Blood, Blades and Bacon

by Matthew Roys

  Another shadow-step brought her onto the roof of the building. Her footsteps were silent as she padded across the cement. There were sensors across the edges but nothing in the centre. The defences by human standards were impressive but Ailia was on a whole other level.

  She moved to the roof of the closest warehouse so she could watch the guards. They held rifles and scanned their surroundings diligently. She’d only have one chance to get past them without the whole compound being alerted.

  Her eyes zoned in on the door. It was sturdy metal with a passcode lock. Without access to the code stealth wouldn’t be an option. Silencing the guards while ensuring that one survived long enough to tell it to her would be tricky with all of the other guards that were patrolling the grounds.

  “Looks like I get to do things the fun way,” she said with a giggle.

  She threw the minigun high into the sky then sprang off the roof at a sprint with her arms held out to either side of her. The men didn’t have time to react before her open hands impacted with their faces and drove their heads into the wall. Instantly she pivoted and kicked out so that her feet slammed into the door. There was a thunderous crash as it was torn from its hinges and flew into the room beyond.

  The momentum of the kick carried her back towards the warehouse. She span in the air, kicked off from that wall too and shot forward into the building, rolling as she hit the ground. Another guard ran to the door with his gun at the ready until the minigun finally succumbed to gravity and landed on his head with a gruesome crunch of bones.

  Ailia picked the gun up and sauntered into the main room. A lone man in his late twenties stood with his back against the wall, a pistol clutched in his hands. He was dark haired and tall and would have been considered as handsome if not for a slight pudginess.

  “Mr Golman, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person,” Ailia announced in her sweetest voice. She licked her lips with a slow deliberation.

  His posture was that of a cornered animal, all fear and tension, but he couldn’t hide the confidence that burned in his eyes.

  “Cut the act. I can see that you aren’t in the least bit scared. You can feel pride in the fact that you’ll die like a real man at least.”

  Golman shrugged and stood up straight. He now held the gun casually at his side.

  “Ailia Vihart, a local arms dealer and a vampire of over three hundred years young. Ye live up te yer reputation. I’m still nae impressed though. Ye see, ye have a stranglehold on the UK armament market within the powered community. Trouble is, that is the direction I want te expand my own business in. I have been given the opportunity te remove ye and increase my sphere of influence among the powered. I’d be a fool nae te take it.” His voice retained an accent but he spoke clearly and professionally.

  Ailia laughed aloud. “That’s funny ‘cos I’m the immortal vampire with a minigun.”

  Golman tapped his watch without looking away from Ailia. There was a sharp click then he bounded to the side and opened fire with the pistol. To Ailia it was as though they moved in slow motion. She swayed to the side and levelled her minigun.

  The walls around them juddered then suddenly slid down into the ground to reveal giant lights. They clicked on, blazing ultraviolet light lancing from all sides into the room. Alia cursed. The light instantly blinded her, overwhelming her heightened vision. She could already feel a stinging sensation crisscross her skin. Vampires didn’t burst into dust in sunlight but staying inside a giant suntan booth wasn’t a good idea.

  There was the sound of running feet from the door. She span and fired in their direction and was rewarded with brief screams and an overwhelming smell of blood. She turned to spray the lights with a hail of bullets when more clicks sounded around her. Gaps in the wall opened and more guards piled in.

  She heard the slight scrape of triggers being pulled and the bang and whistle of bullets. She could smell the gunpowder and heated metal. Even without the use of her eyes she danced around the bullets, dropping the gun to gain mobility. Guided by the smells of sweat, fear or excitement, she ran at the men. Her fingers tore through flesh with childlike ease.

  Something was wrong. It didn’t feel quite… real. Ailia tried to ignore what her ears and nose were telling her and look beyond them. There! Just on the edge of her hearing was a faint, high-pitched screech. How had she not noticed it? The smell of blood wasn’t quite right either. There was a chemical edge to it.

  She stopped moving and cleared her mind. Dizziness was creeping over her. Before she knew it she had fallen to her knees. The lights suddenly shut off, replacing the blinding light with dazzled darkness. As her vision cleared she could see Golman standing over her. The rest of the room was empty, devoid of any corpses. She tried to stand but her body felt beyond her control and an ungodly migraine racked her brain.

  “I’ve been told that nobody is as arrogant as vampires,” Golman explained matter of factly. Ailia struggled to follow his words. “They tend te underestimate their foes because of their clear superiority. If ye can get inte their head though then they donae know that they're losing. Ye vampires are lords of a dead age. Against peasants with iron ye were gods but in this age, against modern technology, ye are nothing. We have easy access te portable daylight, machines that can create unhearable sounds that affect the mind and man-made gases that can damage cells while smelling perfectly innocent.”

  “You bastard…”

  Golman laughed then pushed her to the floor. She could feel her consciousness slipping. It was a strange sensation for someone that never even slept. Golman spoke as she faded, his words cutting through the mental fog to etch into her brain.

  “Yer just jealous that ye have been surpassed by a weaker race, like the brutish Neanderthal outpaced by the brains of the Homosapien. My plans extend far beyond Annis. She is but a means to an end, as are ye. The age of legends is ending, bringing forth the true age of man.”

  Chapter 16.

  “Déaþscúa…”

  He tried to laugh good naturedly at the concern on KT’s face but it came out more as a painful sounding cough. “It takes more than an over-zealous firing squad to keep me down. Believe me. I’ve faced more than my fair share. Though I will admit that machineguns are far more effective than rifles. Annis knew that she had to be the one to finish me off. The cave-in might have done the trick, and who knows what I’d be like if I hadn’t been cared for, but you get the picture. I may be near immortal but that doesn’t that my body can’t be broken beyond repair. Drinking through a straw for the foreseeable future is no way to live.”

  His body was still a mess. Cuts and bruises covered every patch of his skin and he was only standing with the aid of a walking stick. His movements were slow and deliberate and clearly brought pain to his face despite his laidback attitude.

  He began to plate up the bacon, making well filled butties that he slid across to the two teens before tucking into one himself. Elizabeth joined them without a word, nodding to Déaþscúa as he handed her one of the sandwiches. They ate in silence until Kai, who had devoured the food, spoke up.

  “How long will it be until you're able to fight again? I’ve finally realised that we can’t find our dad without you.”

  Déaþscúa frowned slightly, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t say. Whatever they were using in their bullets really messed me up. More than being shot hundreds of times anyway. My healing isn’t working properly. Again, not working properly in the sense that I am walking around a single day after said hundreds of gunshot wounds. I’m up but I feel weak as a baby. It’s tripped out my powers. I can’t use magic and can’t heal myself. That rules out relying on my bones as weapons and limits the damage I can take.”

  “So we stay here until you’re feeling better?”

  “Since I don’t know how long that will be, no. If Annis is trying to open of Heaven’s Gate then we have to act fast. It’s no longer about finding your family or my petty revenge. It just means we won’t be seeking
direct confrontation with her or her followers. We need to be smart and luckily. That doesn’t require a strong body.”

  “Everyone keeps talking about this ‘Heaven’s Gate’ thing as though we should know about it,” Kai said. “Why is it such a bad thing?”

  It was Elizabeth who answered him. “In the early days of Earth, all life was magical. It was a time that you might think of as that of myths and legends. But as the years passed, the magic began to wane. The ruling body of the time decided to pump fresh magic into the world by opening a rift to the realm of gods. Nobody knows the exact details, but the plan failed.”

  Déaþscúa picked up the story. “It turned out to be a disaster. Magic went wild. Seventy percent of the population was burned out in an instant. This was the birth of the powerless. It did succeed in greatly boosting the magic in the other thirty percent.”

  “But why would Annis want to repeat that?” KT asked.

  “The theory behind the Gate was solid. Many believe that whoever performed it made a simple error. This was thousands of years ago. Scholars have spent lifetimes researching it. Maybe Annis thinks she has found the answer.”

  “But wouldn’t that be a good thing?” KT asked slowly. “If it works, wouldn’t everybody become magical?” There was a faint glimmer in her eyes.

  Déaþscúa shook his head. “I’m no expert but my understanding is that the Gate is tied directly to magic. It would forcibly pump magic into life. The powerless cannot process magic. Your bodies can’t contain it or guide it. Anyone without existing magic would likely die in agony.”

  KT set aside the last bit of her sandwich, her appetite suddenly gone. “So what’s your plan?”

  Déaþscúa hesitated. “I’m not exactly sure yet. I need time to think. Thinking tactically was not on my list of priorities last night. My body still needs a little more time too.”

  “So when do we leave?” Kai asked.

  “Tomorrow,” Déaþscúa answered. “I have a few things to organise and we have to wait for Jearl. Until then, there is a sparring ring down the corridor. You two should get some practice in. With me like this and Elizabeth burned out we need to rely on your strength.”

  KT took a deep breath and steadied herself. “Déaþscúa… While you were unconscious you started to talk. You called out for Ava. Our cousin. Why did you never tell us?”

  Déaþscúa’s face dropped. He didn’t answer and kept his eyes fixed on his scarred hands as they rested upon the table. KT was beginning to fear that she really should not have asked. Without looking up he finally spoke.

  “I’ve hunted Annis for many years but she is the only being that continues to evade me. She had disappeared completely for a decade when rumours of her began to emerge from Scotland. I went to investigate the sightings and that is when I first met Ava Peterson.

  “I was in a large town, skulking around alleyways in search of a way inside a building that I believed had been used by some of Annis’ supporters. Ava was a trainee in the police who saw me and thought I was suspicious. She followed me inside, expecting to catch me trying to steal something but instead she found me in a swordfight with a golem and a handful of goblins.”

  “I expected her to scream and run. Instead she ran at the closest goblin and smacked it across the head with her baton. She had no fear and fought like somebody born into battle. I was quite frankly amazed. After the battle, drenched in blood, she grabbed me by the throat and demanded to know what was going on.”

  “Her aura was out of control. It raged like a fire. If it flared up like that whenever she was worked up then she would be a target for any magical beings. I’d not seen anything like it. She fascinated me, so against my better judgement, I agreed to her demand to join me. She was a natural at everything she tried and took to our world like a bird to flight.”

  He paused and the faint smile that had begun to spread across his lips faded. “Then Annis found her. Ava had left me to return home for Christmas when Annis attacked her. She was in a car with her father. There was nothing that they could have done.”

  Silence descended on the room. It showed no sign of abating so Déaþscúa shrugged awkwardly.

  “That’s all in the past now. Don’t get yourselves down about it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us though?” KT pressed. “You knew from the moment that you saw me that we had to be related. You must have known about the lodge too. Why keep it a secret?”

  “Why? Can you imagine stumbling into a situation where you come face to face with someone who looks identical to your dead partner? All those long buried emotions rushing back into your head, all those memories. How would you have liked me to bring it up? ‘Hey, you look exactly like my dead girlfriend who died horrifically because of me’. Every time I look at you it brings me unwanted pain, but I didn’t mention it because it isn’t your fault. Comparing you to someone else doesn’t help anybody. But that’s how it is. Does that answer your question?”

  KT put down her cutlery and looked Déaþscúa straight in the eyes. She felt that strange tug on her mind, an alien feeling that she should drop the subject, but it slid off of her like rain on a tiled roof.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve always been compared to her so don’t worry about it. I just need to know that you’re helping us because you want to and not because we are Ava’s family.”

  Déaþscúa shrugged. “I promised her I’d watch over her family. Back then I only knew of her mother. So I’d pass by the lodge whenever I was in the area. That’s what led me to you two. It’s why I didn’t follow protocol and have your minds wiped. It’s why I put so much effort into freeing your dad and aunt. Her memory gave you an opportunity, but you have both proven yourselves capable on your own merits. I’m sorry that I wasn’t straight with you.”

  Kai looked uncomfortable with the whole situation. Behind the discomfort was a growing curiosity. “Annis told us that our auras were different too. Is ours like Ava’s? Is that why you're helping us?”

  “No,” was Déaþscúa’s curt reply. “Her’s was golden fire. You two have something like quicksilver. Most folk have your more basic colours. Your blues, reds, greens, blacks. Silver is rare but not unheard of. They don’t reflect power though, only character. Now eat up. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

  When everyone had finished, Déaþscúa showed KT and Kai to the sparring ring. It was a large room with a wide circle in the centre and several racks of weapons and training dummies. He grabbed one of the dummies and set it up in the ring. The dummy looked like an armoured scarecrow and was armed with a wooden club. Déaþscúa tapped a rune on its forehead and it jerked to life.

  “This here is a Spartron. Half magic, half machine. Defeat it then turn up the difficulty. Rinse and repeat. Just don’t get hit as that club will break bones. That’s not even mentioning internal bleeding. My magic is out so I can’t heal you. My body needs it all to heal itself. Enjoy.”

  Déaþscúa stepped from the ring, leaving KT and Kai to stare at the dummies with concern. He stood beside the door where Jearl joined him. They spoke in muted tones that were little more than murmurs to the teens.

  “You sure this is a good idea, boss? You really want to push them this hard? Them Spartrons are right bastards if you don’t know what you’re doing. Not that I care much either way, ya know.”

  “If they can’t protect themselves from a training dummy then what chance do they have? If they get themselves crippled then a sickbed is the best place for them until this all blows over. I have a feeling they’ll do just fine though.” He faced back to the twins and raised his voice. “Try not to die while I’m gone, okay!”

  They watched Déaþscúa and Jearl leave. Kai finally shook himself and grabbed a training axe from one of the racks. The second that he stepped into the ring the Spartron jerked around to stare eyelessly at him.

  “Greetings combatant,” the dummy said in an echoey voice. “Please choose the level of skill between one and ten that you wish to train at.”

&n
bsp; “Err...Level one,” Kai told the machine awkwardly.

  “Level one is activated. Beginning training session in three. Two. One. Begin.”

  The Spartron rushed forward with the whirring sound of gears. It raised its club and swung high to smash Kai’s head like a pumpkin. Kai crouched and spun, dodging the machine’s charge, and slammed his training axe into its exposed back. It stopped then sagged defeatedly.

  “Level one training bout completed. Victory achieved. Would you like to spar again?”

  Kai snorted contemptuously. “That was easy. How does Déaþscúa expect us to be ready for battle using this? Training level five.”

  Level five is activated. Beginning training session in three. Two. One. Begin.”

  The Spartron became a blur of movement that made straight for Kai. The teen smirked as he made ready to dodge but at the last second the dummy jolted to the side, right to where Kai was moving to. The club darted for Kai’s ribs and was only turned away by a hasty block from his axe. He span, swinging the axe low but the machine slid back easily before diving straight back into the attack.

  They traded blows for a while. What Kai lacked in skill he made up for with a brutal determination. His position changed, leaving himself open to a lunging attack. He took a glancing blow in the shoulder but managed to hook the club between the axe’s head and its shaft. He twisted it violently and the club wrenched loose of the Spartron’s grip.

  Sweating, Kai stepped out of the ring and slumped onto one of the benches. He motioned for KT to take his place, a competitive light in his eyes. “The one who gets the highest wins?”

  “Game on,” KT grinned. She grabbed the only doublesword in the room and took to the ring. “Level five.”

  Retrieving its club, the Spartron took its place again then began its countdown. KT prepared for its initial charge but it surprised her by moving back then circling around her. She turned to keep it in view but it doubled back then zigzagged at speed for her.