by J. Thorn
Dax rolled to the wall. He sat up, grabbing his shoulder and wincing. He heard a click, making him think it had been dislocated. Before he could react, though, the Screamer bent down and picked him up again. This time, the creature took Dax by the throat, sliding him up the wall until his feet came off the ground.
Both of Dax’s hands went to his throat, trying to pry open the monster’s fingers—but it was useless. Dax swung his legs and kicked at the air. He became lightheaded then, and his grip on the monster’s hands weakened.
Do not let go, Jackson.
While his vision blurred and his lungs burned, the voice inside Dax’s head remained clear.
“I can’t fight him.”
With your physical strength, you will not defeat the monster.
The hold on Dax’s throat tightened as if the vampire could hear Papa Midnight speaking to him.
Use your inner strength.
Dax stared into the Screamer’s glowing, orange eyes. He looked deep into the creature, focusing all of his energy on it. Dax felt something take hold, and then the Screamer’s eyes widened.
“Let me go!”
The vampire opened his hand, and Dax dropped to the ground. His hands went straight to his throat as he gasped for air. The Screamer hadn’t moved. He still stood above Dax, his arm out toward the wall and his hand still open.
With his back to the wall, Dax pulled both of his knees to his chest and kicked as hard as he could. His heels hit the vampire’s knees at the same time, pushing them backward with a sickening crack. The Screamer yelped as it dropped to the floor.
Dax stood, the head of the creature now at his waist. Biting his lip, Dax grabbed each side of the vampire’s head and twisted. The vampire toppled over onto its side.
Still catching his breath, Dax ran to the door. He hoped there was still time to save Chuck.
The door slammed shut in his face as he arrived. Dax grabbed the handle to open it, but it was locked. He put his shoulder into it and pushed, ignoring the pain threatening to knock him unconscious, but it still wouldn’t open.
A strange wind blew through the room as he struggled against it, bringing with it an ominous feeling. Dax pulled away from the door and stood up straight, still facing it. He felt the new presence in the room.
“Greetings, Dax.”
Dax swallowed as he turned around.
Chapter 46
The shadow stood in front of the large window. His long hair blew in the wind, as did the tail of his trench coat. Even in the dim light, the vampire’s power was unmistakable.
“Serafino.”
“Have you already forgotten our agreement?”
“Things change.”
The vampire clicked his tongue. “You made a big mistake, escaping. And you destroyed more of our soldiers.”
“Maybe you should create better ones. If I can beat them, what will your faction do when the Masters arrive?”
“Do not pretend that you understand the Masters and the Final Awakening. You are nothing but a mere mortal with an accidental ability.”
“And you really think your faction can withstand a war with the other three?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Jackson. Perhaps you have forgotten that I have the children. You promised to help us defeat the other factions. We had an agreement.”
“Fuck our agreement,” Dax said. “I’m never going to help you.”
“I can have the children turned with a single command.”
“It won’t matter. I’m going to kill you before that happens.”
Serafino smiled. The vampire slipped out of his jacket and tossed it over the chair in front of him.
Dax kneeled and picked up a stake off of the floor. It had been made from the leg of a chair, and Dax knew it was strong enough to hold up in a fight against Serafino.
“I won’t kill you, Dax. I can’t. The faction needs you to defeat the others.”
He ignored the veiled plea from Serafino and put both his hands on the stake. “You’ll either kill me or die by my hand.”
Serafino clicked his tongue and several Screamers ran into the room, including Yvonne. They circled the two combatants, but didn’t move in on Dax.
The vampire jumped, and drove the heel of his boot into Dax’s chest, knocking him into the wall and forcing the stake from his hand. Dax rolled over, gasping and looking for his weapon.
“You’re weak and outnumbered. Why are you doing this to yourself?”
Climbing to his feet, Dax put a hand on his bruised ribs and shook his head. “I’ll jump out of that window before I let you have me.”
Two of the Screamers shot up, glancing from Serafino to Dax. They moved in front of the open windows.
“Fuck,” Dax said, leaning back against the wall.
“They’re going to beat you until you’re near death. I don’t need you uninjured and in good health, I only need you alive.”
Three screamers approached, their eyes pulsing with orange energy. One of them was Yvonne, who had a hunting knife pointed at Dax’s midsection.
“Make him bleed, but do not kill him, Lieutenant,” Serafino said to her.
Dax closed his eyes, knowing he was outnumbered. Maybe this was it. Maybe Papa Midnight had been wrong about him.
“Nah, fuck that shit.”
Dax opened his eyes to see Chuck staggering into the room, his right eye swollen shut and his t-shirt covered in blood. He winked at Dax.
“You can’t beat them, Chuck.”
“Ain’t tryin’ to.”
Yvonne lunged at Dax. Chuck jumped in front of her, absorbing the blade in his abdomen. Dax pushed Yvonne aside, yanked the knife out of Chuck’s stomach, and slashed the throats of the Screamers on each side. They hit the floor in successive thumps. He then turned and plunged the knife into Yvonne’s throat. She fell to her knees, drowning in her own blood.
“I enjoyed that one,” Serafino said with a small smile. He shook his head and looked at Dax. “The faction has an army. You can’t kill us all.”
Dax looked at Chuck on the floor, motionless with blood pooling on the floor. He shook his head, determined not to let the grief and anger cloud his judgement and impair his ability to fight the vampire.
But he knew Serafino was right. Dax had accepted his fate… or at least that was what he would make the vampire believe.
“Okay, okay. So nobody else needs to die.” Dax tossed the bloody knife at Serafino’s feet.
“You’re giving up, just like that? I find that odd and inconsistent with your feelings toward me.”
“What other choice to I have?” Dax asked.
“None,” said Serafino. “You are out of options.”
The Screamers still in the room took a step back, obeying Serafino’s unspoken command.
“Come to me, Jackson.”
Dax staggered toward Serafino, truly exhausted and injured. He wanted nothing more than to rest. Except that he had one last task to execute. Literally.
The vampire smiled and opened his arms as if awaiting an embrace. Dax dropped his left hand to his calf, falling to his knee as if bowing before the vampire.
“Look at me,” said Serafino.
He lifted his chin and stared into the monster’s fiery, orange eyes. “I give up.”
Serafino leaned over and, as he did, Dax pulled forth the broken golf club shaft that Chuck had found, and he drove the sharpened end up into Serafino’s chest. Dax had grabbed it off the floor after the Screamer had stabbed Chuck.
The vampire froze, his eyes so bright that Dax had to close his own to keep from being blinded. Then, Serafino roared with such animosity that the remaining unbroken windows cracked and fell into the floodwaters below.
“No, no,” Serafino said, blood beginning to flow from his mouth. “You can’t do this. The faction…”
Dax stood and put all of his body weight into the broken golf club, driving Serafino back and pinning him to the wall like an insect on a spreading board. He
stepped away then, watching Serafino thrash—his arms and legs kicking, but his torso fixed to the wall with the spike.
The other Screamers in the room had stopped moving, standing in place as if frozen in time. Serafino’s eyes dulled within moments, and the orange glow faded to a dirty yellow. His mouth moved, but no words came—only more blood. He dropped his chin to his chest and stopped moving, but Dax knew better than to make assumptions about these creatures. He waited, and Serafino’s head popped up, this time with his eyes turned normal, human.
“Grazie.”
Dax didn’t speak much Italian, but he knew the meaning of the single word. He nodded at Serafino as the light in the human’s eyes extinguished, for the final time.
Chapter 47
At first, Dax thought the groan had come from Serafino, that the vampire-turned-human had still not died. But then he realized the sound had come from Chuck who lay on the ground, now clutching at his stomach.
“Holy shit. You’re alive!”
“Motherfucker stabbed me.”
Dax smiled, kneeled next to him, and moved the man’s hand out of the way so that he could see the wound. Most of Chuck’s shirt had been torn away, and his intestines spilled out over his belt. Dax’s hands quivered as he started to remove his own shirt. As he began to pull it off, Chuck grabbed onto his arm.
“I gotta apply pressure to it,” Dax said.
Chuck shook his head. “Nah, you don’t.” The words had come out in a weak stutter.
Dax cocked his head, but he realized while staring into the man’s eyes that Chuck knew he was dying.
“Why did you do that?” Dax asked.
“They was gonna kill you. If they kill you, then everyone’s dead. You like the Messiah, remember?”
Dax took Chuck’s hand and squeezed it.
“After all the bad shit I done, this was what I had to do to make it right. I hurt a lot of people, Dax. You know that.”
“Don’t think about that right now.”
“I can’t help but think about all the people I hurt, man.”
“Think about how you helped my sister.”
A big smile appeared on Chuck’s face. “I’m gonna see her soon.”
Dax was unable to hold back the tears now. Chuck gripped his hand.
“That asshole might be dead, but they ain’t gonna stop looking for you. They need you. Go find those kids. They’ve got to be scared and alone.”
“I will. I’ll find them.” Dax wiped his cheek.
“One more thing.”
“Anything.”
“I know you can’t bury me in the ground, but I love this city. Put me back on the streets where I belong.”
Dax nodded.
Chuck’s grip on Dax’s hand loosened. His head fell to the side, and his eyes glazed over.
Dax exhaled and let go of Chuck’s hand. He rolled his palm over Chuck’s eyes, closing them. Then he stood and grabbed Chuck’s ankles, dragging his body to the open window and then staring out into the night.
“Goodbye, brother.”
Placing his hands under Chuck’s back, Dax rolled the body out of the window and into the floodwater.
Dax stood then. He placed his hand on the wall, holding himself up as he caught his breath. His entire body ached, and his shoulder hurt more with each passing minute.
“Papa, are you there?”
No response.
“I know you didn’t up and disappear because I killed Serafino and his Screamers.”
You have to run, Jackson.
“What? Why?”
From inside of the building came a howl. Dax spun toward the door.
“What was that?”
You must get out of there. Now.
“I thought killing Serafino meant destroying his followers!”
The scream came again.
Run!
Dax faced the window again. He almost leaped, but then realized what a mistake that would be. He had to get back to his boat.
He ran back to the door and raced down the hallway to the staircase. When he opened the door, though, he heard boots coming up the stairs and saw the orange glow reflected off of the wall. Screamers came around the corner and looked up at him.
“Shit!”
The creatures snarled, and Dax slammed the door. He ran back down the corridor, leaping over bodies and debris. The Screamers crashed through the door and ran faster. At the end of the hall, he turned left, then exploded through a door on the right.
Office furniture lay sprawled across the room, and Dax had to maneuver around it to get to the window. The vampires continued to scream as they drew nearer.
Dax picked up an office chair and hurled it at the window. It bounced off, but the glass had cracked. He picked it back up and threw it again. A third throw shattered the glass, and the chair fell into the water below. Dax looked over the edge to see the boat one story below, still tied up where he’d left it.
The vampires screamed—closing in on him.
He didn’t have time to figure out who was coming for him. He had killed Serafino, hadn’t he?
Dax jumped out of the window, aiming for the water next to the small fishing boat below.
With a deep plunge into the water, Dax used his arms to swim to the surface. He grabbed the side of the boat and pulled himself up and over the edge. He withdrew the knife next and cut the telephone cord that held the boat in place. Then he hurried to the rear of the boat and sat next to the motor.
“Please start.”
He pulled the cord, and nothing happened.
“Come on!”
Above him, the Screamers yelled.
“Fuck!” He pulled the starter cord as hard as he could.
The motor turned over and started.
Glass fell into the boat then, and Dax looked up to see the Screamers looking over the side.
He throttled the motor and the boat took off.
One of the Screamers leaped from the window, landing in the middle of the boat. Dax quickly cut the throttle, sending the off-balance Screamer into the water.
Another vampire jumped, but it didn’t have the ability he’d seen in some of the others. Its hands smacked the back of the boat and the thing fell into the water—screaming as it tried to stay afloat.
One last Screamer stood in the window, but it didn’t jump. Instead, it stared down at Dax as he sped away.
Chapter 48
Dax gazed out at the skyline from Lake Pontchartrain.
Fire continued to ravage the buildings, sending what was left of New Orleans into the smoke-filled sky. The people, the music, the culture—gone. The Big Easy was now nothing more than a flooded bowl occupied by Screamers.
How had he failed? Papa Midnight had assured him that killing Serafino would end the madness. If all the Screamers in the city had been controlled by Serafino, then how—
I am afraid that I was mistaken, Jackson.
“Serafino isn’t the Master.”
No. He was a high-ranking lieutenant in the North American faction, but he was not the Master.
Dax shook his head. “Are you saying there are others who are more powerful than him?”
Yes. Four, to be exact. And the leaders of the other vampire factions are headed this way, so you must leave.
“Where am I supposed to go? I don’t know where the kids are.”
They are not here. For now, that is all we know. I will help you find them.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
You must. There is much more for you to learn, and I will teach you along the way. For now, you must get out of the city.
Dax looked back at New Orleans one last time. The Crescent City had been the place he’d called home for his entire life—other than his stint at Elayn Hunt Correctional Facility. He didn’t think his home would ever recover. And what if cities all over the country looked like New Orleans? Would the United States ever be the same?
“I guess I’m going to find out,” he said, answering h
is own unspoken question.
He turned up the throttle and navigated the boat out of the city.
Dax passed the place where he had found Papa Midnight, but that section of the Causeway was gone. Dax sped further along on the lake until the motor ran out of gas. Then he floated to a place where the Causeway stuck out from the floodwater before he stood up in the boat and reached up to grab the guard rail so that he could pull himself onto the bridge.
Dozens of cars sat abandoned on the Causeway, giving him many vehicles to choose from. Dax hiked down the middle of the road, looking into each vehicle as he passed. A few hundred feet down the road, Dax stopped and smiled.
Running his hand over its black hood, Dax admired a custom Jeep Wrangler. With the big tires, it would maneuver through the standing water easily, and the removable soft top would come in handy later when it wasn’t raining.
When he pulled the handle, the door opened. He checked the back seat, but saw nothing. No keys in the ignition, either—surprise. He didn’t bother to check anywhere else for keys. That shit only worked in movies. Instead, he stuck his head underneath the steering wheel, pulled out the flashlight, and got to work.
It took longer than usual, but he managed to hotwire the Jeep’s engine. Then he sat in the driver’s seat and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Please have gas.”
Dax reached down and turned on the lights. The dash came to life, and he looked at the gas gauge.
Three-quarters of a tank. Dax sighed in relief.
He threw the Jeep into gear, but then paused.
“So where exactly am I going?”
For now, I want you to focus on driving, Papa Midnight said. There is still a chance that you might encounter more vampires. Drive until morning, and then we will talk.
So with vampires on his trail and the city burning, Dax did the only thing he could do. He hit the gas and watched the ruins of New Orleans fade away in his rearview mirror.