Vampire Esquire's War (Book 2)

by Michael Wells Jr.

  Dirt encased his body. Such an odd sensation, he thought. Where was he? How much time had passed? He didn’t know. Even though the dirt should have made him feel panicky, he remained calm.

  He tried to move his arms, and the dirt lifted like feathers. He felt strong, stronger than he ever had. His right arm broke through the surface. Then his left arm broke through the dirt. He poked his head outside, and it was nighttime.

  Smoke filled the air in the background. Quintus whipped his head all around. Was that Rome in the background? Then he remembered. Rome was burning.

  “Where is Quinta?” he shouted.

  “She’s dead,” said a voice.

  “What do you mean she’s dead?”

  “The fire killed her. It killed a lot of people. But not Nero. Bastard is still alive even though everyone thinks he’s to blame for this. Funny—his poetry was passable and his songs awful. Not really an artist, but he will keep writing.”

  Quintus’s pulse quickened, and his stomach felt sick. But it wasn’t a nauseous sick. More nerves. “She can’t be dead.”

  “She is, and you are not alive. Not dead either. Undead is what it is.”

  Again, Quintus swung his head around. “Where are you?!” he shouted.

  “Don’t get mad,” the voice said. A tall, dark haired, dark eyed man walked out of the shadows. “I am Drago, and you are now Drogba.”

  “No I’m not. I’m Quintus.”

  “Quintus is dead.”

  “No he isn’t. He can’t be. Quinta can’t be….”

  “Accept it my son. You are mine now, and you always will be. You will never escape me.”

  ____________________

  Magnum, Roland and Valkyrie needed to see it for themselves and, if it was as bad as they thought, correct the problem. They’d seen only a glimpse of the problem in North Carolina, but human trafficking was occurring on a mass scale, and it grew the vampire population in many unknown places.

  Before they went to Washington to meet with the president they would face dozens of foes, and they may not make it out alive. If the reports were true, vampires existed by the thousands in these warrens ready to be unleashed at the right time.

  Magnum, Roland and now Valkyrie needed to make sure they destroyed as many vampire/human trafficking locations as they could. The needed to do so before they grew and became so large they cannot be contained. Without containment, humanity wouldn’t survive.

  The rusted white van coasted down the isolated highway towards the resort. Magnum bought the van in cash from with junkyard in Chicago. It wouldn’t draw attention, and they were in too isolated an area to draw attention anyway at least for now. Peoria (the location of Sandhurst Resort) was a smaller city, but a rusty van wouldn’t be noticed.

  In back Roland and Valkyrie sat beside each other and behind Magnum. Roland felt his heart beat harder in anticipation of the pitched battle.

  “We can’t fight them all at the same time, you know,” said Valkyrie.

  “I know. We will need to get them clogged up somewhere, and then we fire away.”

  “Right. And we will burn the place down, but the silver containment system will keep them in. It is supposed to be designed to keep them in until the attacks start, but it will work to our benefit here”

  Magnum snorted a derisive laugh. “Fuckers will burn alive—or undead more like it.”

  “Exactly,” said Valkyrie.

  Valkyrie’s hand accidentally brushed Roland’s leg, and he grinned. His body shuddered. Don’t make it noticeable, he thought. Valkyrie smiled at him. “Relax Roland. I’ve done this before.” That could mean many things, thought Roland, but she was a lesbian.

  Sandhurst Resort was outside of town and isolated. Acres of fields sat around it, and it was supposed to bring jobs to the area or so Drum Industries had promised when it lobbied for tax free land. But Drum employed Nero as the general contractor, and they brought in workers from out of the country. Two years had passed, and no outside jobs.

  Fortunately for the trio, the Society of the Silver Stake had built a tunnel from the woods underground for almost a mile into the resort where they would come out of a false wall in the prison boiler room.

  Magnum cut the lights, and he pulled the van over to a shed covered in tree branches. He pulled the van inside, and a door closed behind it, hiding the van. All three hopped out.

  “The passageway starts here,” said Magnum as he cleared some pine needles and opened up a trapdoor. “We will have to use our flashlights, but we can’t shine the lights forward too much.”

  Although it wasn’t far, they walked slowly in the close to full darkness. No one spoke. What lurked on the other side of the passage was far darker by comparison, metaphorically speaking, than the darkness that cloaked them now.

  Roland could feel the crunch of dead pine needles under his thick rubber boots. He thought of crunching bones—his crunching bones if those vampires ever got ahold of him.

  “Be very quiet,” said Magnum. “We are almost there.” Magnum shined his light to reveal a lever. “This is it,” he said. “It will open the door about two feet, and hopefully no one is down there. Since it is daytime, most of the vampires should be asleep.”

  Magnum reached and pulled the lever. The door opened silently to reveal a boiler room, but the room had no machinery working. Vampires didn’t need heat. If anything, they preferred cold. The light was faint, but they could see. So they didn’t need their flashlights.

  “This way,” said Valkyrie. “The layout is simple and the same in all the ‘resorts.’ Predictable, dumb bastards.”

  Valkyrie carried a crossbow, but she also had two silver swords crossed over her back. And she also wore two silver rope necklaces to “ward off evil spirits,” she liked to say. But she knew the silver kept the vampires week. A fraction of weakness may make all the difference in the world.

  She led them up some stairs, and they saw a door at the top. “This is the way to the main area. It is one giant room filed with coffins and places to bury people to make them vampires all encased in silver. We can’t take these guy’s on individually. We are going to blow it up from the inside.”

  “I like it, and it helps that they seem to be asleep” said Magnum.

  “That’s because it is still day,” said Valkyrie.

  They came to the top of the stairs. Valkyrie turned and said, “The best thing that could happen is we face none of these assholes, but I would settle for just a few.”

  “Okay, I have a bomb that will take this whole prison out. I am going to tape it to this door. Then we are going to run away. It is the same kind of bomb we used to blow up Jernigan’s house, but it is much stronger. It will melt this place and turn the silver casing into projectiles that will stab a few vamps in the heart first. It is set for two minutes.”

  “If this is all that you needed to do, then why are we here?” asked Roland.

  Valkyrie flipped the strand of hair back that had fallen into her face. She grinned at Roland, “Because we may have to fight our way out of here.”

  Valkyrie taped the bomb on the passage door. She pushed the button. “Okay, let’s go,” she said. The three of them turned, but Roland’s silver stake hit the door. CLANGGGG!!!

  “Ah…fuck,” said Roland. They could hear stirring on the other end of the door.

  “Runnnnnn,” said Valkyrie. All three ran, but they heard the door swing open.

  “Society of the Silver Stake,” bellowed what sounded like a vampire guard. Vampire voices all have a hint of a hiss.

  As the rushed down the steps, three vampires dressed in uniforms with Nero written on them appeared at the bottom. Valkyrie jumped and spun forward as she drew her swords. She swung each sword forward and cut off the heads of the vampires, who feel to their knees blood spraying towards the ceiling.

  “God that was beautiful,” said Magnum. “Prettiest kills I’ve seen yet.”

  “Don’t stand around you two. MOVE! We have less than two minutes, and
we will face more of these things. And the blast radius of the bomb will take out a tenth of the mile into the tunnel, so we really need to be beyond that.”

  They ran through the boiler room, and they could see the door open to reveal the dark passage.

  Roland felt something grab his leg, then bite it with two fangs. “Fuck!”

  He punched down to the head of another inmate with an orange suit. The punch knocked off the inmate. The large white man had fangs coated in Roland’s blood.

  “I’m going to kill you,” the vampire shouted. “Not if I can help it,” said Roland. Roland pulled out a crossbow, and he shot the vampire through the heart before he could lunge.

  When Roland turned around, he saw Magnum stab two more vampires each through their hearts with his silver stakes. The blood sprayed Magnum and knocked off his hat.

  Before he could retrieve it, Valkyrie grabbed both of them by the arm. “Let’s go. This bitch is going to blow!”

  They ran through the passageway, their lights in front of them. Behind them they heard explosions. They could feel the heat growing behind them, but they kept running.

  Finally, they jammed their way up through the trap door, and Roland was the last one out. Before he could shut the door, a scorched vampire reared up out of the passage. He tried to hiss, but no sound came out. His jaws slammed shut, opened, and then slammed shut again. The vampire fell to the ground with a few tattered remnants of an orange prison suit on his body.

  “That went well,” said Valkyrie.

  “It did,” said Magnum.

  “Vampire made resorts that take too long to build. Who would have thought,” said Roland

  “Apparently a number of different people,” said Magnum.

  “There will be more, and the hunts will get harder. You can bet they will be looking for secret passageways at other resorts, and we don’t know all of the nests as they are being grown at many other places other than these resorts. In fact, they will probably start moving vampires out of these places. We will have to get more creative,” said Valkyrie.

  The three hopped in the van, and Magnum slammed the van into reverse. All the vampires were dead. Out of the van’s mirrors they could see the smoking embers of the resort and all of the vampires they destroyed.

  Chapter 6

  No one even knew Inman was gone. As House Majority Leader, people usually didn’t pay attention to what he did when everyone was supposed to be sleeping. He didn’t have security detail that followed him wherever he went.

  While sitting in his hideaway office, Inman thought about the night he became a vampire. He remembered the cold dirt and then light. He recalled Fletcher saying to him, “You are my child, but you are controlled by Drago became he controls me.”

  Inman remembered saying to Fletcher, “Who is Drago?”

  And Fletcher replied, “He goes by many names, but he is now generally associated with the name Vladimir Lenin, and we are going to be taking orders from him.”

  Inman kept similar hours to before since he was impervious to light although he preferred to have a darker room now as well as avoid as much direct sunlight as possible.

  Fletcher Turner knocked on the door gently, and Inman called for him to come in. He had to maintain the illusion that Inman was still in control even though Fletcher really controlled Inman.

  "House Majority Leader Inman, I have some good news. The RNC and the other key leaders in the party would like to meet with you tomorrow at lunch at the Congressional Country Club." But Fletcher stared intently, his eyes transfixed on Inman’s eyes showing Fletcher was dominant.

  Inman arched his eyebrows, but he tried to hide his obvious interest as well as his trepidation in dealing with the Fletcher Inman power dynamic.

  "I suppose they want to see if I will run for president." Inman said this without hesitation, and, Fletcher thought, this is how Inman should talk. He needed to develop unwavering certainty in his cause. The American people would appreciate this sense of moral purpose. Play the game, Fletcher thought, I would expect no less from my progeny, from Lenin’s progeny. We are superior.

  "You are right, sir. I don't know this for sure, but I've heard this is the usual protocol. I know you've thought about this, but you may want to think about some specific points regarding your campaign platform. I have a few suggestions."

  "I appreciate your advice as always Fletcher. You have great instincts. Please tell me what you think." He hated being obsequious, but this was after all his “father.”

  "It isn't that complicated. It is more a question of timing. Our party has said for years government is too big. People need to rely on their own initiative and not wait for government to look after them. Your plan should encompass these principles, which will be more popular in this 'age of austerity'."

  Inman voiced agreement to the concept, but he pointed out: politically, however, people were not often quick to vote against social welfare programs and effectively slit their own throats. If dressed up the right way, however, trimming the size of the government would not appear like a self-inflicted wound but a prudent move.

  "We ought to campaign on the simple idea of accountability. It is a tenant of conservatism, and we couldn't use it in the last election because the banks and other financial institutions screwed up so badly. But it works here due to the massive expansion of government. Here's what I propose: we campaign on trimming the size of government. We don't have to say we are going to cut Social Security disability and Medicaid to start."

  The time was right. This kind of strategy didn't always work, but it would work now. Fletcher knew Inman could ride this kind of sentiment right into the White House. The American people were not stupid, but they were naive. Most didn't know trimming the size of government was a euphemism for taking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid away from old people.

  "I like it, Fletcher, and I feel the RNC as well as the leaders in the party will agree with this strategy. It is what we have wanted to do for years, but the media is always after us. They distort what we are trying to do. Even though we are not in favor of expanding programs such as Social Security or Medicaid, this does not mean we want to throw people out in the cold. We want people to be self-sufficient, and, if they are not reliant upon these programs, they will be."

  Inman had the right idea, but he didn't know the ultimate plan. No matter, thought Fletcher, because Vladimir Lenin and Nero Corporation knew what they were doing. The Republican Party would serve as the Trojan horse for the vampires wishing to take over the United States and eventually the world.

  _____________________________

  Agent Watson woke up in darkness, and he felt soft, cold dirt against his skin. But the sensation on his skin felt different. Very faint, and he was surprised how easily he could breathe. He felt stronger, and he raised himself up. He broke through the dirt and out into the darkness.

  Watson emerged in a small courtyard, and he knew he wasn't alone. He sensed a presence. He turned around and saw Vladimir Lenin, but he felt a closeness to the man even though he barely knew him. Lenin seemed paternal to him.

  "I see you are awake, my child. I've made you anew. You are a butterfly emerging from your cocoon."

  Agent Watson remembered now. I'm a vampire. I do not know why I was so against the idea because I like how I feel.

  "Pleasant sensation, isn't it. This is because you are filled with my blood. It is the highest quality blood, like a rare vintage. In order to continue to feel this way, you will have to find more blood. More human blood. Nothing tastes as good or is as good for you as live human blood.

  "Agent Watson, I need for you to do something for me."

  "Yes," Agent Watson responded.

  "I need for you to get dressed and go back home to D.C. When people ask about your trip, tell them about the Louvre. Keep it vague."

  Agent Watson nodded. He wanted to please Lenin in the same way a son longs to make his father proud. "I will do whatever you say Mr. Lenin—I mean father."
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  "Good Agent Watson. You will be most useful in our efforts."

  "I see the errors in my thinking." Agent Watson spoke like a toneless machine. He would need to regain his past human personality so that people weren’t suspicious.

  “No one will ever suspect you, the most trusted person in the White House, will betray President Elder.”

  Watson didn’t like the word betrayal. Sensing his displeasure, Lenin stepped forward and patted Watson on the back. Then he grinned. “Betrayal was a strong word. You are on my side now, so you can’t really be betraying him. Besides, if you didn’t help me, that would be a betrayal.” When Lenin spoke these words his features grew sharp, and his fangs extended with spittle clinging from his top teeth to his bottom teeth.

  “Derivative permission is they key.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You have permission to enter the White House. Since you have permission, you can give me permission until your permission is retracted in person. If you hide your loyalties, they will never know until it is too late. I will get the president one way or another, and it isn’t enough to just kill him. That would be easy. No, I have to take over the White House.”

  _____________________

  Chapter 7

  Pierre awoke early the next morning, and he thought about Magnum, Roland and Valkyrie’s mission downstate. These thoughts left his mind though as he remembered the dream he had about Quinta.

  Pierre's dreams of Quinta crept into his mind more frequently lately. Nothing matched the intensity of the happiness he felt with Quinta. If he allowed himself to be honest, then he’d invariably admitted he did not know why he’d continued on for all these years.

  _________

  Rome, July 1, 64 AD

  Quintus watched her breasts rise and fall under the dark blue night. He loved the early summer in Rome. He especially enjoyed watching Quinta as she slept. And he didn’t know how long he watched her usually because he could admire her beauty forever. Time seemed to stand still and fly at the same time.