by CJ Flynn
“Whoa.” I couldn't help it. The room seemed endless, filled with shelf after shelf of black boxes. I could see gun racks lining the walls, holding a terrifying array of long guns I couldn't name. Close to the door were racks filled with an assortment of swords.
“What's the rest of this?” I asked, gesturing towards the shelves.
“Mines, ammunition, probably cannon balls for all I know.”
“Why is this here?”
Ben shrugged. “Why not? Sorrell employed humans, and sometimes those humans needed a little backup, I guess. He hedged his bets against everything.”
“We need something that can be triggered. A way we can rig the lab and the server room.”
Ben pointed to a computer terminal. I logged in and located the inventory, scanning the list for something that would work. Finally, after many years of believing it to be useless, my grandfather's love of history documentaries came through for me. I saw an item that looked promising: M18 Claymore Mine. According to the computer, there were twelve of them in row 7, shelf 19. They had been placed there in 1994.
“I feel like it could have been useful to know about this before.”
“You never asked. And even though I'm sure Daniel knew about it, he probably never thought to mention it. Fucking vampires rely too much on their own strength.” He tapped the screen, right over the listing for the mines. “Right there. Those are promising.”
I smiled. “I'd already decided that, thank you very much. Shelf 19, row 7. Let's get a couple of them over to the lab and the server rooms. We need to work quickly.”
He nodded and took off with lightning speed to grab the mines.
I walked over to the swords. I'd used one before, and had been decently trained by Daniel. It wouldn't help me take care of the lab or the servers, but carrying one would probably be useful for getting outside. I liked to hedge my bets too.
I grabbed one that looked light, strong, and sharp. I sheathed it with a scabbard I found hanging on a nearby hook. I knew better than the strap it to myself; there was no telling what awaited me outside that armory. Finally feeling like I might be able to decently protect myself, I went looking for Ben.
He was returning with four of the mines.
“Think you'll be needing the sword?”
“This is the climax.”
He rolled his eyes and I gave him a small smile again. I felt oddly light as we left the armory behind and went towards the server room. I had so many unanswered questions about my father and Ernie's whereabouts, and even though I could keep tabs on Daniel, his situation was largely unknown. Somehow, though, that didn't matter. Whatever had happened in the past weeks, whatever would happen in the coming weeks, this moment was a watershed. I was ready to be done with Sorrell and his vampires, and destroying my lab and his server farm seemed like the best first step.
I stared down at Harding's computer, knowing this would be the last time I would ever see the place where he had worked, had done so much good work. I logged in one last time, and opened one last script that had been set up months ago. The script created a series of email actions, and if I didn't log in to my private email within twenty-four hours, a massive file I uploaded to my online drive would be published to a few select torrent sites. Within hours, it would spread to the wider internet. Every secret we had compiled, every byte in the vampire database I had built... all of it would hit the web and be common knowledge within mere hours. It was the last weapon I had. My last chance to stop this madness once and for all.
We lined out the mines to trigger as soon as someone opened the doors to either the server room or the lab. I found a box of portable lab burners on one of the supply shelves and set them around the room, valves open, just for good measure.
I locked the lab door behind me, triggering the mechanisms that would keep the place airtight until an admin code was entered.
“Now what?” Ben asked, watching as I entered the same code on the server room.
“Now we get in the car and leave.”
“You say it like it's going to be so easy.”
“I brought the sword, didn't I?”
Chapter 37
My bravado faded as soon as we entered the foyer. Two of the vampires had left during our time in the basement, and I was certain we could handle the remaining vampire.
The sight of Sarah’s lifeless body on the marble floor stopped me dead. I searched out my father and Ernie, who were still in Sorrell’s study.
The vampire, a female that I recognized as one of Beata's favored pets, tore across the foyer, her scream guttural and otherworldly. She moved so fast I wasn't entirely sure her feet were on the ground.
I tried to get the sword out of the sheath, but both Ben and the female vampire were way too fast. He dove forward and snatched her out of mid-air.
Another scream as they tumbled to the floor. I saw him get a few good punches in on her before she overpowered him and smashed her head against his. He went out like a light.
She was on her feet and prowling towards me as I finally freed the sword, but she was much too fast. She grabbed my wrist and the sword in one go, slamming the butt of the handle into my temple and snapping every bone in my right forearm. I shrieked, but the world around me faded faster than the sound did.
* * *
I had no concept of how much time had passed when I finally woke up. I was lying on the floor of Sorrell's private study and my head was throbbing more than my arm, which had gone completely numb.
“Don't bother looking for the sword,” Sorrell said, his voice quiet and lethal. “You won't make it out of here alive.”
A guard came forward and yanked me to my feet. I screamed as white-hot pain flashed through my arm.
“Was it worth it? This betrayal, this pain?” Sorrell asked.
I closed my eyes until the pain abated some. When I opened them again, he was staring at me from his seat at the desk, giving a lot of credence to the idea that perhaps looks could kill.
Still, I didn't answer him as I looked around the room. Two of Beata's favorite vampire servants stood behind him. The two women looked nearly identical: black hair, violet eyes, and tall, muscular bodies.
Just inside the door, in a wide pool of blood, my father and Ernie lay prone on the floor. They were both face down, with their hands tied behind their backs. The only reason I knew they were still alive was the faint aura each of them still had. My father’s blue, an aura I had only seen a handful of times, flickered in and out, and panic filled my chest. I couldn’t look away from them. Their injuries looked raw and angry, and with each shaking breath my father took, blood oozed from a wound that ran at an angle from his neck to his hip. Ernie moaned.
“Everyone has paid for your sins, Allie. Each person that lies dead or dying in this place owes their demise to you,” Sorrell said.
Pure outrage edged out the panic I felt, and I turned my glare on Sorrell. “Everyone hear has paid for your sins. You have used humans as pawns for decades, maybe centuries. Did you not think that would come at a price?”
“Allie, don’t,” Ben croaked.
He stood in the corner, awake, with his wrists chained in thick coils of silver. Sorrell's gaze shifted away from me and he stared at Ben.
“Up until now, I have found the price to be very reasonable. You’re so easily lured — your brethren have worked carefully over a millennia to squash out the gifts given to humans by the Druids, and they were so successful that the handful of you left are nothing more than abominations. You’re drawn to me by money, and by the ability to actually use your talents. And yet… time and again, some of you still find a deep need to betray those who have taken you in.”
“If everyone in the room seems like an asshole, maybe you’re the asshole,” I said, feeling reckless. My father’s aura was fainting, and I didn’t have a plan to get out of this.
Sorrell flicked his wrists, and the two enforcers came around his desk, moving like panthers towards my father and Ernie. Each
of the vampires grabbed one of them up. Even Ernie, who was easily the largest presence in the room, was lifted clean off the floor as if he weighed nothing.
“I no longer find you amusing, Alexandrie.”
He nodded his heads and the movement of the enforcers was so fast it took a moment for my mind to snap up what I was seeing. The enforcer on the left, the one holding Ernie, sunk her teeth into his throat and ripped the skin and muscle she found there. His aura evaporated to nothingness as the blood rained from his throat.
I screamed as I saw the second enforcer grasp my father in the same way. She sunk her teeth in just as Sorrell held up his hand.
“Do not scream for this man. He betrayed you. He left you alone, he lied about his whereabouts, his life, everything. His little notes and journals were meaningless in the grand scheme of things, were they not? Has their value truly outweighed everything else he’s done to you?”
I stared at my father, unconscious and prone as the enforcer gripped his neck. I wondered—not for the first time—if he had seen this coming, and hot tears cascaded down my face.
Even if he couldn’t hear me, I couldn’t bear the idea that the last thing my father might ever hear were Sorrell’s cruel words.
“It doesn’t matter what happened before. I forgive him. I always have.”
There was beat of silence before the enforcer made her move and sent a spray of blood across the floor.
I watched in silence as my father crumpled to the floor, and my heart thudded as he lay there, aura evaporating. I shook so hard my teeth rattled in my head as I tried to process the horror running through my mind. Ernie’s wild energy burned inside of me and I let out a scream that seemed to shake the entire room.
Sorrell stared at me. “You surprise me once again.” He flew from his chair, closing the distance between us faster than a blink.
He leaned forward, pushing his cold, ashen face against my neck and inhaling deeply. He stepped back and stared at me, his eyes laser-locked on mine.
“What has he done to you?”
“What are you talking about?”
There was a loud bang and another shudder of energy pulsed through the room as the doors to the study blew apart. Wood shards landed everywhere, and Daniel stormed in before the dust had fully cleared.
The enforcers ran at him, landing on him and clawing at him. He yelled as they overpowered him, and fell to the floor.
“Bind him as you have Benjamin,” Sorrell ordered. His voice was laced in rage, and I saw a wild anger in his eyes I had never seen.
“You have done much damage. Far too much.”
“I’ve only done what’s right,” I said, my voice catching in my throat before I could push any more words out. I stared at Daniel, trying to see what kind of shape he was in. The enforcers were binding his wrists with the same coils of silver chain that Ben had. Daniel seemed mostly unharmed, but his anger was so strong it gave his aura an erratic, lightning-like pulse. That anger was like a shot in the night. My grief over my father was subdued as a new feeling swept over me: fury.
I turned my gaze back to Sorrell. “And I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Sorrell narrowed his eyes before turning away from me. He froze when he faced Ben again, and I heard a tiny growl emit from his throat.
“I see I have misjudged you. Perhaps your little therapy is a success after all.”
I didn't speak, but wasn't sure I successfully hid my surprise at his words. I stared at Ben, with his luminescent skin still glowing with the dew of the newly changed. But his eyes... His wonderful, normal, human brown eyes glistening with unshed tears. The red was gone.
“He is a mutant,” Sorrell hissed. “He cannot survive.”
“He can,” I said, imagining I could see the pink hue returning to Ben's cheeks. I knew it would probably take months for that to happen, but I needed to see it. Even just in my mind. “He will.”
Sorrell made a discreet hand motion and one of the guards moved towards Ben. He drew a long, thin sword from a scabbard.
“No!” I threw myself forward, trying to tug my good wrist away from the vampire holding me. He yanked me backwards, sending pain shooting through my shoulders and ribcage. I shrieked, and pulled back, letting that thin veil slide away. The white energy Ernie had given me flared up again and the vampire's aura pulsed around us both. His own strength drained away, coursing through every muscle of my body. I wrenched away from him, breaking our connection, and charged at Sorrell, catching him off guard with the last wisps of strength his goon had given me. He fell, and I pinned my knees against his shoulders. My nerves screamed in rebellion, but I forced myself to ignore the pain.
The anger of the last weeks, the pure venom that had simmered inside me boiled over. I channeled it outward, pushing hard against Sorrell's shoulders.
“You can try to kill him.” My mind raced to catch up, tried to understand what had happened to Ben, but I knew now wasn't the time to puzzle it out. If Sorrell thought it had been the gene therapy, I had to run ahead.
“But you can't kill what I've done. I'm no fool. And I most definitely am my father's daughter. If I don't walk out of here alive, every last word of research I compiled against you and your vampires, will hit the internet. The very last page is the formula we used to create the cure. You kill me and I'll just die. The rest of the cards will fall from the hands of whatever the world does with my knowledge.”
“You wouldn't dare. Your humans, your witches, your friends like Ernie Haden. They're too precious to you. If you reveal us, you reveal them.”
I glared at him. “I only care about one thing. I want my friends out of here alive. Don't forget, Sorrell. You owe me a debt. I have the power to walk out of here.” I pointed at Ben and Daniel. “But if you kill them? I will leave this place, and I will manufacture enough of that serum to cure every last one of you. I will tell the truth about you. You're humans with a bad mutation on one chromosome. Nothing more.”
I pressed all of my strength into him and inched my face closer. “If you kill them, I. Will. End. You.”
With a roar, Sorrell threw me over, sweeping my underneath him and pinning me down. “You petulant child—“
I wriggled my good hand away from him, slamming it into his chest and sending every bit of Ernie’s energy I could muster pulsing through him.
I heard a shriek, and realized after a moment that it was my own. I felt Sorrell’s life force ebbing away, all of the angry, hungry energy inside him replaced with Druid magic. It overwhelmed whatever was left inside him, and he collapsed onto the floor, his body shattering to dust.
I pulled myself to my feet, the magic still coursing through me. I turned to the twin enforcers and the two idiot guards.
“Run.”
They all tore from the room, and I darted towards Ben and Daniel, uncoiling the chains from their wrist as quickly as I could.
“We need to get out of here.”
Daniel led the way, and I was right behind him. Ben followed close behind me, his speed not quite what it had been just an hour before.
I heard the enforcers and guards ahead of us, yelling at whoever they had brought to the mansion. They were clear of the house before we made it to the driveway.
Chapter 38
The getaway car was still in the driveway, exactly as we’d left it. I knew that dawn couldn’t be more than a few hours away.
“You guys need to get into the boxes. We need to get the fuck out of here.”
My heart was pounding. Sorrell was dead, but it wouldn’t take long for word to get back to Lillith about what had happened. We needed to be very far gone by the time she sent reinforcements.
“I’m not leaving, Allie.” Daniel’s voice stopped me cold.
“What?” I asked, turning back towards him.
“I can’t go with you. Not yet. I need to see this finished. There is no guarantee of your safety, and this is not over. This entire organization must be taken down, and I am the one who must do it.”
I made a beeline for him and flung myself into his arms. He caught me and kissed me, his lips warm and urgent against mine. I broke the kiss and pressed my face into his neck.
After a minute, I pulled back and stared at him, my heart breaking as I looked into his eyes. I could see the pain of all he had done over the years there, and I wanted more than anything to take it away from him.
“Let me help you.”
He shook his head. “You have played your part, and it is time for you to move on from this place. You deserve a better life than hunting vampires.”
“Will you find me when it’s over?”
“It could take years to bring them down,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.