by J. L. Ray
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Down!” Tony yelled at Phil as she pulled her NASH gun, trying to get a shot at the vamp. She had tucked it into the back of her waistband before they left the Beetle, but she realized, as she took aim, that she had assumed the vampire would be at the cabin with Heraphina.
She took a shot at the vamp, whom she recognized in the body of the former Haldis Holstrom, sister of victim Signa Engstrom, but missed a capture as the creature hissed and dodged the net with freaky speed and a dexterity that suggested that vampires had joints in more than their elbows and knees. The creature had been an innocent swan maiden, looking for love in, apparently, the ultimately wrong place. Now it clambered up the walls of the office, cutting itself on the sharp edges of the basalt walls and dripping blood as it went up and then across the ceiling like a lizard. Or a cockroach. Damned if Cal and Dr. C hadn’t called that one. She’d thought that was just a turn of phrase, but maybe they had seen one move like a cockroach before this case. Super-creepy.
She kept turning, following the movements of the vamp as best she could, her NASH aimed and ready to shoot if the damned thing would just stay in one place.
“I can’t get a solid shot!” she called out to Phil, “It’s moving way too fast. How do we get it to stay in one place?”
“You bleed,” Serena called out right before she shot Phil in the thigh. “I hope it takes its sweet time draining you,” she told her boss in her usual sugar-sweet voice. Then she turned to his desk and slapped a hidden button that caused a section of the wall beside it to open. Serena had slipped through and the wall shuddered to a close before Tony could move, so she turned to the more immediate problem and ran over to where Phil had fallen and was sitting, still a bit stunned to have been shot with a Mundane gun.
“She shot me! With an iron gun!” he told Tony indignantly, who let out a burst of hysterical laughter in reply before she shut that down. She looked around the room and didn’t see the vampire. “Why did she say bleeding would make it stop moving?”
Phil grimaced as he looked down at his wound, which was producing enough blood to make him look away, up to Tony’s worried face. “I suppose because it will come over here and settle down for a nice snack. Me.” He scanned the room as he added, “I have not dealt with such creatures often in recent years. It takes so much power to make and control one. Supers prefer to do their own dirty work, and the Naturals who did make them in the past did not last long afterwards. Eventually, their creatures ate them.”
Tony kept doing a sweep of the room while trying to get a look at Phil’s leg and assess the damage. “Can you shoot straight?”
“Yes,” he gritted out.
She handed him the NASH and pulled her f-light, contacting the squad cars outside. “Serena Melinoe has left the building. I have a civilian casualty here and a vampire loose in this office. I need two of you with NASH experience down here immediately. The rest of you, find Melinoe.” She cut the transmission and turned to Phil’s leg. “I need to tie that up to stop the bleeding.” She shrugged and pulled off her shirt. She was wearing an exercise bra under it, so it gave more coverage than most bikini tops on the market, but Phil’s eyes widened for a moment before he regretfully pulled his gaze away to check the perimeter.
Phil told her mournfully, belying his watchful gaze that flickered around the room, “This is not how I pictured you tying me up. Though the view is quite nice.”
“Fucking hilarious, Phil.”
“I had so hoped for exactly that, but later, and at my place. Oh well,” he smiled at her before looking back around the room, “the best laid plans.”
“Wow. Two puns in one blow.” She kept working as fast as could. “You have got to get some new material, demon.” She finished pulling the ends together and gestured to him to hand back the NASH. “I have a really bad feeling about this. Where the hell did the vamp go?”
“I have seen nothing since Serena shot me, and I have been scanning the room constantly. I do not see how it could still be here.”
“You checked the ceilings?”
“After watching it crawl across them like a gigantic cockroach?” he grimaced his distaste. “Of course.”
Tony shivered. “Enough with the cockroach analogies. I hate those things.” She thought for a minute. “All the folklore about vampires mention different powers--have you got any idea which ones are real?” She emphasized the last word, figuring that the whole vampire-as-real was no wackier than the rest of the real in the world now, but somehow, it still seemed weirder.
“I have no clue which of the old tales also contain truth, but obviously, they are fast and can crawl up walls like that scene in Mr. Stoker’s novel.”
“I hated that scene. It scared the bejesus out of me when I read it as a kid!”
“They are said to be able to call wolves.”
“On the east coast?” she snorted, still looking around, holding the NASH at the ready. “Only a problem if it calls up some of the red wolves that were released down in the Great Dismal Swamp and if they decide to follow the call. But that’ll take ‘em a while.”
“They are said to be able to turn into mist.”
“Ding, ding, ding.” She pointed over to corner of the room. “Folks, we have a winner.”
In one of the darkest corners, a pale, grey fog lurked. If Tony hadn’t been looking for it, she would have never seen it.
“Okay. I think we need to get you out of this room, first of all. Can you stand?”
“Perhaps, but I think you will need to help me get to my feet.” When she turned to him, he put out a hand to stop her. “Before you try to lever me off the floor, we need to consider the fact that I have blood all over me.”
“You don’t honestly think I give a shit about blood on me, do you? I mean, that shirt is a goner already, and I don’t care about the rest of my clothes.”
He shook his head. “I mean that Serena shot me for a reason other than just slowing us down. She said it would make the vampire stop moving--that is because it is focused on me, the wounded prey, and is going to make a move to attack as soon as it feels like it can. When we start moving, you will be distracted by helping me, and it will be able to attack with less chance of being shot by your weapon.”
“I really hate to say this,” Tony told him, turning back around with her NASH gun pointed at the mist, “but you are absolutely right. I don’t know if the net will hold mist. I mean, it will hold mist if we can catch mist, but that’s going to be the tricky part. We need the vamp in the net, and then it won’t matter what it turns into, even a cockroach,” she shuddered. “Once it’s in there, the net will hold. So, it looks like we can’t move you. You are going to have move yourself.”
“I am not sure that--”
“You need to scoot backwards on your butt.”
There was silence behind her.
“Phil! You didn’t pass out on me, did you?”
“No,” he drawled. “I am trying to decide if you have lost your mind.”
“What?”
“Scoot? Out?”
“Give me patience,” Tony asked the universe. Then she briefly turned back to stare him in the eye. “Scoot one cheek, then the other. One cheek, then the other. Haven’t you ever done aerobics? Or Zumba?” She turned back to watch the pulsing mist, not sure if some of the tendrils were actually oozing out towards them and then back into the main mass, edging closer, or if she was having some kind of visual hallucination about the forward motion.
Silence. Then, “Forgive me, dearest detective. What are aerobics or Zumba?”
Silence.
“You don’t gain weight do you?”
“Why do you ask? Is this Zumba thing for exercise?”
“You don’t have to work out to stay in good physical condition, do you?” Her voice dripped acid.
Silence.
“I do not know what to say,” Phil muttered apologetically.
“I do. Abandon any hope of ever dating me,
you rat bastard. I will never be able to forgive you for keeping your girlish figure without having to sacrifice for it.”
“I do not have a girlish--”
She cut him off, “It’s a phrase. Let it go. Trust me, I know from experience that you’re packing boy bits. They may even be impressive. One day I may be impressed by them. Who knows? Stranger things and all. But for now, shut up and let me explain.”
Silence.
“O-kay. Not used to someone actually being quiet when I ask. So, here’s the deal. If you can scoot backwards, then I can cover us. We can move to the door, let Hiller and the other officers in, and then we’ll use you as bait to net the vamp. Surely, it will have to re-materialize to bite you, and we’ll have a lovely little bottleneck to capture it.”
“I am the bait.”
“Right.”
“Now I am trying to decide if you are trying to get rid of me.”
“Phil, I just know good bait when I see it.” She turned and threw him a quick grin and an eyebrow wiggle, “What cute little vamp could turn down a chance to sink her teeth into all the yumminess that is you?”
He looked at her with suspicion, but then pursed his undeniably luscious lips. “Very well. I will try the scooting method. Please do not watch.”
“Why not?” She automatically turned to look.
“No!” he sat still until she turned around. “This is very undignified. You choose to do this in public?”
“First of all, I’m keeping an eye on the murderous vampire that’s waiting for a hint of weakness so it can scuttle in and suck you and me dry, so I am really too busy to rate your performance.” She tried to keep the laugh out of her voice. “Second, the whole purpose of that move in aerobics is to firm up the tushy, so you should be thankful that the mortal whose pants you seem to want to get in tries to keep those buttocks in firm shape.”
“I hope to get a chance to express my sincere appreciation of all of your efforts when I’m not bleeding and in pain from scooting across the floor,” he hissed between teeth clenched from pain. “That bullet really hurts.”
She snorted and started backing toward his voice. “Just keep moving, Phil. It’s gonna be all right.”
“At least I have a good view.” “Don’t drool on your wound,” she told him dryly. “Mouths are just full of germs.”
Azeem leaped gracefully over a fallen log as he and Cal made their way to the cabin. Cal moved beside him as silently as a seven foot tall ogre could, but they wouldn’t win any awards for woodscraft.
Cal looked at his f-light for an MGP reading. “Sir, the cabin is just on the other side of this hill.”
Azeem turned to him, “Contact Sheriff MacMurray and let him and his deputies know that they should get into position. You and I will go in first and flush her out. If the vampire is with her, she will not be able to resist using it to attack us. The officers need to be in the formation we sent, ready to use the NASH guns.”
Cal sent out the call and reminded the officers of the plan. He looked at Azeem who gave him the mark, and the two headed over the hilltop and into the cove where the Caster sisters’ cabin lay.
“Detective,” Azeem told Cal, “set your f-light to megaphone and let’s give the lady’s door a little knock.”
“Yes, sir!” Cal reset the f-light and held it out to broadcast. He had to clear his throat a few times to get started, but he knew this was it. Time to get past his fear of witches. “Heraphina Caster! This is the Washington D.C. PD, SCI Bureau. We need to talk to you. Come out with your hands up and leave your wand behind.”
He was shocked when this approach worked.
Within minutes, Heraphina was standing on the front porch of the cabin, a fairly new, custom-built, two-story log cabin with multiple windows and a large front porch holding seven rocking chairs.
“Don’t shoot,” she called out, her voice breaking like a cawing crow. “Don’t shoot, officers! Please help me! I don’t know what to do.”
Azeem and Cal looked at each other, totally mystified. Then Azeem synched his own f-light to megaphone. “We are coming down to talk to you.” He shifted to mass call and contacted the Sheriff and his deputies. “We have no idea what is going on down there, so stay on alert. She may be sacrificing herself to let the vampire get away, so circle around the cabin as we go down to talk to her. Cal and I are setting our f-lights to broadcast to you. If you want to talk to us, you’ll have to tell your f-light. Otherwise, it will be masking your presence by blocking any chatter on the line. Do you copy?”
“Shore do. We’ll hear y’uns, but unless we tell the f-light specifically, y’uns cain’t hear us.”
Azeem nodded as he replied, “Exactly. Good luck.”
He and Cal began moving down the hill, going slowly to give the deputies time to get into position. Since it was quite dark and they weren’t on a trail, their slow approach would make sense to Heraphina as well. The area directly around the cabin was beautifully landscaped, but the area beyond remained overgrown.
When the two got to the porch, they called on the f-lights for illumination. Heraphina stood in front of them, twitching and groaning. She kept her hands up and it was clear that she held no wand, but she couldn’t stand still and was rocking on her feet.
“Please,” she whispered hoarsely, “please help me. The little bitch has poisoned me. I didn’t know! I really didn’t know!” And just as she finished speaking, she collapsed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tony kept her eyes and her NASH gun aimed at the mist as she listened to Phil, groaning his way across the floor. If she hadn’t seen two recent examples of a vampire’s feeding, she might have even harassed him a bit more about the amount of bellyaching he was doing. But at the moment, all she could think of was getting that damned thing netted and contained before it hurt anyone else. The slow walk backwards felt like it was taking forever, but just when she began to wonder if Serena had worked some kind of spell to turn the floor to a moving walkway that would have them repeating the same scenery over and over, like cheap 1970s animated kids’ shows, she heard a door open behind her and the voice of Officer Hiller.
“Ma’am, we are ready to assist you.”
“Great--” Tony’s appreciative comments were cut short by a hiss and the re-materialization of the vampire. It was standing on the floor a few feet from Phil and Tony, hunched and angry, its gaze on the demon.
“Tony,” he told her calmly, “that creature is two seconds from lunging for my throat. What do you wish me to do?”
Tony didn’t turn to look at him since she wanted to keep her eyes on the vampire. “We’re gonna give it what it wants. I’m going to step to one side and provide it an avenue to get close to you.”
“Already, I hate this idea.”
“If you can stop complaining long enough to hear it, you might change your mind.”
Silence.
“Okay then. Hiller?” she queried.
“Ma’am?”
“Who have you got with you?”
“My partner, Officer Davis. We both got high marks for marksmanship with the NASH guns.”
“Excellent! Okay officers, here’s the deal. We’re going to fake the vamp out. I’m going to step to one side, give it a clear run at Phil, then when it heads in, we all take a shot. I think at least one of us should be able to get the shot.”
“You only think that one of you can get it?” she heard Phil gulp.
“It’s really fast, Phil, so yeah. I think one of us should get it, but if not, it has to stop moving to sink its teeth into you, and if it actually does that--I’ll blow it away. I switched out my ammo for rounds with silver, just in case, and I plan to take a headshot if we can’t just capture the thing.”
“Not that I would question your ability to hit your target, but--”
Officer Davis chimed in, “Sir, you’re in good hands. She has the highest rating in the division.”
“That’s certainly...well, I’ll try to be...you know, Tony, if
I have offended you in any way...”
Tony shook her head and smiled, “Just be alive when it’s all done, Phil. Just be alive.”
Azeem called for a WE-Evac, a Wyvern Emergency Evacuation unit. The Wyvern units could land in places that helicopters and dragons couldn’t. Their two legs allowed them more maneuverability in tight landing zones than either a Mundane mechanical or a larger, four-legged dragon, and their snaky tales tended to discourage FV media vans from parking close to a scene. Win-win. The FV casters weren’t much of problem out in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but getting medical evacuation was, so the Lieutenant was greatly relieved when he heard the loud cry of the creature’s arrival.
Cal stood by Azeem, carrying the limp body of Heraphina. She had collapsed just after giving herself up. She seemed to be alive, but her breathing remained shallow and labored, and neither they nor anyone in the Sheriff’s office could ascertain the cause of her apparent physical distress. As Cal waited for the Wyvern’s teammate to dismount and come over for a hand-off of the patient, he looked down at Heraphina and suddenly realized that he, Cal Kelly, stood there, a pitiful armful of witch cradled to his chest, and he hadn’t thought once about warts in the twenty minutes it had taken the WE-Evac team to arrive.
“I’m cured,” he murmured, awestruck.
Heraphina’s eyes flew open and she screamed for a moment, and as she screamed, Cal screamed, dancing in place and trying very hard not to fling her as far away as he could. Everyone else in the vicinity started yelling at him, but Cal couldn’t hear the actual words. His ears were ringing with the sound of his and Heraphina’s mingled screams. Finally, her words began to penetrate his terrified fog.
“Ogre! Ogre, I hurt! Please make it stop! Make it stop!” She stopped screaming and looked up at Cal, begging.