by Rob Cornell
He looked to the stairs. The only way up. Which meant another frontal assault into blind territory. The stairs off the landing at the top of the main set led to a mezzanine over the lobby. More than likely another stairwell up there led to the rooms on the next several floors.
They’d gone from vampire hostel to vampire hotel, and it was a safe bet judging from the first two waves of vamps, there were a lot more than fifty here.
“We have to split up,” he said.
Teresa, Marty, and all his brothers gaped at him like he was crazy.
“We need a strike team to infiltrate ahead while the rest of us drive the forward assault.”
Marty gestured around him. “This is a strike team, brother. We can’t afford to split.”
“We’re a mini-army today. This is the first battle in the war. We can recruit more later, but for now it’s on us. And we will not make it by frontal assault alone.”
“If we’re a mini-army,” Teresa said. “Then it’s going to be one hell of a small strike force.”
Lockman nodded. “A team of one. Me.”
“Fuck that.” Teresa stepped forward. “You’ll need a second pair of eyes.”
The back of Lockman’s neck burned. He didn’t want to bring her into this. Especially with what he had planned.
“I can tell what you’re thinking,” she said. “But I’m not letting you go alone.”
“Why you two?” a brother asked.
Lockman looked the ogre up and down, which took some time. “I can’t picture one of you slipping through a window or crawling through the ventilation.”
The brother snorted. “Tininess has its advantages.”
Lockman turned to Marty. “You on board?”
Before Marty answered, a loud thundering rolled down from above.
“Wave number three,” Lockman said.
Marty looked toward the ceiling. “Sounds like everyone was invited this time.”
“They’re coming down the stairwell. It’s the only way. You form up around the door, you can bottleneck them and rain silver.”
“Until we run out of ammo.”
He handed Marty the grenade launcher. “Do your best. You buy me as much time as you can.”
Marty led his brothers up to the mezzanine, heard one of them say, “Over here,” and their heavy footfalls as they gathered.
“Where are we headed?” Teresa asked.
“Out.” He jogged for the door.
She caught up as they cleared the entrance and headed across the grounds. “I know you’ve got a plan. You want to share?”
“Not really.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
“The bulk of the paranormal energy,” Vera said, “forms a line along one side of the building and travels downward.”
“The vamps heading down the stairwell.” Lockman closed his eyes and tried to picture what Vera described like an infrared view of the hotel.
Teresa sat in the passenger seat, her breath heavy and uneven.
“What about up top?” Lockman asked.
“Still some energy there, though the large concentration I detected before has fallen dormant.”
Dormant?
Lockman’s heart bucked in his chest. “What do you mean?”
“It’s no longer there.”
He opened his eyes. Teresa stared at him expectantly. “That energy. I thought it was Jessie.”
Teresa reached out a hand and touched his arm. Her palm felt cool on his hot skin. “We can’t assume anything.”
“There’s something else,” Vera said.
Lockman was afraid to ask. “What?”
“The energy from the vampires has tripled in intensity.”
“How is that possible?”
“Ogre blood,” Teresa said.
Lockman’s stomach dropped. Marty and his brothers didn’t stand a chance against that many vamps pumped up on ogre blood. They’d burn through their ammunition before only a fraction of the vamps cleared the stairwell. Then the surviving vamps would tear them apart.
He had hoped Vera would give them better news, show them what kind of dent they had made to the vampire forces. Now it didn’t matter how many of them were left. Each one of them had three times their normal strength. Which meant going forward with the dumbest plan he’d ever thought up.
“I thought we were supposed to be the strike team,” Teresa shouted. “We’ve left them in there to die, Craig. What the fuck were you thinking?”
He stared at Teresa to have something to focus on while he shut down inside. It used to be so easy. Close off the emotions. Cut off connections. Pump in the ice and focus on the end, no matter the means. Finding Jessie and reuniting with Kate had changed him. Made it nearly impossible to get back to that old self. But Jessie’s life, and the life of Marty and his brothers, depended on him to turn back. Every battle had casualties. Winning sometimes meant sending a soldier into certain death.
For the sake of the mission.
Lockman felt the chill run through him. His heart froze. His mind narrowed. “Vera,” he said, voice his own, but colder. “I’m going in there to face those vamps alone.”
Teresa gasped. “What the—”
“Unarmed.”
“Craig Lockman,” Vera said. “You will not survive.”
“No. I won’t.”
Teresa dug her fingers into his arm. “What are you doing?”
He let himself soften just enough to say what he needed to. Touched her cheek. “I always thought of you as family.”
“I know that. I felt the same way.”
“If this doesn’t work, you have to tell Kate what happened.”
“If what doesn’t work? You’re scaring the hell out of me.”
“I’m scaring myself,” he said. “Shitless.”
He put his AK in the back seat, pulled out his pistol and set it on the dash. He took off the ammo. Unstrapped his knife. Left it all behind and got out of the car.
“Wait,” Teresa called.
He turned. She got out of the car and ran over to him. “Why don’t you ever share your plans with me before you start them?”
“In case they don’t work. Avoid embarrassment.”
“You stupid son of a bitch.” She grabbed his face and pressed her lips against his.
A hundred and one old memories came tumbling back. The feel of her lips hadn’t changed a bit. And the twirl in his stomach had the same rotation, a little sideways and off to the right. She almost undid the cold he’d let in. He couldn’t afford that.
He pushed her away. “Get in the car. Don’t you leave that fucking car.”
“You want me to let you walk in there alone and unarmed?” Tears shined in her eyes.
“Get in the car.”
She set her jaw while the tears let loose and rolled down her face. “Whatever you’re going to do, I know it’s going to work. You always pulled it together when we were backed into a corner.”
He jerked a thumb at the car. “Stay frosty, Agent. We’re not done here yet.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Hello? Are you still here?
Right beside you, hon.
What’s happened? I feel like I’m not breathing.
That’s because you’re not.
I’m dead?
What do you think?
I don’t know. I can’t feel anything. It’s like I’m floating in space without a body.
Heh. Now you know how I feel tumbling around in your naïve little head.
Tell me what’s happening.
We have more important things to discuss. We haven’t much time.
Time for what?
To save both of our souls. Listen carefully…
Chapter Fifty-Six
One life would end after this. His own, or a companion he’d come to reluctantly trust since this all began. Either way, this would end now.
Lockman strode through the blown apart entrance and directly up the main staircase. The rattle of gunfire had s
tarted before he’d reached the hotel. Inside the sounds echoed so loudly, Lockman’s hearing popped. Now everything sounded like he had dunked his head underwater, muted but no less incessant.
He found Marty and this brothers positioned on either side of the stairwell. The door to the stairwell lay on the floor, hinges twisted, the long edge splintered. Crowded around the entrance lay piles of vampire slop. Bullet riddled bodies, melted flesh, dark blood, all steaming like a pile of fresh shit.
The next vamp in line to come through the door locked eyes with him and burst out of the stairwell straight for him.
A shower of silver rounds chopped through the creature that still looked more human than vamp. But as the bullets passed through him, the vamp kept coming.
Lockman ducked low and used the vamp’s momentum to fling him over the shoulder. The vamp thumped onto his back and sprung immediately to his feet, spun toward him. A single shot cut through his head, blasting off the top of his skull. The vamp dropped.
He turned toward the source of the shot. Marty knelt with his rifle, still sighting down the barrel. “What the green fuck are you doing here?”
“Fall back.”
Three of the brothers ran dry. The others took over firing at anything trying to make it out of the stairwell. They had a rotation going which made it so they could have a steady barrage without worrying about reloading.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Marty looked past Lockman. “Where’s Teresa? I thought you two—”
“Change in plans.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Fall back. I’ll take care of this.”
Marty’s eyes grew to near saucer size. “You’ll take care of this?”
“Those vamps are hyped up on ogre blood.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“This strategy won’t work anymore. You can’t hold them off much longer.”
A pair of vamps chanced driving out together. One split to the right, the other to the left, each charging at the split groups of brothers that had formed a triangle of fire into the door.
Rounds zipped through their bodies. The force should have knocked them back. The ogre blood kept them on their feet and moving forward. A game of vampire chicken. If the ogres broke ranks, this was all over. As it was, more vamps filed out of the door behind the first two. The ogres had to split their fire between the assaulting leaders and the vamps coming up behind them.
They didn’t have the firepower. The wave of vamps broke forward, pouring out of the stairwell, ignoring the silver cutting through their bodies as they pushed ahead.
The ogres knew this was it. And it hadn’t taken long at all. A brother shouted over the screeching vamps and the gunfire. “Fall back, fall—” A vamp sunk fangs into the brother’s throat and tore it open.
Two more brothers fell before the onslaught. Those who remained backed away. Lockman backed up with them, looking for Marty. He caught a glimpse of him on the other side of the onslaught. At some point, he had managed to slip around their ranks. He lifted the grenade launcher and fired at the stairwell entrance.
The explosion shook the mezzanine floor. Pieces of vampire flew in every direction. The ceiling above the stairwell entrance collapsed, crunched a few more vamps underneath, and partially blocked the entrance itself.
The vamps that had already cleared the door broke their charge and scattered, most of them uncertain where the attack was coming from. A few dropped to the floor for cover. They shoved against each other, trying to clear the way. It was like they had all forgotten their own strength.
Which bought Lockman and the surviving brothers time to run down the stairs into the lobby. They all dove for immediate cover at the far side of the lobby, putting the silver dust between them and the vamps. It wouldn’t work as well on the vamps with the ogre blood, but it could slow them down.
Lockman slipped behind a column, his back to the cold marble. He checked on the others and realized Marty wasn’t with them. When he had flanked the vamps to fire the grenade he had also cut himself off from escape.
It was time for Lockman to test his plan before anyone else died for this impossible mission he’d dragged them on. He stepped around the column, arms held out at his sides, and looked up the stairs.
The vamps had mostly recovered from the shock of the explosion and gathered around either side of the main staircase, creeping down to the landing. Dozens of yellow vamp eyes stared at Lockman warily. Presenting himself open and unarmed unnerved them. He could tell they were wondering what trick this had to be.
A damn good one if it works.
“Your masters have taken my daughter,” he shouted. “I want her back.”
More vamps lined up behind the others. They must have cleared the blockage to the stairwell.
Lockman took a slow step back. Let them come. Let them all come down and try to kill him.
“Lockman, get the hell out of there,” one of the brothers shouted.
“I’ve got this, boys.” He felt his heartbeat in his throat. “Fall back.”
He heard them whisper among themselves. A second later they crept back out of the entrance. “Good luck, brother.”
The vamps’ wild eyes took this all in, some hissing, others growling. A whole pack of filthy, bloodsucking animals verses Craig Lockman…and the ace up his sleeve.
Lockman closed his eyes. He whispered, “I know you can’t let me die.”
Vera’s voice answered in his mind. You could have just asked for help, Craig Lockman.
“I had to make sure you’d give it all you got.”
It will mean leaving my host. And the battle you ask me to fight will certainly make me too weak to remain on this plane.
“I know. I’m sorry about that. But I didn’t have much else to work with.”
I am with you now. How shall we do this?
He felt a small breeze against his right ear, but when he turned he saw nothing. “You’re my guardian angel. Can’t you turn a pumpkin into a tank or something?”
Seeing as we’re short on pumpkins, we’ll have work with what we have on hand.
The breeze blew again, stronger this time, and it felt like it slipped through him. No, not through. In. A moment of nausea flipped his gut. His skin pulled taught as if shrinking against him. His eyes burned. A deep pain burrowed through his bones. He dropped to his knees. Feverish, now. Weak. What the hell was she doing to him?
The vamps halted their slow decent. A voice behind them shouted, “What are you waiting for? He’s only a mortal.”
Not for long, Vera whispered. Godspeed, Craig Lockman
And the transformation began.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
It started with his skin. It began to shine. The light from the chandelier glimmered against him as he watched his arms turn into chrome. No. Not chrome. Silver. The cold metal rolled over every inch of his skin. His shirt and pants ripped as he gained mass. The silver even coated his eyes, though he could still see. Lockman imagined if he had a mirror his reflection would look like a life-sized silver statue.
Vera had one hell of a creative streak.
On top of his new silver skin, he felt stronger. Maybe strong enough to lift a car over his head. Definitely strong enough to take on the hundred or so vamps standing between him and his daughter.
He wagged his fingers in a come-get-some gesture. “Bring it.”
Instead, they drew back, the ones in front pushing against those behind them who weren’t moving fast enough for their tastes.
The voice behind them shouted out again. A woman’s voice Lockman thought he recognized. “We are legion. Kill him. Kill him now.”
Apparently, she couldn’t see his transformation from where she stood. He couldn’t wait to bash his way through to the bitch who had taken Jessie, and give her a good look at what a honest-to-God guardian angel could do for a guy.
The elder vamp must have scared the fresh turns more than a guy made of silver, because they came at him all at once.
Lockman knocked his fists together and the clang rang out like a giant silver bell.
The vamps flooded around him. He stood still as the first ones tried to grab him and their clawed hands burned. They drew back, but the crowd of vamps behind them shoved them right up against his body.
Lockman smiled as they screamed.
“Enough playing.”
Strength was a weak word for what he had. He wasn’t sure there was a word to describe the power flowing through him. He brought down whole rows of vamps with a single swing of his fist. He kicked out, skewered three vamps with his leg, and watched them melt off like candle wax.
The others continued to crowd him, spurred by the commands of the female vamp driving the attack from behind.
Lockman shoved, punched, and kicked his way through them, driving like a bulldozer and cutting like a circular saw all at the same time. The stink of burning flesh enveloped him along with a cloud of smoke from all the smoldering bodies on the floor. It reached a point where he couldn’t take a step without putting his foot in a pile of liquid vamp.
Still, they came.
And he kept swinging.
For how long, he didn’t know. But eventually only a dozen remained standing, giving him wide berth. They quivered like frightened rabbits. Lockman didn’t know vamps could be so scared. He fucking liked it.
He feinted toward one and watched him scramble backward and slip in the goop. He landed on his ass, his palms on the floor, and screamed. He yanked his hands out of the vamp stew and smoke curled away from his fingers. Lockman had forgotten all about the silver powder still on the floor. Explained why so many of the fallen vamps had liquefied so quickly. Usually it took a stake to the heart to get that kind of mess.
“Stop!”
Lockman turned. The female vamp who had taken Jessie stood at the top of the stairs. Marty knelt beside her, her hand gripping the back of his neck hard enough to make the ogre cringe. This vamp had a dose of ogre blood in her, too. Being an original and far older than any of the vamps smeared over the lobby floor, she could overpower the big guy.