I stepped to the side and stuck my foot out. That amateur hour move wouldn't have worked against anyone who knew what they were doing in a fight, but it was just my luck that I seemed to be running up against a lot of vampires who didn't know what they were doing in a fight lately.
If they were going to send the JV team after me I was more than happy to wipe the floor with them.
The quick trip for my buddy left the other vampire approaching me more wary. I had my hands out as though I was preparing to grapple. Maybe this one knew what he was doing. It looked a little older than the first one, though if they were immortal it was entirely possible the one who looked younger was centuries old.
I wouldn’t put money down on that, but it was possible.
"You're going to regret ever crossing us," the vampire said.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked.
That brought the vampire up short. He cocked his head to the side. "Why wouldn't I?"
I shrugged. I needed to buy some time. The other guy crashed into a dresser on the other side of the room and went down in a heap, but I knew it would only be a matter of moments before he was back in the fight.
These things could take a beating. Right up until the moment you shoved something through their heart.
Through the heart. There was something to that. Something I wanted to try out. I just had to get one of these assholes to stand still long enough for a little experiment.
"Your buddy who just killed my wife said they wanted me to suffer, right?"
"And I'm going to make you suffer," the vampire hissed. "I'm going to make…"
"Are you sure you want to do that? I've already killed one of you, and if they want me to suffer that means they expect me to survive this."
The vamp blinked in obvious confusion. "What?"
I grinned at the crazy logic of the situation, but the more I thought about it the more I thought maybe I was supposed to win this fight. If I died that’d probably be fine with the vampire bigwigs, whoever the fuck they were, but I got a feeling I was going against the bush league team since the big guy who killed my wife disappeared really fucking fast.
“Think about it. You're nothing but cannon fodder buddy. They expect me to win this fight."
"But…"
The vampire shook his head and circled me. Only this time he was even more wary. Not what I needed. I didn't have time for a prolonged fight.
Not with my daughter out there.
So I decided to try that something that had been tickling at the back of my mind ever since this fight started. I pulled out my gun and pointed it at the vampire.
The undead not-quite-a-monstrosity looked at the gun in my hand as though it was a toy.
"Are you serious?" it hissed. "A gun? You have to know those…"
"Humor me," I said, cutting it off. "I'm trying something here."
I fired a single shot that slammed into the vampire’s forehead. There was no blood like I’d expect from hitting a human with that shot. Interesting.
The vampire went down with a painful screech. More importantly it didn’t seem in any hurry to get up, but it also wasn’t in any hurry to die. Still, that left me a little extra time to deal with the other one.
I walked over to the second vamp and grinned. The vampire had come to rest in the splintered remains of a jewelry armoire that had been one of my wife's favorite pieces of furniture. It had been in her family for a long time.
It looked like shit now, smashed to splinters, but there was nothing to be done about that. The important thing was when the vampire landed against the armoire and splintered the legs holding it up he’d created a couple of nice improvised wooden stakes.
I grabbed one of those and held it up. Tossed it once to get a feel for its weight. I looked down at the vampire who was just starting to come to its senses after being dazed by its inelegant stumble and fall.
Deadly creatures of the night. I snorted and wondered why anyone would ever be afraid of these things.
The monster looked up just in time to see its doom. I grinned.
"You fuckers shouldn't have attacked me at home."
I rammed the stake home and the vampire let out an unearthly wail. I imagined that had to hurt having a stake rammed into your heart whether you were living or undead, but then again that wasn't my problem. After all, these were the assholes who decided to attack me in my house.
The screaming came to an abrupt end and the vampire slumped to the ground. That was going to make a mess, but that wasn't my problem either.
At least it wasn't my problem right now. It might be my problem down the line. Assuming I ever came back to this place after all the bad memories that had suddenly cropped up. Assuming I lived long enough to come back here.
I turned to the other vampire still writhing with a bullet in its brain. Yeah, that bullet hadn’t killed the thing, but it sure as fuck was a useful stalling tactic. I’d have to remember that.
Guns weren’t useless against the undead after all, and I didn’t even need to use a silver bullet. Turns out Pb was just as effective as Ag when applied to a supernatural creature at a high velocity.
I walked over and looked down as the guy writhed on the ground in obvious pain. I imagined a shot to the head had to hurt like a motherfucker.
Especially when it couldn't kill you right away like a good shot to the head was supposed to. Usually a shot to the head was lights out right away, but this guy was feeling every fun filled moment of a bullet scrambling his brains and his brains trying to reassemble via his vampire healing voodoo.
“Asshole!” the vampire shrieked. “That really fucking hurts!"
"I imagine it does," I said. "That's kind of the point. You think I want you to feel good after you broke into my house and killed my wife?"
I aimed my gun at the thing’s lower body and fired again. Oh sweet Jesus was that therapeutic. My training had beaten it into me repeatedly that I shouldn’t go shooting people because I was pissed off, but I figured I could make an exception for someone who was just one hell of an accessory to killing my wife.
Not to mention there was something even more delicious about knowing this asshole could get shot as many times as I wanted and he wasn’t going to die. I wanted him to feel this. I wanted him to regret ever coming into my fucking house.
The vampire howled in pain, but this time as it moved it was mostly flopping around from the top. There was no movement below its waist.
Good. My aim was still spot on. Though given that he was undead it’s not like I could take full credit for paralyzing the asshole without killing him.
"I can't feel my legs. You asshole! I can't feel my legs!"
"Yeah, but it’ll get better, right?" I asked.
The vampire paused. Looked up at me. Really looked at me. I’d seen that look before. It was another part of being able to read people. It was another thing I’d seen when people really saw me for the first time.
He was really seeing me for the first time. Up until now I’d been some asshole he was trying to scare. Now he looked like he was starting to realize that maybe he’d fucked with the wrong person.
It was a realization that was coming too late for him though. Just like that asshole last night.
Yeah, I could pinpoint the exact moment the asshole realized I wasn't afraid. From the fear that passed across the vampire’s face it wasn’t used to people not being afraid of it.
No, I was cold. Clinical. My job once upon a time had been killing people as efficiently as possible, and it looked like I was back on the job tonight.
19
Experiments
In a way it was freeing to be back on the job. I felt like the real mask had been trying to act like I was a harmless campus cop.
No matter what I told Anderson and Hooks I knew that for the lie that it was. This was the real me. There were people out there in the world who needed killing and it was up to me to take care of it.
It was time to put my work f
ace on.
I needed to be calculating. I figured wherever that head vampire was, he was long gone by now. There was no point trying to chase down something that moved that fast.
It would be more useful to stay here and gather some intel on my enemy. That intel might be valuable if I was going to find my daughter. That was the only thing that really mattered now.
She wasn't dead. I wouldn't allow myself to think she was dead. I’d still check her room just to be sure, but for now the hope that she was alive was the only thing keeping me from eating my gun.
That and a healthy sense of vengeance I’d suddenly developed in the last ten minutes. I wouldn't be able to rest until everybody who'd had a part in killing my wife was brought to justice, and I figured that meant every vampire in this town needed to be brought to justice.
My own brand of justice.
I could worry about eating a bullet when it was all done. If it turned out Zoey was no longer with the living. I’d worry about things as they came along. No distractions.
I reached out with my boot and pressed it against the hole where I'd just shot the thing in the abdomen. It let out a howl of pain. Good.
"Well that's interesting," I said. "You're paralyzed but you can feel pain. Nice to know your body still mostly works like a human’s even if it does have some weird Wolverine thing going for it.”
"I'm going to kill you when I heal,” the vampire said.
I leveled my gun at the thing’s heart. “Y’know this has been interesting. A nice proof of concept that you vamps can be hurt just as easily as any human, but I’m in a hurry and I don’t have time to mess around.”
"What are you doing?" The vampire asked, worry tinging its voice. Oh yeah. It had finally realized I wasn't someone to be fucked with.
It was the vampire’s problem that it had learned that lesson too late.
"Just testing something," I said. "It takes a stake to the heart to kill you, right?"
"Yes," the vampire said after a long pause.
I fired off another shot. Right through the vampire's heart. At least I assumed vampires still kept their hearts in the same place as everybody else.
The shot was followed by a scream that sounded remarkably similar to the scream from the first vampire I fought last night. The same as the pile of dust ten feet away with an armoire leg sticking out from roughly where his sternum had been located.
The vamp threw its head back and its upper body flailed, though of course its lower body couldn't do jack shit since I severed the nerves that made things down there work.
Finally, just like with the other vampire, the screaming subsided. The former vampire did that rapid decomposing routine. I stared at it for a long moment.
I didn't feel satisfaction, not exactly, knowing I'd killed the thing. Still, it was good to know that two of the assholes who'd been partially responsible for my wife's death weren’t going to be out there terrorizing the world any longer.
Also I'd learned something, and that was the most important thing of all.
"You know that’s always bothered me about vampire movies and books," I said as I put my gun back in its holster. "You stake a vampire in the heart and they die immediately, but it always seemed to me that a bullet to the heart should do the same thing.”
I knew I was a little crazy talking to the rapidly decomposing corpse of a dead vampire in my bedroom. With my dead wife lying just a few feet away, no less, but I figured I could have a little bit of a mental break right now considering the shit I'd just been through.
"Guess I just proved that theory right," I said.
Wood. Lead. Turns out a piercing wound to the chest is a piercing wound to the chest whether you have a bullet or a stake doing the damage.
I shook my head and chuckled. I looked down at the pile of dust and bone that had been a vampire just thirty seconds ago. The pile of dust and bone didn't seem to appreciate the humor of the situation.
Tough crowd.
It was good to know that any sort of piercing wound to the heart would send a vampire on to whatever eternal reward or punishment was waiting for them on the other side. That there was another side wasn't something I was quite ready to discount as much as back in my combat days when I'd embraced a slightly unhealthy level of nihilism.
The existence of vampires, undead and unholy terrors of the night that shouldn't exist, made me think that maybe there were other things of legend out there that existed as well.
Maybe even an afterlife.
I figured I should at least keep an open mind now when it came to the supernatural. Especially when it looked like the afterlife might be my only chance to see Rachel again. Assuming they let me in after I finished my new business with the undead element in this town.
I shook my head. I was getting into a funk. Allowing myself to be distracted from what was important, and that was checking on Zoey. I hoped to God she was still safe in her room, but I knew I wasn't going to be that lucky.
Still, I had to check. Even if there was a possibility there was a second dead body waiting for me. I’d already watched my wife die, and I didn't think I’d be able to handle seeing my little baby lying dead in her tiny little bed that I’d put together with my own two hands.
But I had to be sure. Shit happened, and someone had to take a look and verify. Unfortunately I was the only asshole around so that job fell to me whether I wanted it or not.
I steeled myself. This next part wasn't going to be pretty. Yet it had to be done. I looked down at the decomposed corpses of the two vampires I'd killed.
I’d have to get a sample for Anderson and Hooks this time before the “forensics” people fucked it up with their brooms and vacuum cleaners.
For now it was time to make sure there wasn't another body in the house. Another one that wouldn't be rapidly decomposing like the vampires. I sighed and made my way to Zoey's room.
I paused just before stepping inside. I really didn't want to go in there. As long as I stood out in the dark hall there was a possibility she was okay. That she was still alive.
The moment I rounded the door that would change. Either she’d be dead or she’d be kidnapped. There wouldn't be any slim possibility that she was alive and well. There’d be no more chance the vampires had some decency and stayed away from my little girl.
There was nothing for it though. I prided myself on facing the world as it was. That was part of what had enabled me to face down fucking vampires in the first place. So I took a deep breath and stepped into Zoey's room. Flipped on the light.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing. Sure there was a sign of a struggle. It looked like someone had grabbed my little girl and she hadn't been happy about it.
I smiled. She was a fighter. She took after daddy. Though considering the way Rachel fought it was fair to say she'd taken after her mom as well.
The important thing was she wasn't in the room. She wasn't dead. Not yet. That meant they were probably saving her for something.
That wasn't good, to be sure, but it wasn't necessarily bad. If they were saving her for something that meant there was still a chance I could track her down. There was still a chance I could make the assholes who'd done this pay for it and save her instead of just making them pay.
I walked over to her bed and my foot brushed against something. I looked down, bracing for a vampire to come out from under her bed and lunge at me, and realized how ridiculous that was.
If there was a vampire in here I would’ve seen it already. Maybe. The less said about the vamp I missed in that girl’s room last night the better. Besides, the bed was so close to the ground it would’ve been up off the floor if anything bigger than a stuffed animal was hiding there.
Speaking of. The thing that brushed my foot was Zoey’s teddy bear. The faithful night guardian that hadn't done that job tonight.
Not that it was the bear's fault. I’d barely been able to hold off the undead horrors. Hell, I was still barely holding it together now as I thought of my
wife. As I thought of my daughter out there somewhere in the vampires’ clutches.
I hoped she was out there somewhere. The only thing that helped me keep it together was knowing my daughter was alive. I wasn’t going to let that go.
I picked up the teddy bear. Gave it a squeeze.
"I'm getting her back for you,” I growled.
I tossed the teddy bear to the floor and turned to leave. I needed to grab some sandwich bags from the kitchen and get a sample of dust and bone for Anderson and Hooks.
I wasn't sure what to do after that. What I was sure of was I was going to make the assholes who did this to my family regret the day they ever decided to cross me.
20
Chewed Out
Oh boy you're in a whole heap of trouble," the Chief said.
I didn't say anything. I stared down at the same makeshift folding card table I’d sat at the night before. I stared down at a picture of my wife and daughter. I could still remember the day we had those pictures taken.
I'd been irritated. I worked the night shift, and Rachel scheduled the photo shoot in the middle of the day in a park. It meant I was going to be tired at work.
I always told Rachel she had to understand that scheduling things in the middle of the day would be the same as me waking her up at two in the morning to go out and do something.
Now I wished I could go back and take all those words back. That I could hug her and hold her and stay in that moment where my daughter and my wife were alive and smiling forever.
I knew I should've felt something staring at that picture. An emptiness. Maybe sadness.
The truth was the only thing I felt was a deep fury.
"Are you even listening to me Byron?" the Chief asked. "I said…"
I looked up at the old man. The Chief blinked and leaned back in his folding chair under the intensity of my gaze.
I would've smiled if I wasn't so damn depressed. If I wasn't so pissed off at the world. At a supernatural side of the world I hadn't realized existed two nights ago.
Blake Byron: Paranormal Investigator Page 11