by Justin Sloan
“Valerie,” Valerie nodded to the attacker moving Robin’s way. “You want me to…?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
Valerie picked up a semi-automatic from the ground and pumped the vampire full of rounds. As he fell to his knees, she walked up, adjusted her stance so the blood would fly away from Robin, and then hacked at the guy’s throat. It took three hacks because of the armor, but when the head fell off, she looked back up at Robin with a smile.
A pounding of feet on stairs behind them pulled their attention, and a moment later a young male vampire came into view.
Valerie aimed in on him, but Robin shouted, “Wait!” and lunged, knocking the rifle aside.
In an instant, Valerie had a sword to her throat, eyes darting between the newcomer and her. “Explain!”
“Not him, please,” Robin said, then took a step back, hands raised in submission. “Just not him… he—he’s like a brother to me.”
“A brother?” the newcomer said, holding his blades at the ready. He turned to Valerie with confusion, then looked around at the mess of bodies. “What is this?”
“Brad, just, please…” Robin stepped toward him, motioning for him to lower the blades. “Put down your weapons.”
He frowned, staring at her in confusion. “You’d throw away everything? All of this?”
“None of this is me. I never wanted to be a vampire, I never asked to be torn away from my family and told I had to kill to survive!”
He bit his lip, clearly torn apart, more footsteps pounded behind him, and shouting.
Valerie lowered her sword and nodded at him. “Your move. I intend to kill the men up there, and anyone standing in my way. You can help this girl, this sister,” she noticed him wince and realized that he saw their relationship in a different light, so added, “this woman, who I see you care very much about. Dying at my hand won’t help you in any possible way.”
With a clearing of his throat, he nodded to Robin and said, “Just know… I’d do anything for you.”
He turned, weapons at the ready, and shouted a war cry as he retreated to take on the approaching vampires, buying Valerie and Robin more time.
“I—I want out of here,” Robin said, looking like she was going to be sick. “They forced me, took me from my family.”
If this was true, Valerie had no choice but to free this girl and avenge her. Luckily, the avenging part was already in progress.
“You going to help him?” Valerie asked.
“He can fend for himself.”
“Then stay close,” Valerie motioned to the girl and together they advanced to a ladder that led up to the roof. The final showdown.
***
Robin followed Valerie, though careful to keep just enough distance. She had no idea if this vampire lady was what the others had told her, or what her gut was saying right now. More than anything, she wanted to believe that she was what she appeared to be—someone hell-bent on destroying these CEOs and the system of vampires they had created.
Seeing as this system had been exactly what took her family and made her a vampire, she was one-hundred percent on board.
They emerged onto the roof, gusts of wind blowing at them so that Valerie’s clothes flapped around her, making cracking noises. Robin’s body armor was stable, naturally, but she could feel the chill of the wind through its cracks and it made her shiver.
That, or maybe it was the sight of this powerful being, this woman who had been the grief of these powerful CEOs, the reason they had created their army of vampire assassins.
And now she was their destruction.
Two forms appeared before them, at the far side of the roof. As they approached, they could see by the moonlight creeping out from behind thick, gray clouds, the forms of a large, muscular man, and a petite woman.
“You’ve found us,” the woman said, stepping forward.
Robin hadn’t been so close to them before, and in truth had never considered that the one they called Alex might be a woman. That must mean the tall one was Dmitri.
“If you are the other two members of the trio referred to in Old Manhattan as the CEOs,” Valerie stepped forward, sword held out at her side, “or the Three Amigos by those who would mock you, then I’d advise you say your prayers and prepare to meet your maker.”
“Stupid girl,” Dmitri said in a heavy, almost Russian accent. “We are the makers. Everything that exists is because we allow it to.”
“Including you, you pitiful excuse for a blood bag,” Alex said, stepping forward and pulling two arch rods from her waist. She flipped them on and blue sparks burst forth, crossing from one to the other.
“You two never should have hunted my kind,” Valerie said. She motioned to Robin, who almost wished she could just turn around and avoid all this, but knew she could never escape while these two were still alive. “And what you have done to these people? It’s sick. For that, it’s time you face your judgment.”
Valerie moved her shoulders, trying to get a kink out, “Justice rules here, not you two.”
Dmitri smiled and cracked his neck, then his knuckles, stepping up to Alex’s side. He pulled out a weird looking gun, one like Robin had never seen before. And aimed. “Let’s see how you two like being drained for the rest of your pitiful lives.”
Robin pulled her blades and, as Valerie moved left, she moved right.
The woman came her way, arc rods lighting up the night, and Robin noted the shots coming from Dmitri’s gun, like balls of electricity that sparked red. One caught Valerie in the leg and sent her flying back, then another caught her in the chest and sent her into a series of electrocution-induced convulsions.
Robin dodged an arc rod, using her vampire speed to move around the woman, but a wall of electricity went up between the two, then shot out at her and knocked her back to the edge of the roof.
Well damn, this wasn’t going to be easy.
***
Valerie’s brain felt like mush as the electric waves coursed through her and seemed to eat her from the inside out. She caught brief glimpses of the young vampire, Robin, getting thrown back, trying to attack again, and a wave of electricity throwing her back again.
These bastards weren’t playing fair. They weren’t accepting their judgment lying down, which meant Valerie would have to teach them how.
Another red shot came her way, but this time she fought the pain and rolled aside, then hit the rooftop door. She rolled back, pulling it in front of her as another shot came, and then tore it from its hinges and heaved it at the man.
The door slammed into him and his gun went flying across the roof. The wind blew heavy and she had to steady herself, then charged forward to snatch up her sword and move in for the woman. Almost there, the door came back at her, hitting her in the shoulder and knocking her over.
How could he have recovered so fast? With the wind whipping around them, she couldn’t smell which direction the attacks were coming from or sense their movements. All her mind-reading could pick up was fiery hatred, and when she pushed fear, Dmitri just laughed.
“We’ve surrounded ourselves with vampires and Weres our whole lives,” he said, ignoring his discarded gun and pulling out a long blade, much like her own, though this one was serrated on one side and half as long, with a metal hand guard. “You think we don’t know terror?” he snickered, “We feed on terror!”
Robin grunted behind her, and Valerie glanced back to see the younger vampire had finally gotten past Alex’s defense and scored a cut across the woman’s breast, but the cost was an arc rod jammed into her gut, another on her chest, for a combined thrust that sent her spinning through the air.
Not waiting for Dmitri to make his move, Valerie turned on Alex, but the woman anticipated it and came around with a sweeping arc of electricity that, after the pain Valerie had felt on the ground moments before, caused her to hesitate. She cursed herself as she realized what had happened—these two were a team and were pl
aying off of each other.
It was confirmed when she realized she had hesitated just long enough for Dmitri to reach her with a strike that brought his sword down across her shoulder. Valerie was quick enough to move with the strike so that it only tore a chunk of flesh away with the blade’s serrated edge.
It hurt like hell, but gave her the momentum she needed to roll aside, landing right next to Robin.
The younger woman’s eyes showed defeat, all hope seemingly gone.
“We have to work as a team,” Valerie said. “I don’t know how they’re moving so fast, but they are working together. I’m beaten to hell, and so are you, so they have that advantage. But together, we can take them.”
Robin glanced over, a flash of hope in her eyes, and then pulled herself up to one knee. Valerie hopped up and took her hand, helping her to stand. Together they faced their attackers, and, as fast as she could, Valerie drank half the last vial of blood, then handed it to Robin. Oddly, the young vampire winced at the sight of it.
“Drink,” Valerie hissed. “Then come behind me so they don’t see you, and at the last minute, you move left at the same moment I do. Keep it so we have two on one.”
As their attackers moved in, Valerie darted forward to meet them. Playtime was over. She felt Robin behind her, and then caught a whiff of something she hadn’t expected—Were?
It was too late to think about it, she had to make her move. The team of Dmitri and Alex were strong, but one at a time, they were nowhere near as powerful as Valerie, and definitely not as powerful as Valerie and Robin combined. Though she barely knew this girl, already she was impressed.
She was about to put her to the test.
“Now!” she shouted, and darted left as she swept out with her sword at Dmitri’s feet—but it was just a fake, as her real strike came a second later when she diverted the sword’s path, lifted, and thrust back down into the back of his calf.
He howled in pain, and then Robin was there on the other side of him, silver blades tearing into him.
Alex shouted in frustration at seeing what they had done, and tried to work her way around to flank them. But Valerie used Dmitri’s moment of weakness to roll over him and land a kick square in the woman’s chest.
The blow threw her back, concaving her chest so that, when she tried to move again, she gasped for breath and blood flew from her mouth. When she tried to thrust the one arc rod remaining forward, Valerie knocked it aside with ease and then caught her with a side kick that threw her into the side the roof, which she hit and then toppled over, screaming until they heard a crunch far below.
“NO!” Dmitri shouted, snatching up one of the arc rods and turning it on Robin, who was still using him as a pin cushion. It threw her back, and then he turned on Valerie and charged in spite of his limp and the blood pouring from his leg.
She was ready and had been expecting an attack. She caught him square in the stomach with her sword, so that it came out of his back, but he had his massive arms around her, and together they went flying over the side of the roof, following in Alex’s wake.
In the poor condition Valerie was in, this was going to suck terribly, she thought.
She released the sword and slammed her head into Dmitri’s so that his nose broke and blood went flying, but more importantly, he loosened his grasp enough for her to break free. With a yell of frustration and exertion, she used his body’s momentum to maneuver him underneath her, so that when they slammed into the ground moments later, she landed with her knees on his chest and then went rolling across the ground.
It still hurt like hell, but she was able to push herself up. Each breath was a pain, and she imagined something had broken in her chest—a rib puncturing a lung, perhaps?
Pushing herself up, she turned to Dmitri and stared. He was pushing himself up too, and then she caught on—the whiff of Were from above. Of course.
Others were fighting still, and then she recognized the young man Robin had stood up for, and a moment later, Robin at his side, and soon all had stopped to watch as Dmitri found his footing. He was shouting, furious, as he pulled the sword from himself and tossed it aside.
Almost instantly, the wound began to heal, and all around them, gasps came from vampires. They had apparently not realized he was a Were. Never been close enough to catch his scent, she imagined.
With a roar, Dmitri tore his clothes from his body as he transformed into the largest wolf Valerie had ever seen. He was even larger than those from the Golden City, and almost the size of a bear on its four legs.
“Fuck me,” she said, every inch of her body screaming out in pain, then braced herself as it charged.
She knelt down, one hand on the ground, knees bent, and her eyes glowed red with such brilliance that she could see the rubble before her glowing. Her fangs emerged and her vampire blood pumped with the adrenaline of the fight.
There was no way she was going to sit there and wait for him, so she pushed off, growling, prepared to meet the beast. It leaped and she drew her claws and then slid underneath it, reaching up to tear into its belly. She pushed herself up and leaped for her sword where it had fallen, still covered in his blood, then rolled to pick it up and turn.
A cheer sounded and at first she thought it was for her, but when she turned, she realized that many more here were still rooting for that bastard. He had recovered from her attack, blood dripping from multiple areas across his body, but he wasn’t giving up. He charged again, and this time went for her legs, mouth open wide.
She scoffed, lifting the sword to remove his head, but saw too late that he had come at her with a fake attack. At the last minute, he pushed off and transformed, landing so that he trapped her sword arm against her body, legs wrapped around her, and began landing elbow after elbow against her face.
It almost hurt enough to make her get over the fact that he was pressed up against her, naked. Almost.
Yuck, she thought as she bit the next elbow that came—it slammed into her mouth and hurt like hell, but when he pulled back she tore into him and flesh separated into a bloody mess.
He howled and transformed back, teeth sinking into her neck and she actually screamed, to her surprise. If his jaws were as strong as she suspected they were, he might actually be able to separate her head from her body, and that would be the end for her.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Robin move forward, but held up a hand. This was her fight.
The wolf must’ve counted on it ending fast, because he was now exposed to her sword, if she could get the angle.
Risking the pain, she fell to her side and brought the sword behind the wolf, pulling it with her free hand so that it cut into the back of its neck.
More growls came, but mixed with a terrified whimper.
It was down to this Were’s jaw power versus her vampire strength and the sharpness of her sword.
Unfortunately for him, she had been provided the strength she needed to get the job done. With a final shout of frustration, she pulled and felt the sword grind through bone.
A moment later, the wolf’s teeth released her neck and she was gasping for breath. The head rolled aside, the body going limp.
Not a single muscle wanted to respond, but she forced herself to stand, to look strong, even though she knew she probably looked like she was already dead. Blood gushed down her shoulder, and elsewhere, but with the adrenaline and recent drink of blood, she could already feel it starting to heal. A warmth filled her as she focused on the healing, and she could almost imagine pulling on a power from beyond, like another dimension even, and felt the wounds heal even faster.
As the blood flow stopped, she looked around at the gathered vampires, and finally rested her gaze on Robin.
“It’s over.”
Robin stepped forward and nodded. “Do you mind?”
Valerie shook her head, not sure what Robin had in mind, but figuring she’d give her the benefit of the doubt.
She turned back to face the others. “Many
of you were taken against your will, forced into this lifestyle. Some of you embraced it, perhaps all… I don’t think we need to ask questions, except for one.” With a look of wanting confirmation Valerie’s way, waiting for the nod Valerie gave her, she said, “Where do you go from here? Are you going to be the vampire these people wanted you to be, or are you going to say forget that bullshit, and work to make the world a better place?”
Several stepped forward, nodding, but others remained hesitant, casting frightened glances Valerie’s way.
Perhaps Robin had a point. Having more warriors was never a bad thing, but could she trust them? Not likely, but she could at least work on finding out which ones she could trust, and that started with tonight.
“You might have heard of me,” Valerie said, stepping up to Robin’s side. “This woman, she had never met me, but gave me her trust. She did so because she wanted a better life. Vampires don’t have to be bad, there is no reason that you should be. We can live right alongside everyone else, even the Weres. If you are trustworthy and loyal, you can join us. Come back to Old Manhattan, join the defensive forces of that city, and you will not only become a part of a community, but a family.”
The rest looked among themselves, and then more stepped forward, while others, only a handful remaining, turned and fled.
“Should we go after them?” Robin said.
Valerie hesitated. “I’ve never preached killing for killing’s sake, but running means they have declared themselves the enemy. Am I wrong?”
Robin shook her head, no.
“Then yes, let it be a test. The rest of you all, stop them so that this pattern of evil no longer continues. Carry out my justice… because now’s as good a time as any.”
The assassin vampires nodded, and then ran off, all but Robin.
“Do your really mean to take them back with you?”
Valerie cocked her head. “Them?”
“I have somewhere else to go.”
“I see.” Valerie walked over and leaned against the wall, pleased to see the pod approaching in the distance. Apparently, the driver had figured out it was over. “Here’s the thing, Robin, I don’t know if I’m going back either.”