by Eldon Murphy
Geoffrey pulled Melody to him and hugged her. "I blocked some of her pain. You can step down the painkillers for the next few days. I think that might be enough for her to wake up and be coherent for a while. Maybe that will spark a desire to stay."
The hope that flashed through Melody's eyes tore at Geoffrey's heart. It was so strong that he didn't even have to stretch his abilities to feel it.
"I can't guarantee anything, and if she doesn't you shouldn't blame yourself. She's lived with unimaginable amounts of pain for years now. It may just be her time to go."
The hope guttered, nearly dying out, but amazingly none of that crossed her face as Melody nodded. "I understand, thank you for trying."
It seemed impossible that someone still so young could possess so much willpower.
Taking Geoffrey's hand, Melody pulled him back into the living room. Once the pair was seated on the old green sofa, Geoffrey explained events of the last few weeks. By the time the vampire finished, Melody's eyes were wide.
"It was hard enough to believe that vampires existed, and I have you as proof. To think that werewolves are out there too is amazing. Amazing and scary."
Geoffrey nodded. "Scary is right, they are faster and stronger than anything I've ever encountered. The more I examine my memory of the thoughts I touched last night, the more I'm positive that they will kill humans too. They seem predisposed to kill vampires, but I think anything that walks on two legs is an acceptable target to them."
The brown eyes that looked into Geoffrey's eyes were momentarily ancient and wise beyond anything he would have expected from Melody. "So you've found your cause. You'll hunt them down, and in so doing protect innocents from being torn apart and killed."
Geoffrey hadn't thought things through as clearly as that, but as Melody said it he realized she was right. "I guess so. Someone has to help stop them or they'll destroy the city."
Melody wrapped her arms around her knees and shivered. "I don't feel very good about all of this. Run away, Geoffrey. Get out of the city. You can fight these things still, but do it once you are out from under Imastious."
A sudden spark of anger flared up inside Geoffrey. "Haven't you been listening to me? I can't beat these things by myself, they're too strong. If I don't have the help of other vampires I don't stand a chance. Why are you so anxious for me to leave, when you aren't willing to do so yourself?"
Hurt blossomed in Melody's eyes. "I'm just worried about you. You don't understand what it's like to wonder if you're dead. How much it hurts when I try to sleep but can't because I'm worried that you've done something that you can't come back from. I constantly worry that the next time I see you the darkness will have grown, will have killed off the light."
Geoffrey was suddenly exhausted, not physically, but emotionally. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped. I just feel like things are the best they've been, and you're not even happy for me."
The tears were back, but Melody refused to let them escape this time. "I'm happy that you've found a purpose, I'm just worried it will be twisted by Imastious and Venice to something darker than you would have chosen for yourself."
"You don't understand. Even if that's so, I'll still be doing good. I'll still be protecting people from the werewolves."
Melody reached out and captured Geoffrey's hand. "I do want to leave the city, just as much as I want you to leave. I just can't do that while I have to take care of my mom." Melody's hand tightened inside of Geoffrey's as her breath caught. "If that ever changes, I'll leave the city like you want me to, but only if you come with me. You've been inside my mind. You know how I feel about you, just like I know what you feel for me."
Chapter 27
Geoffrey shifted slightly, trying not to make noise or let his companions know that he was starting to get antsy. He hadn't really believed that Alexander was serious about teaming up with him and Venice, but this was the second night that the trio of other vampires had come hunting with them.
The big, dark-skinned vampire sat motionless in the darkness, a respectably-sized ax balanced across his knees. Alexander appeared to be from Middle Eastern stock, and something about his manner made Geoffrey think that he'd been born to a culture from that area of the world. It begged the obvious questions of how he'd become a vampire, and how he'd reconciled his existence--and the things he'd done--against whatever value system he'd grown up with.
Next to Alexander sat Brit, which Geoffrey assumed was a shortened version of her name rather than a nickname resulting from the homely blonde being British. In fact, if anything, Brit seemed to despise Europeans in general and the British particularly. If she'd been older, Geoffrey might have suspected her of having been around back when the American colonies were being oppressed, but he was pretty sure that wasn't the cause of her dislike.
The other vampire from Alexander's group had disappeared from sight, but Geoffrey had come to expect as much from Mouse. It was becoming clear that the slight vampire was doing so less out of a desire to set up for some dark betrayal and more because he wasn't comfortable around so many people. Especially when he didn't know two of them very well.
Another hour passed, and Brit began to fidget. Finally looking up with challenge in her eyes, she hissed a question. "Why are we sitting here instead of hunting them down?"
Venice responded, venom dripping from her voice, before Geoffrey could open his mouth. "Geoffrey has more experience killing these things than anyone else in the city. If he says we wait and let them stumble onto us, then we wait."
It was hard to tell how much of the heat in Venice's response was due to her desire to protect Geoffrey's position of leadership in the group, and how much of it was simply a dislike of Brit. It couldn't have been lost on Venice the way that Brit looked at Geoffrey. More than once there had been a clear invitation in her gaze.
Alexander shot Brit a commanding look that killed her response before it made it out of her mouth, and then nodded. "Venice is right. Geoffrey is the most experienced of us in this area. Not only that, it's possible his hunches are the result of things he saw in that beast's mind, but didn't consciously recognize. We'll stay here as long as he feels it necessary."
Relieved that the building conflict had at least been momentarily defused, Geoffrey relaxed once more and sent his thoughts ranging out in an effort to find one of the alien presences that they were hunting. He knew the odds were against him finding one of the werewolves using his mentalist powers. It appeared that they could turn their absorption power off at will, that or maybe that it wasn't active until they changed forms. Either way, he was pretty sure that they could sense vampires, and both times he'd encountered them the beasts had been stalking the vampires, not the other way around.
When the attack finally happened, it was only luck that gave the vampires any warning at all. Geoffrey had just sent his mental probes out looking for werewolves when he'd felt the alien presence he'd been waiting for suddenly appear nearby.
"Incoming!"
The vampires had all just managed to get to their feet when the werewolf was upon them. Geoffrey's muscles tensed as he took in its sheer size. It was even bigger than the last one they'd fought.
The vampires spread out and tried to encircle the beast in the unsteady light, but it was so fast that they were having a hard time pinning it in one place long enough to do so. "Slow it down!" screamed Geoffrey as he dived to the side to avoid a lethal swipe of the creature's claws, receiving a shallow set of gashes despite his efforts.
Rolling back to his feet, Geoffrey tried to push his thoughts into the werewolf's mind. It was simply too strong--the five of them weren't going to be able to overwhelm its absorption abilities.
As Geoffrey charged in to try and score a blow on the creature, Mouse suddenly appeared out of the shadows behind the creature and stabbed it with his twin short swords.
Roaring in pain, the beast backhanded the smaller vampire, knocking him into a wall with bone-crushing force. Now it was only four to one, bu
t they'd backed it into a wall.
The werewolf moved so fast it seemed to flicker from one place to another, not bothering to cross the intervening distance between points as it parried attack after attack from all four vampires.
Geoffrey pushed himself, reaching new levels of speed in an effort to get through the creature's defenses. For four or five seconds it made no difference, and then the vampires felt a slight change in the werewolf's parries; they were the tiniest fraction of a second slow, possessed of the barest feeling of being hurried. Geoffrey's weapon slashed out in a lightning fast blow to the creatures arm, and amazingly enough succeeded in scoring a shallow cut.
The creature whirled around faster than Geoffrey could follow, and leaped over him as it howled its rage to the waning crescent of the moon. Geoffrey had been struck in passing by one of the beast's feet, the force of which was enough to knock him to the ground. Springing to his feet, the vampire suddenly felt his blood run cold as he realized the second howl he'd heard hadn't come from the werewolf they were fighting.
There'd been no guarantee that the four of them were going to be able to defeat the first werewolf. If a second joined the fray, Geoffrey and the others would be torn apart.
A brief glance at Alexander revealed that the massive vampire was fully aware of the implications of what he'd just heard, but no trace of fear clouded his face as he roared back at the werewolf and charged in swinging his heavy ax. It was the right answer, the only answer. If they could press the first werewolf hard enough to kill it before the second arrived, there was a chance that they'd still be able to fight off the second before succumbing to exhaustion.
Again and again the monster tried to disembowel one or another of the vampires, and each time its target escaped with little or no damage, but the vampires hadn't managed to score even light wounds in return.
Several seconds passed before Geoffrey realized that the sound hammering away at the back of his mind was that of a police siren. It was one more thing to worry about, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. They'd just have to deal with the police after the fight, assuming they survived the fight.
Almost drowned out by the siren, the sound of running feet made their way to Geoffrey's ears just before five figures came sprinting around the corner. More vampires, but there wasn't any telling whether they'd help or hinder.
The unvoiced question was answered as the second group surrounded the werewolf and began cutting. Geoffrey had a brief second of relief, and then a heavy impact behind him caused reflexes to take over and send him diving out of the way.
The vampire knew without looking that a second werewolf had arrived, jumping down from a building, and he felt hope beginning to die again as one of the recently arrived vampires went down in a spray of blood.
The arrival of the second werewolf had completed the blackout that the first hadn't quite had the power to accomplish. The battle progressed in inky darkness relieved only by the weak light of the moon.
In theory, the eight remaining vampires should have been fairly evenly matched against the two werewolves, but the arrival of the second opponent seemed to have resulted in a greater shift than Geoffrey would have predicted. It was like the two beasts were more comfortable fighting in the disorganized melee they'd created than the vampires were. The werewolves took blows of opportunity on whichever target happened to be nearby, while the vampires tended to focus on one opponent at a time.
Dodging another slash, Geoffrey slipped in a side-thrust kick to his opponent's knee, but the blow left his foot numb. It was just like he'd kicked a tree.
Despair seemed to be manifesting on every vampire face to one degree or another, but none of the combatants broke and ran. Geoffrey's questing thoughts picked up a sliver of intention, and he threw himself to the side, bringing up his katana to block an attack that would have killed the vampire to his left.
The force of the block knocked Geoffrey to the ground, but a coordinated offensive by three of the other vampires forced the smaller werewolf back so that it couldn't take advantage of Geoffrey's immobility.
Once again footsteps sounded behind Geoffrey, but he'd forgotten about the sirens, so he was surprised when a voice yelled. "Police, don't move."
Without thinking, Geoffrey reached into the two minds behind him and nudged thoughts already headed the direction he wished, giving both officers the certainty that the two large forms before them must be stopped.
Geoffrey rejoined the fight just as the first shots cracked overhead impacting the werewolves more often than not, and causing the pair to scream in pain. Hardly pausing, one of the werewolves ripped a parking meter free from the concrete it was embedded in and hurled it towards the two policemen.
A sickening thud announced that the blow had struck flesh, and the decreased volume of fire indicated that one of the officers was down or dead, but the bullets had combined with the myriad of lesser wounds that the vampires had inflicted to start bleeding the werewolves out, and they were slowing.
Alexander connected with a mighty blow from his ax, and the smaller of the werewolves went down momentarily stunned. The beast never got a chance to get back up as a trio of vampires swarmed over it, cutting and slashing.
The larger werewolf suddenly sprang away from the battle, landing halfway up the wall of a building, where his claws were able to sink into the brickwork and find enough purchase to climb up and disappear into the night.
Exhaustion robbed Geoffrey's limbs of strength, but he somehow managed to remain on his feet as he tried to figure out what to do about the police now that the werewolves were gone.
"Nobody move!"
Geoffrey had forgotten about the policeman behind him, but he reached out with his thoughts to calm the man down, only to have his mind overwhelmed with incredible waves of pain as a series of sharp cracks were followed by a scream.
Turning, the vampire saw a figure wreathed in fire try to drop to the ground and roll to put the flames out. It was the right response, but the effort was futile. The fire was just too hot to be put out.
Reeling from having been inside the man's mind when he died, Geoffrey looked back at the new vampires. One of them was wearing a satisfied smile and blowing on his finger as if to clear the smoke from a gun.
Rage washed through Geoffrey. He never even paused to consider his actions as he walked over and backhanded the pyromancer into a nearby wall. The other vampire probably would have seen the blow coming and dodged it, but Geoffrey had simultaneously attacked him with multiple blows of pure mental force.
His opponent had impressive mental shields, ones that under normal circumstances Geoffrey wouldn't have contemplated trying to crack, but fueled as he was by anger, Geoffrey's assault on the other vampire's mind was relentless, and in less than a second succeeded in acquiring the access his blood cried for.
Recoiling slightly from the sick satisfaction that spidered through the other vampire's thoughts at having killed the police officer, Geoffrey considered his options briefly and then started creating a construct that he thought would accomplish what he desired.
Partway through his efforts, no more than a couple of seconds after he'd assaulted the other vampire, Geoffrey heard motion behind him. There was no choice but to ignore it, to hope that Venice would warn him if he was about to be attacked.
The entire process took less than twenty seconds, and then Geoffrey looked up to find that Alexander, Brit, and Venice had all surrounded him with drawn weapons, each having squared off against one of the other vampires in an effort to protect him.
Geoffrey picked up the now-unconscious pyromancer and threw him to one of his companions. Eyeing the dark-skinned vampire who seemed to be the nominal leader of the group, Geoffrey pointed to the unconscious form and tried to phrase his words in a way that someone as morally dead as Imastious might believe.
"He destroyed an asset that could have potentially been useful in the fight against those things."
The other vampire opene
d his mouth to respond, but Geoffrey cut him off. "The Elders declared truce solely to avoid squandering resources and men that could otherwise be used to defeat creatures that want nothing more than to rip our hearts from our chests. As far as I'm concerned, that truce extends to humans that can be used to help us win this war."
Alexander stepped up next to Geoffrey and nodded. "The mentalist speaks the truth. Without those humans we would have died."
All seven remaining vampires stood poised and ready for conflict, but finally Geoffrey received a nod from the leader of the other group. "You've made an enemy here tonight, but that's his business to pursue once he awakes. We've no wish to die on your blades."
Geoffrey watched the three vampires carry their unconscious companion out of sight, and then he followed Alexander the other direction as the lights came back on. It was chilling to consider that the lights being off probably meant that the werewolf had been watching them from the darkness the entire time they'd been at each other's throats.
Once the quartet was far enough away from the scene of the fight to feel safe, Alexander turned to Geoffrey. "You did make an enemy there, no doubt about that, but you also just demonstrated the will required to enforce this treaty, a will that most of us 'peasants' haven't been sure our masters truly possessed."
Holding out his over-sized hand once again, Alexander smiled. "You'll have to watch your back somewhat, but I think you've made a fine start to this business."
Chapter 28
Geoffrey had spent the last two days worrying about how Imastious would respond to the fact that he'd assaulted another vampire for what most would consider no good reason.
There was a chance that Geoffrey would be able to convince Imastious that he'd been motivated by the kind of thing Alexander had keyed into. It was true that someone needed to demonstrate the willingness and ability to enforce the truce, but Imastious believing that his actions had been motivated by something other than concern for a 'mere' human seemed like a long shot.
He'd tried, but Geoffrey had found it nearly impossible to get the image of that burning police officer out of his mind. Almost as bad was the way that he couldn't seem to get the memory of Melody's words to leave him alone. He was only a few steps down the path he'd chosen and already his efforts seemed to be turning out in ways he hadn't wanted them to. He could only hope now that his attempt to right a small part of that wasn't going to cost him everything.