over for games? Big deal.”
“How many vampire packs do you know regularly invite others deep into their sanctum for a regularly scheduled game?”
Jerit’s face lit up. Vampires trusted their pack and only their pack. Their sanctum was more than just their home; it was their bastion. There was a difference between entertaining guests and leading them past three of their sleeping chambers. Given enough time and frequency inside someone’s home, most supernatural beings eventually would find even deactivated defenses.
“So, we’re looking for three more people then.”
“Four most likely. Most likely, there’s a gamemaster, too.”
“Bad luck and a nerd. Next time the Bulls are playing, I’m dragging you along for some real fun. Or are sports beneath you as well?” Jerit snickered.
I grinned, “Basketball hasn’t been the same since Jordan, man. We can do a Sox game next season.”
Jerit rewarded me with an eye roll at the mention of Chicago’s other baseball team. I never understood why everyone was so enamored with the Cubs. He opened his mouth to say something, probably about how the Cubs were a better team or some other nonsense but stopped when I held up a hand to silence him.
“We can talk about this later. Grab those sheets, and let’s see if we can match up any names.”
Jerit gathered up all the character sheets and started to read names out loud, “Tuck Dodgers. Annabelle Reynolds. Stellar Dollar.” He tossed the sheets aside and scoffed. "Well, that was beyond useless.”
I shook my head and picked up the sheets. "Yeah, the field with ‘name’ on it is the character’s name.” I pointed at the top of a sheet and then slid my finger over to another section. “We want the one that says ‘player,’ playa.” I laughed.
I sorted through the sheets and pulled out three that I didn’t recognize. “It’s not much to go on, but we have a Megan, a Rachel, and Lizzy. Anyone on the bloodsucker roster by these names?”
“Not sure, but it’s not like I know every vampire in the city either. That’s assuming they were even vampires. I don’t like this man. This is what, the fifth pack to go missing in a month?” Jerit shifted from foot to foot as he spoke.
“It looks like they are getting sloppier as well. Let’s check the other side and get out of here. You’re right. It’s above our paygrade. We can let Eden decide what to do with all this.” I gestured at the room.
I folded up the character sheet and put them in my back pocket before heading to the other side. Our footsteps were thunderously loud to me as we crept past two more bedrooms, even though the carpet muffled them. In front of me, Jerit glanced around nervously and shook like he had chills as we approached the door at the end of the hallway. It was the only door that was still closed in the entire building.
He stopped a few feet away and turned to me, his nose wrinkling in disgust. “Fresh kills. Well, not that fresh.”
Death’s scent drifted from the door to greet me as I moved past him. This was the one part of the job I hated the most. Since I was the newest guy on our team, I had to go first. Even though it was just the two of us this time, I still had to go before Jerit. That way, if there was some extra-dimensional rift or big uber bad guy on the other side, theoretically, we lost the weakest member of the team. I took a deep breath, grabbed the doorknob, and twisted.
The door swung open into the master bedroom. The room was easily thirty feet wide and forty-plus feet long. The taupe carpet matched the light reds and whites of the walls and curtains. Dominating the center of the room was a four-post bed large enough for a half dozen people to sleep in comfortably and the source of the foul smell dominating the space.
The bodies of two naked desiccated m
en hung upside down from the closest posts. Their faces were locked into expressions of ecstasy, made all that more horrific by their shrunken skin.
I took a few steps into the room, and Jerit followed me, coming next to me.
“They shouldn’t smell this bad, you know.” He whispered.
“I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Before I started working for Eden, I’d never seen a dead body, let alone seriously hurt anyone. Now, I was beginning to numb to all the death and destruction that came with the job. I could only imagine what Jerit has seen and how he feels after years in her organization.
“Neither have I,” Jerit murmured and approached the corpses.
“Hey, isn’t this something Eden would want to see with her own eyes?”
“Maybe, give me a moment. This guy has a tattoo, and I kind of recognize it.”
A mess of purple and blue lines adorned the right arm of the man on the left. I wasn’t sure if bruising would remain after a body was drained completely, and I kicked myself for not thinking about identifying marks like tattoos.
Chills ran up my spine as Jerit crouched down and reached out to examine the man’s arm . “Wait! Don’t -”
Jerit twisted the man’s arm for a closer look, and buzzing filled the air as a half-dozen circular saw blades exploded from each man’s chest. Black carbon steel circular saw blades whirled through the air, one whizzing past my head and burying itself halfway into the wall next to me. Jerit’s screams filled the air, and I looked back to see him clutching the stump of his right arm, crimson life force flowing steadily through his fingers.
“I take it back. These guys aren’t getting sloppy. They’re sending a message.” I said.
I grabbed Jerit’s severed arm and hauled him to his feet.
“Shake it off, man. It’s just a flesh wound.”
“I am not the black knight! Good gods, this hurts!” He yelled in my face.
“Oh, and you get that reference?” I examined him for any other wounds as the blood seeping through his fingers slowed to a trickle. “Any serious injuries?”
“Just my pride.” He growled through gritted teeth.
Six months ago, this situation would have sent me into a panic. Loss of a limb was serious business. Death from shock or blood loss was still a significant risk, but being a wight had its advantages. One of them was the ability to suppress pain entirely for a time and a limited ability to heal. Jerit wasn’t going to regrow his arm like a crab or anything, but he wasn’t necessarily in danger of dying. There was a chance we could reattach the limb, but we needed to get back to the sanctum as soon as possible for that.
Jerit shook out of my grip and glared at me, “The Holy Grail is a classic. You don’t have to be a geek to appreciate great classic comedy.”
I shrugged, mostly because he was right but also because we needed to go. If I was hiding under the cloak of magic, this would be when I strike. We hurried down the hallway, and Xilong was at the top of the stairs when we turned the corner. I motioned him to take point as we ran back down the stairs and yelled for Xilong to stop as he turned towards the front door.
“You kind of forgot about something,” I said.
The blue globe of fire rapidly pulsed a few yards from Xilong. Eyes forward, he backed away until he reached us at the stairway.
Jerit let out an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just get out of here.”
I stole one more look at the ominous floating sphere as it pulsed before following Jerit and Xilong to the cellar and back out the bolt hole.
Xilong jogged out, ducked behind the bushes lining the yard, and watched the block for anyone passing by. He held up a fist for us to stop. Jerit and I pressed into the shadows against the side of the house. I scanned the yard behind us, and the only movement came from tree leaves rustling in the weak wind from nearby homes. A lump formed in my throat as a streak of brown ran across the yard across the alley until it yowled. The small fuzzy form slunk out from its hiding spot and let out the ear-splitting yowl of a cat in heat.
An elbow pressed into my ribs, and I jerked away, twisting to see Jerit nodding towards the street. “Jumpy much?” Xilong waved in the distance, signaling the area was clear.
“Spiders and the living dead will do that, I guess,” I replied.
We joined Xilong and sped walked the rest of the way to our car, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something or someone watched us the whole time. Chicago was a massive city, and something was gnawing away at the fringes of vampire society here.
Chapter Three
The clock struck 11:11 as we pulled up to Eden’s Pretties.
I pointed at the dashboard, “Hey Jerit, make a wish.”
Clutching the detached part of his arm, he waved it around. “I’d like my arm back. How about that?” He grumbled.
“You’re not supposed to say it out loud,” I muttered.
I guess if I was in his situation, I wouldn’t be happy either. Still, I had to do something to keep him awake and aware, so he didn’t slide into shock before we made it back. Wights are tough but not invincible.
Eden’s Pretties was a modest four-story building near downtown Chicago. The ground floor served as a high-end tattoo parlor, art studio, and gallery, while the other three levels held apartments and a small private gym. It was also Eden’s sanctum and home to a half-dozen vampires and close to twenty wights like myself. One of the best things about her little compound was that it had off-street parking.
Home sweet, home.
We pulled into the garage, and I escorted Jerit inside, moving swiftly through the corridors to the elevator. Punching the button for the basement, I gave Jerit a thumbs up. “Look at the bright side. You’re going to have a ton of time to relax while you get healed up.”
A thin smile crossed his ashen face as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Thick red carpet covered the hallway’s floor, and warm LED light spilled from the converted antique gas lamps on the maroon walls. Goosebumps covered my arms as we hurried past the life-like sculptures lining the walls and entered the main chamber. The domed ceiling was at least twenty feet tall at its tallest and twelve feet at the walls.
A partially dressed man hung suspended from the ceiling while Eden worked his flesh like clay on the large dais that dominated the room. Her brow was furrowed as she carefully inserted a ridged implant into the man’s forearm. The man had a faint smile and stared into nothingness while Eden closed his flesh around the rod. Jerit and I waited in silence at the entrance while she inspected her work.
Eden wasn’t a shapeshifter, but her fleshweaving talents allowed her to adjust her appearance at will. Today she was in her usual guise; a six-foot tall, singularly beautiful woman with toned alabaster skin, emerald green eyes, and raven black hair that reached to the base of her spine. She was moderately curvy, just enough of a bust to snag men’s attention but without all the back pain. Her gray sweatpants and white tank top were covered in paint, and a painting of the man’s desired form rested on an easel a few feet away. I judged by her rendition that this was going to be the first of many transformation sessions. Bony ridges covered his arms and legs, and combined with the twin sets of small black horns jutting from his forehead, he had the appearance of a demon.
Eden lifted her head, scenting the air, and beckoned us closer with an annoyed expression. We approached, and she tilted her head, raising an eyebrow at Jerit when we stopped short of the dais. “Did Nigel rip your arm off? That wasn’t very polite, now was it.”
“You know how there’s been packs disappearing? Add Nigel’s to the list.” I interjected.
“Ugh. Well, do tell then.”
“What about him?” I pointed at her customer.
“He’s completely out. A little compulsion, along with the miracles of modern pharmacology, means I can take my time and experiment a little. Without the whining and squirming.”
“Fair enough,” I replied, knowing
better than to ask too many questions.
Eden’s expression darkened as I explained what we found at Nigel’s sanctum, and her hands clenched into fists when I described the globe of blue flames. After a few questions to clarify everything we saw, Eden finally nodded and pursed her lips together in thought.
She turned her attention to Jerit’s severed arm and held out a hand, “I guess you want me to fix this for you too?”
Jerit nodded and placed his severed forearm into her hand. Eden turned the arm over several times, poking and prodding it while she examined it. “Hmmm, well, this is useless. Too much necrotic flesh. You’ll have to regrow the entire thing, unfortunately,” She huffed.
Jerit grimaced and tensed for a moment, apparently wanting to say something before remaining silent. There must be a downside to regrowing a limb that I wasn’t aware of, but it seemed better than the alternative.
Eden crouched on the dais to get eye-level with me and studied me for a minute. She was a peculiar being, and this was just one of her many odd habits, so I stood there and waited patiently. I wasn’t sure if this was some sort of intimidation tactic on her part or if Eden really was evaluating something about me and deliberating internally. Maybe she was deciding if I had somehow outlived my usefulness and was going to release me from her service or eat me.
“Well, Kaedin, welcome to the big leagues. You have a week to find out who did this. I want all of their names.” Eden’s voice dropped low enough that her last words rumbled my chest. She held up one finger. “One. Week.”
“Gotcha. Who am I running with on this?”
Eden cocked her head, and the edges of her mouth twisted up slightly. I watched her awkwardly for a few heartbeats, and she returned my look like she was waiting for me to say something else.
“Who’s on my team for this one?” I asked.
Please let me select my own team.
“Team? Team?” She laughed. “I’m sorry, you have to work on this one all by your lonesome. We’re a bit short-handed, as you can see.” Eden held up Jerit’s arm and waved it around.