Exsanguination

  “We’re not leaving without you,” his mother responded with finality.

  He looked at Vanessa with raised eyebrows.

  “What? Put them up here? Out of the question! If there’s another attack and they’re killed, how are you going to deal with that?”

  John spoke up, his face grim. “I can handle a gun.”

  Mildred looked at him in shock. “You are not going to go around shooting people, John!”

  “You have my respect for that, John,” Vanessa smiled slightly, ignoring Mildred’s reproach, “but it takes a lot more than just shooting a gun.”

  “I’ll do anything to protect my children, Vanessa.”

  She nodded. “I understand, but you’re fragile, John. One backhanded swipe from a lycan and your back is broken and chest caved in. You’re dead.”

  “And you would fare better?”

  “With the exception of Phillip or Owen, any of us would be virtually unharmed.”

  John got a determined look on his face. “If that’s what it takes, then make me like you.”

  “John!” Mildred fairly screamed.

  Vanessa gave him a hard look. “If I do, it will ruin your marriage,” she turned to his wife. “Would you be willing to give up your throat to your husband every night to feed him?”

  “What! All of you are insane!”

  She looked back at John. “I’m sure that, in one of the clubs we frequent, we could find a nubile young thing eager to give up her blood. Would that work for you?”

  He sighed and shook his head.

  “Then let’s hear no more on the matter. The two of you can stay here for a little while but, ultimately, you’ll have to return to America.”

  “Thank you,” he responded quietly.

  Antoine walked through the front doors and into the drawing room, with his acolytes in tow. He walked directly up to Vanessa.

  “You made it messy outside.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” she smiled.

  He leaned into her and whispered. “Horace . . . the one with the headband. Besides giving the thermometers to the women in the club, he slipped a note to the police about them. I have his full confidence now and know that he wishes war with the humans.”

  “Thank you, Antoine,” she leaned down to John and Mildred. “We have a traitor in our midst and I am about to deal with him. You won’t want to watch this.”

  She walked to the other vampires and her left hand shot out, grabbing Horace by the throat. As she lifted him off the ground, he grabbed her wrists to try to pull them away but she had far greater strength due to her age.

  “You would foment war with the humans?” Vanessa carried him to a wall and slammed him into it. His eyes bulged and his mouth worked as if to speak, but the constriction of his throat was too great.

  John and Mildred were unable to turn away from the sight and joined everyone else in watching. Vanessa pulled her right arm back to her side and flattened her hand, palm up. She drove it forward with all of her strength. It penetrated clothing and flesh. Reaching upward, inside his rib cage, she grabbed his heart and ripped backwards. Blood gushed everywhere and she let go of Horace’s throat. He slid to the floor. Walking back toward the hearth, she dropped the organ in a wastebasket next to a desk as if it was some discarded piece of paper. She tugged at the bell pull next to the fireplace. Mildred was throwing up.

  “Robert, I need several moist towels,” she said to the butler as he entered. The man nodded and left, returning several minutes later.

  Vanessa held a towel out to Mildred who took it with a horrified look on her face. While she pressed the towel to her face and Robert cleaned the floor, Vanessa used a towel to wipe the blood from her hand and arm.

  “For those of you who don’t know, Horace was attempting to start a war between us and the humans. His fate was well deserved.”

  There were nods and sounds of agreement. Jack entered the house and, in the drawing room, glanced at the dead vampire. He looked up to the heavens, rolled his eyes, and shook his head.

  “Jack!” Vanessa smiled at him and gestured to the body. “An internal matter. Nothing that needs concern you.”

  The detective nodded.

  “I’m glad you came in. I want to make sure I give you instructions on dealing with the unchanged lycan.”

  Jack didn’t stand on ceremony, pouring himself a scotch.

  “If I’m around here much longer, I’ll be an alcoholic.”

  Vanessa chuckled and then gave him a serious look. “Whatever you have planned for him, do not remove any of the silver bullets from his body. If you do, you’ll have more than you can handle as he’ll heal almost immediately and be at full strength in no time. Since it’s more than likely that your dimwitted Commissioner is going to take charge of this, I would suggest you call him. Rouse him out of bed and give him those instructions and tell him he can expect me to be in his office tomorrow afternoon. I know you can’t do anything about him but you may be sure that I’m going to give him one hell of a dressing down.”

  “Oh, to be a fly on the wall,” he sighed as he sipped at the whiskey.

  Mildred jumped to her feet, shaking. “Are you a police officer?”

  “Detective Chief Inspector, mum,” he looked at her, the tiredness showing in his eyes.

  “Arrest that woman!” she waved her hand at Vanessa. “She just killed that man!”

  Jack leaned toward Vanessa. “Again . . . this is . . .?”

  “Phillip’s and Nikki’s mother. Completely clueless.”

  Mildred heard the slur. “I am not clueless! I saw the whole thing! She ripped out his heart!”

  Jack glanced at her. “I’m sure she had good cause, mum.”

  “What!” Mildred shrieked.

  John took hold of her and pulled her aside to try to calm her.

  “You’re welcome to stay for another drink, Jack, if you’d like.”

  He shook his head. “I’d better get going. I’m about to be chewed out by my Commissioner for waking him up from a sound sleep.”

  Vanessa nodded. “I’m sorry about your men, Jack.”

  He winced, took his mobile from his pocket and made his way to the door.

  “Phil,” said John, “I think we’ll get a hotel room if you don’t mind.”

  “I’ll drive you,” Nikki piped up. Anything to get her mother out of the house, she thought.

  “I’ll come with,” Owen volunteered and she planted a kiss on his cheek.

  XXI

  The following afternoon, the group were having their first meal of the day at the dining room table.

  “We should hit the clubs tonight,” Nikki gave Vanessa a look. “We need to get out of here and Joe needs to feed.”

  “I know. Phillip and I will come along with you.”

  “We were already in bed by the time you made it back in from the hotel,” said Phillip. “How did you manage with mom and dad?”

  “Dad was pretty much okay but mom was losing it. She kept crying and saying we needed to go back to New York. I made it plain that it wasn’t going to happen. We finally got her calmed down some and into bed. Had a chat with dad and it turns out, were it not for mom, he would have gladly joined our ranks.”

  Vanessa smiled and nodded. “He’s a good man – your father.”

  “Mmm . . .” Nikki mused as she looked at her, “mom, however, thinks you’re a monster from hell.”

  “I gathered as much,” Vanessa chuckled. “Poor Jack, almost stuck in the middle.”

  Phillip went along with Vanessa to at the West End Central Police Station. As they entered, they had to divest themselves of any metal objects to get through the detector. Off came Vanessa’s rings and Phillip’s sigil. Once through, Vanessa cornered a constable.

  “Where would I find the Commissioner’s office?”

  Following the directions up to the second floor, Vanessa discovered a door with a sign on it indicating they were in the right place. She opened the door and entered, Phillip righ
t behind her. As they passed the secretary, she got up.

  “You can’t go in there. He’s busy.”

  “He will be,” she brushed past the woman and into the office.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” the man blustered as he got to his feet.

  “You ignorant idiot!” Vanessa hissed as she planted her fists on his desk. “You sent fifteen men to their deaths after you were told they couldn’t stand against the lycans. You were told they’d be ripped to shreds and you sent them anyway.”

  “You can’t talk to me that way!” he seemed outraged.

  She grabbed the edge of the large oaken desk and yanked, sending it through the air to smash into the wall.

  “Sit your ass down in that chair, you old fool. You’re going to listen to what I have to say.”

  His face a mask of fear, the Commissioner slowly sat down.

  “You have a short memory. Let me refresh it for you. You agreed that our community would police its own and your people would keep their noses out of our business,” she paused. “Then you send a team out to spy on my home, knowing there could be danger from the lycans. That was not only disingenuous but stupid as well.”

  Phillip’s head perked up and he grabbed Vanessa’s arm. She looked at him questioningly.

  “Gunfire. You hear it?”

  Her head snapped back to the sitting man.

  “Where do you have the lycan?”

  The commissioner looked rattled. “In the morgue, under armed guard. It’s in the basement.”

  “Wait here, Phillip.”

  “Wha . . .?”

  “Stay!” she responded sharply.

  Vanessa zipped down the hallway to the stair and then jumped down them until she reached the basement. Armed men were outside the door to the morgue. It was locked and they were slamming shoulders into it in an attempt to break the lock. She shoved them out of the way.

  “Move!”

  They staggered back and she raised her leg, slamming the flat of her foot into the door. The steel screamed as the door ripped out part of the frame. She saw it on the other side of the room, holding up an officer by his throat. She stopped thinking. It was like something took over – some sort of instinct. As she opened her jaws wide, long teeth emerged from both top and bottom. She roared.

  The lycan dropped the man and turned to face her, roaring back. Vanessa rushed him and the lycan grabbed her jacket, hurling her against the adjacent wall. Pain ran through her and she found herself becoming furious. She went directly for the lycan’s throat. Her teeth sank in deeply and she yanked his head back, pulling most of the creature’s throat with it. Blood gushed violently from its neck. Snapping her head to the side, Vanessa sent the meat and fur through the air and went back in. The lycan collapsed, bleeding out.

  After a few seconds, her teeth retracted and she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She turned to see multiple men with their guns trained on her.

  “I’m on your side,” she said calmly and then gestured to the man on the floor that the lycan was about to kill. “You’d better get him some medical attention.”

  The armed men watched, wide-eyed, as the lycan slowly resumed human form.

  Vanessa nodded. “That’s right. In their human form, you’d never know,” she looked at them meaningfully. “The man standing next to you could be one and you wouldn’t be able to tell.”

  As she was about to leave the room, she glanced at an examination table and stopped. Walking to it, she scooped up three silver bullets.

  Making her way upstairs, covered in blood, she entered the commissioner’s office. Vanessa looked at him and took a handkerchief from the pocket of her smartly tailored pantsuit. She wiped her mouth.

  “You’ll never guess what I found on an exam table down there,” Vanessa stared at the commissioner and dropped the bullets on his desk. They clattered and rolled around, coming to rest against an ashtray.

  “You were warned against removing the bullets and you either chose to ignore that warning or, to see what might happen, gave instructions for some poor soul to do so,” she turned to Phillip.

  “Three dead and one bitten.”

  “The blood of three more men on your hands,” she glared at the man in the chair and he slumped.

  “Oh, that’s not the worst of it, commissioner. The man who was bitten? He’ll become a lycan. It’s transmitted through saliva.”

  He looked up, alarmed.

  Vanessa canted her head. “You need to kill him. Decapitation works best. In any case, you caused the mess; you can clean it up.”

  She turned to Phillip. “Let’s leave, my love.”

  The commissioner picked up his phone and dialled the morgue.

  “I want a D.N.A. analysis on . . .”

  As Vanessa and Phillip pulled out of the parking lot in the Escalade, he glanced at her.

  “So, tell me. How did it play out?”

  She related the events that occurred in the basement.

  The entire group was sitting in the drawing room and Nikki voiced a question.

  “So, how did it go with the commissioner?”

  “I’ll tell you after I’ve cleaned up,” Vanessa responded and headed for the stairs. Ten minutes later she returned to the drawing room and looked at Nikki.

  “To your question. The man is self-centred, opinionated, and stubborn. He simply ignored all of the warnings he received and is, likely, going to continue to do so.

  “Joe needs to feed,” Nikki responded, “and I think it’s safe to say that the lycans won’t be attacking in any sort of numbers again, at least for a while.”

  “Hit a club?” Owen grinned. “I’m ready.”

  An hour later the five were in the Escalade, headed for The Broken Fang. They found, upon arrival, that they had become celebrities.

  Vanessa got up to move to the dance floor with Phillip. As she did so, her glass was picked up by another patron and slid into a ziplock bag.

  XXII

  The following day, John and Mildred came to the house in the late afternoon. Mildred, again, tried to persuade Phillip and Nikki to return to America with them. John realized that his wife was beating a dead horse and said nothing.

  At about eight in the evening, Vanessa got a call on her mobile from D.I. Fuller. After speaking for about five minutes, she ended the call.

  “Well, there’s been an attack in the tube. One lycan but three dead humans. There’s really not much we can do. From the train, it could have gone almost anywhere. We could explore the tunnels and look for unused stations and rooms as it’s possible one or more may be camping out underground. I’ll have Jack get us some maps and blueprints.”

  “Christ!” Phillip responded. “I can’t imagine how loud guns would be in a train station or tunnel.”

  Vanessa frowned. “And, if I was to guess, none of you are proficient with edged weapons.”

  They all shook their heads, almost in unison.

  “Not something they taught in college, I’m afraid,” Phillip offered as he winced.

  “Then you four remain here. I’ll go.”

  “The hell you say! No way are you going alone!”

  “I’m going as well,” Nikki said. “Screw it. I’ll use my guns if I have to. Suppressed, they won’t be as loud as the M4s.

  John spoke up. “I saw pictures of one of those things in the paper today. You’re going to try to fight them?”

  Vanessa turned to him. “The pictures you saw? I killed one this morning without weapons – ripped its throat out.”

  Looking at his father, Phillip could see the sadness in his face.

  “Dad, if you can wrangle mom into a buy-in on this, I’m reasonably sure that Vanessa would be willing to turn you.”

  “She’d never go for it,” he responded flatly.

  “Didn’t she see the video of the interview? Susan’s reaction to being fed on?”

  “She turned it off when that was about to happen. Said she couldn’t stand watching it.”

&nbs
p; “When we go upstairs to the morning room, I’ll cue it up,” he raised his eyebrows. “That is if you’re serious about it.”

  John nodded. “I am. What father wouldn’t wish to help protect his children?”

  Vanessa looked at him. “You’re a good man, John,” she put her hand on the man’s shoulder. “Now I know where Phillip gets it.”

  When they returned upstairs, Phillip cued up the video to where Vanessa was moving toward Susan.

  “Mom, I want you to watch this for five or ten minutes. It’s important.”

  Mildred curled her lip in disgust as Vanessa sank her fangs into Susan’s throat. Then, seeing the woman’s reaction, her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. While she was thus occupied, Phillip motioned to the others that they should move to the drawing room, leaving his parents alone. Vanessa frowned as they gathered in front of the hearth.

  “Phillip, what, specifically, is DNA?”

  “Odd question. It makes us what we are. It’s our genetic code. Why?”

  “Something Jack said on the phone. They apparently are going to analyse DNA from the lycan and what I may have left behind from where I bit him.”

  He frowned. “I’ve no idea what they’re going to come up with from that.”

  “And apparently they’ve lifted the stuff from the glass I was using last night.”

  “It’s not something I’d be inclined to worry about. Just a hunch but I think they’ll be puzzling over that stuff for decades. My instinct is that becoming a vampire may change one’s genetic code.”

  Vanessa’s mobile beeped and she answered the call. After a few moments, she made a sour face.

  “Okay, thanks, Jack.”

  Looking around at the group, she sighed. “Everyone may as well relax, it’s going to take a couple of days for Jack to get the blueprints and maps we’ll need. If we go in without them, we’ll just be wandering around aimlessly. There would be no point to it.”

  Everyone disarmed and sat down. After several minutes, John approached. Mildred walked behind him biting down on the knuckles of her left hand.

  He took a deep breath. “Ok, how do we do this?”

  Vanessa’s left eyebrow curved upward. “You’re sure?”