I stooped to grab a long, slender piece of metal wreckage about two feet long; it looked like a strut. As I ran I wrapped Reed’s coat around it and dipped it into the fire that still burned near the crash, felt the heat and smelled the smoke. The flames took hold and I pulled it out. I held it aloft, my torch, my weapon, and spun back to where the battle was taking place, bullets being sprayed indiscriminately and the vampires having struck down at least two of our people. I could see Reed keeping one of them off of him with some difficulty while Parks had turned into a bear and was battering the other back with Scott’s help, a solid stream of water forcing it to be evasive as it ducked and attacked.
“HEY, douchebags!” I shouted. I spun the torch in my hand at my side, felt it whirl like Thor’s hammer as I let the icy resolve coat me, erasing that pinch of fear I felt. “Let’s have a cook-off. I’ll go first.” I jumped at the vampire that was coming at Reed – not a little hop, but a twenty-foot leap that would have looked more appropriate on the moon than anywhere near Earth. I came down as he was being buffeted back by Reed’s attack. I brought down my torch-club with a solid thud as he tried to block it with a forearm. The physical blow would have been a bone-breaker for a human; as it was I could tell I didn’t do anything but tissue damage. The impact was solid but bounced off, and I had to use all my strength to hold the weapon in place against the vampire’s skin.
While there was no reaction from the blow itself, after a moment of holding the flame against him, I heard a screeching wail that made me wish I had my ear protection on. It was worse than the gunfire by far, higher pitched and not unlike the worst scream I’d ever heard amplified by a factor of fifty. The vampire jerked away from me, falling back to the ground on its side, spinning like a top in a circle and then rolling back to his feet in a bizarre study of motion that probably violated some law of physics. He screamed at me, a hissing squeal that bared his teeth and drew the attention of his partner to me.
I heard the warnings of Scott and Parks at the same time I heard the footfalls. The second vampire, this one blond, did a leap of his own. I turned in time to bring my torch-club around in a swing at waist level and rising. “Batter up,” I whispered as I followed through. The club caught the vamp in the midsection and the strength of my swing arrested his momentum and wrapped him around the weapon.
I felt flesh give way to hard metal and meta strength. He flew through the air again, this time up and away from me, arms and legs stretched out limply, trailing the direction of his motion like streamers in the wind behind him. He came to a hard landing about fifteen feet away and I felt a shiver through my arms from the impact, a soreness that I knew my meta healing powers would keep me from feeling tomorrow.
The blond vampire vaulted back to his feet two seconds after landing and let out something between a hiss and a scream, high pitched, that made me cringe and look back to the other. Both of them, now, were dead on target, and the target was me. I took a deep breath as they both twitched, feet anchored in place, looking like they were ready to leap at any moment.
“We need to withdraw,” I heard Zack’s voice in my ear; he was one of the ones still standing, apparently.
“They’ve still got an RPG around here somewhere,” Parks said. “We get airborne without dealing with it or them, we’ll be back down in a worse predicament a few seconds later.”
“I’ll deal with them,” I said, not really feeling the truth of that down to my bones. “Get the wounded to the helo; I’ll cover your retreat.”
“You’re insane,” Scott said. “Those things aren’t playing; they’ll eat your throat out while you’re still alive.”
“I’ll be fine.” I kept a wary eye on each as they started to circle around me, not gaining ground, hesitating to spring. “Get moving and I’ll be right along.”
“What are you gonna do?” I could hear the strain in Zack’s voice as he helped Kurt to his feet.
“Not make them sparkle.” I tensed and gripped the torch-club even tighter, knowing they’d be striking in tandem.
They broke their holding pattern at the same time, both of them springing into a loping run, scattering dirt with every step. I realized for the first time that they were wearing leather dress shoes to match their black shirts and pants, and I would have laughed if I hadn’t been feeling a prickle of concern. They were wicked strong, vicious, more resistant to damage than any meta I’d encountered other than maybe Wolfe or Clary, and they had an appetite for blood – mine, apparently.
They closed the gap and I wondered how I’d deal with both at once when a tornado blew past and flung the raven-haired one into the air again and away from me. I turned to focus on the other, bringing my weapon around and down in an overhand swing. It landed in a perfectly timed blow, hitting the softer neck tissue and the side of the vamp’s head, the force of the strike driving him face first into the ground. I didn’t feel any pity for this beast and landed another hit to the back of his head as quickly as I could, then another and another before something struck me from behind and I had to roll my way out of the attack as I felt teeth sink into my shoulder.
I hit the ground and jabbed my elbow into the belly of the beast that had gotten me, the black-haired vamp. He didn’t let loose, and I felt the teeth dig into my left shoulder. I jerked forward as hard as I could, ripping myself free, losing flesh, muscle and blood in the process. I brought my right hand up and hammered the vamp with three quick blows from the burning club, using the last to jam it into his face, end on, running the flaming cloth hard into his eyes and nose, drawing another hissing scream and several swipes from claws.
I sensed the other coming up on me and turned, bringing the club around in time to catch him across the face. He screamed and I jammed the flaming end into his eyes, and after hearing the same howling noise from him, I ran for the chopper. I could taste blood in my mouth and my left arm was numb. My left shoulder was not; it screamed at me. I saw a few bodies still huddled at the chopper’s door, and I realized one of them was Reed, who was climbing inside. Scott was another, though he was already nearly in, pulling something in along with him, something brown and furred – Parks, I realized after a moment, though he was in bear form and bleeding quite a bit. Zack was last, helping to get Parks inside with one hand, while his gun was out and tracking behind me with the other. I couldn’t see his face as the spotlight from the front of the helo was nearly blinding me, but I saw him watching, and I heard him when he shouted a warning.
I turned and they were almost on me, the light illuminating both of them, their faces, their fangs. I had burned them, patches of black charring sullying their smooth, pale skin. The light caught the stomach of the blond one I had baseball swung; his belly was laid open from my attack, guts hanging out. It did not seem to affect him as he moved just as effortlessly as the other.
I paused to prepare myself. Raising my weapon and dodging to the side, I hit the blond one with a kick to his open entrails while I swung the club to keep the other back. My kick landed and knocked the blond-haired one to the side while my swing of the club convinced the other to alter his movement to avoid it. He did so successfully and I couldn’t follow up, since I was still in the process of catching my balance after the kick.
Blondie dropped to the ground in front of me as I caught my footing. He landed on his back, and before he could scream, as they were so fond of doing, I brought the burning end of the club down and rammed it into his open guts, shoving hard. I wondered if there was any truth to the idea that a stake to the heart would kill them; if so, I assumed a flaming club would do just as well.
He screamed, and it was not a hissing affair, as the others had been. This one was pure, bellowing torment that went up to the heavens as he writhed so hard he bounced a foot off the ground. I shoved him down harder and pushed my weapon into the softness under his ribcage, tearing even louder screams from him. His accomplice hissed at me and drew up for an attack as I withdrew the torch-club, the flame sputtering but still burning, and
I waved it in front of me at the other, giving the black-haired vamp pause.
“Succcccubus,” he hissed, his black hair and red eyes caught in the light of the helo’s spotlight.
“Vaaaaaaampiiiiire,” I said, mocking, and I stomped his mewling friend in the face before I took a step away from the prostrated blond fiend. He rocked back and forth slightly, but did not try to get up; had I known a sure way to kill it, I might have taken the chance, but all the methods I could think of were exhausted and I didn’t want to take my torch-club away from defending me in order to explore the ins and outs of slaughtering these creatures.
I started circling toward the one still standing; I only needed to take him out of action and we could get airborne and away from these things. “How about you come over here and I’ll give you a sweet, tender probing with this?” I waved it in front of my face. “Got an ass? I’ll be glad to shove it up there for you. If not, I could always tear you a new one like I did with your pal Spike over there.” I waved my club to indicate the blond vampire, still writhing on the ground.
He hissed at me, but didn’t reply other than to keep up with the circling. He maintained a distance of about twenty feet from me, but now he was heading more toward the chopper and the doors. I could see everyone was aboard now, and I heard the rotors spinning up, the speed of their rotation increasing as it readied for takeoff. He sashayed toward the entry and I began to fear what he might try when he reached the door. I took two steps forward and, mindful of the rotor above, lunged at him, keeping my head down and swinging the club in an arc in front of me.
The black-haired vamp dodged and halted by the door. I came at him again, this time drawing the torch behind me, giving him an opening. I saw his red eyes flash and I slowed myself, trying to entice him to make a move. He went for it, leaping at me, keeping low enough to dodge the rotor, and he caught me as I brought the weapon back around, grasping onto my arm and sinking his nails into it. I felt pain that I dismissed and began a full spin with him hanging onto my arm and shoulder. He was off-balance, and I ripped him from the ground, whipping him around as if he were a club I were swinging.
I brought him around, using my strength and some momentum to sweep him through the air. I let loose of him after bringing him in a full circle. I felt his claws tear flesh as his momentum carried him about ten feet back, where he spun perfectly to allow the tail rotor to catch him in the belly. The shriek of metal buzzing was like a blender hitting something it wasn’t supposed to and a grinding noise ensued as he was flung away, back to the ground after a sharp bounce against the main rotor. He landed a few feet from me, a bloody mess, his guts in worse state than the blond one, who was starting to push to his feet, albeit slowly.
I took a step toward him. “Okay, Angel, let’s see how tough you really are to kill.” I felt a hand grab hold of me from behind.
I raised my club and started to swing but stopped; it was Zack. “Let’s go,” he said, and pointed to the blond vamp, who was starting to pick himself up off the ground, still a horrific mess, but almost mobile. “You could tangle with them all night and not kill them.” He looked me in the eyes, and I read the urgency in them. “Come on.” I tossed the club at the blond-haired one, hearing the satisfying sound of the metal hit him in the face as I let Zack lead me, his hand taking care to grasp me by the shredded cloth of my shirt that still clung to my arm as he guided me into the cabin of the Black Hawk.
“Problem with the tail rotor,” I heard the pilot say as we got inside. “Engine’s gonna have some issues after being hit like that.”
“I’ll keep it spinning,” Reed said, stepping up to the door and sticking a hand out. I watched a vortex form around the laboring tail rotor, which appeared to be rotating on a strange off-axis, wobbling. “Just get us in the air.”
“All right,” I heard the pilot shout back, and we started to rise.
I saw sweat beads pop out on Reed’s forehead. “You might want to sit down,” he said. “I can’t guarantee the quality of the ride we’re about to experience.”
I let Zack lead me to my seat and help strap me in. I looked down at my arms, which were slick with blood, dripping to my hands. I held them up and looked at my palms, covered and slick, and marveled that I had been able to keep a grip on the club. They were shaking now, and numb, but what little I could feel hurt a lot. Zack fastened me into my seat without saying anything, but his eyes said enough for an entire conversation. He buckled me in and sat down, with only a glance at Reed, then me, before he took his own seat. We were rattling, but in the air now, shaking with the currents that Reed was summoning to keep us aloft and from spinning out. But me – I was shaking for an entirely different reason, both inside and out, as we swirled through the hot summer night and back home.
Chapter 13
We set down a few minutes later at the Directorate after what could only be described as an uneven ride. We bumped on the final touchdown and I heard the engines throttle down, the rotors coming to a slow stop as several loud, clunking noises came from the rear of the craft. Smoke had been belching out of it the whole way home, but Reed’s wind had blown that clear of us and we only knew about it because of the pilot’s occasional warnings.
I breathed a little sigh of relief when I felt that last shudder of the aircraft’s weight being taken up by the earth, and I closed my eyes for a beat before I opened them to look out the door. Ariadne was waiting, as was Dr. Perugini, Dr. Zollers, a couple of people I’d seen Perugini use before as orderlies, and my most favoritest person in the world, Michael Mormont. Eve lurked behind them, looking around as if searching for the ambush that was sure to fall on us at any moment. A couple of agents were visible in the distance, but I couldn’t see their faces from where they stood outside the field of spotlights that illuminated the helicopter pad.
The orderlies rushed up along with Perugini, and Kurt went onto a gurney, swearing as they moved him. He’d gotten cut up pretty well by the vamps, but not as bad as the agent whose name I hadn’t known – he was dead. Total redshirt. Parks got off a minute later with help from Scott, but he had a hobble as he walked, following in the wake of Perugini and the orderlies.
I felt a tug and realized Zack was undoing my safety harness. “Hey,” he said, taking care to move it from around my shoulders. “We’re here.”
“Okay,” I said as I shrugged out of the other side. I stepped toward the door and onto the concrete below, as Ariadne waited for me with Zollers and Mormont. Zack followed, and as I stepped out I noticed Reed leaning heavily against the open door, his head back against the hard metal and his eyes closed.
“What happened?” Ariadne asked as she looked at my bloody hands and arms. “What did you run across?”
“Vampires,” I said, and let out the breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. “Nobody told me there were vampires.”
Ariadne stared at me blankly. “I…I didn’t know there WERE vampires. Are you sure that’s what you saw?”
I held my arms up and she balked at the sight of the puncture wounds, the blood. “Pretty sure.”
“Are you all right?” Zollers asked me, his eyes rimmed with concern.
“I’ll heal,” I said. “But I would like to know why Omega has vampires and we didn’t know about it.”
“Add it to the list of things Omega has sucker-punched us with,” Zack said. “It’s getting to be a pretty long one.”
“I knew they had vampires,” Reed said at last, and his every word sounded like it was being dragged from his lips with a winch and chain. “I didn’t know that’s what they looked like, or that they were even in the U.S., but I knew they had them. Sorry; I guess I should have figured they’d have brought in the blood hunters.”
“Blood hunters?” This from Mormont, who I can only assume took affront at the vamps stealing his hard-earned title.
Reed opened his eyes and tried to push himself off the door to a standing position, but after wavering and looking like he would fall, let himself le
an back onto the door and slid down to the ground, eyes shut again. I would have helped him, but frankly I doubted my ability to stand up straight without him weighing me down, let alone with. “That’s what they are. They hunt blood, like a bloodhound. They get a rush from consuming it, like a natural high. They can smell it, seek it out.”
“They seemed pretty close to invulnerable to me,” Zack said. “Like the legends, I guess. But do you really need a stake to kill them, or sunlight?”
“Myth, legend…you know how it goes,” Reed said from the ground. “Exaggerated. They have a hell of a bone structure, though, stronger than a normal person’s or even a normal meta’s, so it’s really damned hard to land a damaging blow on them. They don’t feel pain like us, can ignore it and keep coming. You saw – that one had a belly open to the air and he was about to come at Sienna again. They’re nocturnal, can see in the dark like it’s day, have nearly unbreakable bones, heal super fast – faster than even most metas – and all that makes them hard to kill and terrific hunters when you’re looking to track someone down.” He took another breath. “Never had seen one of them until tonight, and I wouldn’t have recognized them for what they were if Sienna hadn’t called it out.”
Heads swiveled to me, Ariadne’s and Mormont’s foremost among them. Zollers watched me too, but coolly, like it was no big deal. “How did you know what they were?” Mormont found the words to ask first.
“Voices in my head,” I said, drawing a surprised look from Ariadne, but not Zollers. Mormont’s eyes narrowed. “They practically had to scream to get me to hear,” I went on, “but the message got through.”
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