“I don’t understand, master.” Damien croaked.
“Your blood is not strong enough to turn another.” Foster tried to explain. “You simply aren’t strong enough yet.” Foster tried to sooth the hurt in Damien, but he was shaking his head in denial. “You are still far too young.”
“How can that be? Your blood runs through my veins, master. I am of you.” He whimpered. Damien turned his eyes back to the body on the floor. “Can you fix it for me?” He begged, reaching out and grabbing Foster’s hand. “Please master? I promised her life everlasting. With me…with ME!” he sobbed. “Please…she’s my angel. I need her to be with me.”
Foster pulled Damien to him. “I fear it is too late my child. She is too far gone.”
Damien shuddered under Paul’s embrace and sucked in a great amount of air then blubbered out in a huge sob. “I fear that the best you could hope for would be a mindless zombie, and even then, she would rot and fall apart quickly.” Foster stated. “Perhaps if you had come to me first…”
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” he screamed and tried to pummel Foster about the chest with his fists. At first Foster let him vent his frustrations but after a few blows, his bodyguards grasped Damien by the wrists and hauled him back.
“Put him in the silver lined trailer.” Paul said softly. “I fear his mind is damaged by this perceived…’loss’.” He said dismissively. The guards began to haul Damien away, but he screamed for his beloved. “Wait!” Paul shouted above Damien’s shrieks of protest. “Throw the corpse in with him. Maybe it will bring him a little peace to be with it for a short time. At least until he comes back to reality.” One of the guards took Damien by the wrists while the other grabbed the Mexican girl by the ankle and dragged her unceremoniously to the silver lined trailer that Foster used as a jail or for punishment. Both were tossed in and the doors sealed.
At first Damien shrieked in the darkness, then he slowly quieted down to a soft mewl. Foster shook his head as he went back to his quarters. “Check on him tomorrow. If his mind is still shattered, we may have to destroy him.”
“Yes, sir.” The guard said.
“A shame, too. I had hopes for that one.” Foster went back to his chambers and to the blood fest within.
26
Dom was escorted through a series of passageways and found himself standing in the remains of an old cathedral. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, walls crumbled inward and the floor littered with pieces of blocks and broken bits of statues. He could still see what remained of the altar at the end of the cathedral and wished that the old legends of vampires burning when they stepped on Holy ground still held true. He’d love to see these asshats go up in flames right about now.
He saw a dark figure all but float through what was once a window on his left, to his right, the courtyard he had spotted earlier. The sun had just set and the last few licks of color were painted across the sky. Violet hues splattered with streaks of red indicated the final death throes of the day before night took over and somehow, he felt it would be his last day to walk this earth. Dom took a deep breath and rolled that thought around in his head a moment. Yeah, he was okay with it. He could meet his maker knowing that he had done his part.
The dark figure stepped into the cathedral and a wave of energy came off of him that sent the vampires in the room trembling. Dom didn’t recognize the vampire, but he assumed he must be the leader by the way the others were reacting. He stood at attention, doing his best to defy the creature who stepped closer to him and assessed him from head to toe.
“Welcome to my city, Mr. DeGiacomo. You may call me Sicarii.” The dark vampire said softly.
“DeGiacomo, Dominic, Staff Sergeant, Service Number 243-55-61…”
“Please, Mr. DeGiacomo. I think we are beyond that, are we not?” the dark one asked. “You are my guest here.”
Dom gave the vampire a sarcastic stare. “Guest? Is that what you call your prisoners now?” he asked.
“I would not say ‘prisoner’.”
“So I’m free to leave?” Dom asked, already knowing the answer.
“I’m afraid not.” The vampire replied, a smile playing across his features.
“Then I’m your fucking prisoner.” Dom shot back, his features hardening.
The vampire’s face hardened as he turned his gaze upon him. “I do not take prisoners, Mr. DeGiacomo. Therefore, you are my guest. How you are treated from here out…will be determined by how forthcoming you are.”
“I have trouble coming a second time. Coming four times is simply beyond me.” Dom spat out. “I’m good, but I’d have to have Viagra to be that good.” His remark earned him a quick kidney punch that dropped him to his knees and a left cross to his jaw that rattled his molars. He grunted and felt his knees bite into the stone floor as he landed on all fours. “Like I said…prisoner.” He muttered.
“Like I said…how well you are treated will depend on how forthcoming you are.” The dark vampire waited for another smart remark and smiled when Dom didn’t offer one. “Excellent. Perhaps now you realize that I only want a little…information.” He stepped forward and kneeled down beside Dom. “This doesn’t need to get physical.”
“I ripped the head off one of your underlings.” Dom replied through gritted teeth. “You expect me to believe that you’re just going to let me waltz on out of here if I play ball with you?”
“A small price to pay to determine your worth.” The vampire’s face creased into an evil smile. “I assure you, your death would do me more harm than good. I actually need you, Mr. DeGiacomo.” The dark vampire noted the look of surprise on Dom’s face. “Oh, it is true, I assure you. I need you to take my intent back to your people.”
“We already know your intent, asshat. You’re the shithead that keeps setting up the ‘good guy’ vampires so that we attack them, aren’t ya?” Dom shot at him. The dark vampire’s face registered a slight surprise. “Yeah, I thought so. See, we already got your number, asshole.” Dom said as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. He struggled to breathe. Between his head and the kidney punch, his entire body was hurting. “Those other vampires already contacted my boss and they’re having a sit-down meeting about how to deal with you.” He chuckled. “So you just keep on trying to set them up and they’ll figure out how to knock you down.”
“So you’ve got this all figured out, do you?” the vampire asked mockingly.
“Oh, yeah.” Dom struggled to his feet, the pain in his kidney letting him know not to be surprised if he pissed blood for the next week or so. “Apparently the ‘good guy vampires’ only drink blood from livestock…or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention, to be honest.” He caught his breath. “But my bosses? Yeah, they’re probably going to enter an agreement with them. The vamps point out where you fuckers are hiding and then we go in and clean you shadow dwelling blood suckers out.” He laughed. “So go ahead. Do your worst. Fuck me up…kill me. It won’t matter. Because it’s just a matter of time before a whole team of specialists come here and rain down the very fires of hell on your ass.” Dom leaned to the side and spit blood on the floor, hoping the smell would drive the other vamps crazy.
The dark vampire stepped back and addressed his minions. “Well, it would seem that our plans have been discovered!” he yelled. The other vampires chuckled or outright laughed. “These human hunters have an ally on their side. And it is US!” he laughed. The others followed suit making Dom get the distinct feeling that he was missing something.
“Go ahead. Laugh it up.” He insisted. “But it won’t be too much longer and you’ll be laughing out another hole in your fucking head. One carved by a silver bullet!” Dom spat.
“Ooh! Silver bullets!” the dark vampire cringed mockingly. “Please, no! Not that!” he laughed again and the others laughed harder. The dark vampire snapped his finger and one of the minions handed him Dom’s P90 and his sidearm. He was still chuckling as he checked the weapons. He selected the FiveseveN handgun
, pulled the magazine and held it up so Dom could see that it was still loaded. He used his thumb and extracted all but three bullets and put the magazine back.
Dom had no idea what the hell was going on. The dark vampire chambered the first round and set the safety on the weapon then tossed it to Dom and spread his arms wide. “Feel free to take your shots.” He said, smiling.
Without hesitating Dom put two in his chest and one in the middle of his forehead. None of the minions so much as flinched. In fact, they were laughing harder. The dark vampire held a hand over his wounds and the entry wounds smoked as his body simply pushed the silver rounds out of the holes and into his hands. He stepped over to Dom and dropped them at his feet. “You may keep them if you wish. Consider them a token of my esteem.” He said.
Dom stood there, still holding the weapon in his hand. He bent and retrieved the bullets, slightly deformed, but obviously still made of silver. “How is this possible?” he muttered.
“I am the Sicarii.” The dark vampire stated matter-of-factly. “It is not just a name.” He stepped up to a pile of rubble and sat down. “Now, are you willing to discuss my terms?”
*****
Thorn and Mitchell had been discussing tactics for some time in the training room with Laura, Apollo, Spalding and Jack had invited Tufo along as a way to bring him up to speed on everything, much to Mitchell’s chagrin. Thorn listened intently to Mitchell’s proposal to use the Groom Lake base and he liked the idea to bait the Sicarii to the desert. With wide open areas and few to no structures for the vampires to hide within when they unleashed the UV satellite on them sounded like a wonderful plan to him. As a secondary option, he brought up the religious relics that the Vatican was holding and his plan to send Viktor to retrieve them.
Rufus explained what each relic was and their hopes how each could be used. Mitchell liked this approach and called for Evan who also took notes and began devising applications for each of the three artifacts. It was their hope that perhaps Thorn and Evan could work together on the delivery systems while Viktor was gone to retrieve the items and Mitchell would travel to D.C. to gain support for their taking over the Groom Lake base and their borrowing the satellite for the Vampire Armageddon.
During the whole meeting, both Laura and Apollo tossed in ideas of how they could utilize the Predator drones and high altitude C-130’s to both keep an eye on things and to ‘bring the rain’ when the shit hits the fan. Spalding suggested contacting some of the other supernatural beings they had met to see if they could join in the fray. It was a long shot, but the facts remained, if this Sicarii was intent on taking over the world, odds were he wouldn’t rest at simply destroying mankind, he would also see to it that all other creatures were enslaved as well. That included the Leprechaun, the Elves, and the Fae. They were the three most intelligent and least hostile of the supernatural toward the squads that they had met, yet they had the capability to wage war. Not all were on speaking terms, and they weren’t exactly the easiest to reach, but if this was a war to save the planet from a marauding vampire gone loco, they would need all the help they could get.
During the entire meeting, Tufo sat quietly in the back of the room, taking it all in. As the meeting seemed to wind down, he stood up and cleared his throat. “I have a question.”
“Of course you do.” Mitchell groaned.
“What is it, Gunnie?” Jack asked.
“Well, I realize that I’m coming into this a little late in the game, but if I’m gathering this correctly, this vampire that we’re about to go head to head with…he’s like the granddaddy of all vamps, right?”
“Oui.” Thorn replied. “He is the progenitor of us all.”
“Okay. And you say that he was created the day he tried to kill himself when he betrayed Christ, correct?” Tufo asked. “That he is Judas Iscariot.”
“Oui. This is true.” Thorn stated.
“Okay…so I’m following everything right.” He said and slowly began to pace. “And he can basically ‘call up and control’ all the vampires in the world somehow, right? Theoretically through the blood or something, correct?”
“Oui. As far as we know.” Thorn continued. “But since I did not break the seal on the conscription, and I represent the Lamia Beastia…”
“Right, you may be able to fight him off, I follow you on that.” Tufo finished for him. “But, back to when this guy was made, okay? At the same time…or about the same time, this Roman guard that stabbed Christ with the spear of destiny… Claudius Maximus Veranus, right? He would be the granddaddy of all werewolves, correct?” Thorn nodded in agreement. “So…wouldn’t he be able to call up all the werewolves in the world if he wanted to? Through the blood or through the howling or some goody supernatural shit like that?” Tufo asked.
Jack turned to Mitchell who raised his eyebrows. Jack shrugged.
“If this Roman guy could somehow call up all the werewolves, we might be able to add some serious heft to this army of ours.” Tufo stated the obvious. “And we might just be able to offer a surprise knock-out punch to this Sicarii…you know, just in case Plan A and Plan B happen to shit the bed.”
Thorn stepped over to Tufo and embraced him, “Exactement!” he kissed Tufo on each cheek then turned to Mitchell leaving the Gunnie wide eyed and in shock. “This is a most excellent of ideas!”
Jack leaned over to Mitchell, “Maybe this is what Nadia was talking about, eh Skipper? Maybe me bringing Tufo in with us IS what saves our asses and the world?”
Mitchell rolled his eyes. “Don’t go there. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.” He muttered.
“Okay then. How do we find this ancient Roman dude?” Apollo asked.
Thorn stepped forward. “I think I know a way.”
Coming Soon:
Coalition of the Damned
A Monster Squad Novel
Book 3
The growing voice in horror
and speculative fiction.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heath Stallcup lives in the small township of Tupelo, Oklahoma with his wife and three of his seven children. He steals time to write between household duties, going to ballgames, being a grandfather to four and being the pet of numerous animals that have taken over his home.
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