The Daemon Within

by Jeremy Croston

  Just not the Warg.

  The same leg he kicked raised and a huge paw crashed into the side of his head. As he fell to the floor, we scooped him up in our jaws and tossed him against the door leading out. Phil didn’t get up after that.

  With the obstacle cleared, I switched back to my human form with the Warg not really putting up much of a fight. A tiny pang hit me in the stomach. The blood lust wouldn’t be held off much longer.

  I looked at my watch and realized I was really late. Opening the channel with my ear piece, “Status report.”

  Isa answered. “Where are you? We called you a few minutes ago with no answer.”

  “Sorry, I was Warging out – I had a bit of trouble in the mechanical room, but it’s taken care of. How are you two?”

  “Rissa is with me and we’re waiting for you. Her ear piece was damaged in a brief skirmish, but she’s okay.”

  That was good to hear. “Stay there, I’m on my way up.”

  I stepped over Ruud’s body and hit the staircase. We probably only had seven or eight minutes before the bombs went off and I didn’t want to be late, just in case. The stuff was potent and there was a good chance our masks wouldn’t filter it out for too long.

  I was taking the steps two at a time, making my way up. Every so often, I’d see a body of a vampire that had gotten a good old fashioned Isa ass kicking. My cardio was starting to fail when I finally got to the conference room floor. Besides random mutterings from the doors I passed, I hadn’t heard anything. The moment I went to turn the door handle, all hell broke loose.

  I jumped back and Isa came crashing into the stairwell, alone. “Vic, we need to go!”

  “What happened? Where’s Rissa?” I asked in quick succession.

  “Rissa was captured. They’re on to us!”

  That was all I needed to hear to make the great escape. I grabbed my mask and slid it down over my face, knowing we’d be in a lot of trouble if we were caught by the gas. About two floors from the back exit, with an angry hoard chasing us from above, the explosives set off into the mechanical room and not a minute later, sleeping gas flooded out of all of the vents. Unfortunately, there were no vents in the stairwell.

  We broke out the back door and on to the street. Four vampires were right behind us and a witch. Rosette held up her hand when she spotted me. “Vic, I can’t believe yer with this terrorist!” She shook her head in disappointment. “I’d be hopin’ it was all a misunderstandin.’”

  “There was no misunderstanding the moment your boss locked me in a cell in Alcatraz and left me to rot.”

  Rosette didn’t get it. Didn’t she remember what it was like to be stuck under Vincente Divas’s thumb? “So you justify what just happened back there?”

  “Of course I do! It was my idea to raid this building,” I answered proudly.

  “I’d never think I’d live ta see the day ye became a killer.”

  What the hell was she talking about? It was just sleeping gas. Either way, we needed to deal with these vampires and get out of here before it wore off. As long as Isa and I were alive, we’d have a second, third chance. “Rosette, give us back Rissa and we’ll leave peacefully.”

  “There’d be no leavin’ for ye.” She summoned up some of her magic, a silver mist forming over our heads. I didn’t know what that was, but I wasn’t intending to find out, either. As I backed up, Isa went forward towards the group.

  Two of the vampires that were acting as Rosette’s backup jumped to the front, only for their heads to be removed quickly and cleanly. As their bodies fell, a new mood encroached – fear.

  Rosette immediately shifted the silver cloud from over top and sent it towards the very old vampire. Isa’s reflexes were too great and whatever that spell was hit Rosette and the other two vampires instead. They dropped like rocks right there in the street.

  “I’m sorry I had to take drastic measures, Vic. Rissa saw Liz and charged. I guess her anger over Gregory hadn’t been resolved as we thought it was.”

  I should’ve seen that coming. “Let’s get out of here and regroup. We’ll figure out a way to save her.”

  “Vic, I need to tell you something, important.”

  I didn’t feel good just hanging out here. “Tell me on the way back to the car.”

  But that’s when the first explosion went off. A second and third quickly followed, destroying the integrity of the building. Glass and metal were flung everywhere, sending the two of us scattering. Fires were blazing on the backside of the building; the moment it hit the propane system that powered the water heaters, this place was done. Looking back, I didn’t think it would stand much longer anyway.

  Then it hit the gas line. The force of the explosion sent us flying as the building crashed down all around us.

  Chapter 35

  I pulled Rosette to safety. She was still good and unconscious from whatever that spell was that hit her. That was probably a good thing, too. The streets of downtown Phoenix were in complete pandemonium.

  I had no idea where Isa was. There was just too much debris for me to search through. My head was spinning and nothing made sense. Did the Kraemers double cross me? Were those things rigged to blow?

  That wouldn’t have explained the third explosion. There were just too many questions that needed to be answered. With police and fire rescue on their way, I wasn’t planning on sticking around to try and answer them here. I knew the way back to the car and hoped that if Isa, or Rissa, survived, that they’d head back.

  When I arrived, it was only me. “Damnit,” I swore out loud. I even went so far as to kick my tire in frustration.

  “Vic?” Someone came crashing out of the bushes. It was Isa! “Vic, you’re alive, too!” She picked herself up and ran over to hug me.

  She wasn’t the only person to come out of the bushes. A certain short vampire in high heels also joined us in that parking lot, clapping. “Bravo you two on a wonderful show.”

  “Liz?”

  “Hello daughter.”

  She was in vampire mode. This was a murderous, vengeful vampire standing before us. “Knocking us out and then blowing up the building? That was quite the genius move. Unfortunately, the human fire and rescue services do an excellent job. We will only have sustained minimal casualties, if any.”

  “We didn’t blow anything up!” I was sick and tired of being blamed for stuff I hadn’t done. “The sleeping gas, yes, but that explosion couldn’t have been us.”

  “Oh do tell,” she challenged me.

  “Don’t get into this with her, Vic,” Isa advised.

  “No.” I was intent on proving our innocence. “There were only two explosives to set off the sleeping gas. There were three explosions later. Someone else had to do it.”

  Liz’s gaze drifted from me to her mother. “He does not know, does he?” She started laughing hysterically. “Oh mother, you really have the wool pulled over his eyes.”

  “She’s going to try to split us apart, Vic. Leave and I’ll handle this little devil once and for all.”

  “No stay, Vic. I would be honored to tell you just what has really been going on.” Almost as a move to offer some peace, she de-vamped herself. “Your new girlfriend there tried to kill Rissa and plant one last explosive right outside the conference room. If Rissa had not screamed for help, she may have succeeded in her plan.”

  “She’s lying.”

  Liz took a step closer. “How is this for a lie? You claimed Izabella was not involved in the death of the Australian vampires, the Swertfegers?” She opened her coat and tossed a few pictures on the ground. One landed face up, a clear shot from a security camera of Isa standing over two dead vampires. The most telling part was the Soul of the Mystic was hanging around her neck.

  “She’s doctoring footage now to support her wild claims,” Isa tried to explain to me.

  “Sure, mother. It is all one giant conspiracy – just like you being the Hammer of Jehovah.”

  “What?” That was all I could muste
r.

  Another step forward. “Do you want me to continue, Izabella?” Isa didn’t say a word. “After Jonathan died, we found all of his correspondences. Unfortunately for us, he never outright named his benefactor, but he did do one better. He outlined her plan to collect four very powerful artifacts and use them to take over the supernatural world.”

  Isa’s hand gripped mine. “Don’t believe a word of this!”

  But I had to. The proof was hanging around our necks, the Eye of the Redeemer pressing against me. In fact, we had three of the four. “When were you going to tell me the truth?” I asked quietly. “Never?”

  She was beginning to panic. “I’ve always told you the truth. I fell in love with you while stuck on that hellhole of an island!”

  Liz’s continued laughter interrupted that. “Please – I know for a fact you could come and go as you pleased. Jonathan ratted you out and your deal with the O’Byrne clan.”

  I pulled my hand away. “You played me this entire time? Was it your goal to turn me against your daughter?”

  Tears, real tears from what I could tell, fell from her eyes. “No Victor, you were never part of the original plan. But when I ran across you on Neverland and saw you were touched by Drakel’s blade, I figured it was a sign that you were the one to share in this glory with me.”

  I honestly felt sick. These two… they deserved each other. Liz, for all of her claims, was just as bad as the mother she told me about. And Isa, she knew what strings to pull and how to do it. “Neither of you come near me.” I backed away until I pressed up against the door of the Mustang. “I can’t believe it,” I muttered again.

  Both Liz and Isa froze. I opened the car door and got in; firing up the engine and pulling out of the parking lot, letting them handle their own mother/daughter problems. I’d been used! A sick feeling came over me, one of being dirty, unclean. “How could I possibly have been so stupid?”

  “Easily – the opposite sex, no matter the species, has an effect on men.”

  That last thing I needed was Dr. Warg to give me advice. I just wanted to get home, to Full Moon, as soon as possible. With the disaster behind me, the roads were clear. As I was about to pull on to the freeway and leave the city, something hard hit the top of my car, knocking me off the road and down into the ditch below.

  The door fell open and I rolled out as the car smashed into a tree not too far from me. Whatever hit my car had to have been huge.

  Or a berserker. Cristof jumped off the top of the car, with his huge sword Hrunting in his hand. “Because of you Victor, Isa has escaped us and the vampire community is in shambles.”

  “Listen man, Isa was with her daughter, so if she got away, that’s on her.”

  “Enough,” he growled. “When will you admit that you are the problem?”

  Great, he was here to condemn me for something I had no idea about. Was I the fall guy for everyone? How many times could I be betrayed by people and still feel as if I had friends? Cristof wasn’t a friend. None of them were friends. Everyone was an enemy. And there was only one way to deal with an enemy.

  He was itching for a fight, I could see it. I just wasn’t in the mood; he’d get no fight, just pain. As he leveled his sword at me, I knew his next trick was to let his berserker rage take over. Maybe it was time that I allowed my own to take over.

  “Good,” the Warg yapped happily. “Let us show them the results of their continued assault against us.”

  They would never let me alone, any of the vampires. Maybe Warren Tucker was right all this time. As Cristof began to change into his berserker vampire form, I had an answer to counter him with. He may have been an old vampire, but there was a daemon within me. One that couldn’t be stopped.

  Together, the Warg and I merged into one. As Cristof started his attack, I snapped his arm off. As he stood there in shock, we finished the job by biting him in half, satisfying the bloodlust at the same time.

  Long live the vampires.

  Epilogue

  It’d been a year since the Phoenix tragedy. No vampire ventured out this way and that was fine by me. I enjoyed the simple life I’d been given an opportunity to live.

  My restaurant opened not too long after I got back. In the time since it opened, it’d become a pretty hot spot for travelers to swing in as they ventured across the desert. As the last customers for the night left, I gave the cook and the waitress the rest of the night off. I enjoyed the hard work of cleaning up and preparing everything for the next day.

  I hadn’t been sleeping very well. On the nights where I actually did fall asleep, nightmares plagued me. I never remembered what happened, but the next morning, I’d be covered in sweat and pretty torn up. Working myself into a coma seemed to help. Plus, if I kept my nights to less than three hours, I generally wasn’t hit with the nightmare nonsense.

  A noise hit my ears as I was cleaning out the grease trap. Whoever was trying to sneak into the restaurant was doing a pretty poor job. I grabbed Roscoe from under the counter and slowly walked through the swinging doors that separated the kitchen from the dining room.

  Standing in the middle, as bold as they come, was none other than Peter Pan. “Miss me?”

  I fired two shots off before even thinking about it. He must’ve expected it as both missed, lodging themselves in the wall behind him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Vic.”

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you, again.” Why was he alive? I swore he died on Neverland.

  He put the knife away he’d been tossing around. “Because, if you knew what I did, you’d be thanking me for risking my life coming tonight.”

  Fine.” I put the gun down, but not away. Not that I needed it. Given a moment, the Warg could be out and ripping this little piece of garbage to shreds. “Again, what are you doing here?”

  He slid a chair out and made himself at home. I cringed when he put his shoes up on the clean tabletop. “She needs your help.”

  “Who?”

  “Isa, Vic.”

  That was a name I hadn’t heard since the day in Phoenix. She’d been another one who betrayed me, used me. “Get out,” I commanded. My gun was back to pointing at him. “You know this piece in my hand is the least dangerous thing I’ve got if you’re back in the game.”

  “There’s no need to get the Warg all riled up.” He slowly got up and headed towards the door. “But before I go, you should know why she needs your help.”

  “Shit, unless you tell me she’s won the lottery and is going to split it with me-”

  “Vic,” he interrupted. “What’s after us, it’s also after your kid.” What did he say? “Congrats by the way on a healthy baby boy. His name is Victor, Junior, but we just call him V.J.”

  **Liz**

  “Sorry Liz, I thought we had her, but she’s a slippery one.”

  Rosette’s report did not surprise me. Who knows, the spotting of Izabella might have been a false report. Too many vampires claimed to have seen her, only to be interested in the reward money. And, if I was being honest with myself, after all this time, she was in the shadows.

  “It is okay, Rosette.” The witch knew she was dismissed before I said anything. They all knew when I was disappointed.

  As I stuck my head back into my computer, my door opened again, quickly. This time it was Rissa who entered. The two of us were not exactly chums, but her loyalty to Victor was what kept her around. “I have a report,” she said in her English accent. “Last night, I spotted a young vampire entering his establishment. He matched the description on file for Peter Pan.”

  “Pan?” I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out. “He is supposed to be dead.”

  “He’s not and Victor left with him willingly.”

  The fact we had Vic under constant surveillance and he had not picked up on it was a miracle. His hatred for our kind ran deep according to whispers from Full Moon. Honestly, who could have blamed him? My mother and I really messed him up. We both had done terrible things, inc
luding breaking his heart.

  Looking back up at Rissa, “Is Reno tracking?”

  “Yes, he picked up where I left off. It appears they aren’t leaving the southwest.”

  Pan was a known associate of Jonathan and by that connection, to my mother. If he was alive, there would be no reason not to think he was working with her. And of course my mother stuck around here! Her ultimate goal was to kill me. “Thank you, Rissa.”

  She said nothing and left. I would have to watch that one, I feared. Returning to my computer, I sent out an email to the new council –‘Pan is alive and we may have finally found her.’

  About Us

  Bolt Publishing is an independent publishing house located in Orlando, Florida. Our mission is to bring quality books to our readers that lead to many different worlds.

  Be sure to check out our website for upcoming events and book releases. You can find us at:

  www.boltbookspub.com

  If you would like to email us or reach out to the author himself, our email address is:

  boltbookspub@gmail.com

  Thank you for reading The Daemon Within and be on the lookout for the grand finale to The Inglewood Chronicles next fall.

  -Stephanie (Owner, Bolt Publishing)

  More from Jeremy Croston:

  Ragnarok on Ice Series:

  Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim

  Penalty Kill: Act 2 Midgard

  Game Over: Act 3 Yggdrasil

  Hat Trick: A Ragnarok on Ice Story

  The Inglewood Chronicles:

  The Cactus Killer (Volume 1)

  The Wrath of Pan (Volume 2)

  The Cascade Snowman – Gregory’s Tale

  The Curse of Oberon – (Volume 3)

  The Daemon Within – (Volume 4)