Nikka paused, thinking over the question that had been on her mind for weeks. “We’re strong enough to stand together against a wrong done to a friend. That is as strong as we are.”
The conversation was interrupted by a loud beeping, Amp grabbing her phone to receive the text message. Reading it, she stood quickly.
“It’s Rio…911! It’s started, he’s engaged. Needs us to meet him on the road where it turns into the compound. Let’s go.” There was no fear in her voice, only determination…and a great deal of excitement.
“Do you have a vehicle?” Alexander asked.
“No,” Nikka answered. “We’ll steal one.”
“There is a white Suburban parked at the top of the wharf. Here are the keys, it’s a rental, so use it however you need, then leave it, I’m sure they’ll find it. I will not leave until there is a conclusion to your operation…until I hear from one of you. Feel free to leave your bags and such right here. Good luck, warriors. Fight well.”
The three prepared themselves, covering their faces with black face paint, arming themselves with the weapons they had selected, double checking they had not forgotten anything. Within five minutes, they were ready to go.
“Thank you, My Lord,” Nikka said, bowing low to Alexander. “You have been most gracious. I hope you will hear from us soon.”
They were gone, running at incredible speed up the dock, and to the vehicle. Their year of training, waiting, and dreaming, was about to come to an end.
------
The front door opened, the commotion causing Rio to turn from where he was preparing to drop the line from the tree, several figures pouring out onto the porch.
He found his binoculars, focusing in on the lit arena before him. Rio saw Turk, and Wilson, and three other vamps…and Miriam. The woman was naked and on her knees, being pulled across the porch by a dog leash wrapped around her neck. Wilson was dragging her without regard to the pain it was causing her. There was a look of anguish on her red splattered face, the front of Wilson’s shirt red with the woman’s blood.
Grabbing his sniper rifle, Rio rested it on the branch in front of him, sighting in on the scene taking place before him. He wished he could hear what was being said, but he would have to interpret the scene from the actions of those in his scope.
He would not let Miriam be killed. He set his crosshairs on Wilson’s nose, his finger not yet on his trigger. If Wilson made any move whatsoever that Rio felt was life threatening, he would blow the man’s head off of his shoulders. Suddenly Wilson pulled Miriam to her feet, then with a hard shove, pushed her out to the middle of the yard. Miriam fell to the ground and didn’t move, stark naked and shivering from the cold night air.
As Rio watched, the others turned, and went into the house, a faint sound of laughter reaching Rio’s ears. Without hesitating, he dropped his rope, grabbed his equipment, and was on the ground. He carefully stored his sniper rifle in his hidey hole, reached for his 5.56 Silencer, and screwed it onto the barrel of the M-4, checked that his two .45s were ready, and started for the compound at a controlled jog.
He pulled out his cell phone, sent a 911 message to Amp, then walked right up to the gate. Without warning, he shot the guard between the eyes, the upper part of the vampire’s head exploding. Rio was surprised at the limited noise the gun made, smiling at the performance of the silencer.
You motherfuckers aren’t invincible after all, he thought, as he passed the headless guard, staring down the hole that moments before had held a perfectly operating skull.
He crossed the yard, carefully on the lookout for more vampires, knowing there were two patrolling the compound grounds at all times. Fortunately, he reached the nearly unconscious Miriam without running into any more trouble.
Reaching down, he grabbed her by the arm.
“Miriam, get up…c’mon, get the hell up right now!” he demanded, pulling her to her feet. “Can you walk?”
The woman appeared dazed and disoriented, looking at Rio as if she didn’t recognize him. She had been beaten badly, her face a series of cuts and bruises, her small breasts covered with deep scratches and abrasions. She had bite marks covering much of her body, and the punctures were still leaking blood in several places. It took her a moment to recover her senses, and then she surprised Rio and smiled.
“”I’ll be damned…the cavalry showed up. That prick doesn’t get to have his execution after all. What a hoot. Let’s get the hell out of here…I can walk; I’m starting to get my strength back.
“Come on, honey, no time to talk, we got to get out of here right now.”
As he said it, the two guards turned the corner of the house, not noticing Rio, talking to each other, holding their weapons carelessly. Without a thought, Rio changed the M-4 to 3-shot burst, not having the luxury of trying to take them out with single shots.
“Miriam, stay right where you are. I’m right here…I’m going to fire from behind you. Just stand there, and don’t move a muscle.”
He waited until they were within forty feet, the two oblivious that Miriam was not alone. Suddenly the one on the left noticed something not right, started to raise his shotgun, and took a 3 shot burst from the M-4 through his heart, blowing his spine several feet behind him. His partner, shocked at first, recovered rapidly, moving with superhuman speed straight at Miriam, not bothering with his weapon, instinctively trying to locate the source of the danger. He found it, a nice three shot pattern, right where his nose had been, totally obliterating everything above his shoulders.
“Run,” Rio whispered, and he didn’t have to say it twice. Miriam was off in front of him, the two making the gate, and disappearing into the woods before there was any more commotion. They ran parallel to the drive, heading for the main road a quarter mile away. Halfway there, Miriam slowed, and the two settled on a rapid walk. Rio took off his jumper, and helped Miriam into it, covering up her nakedness as much as possible.
“Thanks, Rio. You just ruined their evening. In about an hour or two, they were going to have an old fashioned evisceration of poor, little old me,” she said. “He was planning on tearing me to pieces in front of his clan, I suppose as a show of strength. Then everyone was going to drink from my dying body. Then they were going to have a bonfire and burn whatever was left. Some weird ass ceremony he thought up. You screwed up the party, soldier.”
Rio looked stunned.
“What the hell brought this on? I thought you were still good with him,” Rio asked. “I would never have let you go back tonight if I thought he was planning something like that.”
She smiled at him, suddenly in a much better mood now that she was away from the compound, even though she was walking through a dark forest naked, and halfway beat to death.
“I guess I caused it. I stabbed him with a kitchen knife, missed his black heart and got him in the shoulder, enough to piss him off a little,” she laughed. “I can’t believe I missed. Bad on me, huh. I feel a lot better, I’m healing pretty fast. I’m full of vampire blood, so it’s helping.”
“Why pick tonight to try to kill him, after 100 years of getting the shit kicked out of you? Not great timing.”
“Him and that big ass Turk came in my room, just barged in, and told me they needed to feed. Turk wanted it to be pretty exotic, a regular freak scene starring yours truly. I don’t know if you understand about the effect on a human during a vampire feeding, and vice versus…”
Rio interrupted. “I know the routine. Go on.”
“Okay, so I told them I wasn’t a whore, or the local fast food joint. If he was hungry and horny, he could go to town, and find someone. To make a long story short, Turk fed from me, then Wilson, then the two of them raped me for hours. They made me do some of the most obscene and revolting acts imaginable. It was the most humiliating and repulsive thing that anyone could ever do to a person. Halfway through it, I begged them to kill me, wished that I could kill myself. They laughed at me, and kept going.”
Rio interrupted her. �
��Hey, you don’t have to tell me this. I get it,” he said softly, the rage building inside his gut.
“I do. I really have to tell you…I have to tell somebody, Rio. Anyway, when it was finally finished, I cleaned up, went down to the kitchen, and got the biggest knife I own, and went and found Beryl. Only thing is, I was a bit slow, and he dodged it, took it in the shoulder…all the way through, though. Then you saw the results. Both of them beat me senseless, only they don’t realize how strong the blood has made me over the years. I don’t have vampire strength or vampire healing, but I have many times the recovery powers that normal humans have. I’m okay, Beryl’s fully healed, and now they’re in there planning my going away party.”
They were approaching the highway, Rio desperately hoping his friends were waiting. He wasn’t disappointed. He saw the suburban parked across the road, backed into the woods, and invisible to traffic, although at this time of night, there wasn’t any movement either way.
Pulling Miriam by her hand, he ran across the road, not seeing anybody in the vehicle, or around the car. Maybe this wasn’t the crew, he thought, maybe this was a mistake on his part. Just as he was about to dart back into the woods, Nikka appeared, followed by Amp and Robert. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed his friends until he saw them.
Looking at Miriam, he saw she wasn’t sharing in his happy vibes. Her smile was gone, a wary look replacing it as she stared at Amp.
Nikka gave him a long look, then smiled, and stepped to him, hugging him tight, then pushed back, and the moment was over.
“Hey guys, I gotta tell you, it’s really good to see you,” Rio smiled, fist-bumping Robert, and touching Amp’s on the arm. “We have a major-league situation here. Oh, I’m sorry, bad manners…this is Miriam. Miriam, my friends Nikka, Robert…and I think you’ve met Amp. Miriam is with us now.”
He said this looking at Amp, making sure she understood Miriam was off limits. Amp started to say something, then thought better of it.
They needed a plan, not a debate about the past. Anything that needed to be said could be said later, if there was to be a later for them. Instead, Amp took Miriam by the arm and led her to the truck. Rummaging around in one of the bags, she found an extra pair of Nikka’s camo pants and jumper, and then pulled out a pair of her own socks and tennis shoes.
“Sorry, I don’t have any undies in there, but at least this stuff will keep you warm,” Amp said.
She looked at the woman who she had hated for a year, a human she had vowed to kill. Not the same person I remember, she told herself. Even covered with dried blood, and bruises, and other things she didn’t want to think about, Amp could see the woman’s pride. Looking her in the eye, she knew this person was not a threat. There was no way this woman was responsible for Danner and Riley’s deaths.
“Thank you, I was starting to think frostbite,” Miriam answered, taking off Rio’s jumper, and putting on the clothes Amp gave her.
Taking a deep breath, Miriam continued, in as clear a voice as she could manage. “Anne Marie, we’ll talk later about everything, but believe me when I tell you I had nothing to do with your friend’s deaths. I swear I didn’t see that coming. It was the most horrendous, and disgusting act of treachery, and it was at that moment I started thinking of ways to get away from here. You don’t have to like me or be my friend…I just need you to believe me. I hate them, every one of them, and I hope you kill them all.”
Amp didn’t say anything for a moment, thinking about what the woman was telling her. “I believe you. Now tell me about the other one, Turk. You said he has a scar down the left side. Show me where.”
“Right here,” Miriam said, running her finger down Amp’s face, stopping at the corner of her mouth.
“Six foot six, cowboy boots, light hair short on the side?” Amp asked, knowing the answer.
“Exactly. Friend of yours?”
“Apparently not,” Amp murmured, turning back to her friends.
“One more thing, Anne Marie.”
“My friends call me Amp,” she said. “You can, if you want.”
“Thank you, Amp. That’s the nicest thing...well, just thank you. Anyway I heard Turk tell Beryl last night, after they discussed killing me…Turk promised Beryl your head. He said he would crush your ashes into the dirt, and deliver your head to Wilson.”
Amp didn’t flinch, didn’t show the anguish she felt at the betrayal. Instead, she turned without a word, praying she didn’t show any tears in front of her comrades.
“Tell us what’s happening, Rio,” Robert was saying, Amp reaching for the jacket Miriam had taken off, and tossed it to Rio.
“Thanks,” he grinned. “They didn’t give Miriam a chance to pack a bag. Okay, briefly, Miriam has been passing us information all week about the size of Wilson’s staff, weapons, habits, and their frame of mind. Ever since Turk arrived, their security has improved, although still not too good. Miriam went back in today…this was going to be her last night in there, then we were going to stash her for the duration. Cut to the chase, she was beaten, among other things, then tossed outside. The plan was to execute her in a couple hours, and let everyone in the compound taste her…a Wilson exclusive production; live and in color. I killed three guards and pulled her out, and here we are. That’s a sick fucker in there, and I’m thinking it’s time to go put his rabid ass down. I don’t know if he’s discovered the dead vamps, or if they’ve dusted, and he just doesn’t know what happened? Whatever, I think it’s time. By the way, when vampires dust, what about the clothes?”
“They stay,” Nikka answered. “So by now, I imagine they’ve found three sets of empty, oily clothes. Strategically, how do we go in?”
Rio was ready for this question. “Ideally, I would love for us to go in at three different locations, and confine the fight inside the house itself. I think a smaller force has an advantage in a tighter area. In all likelihood, there are going to be a bunch of them out in the yard trying to understand how Miriam killed three vampires and got away. We need to approach the compound through the woods, just to see what’s going on in the front. If they have a force on the front grounds, we need to identify their weapons because that is going to make a difference. If they’re all carrying rifles or shotguns, we need to attack long-range, with our two M-4s, and I’ll go get my sniper rifle. That way we can even the field a bit. Let’s go take a look, see what we’re fighting.”
“Miriam,” Nikka asked. “Exactly how many are there in the compound, minus the three Rio killed?”
“As of last night, there were fourteen, plus Turk…and Wilson. Sixteen total, minus three dead, so thirteen left. Wilson is no fighter, if he was human and could shit, he’d soil himself whenever confronted with violence. He beats women and children. So that’s twelve fighters. Several of the kids have never been in a fight, more than half. Turk acts like he’s God’s gift to war.”
“Turk is somebody we want to be very cautious with,” Amp said. “He’s been fighting for centuries, and he’s very good at it. I’ve seen firsthand.”
The four fighters prepared themselves for whatever they were going to face. Amp and Nikka both had their swords in scabbards on their back, as well as the short stocked shotguns across their shoulders on a sling. Neither took the .45s that were available, preferring to not having the weight at their waist. Robert had an M-4, a shotgun across his back, and a .45, as well as a combat knife. Rio had his silenced M-4, his two .45s, and his various knives and gadgets in his pockets.
“Can I go?” Miriam asked softly, standing back by the truck. “I know how to shoot a shotgun.”
Amp turned to her and surprised her with a smile.
“No. We trained for this for months, Miriam, and we kind of know each other’s habits and skills. But I appreciate you offered. Anyway, the most important part you staying safe is you have complete knowledge of Wilson’s holdings, his bank accounts, stocks, all the numbers. I’d be totally pissed if you got killed with all that information.”
Miriam chuckled, returning the smile. “Okay…good. I was scared to death you were going to say yes. I don’t think I’d be a good soldier anyway. You guys go do what you do best, and I’ll be waiting here for you. Please be careful.”
------
The four friends were kneeling in the woods across from the gate of the Wilson compound, concealed by the trees and brush, as well as a slight fog that was rolling in off the Narrows. They could see Wilson had posted six of his boys on the front lawn, although they didn’t seem to be completely organized. There was a bit of nervous horseplay going on among the youngsters, only two who appeared to be armed with shotguns.
“Not sure where Silas is,” Amp whispered softly. “These guys look like they’re lost and confused.”
“I don’t think they are taking us as a serious threat,” Nikka answered back quietly. “This doesn’t make sense to me, not after Rio killed three of them. Silas and Wilson must be in the house with the rest of the troops. These six are supposed to scare us off?”
“I think we take them right now, before they have a chance to organize,” Robert said. “Nikka, me, and Amp attack at warp speed, and just level them. Rio, you come up at a more cautious pace, have that M-4 on three round shot, and put down anyone who’s still standing. You’re responsible for whoever comes out of the house during the fight. Questions?”
“After these six are down, then what?” Nikka asked. “Go for the house?”
“I think they’ll be expecting that, don’t you? We lose our surprise advantage. Let’s draw back, try to pull them out to us. That way we keep the advantage, especially with our firepower.”
“I like that,” Amp said. “Let’s rock and roll.”
“Through the gate or over it?” Nikka asked.
“Over it, scare the shit out of them,” Amp answered.
“This is what you’ve been working for, girl,” Nikka said to Amp. “Let’s enjoy every minute of it.”
Kill Wilson (Petersburg Vampires) Page 20