Vampire Esquire's War (Book 2)

by Michael Wells Jr.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, but this is the main reason we targeted you. In fact, once we learned you were going to Paris a few years ago, we knew we would have the perfect opportunity to make you into a vampire and use you for the greater vampire cause.”

  What greater vampire cause? he thought. Watson’s loyalty to the president died hard.

  “Thomas, we will talk soon. Thanks for your help.”

  “Thank you Fletcher. I will talk to you soon.”

  ______________________________

  Bridgett had noticed a change in her friend, Thomas Watson, both physically and in demeanor. His skin had gotten lighter, and his mood was more sullen. He barely spoke to her anymore, which was not in keeping with his personality.

  She had never been a conspiracy theorist, but lots of strange things were happening. The events with Fletcher, all of internet rumors, and her general feeling that things were changing for the worse, unnerved her.

  She stumbled upon a blog called “Unmasking the Vampires,” and it listed people thought to be vampires. Vladimir Lenin, Ronald Drum, David Taylor and others were on the list.

  She remembered Fletcher going to Paris to meet with Vladimir Lenin or at least she had heard this rumor in the White House.

  “Maybe it really is true. Maybe there are vampires,” she said out loud. She wasn’t sure whether to tell anyone though. If she were wrong, she would never work in Washington again.

  Chapter 16

  Alexander Hamilton arrived at the White House around 2 a.m. Always better to come in under the cloak of darkness where he could go unnoticed by virtually everyone. The president met him upstairs in the residence.

  “I appreciate you meeting with me at such and odd hour, but this is important.”

  President Elder responded patiently, but with a tinge of exasperation, “I know it is. This is all important. But that doesn’t make it any less tiring.”

  The Society of the Silver Stake had since its inception served this dual role, a sometimes seemingly contradictory role. But not really. The President served as the unifying agent for the country. The country needed the President.

  Of course the Society was used to walking this tightrope. Such was the nature of secret societies. Their existence could not be known except to a select few. Generally the only recognition its members received was the knowledge they were doing their part to preserve the delicate world as they knew it.

  The president sat down on a sofa in the middle of the room near the fireplace. On the other side of a coffee table across from the President rested another sofa. President Elder gestured for Hamilton to sit on that sofa.

  “Tell me, Mr. Hamilton, and I want an honest answer.” President Elder paused to consider his words carefully. What he was about to say flew in the face of everything he and other Presidents had ever thought. “Do you think it would be easier to deal with the vampire threat if the American people knew about vampires? Not just a few but everyone?”

  “Yes,” Hamilton responded confidently and without hesitation.

  “I agree with you, and I think we need to find out a way to tell them in such a way that utter chaos doesn’t ensue. I can’t see how it is possible though, but we must try. We must.”

  _______________________________

  Roland and Magnum were taken via black SUV from the Metro stop to a massive warehouse in Anacostia; Valkyrie hadn’t communicated with them, but they didn’t have time to wait. They hoped she was okay, but she didn’t stay with the group.

  The weapons all had a thin coat of silver on them. Each tank gleamed under the artificial lights as did the guns.

  The weapons themselves were standard military issue, but the Society of the Silver Stake had equipped them especially for battle with vampires.

  “It’s coming soon,” said Magnum.

  “I know it is. I feel it too.”

  Both men stood in silence. Nothing needed to be said.

  “It isn’t going to be easy. But the survival of everything hinges on whether or not we are successful. I know this creates a lot of pressure, but pressure motivates me. It clarifies and bestows singleness of purpose.”

  Roland’s eyes shined with unspoken consent. Moral clarity was a rarity in this complex world where good and evil where difficult to determine. He finally felt clarity because he believed vampires were real. There had been too much proof, too many hunts and bizarre events to think otherwise.

  “So you all are two of the vampire hunters,” a man’s voice said as he poked his head out of a tank. The young, sandy-haired man smiled brightly. “I’m Captain Billy Wilson. You secret vampire hunters are legends.”

  “Is that so?” Magnum said with a laugh. “If we are secret, how is it you know about us?”

  “You aren’t secret to everyone. People in the military have suspected the existence of vampires for a long time. Pardon my French, but we’ve seen some crazy shit. And you all know most military people don’t talk about what they’ve seen.”

  Roland stepped forward and looked at Captain Wilson. “I’d say you are right Captain. My name is Roland Walker. I was in––”

  “Iraq, sir, and I know about you. You are considered a hero who got a raw deal. Everyone knows what kind of shit goes down out there. You wouldn’t roll on your the guy’s you served with. That’s why they kicked you out, not because you had a little to drink.”

  Roland’s eyes belied his stoic demeanor. “That’s a charitable assessment of the situation, but I appreciate it.”

  “No problem sir. So, are we all going to go?”

  Roland and Magnum locked eyes. Nothing needed to be said. Of course others besides them would have the chance to kill vampires. Both men waited for the other to respond. Finally Magnum responded abruptly, “Vampires are unlike any opponent you’ve ever faced. It is possible, in fact it is likely, that they will kill you first.”

  Magnum turned around and walked off. He probably could have phrased it differently, but he wanted to kid to understand the seriousness of the fighting that was going to take place.

  Roland walked after Magnum, and he said, “Don’t you think you were a bit harsh with that guy? You probably scared the shit out of him.”

  Magnum drew close to Roland up, and said, “He needs to have the shit scared out of him. You know what vampires are like. If he isn’t scared and cautious, he will die a horrible death. Worse yet, he will end up one of those bloodsucking assholes.”

  Roland couldn’t argue with this logic. He respected Magnum’s toughness. Sometimes he could say things harshly, but bluntness worked in the right situations. Sometimes bluntness was the only thing that worked.

  They continued to walk the length of the warehouse, admiring all of the silver-plated tanks, guns, cross bows, and stakes. The silver-plated body armor appealed to them most of all. It certainly would keep the vampires away, or at least it would slow them down.

  “Do you think the war will start quickly or do you think there will be little skirmishes here and there?” Roland said to Magnum.

  Magnum considered his response clearly weighing his words as if his response had some great significance. “I don’t know. I’d like to say I have some idea, but I really have no clue. This thing is unprecedented.”

  “You are right.” Roland turned and picked up a silver stake from a box. Several stakes lay in a velvet-lined box.

  Roland thought about how expensive the silver stakes and other silver plating and weaponry must be, but then he realized as a defense item expenditure they probably weren’t anymore than your average assault rifle. Average assault rifles wouldn’t work in this kind of war, though.

  Roland had been in enough vampire fights to realize a gun did you almost no good against a vampire. You could shoot one in the head, and though it might slow the vampire down, it didn’t last. The vampire would regroup and come at you again. When it came the second time, you better be able to do more than slow it. A wooden stake was actually much more effective than an assault rifle.
Of course, if a gun fired silver bullets, then it was a whole different story.

  Silver bullets could almost kill a vampire, and there were reports of silver bullets, if shot directly into the heart, killing vampires. Unfortunately, killing a vampire with silver bullets was not an easy task. The bullets were very effective in slowing down the vampire until a silver stake could be plunged into the vampire’s heart.

  Most vampires knew about the vampire hunters from the Society of the Silver Stake, so they knew about the fighting methods. Vampires got around the problems posed by the Society’s fighters by launching surprise attacks against the hunters. Hit them before they had a chance to use their weapons.

  This strategy had worked many times in the past, but vampire hunters had adapted surprisingly quickly. They hunted in pairs, and they seemed to sense attacks almost before they happened. Reaction time increased, and this made the vampire hunters more successful.

  “Hello, gentlemen, I trust you’ve had a chance to review the weaponry––at least what we’ve seen of it thus far,” said Alexander Hamilton.

  “I thought you were meeting with the president,” said Roland.

  “I was, but I’m done.”

  Chapter 17

  Lenin had created an impossible situation for humans. He made Watson a vampire under his control. And he did so prior to permission to enter the White House being retracted.

  A few years ago a couple made into a White House State Dinner without being on the guest list, a serious national security breach. They’d become B-list celebrities for a few weeks, and then the story went away.

  Vladimir Lenin had paid particular attention to this story, and he knew all he needed was one agent under his control to have permission to enter the White House. He’d targeted Thomas Watson, the chosen one. Lenin saw potential in him and a possible Trojan horse when he gazed into Watson’s eyes one day on a parade route in New York when the president was in town for a G-8 Summit. Lenin had been in New York on business. He began plotting then, and it had taken several years. It wasn’t enough to kill the president; Lenin had to be the one to kill him and personally take over the White House like when one king deposed another in the Middle Ages.

  Eventually Watson got the idea to go to Paris on what he thought was a hunch. The “hunch” wasn’t Watson’s hunch. He thought he was doing the right thing, but he wasn’t. Vampires in general, but especially older vampires, could place humans under spells with relative ease.

  Vladimir knew he could manipulate Thomas Watson. Watson would serve as the key to the White House.

  ________________________

  Vladimir walked from one end of his Georgetown townhouse to the next, appreciating the quaint decor. He favored Chippendale furniture, and he’d hired his favorite designer to buy furniture used in the foyer of the house during the Civil War.

  Vladimir felt a tinge of nostalgia every time he thought about the Civil War. He regarded the war as the greatest civil war in human history. In spite of what many anti-Southerners with vampire ties would claim, vampires helped the North and the South. Vampires had tried to play both sides of the conflict much in the same way they tried to play both sides of all political conflicts in present-day America.

  The smart vampires knew the South never had a chance at winning. Vladimir had never doubted this even though, at times, the South made him nervous as many of the early battles went in the South’s favor.

  Vladimir hated Lincoln though. He thought him an uncouth ape. Vladimir knew of John Wilkes Booth’s plot to assassinate Lincoln, although he urged him to do so in a more covert way.

  Assassinating Lincoln in the way he did mean a death sentence for Booth, but Booth wanted people to know it was he who killed Lincoln. Acting on impulse and hubris got the best of him.

  Lenin needed a new Booth, a Booth who lived. Maybe that would be Fletcher or perhaps it would be Inman. Someone needed to take Elder out. Cut off the head of the snake, and the body dies, he thought.

  Vladimir thought about how the people were falling into place; no matter that Lenin failed to win the election. Lenin could go soon. Soon they would be ready. The humans could easily be manipulated. The younger and therefore lesser vampires presented no obstacle. Circumstances presented him with many pawns to sacrifice for the ultimate goal.

  ______________

  A few hours later Lenin walked into Fletcher’s office. Fletcher stood up. “Good afternoon, sir.”

  “Nice to see you, Fletcher.”

  “Nice to see you,” said Fletcher nervously.

  “No need to be nervous, but I am here to see the Speaker and to tell you something about the Speaker.”

  “What’s that sir?”

  Lenin paused as if considering what to say even though he knew full well what he wanted to say. “The Speaker is a direct lineal descendant of John Wilkes Booth.” Blood bound Lenin’s plan, both his blood and the Booth’s blood, woven together in an ironic historical elixir, which would cure the ills of vampirekind.

  Fletcher was stunned. “Wow, that’s quite a lineage.”

  “Yes it is, but Booth was difficult to control.”

  Lenin walked out of Fletcher’s office, and as he did he said over his shoulder, “Remember, Fletcher. Control is important.”

  Lenin preferred some vampires to others. Certain ones such as Thomas Watson held great promise, and, if Thomas survived hundreds of years, one day he would be a very formidable vampire and a worthy member of a master race.

  Vladimir both loved and hated the European vampires. They took their time, and they were patient. He too had been patient but for too long. The Vampire Restoration League held him back. He couldn’t wait for them as they prattled. They would never be ready, and the opportunity would pass them by. They were old, conservative men with no backbone.

  He’d risen to the top of their hierarchy that had changed little in hundreds of years, but he couldn’t overcome the hold of the older vampires impervious to change. It was more about whose bloodline you came from not the strength of the bloodline. In Vladimir’s opinion this made the European vampires weak. Their blood did not reign supreme because it was superior. It did so because a set of immutable laws that had controlled that for far too long. Merit meant more than anything, and merit didn’t necessarily come from blood.

  In stark contrast, the United States vampire hierarchy was composed primarily of those vampires who had risen to the top based on merit. More specifically, the top vampires were physically and intellectually superior to other vampires. Vladimir thought building a master race meant you built a master race.

  Because Vladimir believed vampires in the United States were superior and could be even more superior, he believed he must succeed here first. If he failed here, it would be a major setback, perhaps the greatest of all setbacks in the history of vampires. But he wouldn’t let the vampires fail here. It was time.

  Lenin barely knocked as he opened the door to the Speaker’s office. Speaker Inman whipped around on his swivel chair while still on the phone. “I will need to call you back.” Then he hung up the phone.

  “Speaker Inman, it is so nice to speak to see you. I know you are disappointed about the Presidential election, but things can change.”

  Speaker Inman didn’t say anything, unsure of what to make of Vladimir Lenin’s comment. “I suppose everything can change.”

  Vladimir laughed. “So true, so true.” Then Vladimir got down to business. “Speaker Inman, tell me how the plan is coming

  “It is coming along quite well sir.”

  Vladimir listened intently. He weighed his words because he didn’t want to appear harsh. “I don’t want private industry to pick up the slack for government. I want these people to be self-sufficient.”

  “I agree with you sir, but you cannot completely yank these government programs without a gradual phasing out. Even then it his hard to tell whether the burdens will outweigh the benefits.”

  Lenin’s eyes grew black; he didn’t think vampir
es loyal to him and of his blood would stall too, but they were. He stood up to his full height and hissed. “I don’t think you understand me Mr. Speaker. Let me be clear: I want these government programs gone! I want Social Security gone. I want Medicare gone. And I want Medicaid gone. Once they are gone I will be able to sustain the vampire population. Once we hit them, they need to stay down. We can’t give them a way to rally.”

  “I know, sir. This will be great for vampirekind, but we have to be careful about the timing. We don’t want to go too soon. We need the element of surprise”

  “Too soon! Too soon! How in the hell is this too soon, Mr. Speaker? I’ve waited hundreds, more like thousands of years for this. Chaos is absolutely essential, and we have the numbers. These stupid humans won’t know what hit them. Vampires thrive in chaos.” Lenin pounded the Speaker’s desk splintering pieces on the carpet.

  __________

  Inman knew impatience would be their downfall. Humans would fight back, and their numbers were superior. He also knew humans would possess many weapons with silver in them. The silver would make it easier to fight the vampires because the tactical advantage would be lessened.

  He didn’t voice these concerns.

  Vladimir had made a great plan, but he was too impatient. He wasn’t willing to wait. The main flaw, however, lay in his inability to recognize humans had any value or could be any threat to vampires. This baffled Inman because humans had thwarted vampires for centuries. Vampires had never been able to maintain control.

  And then there were the vampires born before maximum viability.

  Lenin calmed a little.

  “Speaker Inman, the difference this time is we will have the numbers. We can multiply and have multiplied at a fast enough rate to reach a critical mass, and we are almost there now. This critical mass will allow us to permanently wrest control away from the humans. We will not eradicate humans, for to do so would destroy our food supply. We will keep them around and treat them like beef cattle in very controlled environments.