Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  “They got their claws, I got mine,” Jerry shrugged.

  “If you painted your face green, you’d look like a ninja turtle,” Cass smirked.

  “Bite me!” he really needed to stop saying that to vampires.

  “Let’s go,” Claire said and began leading the way. The group moved through the woods guns and fangs at the ready. They approached as silently as they could but doing that made them realize just how silent it was out there.

  No birds, no insects only the faint sound of planes taking off in the distance. Something had driven all the wild life away. To say it was making them nervous would be an understatement.

  “We're getting close,” Cass said in a hushed voice. “Start doing the ninja thing,” which in other words meant: shut the hell up.

  After a few more minutes of walking they spotted lights ahead of them. The group stopped at Claire’s hand signal. She indicated that she was going to take a look by herself and that the rest of them should stay there. Jerry didn’t like the idea of letting her go alone but obeyed. She was damn good at the whole ninja thing after all.

  She disappeared into the shadows of the trees while the others just watched. She really was like some kind of specter. The way she just vanished like that was kind of creepy. What really surprised them was when she came back without even trying to be quiet. Her face was covered in shock. “You’re not gonna believe this!” she breathed.

  “What the hell happened here?” Goose blurted as soon as they arrived at the trailer park site.

  Bloodied chunks of flesh, severed body parts and debris littered the place. All the dead people there were naked. Someone had killed the entire pack before they’d arrived.

  “Well, this is a curve ball,” Cass said looking at the carnage.

  There were several trailers gathered around a larger one in the center. Two of them had huge holes in the sides of them and one of them had been completely blasted apart. The main one in the middle was the only one that didn’t appear damaged.

  “What do you think, rival pack?” Larz asked Claire.

  “Nah, looks more like a freakin’ samurai took em out. These guys have been sliced to ribbons,” Cass said.

  “I count seven,” Claire said, all business. “That’s the whole pack minus one.”

  “I count eight,” Goose said. He was looking up at the top of a tree where what was left of number eight was hanging from a branch. It was a girl, no older than sixteen. She had been complete cut in half and most of her intestines had fallen out in a sloppy pile at the base of the trunk.

  “How the hell did she get up there?” Jerry asked.

  “How the hell did they all fall into the same blender?” Cass shrugged.

  “Check the surrounding area. Look for tracks, scents, anything,” Claire ordered the other vampires and they all shot away in different directions.

  “We’ll check out the trailer,” Jerry said walking away before Claire grabbed his arm bringing him to a halt. She nodded to her sister who walked over to the trailer before Claire released him. The wolves were dead but Claire didn't want to take any chances. Cass took a quick look through the window of the trailer before nodding the boys over.

  They checked the handle but it was locked. Jerry started pulling out a lock picking kit but Cass just decided to kick the door in. He put the kit away giving her an annoyed look which she just smiled at.

  It was dark inside and eerily quiet. They pulled out flashlights and slowly walked through the trailer with guns ready just in case something decided to jump out at them which was pretty customary in their line of work.

  “Raaaah!” Cass suddenly yelled from behind them causing Jerry and Goose to jump. They both turned and looked at her with aggravated faces. She was giggling. “Oh, lighten up. There’s nobody here.”

  “You don’t do that when we’re walking into a creepy place for the first time!” Jerry hissed back through gritted teeth.

  Cass’s smirk suddenly vanished and she looked confused and worried. “Actually Jerry...you’ve been here before,” she said looking at something over his shoulder.

  They turned around to see dozens of photographs stuck to the back wall of the trailer. Upon closer inspection they immediately noticed that all the pictures were of Jerry.

  “Son of a bitch! They’ve been full on Eagle Eyeing me!”

  “Dude, did you just use a Shia Labeouf reference?” Goose asked with raised eyebrows.

  “What? I liked that movie!”

  “We really need to talk,” Goose shook his head sounding half serious.

  Jerry brushed off Goose’s comments and went back to the photos. After looking at a few of the pictures they saw that many of them were taken during the day at the school and at Jerry's house. Others were of Jerry and Goose leaving The Nearly Departed.

  “So, that’s why they were chugging hearts. They were getting their strength up, getting ready to come after you,” Cass said.

  “Damn. With all the vamp crap we’ve had to deal with, it didn’t occur to me that someone could be watching us during the day,” Goose admitted.

  “Yeah, and we’re not around to make sure you’re not being shadowed,” Cass added.

  “Hold up,” Goose said with furled eyebrows. “Group of nasty assed monster gets dusted right before they are about to go after Jerry by some unknown killing machine. Is this starting to sound familiar to anybody else?”

  They all knew what he was talking about. The same thing that wiped out half of Black Forrest.

  “Yeah,” Jerry nodded, “better call Soph...tell her our mystery guest is back.”

  They walked out of the trailer and found Claire kneeling over a severed arm, examining the slice like it was nothing more than a crossword puzzle.

  “We found -”

  “I could hear you,” Claire interrupted before Jerry started to explain. Vampire senses had their perks. “We’re gonna have to figure out some way of keeping you safe during the day.”

  “Great. More bodyguards, I’m starting to think you guys live in my ass,” Jerry huffed.

  “Quit your bitchin’ Jerry,” Cass said.

  “What you got?” Goose asked Claire.

  “This wound has been cauterized; all the blood vessels have been fused. And look how clean that cut is, right through the bone,” she said holding the arm up so Goose could see. She was right. It was a perfectly clean slice. “No chips or fractures. Whatever did this was sharp, moving very fast and burning white hot.”

  Behind them, Cass lit up two cigarettes with her Zippo and handed one to Jerry. He took it before leaning closer to look at the arm. Jerry didn’t really want to look at a chopped limb but checking out the gooey remains came with the job. “You heard of anything that can do that?”

  “A rail gun,” she shrugged. “I got no clue.”

  “I want a rail gun,” Goose mumbled to himself.

  “Well, It looks like Team Jacob made the cut but not in a good way...Larz,” Jerry shouted to the vampire that was returning from the tree line. “Find anything?”

  “Does nothing count?”

  “Not really.”

  “Then nothing. The only tracks and smells that we could find belonged to the wolves,” he reported. “Whatever did this is like a damn magician or something.”

  “So that’s the theory we’re running with; Houdini’s monster hunting brother?” Jerry said in his usual cynical tone before taking in a lung of smoke.

  Cass snorted. “Nah, to have a theory we need to have some vague conception of actual information. So far all we know about this thing is that it’s a high rolling super-freak that seems to get its jolly’s by killing douche buckets that are targeting you.”

  “Okay, well if this is the Judgment Day version of the Terminator that we’re dealing with, why won’t it show itself?” Jerry asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, if this thing is protecting me then I owe it dinner and a movie but I don’t know guys, this is a little too shady for my liking.”

  “
You think it could be the chick that healed you in the hospital?” Goose wondered.

  “That’s where the Vegas money’s at, but I agree, why would it want to keep us in the dark?” Claire said.

  Cass decided to say what they were all thinking. “Maybe it’s got something to hide?”

  A few moments of silence followed as they all contemplated the idea that the mystery guest could be bad news. Goose turned his attention away from that line of thought when he spotted a small red petrol canister near the trailer. He picked it up and wiggled it at the others. “Who wants hot dogs?”

  “Nah, can’t burn them. It’ll stink the whole county up and I don’t wanna smell like barbequed mutt for the next week. Gotta bury them,” Claire said.

  “Told you we should have brought shovels,” Cass mumbled.

  Luckily they managed to find a few shovels around the camp site and having a group of people with super strength around meant the graves got dug pretty quickly. Soon Cass was standing in a hole about four feet deep still digging.

  “These dudes are all naked and the moon's up so this thing managed to take them out while they were turned,” Goose said dragging a headless corpse over and putting it next to a pile of severed limbs. Werewolves always reverted back to human form when they died.

  “Looks that way,” Cass agreed while shifting about forty kilos of dirt with ease.

  “What has the power to take out a bunch of nine-hundred pound wolves at the same time?”

  “I have no idea but it’s been my experience that anything with that kind of juice should be put on the ‘not to be screwed with’ list,” she said.

  “I guess all dogs don’t go to heaven,” he said kneeing next to the hole. “That’s gonna need to be a little deeper.”

  Cass looked up at him with annoyance. She had just done all the work after all. “You wanna give me a hand?”

  “Sure,” he smiled picking up a severed arm from the pile and offered it to her.

  “You’re hilarious,” she hissed.

  “They’re coming to get you Barbra,” he said wiggling the hand in her face and doing a crappy Night of the Living Dead impression.

  “Dude, put the arm down, you’re having way too much fun with that thing,” Jerry said flatly while walking over. “Let’s get lady and her tramps into the ground and get outta here.”

  CHAPTER 5 – CASE WORKERS

  Sioux Falls – South Dakota

  As usual, the mansion was stunningly beautiful and warm and not just because of the temperature. Vampires were cold blooded, like reptiles, so they tended to prefer the warmth which is why much of the building felt like a sauna most of the time. It was so welcoming that sometimes it was difficult to leave. Polished wooden furniture was counter-balanced by high-tech gadgets like intercoms and flat screen TV’s. In the library, which had only increased the amount of books it held, Sophinia was sitting in a large armchair with her wings spread loosely behind her.

  She had been pretty pissed that Jerry and Goose had run off to go after the wolves but that had faded and she was much more concerned with the fact that the mystery super beast had returned.

  “So, army of vampires and now a pack of werewolves. This thing doesn’t seem to care what it kills,” Rachel said. She was sitting at the large oak table at the back of the library with about two dozen books laid out in front of her. As usual, she looked like she should be on the cover of a Disney kids magazine. She was always equipped with fashion labels, manicures and perfect treatment for her blond hair which fell below her shoulders. She seemed so out of place sitting around a bunch of supernatural creatures, but here she was. She was pretty much the brains of this crazy little band of misfits. “In fact, it almost seems to be the perfect exterminator.”

  “Yeah, and it carries a burning hot katana or something,” Claire added. She and her sis were leaning against one of the book shelves while Jerry and Goose were drinking beers just next to them.

  “I’m starting to like this thing,” Goose smiled.

  A moment later the library doors opened and Joe walked in. He was wearing a blue checked shirt over a white t-shirt and an old pair of jeans, just like Jerry. His dark hair was a little messy as he probably hadn't had time to do anything with it after hearing about what had happened. A small smile curled up in the corner of Claire’s mouth when she saw him. He nodded to her, clearly relieved that she was alright. That friendliness vanished quickly.

  “You guys have fun at the pound?” he said glaring at Jerry.

  “Oh, it was a howling good time,” he punned.

  “I swear, I’m gonna have to low-jack you!” Joe huffed.

  “These things were killing people Joe, what were we supposed to do?”

  “Jerry, I know how you feel about this but that doesn’t mean you should chase every evil thing you can find over Niagara in a barrel. In case you haven’t realized, using your spare time to hunt supernatural creatures that aren’t even supposed to exist isn’t a very healthy way to spend your childhood.”

  “At least we’re not on drugs,” Goose shrugged and Jerry nodded his agreement.

  “You’re damn lucky those mutts were already dead!”

  “Yeah and they gave us the heads up that monster Rambo is back in town,” Goose said.

  “Any headway on identifying it?” Joe asked.

  “Nada. Everything we find out about this thing just makes it more of a mystery.”

  “But we’re sure it’s protecting you?”

  “Seventy-five percent. Either this thing has a crush on me or it’s just wiping out the competition,” Jerry shrugged.

  “There’s a comforting thought,” Joe worried.

  “Well, I gotta admit, I’m completely stumped on this one,” Rachel said slamming one the books shut and looking frustrated.

  “A mystery monster wrapped in a bloody enigma,” Goose nodded. “I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that it’s friendly, whatever it is.”

  Sophinia leaned forward looking very focused. “If this creature is an ally it’ll certainly have my undying gratitude but it’s been my experience that crossing your fingers and hoping for the best can be a serious mistake. We need to be absolutely sure that its intentions are good and that it isn’t a threat.”

  “True that, but with no workable leads we haven’t even reached square one yet,” Jerry said before taking a gulp of beer.

  They all had to agree with that.

  “Hmm, not a bad idea Goose,” Rachel said reading his mind from across the room.

  “What?” they looked to him for an explanation.

  “Well, we’ve exhausted pretty much all of our sources right? Maybe the other side of the line has heard something cooking?” Goose said.

  It only took a second for the rest of them to catch on to what he was suggesting.

  “What, you mean find some nasty supernatural critter and get it to spill its guts before we spill its guts,” Jerry nodded at the idea. “I’m game.”

  “Sounds good to me. I mean, we’ve gotta take those things out anyway right? Might be two birds, one stone,” Cass agreed.

  “I’ll contact Eddie, I believe he has a few cases that need to be worked at the moment,” Sophinia said standing up and heading for the door.

  “Hey,” Jerry said moving in front of her. “You know you’re taking us off the bench for this, right?”

  “Ha! After Waterloo,” Joe snorted.

  “No,” Sophinia said simply and walked past him.

  “Wait, Soph, come on,” he said chasing after her.

  She didn’t stop, slow down or look at him as she walked into another room that looked a little bit like an office. There was a desk with computers on it and a few filing cabinets on the wall.

  “My decision is no Daniel,” she said sternly. “That’s final.”

  “Soph, you can’t keep us away from this stuff forever,” he whined.

  “I can try.”

  “Please, listen,” he begged and she finally turned around to face
him. She didn't look him in the eye though. Staring at Jerry's jade green eyes occasionally had a kind of hypnotic effect on Supernatural creatures. They still didn't know why. “I know you’re trying to protect us and it’s great. You’ve been so good to us.” She folded her arms as his compliments bounced off her. “To be honest, you’re the closest thing to a mother I’ve ever had.”

  Sophinia was caught off guard by that one and she couldn’t hide the fact that what he just said really meant something to her. Either Jerry had perfected the way of lying with earnest sentiment or he was being completely honest. Part of her hoped that it was the latter, the other half believed it. The fact that he no longer focused on her wings or that she wasn’t human was exactly the type of thing she’d always hoped for. And it was true that she’d developed a maternal protective feeling for Jerry and Goose.