City Of The Damned: Expanded Edition

by Stephen Knight

  “We have floor plans of the target?” Acheson asked.

  “Right here,” Cosmatos said. He tapped a button on the command and control console and called them up. They’d been found in one of the local builder databases compiled years ago and made available to the federal government as part of the Patriot Act. Acheson studied them. The mansion was a huge, sprawling affair. Not that it mattered. When the team was done, the house would be razed.

  “Getting in and planting the charges is going to be a problem,” Julia said. Like so many neighboring homes, the house Osric had chosen was perched on a hill that overlooked downtown L.A. to the south and the rest of the city to the west. It was a multimillion dollar view, and with that view came a pristine location that helped turn the mansion into something resembling a fortress. Approaching unseen would be a tall order.

  Acheson grunted in agreement, and examined another display that revealed the local topography. The house was set off the road behind high walls that were in turn disguised by well-maintained vegetation that had been groomed to help conceal the mansion. That vegetation would be useful in covering the team’s approach, but the wall was continuous and at least ten feet high in places. The team would never know what was on the other side until they tried to breach it, and they could walk right into a trap. The vamps had had a great deal of time to plan for such contingencies.

  But the southwest corner of the property line was protected by a seven-foot iron fence and little else. This was to provide pleasing sightlines from the swimming pool area, so that sunbathers could look out over Hollywood during the day or take in the luminescent view at night. The hillside leading to the house would be difficult to negotiate, and much of the foliage had been cleared away twenty feet from the fence. The team would be exposed when they emerged from the scrub.

  Acheson tapped the LCD display, indicating the southwest corner. “This is it.”

  “At least we’ll be able to see what we’re walking into,” Julia said. “Of course, they might be able to see us too.”

  Cecil leaned forward, staring at the screen. “I ain’t looking forward to the climb, though.”

  Julia shrugged. “Me either. And this weather is just going to ruin my hair.”

  Acheson turned to Ellenshaw, who sat quietly in the semi-darkness.

  “Feel like coming along for the ride, Robert? Settle some old scores?”

  Ellenshaw nodded silently. His mind would be on Helena Rubenstein, of course. For his part, Acheson considered Sharon’s plight… then wondered if Chiho had been taken down that dark path as well.

  “Jerry, we could use another hand to round us out,” Acheson said. “You interested?”

  “Uh… well…” Licht slowly faced Acheson and sighed. “Sure, why not.”

  “It ain’t like you’ll live for long if we fail,” Cecil said.

  “Thanks for the pep talk.”

  “Free of charge.”

  “Mark, do you have a plan?” Fiedler asked.

  Acheson stared at the van’s displays, studying the mansion floor plans and the aerial map of the property. He cupped his chin between thumb and forefinger and felt the heavy stubble there.

  “Mark?” It was Ellenshaw prodding this time.

  Acheson nodded. “Yes, I have a plan. No one will like it, but we’re out of time, altitude, and airspeed.”

  ***

  “Man, this does suck,” Cecil said as he humped up the hillside through the sheets of rain. The wind raged so hard and fast that it tore the words from his lips.

  “Buck up, little chilito.” Nacho was just ahead. He held onto the dogs’ leashes and allowed them to advance at the front of the party. While the heavily laden humans were slow to climb, they were fleet and agile, straining against their restraints.

  “Chilito? Ain’t that somethin’ on the menu at Taco Bell?”

  “You call someone that in Mexico, they’ll slit you wide open.”

  “Guess it ain’t no compliment then. What’s it mean?”

  Nacho smiled beneath his night vision goggles. “It means ‘tiny penis,’ something you should be used to, you gorilla.”

  “Man, you’re jus’ jealous. I cain’t find a codpiece big enough to hold back all this black steel!”

  “Gentlemen, that really is enough,” Julia said. She brought up the rear, with Jerry Licht between her and Cecil. She heard the running commentary over her headset, as everyone’s radio was set to voice-activated.

  “You guys always chatter like this?” Licht asked breathlessly. Like the others, he was humping a rucksack full of ammunition and one fuel-air explosive, and the weight was almost bone-crushing given the incline and thick vegetation they had to hack through.

  “Only Cecil,” Julia said. “He never shuts up. Always bitching.”

  “Someone’s gotta add the human dimension to all the shit we go through,” Cecil said.

  “Yeah, and that usually means screaming like a little schoolgirl,” Nacho said.

  “Blow me, bean eater!” Cecil shot back.

  “No time to organize a search party,” Nacho said, using the age-old refrain that Cecil walked into time and time again. He followed the dogs through a thick set of brambles as they stalked up the craggy hillside. He slipped in a patch of mud, but kept his grip on the leashes. Cecil was there in an instant, and he grabbed Nacho and helped him to his feet.

  “Don’t say I never did nothin’ for you,” Cecil said.

  “Just don’t expect me to take care of your diaper rash once this is over.”

  “Enough boys,” Julia commanded, and they fell silent. They spent the next several minutes clambering through the wet darkness, following Nacho’s dogs. At least they were serious about it, she noticed. Where Cecil would complain until the cows came home, Nacho’s dogs just pressed on. Every now and then, she glimpsed one as it paused and sniffed the air, hackles raised. They knew what lay ahead, but they still advanced.

  “Lights ahead,” Nacho murmured over the radio an eternity later. “We’re at the edge of the scrub. I can see the house—it still has power.”

  “Hold the dogs back until we all get up there,” Julia said.

  “Roger that.”

  “Mark, you copy that last?” Julia quickened her pace and overtook Licht. She pushed him with both hands, urging him forward. He slipped and stumbled in the dark murk, but managed to keep his feet beneath him.

  Acheson came back immediately. “Roger that, Jules. We’re about set here. Put eyes on target and give me a SITREP, over.”

  “Roger, stand by.” Julia pushed past Licht. Ignoring her burning thighs and lungs, she climbed through the brush until she drew abreast of Nacho. He lay prone on the wet ground, his MP-5 shouldered and aimed at the mansion. His three dogs crouched before him, as motionless as statues in the dark.

  Julia dropped to her belly and pulled a night vision monocle from her belt. She powered it up and pushed her NVGs back on her head. Holding the monocle to her right eye, she surveyed the landscape ahead.

  “Definite movement indoors,” she said. “I count four—no, six individuals. Mark, I can see one of them with an assault rifle. HK G36, I think.”

  “Roger that. What else?”

  “The house is fully illuminated. All windows look intact, no storm damage as of yet. We might want to consider dropping the lights, just to make it more difficult for the servants with the weapons, over.”

  “Negative. Darkness is one of Osric’s strengths, so let’s deny him of that for as long as we can. Any sign of Claudia or Chiho?”

  “Stand by.” Julia passed the monocle back and forth across the rear of the house. She counted more figures—humans and vampires alike—congregating on the mansion’s second floor, where huge windows overlooked the back yard and the city beyond. She zoomed in on those windows, and the bright light oversaturated the monocle’s light-intensification chip for a moment before the excess illumination was filtered out.

  “Holy shit, I have a tally on Osric,” she half-whisper
ed into her headset’s boom microphone. “Second floor, rear of the house. And—stand by.” A flurry of activity in the house caught not just her attention, but Osric’s as well. Julia watched as the tall, stately vampire turned. He smiled and held up his hands as if welcoming a long-lost friend.

  Claudia Nero stepped into frame, herded toward Osric by a huge, powerful-looking vampire with a mustache that was probably all the rage in the 1800s. Though the monocle couldn’t reveal every detail of her features, Julia could see Claudia was panic-stricken as Osric placed his hands on her shoulders.

  “I have a tally on Claudia,” Julia reported. “Same room as Osric. He has his hands on her, Mark, but isn’t feeding on her.” Yet.

  “Hold position until you hear otherwise,” Acheson said, his voice clipped. “We’re still a few minutes from a go condition. Out.”

  ***

  “The charming Claudia Nero, the woman of my dreams!” Osric beamed when Stahl ushered her into the second-floor great room. He noted with some amusement that his mere presence brought her to near panic. Claudia shook her head from side to side, mouth open, a scream dying stillborn in her throat. When he placed his hands on her shoulders, she convulsed with fear. “Please, dear Claudia, be calm. You are among friends here.”

  Claudia’s eyes remained wide, wild with fear. Osric had no doubt she was suffering mightily beneath the psychic onslaught emanated by a being of his stature. It was a problem, for it threatened to interfere with what he had planned.

  He dismissed Stahl with a glance and steered Claudia toward the windows. Stretched out across the stormy blackness beyond was the jeweled tapestry of Los Angeles, revealed for all to see. Osric gestured to it with a sweep of his hand.

  “Look before you—the city you know, the City of Angels. A familiar sight to you after all these years, yes?”

  Claudia trembled as if she had been cast naked into an Arctic gale. Osric sensed her frail psyche was nearing its limit, and he had no choice but to intervene. She was no good to him as a babbling wreck.

  “Claudia… look into my eyes, sweet one.” Osric kept his voice low and soothing, speaking in a pitch made as smooth as glass by centuries of practice, as comforting as kid leather.

  Haltingly, Claudia did as instructed. Her doe-like brown eyes rose to meet his silver-in-black gaze. Her mouth dropped open, and she did scream then, a pathetic rasping squeal that reminded Osric of the pigs his father had once slaughtered centuries ago. Pigs whose blood ran hot and warm when the razor-sharp metal slashed through their weak flesh…

  “Calmly,” Osric whispered, backing up the single word with the power of his gaze. “Come back to me, Claudia…”

  Fear nothing, his eyes told her. Fear is worth nothing to you, fear stands in the way of uniting you with your beloved…

  Claudia began to fight off the terror that chilled her every nerve. The wild light that had flashed in her eyes ebbed, leaving a semi-calm in its wake. She gazed up at Osric, still fearful, but now her fear was hemmed in behind a wall of rationality.

  “What is it you want from me,” she said, her voice barely more than a gasp.

  Osric gestured toward the windows again. “Do you know where you are? You know what it is you see beyond these windows?”

  Claudia looked down at the storm-swept lights of Los Angeles. “Your City of the Damned. I’ve seen it before. In my dreams.”

  “Yes,” Osric hissed. “Dreams, dear Claudia, are another window through which we view reality. Did you know that?”

  Claudia didn’t answer.

  “Do you know why you’re here?”

  “To free Chiho.” She turned and faced the tall vampire, and her eyes were hard and flinty. “I know you want me for her. Or at least that’s what you want me to think.”

  “Dear Claudia, you’re right… and at the same time, wrong. You see, I have every intention of honoring what I promised you through my intermediary. But of course, I give nothing away for free. As always, there is a price.”

  “Of course there is,” Claudia said. “What is it?” She nodded past Osric’s shoulder, where Helena stood, smiling at her like a demonic lapdog. “You already have one empath, why do you need another?”

  Osric laughed. “My darling, I don’t need another empath for my own purposes. But your skills are required by another. It is for this reason that I have summoned you here, and for this reason that I give you a choice. You must decide upon this of your own free will.”

  “Decide what?”

  “To give yourself to me, dear Claudia,” Osric said. He smiled, and his fangs glittered in the light. “Give yourself to me so that I might use you in any way I see fit. If you do this, your beloved Chiho goes free. If not, then you will watch as I feed upon her and make her one of my own.”

  Claudia snorted. “Some choice.”

  “I never said the choice would be easy. Nor did I promise it would not cost you.”

  “So if I agree to this, what do I get out of it other than your assurance that Chiho goes free?”

  Osric stepped closer to her. “Your dreams… you recall them? Do you recall the passion, the intoxicating fires of your releases?”

  Claudia looked away. Osric smiled.

  “Tempting to experience the full force of such passion in real life, as opposed to the pale taste you received through the veil of a dream world, yes?” he asked. “Your last moments before I claim to this city, consumed by such ardor. Fitting, is it not?”

  Claudia looked out over the city lights. Osric was foul, filthy, the absolute antithesis of everything she stood for. But what he offered was almost irresistible. She had lied to herself, convinced herself that what she did all this to ensure Chiho’s life. But the truth of the matter was she craved the fiery passion her dreams promised, the blazing fervor that had awakened her night after night. It had been almost impossible to put it out of her mind, and no matter how many times she made love with Chiho or how many times she masturbated to climax, the desire to experience it firsthand weighed heavily on her. It was as if she were addicted to some powerful narcotic.

  My God, what is it that I’m about to do?

  “Let me see Chiho,” she said. “Let me see her, and I’ll make my decision then.”

  Osric put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her away from the window. Claudia turned to find Chiho standing right there, held by a lean male vampire. She was naked, and her eyes were glazed and unfocused. She leaned against the vampire, a man with a narrow face that was framed by a long mane of black hair. Claudia stepped toward her, angry.

  “What have you done to her?” She grabbed Chiho’s arm and shoved the vampire away from her with all her might. The vampire barely moved, but he released Chiho with a dead smile.

  “Your friend is well and unharmed,” Osric said. “She has been put in a fugue state, however—more for her safety than anything else. You must know she would fight us with every ounce of energy she has. Better to restrain her this way than risk injuring her, yes?”

  Chiho slumped forward. Claudia grabbed her and hugged her close. She lowered Chiho to the floor and stretched her out on her back. Claudia examined her for bite marks and found none. Her wrists and ankles were bruised, and she glared up at Osric.

  “She did this herself by struggling against her bonds,” Osric said. “As I told you, she would fight against us with everything she had if she were allowed.”

  “Chiho, can you hear me? It’s Claudia. Chiho?” Claudia looked into Chiho’s dull eyes and saw no glimmer of recognition. Claudia shook her, but her head lolled against her chest.

  “I need to talk with her!” Claudia shouted at Osric.

  “Are you sure this is wise?”

  “I don’t care if it’s wise or not, it’s what you need to do!”

  Osric stepped toward her, eyes hard. Claudia’s breath caught in her throat as she squelched her scream and turned away from the fury of his glare.

  “Never pretend to know what I need to do, meat!” Osric thundered.

&
nbsp; Claudia tried to look over at him, but her gaze would not rise past his shining shoes. “I think you should do as I ask,” she whispered, “because I think that whatever you need to have happen here tonight depends on me giving up to you willingly.”

  Osric hesitated for a long moment. “It would be better if you were to give yourself to me freely, yes.”

  “Then do as I ask,” Claudia said.

  “Step aside.” Claudia did as instructed, and Osric stood over Chiho’s prone figure. He glared down at her for a moment, his eyes boring into hers.

  Chiho gasped and floundered on the floor, scuttling away from him, eyes wide. She leaped to her feet in one fluid motion, and before Claudia could say anything, Helena had Chiho by the throat.

  “Oh, how I wish to feed on you!” Helena tittered.

  Chiho grabbed Helena’s wrist with one hand and held it tight. She spun on one foot, throwing her weight into the movement as her free hand slammed into Helena’s elbow. Helena screamed as bone and tissue parted in her shoulder. The vampire released her and hissed, fangs bared, black tongue pistoning from her mouth like a dark serpent.

  “You’ll pay for that, bitch!”

  “Helena, please show some restraint,” Osric said. “Miss Hara, our dear Claudia would like a word with you.”

  Chiho snapped into a low fighting stance, fists clenched and held close to her body. She took in the room, noting the positions of the vampires and their human servants. Her eyes drifted across Claudia but did not linger on her for more than an instant.

  “Claudia,” she said, “get out. Now.”

  “I can’t.” Claudia reached for Chiho, and her fingers closed around one of her wrists. “I’m so sorry, Chiho, but I can’t leave now. I’m here to save you.”

  “Save me?” Chiho asked. She pulled Claudia toward her and twisted again, ending up shielding Claudia from the knot of vampires with her body.

  “A dramatic stance, Miss Hara, but completely useless,” Osric said in a bored tone. “There’s nowhere for you to go and no way you can outfight even one of us. You should listen to your dear Claudia.”

  Chiho calculated the odds and found they were about as bad as they could get. Osric, several masters, and even more lower-caste vamps and ghouls were in the house, along with some human servants who were armed. Chiho considered the humans. If she could get to one of their weapons, she would be able to postpone the inevitable for a few moments at best.