by Domino Finn
I set both hands down on the island, closed my eyes, and concentrated. When I looked again, I was in the same place, only I wasn't. Every single shelf and floor detail was the same, except the door was gone. The lights, too, existed but didn't. They were only faint glows to mark their presence without illuminating much. It would've been too dark to see without my enhanced eyes. Instead of clothes and accessories on the shelves, rows of antiquities I'd reclaimed from Connor Hatch were on display.
This was my shadow room. Similar to the hidden shadow box I lugged my shotgun around in, but woven into the Intrinsics that surrounded my closet. This room was grounded here, inaccessible from anywhere else and, more importantly, by anyone else.
It was also a bit of a mystery. I'd never been able to manage anything this scale before. My shadow box was simple and, as such, could only afford to hide simply. My shotgun had been imbued with spellcraft to allow it access—I could stuff nothing else in the box, at least not without dedicating significant time to it.
The shadow room had taken two months and I was still working on fortifying it from prying eyes. It was a recent hobby. Some guys worked on cars, some built train sets—I studied and experimented and tinkered with making this the most secure room possible in hopes that even the Society wouldn't be able to breach it.
For now, at least, I was confident it would keep Fran out.
I strolled past my cache of items. A Taíno zemi, an amulet, a cracked mask. These were holy objects and spell tokens collected over the ages by a long-lived jinn with more power than Scarface. As far as I knew, they each fell short of being categorized as true artifacts. I wasn't sitting on a cache of super weapons or anything like that. These were still items I wasn't keen on allowing into the wrong hands. But first came security. Only after that would I properly catalog them.
I had mundane items as well, like the MP7 and other Agua Fuego weapons I'd "liberated." I set Manifesto's journal on an empty shelf, vowing to peruse it later, then blinked back to my actual closet. When I rejoined the others outside I stated my intentions.
"I'm going after the vampires who blew up your tattoo parlor."
Kasper was already ready and standing, having sensed something in the air. "I wouldn't mind running into them again," he said.
"What about Manifesto?" asked Emily.
"What about him?" I returned with a shrug. "He's out there. The police are looking for him. He's setting up his grand finale."
"Shouldn't we try to get a lead on him with the stuff you recovered?"
"It's just a record of his past moves. It won't help us."
The truth wasn't so black and white. It was very possible Manifesto's journal contained clues about his enlightenment and empowerment. I would dig into those when the time came. At the same time, I didn't want the girls poring through pictures of mutilated bodies. It wasn't sexist. Nobody should see those things. Evan was a high-ranking police officer and Kasper had been a medic in Vietnam. They were already well familiar with the horrifying brutalities men could inflict upon each other.
"Besides," I said, changing the subject, "I just got a hot tip on the Obsidian March. One thing at a time."
I tried handing Kasper the Micro Uzi but he waved it off and tested the weight of the ax in his hand. It was the only thing he'd brought from his shop.
"What's the big idea?" asked Milena, tugging the Uzi back.
"We're raiding a vampire brothel. You shouldn't come. You're a liability."
She lowered her head. I stepped close and lifted her chin. "It's not because you can't take care of yourself. It's their compulsions. I can drill you on defending your mind another time, but for now you need to sit this one out.
Emily flashed Milena an affirmative before turning to me. "I'm still staying with my kids."
"I know," I said, embracing her. "You're a wonderful mother. The best." I gazed deeply into her eyes, silently thanking her for the years she'd raised our daughter without me. I gave little John McClane a high five and said, "Yippee-ki-yay, mother—"
"Cisco!" snapped Emily.
"My bad."
I moved to Fran, already accepting her fate of staying in. I mussed her hair. She jumped and hugged me tight.
"I guess I got nothing better to do," piped up Darcy. Kasper and I turned to her, standing by the front door holding her Hecate fetish. She shrugged. "What? Killing vampires sounds like fun."
I nodded. "It is, actually. Autobots, transform and roll out!" I was talking to a Baby Boomer and a Gen Z kid, so both their responses were lackluster.
Kasper took the passenger seat while Darcy followed on her bike. The first course of action was a pit stop all the way across the city. After confirming we had no tails we drove west, leaving the city lights behind. The edge of the Everglades was the creeping wilderness ever present throughout South Florida. Muggy wetlands rampant with chirping insects and small wildlife. I turned off Tamiami Trail onto the pitch-black dirt road.
We parked and trudged alongside a swamp in darkness. The path was dated and only used for occasional water access. The abandoned boathouse and the overgrown jungle were my old digs.
I shuddered as I remembered my time spent sleeping on the concrete foundation, wet and alone. Nowadays I was a new man, and this place was relegated to my cookhouse. People in my line of work can't boil blood and bone dust in swanky condos. While necromancy wasn't strictly itemized in the HOA bylaws, the toxic stink would turn heads real fast.
I pressed open the rusted back door and entered. The place was exactly as I left it, crumpled Taco Bell wrappers and all.
"What is this place?" asked Darcy.
"I used to live here, believe it or not." The dirty bedroll in the corner proved the truth of that statement.
"It's in the middle of nowhere. No wonder nobody could find you." She took in the damp shelter, half in awe and half in disgust. "What are we doing here?"
"Preparing for war."
I stopped at a bent metal shelving unit and eyed the knickknacks left behind. Powders and poisons and other tributes. Also a set of metal asanbosam teeth. I chuckled, remembering the plight with the Nether fiend that had started my story. Asanbosam were West African vampires, much worse than upirs on an individual basis. It was a good thing they were nomadic loners.
I had other souvenirs. A ruby red mermaid scale. A piece of igneous rock from an elemental. Even a shimmering short sword dropped by a dragon. I decided to take them to my cache later. For now I had more practical concerns.
I retrieved a reserve of spark powder. It was low and I didn't have time to cook more so I funneled what I could into red-jacketed shotgun shells. The process involved removing the wad and replacing some of the powder as well as the buckshot. It made for a big boom at short range. I emptied the road flares from my belt pouch. They were large, and I used the extra space to top off with components of black magic I was likely to use.
While I worked, Darcy browsed the curiosities. Kasper pulled a rusty machete from a wood block. Beside a cast-iron camping pot was a cloth breathing mask for filtering away toxins while cooking. It was also useful to mask my identity. I tied it so it hung loosely around my neck. Finally, we gathered outside and locked up.
"How cute!" said Darcy with uncharacteristic excitement. "A bunny." Sure enough, a rabbit hopped up the path toward us. "She's not afraid of us." The teenager crouched to give it a pat.
I dropped the silver whistle from my mouth. "He," I corrected.
She furrowed her brow. "He's your pet?" As soon as her hand brushed his fur, she recoiled. The small marsh rabbit didn't react at all. He just sat there, still, like a drone.
"Of sorts," I chuckled.
"It's a zombie," said Kasper gruffly.
Darcy's face twisted. "That's gross."
"Give him a break. He's a couple of months old and neglected. He's a little rotten."
My explanation didn't comfort her.
"Come on, Thumper," I called, leaning down and scooping the little guy up.
Darcy shook her head and hissed. "You have problems, dude."
They continued along the dark path to the street while I gave Thumper a chin scratch. These little guys weren't practical in a scrap, but they had many other uses.
Before I started after them, a strange red glow caught my attention. Two dots, like eyes, fixed on me from across the swamp. I checked my companions. They were oblivious to the presence. When I turned back to the wraith, he was gone. I swallowed hard and made my way to the Firebird.
Chapter 44
The three of us crept down a Wynwood alley as casually as we could. It was past midnight now; while the streets were mostly empty, the area was a burgeoning hipster hot spot. Pockets of sweaty dudes sipped overpriced beer and chilled on makeshift patios because the rundown establishments couldn't afford AC.
"Remember," I said, "our number-one priority is minimizing collateral damage. We're vampire hunters, not criminals."
They nodded. "As long as the vamps are fair game," muttered Darcy.
"All except for Tutti. Beaumont wants her alive."
Kasper gritted his teeth. "Bitch blew up my parlor."
"You gotta leave it alone for now. She might know where Magnus is hiding."
I set Thumper down and picked up an empty beer bottle against the wall. The marsh rabbit hopped ahead under my silent command. I closed my eyes as he stopped at the edge of the next building.
Yellow light. A man with black fingernails sits against the wall. No cameras.
I blinked away the animal's view and signaled to the others. This was good. A quiet back entrance to a drug house. "Got one at the door. I'll distract him."
I stumbled around the corner, pulling the beer bottle from my mouth. I wouldn't win an Oscar but my inebriated condition was apparent enough. The vampire bouncer watched me like a hawk. A muted drumbeat pounded inside the door at his back.
"Cool!" I slurred, approaching him. "You guys open?"
The vampire stood, ready to take action and perhaps alert his friends inside if needed. Instead of spooking him by pressing close, I passed by with a healthy berth and headed to the wall ten feet down. He checked the alley before snapping his eyes back to me. I faced the wall and unzipped my pants.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, equal parts angered and repulsed.
"Ay dios mío," I drawled, only partially feigning supreme relief.
"You can't do that here. Get away." He walked toward me.
I whistled as soon as his back was to the others. They charged in with bandannas over their faces. Before the bouncer could reach me, Darcy's spellcraft dragged him backward through the air. He was impaled square on Kasper's machete, right through the heart. His eyes widened at the rusty blade protruding from his chest before he exploded.
"One down," muttered the old man. They approached the door and waited. Darcy clicked her teeth loudly.
I halfway turned away from then. "What? I had a lot to drink." I finished as quickly as I could, being careful to shake stray grains of dirt from my underwear. Darcy gave me kissy lips again. "Fine, back to business."
I approached the back door and tried it. Locked.
"I'm a decent hand at metallurgy," I boasted.
I eyed the lock and cracked my knuckles, dreading using my weakest spellcraft in front of the others. Darcy pulled me away and waved her statue. The door wrenched off its hinges and bounced across the asphalt. Loud trance music filled the alley.
"Or we could do that," I said. I raised the cloth mask over my nose and charged in.
Two vamps spun to us, in human form but elongated claws already drawn. I blasted one with a fireshot, center mass. The other sped toward me but froze at the teenage witch's behest. The machete finished him off.
A scream pierced the blare of techno and surprised me in the middle of sliding a fresh cartridge into the shotgun's breach. I snapped the sawed-off closed and raised it to my attacker, a thin redhead that reminded me of Tutti. At the last second, I pulled my aim to the floor and let the woman bowl into me. We tumbled. It was only a second until Darcy telekinetically dragged her off me.
As Kasper's blade came down, I jumped through the shadow and appeared over her. The machete rang loudly against the forearm tattoo Kasper had inked. A flash of blue filled the hall.
"No!" I said sharply, grabbing the woman's hand and holding it up. "No black fingernails."
The half-crazed woman wiggled and spat against the clutches of spellcraft. Darcy could secure a human in place but not every joint in the body. She clawed at me with the human fingers I held on display.
Darcy twisted the small knife from her other hand. It clattered to the floor. "She tried to kill you."
My eyes ran to the slashed hole in my shirt. I hadn't even felt that. My hardened skin had deflected the weak blow. "She's a familiar, not a vampire."
"They're bad guys too," she insisted.
"It's not that simple." I still held the woman's wrist. Track marks ran the length of her malnourished arm. Vampire bites. Her mouth foamed and her eyes were dull. "They're like drug addicts, out of their minds, waiting on their next vampire fix. It's not their fault."
I dug into my belt pouch and retrieved a capsule of white powder. I separated the two halves and poured it down her nostrils. The frantic woman's heavy breaths immediately sucked it in. Her eyes relaxed and she settled into a stupor. When Darcy released her, she lay still on the floor, eyes open.
"No killing familiars," I repeated.
They nodded.
We peeked down the dim hall. Recessed yellow lights set the mood. Several doorways on either side, some open. The loud music had thankfully covered the commotion of our entrance. I jerked my head and Thumper hopped down the hallway. I pulled his vision into mine.
I switched the shotty to my offhand and an amethyst longsword melted from my palm. I waved Kasper and Darcy to the next set of doors, both closed, and folded into the open room.
"Yes!" moaned a skinny little thing.
She bounced up and down, straddling a man. They were both naked, and while I appreciated the jiggle of the girl's thick ass, I could've gone the rest of my life without seeing jostling vampire balls.
"Oh, yes! Give me more. More!"
I approached, techno masking the creaks under my boots. I stood right behind the girl, surprised I hadn't been noticed yet. She was leaning forward, butt springing up and down wildly, hair masking her face. The vampire's head was turned toward the wall while he chewed on her wrist. Blood dribbled down his cheek.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Her free hand brushed back her long hair, and I finally saw the human fingernails. I wrapped the shotgun around her neck, pulled her up straight, and plunged the energy sword into the vamp's chest. Both of them stiffened and screamed for entirely different reasons. The guy blackened and exploded. The exhausted woman shivered and collapsed in the ashes.
"You'll thank me later," I said.
She spun in confusion, dazed from the sudden halt of the vampire's pleasure. I pinched zombie toxin into her mouth and she drifted off to sleep on the mattress, ashy and wet, nipples still perked in the air.
I exited the room to find the next set of doors open. Vampires flew between rooms and broke their necks on the walls. A man flung himself at me. He was a familiar, so I spun around him and knocked his head into the wall. He spat on the floor, in a daze. I shoved my boot into his ass to herd him toward the back door.
It turned out the next set of rooms were larger than the one I'd cleared, with several beds in each. In the span of seconds, what was once a perfectly reasonable vampire orgy flipped into a fight club. With the droning electronica, the next minute was a scene from a violent music video.
Kasper used a super-powered punch to launch unsuspected vamps away. He tossed the machete and buried it with the kind of expert precision only a jungle fighter could have. Then he spun and started lopping off limbs with his ax.
Darcy played interference, sweeping fiends this way and that. She took Kasper'
s alley-oop and suddenly the machete danced through the air searching for targets.
I all-too-willingly sailed into the ruckus. Days of investigation and harassment had led us here, and we were done being whipping boys. And girls. Non-gender-specific whipping people. We were done. My darksword sailed through the nether fiends and the cheap walls of the drug house; if they were butter then I was at an all-you-can-eat brunch.
The vamps couldn't touch us. Ash exploded everywhere. It filled the air and the walls slicked with blood. Five dead vamps. Then ten. Fifteen came at us all together but they never had a chance against the ambush. Most of them had been literally caught with their pants down.
I tried pacifying what familiars I could, but they weren't all as easy to handle as I'd hoped. This wasn't a black-and-white proposition. It was very likely that many had chosen to be here. Kasper had to break a big guy's arm. Darcy turned to playing warden, holding humans out of the fight, but she could only focus on one at a time. Several others fled down the hallway and into the alley, joggling boobs and dongs alike. It was... kinda hilarious.
I stopped laughing when what must've been a twelve-year-old boy sped past. My stomach turned. I thought of Gendra, and Fran and Nicole in the black van.
Stray claws came at me while distracted. I dipped into the blackness, becoming ethereal. Instead of going for the easy kill, I grabbed the vampire by his wavy hair and smashed his head into the wall. Over and over and over, until the crater formed by his head was filled with brain matter. He slumped to the floor without turning to ash. I marveled at the resilience of these foul things.
All threats neutralized, Kasper bashed the next door open. He paused, eyes wide in shock. Darcy entered the room and walked out several bound women in the barely twenty-one category. They were frightened, leaning on each other for support, and—thankfully—mostly clothed. I just hoped they were lucky enough to have been untouched by their captors. My heart stopped when I saw the pair of middle schoolers.