by Rob Cornell
Jesus Christ, it’s going to work.
But just as Gabriel’s mind opened to her, she was ripped back to full consciousness where she found the vampire king latched to her throat, draining her blood.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Lockman booked it away from the hotel door. He jagged around a stone fountain in the center of the grounds and dove flat on his belly behind it.
A second later the explosion boomed through the night.
He kept his head low, but he could hear the pieces of the door and a good section of the surrounding wall drop to the ground around him. When the debris settled, he chanced a look over the lip of the fountain. A dozen vamps poured out of the smoking hole in the building’s façade. More than Lockman could have hoped for. They all carried automatic weapons, aiming them out at the shadows beyond the reach of the light cast from the lamp posts around the hotel’s perimeter. Nothing like a group of panicked vamps.
He pulled his AK around to his front and flattened to the grass again. His part of the attack was finished for the moment. Now all he had to do was stay out of the ogres’ way.
Marty’s brothers waited another handful of seconds like Lockman had instructed, giving any more vamps a chance to show up late for the party. None did, though he could hear calls from inside the lobby asking for a status report from the vamps outside.
The ogres opened fire. The chatter of automatic gunfire sounded like the biggest fireworks show ever performed. The noise was deafening, though Lockman could still hear the steady whine of Marty’s Minigun among the shooting.
Silver rounds cut through the vamps on the lawn, spattering blood and burning flesh onto the grass. Only a few of the vamps had a chance to squeeze off shots of their own. They were quickly cut down. When the last vamp fell, the shooting stopped as abruptly as it had started.
Teresa’s turn. A dangerous job, but necessary if they wanted to clear the way in. She came tearing around the corner of the hotel, staying close to the building, a pair of grenades in each hand. She had tied the pins of each pair together with twine. When she neared the entrance, she tugged the twine from each pair with her teeth, pulling the pins. Never stopping, she sprinted past the entrance and tossed all four grenades in on her way by. She made it halfway to the other side of the building before the grenades detonated with enough force to blow out the front windows.
Teresa dove to the ground and covered her head to protect herself from the glass shards. She popped up the second the glass had cleared and opened fire with her AK into the nearest window.
Clouds of silver dust plumed from the windows and doorway while flames flickered in the gaping entrance like a candle in a Jack O’ Lantern. Inhuman screams rose from inside. Lockman could imagine the silver dust coating their skin like soot and eating through the flesh.
Teresa kept firing in small bursts through the window, picking off vamps inside. Lockman wished she wouldn’t waste the ammo. The silver should have taken care of most the vamps in there by now. But he could tell from her stance and the set of her jaw she was exacting revenge for what they had done to her sister. He couldn’t blame her.
The ogres closed in, and Lockman rose from behind the fountain and joined the circle as they all approached the entrance. Teresa finally stopped firing through the window, gave them the all clear signal, and jogged over to join them.
Marty’s brothers stomped purposefully through the vampire remains, crushing skulls and collapsing chests under their boots. A couple of them spit on the carnage for good measure. The determination in their eyes buoyed Lockman’s confidence in the success of the mission. Vampires had killed one of their family and had started a genocide against their kind simply for their blood. Lockman could think of no greater motivator than a chance at vengeance.
They formed up in two lines, Lockman and Teresa taking point, and filed into the hotel lobby, guns up and ready for anything.
Anything except the vampire ogre standing at the top of the red carpeted stairs leading to the first floor.
Chapter Fifty
You know what’s happening, don’t you?
Jessie had grown too weak to struggle now. The vampire king moaned as he drained her, shivered even, as if in the fits of a multiple orgasm. But that’s what this was, wasn’t it? Vampire sex. Procreation.
That’s true. But it’s more than that.
She wanted to tell Gabriel to shut up. She supposed wanting to was enough, since this conversation was all in her head. The moment he had sensed her weaken, he had slammed back into her head. Now she would have to listen to his fucked-up shit into death…or undeath. Whatever becoming a vampire meant. At least she would be free of Gabriel then.
Afraid not. Not by a long shot.
Her stomach turned. Her head spun. Too much blood lost. Even if the King stopped now, she probably wouldn’t survive. In her gut she knew she had passed the point of no return. She either became a vampire or she died.
Her dad was too late this time.
You shouldn’t fear immortality. I told you this vampire would bring you salvation. Let go. Struggling will only make it hurt more.
Jessie didn’t think she was struggling. Now that Gabriel mentioned it, she realized she still had some fight in her. What good would it do? Yet it simply wasn’t in her nature to let go.
She fought. And Gabriel was right. It hurt. Terribly.
After a while, she felt her pulse slow. She could not draw breath. Her vision narrowed to only a pin of light. This was the end. No question. Death. When next she awoke, she would be something else, something evil.
No, Gabriel’s voice echoed as darkness fell. Something beautiful.
Jessie’s heartbeat went dead in her chest.
Chapter Fifty-One
Though any living creature theoretically could be turned into a vampire, Lockman never thought he’d see the day an ogre was turned.
All of the brothers hesitated, the barrels of their guns dropping. Lockman could see the mix of horror and rage in their faces.
The vampire ogre snarled and walked down the steps, each footfall pounding like a drumbeat.
Marty raised his Minigun, aiming the cylinder of barrels at the vamp’s chest, made a pained whine at the back of his throat. His finger tightened on the trigger, but he couldn’t get himself to fire.
“Let me take him out,” Lockman offered.
Marty didn’t seem to hear him. His lips peeled back from his dice-sized teeth.
The ogre vamp mocked him, baring his fangs which had to be at least three inches long. When he stepped off the last stair, he paused, puffing his chest and flexing his muscled arms. Veins as thick as rope bulged through his dark green skin. “Weak Gulogich. You don’t know power Master give me.”
Marty hefted his Minigun and said, “I hate an ogre who speaks broken English. Gives us all a bad name.” He fired, the gun whining, barrels spinning.
The ogre vamp seemed to disappear, and Marty’s rounds chewed apart the stairs, sending wood and carpet shreds into the air.
But the vamp hadn’t disappeared. He’d moved so quickly he came up at Marty’s side and lifted Marty up over his head. Marty dropped his gun. The vamp tossed him like a ragdoll into the ruined stairs. “Little vamps drink ogre blood make them strong. Me have ogre blood always.”
One of the brothers unleashed his weapon on the vamp, but the vamp dodged again. He grabbed the brother that fired on him by both arms and cleanly ripped them off. Blood sprayed everywhere. The vamp ogre opened his mouth and caught some of the spray on his tongue. Then he used the brother’s arms like a pair of clubs, smashing the brother’s head between them.
The other brothers were too close to open fire as the vamp started swinging the arms and tearing through the group. But he’d made the mistake of giving Lockman his back.
Lockman raised his AK and sighted down the barrel. A quick burst of silver rounds into the center of the vamp’s back sent chunks of burning ogre flesh flying, the blood sizzling as it ran down along hi
s spine.
The vamp whirled on Lockman and hissed like a vamp, but the sound deeper and even more menacing. Lockman tried to pull off another burst. The vamp had him by the throat and the AK yanked out of his hands before he could blink. Something as big as an ogre shouldn’t move that fast. No other vamp could. The fact that he was a vamp and an ogre changed the rules, though.
Lockman felt his windpipe squeeze as the vamp crushed his neck. Another second, and he was as good as dead. Lucky for him, the vamp didn’t have that second.
The vamp howled and dropped Lockman to the floor. Teresa lay on her back between the ogre vamp’s legs, her silver dagger jammed straight into his crotch. The ogre recovered quickly and reached down to grab her, but she slid out behind him and slashed at the back of his heels.
The ogre shouted again and fell forward. Lockman had to roll to the side to avoid getting crushed underneath. The impact of the ogre’s fall shook the floor. Then his flesh began to sizzle as he came into contact with the silver powder that had settled to the floor.
Despite the smoking wounds across his heels, in his groin, and the burns from the silver dust, the ogre vamp pushed himself up to his knees. That’s as far as he got.
Marty had recovered his gun and stood over the twisted version of his own kind. He fired into the ogre from behind and shredded him as easily as he had the stairs. The sight was so gruesome, Teresa turned away.
On the floor only a few feet away, Lockman watched the vampire ogre fall apart like a moist piece of meat in a blender. His eardrums pulsed against the Minigun’s noise.
Finally the Minigun went empty, the barrel whirring like a buzz saw as they continued to spin. Marty kept his finger on the trigger, kept the barrels spinning, unable to let go.
Lockman shouted Marty’s name over the sound. “It’s over.”
The ogre released the trigger and the barrels wound down to a stop like a roulette wheel. He tossed the Minigun onto the liquefied mess that used to be a vampire ogre, then spat.
The brothers that still stood gathered around the remains and spit as well.
Lockman got to his feet, let out a shaky breath. When he tried to swallow it felt like a knife sliding down his throat. He scanned the floor. Three out of the ten brothers lay unmoving.
Marty had tears in his eyes. A quick look around told Lockman they all did. Teresa, too. Then Lockman felt them in his own eyes. But they had to pull out of this, no matter how terrible. Otherwise they were just waiting for the rest of the vamps to come kill them all.
“If there are more vamps like this—”
“There aren’t,” Marty cut in. “Ogres have a tremendous amount of blood for any one vampire to drain. This… this would have been very hard to create.”
“We still have an army to face.”
As if on cue, at least a dozen footfalls echoed down from the floor above.
The brothers checked their weapons. A couple reloaded. Marty pulled his AK around and cocked it. Teresa sheathed her dagger and reloaded her own AK.
Lockman dropped the mag from his weapon and slapped a new one home. “Let’s kill vamps.”
They spread out, taking cover among the lobby’s furniture, including a fucking throne set up at the far end. The vampire king took his title more seriously than Lockman thought. He shook his head and headed for the hotel’s front desk. He leapt up, slid over the counter, and dropped behind in a crouch.
A silent handful of seconds passed, except for the vamps trampling above.
Lockman peered over the top of the desk and watched the vamps come down the double set of stairs that led to either side of the landing. They halted at the top of the main staircase into the lobby to scan their surroundings. They had a range of weapons among them. Everything from Uzis to grenade launchers. Fourteen of them in all. All of them fresh turns. Cannon fodder.
Lockman could taste a bit of the rage the ogres must have felt at seeing one of their own turned. It wasn’t like he’d never seen a human-turned-vampire before. Somehow it meant more now. This king and his set of groupies had gone too far, building an army from innocent humans to fight their damn vampire war. And they didn’t give a fuck what happened to them.
But it was too late. They weren’t human anymore, so there was no reason to hesitate. Lockman led with the first volley. He took out one of the two carrying the grenade launchers. He spotted Teresa peeking around a column. She had the same idea and took out the other grenade launcher. Always start a fight by eliminating the largest threat.
With the shooting started, the vamps scattered, firing blindly. A few screams rang out as some of them came in contact with the silver dust.
None of these vamps had any training or finesse. But what they lacked in skill, they made up for in firepower. Which left Lockman and the others with an easy strategy. Let the vamps run dry, then take them down while they tried to reload.
Lockman hunkered down, bullets whizzing overhead, debris chipping away off the walls and the top of the desk. We’re coming, Jess. Hang on, baby.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Niall wiped the blood from his lips with a handkerchief, the girl’s taste still tingling on his tongue. Corig knelt before him, looking pathetic for a vampire of five-hundred years. Nothing more than a child. Niall remembered his fifth-hundred year. By then he had already slaughtered the occupants of a dozen different villages and given birth to dozens of vampires on this mortal plane. What had he seen in this simpering excuse for a vampire?
“We aren’t prepared for this attack,” Corig whined.
It grated on Niall’s ears. “We have a hotel room filled with vampires. You can’t take care of a few ogres and humans?”
“They’re heavily armed. With silver. And we’ve sent the last of our weapon cache with the freshlings down there now.”
Niall backhanded Corig and knocked him off his knees. The stupid child dared to bare his fangs at his king. No control over his instincts. The kind of behavior that gave their kind such a bad name in this world. Uncontrollable, blood lusting animals. Niall felt as if all his work to bring forth intelligent, thinking vampires had amounted to nothing.
Then Yora came to Niall’s side. “Vampires do not need weapons. We are the weapons.”
Niall smiled. She made him feel better. She was a prime example of those he meant to gather as leaders in his kingdom. In the face of failure, she brought about victory. Delivering the girl to him had changed everything. He stroked Yora’s cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Kill him,” he said and pointed at Corig. “Then send the rest of the freshlings down ahead of you. Overwhelm them with numbers, then come up behind and scour what remains.”
Corig scuffled backward. All coward and no vampire. He might as well have been mortal.
He did not make it far. Yora was on him and tearing this throat open with her fangs before he even had a chance to cry out.
Niall inhaled the smell of blood. He would have to consider offering Yora a special place in his kingdom. After all, every kingdom deserved a queen.
When Yora finished with Corig she started for the door. So dedicated. But Niall had one last command. “Yora.”
She turned and bowed, beautiful with Corig’s blood smeared across her face. “Yes, Lord.”
“Feed them before you send them down.”
Her brow rose. “The freshlings, my lord?”
“We’ve enough to spare. Give them each the sacred blood. Let us witness a preview of what awaits the mortal world.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
The silver dust kept the vamps too scared to charge. Instead, they hung back and blew their wad in a matter of minutes. The steady fire petered out as each vamp ran dry and was forced to reload. Lockman and the others didn’t hesitate.
Teresa popped around her column and fired a couple quick bursts, not really aiming. She was drawing fire. It gave Lockman and the ogres a chance to pick targets and take them down. With the last of the loaded vamps out of the game, Lockman and the others charged, taking
measured shots, none of them wasting ammo with reckless aim. Many of the vamps apparently didn’t have ammo to reload. They tried rushing to get into hand-to-hand range. None of them made it.
One dove for a grenade launcher on the stairs. Marty fired a single round through the vamp’s head which burst like a rotted melon.
Lockman’s ears rang in the silence that followed.
“They aren’t very well armed,” one of the brothers said. “And they’re so newly turned, they are weak and clumsy. We will have no trouble if this is their so-called army.”
Lockman pressed his lips together. Once past the initial attack by the ogre vamp, this fight got too easy. Maybe they caught the vamps by surprise. Like at the blood factory, maybe the vamps’ confidence in their numbers had left them open. Based on Vera’s scan of the place, though, they had to have more vamps upstairs. At least some of them would not be fresh turns.
“I wouldn’t get cocky,” Teresa said as she recovered one of the grenade launchers. “We’re still only on the first floor.” She picked up the other grenade launcher and tossed it to Lockman.
“We could wait them out,” another brother suggested. “The silver on the ground keeps them at bay. It’s our greatest advantage.”
Lockman shook his head. “They’ll eventually get wise to that. I’ll bet there is a back way out. They could circle around and flank us from behind.”
“Besides,” Marty said to his brothers, “we can’t afford waiting while they have the chosen one.”
The brothers all lowered their heads, clearly troubled. Looked like Marty had convinced them of his prophecy. “We have to move forward,” one of them said. The others nodded agreement.
Lockman didn’t get it. Didn’t have to. If these ogres wanted to believe Jessie was their saint or whatever, he would play along. Anything to get her the hell out of there.
Now that he had a moment, Lockman scanned the lobby. A pair of elevators were around behind the reception desk. One of them hung open, revealing the empty elevator shaft and the rusted gears and broken pulleys inside. The other elevator was closed, but Lockman doubted it worked anymore.