“We’ve found dozens of shells, but no guns. There were explosions, but none of the usual fragments associated with typical bombs and grenades.”
The older man with his graying brown hair frowned at her assessment as they led the reporter and his assistant around the site. The voran knew that he was being micromanaged to make sure that any story he wrote wouldn’t bring a bad light to the Chicago neighborhood or the police. Nick could also guess that Detective McTeer in particular wanted him done and gone as soon as possible.
The second and third floors were a similar condition to the first, though Nick hadn’t been on these levels the previous night. He had seen enough of the action from the building across the way to know how the explosions on the stairway had happened. If the voran had been in favor of saving the reaper, he could have shouted warning of the assassin coming from behind in time; but they had remained quiet and watched until the point where the reapers were about to win unless the occupiers were reinforced.
“Is there much to see up above?” Nick asked as they finished reviewing the damage to the building’s third floor. Plywood had been brought to this level as well, but he doubted that anything above the basement was truly a living space for the vampires. The open air of the unfinished building let in too much light and it was also open to notice from anyone looking that way, though the upper floors would have had places to hide due to the extreme angle of sight from the lower surrounding buildings.
The male detective looked like he wanted to send them on a wild goose chase, but he said, “Nothing at all on the fourth and seventh levels. There’s a few more gun shells on the rest, though nowhere near the activity we saw on the first few. The basement was somehow missed in all the activity. A steel door was locked and appeared untampered with so any subfloor access would be impossible.”
Detective Sanchez added, “From the basic walls put up on the lower floors, we’re guessing the homeless used the first three or four. I guess maybe the basement was too dark for them, since there isn’t any power running down there for lights unless generators are brought in to run them. The builder was called and he said that they were waiting for more financing and wouldn’t be ready to do more until June.”
“So he left some equipment and materials out here unwatched?”
The detectives shrugged.
“Maybe he was hoping something would happen to collect some insurance for that extra financing?” Nick threw the idea out there just to give them something else to think about, as opposed to any thoughts of vampires. Unless they were feeding him basic theories to mislead him, the voran could assume that such fantasies were not on the table.
It took time to get the detectives bored with them and they had all begun heading down the stairs. Nick made them more comfortable with his lack of interest on the upper floors. No one wanted to walk up the extra stairs for no reason and his acquiescence implied that he trusted their advice. As a reporter, he already had enough for an article and figured to write one with his perspective. It would be a highly adjusted perspective about gangs and homeless people as well as the destruction inside of the partially abandoned property. Done correctly, Nick could parlay the fight at the nest into two or three articles. He might as well make a little money to help pay for all the extra bodies living in his apartment, eating his food and borrowing his vehicles, Nick thought in amusement.
He took some pictures with his phone where allowed. It would be enough to illustrate his articles if the editor wanted more than just words. Nick and Charlotte separated from the two police detectives and found their way to the slope into the lower floor. Acting like they were merely curious about the architecture of the building, the two wandered into the basement area with little interest shown by any of the police still roaming the site.
Cracking a glow stick that he had stashed in his pocket and shaking it to bring the light, Nick and Charlotte moved out of the daylight cast from the mouth of the entry tunnel. The voran and werewolf’s eyes could make out more in the darkness than a human’s, but it was definitely dark and the basement was very large. They hadn’t been told where the steel door that the police had found was actually located; but locked or not, Nick had a feeling they would find the remainder of the nest hidden beyond it.
He used his radar like sense to verify the dark auras of the vampire’s below them. There must be at least one more floor below the basement they were in now. Charlotte showed up the voran and tugged on his arm towards the west side. A stone wall jutted out from the side in a rectangle and they found the door turned from their view. He guessed that a stairwell ran parallel to the wall behind the steel barrier.
They remained as quiet as they could. Disturbing sleeping vampires wasn’t desirable. They wanted to catch them sleeping and make their jobs easy and safe. Slaying vampires in this way didn’t make a hunter feel good. It was much harder to believe the creatures were evil until they were trying to kill you, but a good hunter knew that taking out a dozen or so vampires while dulled to sleep by the sun was much safer than finding the coven ready to fight at night.
Breaking out a lock pick set, Nick toyed with the standard door lock for only a few moments before the voran conquered the simple lock. It was a self closing door, however, and he had Charlotte hold it open to place a cinder block from a small pile in front of it. With the block to rest against, if things went sideways they wouldn’t have to fight a closed door in the dark.
Nick moved into the stairwell as Charlotte set the door quietly against the cinder block. The two moved as silently as they could down metal stairs with jagged steps to insure grip even when wet. It was a very industrial feel in a building that seemed rough in its semi abandoned state.
Concrete walls insulated them as they descended the single flight of stairs and found a second door. It was frustrating to Nick as he found another self closing door at the bottom. Returning up the stairs cringing with each step, the voran retrieved a second block doing the best he could to simulate Charlotte’s care with the first door. Once down the stairs, Nick dropped the first glow stick at the foot of the stairs on the smoothed concrete landing. It would give them light to find the second door when they returned. Excellent night vision or not, a hint of the opening was still better than finding one’s way in the dark.
A second glow stick was pulled from his pocket and cracked so that the two fluids held separate would react and glow. Easing the bottom door open, Nick looked for trouble. His sense of smell and vampire radar told him it was clear, but he preferred to err on the side of caution.
One thing his radar did tell him was that this was the level they needed to find the hidden vampires. They were both spread and clumped together. Two were much closer to the stairway, but now Nick needed to find his way through a space cluttered with the machinery that would eventually run the building. Electrical panels on the walls led to generators. Pumps were hooked up and spread to deal with any water in the future. The very entry descending into the building could wind up letting in flood waters and only powerful, large pumps would keep the power center of the building safe.
The first sleeping vampire was found. He was thin and scruffy looking as he lay on his back on a piece of plywood set across a pair of pumps. Nick created an aura blade with his right hand. While he couldn’t have possibly smuggled his silver coated sword past the police, the voran was a weapon thanks to his ability to create swords made from his essence. Light to cut the darkness, Nick tried to keep the sword’s brightness muted as he beheaded the vampire where he slept.
While beheading certainly worked to kill a vampire, to clean up the mess it would make sense to pierce the heart instead to make them burn away. Unfortunately the sound and flash of fire from that kind of kill was likely to bring the rest of the nest awake in a hurry.
He moved to the second vampire. Perhaps they were closest to the door to act as sentries, but sleeping sentries meant dead guards. Nick removed a second head from its shoulders. Feeling like a simple executioner didn’t sit
well with the voran, but it was necessary.
Feeling movement with his radar rather than seeing it, Nick threw the glow stick in the direction of the movement. Caught off guard as the vampire came to light when the stick landed at its feet; Nick followed the glowing light and only called up the aura blades as he finished crossing fifteen feet in a rush near the speed of a vampire. This was not a well trained fighter and the aura blade took its head, the surprise was still on the man’s face as the body fell forward and his head rolled down the back.
He could feel more of the vampires awakening, though his attacks had made little sound. Such stealth shouldn’t have been noticed by sleeping vampires at all, even with the dull thud of the falling body. It could only mean that most of those hidden behind a cross wall with a door at the end of the aisle of machinery, must have forced themselves to remain awake in spite of the sentries.
He looked at Charlotte and nodded his head towards the door while holding up his hand to the woman. Moving ahead of the werewolf, who felt tense as should be expected; Nick moved to the door before throwing it open. Stealth and surprised were gone and speed would be his best ally now. The first glow stick was thrown into a new room as he cracked and tossed two more to either side.
A vampire was on him. A female, her eyes were white with hunger. The aura blade pierced her heart before Nick kicked her back into the room where her body combusted in flame. Two more burned stumbling away blinded and on fire.
Both hands sported the glowing blades as Nick rolled through the doorway. One swiped where his head had been from the equipment he stood on, but Nick had sensed him and known to go low.
“Blood!” Another female, who felt like she was starving and barely a vampire to his senses, lunged at him wildly screaming. Though completely in the moment of battle, the voran’s mind told him this was a newly turned vampire and possibly not even blooded. He guessed, since he felt no humans in the basement for food; that the nest vampires had tried to build numbers by turning everyone still alive.
Charlotte was behind him. Her claws bared, the werewolf slashed the vampire above the door across his face. It screamed and her claws went through his chest pulling out a black heart.
Surrounded by more than a dozen presences, Nick realized that he had underestimated their number being so close together; but most couldn’t really fight. They were merely vampires acting on instinct and no worse than dogs. While fast; those who were starving were little better than human in strength and quickness. Another man leaped for him gnashing his teeth trying to bite him, he was blood mad and Nick lopped off his head as he side stepped the charge. Unlike the vampires, the voran was able to attain peak speed and reflexes. He was also a product of decades of training.
They tried to use numbers, but he was like an elusive shadow darting between their attacks. An aura blade pierced a heart as another vampire charged crashing into one behind him. The two went up in flames together. Like some angel of death, the man with the glowing blades tore through those who fought. Fingers reached for his clothing, but not even that was touched as the voran was like a bull fighter in a ring. He maneuvered them close and was no longer there. More flamed out on the aura blades and soon just two willing to fight remained.
Charlotte had taken out two more. One had been knocked aside by Nick and her claws had caught him in the chest crushing his heart in a single strike. The room was clear of all save those cringing on the far side of the room and the two fighting Nick.
“Come on, man. We weren’t hurting anyone. Why did you send those monsters here last night? We just wanted to be left alone,” one of the men made a plea even as he held a knife tipped with silver. It could only cut Nick’s flesh if it hit, but it wouldn’t make him burn like the vampires.
“We didn’t send the reapers to attack you, but we made sure to kill as many of them as we could catch. You’re gang simply helped us achieve our goal of removing even more dangerous vampires from the city,” Nick answered with both blades ready in his hands.
“What are you anyway?” the second man asked. “You aren’t a vampire with those light sabers. You smell human.”
“I’m a voran or you can just call me a vampire hunter, either works. I kill vampires so the disease doesn’t spread.”
“With a werewolf?” the first asked trying to buy time as the remaining two fighters tried to figure out an ending that didn’t leave them dead.
“And vampires under my protection that don’t kill humans or turn them for numbers like you and your friends.”
“We found most of these guys last night. We didn’t make a ton of vampires. This nest was formed to try and stop the slaughter, man. Those creeps killed hundreds of us on the north side, so we armed up and hid here with the others. The guys up top wanted to fight them. We came down here to hide and keep the young ones alive,” the first one tried to explain. “If there’s a way to not drain blood and not lose our minds, I’m up for it. Just show me the way and I’ll follow you. Really.”
He hadn’t dropped the blade and Nick could tell that it was only a half truth. The preferable way out of this situation was for them to win and kill both Nick and Charlotte; but the voran replied giving him a last chance. “Fine drop your weapons and I will let you live, but you must follow what I say.”
Letting the aura blades disappear from sight to show he was willing to stay his hand, Nick wasn’t surprised when the two vampires rushed him instead. They thought they were fast and the distance too close for him to react. Two aura blades lanced out from the voran’s chest. Since they were light and merely extensions of the voran’s aura, he could call them from anywhere.
Both light blades were like spears hitting directly in their chests as they attacked. Stunned by the aura blades a moment, Nick withdrew them as they stood numb and took their heads with new swords called into his hands.
With a big sigh, the voran felt the remaining handful of vampires. All were weak and most likely turned without access to blood from humans since they were originally the blood stock. Charlotte moved beside him and asked, “Are there any you think should be saved?”
She was referring to pure souls cursed like Sami. He had spared the girl, the only survivor and a mistake of the vampires at that; but the girl had been willing to die rather than give in to her bloodlust. As he had said then, it was a rare trait among the newly turned and starving vampires.
“Oh my God, Nick, look,” Charlotte said seeing a child. The boy was probably only eight or nine by his guess. With dark brown skin, his eyes would have stood out if they were normal, but they were white with his hunger. Two young women, an older man with gray hair and a middle aged woman huddled against the far wall. They had seen what had happened to the brave and strong. Those with fight in them were dead.
The pretty brunette moved closer to the boy talking soothingly as she hoped that he could be saved. He bared his fangs and Nick warned, “Be careful. Those eyes tell that they are on the verge of being out of their minds with hunger.”
“But he’s just a boy, Nicholas,” she chided using his full name like the wife she would be if life were fair. “He just needs to be taken care of properly and you’ll see that he can be saved. Maybe they all can.”
Nick moved with each step of Charlotte watching their eyes and wondering if fear of him or restraint of themselves held them in check. When the little boy leaped for the werewolf, the voran guessed that he could smell the wolf in her as well. Whether he thought to take her blood or just kill the woman, they would never know.
Charlotte pulled back in surprise and the glowing voran blade stopped the little vampire cold as it stabbed the feral creature in the chest. A small fire erupted, but the child never sounded like anything other than the animal he had become. He was also the changing of the tide and the lynch pin to the others’ willingness to attack.
The old man and one of the young women charged in the first wave. Teeth were bared and unintelligible snarls revealed that only the hunger remained. The smell of the we
rewolf made them charge the armed voran and both erupted in flame as he took them through the heart. Last to attack was the middle aged woman and she joined the others in fire.
As the last girl huddled against the wall, he asked, “Can you understand me?”
The white eyes stared at him and fangs were bared. He tried asking a second time without receiving the glimmer of the humanity he hoped to see. She was merely a frightened animal too afraid to attack him. With nothing left of the girl save the vampire’s instincts, Nick sighed feeling the pain in his heart; but knew that it was the only merciful thing he could do for the girl that had once been human.
Light destroyed the darkness as her black heart started the fire that consumed the shell of the girl.
He could hear Charlotte crying and turned to hug her to him. The claws were gone and the blades put away. Only the amber glow of the sticks fought with the shadows as Nick held the woman he loved knowing her pain, since it was also his own.
Chapter 29- The Art of Flirting
She couldn’t stop crying and in fact, Charlotte was so upset by the death of the boy as well as the others that she grew sick and threw up. Nick walked her to the stairwell where she sat on the stone, rather than the jagged metal stairs while he tended to the clean up. More than a dozen vampires had died and not all had caught fire.
Like silver, Nick’s aura blade reacted with the flesh of vampires inducing flame to reduce the evidence to dust. With little air getting into the subbasement, Nick had to make sure to disperse the dust as best he could by kicking the remaining mounds. There was so much dust that it made him sneeze and would make future visitors curious about the abundance on the floor and machinery; but dust was natural and humans didn’t think much of it. Dead bodies raised a lot more questions, so he was thorough.
Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) Page 39