The footsteps stopped. “Bela! Where are you?! Has Ivy recovered? Any sign of intruders?!” Vincentas yelled.
“Ivy is doing just fine. She will be back in the showcase room to finish the elixir in just a little while.”
Ivy was happy to hear Bela’s voice. She didn’t know if that was good or bad or if that was just how messed up the situation had become.
“I thought I heard the gatehouse guns firing. No intruders yet? Quint return?”
“I was testing the guns to make sure they worked, sir. Quint was injured in his failure to kill them yet again. He is resting in the infirmary. Should any intruders come, we will be ready.”
“I will be in my quarters resting. I haven’t slept all day. It’s already early evening, and I have had no proper rest. Clean up the mess in the dungeon. I sent the robots out to kill the Order. Our time is now, Bela.”
“How exciting, sir.”
“It’s about time, Bela. Please let me know if you need me and inform me of any changes to our situation.” Footsteps followed Vincentas’s words.
Ivy walked to the dining room and peeked out. Bela stood in the hallway. He watched Vincentas retire to the main tower behind the Constantinius courtyard.
He then turned around and headed back to the infirmary.
Ivy pulled out the packet Bela had dropped on her earlier and opened it. It smelled of garlic cloves, an infamous and extremely potent poison for vampires.
Chapter Forty-Seven
MONK KILLER
Father Quinn ran away from the doors and into the beloved old St. Pat’s church. Splinters of wood hit him in the back. Padre Martinez who helped with Sunday Masses also ran from the door. The last Mass of the day had just ended, and the priests were headed back in from greeting their parishioners. One parishioner had red eyes, a thin metallic body, and seemingly wanted to end their lives.
“Push some pews in front of the doors! Before it has a clear path to us!” Padre Martinez yelled.
Sirens sounded from outside the church doors. Some parishioners must have called the cops.
“Good idea!” Father Quinn and Martinez both pushed a pew toward the door, which had nearly been completely destroyed.
“STOP! Put your hands up!” Cops from outside on the church steps yelled at the robotic killing machine.
Father Quinn’s cell phone rang from his pocket. “Hello!”
“Get out of there now. There is a robot coming to kill ya’ now.”
“Thanks for the warning, Kieran. It’s already here! Gotta go!” Father Quinn shook his head.
Padre Martinez let out a nervous laugh.
The robot retreated from the doors.
“We can’t let those cops get hurt. That robot is coming for us.” Father Quinn moved the pew away from the door.
“You are right, Padre. We’d better get out on those church steps.” Padre Martinez helped him move the pew they’d just put at the door out of the way.
“You know what to do, Diego.” Father Quinn gave a knowing look to his friend.
“I do, Gavin.”
“Hey. Get away from them! It’s me you want!” Father Quinn yelled.
An officer fired his gun at the robot. The robot seemed focused on the police officer and the gun. It didn’t notice Father Quinn yet.
“Hey! Over here!”
The killing machine walked closer to the cops and raised its fists. The cops shot their guns again. The bullets whizzed out onto the street.
“Diego!”
“Espiritu Santo!”
A glowing bubble shield formed around the cops. They were safe. The robot tried to pound it with charged, piston-like fists.
Father Quinn ran up to the robot. “Leave them alone!”
Padre Martinez could only power one shield bubble at a time.
“Gavin, get away from it! It will kill you.”
The robot turned, grabbed Father Quinn by the neck, crushed the priest’s trachea, then threw him all the way back to the altar. Father Quinn landed like a rag doll.
“No!” Father Diego Martinez watched his friend and fellow monk of the Order die.
He still held the bubble shield over the cops.
The robot now noticed the Padre.
“You two. Go get more help!” Padre Martinez yelled.
The cops returned to their squad, and the Father could hear them call for backup.
Chapter Forty-Eight
PURGATORIA
Maeve joined Bud and watched him incessantly shoot with his crossbow.
“What took you so long? There are six novice vampires that I have pinned down at the other end of the dungeon over there. I just keep shooting bolts at them. They are too scared to come out from cover.”
“Sorry, I was taking care of the vampire bride. She’s dead now. We are good. We could set the tables they are using for cover on fire and force them our way. Put them in these cages.”
“Do it!” Bud stopped shooting the crossbow.
Maeve grasped her crucifix, and the two long picnic-like tables the six students hid behind set on fire. They ran for cover.
“We surrender! We surrender! We really don’t even want to be here.”
Maeve laughed. “Are you sure they are vampires, Bud? Maybe he just hypnotized them.”
Bud aimed his crossbow at them. Maeve held her blade out in front of her.
“Get your asses into these cages now!” Maeve yelled.
They ran toward Bud and Maeve with their hands up. The six young adults settled into the cages and voluntarily locked themselves in the dungeon.
“Maeve, he killed my grandfather. He is lying on the floor over there.”
“Oh my! Bud, are you okay?” Maeve moved to hug him.
“Never mind the embrace now. His last words were something about a backdoor passcode. He was about to tell me, but then he died. I would imagine he meant put a back door into the program Vincentas made him create for the Bert bots. So far, only one has teleported to Chicago. I held off the program and the students from sending any more. How do we get the passcode? I haven’t any time to hack the code.”
“Do any of you know the backdoor passcode to stop these things?” Maeve scraped her blade on the bars of one of the student’s cages.
“No, we don’t know about that. Also, hate to burst your bubble, but the program is automated and the next robot teleports in ten minutes,” the short student relayed.
“I can try hacking for ten minutes. Perhaps we’ll get lucky.”
“There is a way, Bud. You have to trust me and protect my body.” Maeve dropped to the floor in a heap.
Maeve watched Bud panic as he tended to her lifeless body. Maeve had never tried the spirit/poltergeist form. She had absorbed the power from their battle with the poltergeist in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side.
She floated around before willing her spirit form to fly. She flew through the air to the ancient tree she and Bud had received their weapons from. She knew that tree would provide safe passage to the spirit world. Within seconds, she was there, even though it was miles and miles away from Loch Eck.
Into the sacred Druid tree she went, hoping to catch Bud’s father’s spirit in Purgatory. She needed to know that passcode.
Chapter Forty-Nine
SPIRITED
More sirens filled the air surrounding St. Pat’s church. Padre Martinez retreated into the church and ran to the body of his dear friend, Father Quinn. The robot knocked the doors down.
Padre Martinez hoped his shield would be enough to protect him.
The Chicago Police didn’t stop coming.
“It’s no use. I can’t protect you all. Your weapons won’t work, and I can’t protect you all!” Padre Martinez yelled to try and get the cops to stand down.
“Father, if you can get out of the church, I would. We got this!” a cop said from the front steps.
“I don’t want any more of you getting hurt. I will stay here! It wants me! Not you!”
The SWAT tea
m entered the church from the front entrance.
“Stand down!” the lead cop yelled at the robot. “Stand down, I said!”
The robot turned towards the police once again, and this time jumped at one, crushed his rifle, and threw the cop back out on the steps.
“Fire!”
Maeve entered the tree. The spirit world was hazy and almost like being underwater. A strange sheen glossed over her vision. She looked up toward a light and then down toward darkness. The middle floor she floated in was grey.
“Bud’s grandfather! Mr. Hutchins! Mr. Hutchins!” she yelled, or she thought she was yelling.
She didn’t want to leave her body dead for too long.
She yelled some more, lost in the grey area of Purgatory.
The robot took only minor damage.
“Bullets don’t work! Try our equipment. Let’s go!” the swat leader yelled.
“Father, cover your ears and close your eyes.”
POP! BANG! POP! BANG! POP! BANG!
Padre opened his eyes. The robot shook its head. It stopped walking but then recovered and jumped toward another cop. The carnage continued.
“Who are you, my dear? I am Bud’s grandfather,” a soft, soothing voice said from somewhere in the grey.
“I am Maeve, Bud’s friend. He loves you very much. We just need to know the backdoor code you built into the Bert bot code.”
“Oh yes, yes indeed. The code is loveyouBud320. Capital B for Bud. Tell him to head to Rome. There he will get some answers.” Bud’s grandfather appeared to Maeve. He had white hair. His presence and warm smile calmed Maeve.
“Thank you. I will tell him. Thank you! I better get going!”
“Yes, you are far too young to be here! Tell Bud I will always be there for him!”
“I will!”
Maeve flew fast in a direction she thought she came from and prayed to find a way out.
The power of prayer was indeed mighty. She floated into Scotland and flew up and away from the ancient tree.
To the castle she went, and in an instant, she flew through the wall and directly into the dungeon. She observed Bud performing chest compressions like he had at the Beauregard plantation long ago.
She entered her body.
“LoveyouBud320!” Maeve sat up and coughed. She headbutted Bud’s chin. Her coughing ceased as her lungs accepted some fresh dungeon air. She felt good to be back in her elixir-enhanced body.
“Ouch. I love you too! You’re back!” Bud held his chin and jumped up and down.
“No, you idiot. That’s the passcode!” Maeve ran to the computer near the back of the dungeon. The table fires she’d set earlier dwindled to sparkling embers.
“Oh right. The passcode. Well, how do you know?!” Bud looked perplexed, downright overwhelmed. His face red with embarrassment. He followed Maeve.
“I transferred to spirit or poltergeist form. You know, I absorbed that power from our encounter in Jackson Park. I went to what I am pretty sure was Purgatory and asked your grandfather about the code.”
Another Bert bot turned on in the corner of the room, and its red eyes blinked. It was time to teleport and kill another monk of the Order.
Maeve shook her head and resumed searching for the computer.
“Where is the computer?!” Maeve flipped over a table.
“Here it is,” Bud said. The computer lay next to Bud’s grandfather.
Bud typed the code in. Nothing happened.
The Bert bot moved closer to Bud and Maeve who were huddled around the computer.
“That didn’t work! Is there a capital letter somewhere, Maeve!”
“Oh yes, duh! I forgot Bud with a capital B!”
Padre Martinez witnessed another cop’s rifle crumble in the steely grip of the robot’s hands. The cop quickly took out his sidearm pistol and fired three rounds at the robot’s head. Suddenly, the robot fell to the floor.
“I got it! I got it!” The SWAT officer ran to a group of other officers.
Padre Martinez was happy the robot was defeated, but his friend Father Quinn lay dead on the steps of the altar. He’d sacrificed himself to save others, a true monk of the Order of St. Michael.
Chapter Fifty
THE HUNTERS THREE
The Bert bot fell to the dungeon floor with a loud metallic clank.
“What the hell was that? Who bloody cares! The passcode worked!” Bud jumped up.
“Yes! We stopped it! Your grandfather is a genius!”
“He indeed was. He created the back door to stop Vincentas’s plan whenever he wanted to. Love you, too, Grandpa.” Bud pulled his Burberry trench coat off and covered his grandfather’s body with it.
“Bud! Maeve! We still have business to take care of.” Ivy entered the dungeon and ran to her friends. She held a chalice she’d taken from the showcase room/lab.
“Ivy! How are you feeling?” Bud asked.
“I feel much better than I think I should feel given the unfortunate circumstances. We still have Vincentas to deal with. He is in his quarters resting in the central turret behind the courtyard. I have concocted a special version of the elixir, thanks to Bela. This has been mixed with garlic. It should hurt him, hopefully, enough for you two to finish him off,” Ivy said.
“How exactly is it that we finish a powerful vampire like Vincentas off?”
“The traditional wooden stake through the heart worked with Elizabeth, his bride.” Maeve examined her blade.
“Would wooden crossbow bolts work?” Bud asked.
“Don’t see why not. I mean, I am new at this vampire-slaying thing. We can certainly try. I can grab the stake I used on Elizabeth. Try that first. Then the crossbow if shit hits the fan,” Maeve said.
“If he is soundly asleep, we may not even need the special concoction. Couldn’t we just kill him with the stake and be done with the gruesome task?” Bud asked.
“I suggest we just get up there as soon as we can, Hutchins! He might be awake already. I will go into his room first. I will use the telepath tech to communicate what I think we should do.” Ivy turned and walked back to the tower stairwell.
“Ivy, wait up!”
The three vampire hunters ascended the tower steps. The castle felt colder to Bud. It could be that he no longer wore a jacket, but it wasn’t just the temperature that spurred the feeling. An ominous evil awaited them the deeper into the castle they walked.
They reached the main floor. Bud examined the stone walls of the main hallway. The torches. The high ceilings. The whole aesthetic reminded him of classic horror films he’d watched with his grandfather. A courtyard appeared with a Roman statue and another hallway to their right.
Maeve ran to retrieve the stake from Elizabeth’s chest.
“Stay in or around the courtyard. The turret is behind the courtyard. You can find it by walking down this hallway. I will be in touch.” Ivy walked with both hands on the chalice that held the poisoned elixir. Her hands started to shake.
“We aren’t staying down here. We will walk with you until you enter his room,” Bud said.
Maeve nodded in support.
“Fine. Let’s go. Step lightly.”
“Got it.” Maeve returned with the stake, barely out of breath.
“That was quick. I want the stake. Let me do it,” Bud said. His need for vengeance fueled him.
Chapter Fifty-One
THE VAMPIRE’S COFFIN
Ivy wondered why a vampire sensitive to sunlight would sleep up high in a tower room. She climbed the steps slowly, careful not to slip on the steep, rather large steps. She looked behind her. Bud held a crossbow. Maeve was a step below Bud, her sword at the ready.
Ivy noticed an open doorway. No door. Ivy put her hand up to signal her fellow hunters to stop. Ivy made sure to secure the chalice with both hands and climbed the steps to the open room.
She took a deep breath and entered. Bleak, blackout drapery blocked the light, but a singular flame from a candle sat on an ornate metal table re
plete with the fleur-de-lis that looked like it belonged in New Orleans. She took another step, and the weak flame illuminated a dark surface. The farther Ivy walked, the more the flame revealed the structure the surface belonged to. A coffin. A stark coffin. Vincentas’s resting place.
Bud. Maeve. He is in a coffin. I hear nothing. He must be asleep. We can try opening the coffin and hitting him with the stake. Or should I just wake him up and give him the elixir? I don’t know what to do. And I am starting to feel sick. Ivy wiped her forehead. Clearly, she needed more time in the infirmary. The transition to vampirism proved too intense for her body to handle daily activity just hours after being bitten.
Ivy. We are coming in, Bud answered.
Ivy could hear Bud enter. She saw Maeve’s yellow blade behind him.
Ivy. Maeve will open the coffin. I will stab his heart.
Hurry. I don’t feel good.
Bud’s heart pounded. He wanted to savagely beat the monster who had abducted and murdered his grandfather. A stake through the heart in his sleep didn’t feel like proper retribution.
Maeve sheathed her blade. She walked to the side of the coffin and put her hands on the lid. A knock and a scratch sounded on the coffin door. Maeve lifted her hands up.
Bud. I swear I was gentle. No way he moved because of me, Maeve said.
Maeve. Never mind. Open it. I am in position! Bud stood on the side of the coffin that the lid opened away from. He sidled up right next to the vampire. He lifted the stake with both hands.
Maeve once again put her hands on the coffin lid. She lifted it ever so slowly. It creaked loudly. Maeve paused.
The dim candlelight showed the sleeping vampire. His strong chin, high cheekbones. He slept soundly.
Maeve. Open it more. Keep going. He’s still asleep. Bud’s heart continued to pound from fear combined with excitement at exacting his revenge. He’d never felt such a powerful rush of endorphins.
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