by Logan Byrne
“So the target is a motorcycle club? What do they have to do with our realm?” Shira asked, before Xelia pinned the blown-up pictures on a corkboard.
“This club is in the mortal realm, yes, in Queens outside Manhattan, but it’s being used as a front by the vampires, and possibly others from our realm, to stay hidden from M.A.G.I.C. and fly under the radar. We know this is the home base of many of the vampires who escaped from our club raid, including two of the vampires who assaulted Lexa and Charlie and left them quite injured. Our thought is that they’re harboring the vampire babies, as well as keeping some of the kidnapped women they shifted. My guess is that they’re also be pregnant, at least some of them, which would explain why they took those women and not the ones we rescued the night of the raid,” Xelia said.
“Such a shame that they’re doing this. I was in disbelief when I first heard of it,” Shira said.
“Our main objective is to rescue all of them, but also to arrest as many of the vampires as possible, especially these two,” Xelia said, pinning the photos on the board. “These are the two men who assaulted Lexa and Charlie, and because of that we can easily arrest them and charge them on the spot. They might also talk and lead us to the others should they have another location to flee to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did, if I’m being honest.”
“From your surveillance photos it looks like there are two doors in and out of the place,” Shira said.
“We’ll need two people out back, should they try to escape that way. The other four of us will be pressing in through the front, funneling them inside and sealing the door from the inside. That way they won’t be able to get past us and escape,” Xelia said.
“Any volunteers to help me?” Shira asked, taking charge of guarding the rear.
“I will,” Britta said, stepping forward. “I think two witches out back could keep the vampires at bay.”
“That’s my girl,” Shira said, smiling.
“Lexa, you’ll need to use your magic to seal the door closed with this after we get inside,” Xelia said, handing me a jar filled with black powder.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s ash from a cherry tree. It will repel the vampires, like two opposite ends of a magnet, and prevent them from escaping out the front,” Xelia said. “Unfortunately, it also works on me, so I’ll be trapped until somebody else breaks the seal.”
“We won’t leave you behind,” Charlie said.
“Great, then, are we all ready to get into position?” Blake asked.
“I think we have everything all set and ready to go,” Shira said.
“Remember to have one another’s backs out there. Once we get inside, these vampires aren’t going to play nice, and they’ll do whatever they have to do to keep themselves preserved. They’ll try to kill you if given the chance,” Xelia said.
“We can do it, I know we can,” Blake said.
Britta, Shira, and I teleported the six of us a block away from the club, where they couldn’t see us. I could hear sirens blaring in the distance as a large dog barked, adding an ominous ambiance to the scene. “Britta and I will go around back and get into position. Give us about five minutes before you go up. Good luck,” Shira said.
“Let us know if you need us. We all have radios,” Xelia said, before Britta and Shira walked off.
“This one feels a bit real, doesn’t it?” Charlie asked, peering around the corner.
“I think it’s just because we don’t have the entire department behind us this time. That’s why it feels so real, but I love it,” Blake said, hopping up and down, his eyes occasionally flashing red.
“You both try to control your tempers. We aren’t here to kill them,” Xelia said to Charlie and Blake.
“I can control myself just fine,” Charlie said, pacing. “Worry about him.”
“I promise I’ll only use the necessary force if I feel my life is in immediate danger,” Blake said.
“Good enough,” Xelia said, shrugging, more as a disclaimer and not because she actually cared.
“Does this bother you at all? Going in and attacking your own kind?” Blake asked.
“No, should it?” she asked.
“I’d have a problem attacking werewolves. I’d still do it, if they broke the law and did these sorts of things, but it would be hard. It’s like betraying your own species,” he said.
“My species? I didn’t choose this, Blake, you have to remember that. I myself was bitten many, many years ago and forced into this world. You might’ve been born a shifter, but my life was taken from me a long time ago, just like these men in here are doing to those poor mortal girls back in that club. I have no remorse for any of them,” she said, fixing him with a cold stare.
Blake shut up, looking down at the wet asphalt beneath us. Her speech even gave me chills, and it wasn’t directed at me. I held the jar of ash in my hands, my wand out as well, as I ran through the scenario in my head over and over. I was so scared to drop it, or mess it up somehow, and ruin this raid, that I over-thought the entire thing. I just had to be calm and know I would do what I needed to do. I was more than capable of doing this, of all things.
“It’s been four minutes. Let’s get walking,” Xelia said.
The four of us walked out of the alleyway through a billow of smoke from a sewer grate, like something out of an action movie. I waited for an explosion in the background to go off, screeching music overhead, but nope, it was still just the sound of our shoes slapping against the ground. Oh well, can’t have it amazing all the time.
“I think you kittens are lost,” one of the big half-giant hybrid grunted as the four of us walked up towards the door.
“Oh, I don’t think we are, big boy,” Xelia said, about to walk past him.
“Hey bitch, I was talking to you,” he said, putting his hulking hand on her shoulder.
She hissed at him, her fangs growing outwards as her eyes turned red. “What the?” he asked, in shock.
She picked him up, body-slamming him down, before the other bouncer jolted upwards. She punched him, hard, in the chest, and his massive body flew backwards through a thick wooden post that was holding up the awning overhead. “That felt good,” she said, smiling. “Ready?”
We nodded and she kicked down the door, Blake and Charlie shifting as the four of us ran in. I closed the door behind us, locking it, before screwing open the lid and tossing the entire jar of ash onto the ground. I pointed my wand at it, spreading it across the exit, before turning around and seeing the chaos that had already ensued.
No one wasted any time, neither the vampires nor us, as they started an all-out attack. I noticed three of them running towards the back, about to be ambushed by Shira and Britta, before I started to fling bolts from my wand towards any vampiric body I could find. I saw Blake enraged, his eyes blood red as his face was fully transformed and wolf-like. Charlie was pouncing from man to man, and Xelia was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with her own kind as I stood in shock, not pushing out the shots that I needed to.
I felt someone grab me, and looked to see a vampire with his fangs out, about to attack me. “Rigormorio,” I shouted, freezing him in place like a bad statue before I pushed him over. He slammed into the ground as another came for me, and I snapped into gear and began my attack.
I was slashing with my wand, purple and blue spells flying around me, when I saw a vampire slam into the front door, an energetic shield shocking him, before he fell back to the ground with a plume of smoke rising from his chest. I guess Xelia wasn’t wrong when she said that ash would prevent them from leaving.
I saw an opening towards the back, so I took it. The others were too busy fighting, and I couldn’t let the chance go to see if they were hiding anybody here. Lamps were on, papers strewn about the floor, as I rushed into the back office and searched for the man from the club. He wasn’t here, but I noticed there was a cigar, still lit, sitting in the ashtray on the desk. I pushed it off, smashing it on the floor and
stomping on it. He was here! I knew he was!
Angry, I went back out, grabbing the tungsten handcuffs from my bag and starting to cuff any and all vampires I could find inside. Shira and Britta came in from the back, all of theirs cuffed and posted up outside, before I looked around at the carnage. Bottles and glass were broken everywhere, with bar stools smashed and blood spattered on the wall. Blake cuffed the last suspect, all of them accounted for, aside from the boss and whoever else was with him, before backup came.
“What are you doing here?” Xelia asked as a few officers came in through the front door.
“We got a call about officers needing assistance, so we came,” one said.
“I called it in, don’t worry,” Shira said, her hands on her hips. “We would need them to do the booking anyway, and I knew we couldn’t transport all the suspects ourselves.”
“What a scene,” I heard, before Gorchank, our weapons lockup friend, came through the door.
“Been a while since I’ve seen you,” I said, smiling.
“Same to you, love. Looks like you really did a number on these vampires,” he said, walking over. “Guess they didn’t know who they were dealing with.”
“Come on, boys, let’s get them out of here,” Shira said, and they began to grab the suspects and start the teleportation process back to the precinct.
“Come with me,” I said to Xelia, grabbing her ice-cold hand and leading her back to the office.
“Looks like the base of operations here,” she said, walking inside.
“The cigar,” I said, pointing at it. “Just like at the club.”
“Was in such a hurry he smashed it,” she said, kicking around the shards of glass.
“Yeah, looks like it,” I said, slightly embarrassed.
“Do you hear that?” she asked, looking around.
“No, what is it?” I asked.
“It sounds like, I don’t know, breathing maybe,” she said, putting her ear up to multiple points in the room. “Charlie, come here.”
“What’s up?” he asked, walking inside.
“Shift and tell me if you hear breathing,” she said.
“Oh yeah, I do,” he said, walking on all fours around the room. “I know why we can’t catch a break on it.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s below us,” he said, putting his ears to the floor.
“Move,” I said, pushing them out the door. “Eruptico!” I shouted, the wooden floor blowing up as splinters and planks of wood flew in every direction.
“Could’ve just looked for stairs,” Charlie said. “They would’ve had them.”
There were women down below, all of them hooked up to the same kinds of machines as in the club, none of them woken up by the explosion. “Can’t believe they didn’t take them,” I said.
“We might have surprised them too much. They probably didn’t have the time or resources to get them out of here, and they thought we wouldn’t find them here. Little did they know,” Xelia said.
We hopped down, checking around as I illuminated the room with my wand, looking for any clues. The only thing here was a staircase upstairs, but no other rooms or areas where the babies were. Maybe they weren’t holding them here at all.
“We should get these women out of here and get them into the infirmary. Some of them look like they could give birth any second,” Xelia said.
“What about the babies inside them?” Charlie asked.
“What about them?” Xelia replied.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to, you know, leave them,” Charlie said, looking a bit conflicted.
“It’s not our call to make right now, they aren’t even born. We’ll let people a little higher up decide that,” she said.
With the IVs still in their arms, we hoisted the women out of the basement and to waiting officers and paramedics who took them back to the precinct to get proper care. It was hard; some of them looked my age, like they could be me. What if I had gone to a club like this before I found out I was a witch? It could happen to anyone, being abducted and forced to change like this. Xelia said it best earlier, how she never chose this life and her mortal life was taken from her because of one bite to the neck. At least Charlie and Blake were born shifters, not bitten by them and given what would feel like a death sentence in a world you never grew up in or came to know on your own.
I looked over at Xelia as she instructed other officers, wondering about her old life and what she used to do. She was from a different time altogether, and she’d lived through wars and peace, technology, and everything between. She would’ve been long dead by now if she hadn’t been bitten, very much long dead, and now she was here, fighting the very people who stole her from a mortal plane of existence. It was sad, and I felt sorry for her, even if she had accepted it and moved on with her life. Nobody should be forced into something like this.
17
I received notice the next morning that the girl I’d talked to previously, the one who’d been transformed into a vampire, was awake and feeling up to talking. In fact, she’d asked for me specifically, which made me perk up a bit. Maybe I could get close enough to her to get answers as to anything she remembered about that night. I didn’t expect much; she likely had so much in her head and on her plate that it would be hard, especially after the very long time she’d been out, but it was best to find out anything at all that could help.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, sipping on a drink as I walked into her room. She was still in the same infirmary room, sitting upright in her bed with two large pillows stuffed behind her. “I’m sorry for the way I was before. It’s not like me.”
“Don’t be sorry at all. You were under a lot of stress, and I should’ve been more understanding of that and backed off. How come you wanted to see me?” I asked.
“I’m not sure what to do, or who to talk to, and I remembered you coming here,” she said.
“Are you unsure what to do because of what I told you?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, looking down as she fiddled with her thumbs. “What am I now?”
“Well, to be honest, you’re a vampire,” I said softly.
“A vampire,” she replied, shaking her head. “I thought those were just in books and movies.”
“Yeah, a lot of mortals do, and it’s better that way, I think. There’s an entire other world, the magical realm, where creatures and things you thought were only myth are actually real. All your stories and myths exist because of encounters with our kind, mainly back centuries ago before we really went into hiding,” I said.
“What are you?” she asked. “Are you a vampire, too?”
“No, I’m a witch,” I said, laughing. “But one of my mentors, Xelia, is a vampire.”
“Was she born one?” she asked.
“No, she was bitten, many years ago, just like you. Vampire babies are actually very rare, which is what, you know, happened to you,” I said.
“I heard. I don’t feel like I had a baby, though. Are you sure I did?” she asked.
“The doctors seem to think so, but I personally don’t know for sure. We did find you in a place where that sort of thing was going on, though. So you feel okay?” I asked.
“I guess I feel about as okay as one could feel, given the circumstances. I just can’t get over it,” she said, putting her palms against her forehead and rubbing up and down. “I was mortal, as you call it, going out to a club for the night so I could let off some steam and just get out. Now this happens. I don’t even feel like myself anymore.”
“That might pass, you’re still in the earlier stages, especially after just waking up from your sedation,” I said.
“I can’t go back to my old life, can I?” she asked.
“I’m not sure, I’m probably not the best person to ask about that kind of stuff, given I’m not a vampire. I could ask Xelia to talk to you. But I would think you could, at least to an extent. Being a vampire isn’t a death sentence per se. Well, that w
as a bad example, given the whole undead thing,” I said, scratching the back of my head.
“I hadn’t even thought of that. Can I, you know, die?” she asked, looking concerned, as if losing her mortality would be one of the worst things about this.
“You can, just not naturally. You would have to be killed, and in a specific way, to truly die in the way you’re talking about,” I said.
“What do I do?” she asked, looking me in the eyes.
I could feel her pain, waking up in some infirmary after thinking you were knocked out for a couple hours because of something that happened at a club. My life changed drastically after finding out I was a witch, but at least I was already neck-deep in the magical realm and had grown up in it. It was normal for me to see a warty ogre walking down the street, or to run into a shifter in a dark alleyway. For her this was going to be the most frightening thing to ever happen to her. She still hadn’t even heard the worst part, either.
“I really don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but I feel I have to. I feel for you right now, I do, and I think it’s best for me to just be open and honest with you about everything that’s happening to you and will happen to you,” I said, rubbing my clammy hands together.
“What?” she asked nervously, a tinge of apprehension in her tone.
“Well, as you might know from television and movies in the mortal realm, vampires don’t really get sustenance from normal things. I mean, you can eat and drink, mainly for social situations and all that, but you won’t get anything out of it,” I said, clearing my throat. “For that, you would need to, well, feed.”
“You mean…” she said, drawing out her sentence.
“Blood,” I replied, my toes nervously tapping the floor.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, then letting it out and obviously trying to gain control of her emotions. “On people?” she asked.
“No, you don’t need to do that. That would just be doing to them what happened to you, remember. Really any blood will do, I think, and there are services here in the magical realm that will get you blood without you having to hunt it down. There’s even an app for it, if I recall,” I said.