With a bit more hope inside of her, Kara rammed her stake through the vampire she had just thrown off.
“Down here!” she yelled.
Kara could already see Saul Benton on the stairs, fighting one of the Rogues with his bare hands. He smashed the Rogue’s face into the railing and then literally threw it down the stairs.
He spotted Kara and with a confused look on his face asked, “Do you have any more stakes?”
She tossed him her own and then grabbed another from the corner.
“Welcome to the party,” she joked nervously.
“Glad to have been invited,” Saul replied with a grin, and then he went to work.
Kara was glad to have him at her side, knowing that he made up for what The Marked lacked in strength. The man simply seemed to fill the room like some large weapon and the balance of the fight felt as if it had shifted drastically.
“He’s cool, right?” Ray asked.
“Yes,” she said. He’s on our side and—”
Kara stopped, her voice freezing. She was looking up the stairs and saw that one more Rogue had made it through. She recognized the man walking down the stairs and her heart literally shuddered in her chest.
“No…,” she whispered.
The Rogue on the stairs smiled, seeing her obvious conflict.
A tear slipped from Kara’s eye as she grasped her stake and walked toward the familiar face.
“Jess,” she choked.
And then he came for her.
CHAPTER FIVE
1
Looking at Jess in his new state as he barreled towards her with his hands outstretched, Kara suddenly understood two very important things about the vampires she faced. First, they were over-eager and did not think very thoroughly when on the attack. Second, they looked unaware; when compared to what she remembered of the Greelys—determined and methodical—these newborn Rogues were driven in an almost zombie-like fashion.
Kara took advantage of this and side-stepped Jess – no, the Rogue’s attack. He went sprawling into Penny’s wine cellar and nearly fell to the floor. Behind Kara, Saul, Nikki, and Jill were going to work on the remaining Rogues. The original six that had come in had grown to what seemed to be at least fifteen or twenty. They were still coming down the stairs as Nikki fought with one. Below her Saul drove a stake directly into the chest of the one closest to him. As soon as this one was down, though, another one was on him.
Apparently, what the newborn Rogues lacked in speed and tact, they made up for in number.
Kara turned her attention back to Jess and saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes. With a stake still held in her hand, she held her hands outward. “Jess…I don’t want to fight you. Can you even hear me in there?”
The deadened look he gave her indicated that he could not. She used her stake, bringing it up in a chopping motion that caught him directly under the chin. He rocked backwards, stunned, and fell to his back. Kara was on him right away and when she felt his weight beneath her, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to kill him.
Sure, their relationship had been nothing more than sex, but it had been the closest she had come to anyone in a very long time. Maybe, had they been given enough time, they would have come to know one another on a level close to love. She wondered what he had been doing in Red Creek. Maybe he had come to surprise her, hoping to find her already in bed.
But they would not get the chance to love each other. Instead, Kara had a decision to make—and fast. She made it with a frown on her face. She slammed the stake down into Jess’ chest. She was ashamed of herself when, as he buckled beneath her, she easily recalled his strong thrusts when she had been perched on top of him during an entirely different encounter.
But that was another life now and Kara did her best to erase it from her memory as she drew the stake back out.
Part of Kara wanted to take at least a small moment to grieve Jess’ death, but she understood that she did not have the time. She turned to join her unlikely friends as they continued to stave off the Rogues. It was not the Bentons or Nikki that she turned to, but the members of The Marked.
They all looked terrified, but they were fighting, nonetheless. Penny was the weakest of the group and needed back-up from Paul. Meanwhile, Ray seemed to be getting adjusted to the way of things, fighting with a reluctant frenzy that made him look much fiercer than he had earlier in the night when they had all been drinking wine. He currently had a Rogue pinned to the far wall, wrestling his stake out of its chest.
Kara then realized that, including herself, there were seven of them: Saul, Jill, Nikki, Ray, Paul, Penny, and her. And while over half of their little group was severely inexperienced in the ways of killing vampires, they were holding up pretty well.
As a matter of fact, as she dashed to catch a Rogue that had just made it down the stairs, she realized that there were only three left. Saul was dealing with one while Nikki viciously fought the other one away. She staked the Rogue through the heart rather easily, making it come to her and then taking advantage of its flailing limbs.
Less than five minutes had passed since Saul, Jill, and Nikki had arrived and the battle was all over.
“Thanks so much for your help,” Kara said, looking to Saul. She dropped her bloodied stake on the ground and sat hard on the floor.
“Of course,” he said.
Kara was going to say something else but the eerie calm of the wine cellar was shattered as Penny broke down into sobs. Paul tried to comfort her, but it was no use.
Slowly, they all walked up the stairs, stepping over fallen Rogues as they went.
2
On their way up the stairs, Kara had started counting. She kept at it as their group made it to the hallway, then walked around the house, taking in the damage and the bodies. When she added the bodies in the cellar to the few that had been dispatched upstairs, Kara’s count had reached eighteen Rogues.
Saul watched Kara, smiling ever so slightly. She was quite a fierce warrior and had done well tonight. Even now, after a terrible battle, she was calm and rather organized.
“How many?” he asked.
“Eighteen.”
Saul thought about this, frowning.
“I take it Rogues are different?” Kara asked.
“Apparently so,” Jill answered. “Not only do they turn ridiculously quickly, but from what I saw tonight, these follow the laws that most mythology teaches humans.”
“You mean an aversion to crosses?” Ray asked. “Holy water, garlic, sunlight and all of that?”
“I only know about the crosses for sure. But I’d be willing to bet that at least a few other staples are true of these Rogues, too. Rumor has always suggested that there were a few original vampire clans that all of those myths were based upon.”
“You think these vampires are somehow descended from them?” Penny asked.
“No,” Saul said. “But I believe the lead Rogue that turned them might very well be.”
As they stood in a stupor, looking around at the damage that had been done, the sound of a siren reverberated through the house. Kara instantly went to the door and looked out. From the porch, the sounds of Red Creek’s pain and horror could be heard: screams, gunfire, and police sirens tore through the night.
“Is the whole town like this?” Kara asked, gesturing to the carnage of Penny Carlisle’s house.
“To some extent,” Saul said. “But it was worse here for some reason. I wonder if you were somehow targeted for your involvement with our family.”
Kara’s brow furrowed as a thought teased her mind. She didn’t like where the idea was going, but it could not be ignored.
“No…I wonder if there is some other reason to it,” she said.
“Like what?”
“I got the sense that I am not supposed to tell you,” Kara said, “but one of the members of The Guard visited me tonight—Magdeline.”
Saul and Jill’s twin expressions of shock made Kara flinch.
“And what did she say?” Jill asked.
“She told me that I was to lead a group known as The Marked. Penny, Ray, and Paul are the other three.”
“That can’t be right,” Saul said. “Why would all of the members of such a fabled group be located in one place?”
“She said it was supposed to be that way,” Kara replied. “She said that there is something special about Red Creek. She made it sound like Red Creek attracts all of these creepy supernatural phenomena. And given the state of things over the last few months, I really don’t find that hard to believe.”
“This is too much,” Nikki groaned. “Saul, what the hell does all of that mean?”
“Wait,” Kara interjected. “That’s not even the point I was getting at. What I am wondering is whether or not The Guard really has your best interest in mind. I wonder that because I feel confident that I was tricked tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Saul asked.
“Magdeline was very clear on the point that I needed to meet with The Marked right away. So is it really a coincidence that we were attacked by a mob of vampires because we were all in the same place? It seems like she was trying to throw an advantage in the direction of the Rogues.”
“But The Guard can’t even track Rogues,” Jill said. “Right?”
Saul was quiet. As far as he was concerned, there was simply too much evidence stacking up against The Guard. Were they using him as a ploy? Were they drawing him close to make it easier to get rid of him in the long run? And if Kara was indeed one of The Marked (given her talents and composure, he didn’t doubt that), why would The Guard of all people want her eliminated?
“Something doesn’t add up,” Saul said. “And I would love to know what it is.”
“Can it wait?” Kara asked. “My town is being torn to shreds out there. I need to go to the station and see what needs to be done.”
“Of course,” Saul added. “And we will help in whatever capacity we can as well. If you can perhaps buy us an hour or so, I believe we can get a grip on things. I’m afraid quite a few lives might be lost tonight, though.”
Kara only nodded at him. She then gave the other three members of The Marked a look of peculiar longing and then raced out of the door.
“So what can we do?” Ray asked, stepping forward.
“These Rogues are ill-prepared for battle,” Saul said. “I believe they were merely created by Gestalt—their master—to shock us. If you feel that you can continue to battle them, then by all means, do so. They are spreading far too quickly.”
Ray headed out of the door and Paul slowly went after him. Penny watched them go, wringing her hands indecisively. “I…I don’t know if I can,” she stammered.
“That’s okay,” Jill said, stepping forward and placing a hand on her shoulder. “It will come to you in time. Can we come back by and check on you when this is all over?”
“Yes,” Penny said. “Please do.”
“You’ve done good tonight,” Saul assured. “Don’t be discouraged.”
And with that, Saul took Nikki’s hand and they left. Jill left with them, leaving Penny Carlisle alone with the bodies of eighteen dead Rogues in her house.
3
Saul and Jill had always suspected that there was something particularly special about Red Creek. They had felt it right away when they had settled down in the town with their father. There was something in the air, something crisp and almost mineral-like that their father had once said might be considered as “magic” by warlocks.
The terrible events of tonight—from the devious plans of Gestalt to the revelation that The Marked had been hiding out in plain and unsuspected sight in Red Creek— only served to underline the strangeness of the town.
But Nikki had never seen Red Creek as special. She had always seen the tiny town as a black hole that she needed to escape. She had spent her high school years dreaming of her eventual escape only to find herself several years later fighting to try to save the stupid place.
As the night progressed and things went from bad to worse, Nikki was surprised to find that she was beginning to see Red Creek in the same way Saul and Jill had always done. For Nikki, the catharsis was particularly bloody and violent, but that, too, made a certain sort of sense given her own life up to now. By the time dawn crept up on the town, Nikki had come to feel the power of the town, the magic that had lured so many supernatural beings to Red Creek: It lurked under the dead streets like a fabled creature waiting to be summoned from its sleep.
Within an hour of leaving Penny Carlisle’s house, Nikki had killed seven Rogues. As a group she, Jill, and Saul had dispatched more than twenty. They did their work in the dark, doing their best to stay away from the police as they did their jobs.
By four o’clock that morning, the number of Rogues finally seemed to dry up. No one said so, but Nikki had seen the bodies. She couldn’t help but wonder how many of Red Creek’s residents had been Turned; the piles of corpses suggested staggering numbers.
Shortly before dawn, they all returned to the cabin. When they got there, Ray and Paul were sitting on Saul’s porch, waiting. They were both sweaty, exhausted, and their clothes were stained with blood.
“Sorry,” Ray said. “We knew you lived here and thought you might not mind if we asked you some questions about the hell we just went through.”
“There were so many of them,” Paul said. “I killed at least ten.”
“And when this all comes to an end,” Ray added, “will we be arrested by the cops for murder if we’re caught? I mean, just what in the hell is going on?”
Jill watched as Saul took a seat on the porch steps. It was the first time she had ever actually seen him look tired. She wanted to hug him in that moment, to bury her head into his shoulder and let him rest against her in turn.
“These vampires are so weak because they are not being allowed enough time to Turn properly,” Saul said. “I believe this is because Gestalt is able to manipulate the pace of their Turning. He did not care if these vampires were able to destroy us or not. I believe it was all part of his plan to simply destroy this town and try to claim it as his own.”
“And these vampires aren’t like you guys, right?” Paul asked. “Like, you have no problems with crosses or sunlight, right?”
“None,” Saul answered. “Although extreme exposure to the sun can make me quite sick and—,”
Saul stopped here and smiled.
“What?” Nikki asked.
“Sunlight. If these vampires are indeed following the nature of that rumored original tribe, sunlight may kill them. And if that is the case, they will be holed up during the day. We can take that opportunity to find the ones that are left and kill them.”
“Hell yeah,” Ray cheered.
“What did you see while you were out?” Saul asked. “Was there anything else you noticed? Any weaknesses we can use against them?”
“Yeah,” Paul said. “I killed one against the side of a car. I saw that he didn’t cast a reflection in the glass of the window.”
“Crosses seem to work, too,” Jill said.
“Then I think it is safe to assume that they can be killed by sunlight and will be in a hibernating state during the day. I believe we can end this tomorrow.”
“And what about this Gestalt character?” Paul asked.
“Let him come back if he wants,” Saul said. “We’ll be ready for him this time.”
CHAPTER SIX
1
Gestalt wanted to be furious at having to retreat. He could feel the stirrings of it in his heart, wanting desperately to take control. But he had been too seriously wounded, too badly outmatched; retreating had been the only option. Gestalt knew that if Saul’s aim with the tree branch had gone even slightly to the right—perhaps by as little as an inch—he would be dead.
He lay in the train car, feeling the reverberations of the rattling wheels on the sturdy tracks beneath him. Paula was sitting beside him, doing her best to comfort him, Truth
be told, Gestalt would much rather be alone but he knew that she was only doing what her new instincts demanded.
So he let her think that she was caring for him. She had helped him remove the branch without doing too much damage. He’d lost a lot of blood but he had always healed remarkably fast. He could feel his muscle, tissue, and skin knitting itself together as the train headed further away from Red Creek where he had left his Rogues with their instructions.
“Will we go back?” Paula asked him.
Gestalt was pleased to find that her voice soothed him. In tandem with the noises of the train, her voice was almost melodic.
“Absolutely,” he said. “And not long from now, either. Will you be ready to fight with me?”
“Anything,” she said. “I’d die for you.”
This was no cheesy sentiment; it was the truth, an instinctual response from Paula’s new body. She was his servant, his mate, and his protector if he should need one. Gestalt had selected her at random but it seemed he had chosen well.
In the end, Paula might very well have to die for him. But that was not yet a certainty. Gestalt still had a few tricks up his sleeve – old plans and new ideas that had come to him just now, as he lay bleeding in the damp train car.
There was a war coming for Saul Benton and his little clan. And if the town of Red Creek could manage to withstand it, it would never be the same.
2
Saul and Nikki were very aware of the fact that Jason was no longer in the cabin. The lack of his presence made the place seem much bigger. Jill took the guest room after taking a shower and within five minutes of retiring to bed, Nikki and Saul could hear her faint snores.
“I need to get washed off, too,” Nikki said.
Saul nodded, looking as if he might pass out from exhaustion.
“Go get in bed,” she ordered. “Get some rest—especially if we’re going to be out all day tomorrow.”
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