by C L Walker
It was odd, I thought, that I didn’t feel the same way about Erindis. She had done too much, I guessed, and being my master didn’t change that. The tattoos would disagree if she came to harm but they didn’t have the power to compel me. Not now. Not yet.
They led me into the observation room where Keith had started his experiments and Erindis had shot me. I stood in the room beyond the glass wall, surrounded by the first darkness I’d experienced since being summoned into the facility. Ten soldiers stood around me, presumably men from the prison area, though I didn’t recognize any of them. In the room below they were prepping for the arrival of their new test subject.
Keith sat on a stool below the window. He looked excited, as always; he was getting a new toy to play with, and he didn’t know I was going to wipe the smile off his face soon. He didn’t know anything, really.
None of the soldiers in the room were Peter. It didn’t matter yet; Keith had said they’d all be here and I simply had to point out which one was his enemy. That should get me close enough to the hollow man, and if it didn’t there wasn’t anyone there who could stand in my way for long, assuming I acted quickly.
My heart beat a little faster as Keith stood, ready to receive his next patient.
Erindis was wheeled in, strapped to a gurney, naked and terrified. She had bruises on her arms and legs from the men handling her, forcing her to lie down and get ready. She was crying, scared, but she reserved a little anger for me. She couldn’t see me behind the glass, I was sure, but she glared in my direction anyway.
They wheeled the machinery over to her and Keith took up his position beside her. He examined her, his eyes roaming along her naked body, a clinical check that wasn’t sexual, even though it excited him.
“We’re going to begin the testing now,” he said for the recording devices in the room. “Subject is mildly sedated, though we are unsure what the effect on her will be, given her alien physiology.”
The tattoos reacted, constricting against my skin, trying to force me to act. They didn’t have the power to make me start fighting but I knew there were still things they could do. The last time I’d ignored the call I’d fallen in the street, sick and delirious. I hadn’t reached that stage yet, but if Peter didn’t appear soon I would.
Keith and his people drew blood and ran the plastic thing around the inside of her mouth. They were gentle and careful, but Erindis wasn’t cooperating as I had. She struggled, refused to open her mouth when she was told. They had to force it and fresh bruises appeared on the soft skin of her face.
I was getting nauseous and the tattoos were tightening, getting to the point where it started to hurt. I didn’t have long.
The door behind me opened and a soldier walked in, but it wasn’t Peter either.
Keith scraped her skin and kept the sample, then pulled out the long metal stick he’d run through my chest. My knees buckled, my strength vanishing, until I could barely remain upright. I had to act or my master was going to be hurt.
I tried to reason with the tattoos, tried to talk to them in my mind. She wasn’t going to be hurt, not for long. She was immortal, like me. She couldn’t die from what they were doing, and the long term benefits of letting this happen far outweighed the immediate costs. All I had to do was stand still and be ready, and she would be saved.
I dropped to one knee, unable to keep it up. The soldiers around me looked down but didn’t offer to help. It was like they were expecting it.
“Having some trouble, Agmundr?” Keith said. He looked distracted by what he was doing, lining up the metal rod for insertion, positioning it between two ribs.
He’d expected this, I realized. He was still testing me, surrounding me with soldiers and doing something he knew I had to react to.
Had he even brought the soldiers I was meant to inspect? Was Peter even going to be in the room?
“Interesting thing,” he continued as he positioned his hand to push the metal into Erindis. “On the one hand I’ve got you telling me I’m about to come under siege, and on the other I have your lovely wife telling me that you’ll save her. That you have to save her, in fact.”
This wasn’t going to go as I’d expected, and as I accepted that the pain and nausea faded. The tattoos knew what was going to happen next as well as I did.
“So let’s see if that’s true, shall we?” He pushed the metal rod into her chest, forcing it past muscle and fat, bones and sinew, until it was all the way through.
He stepped back and looked up at the glass box I was in, surrounded by his men. He was more interested in my reaction than hers, keener on testing what I would do than in whether she healed.
“Are these men here to stop me?” I said, trying to make myself sound weak. It was difficult with the anger washing over me. “Are they your safeguard in case I try to save her?”
“They are,” he said. “We have as much time as we need to do everything we need. There’s no rush. Take your time.”
I eyed the men around me, with their pistols and their shock batons. I could take them if I was smart. Or ruthless. Or, ideally, both, but they rarely went hand in hand.
Someone knocked on the door of the examination room and Keith glared at one of his people, irritated at the disruption. He returned to staring at me, clearly able to see me through the glass.
When the door opened and I saw it was Peter I stood up again. When he pulled his pistol and shot the man in the white coat, I attacked.
The men immediately beside me were easy; I lashed out, grabbing their heads and smashing them together. Their skulls cracked and pink mush oozed out under the pressure. I grabbed their guns as they fell, and started firing.
Three more men were down before the first baton hit me. Muscles went rigid and I started to fall, but that took me out of range of the attack and I was able to twist as I fell. I landed hard but had the pistol raised. I fired and the soldier went over backwards, his brain landing in a mist on his face.
I rolled backward to keep away from the remaining soldiers. I wasn’t paying attention to my position and ran into the glass barrier. Behind and below me Peter was speeding through the room, taking care of the soldiers there to guard Erindis. Keith backed up against the wall and pulled a radio from his pocket. He started screaming into it as the hollow man finished with everyone else in the room.
I focused on my own predicament; four men left and they weren’t bothering with the batons. They had guns out and aimed at me, ready to fire. If I was quick I figured I could take two of them before they killed me, but no more than that.
I held the gun up in apparent surrender. Two of the men moved forward to restrain me.
I fired behind me, shattering the glass and giving me the exit I needed. As the soldiers reacted by rushing me, I rolled backward and fell into the examination room.
Peter had Keith against the wall with a pistol to his head. Erindis was laughing, a crazy sound amid the violence. The soldiers in the observation room didn’t know what to do, who to focus on. They aimed their guns at the midpoint between Peter and I, screaming for us to stop and get down.
I fired up, taking one out. I fired again but they had moved back as one, survival instincts kicking in where their conscious minds had gone blank.
Someone was banging on the door Peter had slammed shut behind him. Reinforcements had arrived and they wouldn’t hold their fire when they saw what was happening.
I got up and ran for the hollow man and Keith. I had a moment to act before things spiraled out of control. I reached them as the door burst inward with the force of an explosive charge. I scratched Peter’s face, digging my nails in deep, and placed my hand flat on the bleeding wound.
He didn’t react. He knew what I was doing and what was about to happen.
The tattoos fed and dull red light erupted in the room. I turned to face the oncoming rush of soldiers. I laughed as hysterically as Erindis had only moments before.
Chapter 10
A magical shield sprang to li
fe before me as I rushed the soldiers bursting into the room. Bullets deflected for a moment and then I was among them.
They weren’t using the stun batons; they’d come to kill, and that was violence I understood.
The shield fell and I intercepted a soldier’s attempt to grab me. I spun him around and pinned his arm behind his back, lifting it until I heard the bone break before tossing him at the others. I advanced into the crowd, grabbing one man’s head in my hand while punching another and caving his face in.
Keith was yelling incoherently, trying to issue orders or beg for help, I couldn’t tell. More soldiers were pouring in and the tattoos were running low on power again. It had taken all I’d allowed them to steal from the hollow man to heal me and get me to where I was.
It didn’t matter. I was more than a match for them as I was. I kicked low, shattering one man’s thigh bone, then rammed my forehead into his face. He went down screaming as I moved on to the next one, and the next. Someone stabbed me and I barely noticed, only drawing the blade from my side when the last of the newcomers was down.
Peter still had Keith against the wall, and the doctor was quieter. He’d seen what he was up against and he knew it could get a lot worse. I suspected he’d shift into bargaining until more men turned up.
“Where’s Bec?” I said as I stalked over to the two men. “Which cell?”
“She’s…” He took a breath and tried again. “She’s in the one beside yours. She’s fine. We didn’t do anything to her.”
I reached over Peter’s shoulder and grabbed Keith’s head, slamming it into the wall. He went down and the hollow man turned on me angrily, aiming his gun in my direction.
“We weren’t done with him,” he said.
“Yes, you were,” I replied.
I moved to Erindis and unstrapped her while Peter stood around and did nothing. She looked at me with her eyes wide, lost in whatever temporary mania had gripped her. I lifted her from the gurney and put her down near one of the assistants in white coats.
“Get dressed,” I said.
“We’ve got a plan here,” Peter said. He still had his gun pointed at me and it was starting to piss me off. The tears I’d made in his face had healed but the blood was still there; I wanted to touch it. I restrained myself only because of step four and the vampires I knew would be behind some of the doors.
I stopped moving and focused all my attention on him. He wore the same body as the last time I’d seen him; tall, well-built, Asian. He had a tan and looked alive, and I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out as a fallen angel if I didn’t already know.
“Your plan is done,” I said.
“We went to a lot of trouble to get this set up,” he said.
I moved toward him and he backed away, forgetting the gun in his hand. He was scared of me. This was the right response to the situation.
“Why am I here, angel?” I said, moving in uncomfortably close. “What did you hope to gain by doing all this?”
“That’s got nothing to do with you.”
He was still backing up and he hit the wall. Keith was on the floor at his feet. Peter realized he still had a gun in his hand and tried to raise it. I slapped it away and it clattered under the table with the torture instruments on it.
“You’ve dragged everyone I know into this,” I said. “She summoned me here. This has everything to do with me.”
“He’s right, Peter,” Erindis said behind me. “This is all about him. It’s always all about Agmundr.”
I spun around. She was lucid again, calm. Tears had dried on her cheeks but they took nothing away from the fierce look in her eyes. She was back in charge, at least in her head.
“We need to get out of here,” I said. “I’ve got people to save.”
“Leave them,” she said. “They’re not needed.”
I didn’t pause in my response. “I’m going to save them. You’re welcome to run along now.”
She walked past me and for a moment I thought she was going to check on Peter. Instead she crouched and checked Keith’s pockets until she found the locket. She stood and raised it to show to me.
“I am your master, Agmundr. I order you to leave them here and help us escape.”
The tattoos tightened, ready to fulfill her order if I wouldn’t.
“If I leave them here it’ll make me angry,” I said, talking to the tattoos as much as I was talking to her. “And me being angry will make sure that I don’t help you as well as I could. Unless I save them as well, you’re likely to die with only him looking after you.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “Keep your justifications to yourself and do as you’re told.”
I ignored her and left the room, stepping over the soldiers and heading back down the corridor toward my cell. The tattoos were happy with what I said and that was all that mattered. She could be angry and she could order me around, but I’d made my case and without the tattoos on her side that was all she could do.
Many masters, more intelligent than Erindis and more powerful than her, had learned the hard way that my justifications could end their lives if I wanted them to.
More soldiers were waiting for me at the security checkpoint. They had rifles raised and ready, expecting a siege. I could understand why they were so scared.
I ran toward them, my hands in the air. I stumbled and got back to my feet, trying to project fear. I had never been a good actor, but I gave it my all.
“Please, help,” I said. “They’re killing everyone.”
There was no reason for them to believe me; I was the huge, scary prisoner, and they were there to stop me from being violent. It didn’t make sense for them to buy what I was selling. But they were frightened and all they’d be getting from the examination room were screams and gunfire. I was betting they’d be too confused to react.
They were still, however, on alert.
One of them fired a round at my feet. The tile floor exploded, showering me in harmless shrapnel.
“Stay where you are,” one of them said.
I froze and dropped to my knees. “Please, just let me through before they kill me.”
I kept my hands in the air and waited for one of the guards to open the gate and walk carefully toward me. He held out a pair of handcuffs and I took them, slipping them on in front of me and looking up at him with what I hoped looked like gratitude.
He gestured with his rifle, and I got to my feet and ran through the gate.
The tattoos were almost powerless, but I didn’t need them to get free. I pulled my hands apart, straining against the metal links between my hands. It took less than a second for the cuffs to part.
I grabbed the nearest rifle and turned it on its owner. I finished him off and turned to the other two.
“Get down,” I said. They still had their own rifles but they were aiming them down the corridor, to where they thought the threat was coming from. “I’m pretty impatient and I’d appreciate some cooperation.”
I gestured with the barrel to their colleague, whose body was cooling on the floor beside them.
They dropped their weapons and got on their knees. I didn’t have handcuffs, so reversed the rifle and used it as a club. They went down and I hoped I hadn’t hit them too hard.
I’d expected a control for the doors at the security station, but the keyboard there just controlled their computer. None of them had keys and I couldn’t see how I was going to open the doors. Brute force was going to be my only option.
I slid the tiny hatch open on the first door and looked inside. Bathed in the ever-present white light was a pale-skinned woman with black hair. Her eyes snapped to me as she backed into the corner, trying to make herself smaller.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked. “Quickly, please. We don’t have a lot of time.”
She nodded.
“Good. I’m here to help you. Are you a vampire?”
She nodded again.
“Great. I’m going to need some of your blood
. If you could come over here, as quickly as you can, and help me out, that would be great.”
She tried to crawl into the wall and shrink further.
“That’s just great,” I said. I moved on to the next door to try again. “Hello.”
The man in the room was standing ready, his hands before him as he glared at the hatch.
“Are you a vampire?” I said. He had the pale skin but I had no way of knowing. He nodded. “Do you know who I am?” He nodded again, and I wondered how many times I was going to have to repeat the process until I found someone willing to do what I needed. “I need your blood.”
I had planned on promising him freedom but he didn’t need it. He moved to the door, raised his wrist to his mouth, and used his fangs to tear his arm open. He put the bloodied arm before the door.
I slipped my hand in and put my hand on his arm. The tattoos fed and began to glow again.
“Step back from the door,” I said. He backed away and I grabbed the handle. The tattoos on my arms flashed briefly as I tore the door off its hinges.
“I don’t suppose you know which cells I should open?” I asked the vampire.
“I’ve only seen the corridors,” he said. He had a bit of an accent, European perhaps. “No idea who lives in the rooms.”
“Great. Watch the corridor and tell me if I need to kill anyone.”
I went back to the first room and tore the door off. The woman inside sprang at me, her fangs bared and her claws out. I grabbed her out of the air and put her on the floor, trapping her flailing arms behind her back and holding them there.
“Can you please take care of this?” I said.
“You want me to watch your back or calm her down?” the vampire said.
“Both.”
I moved from door to door, tearing them off as I went. When I needed a top up one of the growing crowd of vampires was happy to provide.