by Ian Hall
I felt like a geyser, pressure swelling me with a rush of liquid fire.
I wanted nothing more than the taste of Helsing blood in my mouth.
I grabbed my temples and tried to shake the alien thoughts from my head. Like a worm, they were burrowing their way in deep, hungry to take control.
Lyman grabbed my face between his cold hands. “Mandy? What’s wrong?”
There was a weird silence and that’s when I realized that I’d been screaming. Everyone looked at me, frozen in a huge still photograph.
Somehow, instinctively, I knew what had happened to me.
“It’s Alan. He’s awake. And he knows what we’re gonna do.”
I took the story to Peterson, and he nodded. “S’okay, Mr. Bracks. We’ve got that contingency covered.”
I shook my head, grabbing his arm as he turned to walk away. “Covered?” my voice rose as I questioned the man’s ability to accept the fact that the mission had been compromised. “Are you nuts?”
I felt surprised by his reaction. He balled my tunic collars and forced me so close, I could smell the mint from his flossing.
“Mr. Bracks. We have it covered.” His voice sounded low and calm. “Please either accept my information or contact Mr. Weeks for further acknowledgement. In either case, do not pass this information back to Miss Cross. That part is most important.”
He disengaged his fingers and walked away.
Well I never.
Sheepishly, Frank filled me in on the information he’d - until now - only imparted to Howard Weeks. Alan had been accessing Mandy’s very mind.
“How fucking weird is this day going to get?” I asked nobody in particular.
Frank didn’t seem to have any adequate response.
Howard Weeks knew of Alan’s control of Mandy, and had taken it on board when planning the operation. Which meant one thing, of course, this whole thing we were doing was a bit of a sham. To throw Alan into a false sense of security, thinking he knew the plan in its entirety. We were intentionally feeding him information through Mandy.
As orders were passed out, I paid little heed. I sat with a smug feeling. Perhaps we at last had the upper hand. Perhaps we had an edge.
Peterson suddenly stood in front of me. “Farmhouse, Mr. Bracks. You’ll be taking the first lot through.” He handed me a blood packet. “For Miss Cross. Mr. Weeks has organized a slight sedative inside, perhaps it will reduce some of the enemy vampire’s control.”
“Sedative?” I looked from the pack to him. “Won’t that compromise her effectiveness?”
“Sir, I’m a soldier. I’m not a chemist. I’m sure the boffins back in Chicago have thought this one through.”
Shocked at the level of planning, I thanked him, and joined the rest of my team at the farmhouse. I handed the blood to Mandy, and she drank without pause. I watched her face, but she showed no realization of the sedative.
“Right, listen up!” Peterson took us through the basics of house clearing 101. After he’d lectured us, we went through the motions in the actual farmhouse. We did it on our own, rounding corners, clearing rooms. We did it with another team coming from the other side. Basically we did it all afternoon. By the time dinner came, I felt exhausted, but way more confident in the method and the team’s ability to work together. Mandy perked up from the first action, so she maybe she did get some relief from the sedative in the blood.
After a dinner of pizza and a beer or two each, we went through the same process, but this time on the barn, and one of the outhouses that resembled the production units at the Hipshaw farm.
Considering the intimate level we’d reached just the night before, Mary-Christine and I were never alone enough to even catch a breath. When we finished maneuvers, I found Mandy with Frank. He went through the order of exit from the truck, and Mandy looked on in total concentration.
“How you guys doing?” I asked. I expected a repeat of Mandy’s previous belligerence.
“Good,” Frank said.
Mandy smiled, the first I’d seen that day. “Alan’s not in my head. He’s either sleeping or his concentration is elsewhere else.”
“That’s great. Makes a difference, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I set off in search of Mary-Christine, and found her with Hideo and a few of the others, setting up camp beds in the barn. I kinda thought we’d be going back to Gregor, but it made sense; if the operation was tomorrow, there would be no point of splitting the team at such a late stage.
“Hi, babe,” I said. “Hideo.”
I joined in the quick bed assembly process, and we caught each other’s eye a few times, enough to give me a boner in my camouflaged trousers. I must admit, Mary-Christine’s uniform looked enticing in the extreme. She’d tied her hair in a tight ponytail, and she looked years older.
We made our excuses, and walked outside. A slight chill lay in the air, but it was still the beginnings of a great sunset.
“Tomorrow’s going to be a heck of a day,” I said, slipping my arm round her, cupping her breast.
“This is the most dangerous thing we’ve ever done.” She pulled my hand tighter. “And on the biggest scale.”
“At least twenty-seven vampires that we know of.” Watching the sunset over her shoulder, I pulled her close. My penis now pressed firmly on her bottom. She even wriggled it.
Suddenly she turned. I expected a kiss, but I got a barrage of words. “We could die tomorrow, Lyman. I’m scared. I don’t want to die.”
“Hey, hey,” I soothed, running my fingers over her hair. “No one’s going to die tomorrow.”
“Lyman.” Her voice sounded suddenly both passionate and urgent. “I don’t want to die a virgin.”
I felt my jaw drop. Now that had shocked me.
For once I stood lost for words, so I bent down and kissed her. The combination of the sunset, the uniform, and her confession had me harder than ever before.
“Where?” I asked, almost afraid that she planned to pull me to the ground then and there.
“The little barn,” she said. Obviously she had thought about it already. “There’s a ladder and a hayloft. That would be so romantic.”
I have to admit, my brain had frozen on ‘not-being-a-virgin’, so romance lay kinda far down the pecking order.
I took her hand, and ignoring the figures around us, we strode in a straight line for the door to the small barn.
Alan had told me about the old vampire proverb: that which kills us makes us stronger. As a vampire he’d died at least three times that I knew of; and of course, once as a human. Each time he rose up, more powerful than before. So powerful, in fact, he could influence my thoughts.
A few more seconds of his anti-Helsing propaganda shouting in my brain and I’m not sure what I would have done. I could’ve killed dozens of them; maybe all of them. And if I’d given in to that base instinct to bite…well, I’d have ended up just as dead.
Everyone kind of settled down for the night. It’d been a rigorous day and the humans were worn out. I felt tired, too; but not soooo tired I could sleep in tight quarters with the stench of vinegar blood flooding my nostrils. I had to get some space.
“Where’re you going, kid?” Reynolds asked as I rolled off my cot.
“Fresh air.”
“Sounds like a winner. I’ll tag along.”
It wasn’t a request. Reynolds had stuck pretty close to me since we’d left Gregor. I wasn’t sure whether to take it as concern or if I still hadn’t gained his trust. I let it slide; if Mr. Protective wanted to babysit me, then so be it. I felt like company anyway.
Outside the sky showed deep orange and pink, with the sun melting behind the mountains. Little wispy clouds glowed bright. I’d stepped out of a military bunker and into a postcard.
Over north, the White Mountains were looking dusky. Instantly, I thought of Jackson in his eternal sleep. If it wasn’t for my companion, I might have gone to him and spent the night at his graveside. But, Jackson Cole’s
final resting place stayed my solitary secret. Not even Frank Reynolds would be privy.
“Where we headed?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I dunno. Just out. Walking.”
We walked a circuit around the camp. Throughout the day we’d all gotten to know every square inch of it pretty well. Of course, the humans couldn’t have detected the fox’s den some thirty yards up the hillside, nestled behind a thicket, or the small trickle of a stream to the south. They probably had no clue that a fault line a mile deep revved up for a serious rumble; I could already hear the plates shifting. To them, the humans, it was just a plot of land. Only a vampire would be aware of the intricate details woven into such a tapestry.
Only a vampire would be aware of the smell of danger wafting in from the south.
“Alan.”
I gave no chance for Reynolds to respond. In a flash I covered the two miles back to the encampment. Alan and his army were marching in formation toward the barn where the Helsings lay; if they’d gotten this far, they’d already killed the men standing watch at the south border of the property.
I spread myself over the entrance like a living gate. Within seconds, Alan McCartney stood in front of me.
“Lookie here; guard dog’s at the door,” he mocked.
Alan shoved me aside like a freaking ragdoll. I felt the impact in my ribcage but he’d barely twitched his hand.
“That which kills us,” he started.
But, I finished his taunt, “Makes us stronger.”
With a smile he pushed forward toward the doorway, bounding back as if he’d gotten an electric shock.
“Ain’t vampire rules a bitch?”
I skidded past him on hands and knees, slipping easily through the barrier which barred his way. What Helsings remained awake were shifting around on their cots in quiet preparation for the day to come; none of them seemed aware of me or the vampire brigade outside. I decided to keep it that way. Last thing I needed was a bunch of militant Helsings rushing right out into the Blanches’ arms.
“Let me in, Mandy Cross.”
My turn to smile. “Sorry. You forgot to say please.”
Alan shook his head like the disappointed mentor, brooding over a student that had failed him.
“How could you side with them?” he asked. “Turn against your own kind?”
“You are not my kind.”
He glanced over my shoulder. “Look at them: senseless, useless, temporary beings. Why do you protect them? What’s your loyalty to them?”
“Simple. They hate you almost as much as I do.”
“I like that,” he smiled approvingly. “Hate is good, Mandy Cross. It keeps you focused. Energized. Unfortunately, though, in your case…it seems to have clouded your judgment.”
Alan’s velvety voice swirled around me. I tried to shut my mind, block his will from countermanding mine; but sure as anything, that soft, soothing tone dug into my ear and became the worm eating through my brain.
“You hate for the wrong reasons, Mandy Cross; for some misguided nostalgia over a life that wasn’t worth living. For your parents,” he laughed, but he’d pushed a hot needle into my gray matter. “People born to die, who could serve no better purpose than to sustain the immortal. Their deaths were an honor for them, Mandy Cross - it gave life to you!”
Dizzy, I propped myself up against the frame of the barn door. Alan’s voice - I couldn’t tell if I heard him audibly or if it sounded inside my head - it felt as potent as moonshine. I could barely keep myself standing.
“It’s them,” he pointed his chin at the livestock behind my shoulder, “you should hate. They’ve convinced you that you’re evil, don’t deserve to live. But they keep you around to serve them. If it wasn’t so fucking sickening, it’d be laughable - a vampire of your strength and power, bowing to the will of the insignificant.”
For a moment I thought I felt Alan touch my arm. I felt for the door and assured myself I hadn’t stumbled outside the safety of the barrier. His voice had become a living thing for me, crawling over my skin.
“I meant you to be my queen, Mandy Cross; for you to stand beside me. As powerful as I am without you - can you imagine what we’d be together?”
I felt his lips brush mine. Or imagined it.
“We never even got the chance to consummate our bond.”
Unbidden, I felt a rush of pleasure explode through my loins. I almost cried out.
“It can all still be ours, Mandy Cross. Let me in.”
“Alan,” I panted his name, “Alan…”
“C’mon, baby. You can do it.”
“Alan…go fuck yourself.”
I dropped to my knees and let the aftermath of my orgasm subside. Denied passage, Alan McCartney could only look down at me with that same wicked smile I’d always known.
“Have it your way, Mandy Cross. You’ve bought your keepers one more day to live. Nothing more.”
Alan made a cutting motion through the air and his troops turned round. Before I could wobble to a stand, they were gone.
You’re in the Army Now
We did it for the first time with our uniforms still partly on. Man, I’ll remember that for the rest of my life; that silent scream as I looked out the open loft window at the final remains of the setting sun.
We rested for a bit after that, then did it again totally naked, lying on a bed of rumpled camouflage.
I determined that we were going to sleep there that night, but as night fell, it got a bit chilly, so we dressed most of the way.
I half lay on a grinning Mary-Christine when I first heard the shuffling outside. I had heard the noise somewhere before, and it took a few seconds to enter my libido-dominated head.
“Vampires!” I whispered into her ear. I put my hand over her mouth, my expression grave.
Squirming to look outside the open window, she turned below me. We both inched forward until we could see the other barn.
There must have been twenty of them at least, padding from foot to foot as if they were agitated, maybe even on the rage drug.
Suddenly Mandy appeared in front of the leader. I could only see him from behind, and in the dark shadows, his identity remained indistinct.
“Lookie here; guard dog’s at the door.” His voice lay at the limit of my hearing, but I knew that voice anywhere.
“Alan” I hissed quietly.
He pushed Mandy harshly against the barn wall, but she recovered in seconds, putting herself back into the doorway, guarding it.
I wanted to help, but if either of us moved, we’d be dead. Our only hope lay in Mandy.
“Ain’t vampire rules a bitch?” I heard her say. Good old Mandy.
“Let me in, Mandy Cross.” Alan’s voice raised slightly.
“Sorry. You forgot to say please.”
Then their voices dropped to a mutter.
“I meant you to be my queen, Mandy Cross; for you to stand beside me. As powerful as I am without you - can you imagine what we’d be together?” Alan laid it on thick, but still, Mandy stood firm; our only barrier between the vampires and utter slaughter.
“We never even got the chance to consummate our bond. It can all still be ours, Mandy Cross. Let me in.”
From my vantage point, I could see Mandy sway, her hand down the front of her camouflage trousers, working feverishly.
“C’mon, baby. You can do it.”
It seemed now or never, and for some obscure reason, my thoughts went to Jackson.
Come on, Mandy. I wished at her. Take your strength from Jackson Cole. He denied Alan all his life.
“Alan…” Mandy spat. I almost couldn’t stand the tension.
Jackson Cole, Mandy!
Then she lifted her head and grinned. “Go fuck yourself.”
She fell limply to her knees, her hand still stuffed down her trousers. I could hear the sickly confidence in Alan’s voice. “Have it your way, Mandy Cross. You’ve bought your keepers one more day to live. Nothing more.”
Alan
turned and walked through his vampire army. As he passed underneath the window, I could see the bald Indian walk next to him. “Tomorrow we lie in wait. We’ll cut them down the instant they enter the valley.”
Satisfied they had gone, I swiftly ran down the steps and across to the large barn door.
Mandy leant against the doorway, her eyes were glazed, her breathing heavy and ragged, but looked unharmed by her encounter. I pulled her hand out of her trousers, and she focused quickly on me.
“Alan was here,” she said groggily.
“We know.” Mary Christine, pushed Mandy’s hair back from her brow.
Suddenly there were heavy footfalls outside. “S’okay, It’s me,” Frank said as he slowed to the door. “What happened here?”
I lifted Mandy up, and she clung to my shoulder. Her hands clasped round my neck, and I smelled the fresh musk on her fingers. I could feel her inadvertently rubbing the wet secretion onto my neck. Despite the previous exertions with Mary-Christine, I was instantly hard again. “Which bunk’s hers?”
Frank pointed to four empty ones, to one side. “We’d set up over there.”
I laid her carefully on her camp bed, then stayed crouching, waiting for my boner to dissolve.
“What happened?” Frank repeated, looking at me harshly.
I took him away from the bed, leaving the girls alone, and told him the whole story.
“And she resisted him?”
I nodded. “Totally.”
Together we found Peterson’s bunk, and repeated the story again. “It doesn’t change tomorrow much. We were assuming he was getting intel from Miss Cross anyway.” He looked around the room at the sleeping troops. “We expecting another hit tonight?”
“They’re gone now, and plan to catch us tomorrow. Thing is, if it’d been anyone else on that door, he may have gotten in, he’s a wily bastard. Mandy saved us all tonight.”
“Yes, she did.” Peterson motioned us to the office at the side. He pulled a blood pack from a cool box. “I was keeping all of these for tomorrow; I take it Miss Cross could do with one right now?”
“Are they drugged?”