by Leo Romero
Faisal scrutinized the corridor. “My third eye tingles,” he whispered.
“Your spine?”
Faisal nodded.
“Yeah, I’m getting it too. There’s vamps here.”
“Rah.”
“Hopefully. You know where?”
“My memory is stirring. I remember this unholy thing,” he said, pointing at the creepy statue of a lion with a man’s head over to their right. “I remember going up.” He glanced at the ceiling.
“Okay, let’s take the stairs.”
Faisal grabbed Dom’s wrist.
Dom looked from his clutched wrist to Faisal’s face. His brow was furrowed. “What’s—”
“Shh!” Faisal hushed him. “Someone approaches.”
Dom looked around him. He couldn’t see anyone.
“Hide!”
Faisal darted behind the weird lion-man statue. Dom remained where he was, feeling like a sitting duck. He caught Faisal’s stare from the side of the statue. He ushered Dom over. Dom tiptoed over as fast as he could. They both hid behind the statue, their backs pressed up against one another to make themselves as thin as possible.
“I can’t hear anything,” Dom said over his shoulder.
“Trust me. I can hear them coming!” Faisal said back over his own shoulder. They waited for a while, standing there back-to-back. Dom began to feel like an idiot.
“Hey, there’s no one—” Dom’s ears pricked. Footsteps, coming from somewhere. He held his breath. His heart started to pound. The footsteps grew louder. He instinctively ducked, and pressed himself up against the statue. The guard began approaching at a steady march and Dom’s heart began to beat harder. Through a tiny gap in the statue, he got a glimpse of the guard as he drew closer. Behind Dom, Faisal’s body trembled as if gearing up to explode. He gripped Dom’s wrist tight; Dom wished the old guy wouldn’t do that.
The guard drew closer and Dom’s fight or flight response was close to triggering. Faisal’s grip on his wrist tightened some more, telling him to hold his place, to keep his nerve and not react.
Something inside Dom wanted to jump out and confront the guard, take him out before he spotted them or had a chance to alert the others to their presence. But, Faisal’s grip kept him rooted, somehow it was keeping him cool. The guard got close, close enough to hear his breathing from behind his mask.
Dom’s instincts went into overdrive. They wanted him to react, to explode. But alongside them, Faisal’s grip tightened some more. It kept him in check.
Dom clenched his teeth against the urge, each footstep of the guard smashing against his mind. Do it, do it! Jump out and take that guy down. Do it before he does it to you!
The footsteps swelled, reaching their peak. Now, only the statue separated them all. He was that close, Dom could virtually pick up the smell of his sweat. Go on, Dom! Go out there and pound that guy’s ass before he spots you and alerts the whole place! Do it! Do it! Do it! You know you wanna!
Dom took a deep breath, gearing himself up for an attack. His instincts set to ‘GO’.
He went to move, when Faisal’s firm grip clenched harder. He pulled Dom in toward him and their backs smacked together.
Dom let out a quiet, guttural growl in frustration. The moment had been lost. Dom’s itch to dive in was subdued long enough for the guard to move past the statue. In the following seconds, his footfalls petered out.
The wild animal inside Dom calmed; it retreated back into its cave. Dom blinked his eyes like he was waking from a dream. The sweat on his face was cool.
Faisal peeked out around the edge of the statue. “He’s gone,” he said in a quiet voice.
“Good job for him,” said Dom. “I came this close to taking his ass out!”
“My, what is Clement teaching you these days? He always told us to remain in the shadows, to use stealth and trickery against our enemies. You’re like a wild bull!”
Dom shrugged. “Stealth is boring, Faisal. I say get in there and tear em a new one!”
Faisal shook his head. “Fascinating. Clement has certainly changed over the years, but I haven’t. Alerting them to our presence is suicide. Stay calm!”
Dom sensed the anger brewing inside the old guy. Yeah, he was a bit too past it to be brawling. Maybe stealth was his best bet of staying alive. And so maybe Dom should just follow his lead. His shoulders slouched. “Okay, buddy. You lead the way. I’ll stick to the shadows.”
Faisal gave him a firm nod. “Good!” He peeked around the statue once more. “Let’s go,” he said before moving back out into the corridor. “We need to take the stairs. Follow me.”
Faisal led the way. Dom checked left and right one more time and followed. Faisal got in the stairwell and hugged the wall. Dom joined him. As they made their way up the steps, Dom’s venom sense started to grow more intense. The old guy was right, the vamp was upstairs. And they were getting closer. Faisal reached the summit of the steps and stopped. He turned and placed a finger over his lips. Dom nodded. Play it cool. Cool and quiet. Faisal edged close to the corner, bent down low, and peeked around it. Dom joined him, remaining upright. He joined Faisal in taking a peek around the corner, his head just above the old guy’s.
Dom’s face scrunched in confusion. The corridor was littered with cats. They were either lying on the floor, or on sideboards. It was like they were keeping watch, or guarding something. Dom shivered.
His eyes fell on the double doors about halfway along the corridor. Standing outside them was a guard. In both his hands were machetes.
“Behind those doors is Rah’s chamber,” Faisal whispered up to Dom.
Dom growled under his breath. “What do we do about the guard?”
“Leave it to me.”
Before Dom had a chance to ask him what he was gonna do, Faisal stuck his head around the corner and cupped his hands around his mouth. Dom stared at him nonplussed. What in the hell is this guy doing now?
Faisal began making a strange noise, an odd cooing sound. Dom’s face pinched. He gave his head a brisk shake. This guy’s crazy for real!
Faisal continued with his weird animalistic mating calls, his neck extending and retracting each time he made the sound like he was a turkey. Dom realized something weird; it was like the sound wasn’t coming outta Faisal’s mouth. The sound was somewhere way off, Dom’s ears were picking it up from the distance, even though he knew for sure it was Faisal making the noise. Dom peeked around the corner. The guard’s head twitched, but not toward where the sound was actually coming from. No, he was facing the other way, the place where the old guy was making his voice go. The cats stirred too, their ears pricking. They took the bait too, turning in the direction at the opposite end of the corridor.
Faisal didn’t let up. He kept on with the animal sound, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down his extended throat. The guard moved. With his machetes at the ready, he took cautious steps toward the far end of the corridor. Faisal gave it a couple more wails and the guard was gone around the corner.
A grin spread across Dom’s face. Hey, that’s kinda a neat trick.
He glanced down. Faisal turned his head up to face him; a nonchalant smile lifted his cheeks. He stood upright, that grin getting wider. He tapped Dom on the upper arm, and cocked his thumb down the now guardless corridor. “Let’s go.” He led the way.
They tiptoed fast along the hallway, those cats dotted around watching them with their suspicious, reflective eyes. Dom trod lightly among them, his eyes not leaving them. The way they were staring at them both freaked him out. It was like they knew they were up to something. He was just waiting for them to start wailing, giving the game away. But, they just sat there and stared like creepy dolls.
No wonder Faisal hates them so much.
One hissed at Dom and he cringed. Faisal turned his head to the side; he had his finger up to his lips. He took a big step over a cat sitting on its haunches in the middle of the floor. And then he’d reached the double doors. He faced them, wiggling hi
s fingers on the air, the cats watching him with bulging eyes.
Dom stepped around a cat and joined him. Now they both faced the doors. Dom’s heart started beating hard and steady. His spine hummed. There was a vamp in there. Rah. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. Faisal was busy muttering a quick prayer. He finished, wiping his hands down his face.
Dom pulled out his holy water dart gun. He glanced at Faisal and nodded. Faisal reached out and grabbed the door handles. He paused. He took a deep breath, then pushed both doors open. Hazy, artificial light from inside spilled out into the corridor. They darted inside, Dom holding his dart gun out ahead of him, Faisal throwing the doors shut behind them. Dom’s wide eyes took in everything. It was a large chamber, the windows boarded over, a small chandelier giving off the low light. Over to the left was an empty four poster bed.
But it was the thing in the center of the room that had all of Dom’s attention. A vamp was sitting in a rocking chair. In her lap was a cat. Both Dom and Faisal flinched back once she grinned.
“Welcome back,” she rasped, rocking back and forth like a crazed spinster.
Dom threw up his dart gun arm. The moment he did, the cat leaped from the vamp’s lap, unleashing a hellish yowl. It threw out its limbs, its claws extended fully as it flew through the air like a bat. Dom went to pull the trigger. The cat landed on his forearm, smothering the dart gun. It popped out all its claws, digging them into Dom’s skin. Harsh, tearing pain rocketed up his arm. He released an insane wail as he dropped the dart gun and whirled away. The cat dug in further, the searing agony ratcheting skyward. Dom shook his arm on the air, but the cat was stuck to it, virtually a part of him now. It yowled as it sunk its claws deeper into his forearm, blood now streaming down his hand, warm and slick.
Faisal wheeled left and right in confusion. In the background, the vampire was cackling and clapping her hands in delight, rocking in her chair with more fervor. Faisal’s face scrunched up into a snarl. While Dom was busy trying to de-cat himself, Faisal stormed toward the vampire in the chair. The vamp stopped laughing. She jumped up to her feet, just as Faisal reached her. She flicked on her eyes; they gleamed and glittered like stardust. Faisal was frozen in his tracks. His jaw went slack.
“You may have only one eye left,” the vamp began, “but it’s still your weakness!”
Dom whipped around in a semi-circle toward the bed. He brought his arm around with a grunt. He caught the cat’s back on one of the bed’s posters. The cat howled and released its grip. It jumped down on the bed and scampered away in fright.
Dom’s arm was red raw. It fizzed and thrummed. Ignoring it, he whirled around to face Faisal, who was iced in place like a statue. “Faisal!” he yelled. But, Faisal wasn’t home. Dom’s eyes fell on his dart gun on the floor a few feet away from where Faisal was rooted.
He dived straight for it.
He slid past Faisal and bent down to grab the dart gun, just as the doors swung open. He wrapped his fingers around the handle. He went to stand up when a foot planted itself down on the dart gun, crunching his fingers into the floor.
‘Ow!” Dom cried, his wide eyes staring at that foot. He craned his neck upward to be met with a masked guard, machete in hand. A fist came down, thumping Dom on the back. He slammed into the floor, the breath bolting from his chest. Before he had a chance to recover, rough hands hauled him up to his feet. He was spun around straight into a fist; it crunched into his nose. Blood streamed down into his mouth, salty copper on his tongue. With a groggy daze, he watched the room fill with bodies. Masked jihadis marching left and right, cats darting here and there, their tails flared, their hissing filling the air.
In amongst the throng walked more dominant figures. Dom counted four in total, including the vamp already in the room; three guys, one girl. The Children of Rah, Dom guessed, but pops wasn’t around. They barked orders at their subordinates, their brainwashed disciples. They went and stood behind their sister, who had Faisal in lockdown. They stared at the scene ahead of them like emperors gazing over their dominion, haughty, smug. One of them yapped something and Dom was pushed next to Faisal, who was still entranced by the female vamp opposite him. A big grin still split her face. She licked her lips, her fangs gleaming. She finally released Faisal from her trance and he staggered back a pace or two.
Dom wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “Another job well done,” he lamented, just as Faisal shook off the remnants of his icing and looked around him as if waking from a dream. He met Dom’s stare, his eye wide with surprise.
Dom shook his head in disappointment. “Welcome back, buddy!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Trixie rolled her eyes. They’d been gone in there way too long. “Leave this to the men, my ass,” she muttered to herself. She knew those two clowns would get themselves in trouble. It was always her who had to bail them out. Every time. And this one was no different. She checked her watch. Yeah, way too long. This was a quick hit job. Get in there, shoot the vamp, grab the relic, then get out. But, no, these two knuckleheads had to go and mess up. She stared back at the palace. It was still, quiet. She didn’t like it. She blew the air from her lungs.
More work, more saving to do, she said to herself as she checked her dart gun.
She gave the palace a final glance before making her way down from the outcrop toward it. On making it to the palace grounds, she took a look around. The place was damn quiet. Either there was no one around and those two doofuses got lost in there, or they were in the custody of a small army of jiahdis. The sun beat down on her as she approached the same wall the guys scaled. The window was still open. Inviting. Too inviting. But, it looked the only way in. She started climbing the wall, déjà vu of clinging to the side of the I-Sore Tower smacking her on the head every time she crammed her fingers into the gaps between the bricks. She made light work of the wall, reaching the window in quick time. She peeked over the window ledge and into the corridor beyond. It was empty.
She hauled herself up through the window, landing on the floor beyond like a spy, her knees bent, her ears pricking. Her heart beat slow and steady as she darted her eyes left and right. Surrounding her were sideboards covered in thick layers of dust, ornate pots, weird statues, and mirrors hanging on the walls. Then, it came. The hum. Up and down her spine. Vamps. She nodded. Yeah, the guys were definitely in trouble. She glanced at the ceiling. Vampire activity was up there. She spotted a nearby stairwell. She crept up to it, her dart gun up by her cheek. She wished she had some tranqs. Although she now knew there was vamp activity here, the place would be patrolled by humans armed with machetes. She’d just have to evade them.
She stepped into the stairwell and looked straight up. They were clear. So far, so good. She expected the corridors and stairwells to be crammed with guards, but they were strangely missing from the party. She tiptoed up them, hugging the wall, her senses alert to everything. On reaching the summit, she peeked around the corner. She frowned. The corridor was littered with cats. They were stretched out along the floor, curled in lazy balls, either sleeping or staring out ahead of them. Trixie quite liked cats, but there was something freaky about these particular felines. It was like they were keeping watch, guarding, waiting for an intruder to come along before alerting their master. A shiver coursed through her as she watched one of them stretch its limbs, its claws extending out. She got a vivid picture in her mind of those things tearing down her back and she cringed.
She tongued her bottom lip as she looked beyond the cats down the hallway. It was clear, just like the whole place. Her eyes fell on the double doors about halfway along. She nodded to herself as her eyes narrowed. Her senses were giving her warning signals. There were vamps behind that door. Maybe that was where the guys got in trouble.
Or met their demise.
She shook the thought off. She’d been too long in this game to write off anyone. They’d played chess with Death and hit him with a stalemate on too many occasions to believe in proph
ecies of doom. But one thing she was sure of, the boys were in some kinda trouble.
She snuck out of the stairwell and into the corridor, half bent over, her arms out to the sides, tiptoeing along like a diamond thief in a jewelry store. But instead of dodging red laser lines that would trigger an alarm, she was having to step over cats. As she approached, their ears pricked, their heads snapping her way. Those holographic, bulging eyes worked her over. A jet-black cat hissed, its long fangs reminiscent of vamps. It watched Trixie with its bulbous eyes. Trixie planted a stern finger over her lips, making her own eyes wide. The cat pushed back on its hind legs, its tail frizzing as if it had just received an electric shock.
Trixie moved past it, her gaze fixed on it the whole time. It stayed where it was, its claws extended, ready to start tearing. Another one caught her stare and hissed. Trixie hissed back. The cat turned and scurried to the end of the hallway.
Trixie afforded herself a quick smile. Two can play that game. She could be catty too.
She made it further into the corridor, taking care to tread over the cats, not wanting to step on a tail and cause them to yowl and give the game away. As she went, her venom sense began to hum harder. Yeah, there was vamp activity around and with the cats and all, she had no doubt about what was lurking behind those double doors. As she neared them, she had a look over her shoulder. Coast was clear. She stepped over a languid cat stretched out along the floor, more interested in snoozing than her. That’s how she liked em to be.
Another couple of steps and she was ahead of the double doors. Why are there no guards here? Vamps almost always had fangheads literally by their sides. Yeah, she’d seen the odd guard skirting the perimeter outside, but inside there was nothing but cats.
Maybe the cats are the guards. Magdalena had vampire snakes around her, maybe this lot have vampire moggies.
She caught the stare of one of them; its ears were pulled back, its eyes glowed. Trixie shivered. She wasn’t in the mood to be bitten by one of those things. So far, they’d been non-aggressive. If they were vamp, they’d have already tried to get their fangs into her. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and grabbed her holy water dart gun. She listened at the door. Nothing. Her venom sense continued to hum. There was something in there.