Vengeance of the Demons

by Rebekah R. Ganiere

  William turned the soft leather over in his hands and then pulled on the drawstring. A small, warm vial rolled into William’s palm.

  “It’s my blood,” said Mason. “Doc drew it for me downstairs. It’s in case… In case you get in trouble. If you need a boost, that should get you through.”

  William had witnessed firsthand the effect Mason’s blood could have on a Vampire. It was strengthening at best and enraging at worst.

  “Thank you.” William put the vial back into the pouch and shoved it in the pocket of his leather jacket.

  The back door opened and Evan walked in. She spotted William and continued forward.

  Mason laid his warm hand on William’s shoulder. “I meant what I said. If you’re in any trouble, you tell us, and I’ll come at once.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mason’s amber eyes searched William’s face for a moment. “You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a little brother. I would hate to lose you.”

  William gave him a tight smile. “And I you.”

  Evan approached and Mason dropped his hand and stepped away. Her face was a mask of anger. She’d put on the black pants and white shirt of a slave that he’d given her.

  “Well,” she said. “Are we leaving or not?”

  William opened the door and motioned toward the car. “After you.”

  * * * *

  Evan tilted her chin higher and refused to let the fear show. They may control where she went, but they didn’t control her. She strode out to the awaiting sedan. Her dress slacks were the nicest thing she’d worn in a while, but the uniform of a slave wasn’t something she appreciated.

  She stepped to the passenger side.

  “You don’t have to open my door. It’s not like we’re on a date.” She slid in, being sure to keep her eyes forward the entire time.

  She swallowed when he shut her door and then got in the driver’s side. He started the car and glanced over.

  “Put on your seatbelt, please.”

  “Why? Afraid of hurting someone else’s merchandise?”

  “Suit yourself.”

  The car rolled forward, and she silently snapped her seatbelt on. William looked both directions as he pulled out onto the road. His wavy brown hair covered one eye, and he pushed it back.

  They drove past other expensive homes with every second of silence hanging between them like a solid wall.

  Evan wrapped herself in a hug and chewed her lip. The neighborhood flew by as they picked up speed and headed out to a less residential area.

  “So where am I going?” she finally asked.

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “It’s okay, you can tell me. I’m a big girl.”

  “No, really. I have no idea where you’re going. I think it’s to one of the European covens though. Maybe the Russian.”

  Her stomach lurched and her head lightened. “Europe?”

  “Lord Danika felt it would be a better fit for someone of your…high spirit.”

  This couldn’t be happening. She’d never heard of anyone coming back to the US once they were sold over there. No one knew what it was like, but rumor was that outside the US, Vampires were not kind to slaves of any sort.

  She couldn’t go there. She needed to get back to her enclave. To her family.

  “Okay. So, say I was willing to help you,” she said. “Take you to my enclave.”

  William glanced at her but then shook his head. “I’m sorry but it’s too late. Lord Danika has made these arrangements for you.”

  “Please don’t do this.” She hated the weak, breathy sound of her own voice.

  “I’m sorry.”

  The pleading words that clung to the roof of her mouth stuck there with her pride. She wouldn’t beg.

  “William.”

  He turned on the radio and concentrated on the road. Evan turned to stare out the window. Tears welled in her eyes, and she breathed slowly through her mouth to hide her shame.

  This was the price she paid for trying to fulfill her mission. She’d betrayed her people once before. She refused to do it again, whatever happened to her.

  * * * *

  William pulled the car onto the tarmac of the airport and parked several yards from a small personal jet. A silver ramp descended to the ground, flanked by two guards. Wherever she was going awaited her on the other side of the open door.

  William parked the car but left it running and stepped out. “Come on,” he said.

  Evan’s heart pounded with the slam of his door. He walked to the guards and shook hands with them. She couldn’t let this happen.

  William spotted her in the car and walked back. As his hand touched the handle, she locked the car. A confused expression crossed his features as he tried the handle.

  “Very funny, Evan. Open up.”

  This was it. Her chance. It was possible they’d drag her back, but what if they didn’t? William rapped on the window with his knuckles.

  “Open the door.”

  She stared at him, unable to move, and his expression hardened. His knock was sharp and his tone angered. “Open it now.”

  Evan slid into the driver’s side, and William slammed his hand on the roof and swore.

  She’d never driven a car before. She scanned the buttons and knobs and looked to the stick on the dashboard. She pressed a pedal with her foot and the engine roared, matching the smash of William’s hand onto the glass of the driver’s side window.

  Evan’s head whipped to his. He yelled at her through the closed window, but she couldn’t hear the words over the pumping of blood in her ears.

  The two guards jogged forward and William spoke to them.

  It was now or never. She pressed her foot onto the pedal that wasn’t the gas and moved the stick to the letter D like she’d seen her cousin Peter do a million times when they’d driven. Slowly she released the brake and put her other foot on the gas, and the car lurched forward with William hanging on.

  One of the guards punched the glass of the window, and she screamed. Slamming her foot on the pedal, she sped forward and the car squealed to life. She checked her rearview mirror. William and the guards chased after her. One of the guards pulled a gun from his coat and shot at her. She turned her eyes on the road just in time to spin the car around and avoid hitting the airport hangar. She smiled at her ability and punched the gas.

  She took off again as more gunshots rang out. Heart pounding and adrenaline pumping, she smiled as she flew out onto the highway and down the road.

  She drove for several miles laughing until everything caught up with her and her laughing turned to crying. She’d done it. This time she’d really done it. She was free.

  She sucked in a deep breath and wiped her eyes. She was going home.

  Chapter 4

  “She took the bait,” said William.

  “Good,” replied Roth. “The SUV is in the hangar. Tell the other two to close up my plane and get back here.”

  “Will do. How’s Neeman?”

  “He’ll live.”

  William walked toward the airplane hangar that Evan had barely missed running into.

  “You call in six hours,” said Roth.

  “Talk to you then.”

  There was a click and William continued to the building. The two trackers waited outside. “Roth said to close up his plane and get back to the coven house.”

  They nodded and one tossed William a set of keys before heading back to the plane. William pressed the unlock button and the SUV beeped in the corner of the giant room. He jogged to it and hopped in. On the front seat was a laptop and in the back were bags upon bags of supplies.

  He flipped open the laptop and it booted up right to the GPS page. She was on the freeway over ten miles away already, heading south on I-294. But where was she going? That was the question.

  He put the SUV in gear and pulled it to the entrance of the hangar. The trackers had Roth’s plane lined up and ready to put away. William waved as he
passed them and drove out toward the freeway.

  * * * *

  Thirty minutes later Danika called to check on him. He’d barely made it out of Chicago. If she kept that up, it would be a very long trek. He loved her like a sister, but he’d had an overprotective mother before. It had gotten her killed.

  He kept his distance from Evan. Having her figure out he was following her would spoil everything.

  He turned on the radio and let the music flow through him as he drove down the darkened highway. There were no other cars on the road. Why would there be? Vamps didn’t travel between cities and Vampires had no reason to. Only slavers moved from city to city, but with Danika’s new edict freeing slaves, none of them would be this close to Chicago. He remembered what it was like before the outbreak. Cars everywhere. People moving from place to place. Trucks crowding the highways as they moved goods from one coast to the other. Now those things were kept to a minimum. The trucks still moved, but not as many.

  He tried to formulate a plan. What he would say to the humans. How he would get them on his side. The hardest part was going to be winning Evan over. She’d already told him no, and, after this little stunt, she was going to be mad as bees getting their honey stolen. He smiled thinking of her feistiness. It was probably the thing that had kept her alive and out of the breeding slave market for this long.

  Thinking of what it would be like to take her as his breeding slave and making love to her heated his blood. He could never do it. Force her to have sex with him. Only if she was willing. Which she wasn’t.

  * * * *

  Evan checked at her gas gauge. Damn. She only had a quarter tank left. It was ten miles from Bloomington, IL, but she hated getting gas while it was still dark out.

  Vampires would be everywhere. She had no idea if they’d put out an announcement or something looking for her. There really weren’t police anymore, only the Tracking Squad. And if they were following her they’d have to come from Chicago. If they were following her, she’d have maybe a thirty-minute head start. Not much time to waste. Not that they even knew where she’d gone. After taking off from the airport she could have gone any direction.

  She’d have to risk it. She wouldn’t be able to push the car all the way to where she was going. If she knew how to break into and steal a car, she would have done that instead. Unfortunately, her male family members had never thought to teach her that secret. Stupid, sexist lugheads. She smiled thinking she would see them soon.

  Evan pulled off at the exit and looked up and down the road before turning right. There weren’t any cars this far outside of Chicago. She rolled up to a gas station next to the highway. The store was dark and the sign broken so it only read Even Even.

  She pulled next to a pump, jumped out, and then opened the gas hatch on the car. Twisting the cap off, she glanced around There wasn’t another person in sight. The scent of burned rubber filled her nostrils and caused her head to throb as she removed the nozzle, and put it in the tank. The tires on the car looked okay, but she’d obviously given them a workout. She lifted the handle of the gas pump and nothing happened. Her heart sank.

  She jerked on it over and over and still nothing. She cursed and kicked the curb. A pain shot up her foot and she grabbed at it. Great.

  Letting out a huge breath, she hobbled over to the store and tried the door. It was locked. Scanning the ground, she found a fallen brick. She picked it up and threw it at the door. The glass cracked but held. Again she threw the brick and the cracked glass spider-webbed out. She took a step back and threw it one more time. The glass shattered and the brick clattered across the floor inside.

  She let out a whoop, high fived herself and ducked under the door handle. Inside was dusty and stuffy, but what did she care? She picked up two baskets and headed around the store pulling things off the shelves. No raiding parties came this close to Chicago. Everyone knew the more reckless you were, the more you were bound to be caught.

  Though most of the items had passed their expiration dates, she knew from experience that some things could be eaten for years afterward. She grabbed as many cans of food as she could manage, flipped on the pumps behind the counter, and carried everything out to the car. She ran back inside while the car filled with gas and grabbed every container of jerky, bottle of water, and candy bar she could find.

  The whole thing took less than ten minutes. If the Vampires were coming for her, she still had a twenty-minute head start. She glanced at the clock. Three hours till sun up. If she could make it till then, they’d have to stop to rest. She peeled out of the gas station and back onto the highway. Pulling a piece of beef jerky from its pack, she then stuck it in her mouth and sucked on it to soften it up. She just had to drive for three hours.

  * * * *

  William yawned as bright orange and purple strands blended into the horizon. It was almost dawn. Two hours into the trip, Evan had stopped for about ten minutes and he had as well to stretch his legs. He wasn’t used to being in a car for so long anymore. He hadn’t been on raids for supplies since he’d been captured a year ago.

  He needed somewhere to stop for the day. He checked his GPS and found an old Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park about thirty minutes outside St. Louis. Cutting it that close made him nervous, but he didn’t want to sleep in the SUV, and he didn’t want to get too far behind.

  By the time he pulled into the small deserted motel, William was shielding his eyes and the skin on his hands had blistered.

  William grabbed his bags and jumped from his vehicle. He kicked open the first faded brown door he came to and slammed it shut. Dropping the bags to the floor, he flopped onto the bed. Fatigued laced its way through his muscles and threaded into his bones. He lifted his hand and depressed the button locking his car.

  Light filtered through the large window. It took every ounce of his strength to trudge to it and pull the blackout curtain closed. His hands burned and sent shooting pains up his arms with every movement. He stumbled to the nightstand light and flipped it on, revealing a faded pink bedspread and two flat pillows. Stripping off his shirt, he sighed, and then shucked off his pants before heading to the bathroom. He turned the faucet but nothing happened. Damn. He banged on the sink and still nothing happened.

  Steadying himself on the sink, he cursed. Of course there was no water. There were few amenities in most parts of the country.

  William trudged out to the bed and pulled over the medical bag. He searched for some kind of burn gel before noticing that the blisters had already disappeared. He sighed in relief. Sometimes being a vampyr was awesome.

  * * * *

  William awoke to a pair of strong hands pinning him to the bed. He tried to react but his body was mostly still asleep.

  “Get his arms,” came a crackly voice.

  Panic scratched up his spine, and his mind snapped into action. He struggled against his assailants.

  “Damn, this one’s strong. Hurry up.” The man pinning him down leaned on William’s back hard. “Get the cuffs!”

  “I thought you had that stupid needle ready,” said the crackly voice.

  “Get the hell off me.” William struck out with his legs and connected with someone, sending them flying across the room. They collided with the wall and something heavy crashed to the floor.

  William bucked underneath his assailant and then turned his head and bit into flesh. The man cried out as William bit through skin and muscle; his incisors hit bone and latched on. The man let go of William’s arms, trying to pull his wrist free. Blood seeped into William’s mouth, and the bitter taste made William release. He spit and jumped from the bed, tripping over something and sending it spinning across the floor.

  The room was still dark, but he took in a deep breath and located the two vamps easily. They reeked of urine and sweat wafted off them as if they relished it. He headed for the injured one and was on him in a flash. The man swung wildly, but William caught the punch and spun him around to face the wall. He slammed the vamp’s head
into the crumbling plaster twice, and dropped him to the floor in a heap.

  The second attacked from behind and jumped on William’s back. William flipped the guy off. The air whooshed out of his lungs as the vamp hit the hard threadbare floor. A long, rubbery rope caught on William’s foot and he grabbed it, wrapped it around the vamp’s neck, and yanked it tight.

  “Stop, stop!” the vamp gasped.

  Anger rippled through William.

  “What the hell are you doing out here?” William demanded.

  “We’re scavengers. Just scavengers.”

  William squeezed the rubbery tube harder. “What do you want with my kind?”

  “We…we sell blood.” Air barely sucked in the man’s windpipe.

  William pulled the vamp’s face close. “What?”

  “Blood. Vampire blood. We sell it.”

  “To who?”

  “Vamps,” he croaked.

  A chill raced down his spine, and his throat slammed shut like a vault door. Vamps couldn’t drink human blood without it driving them crazy, but he’d never heard of vamps drinking Vampire blood.

  “Why? What does it do?” he demanded.

  “It makes us stronger. Makes us like you.”

  William smashed the vamp in the face again spraying black blood on the floor.

  Damn. Vamps becoming vampyr. That was a new one.

  Rancid vamp blood permeated the air of the room. The coughing and wheezing of the injured vamps pounded in his head. He punched the man in the face one final time, cracking his nose and knocking him out.

  He needed to inform Danika, but first he had to get on the road. He had a mission. He needed to follow Evan. The fact that there were vamps selling vampyr and Vampire blood wasn’t something he had the time to run down at the moment.

  William stood and shook his hand, flexing his fingers to make sure nothing was broken. He turned on the lamp and surveyed the room. The two ratty vamps lay crumpled on the floor. The rubber rope was actually a rubber tube with a needle on one end and a large glass jar on the other. His stomach soured as though he’d drunk bad blood at the thought of what could have happened.