The Order: A Knight Of Fangs

by J. X. Evans

  “We know.” Rob and Perry answered at the same time.

  “What?” Mark asked. “Where? How?”

  “Didn’t I tell you?” Thanos asked, a bit perplexed with a smile all the way to his ears.

  “You said pet! I presumed a goldfish or a dog or something.” Rob answered in minor exasperation.

  “Oh well, Rocky is a shemlear and if the kid can do one thing right, it is digging. Rocks and hard surfaces don’t bother him either, he just devours them (Shemlears have the ability to break down rocks, minerals and metals within minutes in their stomachs, which are inlaid with a surface of a hard rock-like substance to contain their close to zero PH stomach acids and that helps them grind the minerals and rocks to gravel and dust. Then they use those minerals to form their own rocky exterior, so the consistency of a shemlear’s shell is determined by the region that it lives in and the quality of the ground’s minerals.) So, we can go behind the estate, in the forest region where no one will notice and let the kid dig. He can make a tunnel big enough even for a man Rob’s size to the estate and back in very little time, less than six hours probably. We go underneath and we blow the place up.”

  “Thralls used to be kept in bulk, locked in basements, mostly to minimize the stink of messy eating along with the odor of slow decomposition, and the vampires were feeding them the drained corpses when they were done with them. Used to drop them down a hatch, and they let them out whenever they needed them for an attack or anything. That’s what our records say at least.” Perry mumbled, his anger obviously still lingering inside.

  “This was in castles. Places like that usually have wine cellars or indoor swimming pools or whatnot and they are not that big. I don’t think that they will have them there. The most comfortable place would be a big room on the first floor maybe. A ball room or a big living room of some sorts; spacious, easy to access, and of no use to the vampires at a time of war. It is not like they would be throwing parties at the moment, or any time soon.” Rob suggested.

  “Then we bring enough explosive to bring the whole place down. There appears to be a lot of weight in the upper floors, take out the foundations and most of them will probably get crushed by rubble.” Thanos said.

  “You see, you keep using that word ‘we’. As if you are coming with us.” Perry snarled at him.

  ‘Blowing up the place would be a hell of a good start to a surprise attack. Nothing like the roof over your head falling on it to disorient you and possibly injure you or worse…well better for us.’ But Rob had a feeling that the kids would still be alive, a feeling that there was something he was missing and he did not want them to get injured. Kids cannot turn into vampires, the stress of the transformation process is too much and it always kills them, they do not even come close to turning. But on the other hand, it cannot be some sick vampire fetish thing about sucking little kids dry either. All the kids that the papers reported missing were different, all small true but nothing else in common, fetishes usually come with a little more pinpoint and colorful details and patterns; skin color, gender, height, hair color and who the fuck knows what else. And they killed their parents, a vampire could steal the kid from its bed, or simply pick one up from the street and none would be the wiser; they would not travel all the way from Athens to Lesbos just to kidnap a single random child, it made no sense. Kids had other uses in the supernatural world, magical energies and a form of link that they lost as they were growing up, black witches and demons preferred them as sources of life energy and some had more energy than others sure, but still they were not that rare. And they could still pick kids up from the sidewalk when they were returning from school or whatnot, in bulk as well if they wanted, hijack a school bus or raid a playground for that matter, there rarely ever is a need for quality over quantity when it comes to energies…well, it depends actually. It was something, Rob did not know what, but something, and he believed it to be a serious piece of that something, imperative maybe to the course of the upcoming war even. Irrelevant seeming things are rarely irrelevant in times of crisis, and they only seem so for as long you don’t know what the enemy knows.

  “I believe that there are live kidnapped children in that mansion. They steal them for some reason, I don’t know why, but their targets are not random, even if there is no evident pattern in the kidnappings. I want to know why, and I want to save them if they are still alive. We cannot bomb or burn the house down.” Rob cut in to Perry’s and Thanos’ bickering which had been going on for as long as Rob had been making up his mind.

  “So…what do we do?” Mark asked.

  “We are practically ready as far as preparations go. The vampires will undoubtedly have some plan about seizing control of the city, and the country after they were done with us. We must move quickly, we can’t let them grow in strength or move from their current position. The attack should happen at dawn, we don’t want to fight them in the dark; we have good senses but they have better.” The vampire attack was coordinated, multiple attacks at multiple locations, they had planned this and there is a war coming, they will have a plan for seizing as much land as possible in the time that the Order needs to regroup and recover, form a battle plan. There was no evident vampire movement today, nothing reported on the news or from the Order, well the Order had still not communicated with them about anything really, the attack had been too massive and the organization would still be recovering. ‘We were caught with our pants all the way down our fucking ankles.’ The vampires would not really need a subtle, intricate plan, just go out and grab people, make more thralls, seize people of interest and make use of them. A glimpse of vampiric power and a simple promise would be like dangling candy in front of a toddler, well to most either way. They all fall for money after all…and power trumps money every day of the week. It was a solid tactic, tried time and again, and if not….everyone is expendable. ‘Damn…why did we let such a dangerous species survive in our world? Sentient, and immortal, and predatory to humans? What the hell were our predecessors thinking? A genocide when we had a chance would have been better after all...humanity will crumble if we do not act fast and hard, and if they had no reason to treat us like garbage then…well they do now, for sure.’

  “Wait…dawn is nine hours from now.” Perry observed helpfully.

  “And we will have to start somewhat earlier than that; still plenty of time. We grab a couple of guards and we question them about the interior of the mansion. We sneak in, grab the kids and then one of us brings them to safety, while the others move to the thralls’ holding place and torch them. Then we deal with the bloodsuckers.”

  “I think that sooner is better than later in this regard. We should deal with this. We are regrouped, in good condition, and the enemy will only grow stronger with time. There is no way the Order will send reinforcements down here any time soon. Other regions will be worse off for sure, some will have been overtaken and others will be in serious struggle over territory dominance. I suppose we have it is here.” Perry said.

  “Yes…we have.” Mark chimed in.

  “Fine, I will meet you there before dawn. I got to pick some things up from my place.” Thanos said and stood up from the table, started moving away, waving a hand for goodnight.

  “Eh, you are not coming…”

  “Perry, please. Let it go already. I have made my choices and I can live by them, accept it. Respect it at least. I want to help, I am a damn good with a rifle and you know it.” Thanos said and stopped in the doorway, leading outside the dining room and towards the front door of the house.

  “What if the vampires beat us, what if they spotted you and they strolled by to suck you dry for an energy burst? What if”

  “What is your point?”

  “You will only be in the way. You cannot realistically hit them and you will make me have my mind on you. I will be distracted. Also, if that is not enough, a vampire could cross a kilometer in thirty seconds, less if it tried hard enough, even if you started running it would make no differ
ence.”

  “I have a car. And what if you fail then, what if I could help and I didn’t? It will be a huge win for the vampires, it w”

  Perry stood up from his chair and was across the room and right in front of Thanos’ face in the blink of an eye, grabbed him by the front of the custom made duster and lifted him easily off the ground. The feet of the relatively tall man dangling centimeters from the red and black carpet. Mark jumped a bit off his seat as he detected Pericles’ movement but made himself sit back down and stay out of it almost immediately. Rob stayed on his chair wearing a stern look on his face, not moving a muscle, but Sir Paws left his lap and quickly climbed up on a bookcase from where he could better spot a threat coming towards him. Zora reflexively made herself ready as she saw Pericles’ muscles tensing but then relaxed and went back to being bored, holding her chin in the palm of her hand, munching on pieces of toasted bread with olive oil and oregano, waiting for the fool to leave so that she could be briefed on what was going on.

  “You Will Be In The Way. I have let you play guardian of mankind and bane of monsters before and you usually know your limits. Do you remember that conversation we had early on? You listen to us. Now… I am telling you that this one is too dangerous for you. I have agonized over your wellbeing and I have cursed myself for showing you this world when you were too small to understand what was good for you. It is noble what you do, sometimes. Most of the times it is stupid. Sit this one out, it will be the best way to help. Trust me.”

  Pericles let his brother drop to the floor, the scene could have been comical from an observer’s point of view due to the difference in the apparent physiques of the involved embers, if it wasn’t a bit sad and scary and completely awkward. Thanos was a head taller than Perry, with hard lean muscles that came from a life of tough physical labor and athleticism, even when he was younger he had an affinity for sports such as kick boxing, judo, running, sprinting and football, and of course years and years of monster hunting. Whereas Perry was on the shorter side of the curve and his build even though sturdy and relatively muscular did not seem as something remarkably impressive.

  Thanos stood up, and rubbed at his neck, “You are right of course,” his voice was gruff, maybe Perry had squeezed a bit harder than strictly necessary and “sorry.” Before removing his duster and dropping it on the floor, “For the girl. I assume that she does not have one. Maybe it will be too long for her, roll the sleeves up or something…if that is the best and only way I can help then I am happy to do so…Best of luck.” Thanos turned his back to the group, stepped over the duster and walked out of the room and then the door, leaving an air of uneasiness behind him. Mark and Rob and Sir Paws worst of all looked at Perry with looks of disappointment while Zora kept up doing what she did though.

  “He is a fucking civilian!” Perry said, pointing towards the direction that Thanos took, after he heard the heavy door closing behind him. Both Rob and Mark knew that he was right about how dangerous it would be for Thanos but he could see that they did not agree with the way he let him know. On second thought, maybe he was a bit too harsh.

  “He is.” Rob asserted calmly, his eyes not leaving Perry’s.

  ‘A bit too harsh? Not harsh enough? Harsh enough but twenty years too late?’… “Fuck this.” Perry mumbled under his breath and left the room, going at the opposite direction of his brother’s.

  “Dawn.” Rob said, raising his voice just slightly so that Pericles could hear him clearly.

  A second passed and Zora asked “What happened? What did ‘we’ decide? Anyone mind explaining to me what is going on?”

  “Help us clean the table. We will talk at the same time.” Rob said, standing up from his chair.

  24. THE AGE OF CAUTION

  There was the sound of yelling and a heavy glass object shattered against a wall. Ulrik turned at the corner, and actually saw the last tiny pieces of glass scattering on the wooden floor of the dim hallway, the only faint light coming a dim lamp in Duncan’s study, through the open door. There was a deep dent in the wall at the place where the glass figurine had struck it.

  “Utter Failure!” Duncan’s voice rushed out of the door and dissipated up and down the empty hallways like a furious river, to claim the empty space where silence resided.

  “Calm down darling. It does not become you.” Helena’s purr stepped lighter on Ulrik’s ear drum than Duncan’s mad yells, but with an annoying tingle that left him wanting to scratch his ear canal bloody with his small, hard, sharp claws. He could probably have chosen better companions… maybe?

  Ulrik stood on the doorway without speaking, hands clasped across his chest. Duncan was pacing up and down the room, veins and arteries bulging and moving like fat lazy worms under the pale skin of his temples and his forehead with every grimace of anger and displeasure. His clothes were wrinkled, covered in soot, sweat and fresh blood and his expensive breastplate was dumped at a corner of the room. Helena was laid sprawled on the canape like some lavish concubine, twirling a curl of vibrant red hair between her long slender fingers, sharp, purple painted and polished nails gleaming in the low light, somewhat less than her diamond rings though.

  Duncan turned and growled at Ulrik, “And what is your bloody excuse?”

  “No excuse. He escaped me.”

  “He escaped? How? Why? ...Did you try to prevent him from escaping?”

  Ulrik did, slightly though, he had started climbing that ladder the first time. After that, maybe he could have kept pursuing the old man, but the chances of catching him would not have been in his favor, “I did.”

  “Dammit.” Duncan walked to a wooden chair in front of the desk and smashed it to bits with a heel strike, giving a scream at the same time.

  Helena took a glance at the smashed furniture and then at Duncan with eyebrows raised “Better?” she asked.

  “Do I look fucking better?” he shouted back at her. Then he turned his back to them and shat on his chair with a sigh.

  “What of the other two?” Ulrikasked, but he already knew. He had a known before they left the manor.

  “They never showed up, probably dead. Maybe the kid is dead too, but who knows? We should assume that he isn’t.” Helena replied.

  Utter failure, they had so much time to plan yet for some reason the deadline moved back, and Helena was not yet ready for combat. And even though they staked the place out every day using human lackeys to learn of their weekly habits. It so happened that the single one day the old man, Robert left the café, changed the routine, so he had to chase him down… One can plan for the unexpected only so much. If Helena was ready, then the kid would be dead for sure and the other two would be no match for the three of them plus double the amount of thralls. The two idiots could have helped some as well, and who knows…maybe in time they could learn to be a bit more useful.

  “There was another one, a girl. She was a bother, another wild card to mess with our plans, isn’t it fucking great? They got most of my thralls and escaped me as well. I got distracted for one moment. One!” Duncan said. More angry with himself than anything else. And once more Ulrik could just not see the point for all this yelling and huffing and puffing. Good thing the guy is immortal because otherwise his heart would certainly be in trouble.

  A moment passed, “So, what do we do now?” Helena purred and stretched, “I have started getting bored.”

  Duncan took a cell phone from the first drawer and held it at eye level. He remained looking at it for a while. “We wait… I sent a message on my way here.” At that moment the phone rang and Duncan stood up from his chair. “Just in time. Get out. Wait downstairs, the main living room. I’ll come find you later.”

  Ulrik turned on his heels, and walked out of the room, Helena and the sound of her high heels following him not a second later. The door closed and sounds of the telephone conversation travelled to Ulrik’s sensitive ears ‘Duncan here. Blah, blah, blah’

  Ulrik and Helena waited in the main living room, a ridiculously la
vish and large space, lots of sofas, and a large fireplace that Ulrik moved to light on Helena’s suggestion. There was a slightly uplifted stage for live performers or dancers to use and an expensive stereo for more private evenings. The main living room was next to the main dining room which was occupied by Helena’s and Duncan’s thralls and at the moment they were feasting. The provocative scent of human blood easily travelling through the adjacent door, emasculating the odors of decay from the dying creatures and smoke from the fireplace. Helena was searching through a pile of disks in a cupboard next to the stereo. She found one that she liked and popped it in…opera, of course it was opera, something French, ‘Carmen’…probably. He did not much like it, but he didn’t mind.

  Helena turned towards Ulrik and took a deep breath. Smelling the blood probably. “Ah, delicious… Duncan was so pissed he let his thralls raid a bus full of people. Some needed immediate nutrition in order to survive and Duncan needed to fan his frustration a little bit.”

  “Imagine that.”

  “Hah, hah, ha” Helena cackled, “Yeah, he has quite a temper, doesn’t he?”

  James, the butler, knocked on the open door and after an affirmative nod from Helena he walked in, brandishing a silver platter with a large bottle and three tall glasses. “Miss, sir.” he bowed slightly. He was pale and a bit sweaty. He moved to place the disk on a small round table with three legs and a black marble top.

  “About time dear. But we are thankful of your services, as always.” She smiled at him, like a wolf to a doe.

  “Appreciate it. Faust miss? Perfect choice.”… ‘Not ‘Carmen’ then…who cares?’

  “Oh I know, you flatterer.” Helena moved to James’s side, almost one and a half heads taller than the old man in her high heels. She kissed him, half on the cheek and half on the mouth “Thank you dear, close the door behind you.” Ulrik could almost hear the blood trying to rush through his heavily atherosclerotic penile arteries, some cracks actually forming in the plaque of deadly lipids and fibrous. James turned with his hands crossed over his crotch, stepping drunkenly towards the door and closing it behind him.