by N. P. Martin
"There was someone there?"
"Yes, a woman. She was all beat up looking and dirty like she lived on the streets. She was in Carlos' room, hovering over him with her...her hands outstretched about to...grab him."
"When you said it was a monster who took your son, were you speaking figuratively or..."
"No," she said firmly. "A monster took my son. Her eyes burned bright red like a demon's and she had...she had fangs. I saw them. And she was so fast. One minute she was there, the next she had gone out the window with...my son in her arms." Her head began to shake as more tears fell.
Assuming Bridget was telling the truth--and I had no reason to believe she wasn't--then it sounded to me like a vampire had broken into her house and stolen her baby son. Which was bad news for Bridget and her son. The vampire had probably drained the baby already. "Bridget, I'm sorry to say this, but--"
"Don't!" she said firmly. "Don't you dare tell me that my son is dead. Just don't."
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I stared at her. "Bridget..."
"He is all I have!" she wailed. "My husband never came back from Iraq. He's gone. I have no one except my son, and I want him back!"
Christ, I thought. I didn't know how much more pain I could take, either my own or someone else's. I felt for the woman, I did. But the chances of her son being alive were slim. Very slim indeed. However, I also knew Bridget would never accept my word on that. Understandably. Was I not in the same position, having had the person I love most in the world snatched from under me, not knowing if they were alive or dead? Wasn't I grasping onto a slither of hope as well? Didn't I need to know the truth, no matter what the truth was?
"Alright, Bridget," I said, standing up. "I'll tell you what. I'll try to track the...monster that took your baby."
Bridget got to her feet as well. "You will?"
"I'll try with the limited amount of time I have. I'm under the gun myself. I really can't afford to be...you know."
Bridget nodded like she understood. "I'm grateful, Mr Creed. You've no idea--"
I held a hand up to stop her. "Why don't you just take me to your home now. The quicker we get there, the more chance there is of picking up a trail." I went to lead her out of the room when I stopped. "Actually, scratch that. I don't have the time. Just tell me where you live, and I'll go alone. It'll be quicker, believe me. You can stay here until I get back."
Bridget looked like she didn't know what to say or do. "Only if you think..."
"I do think. What's your address?" She gave me an address that was three blocks away. "Alright, make yourself at home. Drink the whiskey and the tea in the kitchen. Just don't touch anything else. Some of the things in here...just sit tight."
Bridget nodded her consent, and I walked away into the hallway. The second I rounded the corner, I teleported to Bridget's street, a sick feeling coming over me as I realized I was about to track down a possibly dead baby.
Where did it all go wrong, will you tell me, please?
28
On The Hunt
As soon as I landed in the street where Bridget lived, I realized that if I were going to track a vampire, then I would need a nose that was well suited to doing just that. Not my nose, but Blaez's. So I teleported again to Sanaka's Sanctum and eventually found Blaez, along with Barney, in Sanaka's pristine kitchen area. Blaez lay on the floor, an empty plate not far from him. Barney was perched on top of the fridge half asleep after whatever morsel Sanaka had given him.
"I need your help with something, buddy," I said walking over to Blaez, who immediately bounced to his feet.
Barney's eyes opened wide, and he raised his head as if wanting to know what was going on. I stared at the bird of prey for a moment, then decided I would take him with us. As I didn't have much time, an extra set of eyes might prove useful. I held out my arm, and the barn owl hopped down onto it.
"What are you doing?" Sanaka had appeared in the doorway. "Things are almost set. We should be going soon."
"There's something I have to do first," I told him. "It won't take long."
Sanaka looked confused. "What could be more important than rescuing Leona?"
Nothing. But I still had to do the thing. "I'll explain later."
I teleported back to the street where I had come from, appearing about half way up the street under a tree that shed most of its leaves. I instinctively checked my surroundings but didn't see anyone around. Then I remembered it was nearly four in the morning. Most folks were either fast asleep or wrapped up watching porn at that time. Satisfied no one seen us, I started walking up the street. Barney was now on my shoulder, Blaez in invisible mode by my side, his tail wagging slightly in anticipation of the hunt to come.
The street where Bridget lived was mostly low-rent housing. Every house looked the same except for the cars in the driveways. Bridget lived three doors from the end of the row. I walked through the gate and up the path to the front door, using magick to open the lock. I would have to take it easy with the magick use. All the teleporting had put a drain on my reserves, and I didn't want to enter the Underworld on a near empty tank.
All the lights were still on inside the house when I walked in, the smell of stale cigarettes strong in my nostrils. The interior of the house was well kept. Homely you might say. I noticed pictures on the wall of Bridget standing with a man in uniform (her dead husband I assumed), but I didn't pay them much attention. My only concern was picking up the scent of the vampire who took Bridget's baby son.
I motioned for Blaez to head upstairs and I followed up behind him as he took me straight to the child's bedroom at the end of the landing. Blaez's nose moved frantically over the floor when he entered the bedroom, then he stopped sniffing, looked up at me and made a small barking sound. Confirmation that he had picked up a scent.
"That's the one, buddy," I said.
Blaez dropped his head again and followed the scent to the window. I walked to the window and opened it. A drainpipe led down to the back yard. Beyond that, there was an alley and then more blocks of houses. I didn't think the vampire would have gone too far, not with a probably crying baby in its clutches. It would have attracted too much attention. The creature would have wanted to have holed up somewhere as soon as possible so it could enjoy its meal.
Christ.
I shook my head at the thought of the child being no more than a feedbag to the vampire who took him.
One thing I was fairly certain of was that the child-snatching vampire was feral. Feral vampires were all over the city. Most of them were victims of other vampires that simply didn't die in the attack, giving the vampiric virus time to take hold. When a person turned into a vampire, they had to be trained (usually by the vamp who turned them) to control their feral instincts so they could fit in with the rest of society without attracting too much attention. If a person turned and didn't get that training, then as a vampire they would become overwhelmed and ultimately controlled by their baser instincts. Most such vampires didn't last very long. The Crimson Crow had clean up crews who hunted and then dispatched most of them. But sometimes, a few feral vamps could slip through the cracks and avoid detection. Those that did often became powerful predators, learning to hide in the shadows and stalk their prey. Breaking into houses and stealing babies wasn't their usual MO, but from Bridget's description, there was no doubt the child snatcher was a vamp.
Fortunately, the creature wouldn't be too hard to track. Feral vampires tended to develop a very musky smell about them, just like normal animals. That made them slightly easier to track, especially for a tracker like Blaez, who had never failed me in the past.
"Alright," I said to Blaez as I turned away from the window. "Let's get down there and get after this thing."
Once we hit the backyard, Blaez was off, moving quickly across the yard with his nose close to the ground, still in invisible mode in case we came across any Sleepwalkers. He didn't even wait for me to open the gate. Instead, he took the route the vamp obviously took
and jumped over the chainlink fence into the alley. Needless to say, I didn't follow him. Valuing my groin too much, I walked through the gate instead.
As Blaez pretty much ran north up the alley, I turned my head to Barney and said, "You too. We might need eyes in the sky."
The barn owl screeched as if thrilled by the prospect of hunting and then took off, the faint wind from its wings blowing over my face where beads of sweat had already begun to form. "Fuck this shit," I said as I started jogging after Blaez. Don't ever let anyone tell you that a Mage's life is all books and magick. It isn't, at least not in my case.
I chased after Blaez as he took me through a maze of back alley's that spanned about three square blocks while Barney flew silently overhead. By the time I caught up to Blaez again, he had led me into an abandoned train yard at the edge of the neighborhood and was stood stock still as he stared at part of an old cargo train. I stopped running and walked across the rough ground as I saw Barney land on top of the container, right on the edge. The container door was half open and dark inside.
The vamp must be inside, I thought.
As I got closer to the cargo train, I reached inside my trench coat and took out the Killing Knife. Thanks to the Druids who made it millennia ago, the blade would make short work of the vamp.
Blaez had dropped his weight as he continued to stare at the cargo container as if he was getting ready to pounce on the vampire inside should it dare to show itself. I crept quietly across the dirt and stopped just a few feet from the container, my heart pounding from all the running and the added adrenaline that came from stalking a vampire that could quite easily tear me to pieces with claws and fangs that were powered by unnatural strength and speed.
What I needed was a simple plan, and fortunately, I had one that had worked well plenty of times in the past when I had to deal with feisty vampires.
I held up my left hand and conjured a ball of light into it no bigger than a tennis ball. But there was so much UV in the light that the vampire inside the container would think it was in direct sunlight, distracting it long enough for me to kill it with the knife. Simple, like I said, but by no means easy. As Mike Tyson said once, everybody has a plan until they get hit.
I hoped I wouldn't get hit, however, as I stood in front of the gap in the door of the container. No doubt the vamp's heightened senses had already picked up on our presence. It was probably in there waiting to attack whoever came in first, which was going to be me.
Putting one foot on the rusty ladder that led up into the container, I took a breath and then jumped up, keeping my left hand with the light out in front of me to blind the vampire. With the interior of the container now filled with light, I steeled myself for a coming attack, but none came. And as Blaez jumped inside beside me, I searched for signs of the vamp but saw none. Then I spotted a pile of rotting wooden crates at the back of the container, and I realized the vamp must have been hiding behind them. It had to be if the musky stench was anything to go by.
Strange, I thought. Why isn't attacking?
Carefully, I made my way across the floor to where the boxes were and then thrust my hand quickly over the top of them, the blazing UV light eliciting a scream from the other side.
Bingo.
Quickly, I moved around the outside of the boxes, the magick light held out in front of me, the knife in my other hand held at the ready.
The vamp had backed into the corner as it cowered from the UV light, which I shone directly onto it. Smoke rose from the vamp's exposed skin as the light seared it away, causing the vamp to screech in pain.
I held the light over the creature while I looked to see what I was dealing with. From what I could make out, the vamp was once a woman, somewhere between twenty and thirty years old. The clothes the vamp wore were ragged and filthy, her feet bare. By the looks of her, she had been feral for quite a while, living like a nocturnal animal, grabbing food from wherever she could.
The vamp had her arms wrapped around something that was in turn wrapped in a dark blanket.
Bridget's baby son, who didn't appear to be moving or making any sound.
I swallowed down the sick feeling that rose in my throat. Alright, I thought, gripping the knife tighter. Let's get this over with.
Stepping forward, I got ready to stick the knife into the vamp. But I only got one step before something stopped me dead.
A baby's cry.
"Jesus..." I breathed.
The child was alive. It must have been sleeping.
My mind boggled slightly as I realized the vamp was protecting the baby in her arms as much as she was trying to protect herself. But why? The vamp had had plenty of time to drain the baby. Why hadn't it done so?
Now what? I wondered.
If I made a move on the vamp, she would probably kill the baby before I could save him.
Moving the main beam of the light away from the vamp slightly, I took a few steps back and also ushered Blaez to move around the other side of the boxes so the vamp could no longer see him.
"I know you can understand me," I said to the vamp like I was trying to talk down a jumper from a roof. "I just want the baby back. I'm not going to hurt you."
The vamp turned her head towards me now that most of the light was directed away from her. Her eyes looked severely bloodshot, and her fangs were bared at me, stark white against the dark grime on her face. I wasn't all that sure if she could understand what I was saying. The longer a vamp stayed feral, the more of what once made them human disappeared, including the ability to communicate and understand language. Although by the way she was protectively hugging the baby, she appeared to understand enough.
The baby started to cry then, and the vamp started rocking with it, making strange hissing noises as if she was trying to quiet the child back to sleep.
Well if this isn't one of the most fucked up things I've ever seen, I thought to myself.
And then it hit me what was going on. The vamp had obviously been a mother to a child before she was attacked. Maybe her baby died in the same attack, I don't know. Whatever happened, the woman had somehow maintained some deep level motherly instinct that drove her into wanting to mother a child again. It was the only explanation. Under normal circumstances, baby Carlos would have been drained soon after he was taken. Thankfully for Bridget (and for me, who had no wish to deliver a dead baby to its mother), the child was still very much alive.
As I stood there debating what to do while the vamp clung to the baby in her arms, I reminded myself that I didn't have time to fuck about. Every second I spent standing in that dark cargo container was a second more of pain and torture for Leona. Or at least, that's how I saw it. It's what I chose to believe, the other option (that Leona was already dead) too horrible to even think about.
So I made a decision right there to bring the situation to a swift end in a way that was risky and probably inexcusable. But my back was against the wall, and I didn't have a choice.
Hardly able to believe I was doing it, I suddenly raised the knife in my hand back towards myself and then flung the blade forward. In between releasing the knife from my hand and the blade finding its target, there was a long, interminable split second where everything seemed to slow down, and my heart sat in my mouth, and I thought to myself, I've hit the baby. Oh, Jesus, I've hit the fucking baby...
Bridget, I found your baby, but unfortunately, I stabbed it to death...here you go...oh Jesus...
Thank the god's things didn't turn out that way.
The blade went into the vamp's skull, pinning her head to the wood of the container wall for just a second until her body began to slowly turn to dust from the top down, her head and face falling apart like a dry sandcastle in a desert wind, the knife staying stuck in the wood behind her.
I rushed forward then as the vamp's shoulders began to disintegrate and managed to grab hold of the baby before it tumbled to the floor with the remains of the vamp. "I gotcha," I said, holding the crying baby tight to me.
A sigh of relief left me as I raised my head to the ceiling and stood there in the now dark container for a moment, grateful that at least something had gone my way for once. Then I felt for the Killing Knife stuck in the wall, pulled it out and dropped into the pocket of my coat for the time being.
Once I got outside again, I told Blaez and Barney to make their way back to Sanaka's. "I got a baby to deliver," I said, then teleported to the Sanctum.
Bridget broke down as I handed over the baby to her in the Sanctum. She simply couldn't believe her son was still alive. Neither could I for that matter. If Bridget only knew the dangerous stunt I pulled to get the child back, she might not have been so warm towards me. As it was, she hugged my neck so tight I thought she would break it. "Thank you," she said in just about the sincerest voice I've ever heard, bringing a lump to my throat. "And I hope you succeed in whatever it is you have to do."
I almost cried myself when she said that.
29
Gateway
Before I left the Sanctum to head back to Sanaka's, I went into the Operations Room and grabbed my weapon of choice from the armoire, a Rune Axe that was shaped somewhat like a hatchet with a curved handle carved from mountain ash and a blade that was made from bone, but with metal plates set into either side to strengthen it. Also carved into the blade and handle were runes that gave the axe added power against supernatural foes. I acquired the axe some years ago from an Elven warrior in Babylon (the axe was payment for helping to sort out a sticky situation involving a bunch of angry Dwarves). Since then, I had used the axe to dispatch a fair number of supernatural foes. It was heavy enough to inflict major damage on soft tissue (even to break bone), but also light enough to swing with relative ease. I'd never used the axe against demons before, but I figured demons would bleed like every other creature when I hit them.