Blood Stakes

by Upton, Bradley

  Simone smiled seductively, her hand lifted up his face gently. “No.” Her sharp nails suddenly moved, piercing his throat, tearing into flesh and cartilage. Henderson pitched forward as his heart pumped blood over his desk. Simone spun and killed one of the men, quickly breaking his neck. It took almost no effort. She threw him to the floor. The other one she grabbed and ripped out his throat with her teeth. She fed greedily and noisily as the first shrieks and gunfire started to reach her ears.

  When she finished feeding, she pulled a small canister out of a pocket and pulled the pin. Simone vacated the office before the burning explosion. She went into the police station to see who she could kill. She wanted to have some fun, too.

  Angelique bent over a squirming human and filled her mouth with his hot blood. It sprayed the front of her clothes. She heard a sound. Not the victim in her hands, a woman with goggles and a rifle stood in front of her. Angelique dropped the body of the man. She advanced, her foot crushing the victim’s throat. The woman raised the rifle and fired twice. Bullets ripped into her torso and passed through. Angelique laughed and pointed to the holes. They hurt, but she would heal with time and blood. The human stood her ground and aimed again. Hot metal punctured Angelique’s eye and another round tore off the top of her skull. She stumbled forward driven by an undeniable force. The blood in the thing before her would heal her. Another shot and Angelique’s head fell forward, her spine fragmented. Her body lost all sensation and she collapsed to the floor, barely alive, twitching involuntarily. She vaguely sensed movement, a loud noise; darkness.

  There was no resistance the gunmen encountered which couldn’t be overcome with a quick burst from the M-16s. The police station had been taken wholly by surprise. The vampires had dispatched most of the people themselves. They seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in killing wantonly. This was something mostly foreign as they fed upon the willing and foolish at the church. Taking life was an amazing, powerful feeling. The sounds and smells of dying mortals filled their senses and made them giddy. Caution had been of paramount importance now it was thrown to the wind. The older vampires remembered this, the killing. They missed it, mourned the loss of hearing a dying heartbeat become weaker and weaker until it ceased pumping forever. Some of the young ones had never experienced it. If they had it was without Malcolm’s consent. He kept them safe, but sometimes the rules went against their primal instincts.

  One lone woman defied the gunman. It was the priest’s accomplice. She had killed six of the Limited and stripped one of his rifle and night vision goggles. She turned and fled out an emergency exit when she had a chance. There was no sign of the priest, he escaped somehow. The masters also vacated the building, escaping into the night. The last four of the Limited pulled out multiple incendiary grenades leaving a deadly fiery trail as they exited the station. This attack was grand and needed to be confusing to any investigator. As they worked their way out of the building, they dropped numerous thermite grenades. The horrifyingly hot weapons exploded in the darkness and burned brightly destroying bodies, evidence, and property. The fire sprinklers would be unable to stop the conflagration. The four men moved out the building quickly. They loaded into the van and peeled out of the parking lot. Time to leave Las Vegas.

  The mission had been a failure, the priest and the police woman escaped.

  Malcolm would be irate.

  Chapter 19

  In the Darkness, Beauty

  John leaned, exhausted, against a police car which sat in the darkness of the parking lot. The exterior lights were out, as was the rest of the city block. Maggie was still inside with the gunmen and the vampires. He could hear the muted staccato sound of the automatic rifles from where he stood. Maggie was still in grave danger. If she died, her blood would be on his hands, as was everyone’s from the station. Another innocent life lost because of his foolish mission. His divine quest to regain his faith and rid the world of an ageless evil hadn’t gone as planned. But what did he really expect? Sean had warned him. John knew there would be consequences, but never imagined the wholesale disregard for human life the vampires exhibited. They were attacking and slaughtering everyone in the Las Vegas police station for one endgame, killing him.

  His mind was fatigued. The last few days had taken a toll on him like nothing before. His plight threatened to overwhelm him, like a man lost at sea. The only thing keeping him afloat above the cresting, swelling sea was sheer force of will.

  A seductive voice sounded in the darkness. It whispered from everywhere. The faint moonlight revealed a stunning woman. Even covered in blood she was magnificent. She glided toward him traveling too lightly to be mortal. As she moved, John’s body reacted to her presence, his heart pounded and blood roared in his ears. When she was within ten feet of him she stopped.

  Simone smiled captivatingly, John, captivated, smiled back. Her luminous eyes burned into his until he could even see them when he blinked. John gazed into her fiery hypnotic eyes, wondering how many had been burned and died in that smoking luscious inferno. How many men had felt the pleasure of her cool touch? How many empty husks had been discarded by the insatiable succubus?

  “Hello John, darling,” her Orphic voice caressed him.

  John swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly full of cotton. He tried to speak, to cry out, call for help, but no sound issued forth.

  Simone pursed her lips in disappointment. Another speechless man. After hundreds of years she should have gotten used to it. But now, when confronting a human monster, she wanted more. She wanted crying and groveling and apologies for his crimes. From a priest she expected Hellfire and Brimstone! She wanted “Get thee behind me, Satan!” What she got was less sound than a mewling newborn kitten. Should she kill him? Would Malcolm forgive her for depriving him of his prized revenge? Probably not. Ice had been hurt and the church would be abandoned because of this priest.

  “Do you want me?” Simone purred sensually.

  “To see you is to want you.” John managed to find his voice, a whispered unsure sound. She was stunning. His celibate vows were a memory.

  Simone smiled, her canines were long, thin, sharp. Seductively she bit her lip. A tiny drop of blood pooled there. The blood welled up, ran down her chin landing on the front of her shirt, blending into the sanguine fluid on her clothes.

  “I offer you eternal life.” Her bright red tongue flickered, picking up the blood, enjoying the rich taste. She held him in rapt fascination.

  John wanted to taste her blood on his tongue, to kiss the crimson away with his mouth. It was suddenly his deepest desire to have her, ravish her body and imbibe her blood. John shook his head and forced the thoughts from his mind. If he gave into his urge he would be forever lost. He would become like her, like Malcolm, like Sean. ‘Help me, Sean.’ he thought. Sean’s brutal lesson about vampires suddenly returned to him. He reached up and felt the two faint scars on his neck where Sean bit him. He needed strength. He hooked his thumb under the chain which held the crucifix around his neck. He lifted it and pulled the cross into his hand from underneath his shirt.

  Simone hissed and turned away from him. She shook. Was it pain from seeing the cross? Was it fear of God? John quickly realized she was laughing. Simone turned around, a withering look on her face and roared with laughter. “Hell, priest, you’ve watched too many movies.” Simone closed the space between them in a heartbeat. She snatched the cross and tore it from around his neck, throwing it to the ground with no regard for the symbol. Her palm smashed him in the chest. He flew back; the only thing stopping him was the police cruiser directly behind him.

  Her lithe arms encircled him in an iron grip, her lush body pressed into his. Simone leaned her face inexorably closer despite his frenzied attempts to stop her. Effortlessly her mouth descended to his throat; what he expected didn’t come. His throat was not torn out, blood pouring from the wound. The pain of fangs plunging into his jugular didn’t come. She kissed his throat teasingly. Full lips pressed into his pulsating flesh. Her
hand snaked up and gripped the back of his neck holding him like a vice. Simone opened her lips, her tongue flicked out, tasting the salt and sweat and fear.

  John suppressed a moan. His heart pounded. He could smell roses in her hair. Even as he was awash in fear and the thought of his imminent death was foremost in his mind, his body responded. Despite years of repressing any sexual urge his body betrayed him. Simone chuckled and ground her hips into him.

  “Aren’t you a naughty one, Father.” She leaned into his throat. Her sharp teeth languorously scrapped at the skin over the pumping vein. A small amount of blood welled up. With the tenderness of a lover, her tongue glided sensuously into the wound, reveling in the coppery taste. She pulled away and looked at the fear and lust on the priest's face. How delicious this was. She would have her fun, a little taste, and then she would present him to Malcolm. The priest was doomed.

  There was an explosion. Simone’s beautiful head snapped to the right, a red mist expanded from her skull. She let go of John and spun. Another explosion, the small .223 round pierced her cranium. Simone pitched backward and she fell heavily to the ground. John stumbled to the front of the car. Maggie stood less than ten feet away, a smoking M-16 lowering to her side.

  “Are you all right?” she asked stepping forward to grab him. He was on the verge of collapsing.

  His hand reached up and felt the sticky wetness on the side of his neck. “You got here just in time. She was going to, I don’t know what, eat me, screw me, something. She said she was going to make me one of them.” Disjointed thoughts tumbled. He was terrified at the thought of becoming a vampire. He was thinking, his mind racing, and words were failing him.

  Maggie embraced him, partly to give him support, partly because she needed something solid, real, to chase the unreality away. Inside she had been operating on auto pilot, trying to survive. When the adrenaline wore off she would need a scotch and sleep.

  “Let’s get out of here,” said Maggie. She took her shirt and started wiping down the weapon. Orange flames could be seen through the windows of the police station. The thermite grenades had started a fire the sprinklers wouldn’t be able to put out. Smoke started to seep out of the roof. The darkness of the blackout made the growing fire more noticeable.

  John searched the ground in the dark. She had thrown his crucifix to the left when she attacked him. He quickly found it on the ground and walked to Simone’s prostrate body. Open eyes stared up at the sky. He thought of putting the cross around her neck but was reluctant to lift her ruined head to place it on her. He opened her hand, wrapped the chain around, and nestled it in her palm. He closed her fingers.

  “Why did you do that?” Maggie asked.

  “When they find her I want Malcolm to know who killed her.”

  As he stood up he missed Simone’s eyes move to watch him walk away.

  “We must leave now. The fire is growing. More people are going to come. The vampires may not have given up. They could be coming after us right now!” Maggie ditched the gun and the night vision goggles. She grabbed John’s hand. They fled, running panic stricken, into the dark. She meant to put as much distance between them and the police station as she could. They fled down residential alleys so not to be seen running on the streets.

  As they fled headlong into the night, an inhuman scream pierced the darkness, a sound so full of pain and anguish the emotions seemed tangible in the nocturnal gloom.

  “I guess he found her.” John panted.

  After the scream the world seemed to lapse into a profound silence. The only sounds Maggie heard were their feet on the pavement, her pounding heart, and her breathing. She could feel her pulse hammering in her head. It pounded loudly, like the staccato bursts from machine guns. This was not a 5 mile jog/run she did regularly. This was fear driven running; running for their lives from monsters running.

  John followed closely behind her for as long as he could. Soon his body began to rebel from the exertion. He was falling behind. His side was on fire from a cramp. Every breath sent pain shooting through his side. Sweat poured off his forehead stinging his eyes. “Maggie,” he called. He was far behind but she hadn’t noticed. “I need to stop for a minute. I can’t keep up this pace. I don't think they are following us.”

  They were in an alley somewhere outside of the blacked out city blocks. Lights were blazing, traffic on the streets was normal. There were no sounds of distant sirens. The attack on the police station was still unnoticed. Soon the darkness would be shattered with multiple sirens; fire, police, sheriff, ambulance. This was an unprecedented event. It would garner unprecedented attention.

  John winced as the cramp in his side tightened. Priests didn’t do anything as strenuous as sprinting for blocks and blocks. Even if he jogged as part of a daily routine, which he didn’t, this scared fleeing would have taxed him. He resolutely made up his mind, as he walked clutching at the knife like pain in his side, to get into shape when this was over. Provided he lived.

  Maggie slowed allowing John to rest while she reconnoitered the area around them. There was no suspicious movement in the street outside the alley. “Okay. I think we can slow down now. The Strip is close but we look like a horror movie. You still have the blood on your clothes from this afternoon. I’ve got blood on me too. We need to get to my house without drawing too much attention.”

  She was right. They were a mess. They walked cautiously to the entrance of the alleyway. Maggie looked around and came back to John. “Take off your shirt and throw it away,” she said. John obeyed. He pulled off his blood stained shirt and tossed it in a trash can. The night was cold. Maggie took off her jacket, turned it inside out, and gave it to him to wear. The sleeves were too short for his arms and the shoulders were tight. “Push up the sleeves like it's a fashion choice.” She said a bit exasperated. She looked at him with a critical eye. A cab driver would have no reason to suspect they had just left a scene of unimaginable destruction and death.

  “I still have my wallet and some cash. I didn’t get processed like you did.” Maggie started walking to the street. “Let's find a cab and get to my place.”

  “What if they come looking for me at your place?” John asked.

  “I don’t think they had a big plan when they attacked. It seems thrown together and far too rash to have things like my house included in it. They wanted you and were willing to kill everyone around you. I don’t think they know my name. With everything that went on today, I bet I’m not even on their radar. They massacred the station, but they also lost five today”

  “Five?”

  “I killed the woman outside just now, and I killed another one in the station.”

  “Good job.”

  They walked down the street, it was far enough away from Las Vegas Boulevard that it wasn’t busy. Maggie looked behind her frequently, searching for a cab. When she saw one with an unlit sign on the roof she raised her hand and whistled loudly. The cab swung close to the curb and stopped. They got in the back seat, John tried to hide in the darkness and hunched down in the seat, gathering small jacket around him. He remembered his face had been plastered all over the news. He needed to not be noticed.

  Maggie gave the cab driver the address of a store close to her house. For safety they would walk the final distance. Paranoia about being recognized or followed remained. The taxi ride was quick and quiet. The taxi driver sensed the riders were not in the mood for talking. Years driving a cab made him sensitive to the sociable or reserved nature of his fares. These weren’t starry eyed tourists in town for fun, and the address he was given was more residential; locals definitely.

  As soon as the cab stopped John slipped out of the door, to avoid the globe light revealing him as it came on. He moved away from the cab, his back to it and he waited. Maggie paid the driver the fare and a tip then she got out of the cab. The driver nodded, and wished them a good night.

  They walked slowly the wrong direction from Maggie’s house as the cab drove away. Once it disappeared ar
ound a corner they turned and walked the correct route to her house.

  “I want to go back to the church,” John said.

  “What the fuck? Why do you want to go back to the church? Malcolm would never go back after everything that happened tonight.”

  “I think you’re wrong. He found my cross in her hand. That inhuman scream as we ran, that was him. I know he found it,” John said. “Where would he go to find me? It’s pretty obvious; the church.”

  “If he went to the church to find you it’s because he knows you’re crazy and have a death wish. You just escaped, John. We survived an attack which killed most of the Las Vegas PD,” Maggie protested vigorously. “If he thinks you'll go there again, it’s because you have lost your vampire obsessed mind. He’ll kill you.”

  “Maybe, that’s why I'm going alone.” John said.

  “No. You couldn’t go alone if you wanted to. I’d follow you if you were able to ditch me. I know where you're going. You may have dragged me into this Twilight Zone episode, but I’m choosing to stay with you until the end.” Maggie was adamant.

  “You could die,” John said solemnly. “I’m willing to take the risk. I put you into more danger than I anticipated. I had no idea any of this would happen especially the attack on the station. I honestly didn’t think I’d find any vampires. It was dumb luck, or tragic luck. A lot of people died.”

  “Vampires killed them.”

  “I hit a hornet’s nest with a 2 by 4. The church had no reason to go to war if I hadn’t come to town.”

  “You’re right. But having them here wasn’t good. They will leave, go hunt somewhere else. Las Vegas is now toxic for them.”

  “Maggie, I don’t want you to get hurt.” The emotions he had for her couldn’t be hidden. “He will kill me if he gets the chance. If I can surprise him I might be able to get a shot or two off. I’ll need your gun. You can stay safe.”