by Ray Garton
He became sick to his stomach when he realized someone had opened that door in the floor down there. Someone had given the creatures that had made those sounds the freedom to roam the halls. And two of them meant to feed on him.
Castlebeck scrambled to his feet and kicked the dwarf hard against the wall once, then again, and a third time, when the dwarfs head struck the wall hard. He slid off Castlebeck's leg. Castlebeck quickly turned around and kicked the crawling, web-handed woman in the face once, then a few more times. Until something cracked and blood began to dribble everywhere, down her face in deep-red stripes.
The dwarf began to stir.
Castlebeck hurried over to the dwarf, lifted his right foot high, knee up, and stomped on the dwarfs head again and again. He kept stomping, even after feeling something collapse beneath his heel.
The woman started to crawl toward him again. He did the same thing to her.
It was Castlebeck's great hope that one day he would be turned by one of the vampires with whom he worked. He wanted it desperately. He wanted eternal life, but that wasn't even the best part of the deal—it was control over women for which Castlebeck lusted.
He was determined to keep from losing his life to the deformities on the floor, which would no doubt drain him of blood if given half a chance.
Castlebeck staggered down the corridor, his thigh bleeding, went out the door behind the front desk, and around the edge of the counter. He stumbled to a stop when he saw, through the glass doors at the front entrance, a police car doubled-parked outside—no doubt someone had called about the machine gunfire. Castlebeck limped backward a few feet, then turned around and headed for the elevator. The basement light was lit up overhead. The elevator seemed to be staying there.
He was parked behind the hotel. Castlebeck rushed back to the front desk, went around the counter. He swung the door open and headed down the narrow hallway that led to the breakroom, which had a door to the rear parking lot.
Something dropped down on him from the ceiling and wrapped its stubby wings around his face from behind. The creature sank its fangs into the back of Castlebeck's neck and started to gnaw.
Oh, this is bad, Castlebeck thought. We're all done for.
Castlebeck lost consciousness then and collapsed to the floor.
The creature remained on his back, sucking and chewing at his neck.
Castlebeck never woke up again. He would never have an eternal life filled with subservient women after all.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
The naked creature with the gelatinous face also had talons instead of hands and feet, and it slapped onto the front of Norman. It's bony knees jutted upward as the talons at the end of its legs dug into Norman's beefy sides. Norman's gun fell to the floor of the elevator.
Crying out in pain, Norman nearly closed his hands all the way around the creature's waist, and pushed it away from his body. The talons tore at his back and sides as it opened its mouth and made gelatinous sounds.
"Somebody shoot him," Norman said as he held the thing at arms' length.
Keoph poked the barrel of his gun between a couple of the creature's ribs and squeezed the trigger. Norman let go of the creature and it flew backward out of the elevator. Keoph stepped forward and kept firing at the center of the creature. He quit just short of cutting the thing in half.
While he was outside the elevator, Keoph saw other things crawling around in the narrow corridors of the basement. He quickly stepped back in the elevator just as the door started to close.
"They're loose out there," he said.
"Then we shoot our way through them," Davey said. "We have to get down to that sub-basement and get the hell out of here. We've gotten off lucky so far, we caught them by surprise. That's not going to last for long." He looked around at them. "Everybody loaded?"
They nodded.
Davey led the way out of the elevator, turned to his left, and fired the shotgun.
Keoph shot down a bloated creature that looked like a large maggot with a human head and limbs that was crawling along the left wall. The bullets exploded its bulbous body, blood splashed in all directions, and it dropped to the floor. Keoph shot at it a bit longer to make sure.
When they got to the water-heater room, it was empty. They quickly climbed down into the sub-basement. Keoph took his flashlight from the satchel again and turned it on.
They were walking toward Steve's body when something wrapped around Keoph's left ankle and pulled his foot out from under him, knocking him onto his side. Keoph cried out as he dropped his gun and the flashlight. He lifted his head and saw, extending from the darkness to his right, a narrow, fleshy, baby-pink tentacle, the end of which was curled around his ankle.
As Neil stepped forward, he removed a long hunting knife from the sheath on his belt. He went to the tentacle and stood on it with both feet, legs apart. He bent down and attacked the tentacle with the knife until the blade went clear through to the concrete.
The tentacle bled red blood. It spurted from the end while it whipped back into the dark as something in there squealed like an injured pig.
Keoph scrambled to his feet and shook his leg to knock off the tentacle fragment, but without success. He had to unwrap it from his leg to get it off, then threw it into the dark from which it had come.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Keoph said as he retrieved his gun and flashlight.
They walked a little farther and came upon what remained of Steve. It was not much. Beneath his clothes, he was nothing more than a collection of crumbling bones.
"Damn," Norman whispered.
Darin whispered, "He was the oldest of us."
They left the sub-basement and walked to the rungs that led up to the manhole. They put their guns back into the satchels and zipped the satchels closed, and the vampires took their sunglasses from pockets and put them on.
Norman went up first to move the manhole cover. They heard it rumble over the pavement above with a crunching, clanking sound.
"Help me with this, Gavin," Davey said. Keoph helped him remove the strap. Davey dropped the gun to the ground and abandoned it.
Something behind them squealed as it splashed through the water toward them.
"Climb, climb!" Davey said as he pushed Keoph up, then Karen.
The thing was nothing more than a hunkering shape in the darkness. It continued to squeal as it sloshed closer.
Davey was the last one to climb out, and the second he'd cleared the hole, Norman moved the manhole cover and dropped it into place.
Davey and Keoph looked around carefully as they walked quickly to the Mercedes parked nearby. They could hear what sounded like a police radio—it seemed to be coming from the front of the hotel. Davey got into the car first and started the engine.
None of them said anything as Davey pulled away from the curb.
Adrenaline pumped through Keoph and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. It was as if all his fear were catching up with him—his hands and legs shook as he sat hunched forward in the front seat.
"If that place weren't full of victims," Davey said after awhile, "it would be blowing up or in flames right now, I'd see to it."
In the backseat, Darin said quietly, "I can't believe Steve didn't make it."
"And Neil, too," Norman said. Half of his mouth turned up in a smile. "Wherever they are, they're probably pissed they didn't get to take out more brutals."
As he drove, Davey kept looking at Karen in the backseat. "Karen," he said, "I have to ask you this question. Did you and Anya exchange blood at any time? Did she ever make you drink her blood?"
"No, she didn't. But I think I would've preferred that to what she did do to me."
"What was that?" Keoph said.
"Please, I... I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Do you need to see a doctor?" Keoph said.
She shook her head. "No doctors. No police. I'll be fine."
"You're sure?"
"Keoph, I know you
're concerned, and I appreciate it, but what exactly would I tell a doctor? I couldn't tell him the truth, and beyond the truth, I got nothing this time. I couldn't make up what happened to me. Right now, all I'm thinking about is one thing—I'm alive. I really thought I was going to die in that place. I can't thank you enough for coming in to get me."
Davey said, "You want to know the truth? I didn't think this many of us would get out alive. And that includes you, Karen. I'm sorry about Steve and Neil. But in spite of that, the truth is, we've been very lucky today."
CHAPTER FORTY
Keoph pulled a chair out for Karen at Mrs. Dupassie's dining table. Mrs. Dupassie sat across from her, reached out and took her right hand. A fat cigar protruded from Mrs. Dupassie's mouth. She took it out before she spoke.
"How are you, sweetheart?" Mrs. Dupassie said.
"Well, I'm not fine."
"Would you like to use my shower? Or, I have a tub, if you'd prefer. I think I have some clothes that might fit you, too, so you can get out of that nightgown."
"Oh, I would appreciate that so much."
Mrs. Dupassie stood and put the cigar back in her mouth. She led Karen down the hall to the bathroom. She opened a cupboard above the toilet and removed a white towel.
"There's the shower and tub," Mrs. Dupassie said, "and here's a towel. My robe is hanging on the back of this door. Put it on when you're done and go one door down to my bedroom. I'll set out some clothes for you on the bed."
At the table, Davey turned to Norman and Darin. "You guys are the best, I want you to know that. I can't tell you how sorry I am about Steve and Neil."
Norman nodded. "They died doing something they felt very strongly about. You know, Steve had a fascinating life. His parents brought him to this country from Germany when he was just a baby over a hundred and fifty years ago. When he was ten, his parents were killed by brutals, right in front of him."
"Vampires have been here that long?" Keoph said.
"Vampires helped settle this country," Norman said. "The good ones, anyway."
"What about the brutals?"
Norman said, "Well, the elements and poor medical treatment weren't the only things responsible for the high mortality rate among settlers."
Keoph nodded. It made sense.
"Steve was turned when he was in his late teens," Norman said. "He's been after the brutals ever since. He always knew it was going to get him killed one day, but he didn't care as long as he died taking brutals down with him. He fought in the Civil War, for the North. He fought in World War One and Two, but he killed more brutals than German soldiers in Europe, both times. The daylight almost killed him in World War Two, but he survived. That's what he was. Steve was a survivor. Until today."
"Neil was pretty shy," Darin said. "I don't know anything about his background. He never talked about himself, always about the people he was talking to. You know what I mean? He was always interested in people."
"He was a good listener," Norman said.
Davey said, "Nothing would make me happier than going in there and killing all of them, and getting those people locked up in the hotel the help they need."
"You'd need more people," Darin said.
"Oh, yeah, it would take more people, and a lot more bullets," Davey said.
"If you ever decide to try," Norman said, "give us a call, okay?"
"You'll be the first ones I call," Davey said with a smile. "I don't know how soon that'll be, though. I'm going to lay low, maybe do some traveling."
No one said Casey's name, but Keoph and Davey both thought about her at the same time. Keoph wondered to himself what such a horrible loss must be like, while Davey told himself he probably was going to have a long grieving period.
"I need some time alone," Davey said as he looked down at the tabletop. "Preferably out of Los Angeles. I plan to pamper myself on a long trip to... somewhere."
Mrs. Dupassie came out of the hallway and passed the dining table to go into the living room. When she came back and seated herself at the table, she said, "It's on the news."
Keoph and Davey got up and went into the living room.
An attractive blond woman said, "—anymore gunfire for awhile now, that seems to have stopped. But police are getting no answer when they call the hotel on the phone. A SWAT team is on the way. We will keep you up to date as the story develops. We return you now to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress."
A rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond came on.
Keoph and Davey slowly returned to the table.
Mrs. Dupassie puffed on her cigar, took it out of her mouth. "That girl's in a lot of fucking pain," she said.
"Karen?" Keoph said.
Mrs. Dupassie nodded. "It's just dripping off of her. Her aura is not looking healthy. She needs help. I know a good therapist who sees victims of brutals. He's a vampire, but he's on our side. That way, she can tell her whole story and won't have to make up a bunch of lies to cover for what really happened."
"That's a very good idea, Mrs. Dupassie," Keoph said.
"I'll get his card for her next time I get up off my ass," Mrs. Dupassie said.
"I thought you were going to bed when we left earlier, Mrs. Dupassie," Keoph said.
"I couldn't sleep," she said. "I was too fucking worried about you guys. I didn't think you'd be coming back. That's what I thought. You had me real worried. I'm amazed, you wanna know the truth. Not only did most of you get outta that fucking place alive, you found who you were looking for."
Keoph let out a deep breath as he nodded. "You're right. And I want to thank all of you for your help. There's no way I could've done it without you."
Karen came in wearing a white T-shirt, a pair of grey sweatpants, and moccasins. Her hair was wet and combed straight back.
"How would you like some coffee, honey?" Mrs. Dupassie said.
"That would be wonderful," Karen said.
Mrs. Dupassie got up and went into the kitchen. She said, "Karen, why don't you come in here with me for a minute."
Keoph watched as Karen went into the kitchen and Mrs. Dupassie talked to her quietly. Mrs. Dupassie went to a drawer beneath the counter and rummaged around. She retrieved from the messy drawer a small business-sized card. She closed the drawer and gave the card to Karen, speaking to her quietly again. Karen responded and nodded, then took Mrs. Dupassie's hand and seemed to thank her.
When Karen returned to the table, Keoph said, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
She smiled. "Yes. Just stop treating me like a porcelain doll. I'm going to be fine, Keoph. Don't worry."
"Mrs. Dupassie told you about the therapist?"
"Yes, and I plan to see him. He's a psychiatrist, actually."
"Oh, good, I'm glad. I hope you get some good out of it."
"Thank you, Keoph."
"Are you in pain?"
"My whole body is killing me, but the shower helped a lot. You know, we should call Burgess."
Keoph nodded. "I'll do it. You just sit here and—"
Smiling again, she said, "I told you, Keoph. Stop it. You're going to drive me insane."
He returned her smile and said, "Okay."
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Martin Burgess sat in the chair beside Denise's bed, his head tipped forward, hands joined across his stomach. He snored quietly.
His cell phone went off and he sat up, rubbed the back of his neck, and yawned. He took the phone from his pocket and opened it.
"Burgess," he said.
"Mr. Burgess, it's Gavin Keoph."
"Oh, Mr. Keoph, it's good to hear from you. How are you?"
"We got Karen away from the brutals, and we—"
"Brutals?"
"Can I explain the details to you later?" Keoph said.
"Yeah, sure, if you'd rather."
"Karen's been beaten and raped."
"Oh, my god."
"How is your wife?"
"Heavily sedated. She's going to be in pain for awhile, but s
he'll be okay, thank god."
"Has she told you what happened to her?"
"She was raped and beaten as well."
"That seems to be their way."
Burgess said, "Who's way?"
"The brutals. They're vampires that prey on mortals. They also prey on other vampires."
"You'll write a full report for me?"
"Of course. But I want to tell you what happened first. Mind if we come by?"
"Sure, not a problem. But would you mind coming here to the hospital? We can go the cafeteria and get something to eat, maybe. I just... I don't want to leave the hospital."
"I understand. We'll see you in awhile."
Burgess slipped his phone into his pocket. He stood and went to Denise's bedside.
She was sleeping.
He wanted her to be well, to recover. He also wanted to hear her say that she forgave him for getting them involved with vampires. He wanted to tell her he'd spend less time writing, and more time with her. He'd just write his books a little slower. What was the rush, anyway? He already had more money than he could possibly use for the rest of his life.
Burgess reached down and took her right hand in both of his. He stroked the backs of her fingers with his thumbs.
"Please get better soon," he whispered. "And please forgive me."
Davey drove Keoph and Karen back to Karen's Lexus at his house in Topanga Canyon.
"Thanks again, Davey," Keoph said as they stood in Davey's driveway. "And again, I'm so sorry about Casey."
"I know," Davey said. "Thank you."
"I want to thank you, too, Davey," Karen said. "You have no idea what you saved me from."
"I have some idea," he said. "I'm ... glad I could do it." There was an emotional thickness to Davey's voice, and he did not make eye contact with them.
They said their good-byes, then Keoph and Karen got into the Lexus, with Keoph at the wheel. He started the engine and headed back down the driveway to the gate.
"Can you take me to my place so I can put some clothes on?" Karen said.