Black Heart: Wild On

by TW Gallier

  "What the Hell do you people want?" I cried as I ripped the zombie off Dane's other arm.

  "Are you the leader?" he said

  Dane and I just gawked a second.

  "Yes," I said.

  All of the zombies froze and looked at me. Yeah, it was creepy. Then as one they spoke.

  "Forget about Timothy Saxon. He is happy where he's at," they said in unison. "This is your only warning."

  And they all fell dead. Just plopped to the ground.

  "Holy shit they stink," Sabrina said, getting out of the car and pulling her shirt over her nose and mouth. I noticed all of the damage to my new car. Oh, that ticked me off. But, she probably saved us by doing it. "How did you do that?"

  "I don't know," I said. I spotted people tentatively leaving the church's main door.

  "All she did was ask them what they wanted," Dane said. "And they told her, and dropped dead."

  My father and Reverend Saxon were leading a group of people towards us. I turned and headed for them, picking up my discarded clothes along the way. With my Daddy heading my way, I dressed in record time. Didn't bother with the shoulder holster.

  "Who sent them?" Sabrina said.

  "I don't know. But both Henri Trudeau and Antoinette LaRue use zombies to guard their homes," I said. I'd been to the Trudeau mansion, and Boney mentioned Antoinette's guards once. He was creeped out by zombies. I completely understood that now. "I'm not sure about anyone else."

  Vanessa Mancera just didn't seem the type to use zombies. She was so vivacious and full of life, so vibrant. Jeff might, but somehow he didn't seem the type, but he did have a witch working for him. In fact, according to Boney all of the council members had at least one witch.

  "Sable? Are you all right?" Daddy said. He was obviously concerned, but he was giving me a wary look.

  "I'm fine," I said. Sabrina was frowning at him, too. So she noticed his standoffishness as well. "How about you?"

  "Ha! Funny t-shirt," my brother Brad said. He was behind Daddy and grinning fiercely at me.

  "Hush, Brad," Daddy said. I winked at my brother, giving him a wicked grin. Then Daddy's eyes bore into me. "You can fly? You have wings?"

  "You didn't know?" I said. I thought everyone knew. It wasn't a big secret anymore. "Well, yeah."

  The others all looked spooked. There had to be thirty men and women in that group, mostly men. They started whispering between themselves. I thought it odd that after I confirmed I could sprout wings they got all worried, when they already saw me flying around with their own eyes. People are weird.

  "That was cool," Brad said, and stepped back when Daddy cut him a sharp look.

  "Did you hear what the zombies said?" I wanted to change the subject. Daddy didn't like displays of my Change. I think he was trying to see me as his little girl, the before-the-change daughter.

  "Yes, we heard them," Reverend Saxon said, grim as can be. "What does that mean?"

  "It means if you keep trying to find him the zombies will be back," Sabrina said. "Or something bigger and nastier will be coming for you."

  The stench of fear from that group doubled. I frowned at Sabrina. She wasn't making it better, but then I didn't see how anyone could improve the situation. But all that fear was making me hungry.

  "They were a warning to you," I said.

  "So the vampires that took Timmy sent them," Reverend Saxon said.

  "Technically, a witch sent them," I said. "But I'm pretty sure he was working for the vampires. And as warnings go in the vampire world that was pretty tame."

  "You call that tame?" a young woman said.

  "Next time I doubt they'll just drop dead after delivering their message," I said. "And as you all saw, zombies are damned hard to kill."

  That set a lot of them to talking amongst themselves. As if sensing he was losing his flock, Reverend Saxon took a step closer to me. He had a very determined, very frightening look on his face. I've never seen his eyes so fierce.

  "The Lord is our shield, and our faith is our sword," he said. "We all saw how the holy cross stopped them in their tracks. Fear of God's Holy Wrath will keep them at bay! We are not afraid of the minions of Hell!"

  "That's well and good," Dane said. "But help the Lord out and don’t mess with vampires."

  "I thought you were a fearless vampire hunter?" Reverend Saxon said with supreme contempt.

  "I am, and I know better than piss off the most powerful vampires in the city," Dane said, stepping up to face Reverend Saxon. "God helps those who help themselves. Give us a chance to find Timmy. Don't make it worse by striking out at the vampires out of blind faith."

  "Exactly," I said. "All you will accomplish is getting a lot of good people killed."

  "Or a lot of evil vampires killed," someone called out. "Whose side are you on, Black Heart?"

  "Yeah," a woman called. "I've noticed that you are keeping your eyes averted from the church."

  "You can't hide in that church forever," I said. "Vampires and zombies have patience. We have all the time in the world."

  "We can go about our normal business during the day," she said, rather smugly. "And there's not a thing you can do to stop us."

  "That's true of vampires," Sabrina said. "But they are the only undead with that restriction. Zombies are just as viable at high noon as midnight. Then there are witches and werewolves. As you can see some witches and werewolves work for vampires? I know of one vampire family with a whole pack of werewolves at their command."

  "If you are not careful, you will not live to see Timmy's rescue," I said.

  I glared at the lot of them. The idiots looked me straight in the eye without protection. I was tempted to mesmerize them, and then make them do stupid tricks. That might emphasize the power of vampires to them, but since they were borderline zealots I figured it would just galvanize their resolve.

  "You don't seem to be too quick on the rescuing," Reverend Saxon said. "Are you even trying to find him?"

  "No, Tim, that's not fair," Daddy said. "You know how much Sable cares about Timmy."

  "I know mortal Sable cared, but I'm not so sure about undead Sable," he said. "And I'm beginning to think I've tainted my soul in dealing with her."

  "For a supposedly learned man of God, you are awful stupid in the ways of the supernatural world," Sabrina snarled.

  "Let's not resort to name calling," I said. I looked Reverend Saxon dead in the eyes. He didn't flinch or avert his eyes. Fool. "You have to decide if you want your son back in one piece, or if you just want an excuse for a crusade. You can't have both."

  "Want to bet?" he said.

  "No, because it'll be Timmy that pays the price," I said. I motioned the others back towards the car. "Let's go. We have things to do while there's still dark."

  "Good luck, Sable," Brad called.

  "Thanks," I said. I paused. "Did you get that scholarship to SMU?"

  He grimaced and cringed.

  "No, but I have an offer to a smaller college up in Kansas. Full scholarship," he said.

  "Take it," I said. "I want you as far from this shit as possible." I looked around at all the angry faces, mostly watching me suspiciously. "I'm very afraid. Afraid for all of you."

  Chapter 11

  The drive back to Kale's house was spent trying to figure out what our little band of "Holy Warriors" might do. And what we could do to prevent it. We were a little short on answers.

  I had to argue with Sabrina about going to the Wild On with us. She so wanted to go, orgy or not. But then Sabrina always was more open-minded in that area than I was before I was Changed. In the end I won and Sabrina went home. She had classes at SMU the next morning, after all.

  So we headed off for the Wild On in Dane's Jeep. The Trinity River bottom south of Dallas was no place for a Mustang. At least Dane convinced me of that. Truth was, I thought of it as a dark, swampy morass of mud, snakes, and mosquitoes. I doubt snakes and mosquitoes would be a problem on the first night of January.

  Af
ter some debate, we headed out sans weapons. Neither Dane nor I cared to deal with werewolves without some silver bullets to punctuate our points with. Sometimes they were more bullheaded than vampires. But Gabe had more experience dealing with them, and actually kinda liked them despite not wanting to join a pack.

  Since I tore up my Vampires Suck! T-shirt, I put on another that said, "No Bark. Just Bite." It was red with white letters.

  We went to a part of Dallas I'd never been before. Exiting Interstate 45 at Lamar, we headed west to Cedar Crest Boulevard. The entrance to the Trudeau Run was off Cedar Crest. Technically, if I understood who owned what in Dallas, the Trudeaus did not actually own the stretch of Trinity River bottom from Cedar Crest to Rochester Park, which was on the other side of I-45. I'm sure some palms were greased so they could use it.

  It was well past eleven when we finally arrived. The invitation said the Wild On started at ten, with the gates opening at nine. The gate guards were Zeke and Attila, and they smiled real big when they saw me. The way their auras changed and the pheromones that began oozing from them said they were hornier than a horny toad. Have to admit, the prospect sent a thrill chill up my spine, too.

  Zeke and Attila weren't alone. There were a dozen men with them. Men without auras.

  "Zombies," I whispered to Dane and Gabe, indicating the men hanging back a bit. They were in two small groups, to either side of the gate. All were just standing motionless and staring at the gate. There was nothing going on between their ears. "Creepy."

  Gabe caused a moment of consternation. They had to radio in and ask permission. I heard Mercedes ask if Dane was with us, and sounded quite pleased with the affirmative answer. She gave permission for Gabe to join us.

  Dane and I shared an apprehensive look. We'd discussed her a number of times. I was much more concerned about her than he was. In fact, Dane seemed amazing unconcerned with the prospect of being bitten by a werewolf. He was a dhampir, so was sure he couldn't be turned into a werewolf. Still, no one wanted to be the focus of attention of an alpha werewolf, especially when she worked for the vampire mafia.

  "Just follow the road. You'll see the bonfire from the parking area," Attila said.

  The muddy road was deeply rutted and I knew my Mustang would’ve gotten stuck. Dane’s Jeep had a few close calls and I saw signs that other cars had gotten stuck earlier and had to be pulled out.

  The parking lot was just a grassy field. Mostly they parked in rows, but a few mavericks parked in places that blocked everyone else. Dane found a spot he felt the Jeep wouldn’t sink into the mud or get blocked in.

  "Wow, this is exciting," Gabe said. "We're at an actual Wild On. Few packless wolves get invited, if any."

  The glow of a bonfire and the sounds of wild revelry came from the trees to our right, but strange sounds came from the trees to our left. Both locations called to me, but for different reasons. The bonfire offered excitement and carnal delights, while the other location piqued my curiosity, since I didn't know what was over there.

  I headed left, to the surprise and grumbling of my friends. They couldn't hear the grunts and rustling. Hushed voices called to me, so quiet even my supernaturally powerful ears couldn't make out what they were saying.

  I wended my way through a patch of ten foot plus cedars, many looking like giant Christmas trees ready to be harvested. The moon was nearly full, and everything was bathed in silvery light. It looked like high noon to my vampiric eyes, but I was sure Dane and Gabe were a little unsure of their footing.

  It was a good fifty feet from the parking lot where I found a dozen werewolves with five large cages. Inside the cages were deer. Four small deer, and a huge one.

  All the deer were bucks, with really nice racks. The four smaller deer were all white tails, all about two hundred pounds and impressive antlers. The fifth animal was a deer, of that I was sure, but I'd never seen anything like him. He was huge, easily twice as big at the white tails. I'd be surprised if he was under five hundred pounds, and probably closer to six hundred. He had to be five feet tall at the shoulder.

  "What's this?" I asked. A dozen sets of eyes turned to regard me. Werewolf eyes, like vampire eyes, glow red in the dark when looking into light. There were no lights around the deer, but there was enough headlights from the cars to light up their eyes when they looked in our direction. "Deer? You have to import the deer you hunt?"

  "Mostly," a tall, lanky wolf said. He had a feral look about him. We paused a dozen feet apart, looking each other up and down. Why did I have the impression he wanted to sniff my butt? The werewolf had spiked blonde hair and wore only a pair of torn jeans, no shoes. None of the others wore coats or jackets, either. "Who are you?"

  "Sable Hart," I said. We each took a step closer, locked eyes. He looked away first, but looked straight at my lips, his gaze lingering. "I was invited by Henri Trudeau. That's okay, right?"

  He stiffened. Henri's name packed a punch, even outside of the vampire mafia world. All of the wolves started moving around, acting antsy and afraid to look at me. Maybe it was because I knew they were vampire mafia thugs, as well as werewolves, but I thought they all looked like mafia enforcer types. Probably just my imagination.

  "What's your name?" I said.

  "Kelly," he said. "Kelly O'Donnell."

  "You're not alpha, are you?" I said. Looking around, I raked them with a fierce gaze that none would meet, could meet. "None of you are."

  That startled them, but they recovered quickly. Anger and suspicion set in after that. Jaws jutted out, backs stiffened and fists clenched. It was enough to make Dane and Gabe nervous. But still, none held my gaze more than a few seconds.

  "Don't pull no attitude on me," I said. "I can read you like books."

  "You don't know shit, vamp," another said.

  "I know you're not alpha, boy," I said. I smiled wickedly at him as I reached the first cage, the one with the really big deer inside. He was standing by that cage, and had to retreat at my approach. An alpha wouldn't have retreated. "What kind of buck is this?"

  A couple of the wolves snickered. I raised a haughty, I'm-not-amused browed at them and they quieted down. Kelly grinned at me apologetically.

  "Sorry, Miss Hart," he said. "I understand you're a city girl, and all."

  "Call me Sable," I said. "I might be a city girl, but I am from West Texas so understand something about deer hunting. I've never gone hunting myself, but I've seen the kills the men brought back." I indicated the white tails. "That's what I'm used to seeing."

  "Of course," Kelly said. "To answer your question, we hunted this run barren years ago. White tails are native, but we like to bring in more exotic, more dangerous game for special occasions." It indicated big boy. "That's not a buck, but an elk. A bull elk."

  "Male elks are bulls, not bucks," another said.

  "Oops, my bad," I said, and grinned at them. They all smiled back. I felt the tension bleeding away, and they started moving closer and closer. "So, will you release them one at a time? Or all at once?"

  "All at once," Kelly said, his arm actually brushing mine. Another wolf passed behind me, and I heard him breath in my scent. "And the run will last until they are all brought down and back to the fire."

  "Then you cook them?" Dane said.

  The werewolves all grinned wickedly at him. They looked quite pleased he asked that question.

  "Some packs do cook the meat. We don't. Cooking spoils the flavor, the texture," Kelly said. He stepped around behind me, taking the opportunity to sniff my hair. His arousal spiked, so I guess he kinda liked me. "Game is best eaten fresh, raw, with the steam rising off the freshly ripped off, bloody chunks." He suddenly thrust his face towards mine, stopping a half inch from my left cheek. I avoided flinching, which I think disappointed him. "Don't you agree, vamp?"

  "Fresh meat?" I said, turning to look in his eyes, our noses brushing. I felt his hot breath on my lips. "All I care about is the hot, delicious blood. I've never had deer blood before."

&nbs
p; I slanted a look at Dane and Gabe as they grimaced. I could sense their feelings of disgust. Their auras reflected their distaste.

  "I guess you boys haven't mastered the fine art of grilling?" Dane said.

  "Not quite," Kelly said, eyes dancing with delight as he turned away from me. "But we’re really good at killing our dinner."

  "So I've heard," Dane said. He gave the five deer a curious look. "Shouldn't they have already lost their antlers by now?"

  "A hunter?" Kelly said. He looked impressed.

  "I grew up hunting and fishing," he said. "I hunt more dangerous prey now."

  My eyes widened. That was an incredibly bold statement. Dane and Gabe were known vampire hunters. Both the living and undead knew their names. I thought they should sneak out of town and vanish, but was selfish enough to be happy with their continued presence.

  "I don't know about the Texas, but where I grew up hunting the white tail would have lost their antlers by now. And the elk comes from much colder habitat, so his rut is well past."

  "Very good," Kelly said. "I'm not sure when elk lose their antlers, but it's just getting to the time when whitetail in Texas lose theirs. They're more dangerous with antlers, so we only use those."

  "You put a lot of thought and effort into your Wild On celebrations. This will be my first hunt for anything other than two-legged prey," I said. I reached out and caressed the hot skin of his neck with the back of my fingers. Kelly stiffened, but didn't flinch away. He groaned so low and quietly only I could hear it. "Of course, when I hunted down Fritz he spent a fair amount of time in wolf and wolfman form. Does that count?"

  Reminding them I had hunted down and killed not only an alpha male, but a pack leader, kinda killed their vicious fun. Some of them scowled at me, while others looked me over warily. Kelly moved away slowly, putting on a good show of not being afraid. Vampires were the top of the food chain, with werewolves one down. I don’t think they liked to be reminded of it.

  "His pack should’ve protected him," Kelly said, turning to face me. His eyes were bright with anger. Such passion.