“I know it’s crazy,” he said sympathetically. “Remember how you asked me about Dracula, a famous president of Vampire World?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know that in your world, a famous writer once wrote a novel about a vampire named Dracula?”
Wow! So it appeared that interplanetary travel had been going on for quite some time.
While uncomfortably digesting all of this, I certainly felt different. And scared. Scared that I might not make it to the portal. And if I did, that I may have to face the ultimate horror of not being able to get close to my family because of being a vampire.
All the X-Fangers gathered around Mr. Stake as he revealed his plans. I recognized a few more faces, like Senator BloodHunt, who now had the “X” visible on his forehead. What a liar. He knew about the portal all along. But I didn’t hold grudges.
Clutching a stake in his left hand, Mr. Stake warned that it was not going to be easy. First of all we would make our way through an underground tunnel that led into the basement of the Capitol building. Once there, we’d enter a room that was protected by a security combination created by TriFang. Inside this room was a local teleporter that we would use to take us further on to the main, interplanetary teleporter we'd be destroying. I dearly hoped I would be able to complete my jump though this machine before it was torn apart.
“Our job will be dangerous,” Mr. Stake warned. “The portal room will be heavily guarded. Blood will flow. But we are the only ones who can defend our world against the injustices of TriFang. Do not doubt that what we’re undertaking is a noble deed; there is a very real risk some of us may not survive. However, any who fall will be rewarded no matter what, because success in this mission means that all of our children will be able to live in a safe and just world where TriFang no longer exists.”
It was obvious that TriFang had shamefully corrupted the government. But not everyone was involved. While peering at the brave, warrior-like senators and government officials in the crowd, I knew there were still some vampires in high office who cared about our marvelous country and the noble ideas it represented.
The group was fully motivated thanks to Mr. Stake's words. But I recalled what Mr. FreeCut had said about multiple portals existing and wondered how the team might react if they knew Mr. Stake was telling a lie. Or at least, not giving them the whole truth. Yet we all told lies. We were all guilty.
I spotted a sorrowful looking Brett at the back of the group. Holding a machete, he seemed disengaged, and I was the one to blame for that. I'd crushed his dreams. But I made my mind up. Just like with Mr. FreeCut, I was gonna give him another shot. But first, I had to know if he really loved me. I wanted him to go with me to Earth and be my protector. Would he have the balls to leave his homeland? If he didn't, then I’d know that his love was never true. I’d try not to think I ever gave a damn, even though I certainly would.
I approached him, captivated by his beauty and grace, even though he'd lied to me. Well, sorta lied. I literally pushed him into the adjoining room, not taking my eyes off his gorgeous face. He looked stone-cold petrified.
I gave him the test and told him everything about my desire to go home, and how I planned to do this. I also spelled out that it would be risky, but so damn worth it.
“But I don’t want you to get hurt,” he responded.
“If I don’t go, I’ll always be hurt,” I said.
He hugged me. I didn’t back away. “Okay,” he said. “For you Janice, I’ll do anything. Just as long as you’re willing to stay with me.”
I kissed him hard, now fully aware of the truth. Honestly, I’d never felt so good in my life.
“I love you,” he said.
We made ready for our departure. Along with everyone else, Brett and I collected more weapons from a large cache in the basement of the house. I fastened extra stakes to my belt. I also put on extra belts that allowed me to carry garlic and holy water bottles, blades and Bloodstop ointment. To complete matters, I found a harness that enabled me to carry my stake gun across my back.
After everyone was fully kitted, we went outside to where an armada of black SUVs were lined up on the street. I followed Brett and Mr. FreeCut into one of these.
We were all a bit edgy, especially after Mr. Stake's grim warning about the dangers involved. Whatever happened, I was sure it was not going to be pretty. The crazy thing was, while everyone else would be attempting to destroy the portal, I’d be trying to get home. I so hoped I could make it through with Brett and Mr. FreeCut by my side.
The Capitol building was sky-rocketing in the distance. I felt both sadness and shock that this was one of the places that TriFang used to transport human blood from a different world.
We came to an abandoned building and crowded inside. There was a trapdoor concealed under a black rug. “This is the tunnel that will lead to the Capitol building basement,” Mr. Stake told everyone. “Proceed with caution.”
I found myself in a dank tunnel with putrid green liquid sloshing around our feet. But at least this time I was not alone. I gripped Brett’s hand and made sure Mr. FreeCut was close by. Other amiable X-Fangers also watched over me. On one occasion I tripped on a pipe hidden beneath the goo and several hands instantly reached out for me to prevent my fall.
After some time, we came to a solid wall barring our way, with only a small hole near the bottom offering the chance of further progress.
“Behind this wall is a passageway leading to the basement of the Capitol,” Mr. Stake whispered. “This is a restricted area guarded by TriFang. Everyone must be very quiet as we make our way to the teleporter.”
We crawled like mice in single file through a tiny but thankfully quite short tubular passageway until reaching the basement. Similar to the tunnel, it was dark and forbidding, with suffocating walls that created a baffling maze. We loyally followed Mr. Stake through this maze. After numerous twists and turns, we eventually came to a door. Mr. Stake immediately set to work on the combination lock next to it.
He unlocked it without a problem, then looked at us all.
“Behind this door is the device that will transport us to the main interplanetary teleporter. Everyone must jump through this. Remember, we will be transporting to a very dangerous place, so be prepared to defend yourselves at all times. However, do not fire at the device we need to destroy until I tell you to.”
We entered the room and saw a small machine with a circular force field making a buzzing noise. Tons of wires were connected to it. Everyone anxiously crowded around.
“This is it,” Mr. Stake said. “I’ll be the first to go. Good luck everyone.”
He took the initial leap of courage. Almost immediately his body disappeared into the bluish colored force field. Others jumped in after him, including Mr. FreeCut. Then it was my turn.
“I’ll go first,” Brett said.
“No,” I responded, politely brushing him aside.
As I stepped inside the machine, it felt like my body was being sucked into an enormous vacuum. For a few moments the world twirled madly around me. Then everything came into focus again. I was in a very large room. I looked up and gawked at a machine similar in appearance to the one I'd just jumped though, though massively bigger.
I remained fixated on this technological marvel that was to be my vehicle home. It was so huge, a second story had been built to accommodate it all. But it was also about to become a target, which made me want to run up the ladder and jump into the world I was meant to be in.
As the remaining X-Fangers astonishingly materialized out of thin air after transporting, I found Mr. FreeCut and Brett.
“What do we do next?” I whispered to Mr. FreeCut.
Before he could answer, Mr. Stake spoke. “Those responsible for cutting the wires, begin now. And those assigned to destroy the main computer, proceed to the back.”
Just as I was about to scream for them to wait, a series of rapid flashes indicated a new bunch of teleporting arrivals. At first
I thought it was some late arriving X-Fangers. But I was wrong. It was armed members of TriFang, around ten of them, who had caught on to our breach of their security. Another succession of flashes occurred, these delivering even more TriFangers on the second floor above the machine.
This was looking like serious trouble.
ATTACK
There was a whizzing noise, followed by a scream. I saw a flying stake thud into the heart of one of our very own.
“Defend yourselves in the name of X-Fang!” shouted Mr. Stake.
In no time at all, a vicious, close quarter battle was underway.
Knowing this was my only chance of getting home, I grabbed a stake in one hand and a long blade in the other. Swinging away, I thrust my blade deep into the left side of one attacker. Blood gushed from the wound. While he was still in a state of shock over this, I rammed a stake into his heart. He died quickly.
But this offered no respite. Another TriFang member slammed into me and threw me onto the floor. With his heavyweight body holding me down, he seized a large stake and aimed a thrust at my heart. Absolutely helpless, I squeezed my eyes tight shut. But miraculously, the strike never arrived. I quickly realized why after daring to look again. His severed arm lay on the floor in a pool of dark blood. Mr. FreeCut was stood over him holding a curved blade.
“Are you okay, Janice?” he asked, helping me up. I nodded, but had no time to thank him as the brutal fight roared on all around. TriFang gunners on the second floor were shooting their stakes down at us. One of these only missed my arm by a fraction before stabbing into the wall behind me.
“I need some people to help me take out those gunners on the top!” screamed Mr. Stake.
I followed his lead by aiming at one of the shooters and hitting him in the left thigh with a stake. He fell from the platform and onto the floor, badly injured. Then I shot another TriFang member right in the heart. Yes! Practice truly does equal perfection.
Just as I was about to load a bottle of holy water into the gun and fling that at the shooters, I spotted Brett locked in a vigorous blade fight with a lanky, tattoo-covered vampire.
My boyfriend was bleeding from the forehead. Moving rapidly over, I thrust a fistful of grains into his attacker’s eyes, causing the creep to go temporarily blind. But even blinded he still managed to swing violently at Brett’s neck. Luckily, he missed. A moment later, Brett and I both finished him off with simultaneous stake stabs to the chest.
“Are you managing okay? I asked, eyeing the nasty gash on his head.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. “It’s not deep.”
“Where is Mr. FreeCut?” I was worried to death about him.
“I don’t know,” Brett said.
I searched for my caretaker in the middle of the bloody mess. Bodies were everywhere. Some vamps were still clinging to life, with blood draining from stake wounds and deep cuts. I hoped that most of the dead were TriFang and not X-Fangers, though I didn't have time to check properly.
Then I spotted Mr. FreeCut. He was fighting tough against two armed brutes. I rushed over to help him, but he’d already nailed one in the heart with a stake and drenched the face of the other with a fresh bottle of holy water.
Before I had a chance to say anything to my caretaker, four members of TriFang charged at us, knocking over both Brett and Mr. FreeCut. I held my ground and fired a stake right into the heart of one of them. Then I felt an icy chill of blood running down my back as a swinging blade sliced into me. I didn’t know how deep or bad the cut was, but that wasn't important right now. The two vile vamps who'd pile-driven Brett into the floor now had their knives raised to strike. I fired my gun, killing the first one. But my hand trembled with anxiety for my boyfriend, causing me to miss with my second shot.
I watched horrified as the knife flashed toward Brett’s throat. But just when I thought it was all over, Mr. Stake appeared in the nick of time to plunge a stake right through the heart of Brett’s foe from behind. His victim keeled over in a pool of blood. Then his body turned to dust.
Brett stood up, shaken but otherwise unhurt.
“ Keep it up X-Fangers,” yelled Mr. Stake. “We’re winning!”
I started to feel weak as more blood trickled down my back. I wanted to forget about the throbbing wound, hoping it would go away. But it didn’t. Then Brett noticed it for the first time and quickly began applying some Bloodstop ointment.
“How is it feeling now?” he asked after a short while.
I told him I was fine, just as another TriFang member came charging at us. Brett fought fiercely and protected me the best he could, but his blade was much smaller than the one his attacker was armed with.
Despite still feeling rather weak, I couldn’t let the wound affect my chances of getting home. Taking a razor-edged blade from my belt, I swung fiercely at the neck of the asshole attacking my boyfriend. With one smooth slice I took his head off. Damn! What a good shot!
At last the effects of the Bloodstop ointment were beginning to kick in. With a burst of energy, I loaded my gun with bottles of garlic and holy water and fired them at the last TriFang gunner standing on the platform. It was a direct hit. First he lost his skin, then his blood. His remains were engulfed in garlic.
My energy levels remained high as the battle continued. With holy water, garlic, stakes and knives all flying back and forth at full fury, fighters continued to fall. Thankfully, it was mostly TriFang members who were going down. I made three more kills and didn’t give a damn about my wound any longer.
Eventually, the bravery and determined fighting of X-Fang paid off. The battle ended with all of the TriFang attackers either dead or injured.
Mr. Stake and several others checked on casualties. After identifying their bodies, it turned out we had lost five valiant members. Many of our injured lay on the floor with stakes jabbing out of blood-soiled limbs. I hated to see such suffering, but Mr. Stake assured us they would be okay.
“Do not remove the stakes,” he instructed us. “This will cause too much loss of blood. Instead, apply Bloodstop ointment around the wounds and help them to drink the emergency canisters of blood.”
This brought me back to my fall in Slice Canyon. It was not about the broken bones or cuts. It all came down to the loss of blood.
Uninjured X-Fangers passed out the Bloodstop ointment and reserve blood. They checked the cut on my back and reapplied the ointment. Though the wound was quite deep, it was already healing. After a short while, with Brett’s soothing warm and cold hands helping me to stand up and fresh energy flowing through my body thanks to the new blood I'd been given, I set about helping our other injured the best I could.
Once everyone's injuries were attended to, I glanced up again at the massive teleporter. It had survived the battle without a scratch. For a while I had been so engrossed, I'd forgotten that this huge machine was to be my ticket home.
Even as this thought formed, Mr. Stake yelled an order. “Now, let’s destroy the portal.”
I panicked and lost control. “NO! Stop!” I screamed.
Mr. Stake, who was bruised from the battle, looked at me like I was nuts. “We have to destroy it. You, of all vampires, should be the one who most wants to protect your world.”
“I want to go home,” I shouted. “I deserve to go home. It’s MY HOME!”
“But you can’t,” Mr. Stake shouted back. “You’re a vampire now! You can’t go back to Earth. You’ll be a danger there.”
“But you don’t know that for certain,” Mr. FreeCut said, stepping in.
Mr. Stake was stunned.
“She deserves a shot,” Mr. FreeCut continued. “Let her go home. I will go with her to make sure she doesn’t harm herself or others. She is willing to protect those on Earth from TriFang, so I will act as her assistant and protector. Anyone else who wants to help out is welcome.”
Mr. Stake glared at him. “Have you gone mad?”
Brett stepped in. “No, he hasn’t. In fact, I think the only person
around here who is going mad is you. I’ll be jumping through with them because I’m crazy in love with Janice.”
He was wonderful when I needed him to be, especially at a gut-wrenching time like this.
“It’s the wrong decision,” Mr. Stake hammered.
“No, it’s the right one,” I told him. “You and the rest of X-Fang should join us in protecting humans from vampire attacks. You know damn well that destroying this one portal will not prevent TriFang from getting to Earth.”
“Well, we have to do something,” he insisted. “Why not destroy this thing now and at least disrupt them?”
“It will not stop them,” Mr. FreeCut said.
Mr. Stake was about to respond to this when several bright flashes told us that more vampires were transporting into the room. Unfortunately, as before, they were not on our side. Far from it. As the figures materialized I found myself gazing into the despicable face of none other than Rob. He was accompanied by five heavily armed vampires.
“So, you have human blood,” Rob said to me. “Well, you know how much I enjoy drinking that, bloodbitch. I'm going to love drinking you.”
“How did you know?” I demanded. “Were you spying on me?”
I gawked at his fiery hair and awful tats, also the unmistakable TriFang symbol on his forehead. Wearing golden gloves, he was armed with a blade bigger than my body, while his friends were equipped with stake guns and garlic clusters.
“That's not important,” Rob told me. “All that matters is, I want your blood.”
He was obviously still furious that I'd beaten his ass fair and square in the fireball tournament, even when he was unfairly high on human blood.
“I also know where you want to go,” he added. Grinning evilly, he pulled a small clicker gadget from his pocket and pressed one of the buttons on this. The huge transporter abruptly shut down. The neon-blue force field in the center flickered and then faded away completely, leaving a deathly silence.
Briefly, I was too stunned to say anything. Then I screamed out: “What have you done?”
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