Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  “But like all moms, sooner or later you gotta cut the umbilical,” he smiled. “Look, what happened in Waterloo...we were stupid and reckless and we almost got ourselves killed. We were angry and upset and we weren’t thinking straight but now we are. We’re focused and you said it yourself; we’re good at this. We’re meant for this.”

  She looked away, annoyed at herself for letting him get to her. She had completely admitted that she believed Jerry was born to be a part of the supernatural world but she never wanted any harm to come to him. Of course, in that world, those two things came as contradictory. Her statement appeared to be completely true thought. It was actually quite frightening how quickly Jerry, Goose and even Joe had fallen into line with the new world they now lived in.

  Joe had obvious reasons. Not only his commitments to being Jerry's guardian but also his previous experiences with war and his long years of training made him able to adapt quickly to any environment, no matter how scary or hostile. The true 'wow' factor came from Jerry and Goose. Most people would have still be trying to deal with the traumatic events that they'd gone through a few months ago with therapy and maybe even medication. The boys had simply sighed up for more.

  Soph truly believed that Jerry was destined to be a part of the supernatural world but even she hadn't expected that part to be so big, loud and expansive. Goose on the other hand was simply loyal and good to his very core. He'd never abandon Jerry, not after everything they went through.

  “I promise; we’ll do it by the numbers. Anything comes up, anything at all and we’ll call for back-up straight away. Besides it looks like I got a super-monster watching my back. Chances are this thing will show up and kill whatever we go after before we can even find it. Of course, if that happens at least we might actually get a look at the damn thing.”

  It was both inspiring and painful to see that Jerry and Goose had the makings of a terrific pair or exterminators. They saved lives, fought evil and yet, this was a job no one should ever have to suffer. Sophinia clamped her eyes together for a moment and then sighed. “I’m going to regret this.”

  “No you won’t,” Jerry said looking very pleased with himself.

  He rushed back to the library and the moment Goose saw the smile on his face he knew that they were back in business.

  “She’s not serious!” Joe growled also seeing his grin.

  “We’re on a tight leash. We gotta do things by the book so no shooting yourself or trying to blow me up this time,” Jerry said still buzzing.

  “I thought we agreed that we weren’t gonna talk about that anymore,” Goose said awkwardly.

  “No, I’m not letting two go out there alone!” Joe barked. There was a very good chance that if Joe hadn't been a soldier he would have done everything in his power to stop Jerry and Goose from hunting, period. But he understood the importance of fighting battles that needed to be fought. He wasn't happy about it, but he knew why they had to.

  “You don’t like it, I get it, but if the dead puppies have taught us anything it’s that I’m never gonna be safe. Now we can either wait around for these things to come breaking through the windows or we can go out there and get the drop on them.”

  “Fine, then I’m going with you.”

  “Actually,” Sophinia said appearing at the doorway, “I was hoping I could borrow you for a bit.”

  “What?” Claire squeaked automatically causing Cass to snicker. Sophinia just ignored her.

  “Your experience in the military makes you ideal to make sure nobody else is watching Daniel. You know far more about surveillance than we do, I’d like you to make sure that we can identify anyone that could be a threat.”

  “You can’t expect me to just sit around here and -”

  “No, Joe, it’s a good idea. It’ll certainly give me piece of mind. I don’t wanna find out that some ugly assed thing with claws and an appetite has been wire-tapping my phone,” Jerry said quickly.

  “Yeah, and you can always hook up with us later,” Goose added.

  Joe gritted his teeth and looked like he wanted to yell another objection but didn’t. Even he couldn’t deny the logic of covering all your bases.

  “How long’s Eddie gonna be?” Jerry asked.

  “He’ll be at the Nearly Departed about this time tomorrow,” Soph said. “He’s working something else at the moment though so he has to leave as soon as he’s briefed you.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Billings, I think,” Rachel said.

  “Montana?”

  “Yeah, he was meeting up with some other exterminators, trading info.”

  “Okay, tomorrow it is,” shrugged Jerry.

  “It's pretty late. You mind if we camp here tonight?” Joe asked.

  Sophinia smiled in a teasing sort of way. “You should know by now that you don't have to ask.”

  “And you should know by now that after sixteen years in the military, I either ask permission or give orders,” he smiled back.

  “Of course you can. Any room you like.”

  “Thanks,” Jerry grinned. “Sounds like it's going to be a fun weekend.”

  “If we’re gonna be heading out as soon as we've talked to him, we should probably stock up first,” Goose said.

  A few minutes later they arrived at the door that led to the tunnels underneath the mansion. They were pretty extensive, probably used for smuggling during the civil war or something. It definitely made it an ideal spot for a vampire to build a house on. Lots of places to retreat from the sunlight should the anti-UV windows ever fail. After walking through the tunnels they arrived at a large steal sliding door that Sophinia opened without any effort at all.

  Behind it was what could only be described as a military armory. There were over a hundred different kinds of weapons there, all brand new and arranged neatly around the swimming pool sized room.

  “Whoa,” Jerry breathed with raised eyebrows.

  “Sweet!” Goose giggled and rushed into the room like a kid at Christmas.

  Goose immediately started checking out the heavy machine guns at the back while looking like a teenage girl that couldn’t decide which shoes to buy.

  “You pay a visit to Chechnya or something?” Jerry asked Soph.

  “I get a discount if I buy in bulk,” she shrugged.

  “Whooooa!”

  They looked over to see Goose picking up an RPG like it was a super model. He was so excited that he actually started jumping up and down on the spot.

  “You’re not actually gonna let him keep that, are you?” Sophinia asked looking a little worried.

  “He’ll throw a tantrum if I don’t,” Jerry sighed. He really would. It would be like watching a mother trying to control her screaming child in the middle of a supermarket after refusing to let it have the candy it wanted.

  CHAPTER 6 – BULLET BALLET

  Sophinia's Mansion – Sioux Falls.

  “Djinn,” Jerry said moving his pawn forward.

  “Djinn?” Sophinia repeated while studying his move.

  Poker was not an option when Joe and Rachel were around. Joe could instantly tell when someone was bluffing while Rach could just read your mind and know what cards you had so it sort of took the fun out of the game. Chess however was a game of strategy and intelligence. Rachel could still beat everyone at it which is why Jerry only ever played her over the phone or Skype. If there was enough distance between them then she couldn't read his moves which made it much more fair than most games they could play. Goose and Cass weren't the chess playing type but Claire and Sophinia were.

  “Yeah, djinn, you know, genies. I've been reading about them.”

  She took his pawn with her rook. “I know what your thinking and the answer is no,” she said pleasantly.

  “So they can't grant wishes?” Jerry asked moving his bishop to take her rook.

  “No. They can't. Illusions are their specialty. They can make people think that they're wildest dreams have come true but it's not real.”
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  “So, tracking one down and asking it to grant me the wish of knowledge about my blood is a no-go?” he sighed and Soph used her queen to take one of his knights.

  “I'm afraid so. If you did that, the djinn would simply show you what you wanted the most. It would make you unbelievably happy but it wouldn't be the truth. Besides, I think it's been about fifty years since a djinn was in America. They don't usually leave the Middle East.”

  “Great,” he frowned before shifting his bishop forward. “Check.”

  “Daniel, I have absolutely no doubt that we will discover the truth about your blood. But the answers were never going to come over night,” she moved her king out of his bishops range.

  He countered by moving his rook forward. “Three months Soph. It's been three months and we're still nowhere on a cure, nowhere on answers, nowhere on anything.”

  “That's not true,” she smiled. “You've learned more in the last three months than you probably have in the last thirteen years. You can probably fight better than ninety percent of the humans on the planet and you're only getting better. You're aware of things that very few people have knowledge of and, my personal favorite...you've made a lot of new friends.”

  When she said it like that he couldn't help but feel uplifted. It was true. So much had changed for him over the last few months and a lot of it wasn't at all bad. True, he had quite a few new scars, he'd lost people he'd loved and he'd probably never have a proper nights sleep again but there were some highlights as well.

  But no matter how good or bad it got, there was always a dark reminder in the back of his mind that this was only the beginning.

  “You're right,” he admitted as she moved her knight. “And now that I'm here, I don't think I'd ever be able to go back to a 'normal' life. I'm not even sure if I'd want to.”

  “So, I have sold you on the idea that your were born for this?”

  “I think it's more like I've evolved,” Jerry smirked and moved his queen forward.

  “Well, that's just as inspiring Daniel,” she smiled while taking one of his pawns with her rook.

  “Are you ever going to call me Jerry?”

  “Sorry, a few centuries of being formal makes it a hard habit to kick.”

  “Well, I thought a few centuries of playing this game would have made you better at it,” he grinned and moved his bishop. “Checkmate.”

  “Maybe you're just very good at it,” she said conceding defeat with a friendly nod.

  “Maybe,” he shrugged and stood up. “I'm gonna get some shuteye.” As he walked past her he leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow Momma bear.”

  Her face was filled with joy from his little gesture.

  It wasn't sun-filled but it was humid the next day. Storm clouds were brewing in the skies above the mansion. It always happened. You can't have this many humid days without getting the occasional pressure drop that usually resulted in a heavy but short lived downpour. The rain hadn't started yet but it was definitely on it's way.

  Still, this was ideal weather for vampires. It meant they could actually go outside without being burned alive which was comforting. And since they didn't need to leave for the bar for another few hours, Cass decided it was time for some real practice.

  And by real she meant live ammunition.

  They set up a large plexiglass bulletproof screen outside so that they didn't risk shooting the mansion or the spectators and carried over a small black case. Sophinia, oddly enough, came over with a large glass of ice water which she didn't seem to be drinking at all.

  Jerry knelt down and clicked the box open as Joe, Rachel, Sophie, Goose and Cass took position behind the glass shield.

  “Walther PPK,” Jerry said pulling one of the pistols out. “Not that I've got any problem with this particular model of fire-arm but why are we using the Bond gun?”

  “Because,” Claire said taking out the other pistol and pulling out the empty clip, “If you do actually manage to hit me, I would prefer it was with a smaller caliber bullet.”

  She pulled out a box of blanks and started loading them into the clip.

  “Then why don't I use blanks as well?”

  There was no way they were going to risk accidentally putting a bullet through Jerry's chest but vampires had no problem healing for a gun shot wound, provided that it wasn't a silver bullet.

  “No, we've got to see how your accuracy is. And these blanks are loud and make a pretty big flash, it's going to be distracting. You'll blink automatically and that can be a problem. You've gotta learn to stay focused even when guns are going off next to your head. Besides, you know how vampires are. They like to get up close and personal in a fight so you've gotta learn how to shoot them when they are right next to you. They're easier to hit from a distance. You can beat their speed by leading the target but when they are right in front of you, all they gotta do is move a few inches to the right or left and you'll miss them.”

  “Fair enough,” Jerry shrugged and started loading simple lead rounds into his gun.

  “How do you guys even know Bullet Ballet?” Goose asked. “I mean, you two rarely, if ever, use guns.”

  “We're vampires sweetie,” Cass smiled in a boastful sort of way. “We rarely, if ever, need to use guns.”

  Once both weapons were loaded and cocked, Jerry and Claire stood facing each other with only about three feet of space between them.

  “Alright, now, don't go easy. Do your absolute best to try and hit me,” Claire said looking very serious.

  “You got it.”

  Jerry took a deep breath and exhaled just as Claire raised her gun at him. He used is left to knock it aside as she fired. Had it been a real bullet it would have sailed over his shoulder but she was right. The bang and the flash had caused him to blink a tense up slightly. He quickly took aim at her chest but she ducked as he pulled the trigger and then spun around, managing to latch her hand around his throat.

  That was seen as a kill, since she could have snapped it like a wishbone. She let go and stepped back.

  “See what I mean?”

  “Yeah, you were right,” Jerry admitted. “Christian Bale made this shit look easy.”

  “Try again, move around more. When you're moving that fast, there's no thought time. Just instinct. Listen to it, it's not always pretty but it's always right.”

  They took position again. This time Jerry made the first move, firing at her arm, hoping that she would try and dodge but end up moving into the path of the next bullet. She went the other way and fired off a round at his head. Jerry ducked and spun on the spot, trying to catch her in the stomach but she moved again. She reached for his throat again but this time he managed to knock her hand away. He fired again but she shove his arm aside causing the round to miss and connect with the plexiglass shield.

  The impact caused Joe, Goose and Rachel to jolt backwards while Cass and Soph just kept watching with interest.

  Jerry and Claire's gunfire tango continued until she fired and he wasn't quick enough to dodge it. The imaginary bullet hit him in the stomach. He looked annoyed at how difficult he was finding this but Claire seemed impressed. Blades were much easier in a close-quarters battle. Swinging, slicing and sticking a vamp when it was right in front of you wasn't difficult because as she'd said, most of them charged right at you and made themselves easy targets for decapitation. Bullets were a lot smaller and moved a lot faster. Even the smallest miscalculation and you'd miss.

  They went at it again, and again Jerry was 'killed'. This time because he actually ran out of bullets. He argued that in a real fight he'd have plenty of back-up weapons but for the sake of this training, it didn't matter. He had to learn how to do this in the event that he was in a fight with only a hand gun to protect him.

  After reloading they took position again. Although Jerry was still angry at his lack of skill, the others could see that he was actually getting faster with every fight.

  They went at it again, this time
with both of them shifting positions, spinning around each other and firing whenever possible. Claire gun was coming so close to his head that all he could hear was a horrible ringing noise and the mussel flashes were still causing his eyes to blink and squint. It was pretty obvious why they called it Bullet Ballet. It really was some kind of dance.

  Claire fired right at his head and Jerry shifted around just in time to feel the heat of the barrel on his skin. He spun and fired blind and suddenly Claire yelled out in pain. Her gun fell to the ground but she didn't.