Born Into Flames

by Justin Sloan

  The first group they had come across was one of these ragtag groups, apparently on a scouting mission. Cammie didn’t even bother hiding that time, she just walked right up, asked if they were part of the pirate group known to be stealing supplies via ship and airship interceptions.

  “You bet your pretty little ass we are,” a tall man said. He stared down at her over a crooked nose with eyes so dark they looked black.

  “What, we steal your new panties and now you’re looking to swap?” a fat guy amongst the group said, earning him a chuckle from the other three, all except the tall one.

  She didn’t even bother with a retort. Royland knew doing so wasn’t her style, so he wasn’t surprised in the least when she simply pulled out her kali fighting sticks and whacked the guy across the temple, hard enough to draw blood.

  He stumbled back as the others froze in confusion, then she smiled, “As we were asking—”

  But one of them charged her, doing his best to lower his center of gravity and pick her up. She was too fast for that and, with a twitch of her nose, was off to the side and had shaken the top parts of her kali sticks off to reveal the blades beneath. A downward thrust brought the blades into the area between the man’s neck and shoulders, causing him to moan and then simply collapse at her feet, bleeding out.

  The tall man turned his almost black eyes on Royland and stared, then held up both hands. “You with her?”

  Royland nodded.

  “You the same thing as her? ‘Cause we have a hefty bonus waiting for any that bring back the head of a Were, or any supernatural creature for that matter.”

  “Not interested,” Royland said. “But I’m very glad you told me that.”

  “How’s that?”

  Royland smiled enough to show his vampire fangs, and then his eyes began to glow red. “Makes me feel better about my decision to kill you.”

  He lunged forward, Cammie taking the hint at his side and moving in for the fat one. The pirates couldn’t have done anything about it even if they had seen it coming. With each action coming faster to him, he had taken down two before she took down her one. The tall man stumbled backward and fell, but Royland leaped for him just as Cammie was about to make her move.

  She growled, and he smiled up at her, claws to the man’s throat. “What, you wanted us each to get two? It was an odd number to start.”

  “That means you get the majority?”

  “One of us has to.” He smiled. “Tell you what, let’s flip for him.” He stepped back and, with one hand, lifted the guy by the waist of his pants to hurl him, spinning the man screaming into the air. “Call it.” he told her.

  “The fuck?” she replied. Then, seeing the man was about to land, shouted, “heads!”

  The man landed with a thud, face down, and commenced with shouting obscenities.

  “Wish I could say I was sorry,” Royland said with a shrug to Cammie, then kicked the guy in the face to shut him up. “But this guy did insult me.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Well, he basically said he wanted to take your head, and maybe mine.”

  “And that’s an insult to you?”

  “You’re my girl, after all.”

  “Hell no,” Cammie said, and tossed one of her blades so that it landed in the pirate’s side. She lifted her other one, preparing to strike.

  “The hell?” Royland pulled the short sword free and tossed it back to Cammie. “I won the toss, fair an’ square.”

  She caught it deftly, “And then you tried to claim ownership of me.” She pointed the sword at him. “For which you’re gonna have to pay.” She sheathed the sword.

  He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and waved a hand, “Ah, shit. Go on then.”

  The pirate started squirming at that comment, then shouting as Cammie pulled his head back by the hair, blade to his throat. Her voice was silky smooth, “What do you do with the supplies?”

  “The hell are you talking about?” the pirate muttered, his eyes trying to see the blade.

  “Whatever you intercept, or steal. Where does it go?” She asked the man.

  He tried to stop this head from moving. “I’m a scout, not one of the raiders.”

  Royland nodded and stepped forward so that he could kneel in front of the pirate. “But you’ve seen where they go, haven’t you? There’s a home base of sorts?”

  The pirate glared, then spat. “Go to hell.”

  “You fucking goat-cheese smelling dick,” Cammie said, her knife digging into the man’s throat.

  Royland’s hand shot out, catching her wrist and holding it from going farther. “Wait. Let’s give this man a choice. He tells us and dies quickly, or,” Royland allowed his fangs grow extra long and his eyes burn with red, “we allow me to slowly feed on him, until he’s entirely too thin, and then kill him anyway.”

  The pirate gulped, but held strong. Or tried to, until Royland’s fangs sunk into his wrist and the first blood started draining away.

  “There’s an outpost not far from here!” the man yelled, his eyes opened in freight as the man fed on him.

  “We flew into one, just a ways south,” Cammie offered.

  “No, I’m talking north and a bit east. You can’t miss it, but you’ve gotta be looking and know which direction you’re headed.”

  “And maybe you’re telling us wrong? Maybe you’re leading us into a trap?”

  He laughed, his bravado answering. “After what you just did to my boys? Damn right, it’s a trap. But it’s the trap you asked for. You go walking into a pirate outpost, even if it isn’t the main base of ops, and I’ll be seeing you both in hell in a couple of hours.”

  “Speaking of tearing and new ones,” Royland said with a nod to Cammie, “let’s get on with it.”

  Cammie’s knife tore across the man’s throat and Royland swept in to feed. It was a much-needed recharge after the cramped blimp ride and then the fighting.

  The next two groups confirmed the direction, and Cammie even insisted they let one of the men live when he told them he had only just joined up with the pirates and had nowhere else to go.

  “Head south to Old Manhattan,” Cammie told him as she watched Royland feed on the man’s dying companions, her chest beating at the sight. She licked her lips and turned her focus back on the man. “If you’re truly looking to reform? They’ll take you in.”

  He ran off, so scared he forgot to thank them for a second chance at life.

  Now this blimp was arriving, and it became very clear that this was pirates, and that the flapping tents and crudely constructed buildings at the water’s edge made up the pirate outpost.

  Something bothered Royland as he watched the blimp touch down and then the men begin to unload. More ran out and helped, looking like ants scurrying about in the darkness. There was a sizable population here, it seemed, but the pirate who’d given them directions had said something about a main base of ops. Based on the way he spoke, that led Royland to think that the guy might have been former military, and that there was a much larger group of these pirates… and they were organized, at least to some degree.

  “No use standing around staring,” Cammie said, hands resting on her belt, cowboy hat tilted to one side.

  “The sun will be up in a couple hours, I’d wager,” Royland said.

  “All the more reason to get in there and get rid of them ASAP.”

  He nodded and muttered, “Looks like I won’t go hungry, at least.”

  “You know what I find hot as hell about you?” She laughed and gave him a shrug. “You’re fucking hot, the way the blood drips down your chin when you feed, or how you almost caress the body as you drink, as if you’re making love to it.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” He frowned, thinking back to his feeding and wondering if that was remotely true. “Maybe you’re putting something on me that isn’t there.”

  She scoffed. “Just pay attention next time, you’ll see. Don’t get all self-
conscious about it, I’m telling you it’s hot as balls.”

  “Please,” he shook his head in the night, “tell me you didn’t just metaphorically compare my supposedly sexy drinking of blood to wrinkled skin that holds reproductive spheres?”

  “Just a saying.” She made a face and glanced at his crotch, then back up when he cleared his throat. “We can change it to something like ‘hot as Royland drinking blood,’ but it doesn’t have the same ring to it. In your case, I’d say both apply.”

  He actually felt himself blush at that, then shook his head with a laugh. “You’re an odd one, Cammie. And that’s what I like about you.”

  “Yeah?” She waved him off as if the subject was played out. “So, get in there, or what?”

  Knowing her way of talking, he had to be sure she meant ‘get in there’ like go down to the outpost and attack, not something else. He chuckled and said, “We kill pirates, find out where their main base is, then take shelter from the sun and tear each other to pieces, figuratively speaking, of course.”

  “I like your plan, big man.” She was the first to step off, not even looking to see if he was following.

  He loved that about her—confidence that he would follow. And he had no problem following someone like her. Especially when he knew where it led and what followed.

  Although, he had to wonder if something was in the air with women this time of year? Or was it just Cammie?

  He watched her as she glided away. Nope, probably just Cammie.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Eastern Coast, Former Canada

  Valerie walked along a small ridge, looking out toward the water in the distance, an endless spread of darkness, wondering how far they would have to go before reaching the point where the blimp had landed. She was certain it would be along the coast, so it was only a matter of time.

  With sunrise coming soon, however, she knew time was a luxury best not wasted. Unlike her, with the ability to walk in the sunlight and not needing blood for energy, Robin was a young vampire. If they hadn’t reached their destination and found shelter by sunrise, they could either set up camp, or cover the younger woman in the assassin clothes that protected her from the sun but made her look like a ninja.

  Although Robin wouldn’t say so, Valerie was fairly certain the woman didn’t like wearing those clothes one bit. They had been what she was forced to wear by the vampires who made her, those same vampires that forced her to fight, although she had refused to kill innocents.

  “How is it you avoided killing anyone, yet still had enough blood?” Valerie asked as Robin joined her and they continued on.

  For a moment they walked in silence, their vampire sight helping them to see where they were going in the darkness.

  When the first signs of red touched the sky over the water, Robin made a grunting sound, and then said, “It was Brad. He did it, pretended like I had so that I wouldn’t get into trouble.”

  “And you two weren’t a… thing?”

  Robin scoffed. “I’m sure he would’ve liked that. But no.”

  It wasn’t the first time Valerie had confirmed this, but she wanted to be sure. Robin couldn’t give her full attention to the fight and search for her parents if even half of her heart was back there in Old Manhattan. That’s where this Brad character now was, along with the rest of the surviving assassin vampires who had pledged their loyalty.

  She knew that feeling all too well, and still laughed at the thoughts of when she’d gone after the blood hunters and sellers at the Bazaar. She had been so intent on killing them, while knowing Jackson was waiting for her, that she had even had thoughts of him in the middle of fights, flashing across her mind just long enough to be distracted.

  It wasn’t that she was worried about losing, or death. She wasn’t worried at all, but she was concerned that distractions could lead to not accomplishing missions.

  They paused for Robin to take a bite of jerky. She offered it to Valerie, who shook her head.

  “We need to ensure we have enough for you, first,” Valerie said.

  Robin chewed, glancing over at her, then swallowed. “If we find them, my parents, what then?”

  “I don’t understand the question.”

  Robin pocketed the jerky and stayed there, hands in her pockets. “They’ll be either dead, or part of a large slave community, I’d think. So…”

  “We set them all free,” Valerie said, frowning as she wondered why this wasn’t obvious. “The people, vampires or not, responsible for making them slaves will face justice, and pay the price of such a crime with their lives.”

  “Do you always talk like that?”

  Valerie blinked, taken aback. “I’m sorry, like what?”

  “Justice this, justice that.” Robin chuckled. “Can’t you just say we’ll tear their heads off and spit down their throats? We’ll gouge out their eyes with our claws, disembowel them with a fucking spoon, or tear off their genitals with a rusty hoe?”

  “Fuuu—uck.” Valerie stared at her, wide eyed. “I could say all that, but then I’d have to sit in a corner, rocking myself to sleep in hopes that I could drive the images from my mind.”

  Robin eyed her. “Just seems more appropriate, is all.”

  “Do you ever wonder if the Black Plague vampires got to you more than you’d like to admit?” Valerie asked.

  “Fuck you,” Robin said, continuing the walk. “I have a vivid imagination. I’d like to see those vivid acts of horrible meanness inflicted upon the people who enslaved my parents. I can’t think of anything more natural and pure.”

  Valerie caught up, bit her lip, and nodded. “You’re right. Of course you are.”

  “So…?”

  “You’re going to make me say it?” Valerie rolled her eyes. “We’ll snap their shins in half, then pull the bone from their flesh and use it to impale their hearts. Is that good?”

  Robin thought about it for a moment, then smiled. “It sounds grosser when coming out of someone else’s mouth.”

  “See, I told you!”

  “But we’re still going to do all those things, right?” Robin turned to her, eyes pleading.

  “Damn, you look like a girl asking for a pony for Christmas,” Valerie replied. “Of course. We’ll do each of those things, even make a checklist and not rest until that checklist is filled with little, vampire scrawl check marks. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  They turned back, a smile on Valerie’s lips, when she froze. “Do you see that?”

  Robin stepped forward, narrowing her eyes. “It’s either a giant butt or two blimps.”

  “I’d place money on the latter,” Valerie replied, “and on one of them being the one we were following.”

  They crouch-ran along the hill, until they were at a closer point where it was very clear that what they had seen was the blimps, and that there was a small outpost just beyond them. Valerie ducked now, not wanting to be seen, and motioned for Robin to do the same.

  Next, she shimmied forward, pulling herself along by her elbows and staying low to avoid being spotted in the moonlight by the pirate outpost below. She wanted to see what they were dealing with before charging in, guns blazing and sword swinging.

  Orange dirt covered her arms and clothes now, but she didn’t care. It was just one more layer of grime added to the yuck of walking for so long. Both were eager to move on and find their targets—the pirates disrupting Old Manhattan trade, in Valerie’s case, and for Robin, those responsible for possibly enslaving her parents.

  Valerie watched the movement in the night, a small outpost by the looks of it. Lights bobbed around like fireflies, but in reality, she knew they were men and women with lanterns.

  The lights moved around the large blimp closer to them, showing something was being unloaded.

  “These are the fuck-stick jerks who took our stuff,” Valerie said.

  “And the nose-bleeding dick sacks who will know where my parents are.”

  “The hell is a dick sack?”r />
  Robin scrunched her nose, and shrugged. “Excuse me for not knowing something I don’t care about. We didn’t exactly have class on the stuff.”

  Valerie shook her head. “A topic for another night. And… wow.” She sat there, watching for a moment longer, then asked, “Did you swear this much when we first met?”

  “It’s an acquired taste,” Robin said. “And it tastes better and better the closer we get to these pirates.”

  Valerie nodded, understanding that sentiment.

  She was glad they had gone this way. Originally, they had meant to head northwest, having heard stories of piracy due north of the lakes where they had encountered the vampire, Gerard, and his followers. But there was something to be said about following the water, as the pirates at least started there and would provide a route from which to find the pirate haven referred to as Toro.

  A ruffling sounded beside Valerie, and she looked over to see Robin, face-mask of her all-black assassin outfit pulled down over her face, though it at night it wasn’t needed for protection.

  “You don’t have to dress the part,” she said.

  Robin’s eyes narrowed. “It makes me feel better about taking a life… pirate or no.”

  Valerie was about to stand up and lead the charge, when she put a hand out. “Maybe… we should proceed with caution?”

  “You? Are you serious?”

  “I mean, because we need to ensure someone’s alive to tell us where to go from here.” Valerie gestured toward the hills and vast darkness around them, only a hint of red from the rising sun kissing the tops of the hills in the distance. “We need someone to tell us.”

  Robin nodded, looking like she was about to say something, when—

  BAM!

  “The hell was that?” Valerie asked, moving up to a kneeling position to get a better look.

  Again the sound came, and there was no questioning that it was gunshots. A small fire went off from a muzzle below, then more, and then someone screamed as a dark form moved among them.