On their end, the Marked seemed to be weary of Saul. They sat together in a tight cluster—with the obvious exception of Kara, who was pacing back and forth across the room.
“We need to be strategic,” Jill was saying as Saul studied their haphazard little hunting party. “I think we need to work sort of like a compass, or a clock. There are seven of us. If we break into groups of two and one group of three, we can each start at a corner of town and work our way in. That would let us all meet on Main Street sometime this afternoon.”
“What do we do about people that weren’t attacked last night?” Penny asked.
“Yeah,” Paul echoed. “I find it hard to believe that everyone in Red Creek is a vampire now.”
“That’s probably not the case,” Saul said. “Even the most powerful vampire wouldn’t be able to turn an entire town in one night. There will be survivors. Hopefully, they will be smart enough to stay put.”
“Let’s hope so,” Kara said. “I checked in with the station this morning. Everything is in chaos. We know of one officer who was killed last night. Two others are missing and one simply left town this morning. I called in and said I was feeling under the weather but that I’d be out on patrol today—which isn’t a total lie, I guess.”
“So…groups?” Nikki asked.
“No offense to the Marked,” Saul said, “but I don’t think it’s wise to send them out together and alone.”
“None taken,” Ray nodded. He was holding a stake that he had taken from a canvass bag in his trunk; he’d made a dozen in the early morning hours and brought them along. “I’d rather tag along with someone that is used to all of this insane stuff.”
After a moment of deliberating, they broke into groups and headed out to their cars. They decided that Saul would accompany Penny and Ray; Paul would go with Nikki, and Kara would go with Jill.
Saul was once again overcome with the sense that they all seemed ready, despite their relative inexperience. They were about to go out into Red Creek with the task of killing a large number of vampires— a fearful prospect for those experienced in such matters, and downright terrifying to civilians as the Marked had recently been. That, combined with the very real possibility of the Guard swooping down to dole out punishment made the coming day too dangerous by far.
Still, Saul knew that they had no choice in the matter. He followed Ray to his car and peered down the driveway before he got in. Nikki stepped up beside him and took his hand, giving it a squeeze.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he muttered. “It just feels like this is happening so quickly. And it won’t be over soon, either. Even if this little operation is successful, there will still be the Guard to contend with.”
Nikki said nothing, only leaned in and gave him a slow and lingering kiss. Saul felt his heart lift and something in his head seemed to detach from the rest of his body and float away. He’d been feeling this way more and more often as of late, always when Nikki kissed him like this. He figured it was what it felt like to fall in love – elating and terrifying all at the same time.
“I think we should reconsider the group pairings,” Saul said. “I can reach out to Jill with my mind, and she can do the same. But you don’t have that ability. What happens if you get in trouble?”
“Stop worrying,” Nikki admonished, peering into Saul’s eyes. “These vamps are all asleep, right? After all I’ve been through with you these last few months, I think I can handle a few dozen sleeping vampires.”
Saul sighed. He knew Nikki was right. When faced with danger, she was very much like Jill: confident and eager for action.
“It’ll be okay,” Nikki assured him. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
This time, it was Saul who kissed Nikki. The press of his lips against hers was a bit forceful, filled with a longing that was almost painful. Saul was reluctant to let Nikki go even as the kiss came to an end. Given that everyone else was ready to go, however, he had no good reason to tarry further.
Saul got into the car with Ray and Penny and watched as Kara and Jill pulled out to lead the group. Everyone headed in separate direction eventually, wanting to cover the town systematically.
Saul tried his best to focus on the task at hand. He was glad to find that it took very little effort at all to summon that primal side of him, the side that wanted to destroy every single Rogue that Gestalt had managed to leave behind.
3
Paul found it rather odd to be riding out with Nikki. For one, Nikki’s car was tiny and trembled as if in danger of falling apart at any moment. For another, he was well aware of who Nikki was – or who she had been, before all of this craziness.
Paul had lived in Red Creek all of his life. He had known Nikki’s miserable excuse for a father and had watched her grow up with the few other Red Creek youths he had known second-handedly. To find out that the little girl he had once watched play tee-ball against his own daughter was now some sort of vampire hybrid was surreal.
“So,” Paul said awkwardly. “Is Saul…you know…is he dead? Aren’t all vampires supposed to be like, the undead?”
Nikki laughed softly. “No. It’s not like that. Even when a vampire turns you, you don’t die. They can kill you if they choose to, but more often than not, they prefer to turn their victims. That’s how I understand it, anyway.”
“Is that what he did to you?”
“No…I didn’t get my powers from Saul. I wish I had.”
She then went on to tell Paul the abridged version of how Leibald Greely had inadvertently transferred some of his powers to her. In telling her story, Nikki realized that it all seemed like it had happened years ago even though it had been less than four months.
On his end, Paul had to keep reminding himself that Nikki wasn’t just telling him cute little horror stories she had heard around a campfire. These things were real and they had happened to her. And now they were happening to him. It made him feel like a ghost, like the real world he had once known so intimately had moved on and left him behind.
Nikki drove them out to the town limits and pulled her car onto a thin gravel lane that wound back slightly into the woods. A nice two-story brick house sat surrounded by a beautifully maintained lawn. Paul knew the family that lived here. The Richardsons were one of those families that had lived in Red Creek for most of their lives. In his younger days, Paul had even played a hand or two of poker with Ben Richardson.
My God, he thought as Nikki parked her car in their driveway. They had two kids. Probably around twelve and fifteen years old.
This thought felt like a lead pipe inside his stomach as they made their way out of the car and walked across the yard towards the house. They both carried stakes; the group had brought along nearly fifty altogether, all of them crudely crafted and terribly barbaric. Paul swallowed noisily and clutched his weapon. Around them, the morning was quiet – as if the very nature surrounding Red Creek knew that this was a pivotal day in its history.
They found the front door locked. This didn’t slow Nikki at all; she walked directly over to the picture window that looked in on the living room and threw an elbow into it, shattering the glass. Paul flinched and took a step back.
“Won’t that wake them up?”
“No. From what I understand, vampires that require rest during the day are in some sort of trance-like sleep. Nothing can wake them up except for their masters or the sunset.”
“So that’s like all of those old traditional vampire myths, right?”
“Yes. Apparently, Rogues follow those rules. It’s all very confusing. I’ll have to get Saul and Jill to fill you in.”
Nikki angled her upper arm into the broken glass, found the window’s lock, and unlocked it. She carefully slid the window up and threw one leg over the sill. When she was inside, she helped Paul in. He felt like he was breaking and entering and at any moment the cops would show up. Then he remembered that their little group had one of the only remaining cops in town on the
ir side. The thought was not exactly comforting.
The inside of the Richardson’s house was clean with the exception of an overturned chair in the kitchen and a box of crackers that had been spilled on the kitchen table. Paul didn’t think it was any clear sign that a struggle had occurred, but the clutter did seem out of place.
They took a few steps into the living room, working their way deeper into the house, when Paul first noticed the smell. It was the stench of decay—not necessarily death, but of something having spoiled and gone rotten in a dark corner of some forgotten tomb. The stink made him pause for a moment as he tried to collect his breath.
“Pretty nasty, isn’t it?” Nikki asked.
Paul nodded, taking short breaths through his mouth to try to lessen the impact of the smell. He gripped his stake tightly as they approached a hallway with a single door on either side. Another door stood at the end of the hallway, partially open to reveal a bathroom.
“You wanna take the room on the left?” Nikki asked.
“Sure,” Paul said. Nikki grabbed his arm and Paul turned to look at her, only now realizing he had been staring blindly at the wall for quite some time.
“Are you going to be able to do this?” she asked.
Paul hesitated before nodding and opening the bedroom door. Please don’t be the kids, please don’t be the kids…
His prayer was answered. Ben Richardson and his wife – Lily, Paul thought her name was – were lying in bed, perfectly still. They looked dead. Their skin was pale and waxen and there was no clear rise and fall of their chests. Bob was dressed in a pair of boxer shorts and a white tee shirt while Lily wore a night gown that didn’t cover much of her overweight legs.
He approached the bedside and surprised himself when he reached out to touch Ben’s face. His skin was freezing cold. Paul used his thumb to raise Ben’s eyelids. When he saw the red iris flaring like droplets of blood, he stepped back and nearly screamed. Seeing that had been enough; Ben Richardson was a vampire. His eyes looked just like the Rogues that had attacked the Marked in Penny’s wine cellar.
From the other side of the hallway, Paul heard the crunching sound of Nikki ramming her wooden stake through a chest. It’s one of the kids, Paul thought. Oh my God, this is happening, this is…
The crunching sound was followed by a screeching noise. It was the noise of a pre-teen shrieking in pain. He heard Nikki shout and then the wailing stopped.
As if urged by the horrific sound of the kid’s screams, Paul lifted his own stake and brought it down hard on Ben Richardson’s breastbone. The bone gave with a sickening crunch. Blood shot up and pooled over the white tee shirt. Ben’s eyes flew open and his mouth unhinged, letting out a scream that was pure evil. Meanwhile, his wife slept soundly beside him.
Ben tried to fight, his arms jerking hastily as he shouted. Paul let out a moan of terror and pushed down harder on the stake until he felt the mattress beneath Ben’s body. Ben gave one final lurch and then his head tilted to the side, the fight drained from him along with his Rogue blood.
Paul pulled the stake out and collapsed. He felt something like lunacy tickling the edges of his mind and he did his best to ward it off. He got to his feet, well aware that he was weeping.
He walked over to Lily Richardson, took a deep breath, and wiped a tear away from his face. He saw then that his hands were already smeared with blood…and the day was just getting started.
From the other bedroom, there was another wailing scream as the second Richardson kid was killed. Paul didn’t let it affect him. He closed his eyes, raised his own stake, and brought it down. This time, his attack was so swift and fierce that Lily Richardson didn’t even have time to scream. She died within seconds of Paul’s driving the stake through her dead and rotting heart.
Paul yanked the stake out of the dead woman’s chest. When he turned, he saw Nikki standing in the doorway. She wasn’t crying, but she looked as if her heart had just broken.
“Fuck,” she said. “I didn’t even consider the idea that we’d have to do this to kids.”
Paul said nothing. He looked blankly down to Ben and Lily Richardson, his emotions swirling into a dark and muddy swamp that had once been his heart.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get out of here. On to the next.”
Paul followed behind her silently as they left the Richardson house with bloodied wooden stakes in their grip.
4
Kara felt like she was driving through a ghost town. There was not a single soul on the streets of Red Creek, and the buildings had a very sullen look to them. Red Creek looked like a place that time had simply forgotten.
Kara was so distracted by the sad state of her town that she nearly didn’t see the corpse lying tucked beneath the small bench outside of the bank. The bank was closed, even though it was eleven o’clock on a Wednesday morning. Jill sat beside her, in the passenger seat of Kara’s patrol car. She had seen the body too and was craning forward to get a better look.
Kara brought the car to a stop and got out. She eyed the street, looking both ways and growing chilled by the silence all around. She walked to the front of the bank and looked beneath the bench, preparing herself for whatever grisly sight awaited her.
The woman’s name was Becky Timbalt. She was a mother of three that worked from home. She did some sort of design-related work, Kara remembered. Her eyes were opened wide in terror and the entire left side of her face was covered in dry blood. Her throat had basically been torn out; if a Rogue had intended to turn her, it had gotten carried away and had nearly gnawed all the way through her neck.
Kara walked back to the car slowly. When she got behind the wheel and grabbed for the CB radio, she wasn’t even sure whom she should reach out to. Most of the force had either called in sick or had gone missing.
“How long has she been dead?” Jill asked.
“It happened last night. Her head was almost chewed completely off.”
Jill fidgeted in her seat, clearly anxious to be out of this stifling car and taking action.
Kara thumbed the button on the side of the CB mic. “Is anyone out there? Michaels? Smith? Crabtree? Is anyone out on patrol? Over.”
She waited several moments, the silence lingering in the car like smoke. When someone finally answered, both women jumped in their seats.
“This is dispatch. Is this Officer Humphrey?”
“Yes. This is Kara. Where is everyone?”
“I…I don’t know,” came the reply. “Everyone is just missing. Crabtree came through for a little while this morning, but he left. He seemed to be mad about something.”
“And you’ve seen no one else?”
“No,” came the reply from dispatch.
“Please let anyone you see or hear from know that I am out on patrol today. Tell them to contact me as soon as possible.”
“Okay. Hey…Kara?”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell is going on?” She wasn’t sure, but Kara thought that the woman at the dispatch desk was close to tears.
Kara looked back out to the dead body of Becky Timbalt. She still couldn’t believe all of this was happening to her town.
“I can’t really say,” Kara murmured. She then clipped the mic back to the receiver and closed the car door.
“Ready to go kill some of these fuckers?” Kara asked.
“Absolutely,” Jill growled, her voice cold and calm.
Kara shifted into drive and continued down the street. Two blocks down, she saw a good portion of a sidewalk covered in blood. Her hands clenched about the wheel. Those responsible for all of this were behind closed doors and in hiding places, shying away from the sun.
Kara thought that it was time for a wake-up call.
5
They had only been into two houses—having dispatched a total of six Rogues—but Ray’s steering wheel was already caked with blood. Saul was doing the driving; it was safer this way, as the work was not affecting Saul to the same degree as his hu
man partners. When Ray had tried to drive after their first kill, he had nearly crashed the car.
The first house they had entered had held four Rogues. It had been a family that Penny had known relatively well. She had remained in the car while Saul and Ray had gone inside to dispatch the Rogues. The process had taken slightly less than three minutes and while it had been a bit easier than Saul had expected, it had a noticeable effect on Ray. By the time they had reached the second house, he was visibly shaking.
All three of them had entered the second house, killing two more Rogues. Penny had made herself kill one, knowing that the longer she put it off, the harder it would be. She’d done well—until they stepped back outside. Penny had collapsed in the yard, the blood of a Rogue lightly splattered on her shirt.
Saul had allowed her a few moments to herself. They were on a tight schedule, but some things just could not be rushed. It had been a good call, too; when Penny had finally returned to the car and sat in the back, she had looked like a new woman. A more focused, more enraged woman – someone who had a better chance at surviving this mess. Saul assumed that a degree of anger was necessary for humans to deal with this sort of thing. It was likely the only human emotion on which something as violent and absurd as all of this could be built upon.
As Saul pulled the car out of the driveway of the second house, it occurred to him just how much these two humans were relying on him for strength. While he was sure they would hesitate to call him the actual leader of their little group—a group that included the rest of the Marked, as well as Nikki and Jill—he did know that the way he reacted to all of this would probably affect their attitudes as well.
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