Primacy of Darkness

by Brock E. Deskins

  I’m glad that she seems to be coping with the revelation. It gives me hope of a decent outcome. Then again, she might just be in shock and lose her shit come morning.

  She sits back down in the chair and props the shotgun up next to her. Another positive sign. “How many times have you been the monster beneath the monster’s bed?”

  “I don’t know. Quite a few. It usually just takes a stern warning, if they haven’t screwed up so bad that I just take them out. Sometimes, there’s an extreme situation.”

  “Like Pennsylvania?”

  I nod. “Like that, but that was mostly a rogue element in the government. They wanted to weaponize the virus that creates us. It went pear-shaped, as you can imagine, and they needed me to clean it up.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I cleaned up the mess. Then I cleaned up the ones who made the mess.”

  “Are you telling me that the government knows about you?”

  “Someone in the government found out about us. As far as we’ve been able to tell, the knowledge is not widespread.”

  “Is it possible someone else in the government knows?”

  “Definitely possible.”

  “If they do, why haven’t they said anything?”

  “For the same reason I’m hoping you don’t.”

  Castillo drops her head into her hands and rubs at her temples. “My brain is not working at full capacity right now. Mind telling why I shouldn’t?”

  “We are predators, almost indistinguishable from our prey, picking off the weak and undesirable from the far fringes of the herd. What would happen if the herd found out that there were killers in their midst but didn’t know who or where?”

  She groaned. “They’d panic and stampede. They’d start killing anyone they thought was a killer.”

  “We are one out of every, shit I don’t know, million? Who do you think would rack up the bigger death toll, us or you?”

  “God, humanity is so fucking stupid.”

  “Good thing for us. It presents quite the buffet.”

  “Don’t even…” Castillo holds up a hand. “Just don’t.”

  “Sorry, too soon. I get it.”

  “So what happens now? Other than for my own good, why did you decide to tell me all this now?”

  “I needed you to know just in case I’m not able to put Jack down. I need you to know so that you are better equipped to deal with him or other similar situations in the future.”

  “Do you think he’ll beat you? Kill you?”

  “It is not beyond the realm of possibility. Besides, I have another problem I have to attend to first, one that could take me out of the game.”

  “Oh, shit, the woman who attacked you. I forgot all about her.”

  “It’s understandable. I’ve given you a lot of information that’s probably hard to digest all at once. Kind of like eating a fat guy.”

  She cocks her head and glares at me.

  “Sorry.”

  Castillo acknowledges my apology with a grunt. “So what is her deal? I’m guessing she’s another vampire problem.”

  “Not exactly. You recall me mentioning a certain drug problem I had in Nam.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Blood isn’t just food for us. It’s like if you had to shoot up just a little bit of heroin every once in a while or you would die. It wouldn’t take much to go over the edge.”

  “Go over the edge in what way?”

  “Do you remember that thing in Miami where the guy hopped up on bath salts ate another guy’s face? It’s like that, only the druggie has the strength of a five-hundred-pound gorilla and the speed of a cheetah.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Yeah, holy shit. That’s what happened to me. I attacked an entire village. She was there.”

  “And now she’s a vampire?”

  I sigh and shake my head. “Not exactly. She didn’t get a full dose of the virus. She’s like a half-vampire.”

  “Half-vampire…and I’m supposed to be the idiot for falling for your mexichaun?”

  “Yeah, it’s starting to sound a little silly to me too.”

  “So if she is a half-vampire, does that mean she’s only half as strong? What’s the problem?”

  “Not even half. She should not be nearly as strong as she is. I don’t know what is going on with her on that level, but she is exterminating my kind with great prejudice, and now that she found me, she is determined to kill me.”

  “Is this where I’m supposed to sympathize with you, because…”

  “Absolutely not. I don’t even sympathize with me. What I did has given me nightmares for more than forty years. Maybe it’s time we both found some peace.”

  “But Jack…”

  “That’s the problem and that’s why I told you everything. I don’t know how my next encounter with her is going to turn out, but I cannot have her at my back the next time I face Jack.”

  “Like she did in the alley and shot you in the head.”

  “Exactly, so she and I are going to have to settle things.”

  Castillo’s voice is soft. “Settle it how?”

  “There is only one of two ways it can end. One gives me the chance to take Jack down before he kills again, the other lets him run amok until he gets bored and leaves or someone else kills him.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “I need you to give me some room to work. I’m on your captain’s good side right now, so you might be able to convince him to talk everyone into staying out of my way.”

  Castillo leans back and shakes her head. “There is no way he, much less every cop in the city, is going to sit back and let some vigilante shoot up the greater Brooklyn area.”

  “I think he will. I think that the other cops will if he tells them that there is a special federal task force in play to deal with Jack and that they are only to report sightings, and under no circumstances are they to engage or even pursue.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Look, I might be dead in half an hour, so the whole thing might be moot. If that’s the case, you can all deal with it as you see fit. I will no longer have a dog in the fight.”

  “Do you really think she will kill you?”

  “Under the current circumstances, I don’t like my odds.”

  Castillo sits, silently running scenarios through her head. “If it comes down to it, how do I kill him? I shot that woman after she shot you in the head, and you are both still alive, and acting as though nothing happened.”

  “If it makes you feel better, it did knock me for a loop.”

  “It really doesn’t.”

  “Body shots are almost useless unless you sever the spine. We have no vital organs. I mean, we have them, but we don’t need them. A head shot can kill us depending on the severity and the vampire’s age. At the very least, it will fuck us up pretty good, no matter how strong we are, at least for a moment. Severing the spine will cripple us just like anything else. That will buy you a few seconds or several minutes depending on the vampire’s age and ability. Take out the legs to slow them down then put a few in their brain. The only way to make sure a vamp is dead is to cut off the head and/or incinerate them. We don’t have to breathe, and we don’t have a heartbeat, but we can fake both when we want to appear human.”

  She starts laughing a little on the maniacal side. That’s not a good sign. “So you’re nearly impossible to kill, strong as a gorilla, and fast as a cheetah. Great. Just fucking great.”

  “Well, jaguar, cheetah. Some fast and scary cat. Seriously, it’s not impossible or even close to it, but being human, it is one hell of a challenge.”

  “You mean being slow, weak, and mortal.”

  “Don’t forget stupid.”

  “That’s selective.”

  I bob my head from shoulder to shoulder. “Meh.”

  Castillo lets out a long breath. “Okay, I’ll call Starks and see if we can give you room to take this guy down.”

  I stand a
nd drop a leg through the open window. “Thanks.”

  “I do have a perfectly functional door.”

  “Not how I roll. It destroys the illusion.”

  I clamber down the fire escape and drop the last three floors to the street below. I straddle my bike and make a phone call.

  “Hey, Kat.”

  “Leo, what’s going on? I just got off the phone with my boss. He said a police precinct was attacked.”

  “Yeah, the same psycho who shot up Jamaica and blew the hell out of Vincent’s office building decided to use it to make a point.”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “I think he’s staying out of this one. Listen, Kat, I have to do something.”

  “Yeah, you need to take this lunatic’s head.”

  “I do, and I plan to, but I have to do something first.”

  “Okay,” Kat replies, her voice hesitant.

  “I chased Jack out of the precinct, but my annoying little shadow jumped me and he got away.”

  “That little bitch!” Katherine snaps.

  “I know who she is now.”

  “Who?”

  “The girl from the village. I must have infected her, made her a bloodling, or someone did.”

  “Oh, God, Leo.”

  “Yeah, it’s fucked up, but I have to fix this before I can deal with Jack.”

  “I’m so sorry. I know this must be horrible for you.”

  “Probably more so for her.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I came out to Castillo.”

  “Came out… Is that why I have such a hard time getting you to have sex with me?”

  “Don’t be a smartass.”

  Katherine sighs. “Don’t blame me. Obviously your coping technique is wearing off on me.”

  “I think she has Marvin and is using him to set me up. With Jack running around and the enclave having its nuts cut off, she’ll need to know what’s happening in case…in case I’m not around to take him down.”

  Suppressed panic laces Kat’s voice. “What do you mean not around? No, you’re going to deal with this woman then kill Jack.”

  “I’m saying just in case. And if I’m not there to do it, I just want you to know how much you mean to me.”

  “Leo, please…”

  “Being with you has made me feel the closest thing to human since Lesile turned me. You made me feel things I thought were dead and gone, but they were just buried, and you were able to dig them up for me and bring them into the light.”

  “Don’t you start eulogizing to me, Leonard Malone!”

  “I love you, Katherine.”

  “Leo!”

  Hanging up on her is a dick thing to do, but there is nothing I can say or do to change what is going to happen. I don’t know if Trinh will kill Marvin to punish me or use him to draw me out if I don’t stick my head in her noose. If I were her, if she had done to me what I did to her, I know I would. I would kill everyone she cared about to make her suffer. Which is exactly what I did.

  CHAPTER 25

  “Sit here,” Carol said and pushed Marvin into a plush chair in the living area of her loft.

  Her laptop chimed. She opened it up on the kitchen table and tapped some keys.

  “Shit.” She pulled out her phone and made a call. “Trinh, Malone’s tracker came back on.”

  “How could that happen?” Trinh asked.

  “The concussion might have dislodged the battery and his riding probably jostled it back in place. He’s headed right for you. ETA twenty minutes.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Please be careful.”

  “Please take your meds.”

  “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

  Marvin looked around as Carol busied herself in the kitchen, his hands still secured behind his back with zip ties. “You and Leo must have the same real estate agent.”

  “I know, right? I keep telling Trinh that we could just as easily rent a suite at the Baccarat or something. I think she thinks room service will make us weak.” She washed down some pills with a drink of water. “Ah, that’s better.”

  “What was that?”

  “Like five different anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and anti-something or others.”

  “So you really are crazy.”

  Carol sat on the couch across from him. “We don’t use that word here.”

  “Sorry.”

  “You’re adorable, so I forgive you.”

  “Your friend doesn’t think I’m adorable.”

  “She doesn’t like most people, and she hates vampires. And since you work with a vampire, she kind of hates you by association.”

  “What’s her deal with Leo? She seems to be a special kind of pissed off at him.”

  “Well, if you knew what he did, you would understand.”

  “What did he do? I mean, I know he’s an asshole, but I’ve never seen anyone want to kill someone so bad.”

  Carol cocked her head. “You really don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  “Leo slaughtered Trinh’s entire village in Vietnam. Her parents, two brothers, grandmother, all gone. He almost killed her too, but he must have changed his mind and ran off. She’s been looking for him ever since—sort of. It’s been a bit of a roundabout journey. We finally picked up his trail after that thing in Pennsylvania.”

  Marvin leaned back, his face doubtful. “Leo? Naw. I’ve only ever seen him kill vampires or someone who was trying to kill him. Are you sure you got the right guy?”

  “She’s sure and Malone knows it too. He really hunts vampires?”

  “Yeah. He says he takes out the ones who cause trouble. We were in a car, during that Penn thing, and he suddenly cuts through the park, runs this dude over, and cuts his head off. That’s when I found out what he was. He told me he was one of the bad ones he has to sometimes take out.”

  “I don’t know. There are some things you just can’t take back.”

  “Did something happen to you too? Is it why you take all those meds?”

  Carol stared off into the distance. “Yeah. About seven years ago, a vampire broke in and killed my parents. My dad kept screaming at me to run. Even as this thing tore his arms off like he was a bug, he kept yelling for me to run. I ran and tried to hide, but he found me. He was going to kill me too, but Trinh showed up.

  “She just kind of walked up behind him and shot him in the back of the head. She looked like a superhero with her getup and all her stuff. She looked me up when I got out of the psych ward. I was so afraid of everything. Trinh thought maybe it would help if I learned how to defend myself, reclaim my life and my identity. My identity sucked, so I made a new one. I learned how to shoot and rig explosives. I went to NYU and got dual masters in computer science and electrical engineering. Only took three years.”

  “Hey, I went to NYU after MIT expelled me!”

  “Did you graduate?”

  “Naw, I became too good at defying authority.”

  “Is that when Black Cyberlord became Mo’ Money?”

  “Man, you know about that?”

  “Yeah, you were into some pretty deep stuff back in the day. Hey, you want to see my cosplay outfit?”

  Marvin’s eyes went wide and his face grew serious. “More than anything in the world.”

  “Wait here!”

  Carol leapt from her chair, bounded across the room, and disappeared behind a free-standing screen. She draped her clothes over the screen as she disrobed and changed into her costume. She emerged wearing a black leather and Lycra full body outfit with black, high-heeled boots and white, elbow-length gloves.

  Marvin’s jaw nearly dropped into his lap as he sat open-mouthed and stared.

  “I’m Bayonetta!”

  Marvin’s head bobbed up and down. “Oh, I know.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think my ding dong just went Super Saiyan.”

  “You’re so funny!” she said and bent forward in an animat
ed laugh.

  Her laughter broke off when the window blew in and the black spectre of death burst into the room.

  ***

  Two screams fill the air, shrill cries welcoming my entrance. I can’t differentiate which one comes from Marvin and which from the girl. Marvin is sitting in a chair with his hands behind his back. The young woman I saw after my first fight with my assassin is standing a few paces away wearing some kind of costume and holding a toy gun. Marvin bolts from his chair and places his body between me and the girl.

  “Leo, wait, don’t kill her!”

  I aim my pistol at the floor near their feet. “I’m not going to kill her—yet. Where’s your phone?”

  The girl juts her chin toward the table with a computer sitting open on top of it. I sidestep across the room, never taking my eyes off her. She’s a normal human, but I’m not taking any chances.

  “Marvin, step away from her before she uses you to do something stupid.”

  “She’s not going to do anything to me, Leo. Just wait a minute and take a breath—or whatever you do.”

  “Both of you, go sit down.”

  Marvin and the girl sit next to each other on the couch. I pick up the phone and bring it over.

  “Unlock it.”

  She taps in her passcode. There is only a single contact and I press it.

  “What’s up?” the voice on the other end asks.

  “Your quest for vengeance.”

  Her voice goes silent, but I can hear her heart pounding over the phone. “If you hurt her…”

  “What, you’ll kill me? It’s a bit late for that threat to hold any weight. She’s fine—for the moment, but her continued well-being is up to you.”

  “What do you want?”

  “It’s time to end what I started. You know where I’m at. Return here, no guns, no bombs, no tricks. Do anything other than walk through the front door and she dies first.”

  “You better not hurt her, you bastard!”

  “You should have left my friends out of this. It’s on your head.”

  I crush the phone in my hand as easily as wadding up a piece of paper and toss it aside.

  “Leo, you can’t hurt her. No matter what,” Marvin begs me.

  “Relax, I’m not going to hurt her. Her friend just needs to think I will.”

  “Wow, you and Trinh are exactly alike,” the girl says. “You should get married or something.”