Without replying, she stood and walked to the door. She was determined to keep her mouth shut, but the smirk on Will’s face was too much for her.
“Asshole,” she growled as she passed the man, opening the door and stepping outside, the clear air a great improvement to the marijuana cloud filling the house. She was halfway to the car when she heard the screen door slam.
“Hey bitch, there’s one other thing I want,” Will shouted, coming at her at a brisk pace, Amp turning to face him. “That’ll be a hundred grand…and a little bit of that slant-eye pussy,” he sneered. “Right here, right now.”
From the corner of her eye, Amp saw that the other four vampires had followed through the doorway, standing on the porch with beers in hand; anticipating the show. She needed them closer, didn’t know if they had weapons inside, and didn’t want to give them a chance to show her. If there was to be a fight, it would be to her advantage if they were within striking distance when it started.
Amp wasn’t at all sure she could take five vampires, even though Nikka had said they were not fighters. Five male vamps moving at top speed would be a handful. Her logic told her to walk away, and come back with force. Her emotions told her that men sucked, and that nobody was going to threaten her with rape, ever again.
Emotion won.
Facing the vampire Will, she stood silently, waiting for his approach. The other four casually walked off the porch, Ernie and Little John flanking Will, the other two hanging back.
Amp was doing a great job controlling the rage that lie right under her surface; knew she would be more effective with a clear head. Behind her, she heard the soft noise of the car door opening, sensed Rio somewhere behind, not too close, but there nonetheless.
Smiling, she knew it was time. She would not be extorted, and she would not be threatened.
She would never be raped again.
“You show me yours, boys,” she said loud enough for all five to hear. “I’ll show you mine.”
Will made the first move, smiling arrogantly while taking an aggressive step toward the much smaller vampire.
Her sword was in her hand before anyone could blink, the blade coming from beneath her duster and over her head, not stopping, cutting straight down across Will’s shoulder, and into his neck. It did not take his head, but it put him down, and out of the game, a wound that would take hours to heal, if it healed at all. Unfortunate for him, he would not have that luxury.
Amp never stopped moving as Ernie and John attacked recklessly, making the fight easier for Amp. The two were not skilled fighters, and they attacked with no idea what they were doing. They paid dearly for their lack of knowledge.
Amp pivoted at warp speed and easily took John’s head with a clean, two handed cut. Ernie backed away in panic, his vampire speed taking him away from the danger.
Out of the corner of her eye, Amp saw movement, Rio walking, almost running right at the other two, Doc and H.D. Up to now, they had been spectators, but with John’s head still rolling and Will bleeding like a butchered pig, they were forced into a fight they had no stomach for.
“The bitch,” Ernie was screaming, his arms waving wildly, spittle flying from his mouth. “Get that bitch.”
None of the remaining vampires was paying any attention to Rio, the Ranger within five yards of Doc, and closing fast. Amp saw Doc’s fangs exposed; his eyes red and dangerous. She knew Rio was unquestionably overmatched.
As Amp moved to intercept Rio, Ernie blindsided her, bowling into her side and knocking her down, then pouncing. Only she wasn’t where he thought she would be, so much faster than the leader of this dying coven.
Ernie landed on his face in a patch of dirt, looked up, and was staring into the face of death. Amp, her fangs glistening in the moonlight, kicked the man squarely in his Adam’s apple, the strike strong enough to have killed a human, only stunning the vampire. As he instinctively reached up and covered his throat, she struck straight on, her sword entering his body between his ribs, piercing his heart, and coming out between his shoulders. Amp pulled straight up with her razor sharp sword, the blade ripping the heart to pieces, severing the spinal cord, and coming to a stop at his chin. He died instantly, Amp pulling her sword free, turning to help Rio.
Looking up, afraid of what she was going to see, she was just in time to see Rio’s arm come out from beneath his coat, the M-1014 short-stock shotgun finding the soft underside of Doc’s chin. As if in slow motion, the vampire’s head exploded, leaving nothing but a stump spurting a geyser of crimson blood. Doc’s body kept moving a few paces before he fell to his knees and collapsed forward.
H.D. did the smart thing. He ran, not even feeling the MT-511 combat knife that Rio threw from less than five feet, the blade entering the back of the vampire’s neck, sinking four inches into soft tissue. HD crossed the first 50 yards, then stumbled to one knee, his hand going to the blade and pulling it free and dropping it into the dirt. He stood to continue his escape, but Rio hit him at the knees with a full-body tackle, the two sprawling face first.
HD threw the human aside easily, turned to run, then made a fatal error. His pride got in the way of common sense, and he reached for Rio, grabbing the human by his jacket, not noticing that Rio still had hold of his shotgun. The blast was muffled, the closeness of the two a buffer, but there was no hiding the exit wound from HD’s back, the hole massive and incredibly brutal, vaporizing the vampire’s heart, lungs, and everything else in his chest cavity. Amp reached the pair as HD was toppling over, raising her sword to strike but realizing that there was no need. There was little doubt as to the outcome.
“You okay?” she asked Rio, helping him off the ground.
“Never better,” he said. “Is that all of them?”
Looking around, she saw that the dusting of four of the five was already in progress, a disturbing, troubling process.
Will was still alive, though in terrible shape from the massive wound Amp had inflicted to begin the massacre. Without a word, Amp walked to him, and looked down into the eyes of the man who had threatened to rape her. With apparent indifference, she summarily brought her sword down and finished the job.
Within an hour, there would be nothing left of the Carnival Crew but five oily spots, along with five pairs of dirty jeans and t-shirts scattered around the grime of the front yard.
Amp’s adrenaline rush was dropping, her mind wrapping around to what had taken place in less than a couple of minutes. “A whole coven dead. What a waste. Greedy, lazy bastards. Come on, Rio. Let’s go home.”
Amp’s cell phone was ringing non-stop when they reached his truck. Rio grabbed it, pushing the answer button.
“Nikka,” he whispered to Amp upon seeing the number.
“Hello.”
“What’s wrong?” she screamed. “What’s happening there?”
“It’s okay, calm down a second,” he soothed her, surprised that the normally composed vampire was bordering on hysteria. “We’re fine…why?”
“I felt it…felt you. Shit Rio, your emotions were going through the roof…I felt it so clear. You know, the blood thing, the bond. What happened; is Amp all right?”
“Here, Amp can explain better, I need to get us out of here. Truth is, I don’t have a clue as to what just happened.”
He handed the phone to Amp, started the truck, and pulled away from the field of carnage, heading west as fast as he could make the truck move.
“Hey,” Amp greeted her friend. “We’re on the way home.”
“What happened, Amp? I got this testosterone spike or something from Rio’s bond, and it about blew my brain out of the top of my head. Way intense.”
“They were trying to extort 100 grand from me, said if I didn’t pay they would tell Wilson what I planned to do.”
“What happened? Do we need to meet you over there and take care of it?”
“No, that was just the first part. I figured we’d come back tomorrow and take care of the problem, but then, when I walked
out, they decided they wanted to have a bit of fun…at my expense. The good looking one, Will, followed me into the yard, said he was gonna take it from me, was gonna rape me. The others came out to watch the show, and then the shit hit the fan.”
“You fought all five of them?”
“Rio and I did. I killed three, and he killed two. It’s over, they’re blowing in the wind, and we’re heading home at an incredibly high rate of speed.”
“Rio killed two vampires?” she asked, shocked. “My god, that’s unbelievable. Come home, honey, we’ll talk about it when you get here. You guys be careful…please be careful, Amp.”
After hanging up, and sticking her phone in her pocket, Amp chuckled, looking out into the darkness. “I guess that’s not an urban legend, huh?” she asked.
“What’s that?”
“The blood thing…the bond. When Nikka told me she was doing that with you, neither one of us knew how it worked, or if it really did. Apparently, it works like a charm. Whether you like it or not, you are truly tied to the girl. That’s incredible.”
“Yes. Yes it is,” he answered, smiling to himself.
“Thank you, Rio. I didn’t expect you to jump in like that. I’m not sure I could have taken all five of them alone. You saved me.”
“Amp, you could have taken them down by yourself without blinking. My adrenaline kicked in and I wanted to be part of it. I didn’t save you, I just…I don’t know…just did what I do. I fight, and that was a fight.”
“Yeah…anyway, you can go into battle with me anytime you want. It felt good with you next to me. Thank you.”
“You are welcome. Ditto.”
The hour drive home took Rio less than 40 minutes, the man wanting nothing more than to be as far away from Mount Vernon as possible. When they pulled into the lane leading up to their house, Nikka and Robert were waiting on the porch, the two meeting them at the car before they could get the doors open.
“Never again, not until this entire thing is over with, do any of us go anywhere alone,” Nikka ordered, checking Amp over carefully, the younger girl smiling at the attention.
“It’s all right,” Amp assured her. “For your information, I wasn’t alone. Rio is extremely capable of watching my back.”
“About that, Mr. Bad Ass Ranger,” turning on Rio, her face inches from his. “What the hell are you doing fighting vampires? You could have been killed in a millisecond.”
“Hey, it’s what I do…I fight. Tell her, Bob. Anyway, Amp had it covered; I just took care of the light work. It really wasn’t much of a fight. Having your blood was awesome. I was faster, stronger, and a hell of a lot more effective.”
“Damn it, Rio…”
She was hugging him, her face in his chest, Robert winking at Amp who was looking at her friend, astonished at the show of emotion. It had been a night that could very well have ended up tragic, and she could understand the angst that Nikka was experiencing.
“Agreed,” Amp said in support of Nikka. “We gotta be a bit more careful. Bottom line, we erased a major problem tonight. For anyone who is interested, Rio is one badass dude.”
“Silly girls…it’s a Ranger thing,” Robert laughed, the mood lightening. “We’re all badass dudes. Now let’s get inside; we got a few things to talk about. Then we’re going to war.”
------
They turned Amp’s rental SUV in, needing only Rio’s vehicle for the trip. They loaded all the equipment, uniforms, weapons, and ammunition that they would be taking along. Rio drove the truck onto the M/V Taku at Bellingham, Washington in the early morning hours, the four safely inside their two staterooms when the ship left for the two day journey to Wrangell.
The plan up to this point was simple. Robert would spend as much time in Petersburg as he thought necessary, return to Wrangell, and the four of them would plan the attack according to any information he discovered.
Amp and Nikka were sitting on one of the beds in the girl’s stateroom, Robert and Rio sprawled on the floor, their backs against the bulkheads. “What about the money?” Robert asked out of the blue, the tone of his question suddenly somber. “The guy’s businesses? Are we equipped to deal with any of that?”
For the past several weeks, all of their focus had been on training for battle, and very few thoughts had been on the future.
“No…no, I don’t think any of us are equipped for that, now that you mention it,” Amp said. “You got an idea?”
“Yeah, I think I do. I’m not sure how much you’re going to like it, but I think it’s the smart thing to do, if we can pull it off. The first part of it has to do with your friends in L.A. From the way you describe it, this Morgan has an incredible network, and a highly successful business. What I think we should do, once we are finished with Wilson, is contact your friend, and make a business proposition. He sends some experts up to Alaska to dissect Wilson’s holdings, get rid of the garbage, and he takes over the legitimate parts of it, with a profit split that you both agree to.”
“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Nikka cried, proud of Robert’s initiative. “What do you think, Amp? Will Morgan go for it?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “Maybe. It seems like a great deal for him…and for us. If Morgan could operate the businesses that would be a huge load off of our minds. I gotta be honest; being tied-down to a business is not my idea of fun. I love the part about having the income, and it’s a butt load of money. Making the business operate and taking on those responsibilities doesn’t appeal to me; hiring people, firing them, paying them, paying taxes. I think I just vomited in my mouth thinking about it.”
Early that morning, as Amp was lying in her bunk drifting off to sleep, she thought about the wisdom of inviting Morgan into the business if and when they defeated Wilson. It would be worth a visit to the L.A. compound to present the idea to him. If nothing came of the deal, at least she could strengthen her friendship with the California coven. She was still disappointed that they wouldn’t support her efforts in the fight against Wilson, but she also understood their thinking.
She was wanting to see Silas, she admitted to herself. Being away from her teacher was more painful than she could have imagined. He was like a brother, only better, and if she ever decided to try things a different way, Silas would be the man she would do it with.
Right before drifting into a deep slumber, she remembered that Silas had asked her to call him before she went to battle. She would do that sometime in the next week. It would be good to talk to her friend. She wished he were here now, wished he was going with her. The thought made her smile as she closed her eyes, and finally slept.
------
The ferry docked at Wrangell late in the evening. It was still light due to the long days of Alaska, but the sun wasn’t shining and there was an overcast, gray sky. Rio drove the truck off the huge ship, his tinted windows more than enough protection to ward off the light for his three companions.
The town was small and quaint, maybe 2,500 residents, the downtown something from the last century. Rio drove through town, following the home owner’s directions. A mile out, they turned east on a dirt road, drove several hundred yards and found their temporary base, just as the owner had described it. It was a one story wood and rock cabin, no more than 800 square feet with wood floors, pine walls and, best of all, no neighbors on a dead-end drive.
The plan was for the crew to move in, get to town, and purchase any incidentals that they might need, and get familiar with their environment. Rio was planning on boarding the next ferry in the morning to make the short trip to Petersburg.
He was going without his truck; a large canvas bag of clothes and weapons all that he was taking. Once in Petersburg, he would check in at the Tide’s Inn motel, located close to downtown. It was an inexpensive home to many of the transient workers of Petersburg, as well as summer tourists.
Rio and Nikka had been exchanging blood daily in order to strengthen their bond. She wanted him to be as prepared as possible, and t
he strength he was gaining from the blood was invaluable. What else they did Amp wasn’t sure, nor did she care, but it was hard to ignore the close relationship the two had developed over the past month. They were attuned to each other like nothing Amp had ever seen. They didn’t know how important this was going to be during their mission, but everyone agreed it couldn’t hurt. It certainly kept the two of them happy.
The next morning, when Rio walked out the door to catch the ferry, hugging Nikka, fist bumping Robert, Amp realized that the mission had officially begun. She drove him to the ferry dock in his truck, and watched as he boarded the ship, Rio giving a slight nod from the deck before he disappeared from sight.
Amp pulled over on the main street, the sun yet to rise, the dark windows of Rio’s truck giving her ample protection from the light. Pulling her cell phone from her bag, she found Silas’ number on her directory, pushed the call button, and listened to the ring. She thought she might have called during his sleep, but knew her teacher kept odd hours while dealing with all of Morgan’s security issues. She started to hang up the call when she heard his voice.
“Silas.”
“Hey, teacher, it’s Amp. How are you?”
“Amp, I thought you had forgotten us. I’m great. The important question is, how are you?”
“I’m great…just missing you. Wish I could see you soon. Maybe if things work out I can get down there for a visit. I am in desperate need of a few days working out.”
There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone. “If what things work out, Amp? You’re not still carrying a revenge dream for the Alaskan guy, are you? Please tell me you’ve moved on.”
“It’s almost over, Silas. In the next couple of days it will all be behind me. I promised you I’d call before I go in, so that’s what I’m doing. You are one of the best friends I have in the world, and I needed to hear your voice.”
“Please, Amp, reassess this. You don’t need to seek any kind of vengeance. That’s in the past. Please, honey, just live your life to its fullest. Don’t take a chance of dying because of some blood promise you made while you were stressed.”
Kill Wilson (Petersburg Vampires) Page 15