Johnny reached into his coat and pulled a silver tipped stake into the night.
The vampires noticed him. He could see a little clearer. Both had on sailor outfits. The one with the woman dropped her to the cold ground and raced quickly toward the monster.
When the leech was close, Johnny caught it by its throat, slammed it against the dark wall and staked it. He dropped the truly dead thing and faced its partner. It hissed, released the boy, and turned to mist.
Johnny pulled a handful of garlic powder from his coat pocket. When the vampire materialized in front of him, he tossed it into the bloodsucker's eyes. The vampire screamed in absolute agony and fell to the ground. Johnny knelt to his form.
"Kind of hard to mist with that shit in your eye, right?" he said. "Listen up. You tell your kin that this island belongs to Johnny Stücke. If they want to hunt here, they need to come kiss my fucking ring and get my blessing. Now go."
The vampire stood, stumbling and crying. He finally managed to mist and zipped away on the air. Johnny went to the child. He was sitting near his mother's face. The boy closed her eyelids and cried silently. His wet eyes turned to Johnny.
"Will she become one of them?" he asked, meekly.
"No," Johnny said softly. "They didn't feed her the black blood. She's just dead. Is there anyone else? Do you have family?"
The boy shook his head.
Johnny walked to the boy and lifted him into his arms. "What's your name?"
"Samuel Breese," the boy said, wiping his face.
"How old are you?"
"Seven."
"Samuel, I am going to take you to a place where you will be cared for. I will see to it."
The boy nodded, trying to stay strong, but a huge surge of sorrow took his energy. He wrapped his arms around Johnny and pressed his small head into the monster's neck. Johnny stroked him and carried him from the alley.
"Samuel, you have to choose what this night is going to make you," Johnny explained. "If you decide to become a vengeful monster, I can help you focus and channel that rage. But you should try and bury this and find happiness. I am sure your mother would have wanted that."
Johnny walked the child to the orphanage. He shook the door with his fist and put the boy gently on the step.
"I will alert the police about your mother. I will pay for her burial," he whispered to Samuel as they waited.
A priest opened the door and peered out at them.
"This is Samuel Breese," Johnny said. "His mother was killed and he has no one else."
The priest stared with a dark curiosity at Johnny and then down at the child. "I will need to speak to the authorities," he said, cautiously.
Johnny dug out the money Tommy Savala had given him. "The kid has been through enough," he said, handing it to the priest. "Could we just skip the fine print and find him a bunk? I will personally pay for the boy's care."
The priest opened the envelope, smiled approvingly and nodded. "Yes. Of course. Mister?"
"Johnny Stücke," he said. "And you are?"
"Father Joseph Vivaldi. We will take good care of Samuel," the priest promised.
"See that you do," Johnny said sternly. He looked down at the boy. "I will visit you. Often."
Samuel hugged Johnny's legs. "Please, I want to stay with you," Samuel pleaded.
"I cannot care for you properly," Johnny explained. "And there is a great deal of danger in my life. You'll be safer here."
Father Joseph had to help pry Samuel off of Johnny. He steered the sad boy inside.
"Bless you for helping this child," Father Joseph said to Johnny. "May God watch over you."
"Yeah, that'd be rich," Johnny said, taking his leave.
He turned back from the sidewalk and stared at the orphanage. He thought of God's Mercy in Galway and shuddered. He would pay to have silver bars installed on the little windows and for new high crosses on the building. He would also have a barrier engraved somewhere in the marble. A sentence or two in Latin to keep the Night Things out.
If the monsters were following him to the new world, he had to prepare for them.
16.
Glass put the heavy leather case on the conference room table. Gary watched as he undid its latches and flipped the case open.
The Night Kopis rested within. Gary frowned as the blade did not look that impressive to him.
"This weapon has an ego and a hunger. It will want to taste as much cold flesh as it can before being sheathed again," Hor-Aha announced, as Abraham and Johnny Stücke stood nearby. "It can influence and twist those with weaker wills. It also slowly drains the life-force of its carrier. It will whisper to you, Abraham. It will try to twist and control you. You must ignore any prompt that does not feel like your own inner voice."
Abraham reached into the case. He wrapped his fingers around the handle and picked the weapon up. He winced. "Damn, felt like an electrical charge."
Abraham studied the curved blade in the light. "This is fine," he said, putting the weapon back into its case. "I can handle this."
"We will keep it contained until we are on our way," Hor-Aha advised. "The least amount of exposure, the better."
"Where did this come from?" Gary asked.
"According to legend, a mad monk forged it after his monastery was decimated by Dracula," Johnny Stücke interjected. "It is said that the monk imbued his very soul inside the weapon. It can't be wielded by a night thing of any breed. And very few humans can carry it for anything but a short period before losing their sanity and life."
"Dracula covets this," Hor-Aha added. "He can destroy any night thing that opposes him with a human thrall attached to this weapon."
Stücke turned to Glass. "Outfit all of the men in riot gear. Give them silver arm and leg guards. I want a fleet of SUVs in front of the building in two hours. I want it filled with as many men as we can carry. I want guns, silver ammunition and flamethrowers ready to roll. We know Dracula is in the subway system. Abraham, once we are ready to depart, you should receive an impression of where to head."
"I think the Kopis was attempting to pull me already the first time I touched it."
"Good. But limit your touch until we are prepared to leave," Hor-Aha advised.
"What can I do?" Gary asked.
"Wait here for your daughter," Johnny said. "There isn't much else you can offer."
"No fucking way," Gary argued, and he thought it the first time he had ever opposed his dangerous benefactor. "I am coming with you. That's my little girl down there. If Dracula doesn't see me, he might just kill her outright."
"The mortal has a point. He has a personal stake and it is his right," Hor-Aha said. "Once we are down there, I should be able to locate Gary's child. I can smell humans from a mile away."
"Fine," Johnny conceded. "But you stick close to me."
Johnny regarded Glass again. "Get Gary Hack suited up, as well."
"Come on, Hack," Glass beckoned. "Let's see if we can squeeze your fat ass into some Kevlar."
17.
Gary rode in a SUV with black windows. He was in the lead vehicle. He sat with Stücke, Hor-Aha, Glass and Abraham. All but Abraham and Hor-Aha were dressed in Kevlar body armor. Abraham insisted that it would impede his abilities and Hor-Aha needed no protection. Stücke's outfit must have cost a fortune. Gary's protective gear made him sweat and was chaffing him everywhere his skin resided.
Abraham clutched the Night Kopis and concentrated heavily. Behind them, nearly fifty vehicles followed. Gary caught snatches of the chaos on the streets as the SUV cruised the night. It seemed under control now. Cops were torching piles of zombies on the sidewalks.
"They are at the 76th underground station," Abraham reported, putting the Night Kopis in its case and taking a rest.
"I thought that station was a myth," Johnny said.
"No," Abraham replied. "It is there. You must take a hidden entrance that is in a hotel basement on 75th. It is behind a wall that pushes inward on gears."
Johnny relayed the information to the driver and the convoy went left. The vehicles followed and Gary looked behind, noting the line of close SUVs resembled a centipede.
Gary sighed and turned back to Johnny. His worried eyes caught the monster's attention.
"It will be okay, Gary Hack," he assured. "I won't let your daughter die."
"I will locate her before we attack," Hor-Aha said. He wore a silk outfit that looked like the most expensive silk pajamas a sultan could buy and a flowing robe.
"And I am going to take a small squad and get her out of there before Dracula evens knows what's happening," Glass said.
"I'm going with you," Gary insisted.
Glass shook his head and grimaced. "No offense, man, but you are fat and clumsy. I'll have enough on my plate worrying about your girl. Stick with the big man, if you got to be a part of this."
"Glass will get her to safety," Johnny threw in. "You just shadow me and keep your head down."
Gary nodded in resignation and looked through the tinted window again. Dawn was coming.
***
Stücke paid fifty grand to the night desk clerk to get the padlock taken off of the cellar doors on 75th. The SUVs found parking spots as far as 12 blocks away. Stücke had made a phone call to a police captain in his pocket to assure he and his men weren't hindered by the public or the authorities.
They lined up and walked swiftly through the fake wall and descended to the cold subway tracks.
Hor-Aha lead them. He walked barefoot on the damp ground. Gary was behind the mummy and he stood shoulder to hip with Johnny Stücke. Abraham followed behind them and held the Night Kopis with both hands. Though it was as cold as a grave, Gary could see heavy perspiration cascading down the medicine man's face. Gary looked beyond Abraham and saw men still climbing down the metal stairs and stepping softly onto the gravel.
Hor-Aha stopped and held a hand up. He motioned for the men to catch up to him.
"I sense the girl," he said. "She is to the left. She is locked in a small cage."
Glass took eight men and they moved like silent shadows. Johnny put his hand on Gary's shoulder. Gary turned his worried eyes to the big man. Johnny nodded confidently.
***
Dracula sat on his throne, Ella and Detective Thomas on either hand.
"They are coming," Dracula said very quietly. "Ella, bring Holly Hack forward."
Ella nodded grimly and left the platform. She sadly made her way to the cage. Holly sat, her small hands gripping the bars and cheerless, resigned eyes on the vampire.
"It's time?" Holly said hoarsely.
Ella opened the cage without a word. She spread her arms and Holly climbed into them. The little girl hugged the vampire and whispered, "Thank you for being nice to me, Ella."
Ella pulled the girl back. "I am not taking you to him," she said, in a whisper. "I am going to get you out of here. He'll destroy me for this. But I can't let you die this way."
Holly smiled hopefully and took Ella's hand. She moved her through the shadow. Suddenly, a group of men in riot gear appeared in front of them. They trained their weapons on Ella. Holly immediately stood in front of the startled vampire.
"No, she's my friend!" Holly exclaimed in a loud whisper.
"I know you," Ella said, to the handsome African American leader of the small group. "You are one of Stücke's men. I saw you at the zombie shoot."
"I'm Glass," he said quietly. He eyed Ella over. "Shit, you were Gary's camera… person. They got to you?"
"It's a long story and we don't have much time. Come on. I know a way out."
She led them several feet to a sewer entrance that had been tunneled out as an emergency escape route. She opened the heavy metal door easily and motioned inside. "It reeks, but it is a safe passage."
Holly pulled on Ella's hand. "Come with us," she urged.
"I can't. Dracula could still compel me or track you through my eyes. But I will see you again," Ella said with a smile. "I promise."
"Let's go little lady," Glass said, taking the child's other hand and steering her toward the sewer, his men in tow.
Ella closed the door behind them. She waited a beat, and then ran into the subway tunnel, away from the platform and impending battle. Ella remembered how lovely Vermont was this time of year. She just hoped it wasn't a bad place for her kind.
Vampire.
***
Gary watched as Johnny cupped his ear bud.
"They have Holly. They are taking her through the sewers. She is safe."
Gary gave a heavy pant of relief. Then he looked around at the quiet army that was behind Hor-Aha, he and Stücke. There were two hundred men, armed to the teeth and ready to kill something, for the first or second time.
Now that he knew Holly was safe, Gary panicked over the prospect of getting killed down there and never seeing her again. "Hey, maybe I should just get out of here," he whispered to Johnny. "Like you said, I am not much of a fighter."
"You're stuck in the middle of it now, Gary Hack," Johnny said. "It'll cause a ton of disruption to push you to the back and honestly I need every man I can down here. You wanted in on this donnybrook and you are going to have to see it through. But I'll protect you. As much as I can."
"So what should I do?" Gary said.
"Kill anything with fangs and rotting complexions that gets near you," Johnny advised.
Gary nodded and tried to reclaim the courage that had carried him this far. He looked beyond Hor-Aha, who seemed to be waiting for a signal of some kind.
"What is going on down there?" he whispered anxiously.
***
It was taking too long. That over sensitive, sentimental bitch had released the girl. Dracula was sure of it. There was nothing worse to the cause than a vampire with a streak of kindness. It was thought that the black blood virus cored all of the humanity from its victims. But residue of what a person had been was left sometimes.
"I have been betrayed," Dracula said, solemnly. His mind searched for Ella.
"Dracula!" a voice boomed from up ahead.
Dracula abandoned the mental hunt for his unfaithful bride. The vampire stared through the darkness and saw a shambling figure in the distance.
"Send your people," Dracula said to Thomas. Thomas made a sign with his hand and a loud horde of zombies scrambled down the tracks.
"You would send dead flesh after one who can easily curse it?" the voice said, and a laugh shook the rails.
"Horus the fighter?" Dracula said, his eyes growing with sick realization. "Pull your men back, Detective Thomas!"
***
Gary watched, gripping the IWI Tavor SAR-B16 that was pregnant with silver, as Stücke's men switched on their lights and lit the faces of the zombie horde that rushed at Hor-Aha.
"You're in for a show," Johnny whispered to Gary as Hor-Aha raised his arms in the air and chanted in a language Gary didn't understand.
Suddenly, the zombies in the front of the mob stopped and the ones behind plowed into them. They fell like a line of clumsy, chaotic dominoes. The zombies nearest Hor-Aha- maybe fifty feet from Gary- bounced back up into the light and shrieked in horror. Beetles covered them and quickly devoured the flesh on their bones.
"Dermestidae," Johnny said with a grin. "Skin beetles."
Hor-Aha looked back and smiled. Gary could see that the spell had taken a toll on the mummy. His eyes were beginning to darken and sink into his head and his face was starting to toughen and tan.
"I have always hated those rotting cannibals," Hor-Aha said. "They are the easiest and most satisfying to dispatch."
***
"What's happening?" Detective Thomas said, staring as his undead kin churned in agony on the subway tracks.
"They have Hor-Aha on their side," Dracula said gravely. "The zombies haven't a chance against him."
Dracula turned his head to the darkness behind him. "Necromancers!"
Five aged female gypsies in dirty, tattered shawls approached their master.
They were human thralls, their bloodlines promised to Dracula for as long as he allowed them to continue.
"Summon your demons! Let them fly!"
The old women smiled evilly and chanted in unison. Five fang-riddled funnel clouds formed and dashed quickly toward Hor-Aha. Dracula and Thomas felt the rush of hot, hellish air as the spinning demons blew past them.
Night Things: The Monster Collection Page 13