“What if they come at us during the night?” Shooter asked, fingering the shotgun.
“I’ve thought of that,” Pike said, pointing at eight boxes piled on the floor next to the table. “I’ve gotten a good supply of battery-operated, motion-sensor lights. I plan to put those up on trees around the cabin, starting about a hundred yards out. If someone moves out there in the dark, these will act as both warnings and as light to outline our targets.”
“And those?” Matt asked, pointing at the sticks of dynamite and fuses and the kegs of nails.
“You ever hear of a Claymore mine?” Pike asked.
Both Matt and Shooter nodded.
“I’m going to fill these empty cans here with dynamite and nails and bury them a foot or so under the snow, then I’ll attach wires to detonators and string the wires among the trees, also about a hundred yards out. Anyone who trips the wire will set off the gunpowder and hundreds of nails will fly through the air like shrapnel from a Claymore mine.”
He smiled grimly, “Again, it won’t kill any of them, but it will warn us they’re coming and believe me, a few hundred nails piercing the body will certainly get their attention.”
He glanced at his watch. “Now, since we’ve only got about five hours of daylight left, I suggest we get started building our booby-traps and setting up the lights.”
“What do you want Sam and me to do?” TJ asked.
He pointed at a stack of papers on the desk next to the laptop computer. “Wingate sent those this morning and I haven’t had a chance to look at them, and some of the medical equipment needs calibrating. If you two could take care of that, it’d be a big help.”
* * *
John Ashby was in Ed Slonaker’s office, in the middle of a heated argument, when his cell phone rang.
Ed sat back and clamped his lips shut while Ashby took the call.
“Sir,” the voice of the desk clerk at the Banff Springs said, “the parties you were inquiring about just checked out.”
“Uh, thanks,” Ashby said, his eyes on Ed, “I’ll get back to you.” He snapped off the phone and put it in his jacket.
Ed leaned forward, his elbows on his desk. “Like I was saying, Johnny, you’ve got a clear choice to make.”
Ashby stared at his friend with angry eyes. “Yeah, so you said, Ed. I’ve got to choose between being loyal to an entire race, or to you and Kim.”
“It’s just that simple,” Ed said, sad that their long time friendship was being tested in such a manner.
“It’s not simple, Ed,” Ashby countered, “not after you lied to me about Pike. You knew what he was and you didn’t tell me.”
Ed shook his head. “No, we didn’t, Johnny, not until after our dinner the other night. Kim and I had no idea he was one of us until he came back after you left and explained the situation to us.”
“Explained what, Ed? How he’s in the process of betraying our race, in the process of setting us up to be destroyed?”
“Johnny,” Ed said, trying to keep his voice civil. “All Pike has done is develop a vaccine that will enable those of us who want to take it to be able to live without killing innocent people.”
Ashby shook his head. “But, don’t you see, Ed? That will divide us up into two classes of vampyres. Those that want to continue our way of life, and those that want to live like the Normals do. How long do you think that will last before it sets one group against the other? Before you know it, we’ll have a full-fledged civil war on our hands, the hunters against the nonhunters.”
“No, I don’t believe it has to come to that,” Ed argued, trying to make Ashby see his point.
“Then, you’re either fooling yourself or you’re being incredibly naïve, Ed,” Ashby said stubbornly. “Not everyone feels as you and Kim do, that we’re somehow evil because of how we choose to live. There are those of us who are proud of what we are, who feel that we are the superior race and the Normals are our fair prey.”
“And is that how you feel, Johnny? That we’re somehow noble and above the morals of humankind because of a virus in our blood that’s changed us into monsters?”
Ashby sighed and leaned back in his chair, wiping his face with his hand. “Right now, I don’t know how I feel, Ed. I’m being torn apart by all this.” His tortured eyes went to Ed’s. “I love you and Kim like family, and there is nothing I want to do to hurt either one of you, but, I also feel a loyalty to our race and don’t want to see it destroyed by some vaccine that will tear our people apart.”
“Then I feel truly sorry for you, Johnny,” Ed said sadly. “For you cannot ride the fence on this, you’re going to have to choose one side or the other, there is no middle ground. But just remember, killing Pike and his friends is not going to make the vaccine go away. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle so easily. The vaccine exists and many other people know about it, and many of our race want the chance to choose one way or the other.” He spread his hands. “You should have the right to make the choice.”
Ashby’s face fell. “It may be too late for me to make a choice, Ed. I’ve already told Morpheus and his group that Pike is his man, and they’re already on their way up here.”
Ed looked startled. “You’ve what?”
“I told you, I called Morpheus and told him that Pike and his friends were here in Banff. They’re on their way up here to kill Pike and destroy the vaccine.”
Ed shook his head, his eyes flat. “You poor fool, Johnny. You’ve helped start the very civil war you said you wanted to prevent.”
Ashby’s face flushed and he got quickly to his feet. “You’re turning this all around, Ed. Now I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
He moved quickly to the door. “I’ve got to think about all this,” he said.
Ed turned in his chair and stared out his window. “Perhaps you should have thought about all this before you got involved with a man like Morpheus,” he said softly, as if to himself.
Forty-one
By dusk, Pike and the men had all of the defensive armaments in place, and the battery-powered lights were installed in trees covering a wide perimeter around the cabin.
The temperature was falling rapidly and Matt found the sweat in his hat was beginning to freeze. As the three men trudged wearily back toward the cabin, he turned and glanced at the fine black wires running about a foot above the snowline all around the area. “Hey, Elijah, what if a bear or a moose or a large squirrel trips one of those wires?”
Pike grinned. “Then we’ll have a good scare, followed by bear, moose, or squirrel stew, Matt.”
“Don’t mention food to me,” Shooter groaned, holding his stomach, “especially not that kind.”
“Still got a bellyache, pal?” Matt asked, the expression on his face showing no sympathy whatsoever since Shooter had done it to himself.
“Yeah, and every time I burp I taste Chianti.”
When the men entered the cabin, they were greeted by the wonderful smell of home cooking and welcome warmth from the fireplace.
“God, that smells delicious,” Pike said, shucking off his coat and gloves.
TJ appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, looking radiant and beautiful to both Shooter and Elijah, though Pike quickly averted his eyes so she wouldn’t see how much he still cared in them.
“We found some cans of clam chowder, so we thought we’d fix you working men a nice dinner to thaw you out,” she said, pointedly not looking at Elijah but fixing her gaze on Shooter and giving him a nice smile.
“Clam chowder?” Shooter asked, wincing. “Aren’t clams like oysters?”
Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, Shooter, only much better,” he said, hanging his coat and hat up on a peg next to the door.
“And if you still think you can’t eat, I’ll get you something from my medical bag that’ll set your stomach right,” he added, looking around for Sam.
“Matt’s right, Shooter,” Pike said, not unkindly. “We all need to eat and keep our strength up. It mi
ght turn out to be a busy night.”
“Where’s Sam?” Matt asked, moving into the kitchen.
“Right here, dear,” she called from in front of the stove. “I’m busy frying up some haddock steaks we found in the freezer. We’re gonna have a good old-fashioned New England dinner of clam chowder and haddock tonight.”
He walked over and kissed her on the cheek, murmuring, “Mmm, I can’t wait.”
She wrinkled her nose and leaned away from him. “Well, no food for you until you shower. You smell like a pair of dirty socks.”
“That’s because I’ve been working while you girls have been in here opening cans and lounging around the kitchen,” he said haughtily.
Sam looked over his shoulder. “Elijah, would you show these two galoots where the shower is, please, before they ruin our appetites?”
Pike laughed and said, “Come on, guys. The shower’s in the bathroom between the two bedrooms. We’d better get cleaned up or they won’t feed us.”
* * *
After they’d all eaten, Shooter declining to sample the excellent white wine Sam opened, the group retired to the large living area and took seats on the two facing leather couches arranged in front of the fireplace.
Pike stood with his back to the fire with his hands behind him. “First of all, that was a wonderful dinner, ladies. My compliments.”
TJ and Sam nodded as both Shooter and Matt joined in praising their culinary efforts.
“Now,” Pike continued, “some ground rules for the next few days or weeks. You two couples will take the bedrooms, keeping your windows shut and locked, and I’ll sleep in the basement on the cot.”
As the others started to protest, he held up his hand. “No, that’s the way it has to be. There are only two bedrooms, and besides, it’ll be better if we’re not all close together so if an attack comes, we can defend from different directions.”
When they ceased their objections, seeing the wisdom of this, he continued, “Now, as far as the particular needs of TJ and Sam and me, I stopped by the local hospital before you got here and appropriated all their blood supplies that were outdated.” He grimaced, “I won’t kid you about the taste, the preservatives give it a terrible flavor, but it will suffice to keep the three of us as healthy as we can be without samples of fresh, whole blood.”
Matt glanced at Sam, who nodded for him to go ahead. “Uh, Elijah, the girls have already started that. They’ve been taking small amounts of blood from Shooter and me for the past week or so.”
“That’s good,” Pike said, “but they’re going to need much larger amounts if they’re to stand up to members of our race who’ve been actively feeding, more than either you or Shooter could safely provide.”
Matt shrugged, and Sam put her hand on his thigh and patted it, showing she understood what Elijah was saying.
“As for sleeping schedules,” he continued, “it will be best if Matt and Shooter stay awake during the day and keep watch for any suspicious activity, taking turns patrolling the area around the cabin. The women and I will try and sleep during the daylight hours and stay awake at night, when we’ll take turns patrolling and keeping watch.”
Shooter made a face at this suggestion that he and TJ weren’t going to be sleeping together. “But, Elijah, why set it up that way?” he grumbled, staring at TJ with hurt eyes, as if she’d been in on this decision.
Pike sighed, knowing the girls understood. “TJ and Sam and I have a special advantage because of our unique status; we can see and hear and smell much better in the dark than you and Matt can, and we can use our mental powers to ‘listen’ for any of our kind that are in the area.”
“Oh,” Shooter said, feeling more excluded than ever from the experiences TJ had shared with Pike.
Sensing Shooter’s feelings, Pike added, “But don’t worry, Shooter. There will be a couple of hours of overlap each day so that you and TJ and Matt and Sam can be . . . uh, together privately.”
This last comment made Shooter blush and stammer, “But I didn’t mean . . .”
“Yes, you did, dear,” TJ said gently, “And it’s okay. We all understand and agree that we need to be together privately, as Elijah says.”
“Now, as far as the weapons are concerned, I want you and Matt to always have a fully loaded shotgun with you, especially on your patrols, but also when you’re in the house. If someone comes through the door, I don’t want your shotgun to be in the other room where you can’t get to it,” Pike said.
“But, with all our traps and alarms and such, how could that happen?” Matt asked.
“The last rule, Matt, is don’t ever underestimate your opponents. Morpheus is not only vicious and cruel, he is also extremely intelligent. Even though I’ve set up these traps, I don’t really expect them to stop someone as devious as Morpheus, so it’d be best to always expect the unexpected and we won’t be surprised.”
“What about us?” TJ asked.
“You are both to carry one of the katanas or machetes with you at all times,” he answered. “They make much more fearsome weapons to members of our race than the shotguns, for all of us know the sword can kill us, while guns can only slow us down.”
“Is that about it?” Shooter asked, yawning widely. “We didn’t get much sleep last night and I’m dead tired.”
“Yes, I think so,” Pike said. “Why don’t you and Matt go to sleep and the girls and I will begin our patrols?”
“By myself?” Shooter complained, not liking at all the prospect of Pike being up with TJ alone all night.
“Yes,” TJ answered before Pike could, “by yourself, but I’ll come to bed to wake you up at dawn, so pleasant dreams,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.
“Yeah, right,” Shooter answered sourly, “like that’s gonna happen.”
Sam got to her feet and pulled Matt up off the couch. “Come on, big boy, I’ll tuck you in and make sure there’s nothing under your bed.”
Matt put his arm around her shoulders, and as they walked into their bedroom, the others heard him say, “Yeah, but the real problem is there’s nothing in my bed.”
Forty-two
As John Ashby drove away from his meeting with Ed Slonaker, he was having second thoughts.
After all, he was just a small town cop, and who was he to make decisions for all the others of his race without giving them a chance to make up their own minds? He began to reason it out in his mind while his body did the driving on autopilot. Most, if not all, of his race had, like him, no choice in the matter of their transformation into the vampyre brotherhood. Why would it be so wrong to give those who wanted a chance to return, if not to all the way back to normal to at least a semblance of a normal life?
He himself had no problem with the life that had been forced upon him against his will, for his conscience had been killed along with whatever else he’d lost when he ceased being a human and became a vampyre so many years ago. He rather enjoyed the fact that he would live hundreds of years instead of mere decades, and though Ed hadn’t mentioned the effect the vaccine would have on that part of their vampyre persona, he had a sneaking feeling that if he gave up the Hunt and the thirst for human blood, he’d also be giving up hundreds of years of life in the bargain.
He was getting a massive headache as he sifted through the various options and choices he had to make, and so he decided he’d just go with his best friend’s ideas, since Ed was rarely wrong and had grown to be like a brother to him. Hell, he owed Ed more than he could ever repay, and as far as he could determine in his present confused state, he owed Morpheus and the others like him nothing.
His mind made up, he decided to head for the house he’d rented for Morpheus and his friends. As soon as they arrived there, he’d tell them in no uncertain terms that he’d changed his mind and they were on their own.
When he got to the house, he found the key hidden where the real estate person had said it would be, and he decided to open up the place and have a nice fire going for the others w
hen they arrived. It was the least he could do, since he was planning on leaving them to their own devices for the rest of their trip.
* * *
Once he had the fire going nicely and the house began to warm up, Ashby went out on the porch to await the travelers’ arrival. A short time later, just before dusk, when Morpheus and his followers arrived in two large SUVs and eight people piled out of the cars, Ashby began to get a little worried. He hadn’t realized there would be so many of them. He’d expected Morpheus and maybe one or two others, not an entire busload. It was a good thing the house he’d rented had four bedrooms; otherwise some of them would’ve ended up sleeping on the floor.
“Mr. Ashby, I presume,” a tall, thin man with long black hair pulled into a ponytail and a golden earring in the lobe of his left ear said, smiling widely as he waded through knee-deep snow toward the front porch.
Ashby felt the hair on the back of his neck stir and he realized when he stared into Morpheus’s coal black eyes, he was looking into the face of pure evil. He knew then he’d made the correct decision, for to be on this creature’s side was to be on the side of the devil.
Morpheus’s eyes narrowed and his smile faded, as if he had some sense of Ashby’s feelings about him.
“Come on in,” Ashby said through a suddenly dry throat. “I’ve got a fire going and the house is heating up nicely.”
The group of eight entered, stopping at the entrance to stamp snow and ice off their boots, and one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen walked up to Ashby and stuck out her hand. “Hello, Mr. Ashby, I’m Marya Zaleska,” she said, smiling and flashing dazzlingly white teeth.
Before he could answer and tell her to call him John, she turned and introduced the others. Ashby shook hands all around, equally intrigued by the beautiful lady named Christina Alario, thinking Morpheus might be evil personified, but he sure travels with good-looking women.
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