by Zara Novak
“I’m Gordo, Marie said some cheese ball was asking about a thermos. What do you want?” The man eyed Edmund with pudgy eyes and spoke in a nasal and gravelly voice.
Edmund repeated his question back to Gordo word-for-word. “I’m looking for a place where I can refill a 1943 Shelly Stoker Thermos. Do you guys offer such a service here?”
Gordo took a deep breath, sighed and nodded. “Yeah we do.” He said in his high pitched gravel voice. “It’s $100 per refill.”
Edmund laughed quietly to himself. “$100? That’s a little steeper than usual.” He pulled a crisp note from his pocket and shoved it into the expecting hand of the man.
“Yeah well, what you gonna do? This close to the border and the boonies, my service is a luxury - not a privilege. Hot or cold?”
“Hot. It fresh?”
“Farmed this evening. I only serve fresh.” Gordo snatched the note out of Edmund’s hand and waddled into the back. “I’ll be right back.”
Gordo emerged two minutes later with a stainless steel flask and put it down in front of Edmund. “There you go motherfucker. Enjoy.” Gordo turned his attention to the register and started counting up money.
“Obliged.” Edmund took a sip from the flask and felt his body relax a little as the fresh blood blushed onto his tongue. He turned his attention to the TV once more and listened to the aimless ramblings of the local news.
“And just an update from our current missing persons story.” A tanned female reporter said. “Police believe they may be on the trail of missing college girl Ruth Summers, after a man filed a police report for a breaking and entry.”
“That’s right.” Her male counterpart continued. “Ruth and Kat Summers have been missing since last Friday night, and were last seen at the Avalon night club in Dead Rest, shortly before the shooting that took place. The police aren’t giving any more information about the report filed on Monday evening, but it’s believed the witness description of the assailant matched that of the missing Ruth Summers.”
A picture flashed up on the TV screen of the missing girls. Edmund recognized Ruth straight away of course, but he was puzzled to hear that her sister was missing too. There was something about her face that felt familiar to him, but he supposed it was probably just the resemblance to her sister.
“If you have any information regarding either of these girl’s whereabouts. Please get in touch straight away.”
Sighing, he dropped his head down to his chest momentarily. It seemed like Ruth hadn’t made good on her promise of staying out of trouble at all. He was in two minds to go back and tie the girl up, but he was in too deep now. The witch would be at her hut tomorrow, as would Ansel Draco. Turning back now would mean Edmund would fail his mission.
He took another pull from the flask, sipping at the hot liquid inside and finding temporary solace as it satiated his thirst. He was more than used to recognizing missing people on TV. Whether he had taken them himself, or they had been taken by the owners of a local bar, it was just part of being a vampire. For all Edmund knew, this missing Kat might be the ‘fresh’ blood he was drinking right now. He looked up at the pudgy faced Gordo and wondered.
“Neither of them are in the back if that is what you’re thinking.” Gordo whispered darkly. “I don’t know who the fuck took those girls. Might have been just some sick human.”
Edmund nodded quietly and Gordo trundled to the other end of the bar to serve a waiting customer.
To his rear, Edmund vaguely heard the sound of the diner door opening. The bell jangled over the frame, followed by the tap of small and female footsteps. He glanced to the right over his shoulder and caught the back of a girl as she headed into the bathroom. A scent hung in the air behind her, which was familiar to him somehow. He took a long pull of his flask and finished it, trying to place the scent all the while.
A minute later, the girl emerged from the bathroom and walked quickly back to the entrance. She kept her head down, and she walked with the pace of someone who didn’t want to be spotted. Edmund stared at her face, turning his head as he tried to place her.
The girl flicked her eyes up at him at the last second, and then she hurried out of the diner and back into the parking lot.
That’s when Edmund realized who the girl was.
Kat Summers.
Edmund swiveled on his chair and followed her with his eyes as he watched her climb into a dark SUV. The SUV pulled out of the lot and onto the road again.
Kat Summers. Last seen at the Avalon night club on Friday night. The same night club where two agents of the Red Circle had made an unsuccessful attempt on Ansel Draco’s life.
He cast his mind back to the footage that Cairo Inai had shown to him. The video had ended with a blonde haired girl placing a stake into the chest of a vampire.
The penny dropped, and Edmund connected the dots. Kat Summers was with Ansel Draco.
Edmund stood from the bar and headed for the door immediately.
“Oh, bye then!” Gordo shouted after him. “You’re welcome for the great service!”
Cool summer night wrapped around him as he emerged into the car park. Edmund made for his bike in a half jog, brought the engine to life with a turn of his wrist and kicked it into gear. The engine howled and Edmund pulled out of his spot and back onto the road.
A minute or two later, the dark SUV was on the horizon in front of him, and Edmund had his target in his sights. His breath was keen with the scent of the hunt now. His eyes were focused on only one thing. He had to come up with a strategy to take the vampire out.
He kept a safe distance between them as he followed. There weren’t that many cars around beside himself and the SUV half a mile in front, but this was a main road. He could jump the SUV now, but there was always a chance of passing vehicles, and that might disturb his plan. He turned his headlights off, making his dark bike invisible against the sea of night around him.
The road was long, thin and didn’t have any streetlights. The only thing on either side of him was wilderness.
A decision came to him after a few minutes thought. He would wait until they were over the border, and when Ansel Draco pulled onto a quieter road, Edmund would make his move. He twisted his hand on the throttle and his bike lurched forward slightly.
Ansel Draco’s time was nearly up.
21. Kat
Consciousness came back slowly, as Kat felt the car slow and round a corner. She opened her eyes and saw that Ansel had pulled onto a forest track.
“Where are we?” She said as she stretched herself awake sleepily. “Are we there now?”
“Not quite.” Ansel said. “We’re nearly there. We have maybe ten or fifteen minutes more before we arrive.”
Kat sat up fully and stretched the last of the sleep from her body. “Sorry I feel asleep, I don’t know why I’m so tired.”
Ansel laughed. “It’s the middle of the night Kat, you can be forgiven for feeling a little tired. These hours aren’t normal for you.”
“What about you? Don’t you feel tired at all?”
Ansel shook his head. “Not really. Perks of being a vampire I guess.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes, and Kat realized Ansel kept looking in the rear view mirror.
“What’s the matter?” She asked while turning around to look out through the rear view window herself. “Is someone following us?”
“I’m not sure.” Ansel said after a thoughtful pause. “I thought a bike was following us for some time, but it seems to have gone. Since we crossed the border I haven’t seen it. It’s probably nothing.”
Kat looked around at the dark forest on all sides. “It’s so remote out here, I’d be surprised if we came across anyone else at all. It’s a little spooky actually.”
Staring into the darkness of the tree line, Kat felt a shiver pass over her. She didn’t know what she should expect from the ‘witch’ they were on their way to visit. The only idea in her mind came from films she had watched as a child,
were witches were portrayed as ugly old hags.
“Are they dangerous,” she paused, “Witches?”
“They’re powerful.” Ansel said. “Dangerous… that depends if they’re on your side or not. I haven’t had much exposure to witches, but I’ve met enough vampires that were afraid of them to be cautious.”
“Didn’t you say you met one?” Kat asked.
“I did, but she was dying. Vesper and his coven had captured her and were torturing her for some reason. I offered to free the girl, but she told me not. She told me she was dangerous.”
“Odd.” Kat said. “I wonder why she’d tell you that?”
“I think she knew her time was up and saw no sense in lying. She said she something inside of me though… it was weird. I definitely felt a little unnerved.”
“What did she look like?” Kat asked finally, unable to hold the question back any longer. “What do they look like?”
“She looked normal enough. Dark skinned. Black, frizzy hair. The most unusual things about her were her eyes. They were almost luminescent. She wore an old dress as well, it looked almost medieval. She reminded me of a gypsy in a way.”
“So no hook nose and giant wart then?”
“No.” Ansel laughed. “Nothing of the sort.”
“Your eyes are hardly normal you know.” Kat said after a brief pause. “They sparkle like rubies. Are all vampires like that?”
“Most of us, yes.” Ansel nodded, and turned his eyes on her gently. “I can offer no explanation for it, although I think it may be connected to our increased capacity for sensing things.”
“I’m nervous about meeting this witch.” Kat said. “What if she’s dangerous. What if she attacks us?”
“First of all, you’re not going to be meeting her. I want you to wait outside in the car. I know nothing about this woman, and for all I know, she could be dangerous. If I allowed harm to come to you, I could never forgive myself.”
“But my cognizance-”
“Will be no match for that of a witch. Witches are powerful magical entities and are naturally cognizant. Whatever you know, she will know in advance two fold. You being there might even appear threatening to her. You’re waiting outside Kat, and that’s final.”
Ansel pushed the words from his mouth with a finality that left no room for argument. Kat stared at him briefly with her mouth open in indignation, then she crossed her arms and turned away in a huff.
“Fine.” She grumbled under her breath. “But don’t expect me to come in and rescue you when things go south.”
“Things aren’t going to to south.” Ansel snapped back. “I’ve done nothing to wrong this witch, and I’m not going to. We’re on the same side.”
The dirt track rumbled quietly underneath as Ansel followed the dark path through the forest. All around them pines of a hundred years and more stretched up into the night sky.
All of a sudden a flash of light came in Ansel’s rear view mirror, and then it was gone again.
Ansel straightened up immediately and clenched his fingers around the wheel.
“What is it?” Kat said, sensing that something was wrong.
“I don’t know.” Ansel kept his eyes locked firmly on the rear view mirror. “I think I just saw something, but it might have been my imagination…”
All of a sudden the world around Kat shrank to a pin prick, as a flash of cognizance washed through her mind. She was in the SUV, but they were further along the track. Something came crashing down onto the front of the car, and the truck was flipping forward in the air.
The vision stopped, and the world came rushing back. Kat sat upright in the chair, gasping heavily.
“Kat what is it?!” Ansel glanced over at her, a hinge of panic on his voice.
“I had a vision.” She said through heavy breaths. “Something is about to attack, we need to brace!”
“Brace?”
Kat recognized the portion of the track she had seen in her vision. “Brace!” She shouted while thrusting her hands forward. “The car is going to flip!”
Steadying herself against the dashboard, Kat glanced up through the car window. A second later, the attack started.
She saw the briefest glimpse of two legs as they came soaring down through the air. The feet crashed against the hood of the car, landing with deft grace as the man above them crouched in sub second precision.
The force of the downward blow to the hood crushed the front of the SUV down into the floor, pulling the back tires up and into the air.
Ansel and Kat braced themselves inside the car as firmly as they could. All around them the sound of metal screeched as the car folded under the weight of the vampire who had dropped from high above. The back of the car went up and into the air, and the SUV completed one forward revolution until it came hurtling back down to earth again, skidding into the dirt track a dozen yards before it came to a stop.
The car was wrecked.
Black smoke rose from the hood, dust rose in the path of one flickering headlight. A gentle alarm sound came from somewhere within the SUV.
“Kat!”
Kat opened her eyes and stretched the pain from her joints. Ansel had unclipped his belt and was taking hers off too. “Are you okay?”
“I think I’m alright.” She responded wearily. “What the hell happened?”
Ansel glanced in the rear view mirror, seeing the silhouette of the man walking toward them. “It seems we have a visitor. Stay here, I’ll take care of this.”
Another vision of cognizance passed in front of Kat and she saw Ansel locked in hand to hand combat with a tall and bearded stranger. She reached out and grabbed Ansel.
“Stop!” She said. “He’s here to catch you. I think he’s working for them.”
“I’ll be fine.” Ansel said, tugging his hand away from Kat’s. “Stay here!”
Ansel kicked his way out of the crumbled driver side door and landed on his feet running.
“No!” Kat whispered in a panicked breath as she twisted around in her chair. She saw Ansel run head first into the path of the attacking vampire, and then they both erupted into a supersonic exchange of fists.
She pushed her door to get outside, but it was wedged in the frame. She had to get out and warn Ansel about what she’d seen in her vision. In her vision the attacking vampire had outsmarted Ansel, and Ansel had lost.
Kat shuffled over the central console and climbed out of the driver’s side door wearily. She stood up in a slow and lumbering ache. There was no visible sign of the men around her, but she caught brief glimpses of long blurred streaks of black and white, shooting across the trees above as both men fought in the air.
The brake lights from the SUV cast an eerie red glow onto the dark and forested track. She limped her way to the back of the car and tried the button for the trunk.
The door remained closed.
“Come on!” Kat pounded her fist on the trunk, taking her frustration out on the wedged door. If she wanted a chance of helping Ansel, then she had to get to the supplies they had packed into the rear of the SUV.
Kat’s heart thundered on the tide of adrenaline that was swimming inside of her. Above her, she heard the sound of wood splinter as the men hurtled one another through the air.
“Come on damn it!” Kat punched the back of the SUV again, and to her relief it popped open this time. The door opened halfway up and then it stopped. She crouched under it and strained her fingers to try and reach the box of supplies that was just out of her reach.
She strained forward with all her might, desperate to reach the supply box. Visions of the future flashed through her mind intermittently as she tried. If Kat and Ansel wanted to get out of there alive, she needed to reach that box.
It was their only hope.
22. Edmund
As soon as Edmund had followed the SUV onto the dark forested track, he knew that the time for attack had come. He followed the car in silence for a few miles to ensure absolute seclusion, and when he
felt they were in the right spot, he pulled his bike closer and got ready to make his attack.
He brought the bike to the center of the track, and straightened it. He thrust the kickstand down with his foot, in hopes that the bike would skid to a stop once he had left it. He only made one mistake. When he brought his feet up to the seat and crouched on the moving bike, his hand caught the headlight switch and he illuminated the darkness in front of him for the briefest second.
Edmund killed the lights instantly, and readied himself for the attack. He knew that the lights had signaled his presence, and there was no going back now. He pushed his feet into leather of his bike seat, coiled his legs like a spring and soared up into the air like a speeding bullet.
As he hurtled up and forward through the air, he kept his eyes trained on the distant patch of white below that was the SUV’s headlights. Edmund completed one forward rotation and lined himself up as he began his fast descent. He aimed for a spot on the ground just ahead of the SUV.
Four seconds later he came crashing down into the black hood of the car. The metal folded around his feet effortlessly as he pushed all his weight down into the engine. The attack worked better than he could have anticipated, and the car lifted off the floor completely. Edmund crouched down against the floor with one hand on the dirt track as the SUV glided over him silently. One moment later, it had flipped through the air and came crashing down back to earth.
Edmund rose and approached the back of the totaled car. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled on his gloves and clenched his fists.
The driver door burst from the wreck and onto the side of the road. The vampire inside emerged from the smoke of the wreckage and stared running at Edmund instantly.
“Ansel Draco.” He smiled and adopted a fighting stance. “It’s good to finally meet you.”