Blood Reign

by Harvey W. McCarthy

  "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," he joked as the burning sting of her slap waned.

  She slapped him harder. His lip split from the force of the blow. Blood dripped from his lip. He never took his eyes off of his foe. Mikhaeli screamed. Anger pumped through her veins. She leapt forward. She growled. She licked the blood from his face. She stuck her tongue in his mouth. He resisted her advances. She dragged her fingernails down his body.

  "Be my prince," she demanded.

  "No," he said flatly.

  "Be one of us. The knowledge in the tomes is unlimited. I can restore you," she said.

  "I am not one of you," he said flatly again.

  She slapped him harder. He turned his head back to face her. She rubbed the spot on her neck where his fangs had penetrated her body. She had been in control for nearly three centuries. She was the one who dominated her victims. For the first time in her vampire life, he had taken away her control. Instead of infuriating her, it had aroused her. She wanted this man.

  "Since you won't be one of us, I am giving you back to your people. I am trading you for the tome," she said angrily.

  "Sure you will," he said sarcastically. "You'll get the tome and then you will kill them."

  "Yes," she said with a smirk.

  "Then why are you telling me this?"

  "To give you one last chance to join with me and be my prince," she said. "If you do, I will let your friends live as long as they give me the tome."

  "Get out," he said.

  She slapped him again. "Enjoy the view," she said as she admired him for one last time, "And I can see that you have. Tonight, your friends will die and I will grow even more powerful."

  She turned on her heel. She walked out of the cell. The door slammed shut. The room was dark. Chris was left to his own thoughts. He was torn. He lusted for the evil vampire queen. His blood began to boil with an uncontrollable lust. He closed his eyes and dropped his head.

  "Forgive me Father for I have sinned," he prayed softly.

  * * *

  The majestic church was quiet. The parishioners had been sent away for the evening. Father Kinney, who had always made time for his fellow Catholics, shooed them away. He silently asked for forgiveness. Tonight, his thoughts were elsewhere. He had received a call from Larry requesting an emergency meeting. He told him that Myles and David would be arriving shortly with an update. The priest held his silver cross in his hands and he prayed. He asked for guidance in these dark hours.

  Uneven footsteps on the hardwood church floors told him that his friends had arrived. David and Myles painfully shuffled into the ancient religious structure. Myles' head throbbed from the punishment that the vampire queen had inflicted on him. David was still favoring his ribs. He wobbled into the room. Father Kinney finished his silent prayer before greeting his wounded colleagues.

  "Blessed is his name," Father Kinney said as he rose.

  "And may he bring us morphine," David said.

  "Now how would that help our cause?" Father Kinney inquired.

  "Right now, the piercing pain in my ribs could care less about the cause, Father," David answered.

  "But you are here," Father Kinney retorted.

  "Please don't remind me," David said.

  "And how are you?" Father Kinney asked Myles.

  He gave him a thumbs up. "Like him, I hurt, but it has to be done," he replied.

  Father Kinney blessed them both with the sign of the cross. "Larry should be arriving at any moment and then we can discuss what is so important."

  On cue, Larry walked through one of the large front doors. Behind him were several other men and women. Father Kinney recognized all of them. They were members of his congregation. Some of them had been some of the most loyal people to ever walk through the doors of his church. However, seeing them did not make him smile. Their presence indicated that their pending conversation would not be pleasant. They were council warriors.

  "Greetings Father," Larry said.

  "I appreciate that you did not say good evening because the presence of our warriors tells me that you are not here for pleasantries," Father Kinney stated.

  Larry nodded. He turned to the closest of the council warriors. "Take your team and form a defensive perimeter around the parking lot. Place snipers in the towers. She cannot be permitted to escape," he ordered.

  "Yes Commander," the man stated.

  The council warriors all bowed to Father Kinney before disappearing into the bowels of the church. The various weapons that they used to battle the forces of darkness were held inside a secret vault located within the archives. For the next hour, they would prepare for their mission. They all went into the battle with one mission: Kill the vampires. As long as they killed the vampires, their losses would have meaning.

  "That doesn't sound good," David said. "She said…"

  "You told me what she said and I don't believe it for a second," Larry snapped.

  "What did she say?" Father Kinney asked.

  Larry motioned his hand between David and Father Kinney. "Go ahead. You tell him and see what he says."

  "She said if we turn over the tome to her, she'd release Chris at midnight. She is coming here to meet us in the parking lot," David said.

  "And you believed her?" Father Kinney asked.

  "Yes. She asked that you deliver it personally," David responded.

  Father Kinney put his hand on David's shoulder. "I know that you are new to these battles, but she is the epitome of evil. She has murdered untold numbers of our warriors. There is no way of telling exactly how many people that she has killed and she has done it with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. We cannot trust her."

  Larry nodded. "Exactly what I told him."

  "However," Father Kinney said as he turned to Larry, "I will give her the tome."

  "WHAT?" Larry demanded.

  Father Kinney held up his hand. "Even with these warriors, we will need Christopher to win this battle."

  "What if he isn't prepared?" Larry asked.

  "If he isn't," Father Kinney said, "He could be even more powerful. We have to be ready for that."

  Myles looked at David who shrugged. "What does that mean, Father?" he asked.

  "You don't want to know," Father Kinney said.

  * * *

  There was a nip in the air. Summer had left Colorado. The night air wasn't warm. It was pleasantly cool, but the cold sensation of pending death chilled the council warriors. David and Myles flanked Father Kinney who held the large tome under his right arm. They had rehearsed their lines and prepared everyone for the pending battle. They had cues to call their warriors from hiding. When the time was right, they would strike. They all hoped that it would be before the expected double-cross from the vampires had started. They stood and waited.

  The church bells chimed. It was an older part of the city. The first heavy clang caused Myles to jump. Father Kinney smiled at him. David fidgeted with every clang. As the tenth clang reverberated throughout the church parking lot, a long black limousine turned into the parking lot. It pulled to a stop twenty feet away from the waiting trio. The vampire driver stopped the vehicle and two powerful vampire guards emerged from the back. As the twelfth clang shook the parking lot, the vampire queen stepped out onto the asphalt.

  The two large vampires flanked their queen. The parking lot was fairly well lit. Her eyes still sparkled in the limited light. Father Kinney became unnerved. For unknown reasons, she called to him. After giving his life to God, the older priest had been devoted to his faith and nothing else. His body told him to go to her. He prayed and tried to remain focused, but she was indeed beautiful.

  "Right on time," David said.

  "No shit Sherlock," one of the vampire guards stated.

  "Shut up," Mikhaeli said. "Is that my book?"

  "Where is your end of the bargain?" Father Kinney demanded.

  "Hmmm," she purred, "Someone seems to have grown a pair in the past few days. Show him." />
  One of the vampires walked to the backdoor and opened it. He reached into the limo and pulled Chris out onto the ground. The council warrior landed with a painful thud. The rough asphalt scraped his left shoulder. It bled slowly. His mouth was covered with duct tape and his feet and hands were held together with plastic zip ties. He looked tired.

  "FIRE!" Larry commanded from the darkness.

  A hail of wooden arrows rained onto the parking lot. One of the vampire guards was hit in the eye and he fell to the ground. The other guard and Mikhaeli took immediate action. The guard threw Chris back into the limo and slammed the door. They ducked behind the limo as arrows flew through open windows and clanked on the ground. Father Kinney, Myles, and David ducked behind a dumpster and removed crosses from their jackets. They watched as council warriors emerged from the church and charged the limo.

  Mikhaeli removed her cell phone from her pocket and hit speed dial. It rang once. "Now," she ordered as her call was answered.

  She nodded to her guard and they stood. The driver emerged from the car and he also prepared for battle. The council warriors charged with wooden stakes and crosses. Mikhaeli smiled and tossed her leather jacket into the car.

  "Now they will learn not to fuck with me," she growled before she leapt onto the first warrior.

  The male warrior was brave. He had stood his ground. He held out his cross as his combat training had taught him. Unfortunately, he was facing the vampire queen. She hissed and leapt onto him. She slammed him onto the asphalt. She knocked the cross and the stake from his hands. His breath escaped him when he hit the hard surface. As stars filled his vision, she drove her fingernails into his throat and ripped out his jugular vein. His blood sprayed into the air and he thrashed for his life.

  Mikhaeli leapt from the dying warrior. She grabbed his stake and charged the next warrior. Many of her kind feared the council's weapons. However, she viewed them as tools of the trade. She ducked under another arrow as she charged at the large, stake wielding warrior. He held out his cross and she batted away. He stabbed at her with his stake. She grabbed his arm and twisted. His elbow shattered. He screamed. She slammed her stake into his eye. He was dead before he hit the ground.

  The other vampires were not as successful. Unlike their wise and powerful queen, their battles were not as quick. The warriors were surrounding them. Mikhaeli had one mission: The tome. They were doing their duty. She pressed onward as the driver screamed. A warrior had stabbed him in the heart. The vampire fell backwards. He along with a council warrior, who Mikhaeli had grabbed by the head and shattered his neck, joined the ranks of the perished.

  The warriors were confident. Their archers continued to rain arrows into the battle. Some arrows struck their own warriors. They fell to the ground. Mikhaeli capitalized on every extra advantage that her inexperienced enemies offered. When a warrior was struck by an arrow, she would jump onto them and feed quickly. The number of her enemies was dwindling, but not nearly fast enough. However, with each quick feed, she was getting stronger.

  A Ford pick-up truck rumbled around a corner. The massive 4x4 vehicle plowed through the parking lot. The driver ran over a council warrior. His screams were muffled by the loud engine as the gigantic tires crushed his body. Vampires poured from the back of the vehicle. Several were cut down by another hail of arrows, but the twenty additional undead soldiers changed the tide of the battle. Council warriors were now struggling to stay alive.

  As vampires assaulted the council warriors, Larry cringed. He kept his eyes trained on the vampire queen. Her warrior skills were only trumped by her beauty. Warriors would challenge her to battle and she would defeat them like a lion swatting away flies with its tail. Some were tormented before their death like a cat playing with a mouse. Larry knew that she would eventually find Father Kinney and the tome. He had only one chance. He grabbed a cross and threw his backpack over his shoulder.

  He turned to one of the archers. "Have two of your archers focus all their remaining arrows on the queen. The rest of them need to clear me a path to the limo," he ordered.

  "What good will that do?" the archer asked as he pulled another arrow from his quiver.

  "It might just buy me the time that I need."

  "For what?" the archer asked.

  Larry didn't respond. He dashed down the church stairs. In less than a minute, he was dashing out of one of the side doors that led to the parking lot. The archers did their part by keeping vampires away from Dr. Efron as he made his mad dash to the limo. He threw vials of holy water at the vampires like they were hand grenades. Vampires screamed as the holy water melted their skin. His lungs burned. He wasn't trained for this type of action. By luck, he had reached the limo. He opened one of the backdoors and he dove into the backseat.

  Mikhaeli ignored the older man that had appeared from the church. She was focused. The warriors continually harassed her. She was getting annoyed. She felt like she was being attacked by a large swarm of mosquitoes. Despite watching her kill their comrades like pesky insects, they continued to attack in droves. She could sense the priest's blood. She spied a large dumpster and she smiled. Two warriors charged her. She sighed.

  The two warriors attacked in tandem. She was impressed. They were at least wise enough to realize that they could not defeat her oneon-one. She dodged their stake strikes. She could see the confidence in their eyes. She smiled. This battle had just become much more enjoyable. She dodged a punch from one warrior while the other tried to drive a stake into her heart. She kicked him away. She blocked another punch from the first warrior. She caught his arm and counterpunched. Her hand shattered his ribcage. One rib protruded through his chest. She ripped the rib from his body and twirled on her left heel. Her right leg kicked out and swept the feet out from underneath the other warrior who had attempted to attack her from behind. As his body hit the asphalt, Mikhaeli slammed the rib through his right eye and into his brain. She smiled.

  She turned to the other warrior who clutched his bleeding chest. She could smell his fear and his blood. He weakly held up a cross. She batted it away with the back of her hand. He stumbled and fell to one knee. She smiled again. She lifted his chin. Tears filled his eyes. She returned her face to her gorgeous visage. She leaned over. Her lips approached his quivering mouth. She laughed and plunged her hand into the open wound in his chest. She ripped his beating heart from his chest. Blood filled his mouth and he slumped to the ground. His seventeenth year of life was his last.

  She drank the blood from the heart and tossed it aside. "Barely ripe," she muttered as she spied Father Kinney dashing into the church with the tome clutched to his chest. "However…"

  She strutted towards the church. She smiled. Myles and David jumped her. She threw them both away and continued on with her mission. The two injured men groaned. David watched her walk into the church without missing a step. He picked up Myles and the two men followed her. They also disappeared into the church. The door slammed behind them.

  * * *

  Larry slammed the limo door behind him. He quickly latched the doors. He turned to Chris. He was pale and weak. Larry ripped the duct tape from his mouth. He didn't have time to be nice about it. The strong adhesive pulled at Chris' face. Several hairs and some of the skin from his chapped lips came off with the tape.

  "OW!" Chris protested. "You couldn't do that nicely?"

  Larry pulled a switchblade from his pocket. He pressed the button and cut the zip ties that were binding his hands and feet. "No time," he replied, "We need you."

  "I don't know if you want me out there," Chris answered.

  "Don't tell me," Larry protested.

  "Yeah, it's close."

  "Good thing that I came prepared," he retorted as he opened his backpack.

  He pulled out a pint-sized vial of red liquid. "This might help."

  Chris didn't hesitate. He pulled the glass stopper out of the vial and he began to drink. He drank heavily and quickly. The red liquid dripped down his chin. He d
idn't stop until the warm liquid had hit his stomach. When the nutrients hit his system, his entire body went into convulsions. His body shook and Larry looked away. Several thumps were heard against the limo. Larry ignored them.

  He watched his long-time friend shutter from the effects of the liquid. He fell to his right side and his eyes closed. Larry started to pray. Chris frothed at the mouth. He continued to pray as Chris stopped shaking. His eyes fluttered open. He groaned from the pain. He clutched his abdomen. Still clutching his stomach, he sat up slowly.