by Leo Romero
“Oh for crying out loud, Ming! Are you still pissed about Godzilla? A monitor lizard? Really? Is that what this is all about?”
“It isn’t just about him. It’s about you entering my home and cheating. It’s about you killing my guys. And it’s about you foiling Samuel’s plan to raise Hell.”
“Well, first of all, I don’t cheat. I’m just great at cards. Secondly, I only killed a few of your guys. Lobo and Olev took care of the rest. And fourthly, yeah, I stopped Samuel. What do you want Hell to be raised for anyway? Are you nuts?”
“Quite the opposite, Mr. Stone. Demons are no threat to us; we have a kinship with them. It is the darkness they will bring which we will benefit from. The blissful constant darkness.” She stared longingly at the ceiling. “God will not lift our curse. But Satan will embrace it. Together we will be free to roam as we please, to indulge as we please.”
“Oh, come on. And what are you gonna eat, huh? If it’s eternal darkness, there’ll be no food for you.”
She just gave me a stare that said, ‘oh my God, I never thought of that’.
I grinned, showing her my teeth. “Didn’t think of that one, did’ya?”
Ming’s eyelids fluttered. “He’s promised us evolution beyond human blood.”
“Ha! You idiot! Satan doesn’t do evolution. Evolution is conducted through the spirit of Nature, a program set off by Jehovah. Satan doesn’t have the power to replicate that code.”
“There will be sources of food,” she said with a flip of her hand. “Satan has promised—”
“Oh boy!” I exclaimed, rolling my head back. “Why does every baddie alive believe that guy? Newsflash, I just spoke to him, and yeah, he’s as full of shit as I always suspected. If a dumbass like me can see through his BS, why can’t you?”
Ming slammed her palm on the desk. “Enough!”
I leaned back in my seat, only now realizing it wasn’t a good idea to get her angry. I did just say I was a dumbass.
“We have spoken for far longer than I wish,” Ming stated. “I’ve had enough of you now.” She turned her attention to the desk and floated her hand over the various tools she’d placed upon it. She scooted over a scalpel and a wrench before finally opting for a claw hammer. She picked it up and began hitting the head lightly in her palm while studying me. I gulped.
Her eyes darted to the side. “Jin, take this.” She held out the claw hammer for Jin, who stepped forward from the circle of goons and took it from her. “Use it to pull out his teeth,” Ming ordered. “One at a time.”
I recoiled in horror. Man, I think I’d rather have Morbida’s sodomy than that.
“My pleasure, boss,” Jin said with an evil grin.
I squirmed in my seat, the nerves in my teeth already on edge. Jin turned to face me. There was a smirk on his face.
“You stay the hell away from me, pal!” I said, trying my best to arch back in my seat. It was useless. They’d tied me to that chair real good. Meanwhile, Jin advanced on me. I caught a glimpse of Ming’s eager grin behind him.
“Do something, Stone,” Draxil urged.
“Like what?” I said. “They tied my hands to this chair so I can’t use any magic.”
“Who are you talking to?” Ming asked. I ignored her.
“Use my strength,” said Draxil. “Use it! Let it get into your limbs! Let it become you!”
The moment his voice faded in my mind, something flicked like a switch. My muscles became taut as if they’d been pumped with steel. My mind went numb, the fear and trepidation of being tortured to death briskly deadened. Power surged into my limbs, and I felt him, Draxil. He was climbing into me, wearing me like a suit. My head snapped up. Jin’s smirk came into view. The sight of it caused a bolt of rage to burst up into my chest and mushroom in my mind. I saw red, a blind rage consuming me, turning my body into a volcano of anger and hate.
I was Bruce Banner, and I’d just gotten angry. And oh boy, you damn vampires won’t like me when I’m angry.
I released a deep growl of rage and balled my hands into fists. The veins in my neck popped out like chord as I pushed all my strength into my arms, flexing my muscles. I thrust my arms out as hard as I could, tearing the rope apart. I pushed down on my feet at the same time, propelling myself upward, the swift movement causing the chair to break apart.
Jin staggered back in surprise. He barely had time to blink before I got light magic blazed up in my palm and slammed it into his face. The divine light went to work. Jin buzzed and shuddered. I clenched my teeth and pushed my hand in harder, savoring the gooey and mushy feel of Jin’s face rendering beneath my palm and fingers. A sizzle went up alongside the tendrils of smoke rising from his melting face, which was now glued to my palm like a burger patty stuck on a searing-hot grill.
“Kill that thing! Melt him! Burn him!” Draxil urged. I let his rage and fury blind me, drive me, consume me. I was loving the feel of boring down into Jin’s head with my light magic. Black blood and mush spurted out the sides as my hand sank into his skull, the bone softening like marshmallow. Jin’s arms shot out to the sides; they juddered on the air like he was receiving a thousand volts. No, he was getting a good ol’ dose of vitamin frickin’ D.
I growled in rage and clenched my fingers into a fist, grabbing hold of brains, eyeballs, melted bone, and whatever other mushy vampire stuff was in there. I slung it to the side where it splattered across the warehouse floor in a black and white streak. Jin’s faceless body slumped.
The other guys stirred into life.
I whipped out Excalibur and stood there, hunkering over, two things in one. Draxil and I, one inside the other like a Russian doll, both powers combined. I turned in a slow circle, staring them all down, hatred burning in my eyes. And then they changed. They dropped the masquerade almost as one. Flesh melted like wax, exposing the grotesque creatures beneath. They tore out of their suits, all wings and limbs, sinewy muscle covered in thin, membrane-riddled skin, military gray in color. Wiry, curled hair sprouted from heads, wide jaws opened to reveal their disjointed fangs. A rotten stench filled the air akin to peat bogs and abandoned animal dens. Uncontrollable hisses and snarls echoed through the warehouse.
I ran light down my blade. I held him out ahead of me as I turned in a quick circle. The light terrified them, kept them at bay. But I knew I couldn’t hold them off forever. There were too many of them. My eyes fell on Ming, watching on from behind her goons. She was still in human form, but she’d been panicked. She threw her hands out to the sides. “Kill him!” she screeched in an inhuman wail.
In they came.
“Kill them all!” Draxil roared, and I let out my own cry, right as the first wave came in. I swung Excalibur with all my might. The illuminated blade sliced through the abdomen of an advancing vamp, the wound erupting into flames. I swung back the way I came, leaving a giant slash across the next one’s chest. Sucker would feel that in the morning!
Something came up behind me. I didn’t hesitate. I spun on the spot, the vamp in my face. I drove Excalibur up under its chin, the tip punching out the top of its head. The light magic caused its eyeballs to burst open before its head melted under the resulting flames.
I retracted my blade and whipped to the right. I embedded Excalibur into the waist of an incoming vamp, hacking out a chunk. Its innards slipped out, spattering on the floor. It reeled away, its hellish screeches bouncing off everything. I didn’t let up. I swiftly raised Excalibur and hacked downward, slicing clean through one that was diving in. The thing’s head split in two. I kicked it away with a grunt to go die somewhere before I was rushed from the sides. I thrust my blade forward like a fencer. The vamp ran straight into Excalibur’s tip, the blade striking it right in the heart. Bullseye. The light magic did its thing, burning into that rotten organ. The vamp’s chest burst into flames that spread across its body like it’d been doused in gasoline. It ran off, slamming into a bunch of others, taking them out the game.
Hot fangs raced up to my face. I didn�
��t have time to swing my blade. I acted on instinct, sending it a headbutt. I caught it bang on the snout, obliterating it across its ugly face. I immediately swung a left hook, connecting with the next one’s jaw. I hit the bastard so hard, a fang flew out of its mouth.
“Keep going, Stone!” Draxil sneered. “Kill them all!”
I stabbed Excalibur out to the left. It pierced through a vamp’s open mouth and out the back of its head with a satisfying chunky sensation. At the same time, I gave the vamp coming in from the right the ‘stop’ sign. The bastard ran face-first into my light-imbued palm where it immediately sizzled and popped. I clamped hold of its face and burned it off until its head burst under the force, emptying its contents all over the floor.
More came in. I swung Excalibur around that way, going in a full circle, hacking through vamps like a god-level lumberjack chopping down a bunch of trees in one fell swoop. Severed limbs hit the ground with soft thuds. Black blood gushed all over the floor, all over the vamps, all over me, and I bathed in it. My mind pounded; adrenaline pumped around my veins like a drug. I was caught in a fugue of bloodlust, and vamp was fresh on the menu, all the while driven by my inner demon, Draxil, to desiccate and destroy. At the back of my mind, I could hear Satan himself chuckle in approval of my sudden indulgence for ultra-violence.
I swung Excalibur back and sliced off a head. It jumped in the air like a tennis ball while the body dropped in a pool of blood.
I took more limbs. Three came rushing in from behind. I whipped around to hack through them, the world a gray blur. I moved so fast, light magic whirled up around me, engulfing me like a halo. I thrummed with divine energy, a soldier of light battling the legions of darkness. The vamps cowered away in terror.
I reached my face for the ceiling and let out a war cry, vampire blood streaming off me.
“Kill him, you fools!” Ming screamed so hard, her masquerade fell off her. Her hideously deformed face was twisted with hate, her black eyes bottomless pits of evil. She screeched, and her minions stormed in for round two.
I pumped up my chest. Frickin’ vampires. They were going down. I’d had enough of the bastards!
I swung Excalibur in a circle like a Game of Thrones warrior, enveloped in a blazing ball of light. I cut them open, chopped them down. They couldn’t get near me. Any dumb enough to try their luck withered and burned in the glorious light encasing me.
In response, they bunched up and dived in as one like a colony of ants, hoping to drown the light. In a second, I was descended upon by fangs, wings, and spindly limbs. My ears were bombarded with hissing and feral grunts. Things clawed at me. It was madness.
“Do something, Stone!” Draxil roared from within the cacophony.
I quickly gathered my strength and pushed up as hard as I could. A blast of light exploded out of me in an effervescent corona. Vamps were sent scattering, flames erupting and roiling up to the ceiling wherever the light touched them. They scuttled away in terror, fire eating them alive. The air shimmered with heat, the fires turning the place yellow. The hot stench of charcoaled vamp flesh flowed through the warehouse.
Relieved of their burden, I snatched a breath and looked around. They were in a panic, scattered or dying. But there were still too many of them. There was no way I could take them all. I’d eventually tire. My chest heaved as I watched the remaining vamps regroup. Now that I’d stopped moving, the haze of light surrounding me was shrinking fast. I’d need help if I was going to defeat them. My gaze fell on that desk and my Deck of Death. My eyes lit up. I went to make a dash for it when a vamp spread its wings and stormed in, screeching. I drove Excalibur through its chest, exploding it in a blaze of divine light. I slung it to the side and jumped over to the desk, knocking over the hookah.
I grabbed the top card, turned it, and had a quick glance. The king of hearts. Oh boy! Not ideal but would have to do. I threw the card down and shouted, “Alawan.”
A vampire stormed in head-first, connecting with my midriff. I toppled, my back slamming into the floor, winding me. The vamp was on me like a leech. I tried in desperation to get my light-imbued palm up to the asshole’s face, but it had me pinned. It opened its jaws, ivory fangs gleaming.
In came its mouth for my neck. I went to scream.
An animalistic roar froze the vamp mid-air. Intense pounding rocked the warehouse. The vamp had time to flick its head upwards before a giant paw swiped across my vision, polished-black claws extended. The vamp’s head was clipped clean off its neck. It spun away into the distance while its decapitated body slumped down onto me, black blood gushing from the stump. I shivered in disgust, throwing that spraying corpse off me as fast as I could. My eyes bulged. That giant paw now hovered over my head. It came down. I rolled on instinct. The paw smashed the floor where my head had just been.
Silence descended over the warehouse, everything becoming still bar the roll of flames. I made it to my knees and stared at my savior from the Void, Alawan. The manticore was a sight to behold. Magnificent. Menacing. Terrifying. A lion’s brutish body, his lush mane surrounding a human-like face contorted with lion features. Huge, bat wings spread out behind him, while his scorpion tail curled upward, the stinger glinting under the fluorescent lights. A low, guttural noise emanated from his throat. Even the vamps had backed away.
Alawan just glared at me with his orange, merciless eyes, his jagged teeth bared.
“E-easy, Alawan,” I said, his emotionless stare scaring me shitless. I darted my eyes to the left and right. Vamps were stood next to me, rooted in terror, when they should’ve been tearing me a new one. At that moment, I was on the back burner. Alawan had all our attention.
Alawan snarled and took a step toward us, his wings flaring. We all flinched back in unison.
“Send it back!” Ming shouted from behind me. The fear in her voice was palpable. And I liked it. Suddenly, I was pleased Alawan was with us. And that was the moment I think I actually lost my mind.
I put on a grin, bent over slightly, and started clicking my fingers. “Here, boy!” I said.
“Are you insane?” Ming screeched.
To answer her question, I blew kisses at Alawan. “Here, boy! Come to Daddy! That’s a good boy!”
Alawan leaped into life. His roar was akin to a thousand feral dogs. His huge muscles flexed and rippled, giant paws pounded on the floor.
My heart lurched as the galloping beast stormed our way. I grabbed hold of the nearest vamp and flung it toward him. The vamp had time to let out a screech before Alawan swung a paw. The vamp shredded like paper. Alawan came to a halt as he took a moment to turn the vamp into ribbons.
And then all hell let loose. The vamps stormed in for the manticore, hoping to attack him as a pack like hyenas going for the lion. At the same time, more came storming toward me, battle resumed. I ducked and weaved the advancing fangs, throwing my lit palm into any faces that got up close. I melted a couple more before I grabbed Bam Bam from the desk. I performed a forward roll, evading yet another attack, and immediately aimed at an incoming vamp.
“Shoot that dang varmint!” Bam Bam screamed.
I pulled the trigger and blasted out a huge hole in the vamp’s chest. It staggered, the remnants of its heart visibly beating in the cavity.
“Shoot it again!” Bam Bam screamed.
Yes maam!
I gave it another blast. The remainder of its heart exploded under the impact, dropping the asshole. I didn’t have time to reload as another jumped up to me. I slung Bam Bam at it. “Catch!”
The vamp stupidly caught Bam Bam by the smoking barrel. The hot metal burned its claws. It yelped in pain, slinging Bam Bam away. I shot up to it, grabbing it by the throat. My light magic went to work, burning through that shit. I clenched my teeth and squeezed harder, my fingers sinking into its rendered flesh. A smoky, rot stench shot up my nostrils, and I almost gagged.
“Kill it!” Draxil sneered. Man, was everybody obsessed with killing today?
I let out a grunt as I pulled
out the bastard’s larynx. It staggered back to die, blood spraying from it like a hose.
Somewhere behind me, Alawan was busy roaring and slinging vamps around like unwanted toys. He took hold of one, slammed it into the ground, and smashed it repeatedly with his stinger, filling the vamp with poison. The vamp swelled like a balloon. It hit bursting point and exploded, splattering everything with black goo.
I shielded my eyes from the spray. Man, that’s repulsive.
Vamps stormed in toward Alawan. Alawan leaped with the grace of a sumo wrestler just after lunch, landing like a truck on a couple of incoming vamps. His claws punched through them into the concrete floor, pinning them. His stinger went to work, pumping them full of poison. Another couple of vamps attacked his hind, scratching away at him with their claws, drawing blood. Alawan howled in pain, turning his tail their way. He slammed his stinger down; it jabbed through the top of a vamp’s head and out its chin. Alawan whipped his tail up, bringing the impaled vamp with it. He swung the vamp down, using it as a club to beat other vamps, knocking them away like pins. Alawan flicked his tail, flinging the impaled vamp my way. I leaped to the side, the projectile vamp smashing into the warehouse wall.
I watched it go in bewilderment. Holy moly, shit was insane.
The vamps went into a confused frenzy. They were dropping like flies, the new creature in the arena way too powerful for them. A roar tore through the warehouse as Alawan leaped on yet another vamp and turned it into luncheon meat.
“Retreat!” Ming screeched. In the next instant, the vamps turned heel and bailed, scampering out of the warehouse like rats. I’d never seen anything move so fast. I wanted to go after Ming, but she was already gone.
I watched the rest flee, my chest heaving. “Where you all going?” I shouted after them. “I was just getting started!”
The last of them left the building, and I was all alone. Bastards. I was enjoying that. Damn Ming. I let her get away. I should’ve—