Then his hand came up and caught my weapon as I tried to hit him. I could feel his strength when he caught the shotgun, and I knew it was going to take too much effort to wrestle it away from him. Instead, I let go of it and pulled both of my heavy pistols out of their belt holsters. I knew they wouldn't do as much damage as the shotgun blasts, but I didn’t know what else to do.
I emptied both magazines into his face, but he sat up while I shot him.
Then he started to laugh.
It was a dry chuckle. Almost like he was trying to cough out his humor through his bleeding body. I stepped back from him, slid my empty pistols into their holsters, and reached for my chrome revolver, but the blood covered man was too quick, and his hands grabbed the outside of my arms.
Then his mouth opened wide, and he moved to bite my neck.
But I bit that fucker first.
My teeth tore right into his throat and my mouth filled with the taste of his much too coppery blood. He actually gasped with surprised pain, and I felt his hands tense before he tried to push me away. He couldn’t though, my jaw flexed again, and I yanked my neck back. Most of his neck tore free, I spit, and then I clamped down again on the front part of his spine. His bones shattered under the strength of my jaw, and his body went slack.
I tore free of him, and his bloody head landed on the stone floor.
He spasmed and then twitched a single time before he was still. I expected his body to heal from the damage I had just wrought upon his neck, but I detected no more movement. The buzzing in my brain stopped along with the pressure on my shoulders and the pulsing red light on the walls.
He was dead. Finally.
“Shit! You did it!” Zea shouted, and I turned around to see the blonde hacker cradling Eve’s head in her arms. Eve’s eyes were closed, and I sprinted over to them.
“I think she fainted,” Zea said as she stroked the other woman’s forehead. “She stopped screaming when you tore that naked fucker’s throat out.
“That was horrible,” Paula gasped as she hugged herself.
“I couldn’t move,” Kasta blurted. “I commanded the drones to attack him, but I thought they didn’t get my signal.”
“Thank the stars they did, or we’d all be dead,” Zea said with a grateful nod.
“Yeah, but we still lost Yegor,” Kasta said with a frown. We turned and saw Vayra holding the dead man’s hand while Svetlana and the other soldiers bowed their head.
“He was a good man,” I said. “But it could have been worse.”
“Yes, he was,” Kasta said, and then she turned to look at the corpse of the headless vampire.
None of us said anything for a few moments, but then Kasta cleared her throat. “I sent my recon drones outside. The light isn’t coming out of the temple anymore. I don’t know if it was because Adam shot those cubes, or if it is because he killed that thing, but it is off.”
“That is good news,” Paula said with a relieved sigh.
“We are too late.” Eve opened her eyes and sat up from Zea.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes. Well, no.” The beautiful woman frowned and then blinked her red eyes. She looked exhausted, and I wondered if something about the vampire’s presence had drained her vitality.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I saw into its mind. I know what they are.” She blinked a few times, and then she wiped away a tear.
The four of us waited for Eve to continue, and she did after she sniffled back some tears.
“They are parasites, only shaped like us. They survive off fear, terror, and agony. They are almost immortal. They can live forever. They each own their territories like fiefdoms where they grow their food stock. When they ran out of sustenance, they agreed to sleep until life disturbed them. That was an eternity ago, and now some are awakening. The signal beams will tell others to awake.”
“Uhhh. That doesn’t sound very good,” Zea whined.
“No. No, it isn’t,” Eve said.
“We killed this one. We can kill others,” I said.
“For some reason, he knew you when you changed. He wasn’t afraid, but then you surprised him by attacking. I don’t understand it, but I know the signal he sent will reach others of his kind, and they will come here to check on him.”
“How long?” Kasta asked.
“When this world circles its sun two times. Or at least, that was when he expected them to arrive.”
“That’s three hundred and two days in Earth time,” the android replied.
“And when they come here, and they don’t find their asshole friend, what are they going to do?” Zea asked.
“It’s already started,” Eve shook her head and then she started to sob.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Everything is going to be all right.” I kneeled next to the dark-haired beauty and wrapped my tiger arms around her.
“No, my love. It won’t be. You see, these creatures have been alive almost as long as time itself. They have built the universe to be their feeding ground. They ate, and ate, and ate until their bellies were full and there was no more. It was just a galaxy of death. Then they planted new seeds and went to sleep.”
“Uhhh. you mean us?” Zea asked.
“Everything,” Eve replied. “All life is theirs, and now they are waking up. It has been billions of years. They are hungry, and nothing can stop them.”
“I will,” I said, and Eve turned to stare at my face. “We will.”
We stared at each other for what felt like forever, and I found myself spinning into the depths of her red eyes.
“Yes,” Eve finally said, and a slow smile spread across her lips. “Thank you, my love. Yes. We will stop them. It is my purpose. It is our purpose.” The dark beauty wiped her tears from her eyes and then turned to the other three women. “If you all will help?”
“Yes,” the twins both said without a moment’s hesitation. Then they looked at each other and smiled.
Then we all turned to Zea, and the blonde hacker shrugged. “You know, there was one good thing about that fucker paralyzing me.”
“What was that?” Paula asked.
“I couldn’t shit myself. I really wanted to, but everything was all clenched too tight. So yeah. I’m in. Let’s kill all these motherfucking blood suckers. Ahh, no offense, Eve.”
“None taken.” Eve smiled, and she stood with my help. “We have four advantages they don’t know about. It might give us a victory.”
“What are they?” I asked.
“I am one of them,” Eve said as she gestured to the corpse.
“What?” Zea asked.
“Yes,” Eve said as she shook her head. “I know that now. Elaka Nota must have one of these creatures captured, or dead somewhere. The DNA they used on me is from them.”
“What does that mean?” Kasta asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I have power. I’ll need to learn how to use it better, and I might not be as powerful as one of them, but they won’t expect me.”
“What else?” Paula asked.
“Adam.” Eve looks at me, and the other three women did as well. “He broke out of the being’s magic, then he killed him. It recognized his shifted form. There is something there for us to explore. He’s a weapon they won’t expect.”
“How did you do it?” Paula asked.
“I’m not sure,” I replied. “As soon as I changed I was free of his power, but you saw that my bullets didn’t kill him. I have no idea why my teeth did.”
“We will figure out why, but the important part is that they won’t expect you,” Eve said.
“Adam is full of unexpected surprises,” Kasta said with a wink.
“Our third advantage is Persephone,” Eve said. “She is fast and powerful, and she knows about these creatures. She wants to help us defeat them; we just have to let her show us the way.”
“And the fourth?” Zea asked.
“You three,” Eve said as she gestured to the trio of b
londe women. “You are incredibly intelligent, brave, true, and filled with love. We will find others who will help. These horrific beings consumed all life once, and they think that they can do it again, but not this time. This time the light will stand before the darkness and goodness will win. Love, honor, and justice will prevail. I saw our triumph in Adam’s tiger eyes. I know we can do this. Together.” Eve was no longer crying, and her voice was filled with incredible strength. The other three women nodded after she finished and smiles bloomed across their faces.
“But first, we need to return Yegor and his crew to the bunker,” I said. I didn’t know what kind of burial process these people had, but Yegor helped us, and I wanted to honor his sacrifice. “After that, we’ll need to figure out a plan. If these fuckers are coming back in three hundred and two days, I want to be ready for them.”
“Aye, Captain,” my four friends replied, and we went about the task of paying our respects to Yegor.
End of book 4
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