Marylou nodded while sniffing the air. "Pretty much."
Marylou kept looking around the well-lit room. She could see where they had left in a hurry. She leaned over sniffing a meal, it was deer meat served with a baked potato and collard greens. She raised up. "This plate still has some heat to it. Her ears started to sharpen; hints of fur began to cover them. She sniffed the air again. "I bet the entry to this subterranean addition has to be near here." She looked at her armband and pressed a few buttons which displayed a holographic image of the prison. She pointed with her left hand. "There are access tunnels that run right under the flooring here. Look around, will you?"
"Why here?" He asked.
"If you look at the map, the cafeteria is the most centralized location, plus half these meals are still lukewarm." She shrugged, "Use your bat, sonar, will you?"
Cullen adjusted his jaw and chattered his teeth. The outline of the room began to form in his mind. A few seconds later, he could see a tunnel off to the right behind a wall. He stopped chattering and walked over to it. "There's a tunnel behind here."
Marylou went over and started looking around for any entry pads. Nothing was turning up. "Okay, my guess, something old school. Press around and see if anything moves and opens a doorway."
Both of them started feeling around along the concrete walls for a possible lever that might reveal an entry point.
Marylou started sniffing the wall allowing her werewolf heightened senses to come into play.
The armored werewolf drug her claws along the walls. She continued sniffing. Her eyes had shifted from green to yellow. The rest of her features were being held at bay. Finally, she caught a whiff of something. Her eyes enlarged, her nose started to morph, but stopped right as she realized where she was going. The woman walked across the room with purpose in both her stride and her face. She found the block, and pressed it in with her left hand, while her right hand, had a blaster pistol pointed forward.
As soon as the wall pulled in and slid to the side, a gargoyle in full form was waiting, so was Marylou's pistol. The headshot was quick.
"A gargoyle guardian is down, I found the entrance to the underground facility," Marylou said over the commlink.
Griffin pressed his commlink, "I will follow your signal to your location. My team is in route."
Xairin, Joanie, Hammond, and Alex were right behind Griffin.
The team was heading down a long hallway that had been refurbished, though the lights above were flickering. The fluorescent lights were shorting out.
A man stepped out of the shadows in front of Griffin ten feet away from the approaching vampire. He was tall, bearing salt and pepper hair in his appearance. This was seen in his trimmed beard and short hair.
Griffin saw the distinguished man's fangs in the flickering light of the hallway. He was dressed like the devil, wearing a black suit that had a charm all to his own. Griffin pulled off six shots, none of which hit the gentlemen. He simply moved like a blur, and then resumed where he was standing. The man sniffed the air and grinned. "House Draculesti, or does Vlad prefer Dracul now? I can't remember which?"
Griffin stopped and looked at the man. He didn't need to sniff. He could feel the man radiating power, old power, a power far exceeding anything Griffin had fought before. This man was a Grand Alpha.
"Though you're not full Draculesti, I detect something else within your veins:" The man smiled and leaned against the side of the wall to his right, Griffin's left.
Griffin cocked his head and fired again. Alex laid cover fire. The man in black moved quickly evading both Griffin's firepower and Alex's rifle blasts.
Xairin felt nervous. The man was playing with them.
Joanie pressed her commlink, "WE HAVE A GRAND ALPHA ON OUR LOCATION!"
Being in hybrid form, and letting the wolf take over, Hammond leaped over the firefight and started swinging his claws at the man in black. The man grasped Hammond's right hand, bending it back and forced the Thylan wolf to the ground in submission. Xairin could hear the whimpering noises he made.
Alex fired a shot. The man just moved his head and smirked. "Missed…" He said with a hiss…
He tossed Hammond through a wall by turning around and slinging him. He charged at Griffin and Alex.
Xairin watched as Griffin's head was pushed through the wall, while the man kicked Alex in the chest. He spun around sending Griffin flying through the ceiling while doing a spin kick at Alex. A silver blade shot out from the tip of the man's black dress shoes. One of the blades slit Alex's throat before he could react.
Xairin saw the beta grab his throat and begin choking on his own blood. All Xairin could think about at that moment was yell. "ALEX!"
Alex was burning at the throat and continued to choke as he came down on his knees. The man reached out, giving the werewolf mercy. Xairin watched the man that had protected him in his early days as a vampire, have his head plucked like a cherry and tossed aside like the pit being spit out.
Joanie pulled her blade and rushed. The man avoided her every move, grabbing her by the back of the hair and beating her face into the wall beside him until she stopped moving. She hit the ground like a heavy sack that had been dropped down a laundry chute.
The man looked at Xairin grinning. His fangs and black eyes were piercing Xairin's inner being. Xairin was scared at first, but the sight of his friend's head starting to transition into green steam reminded him to stay focused, and not just that, Xairin didn't fall into despair, he was pissed.
The man smiled at Xairin. "Another Dracul mixed with something… I wonder who Vlad Tepes fucked to produce you and your friend…"
Xairin looked into the black eyes of ancient death standing in the hallway, wanting to send another into the void. All Xairin could think about was the kindness Alex had shown him. The friendship Alex had given him, and how Xairin would never have the chance to make amends with Alex for almost killing him. Xairin stood there, shaking. He wasn't shaking with fear. He was trembling with rage. The rage that was building continued to blind the young vampire to activating his holo-armor.
He looked into the eyes of the ancient death standing in the hallway with his now glowing red eyes and growled with a monstrous roar.
The man in black didn't move. He just looked forward. He had never seen a red-eyed vampire before, but a glow in the eyes, that he had seen. Very few vampires possessed that light behind their eyes when their powers were surging. "No…" He said. "It cannot be?"
Xairin didn't fire a blast, nor did he attack with his blade. He threw his hands forward while the rage inside him built into a climactic surge. Xairin expected a telekinetic burst, what happened caught even Xairin by surprise. Red lightning, the very color of blood itself, shot out from Xairin's fingers. The blast hit the man in black. When it did, it sounded like a thunder crack.
The man in black flew through the air from the blast that lasted but a brief few seconds. He landed and noticed Xairin still standing there. Xairin's eyes were still glowing. Xairin was trembling. He had to keep pushing through this, his squad was down, Alex was dead, and all that was standing there was he and the beast before him.
Xairin felt the surges in him again, he willed it the best he could control, conducting the bioelectric waves that allowed him to shimmer which had also allowed him to react in this new attack. Xairin focused on his friend's death, and what the men had done to him in the sewer. He was using every bit of that anger, allowing it to turn into a pure rage. He moved ten feet forward, passing Joanie who was laying there unconscious. Once he was in front of her. His fangs grew longer when he roared again and threw his hands in front of him. Red lightning filled the hallway in front of him. It shot out in such a way that it hit was hitting off everything and anything. There was no dodging this attack based on the confinements of the hallway. The blast began electrocuting the Grand Alpha. His skin began to rapidly burn and smolder, other parts blistering.
The man screamed!
Xairin felt the surge inside him flowing
through him like a wild, uncontrolled fire. The power he was tapping into wasn't just primal, but something older, the core of the Aeon Strain itself reinfused and bolstered by his unique physiology. The vampire's skin blistered and charred with the continued shock. His clothing burning right off of him.
Xairin kept roaring like some monster out of a horror movie as the energy flowed from his palms like a rushing river.
The Grand Alpha's face was halfway blackened, smoldering quickly. He tried his best to resist the flow of energy bashing at him by manipulating his own bioelectrical field, willing a barrier to start to form. Xairin's push was dominant, making it complicated for the Grand Alpha to push it off. After a full sixty seconds of taking Xairin's crimson red electrical attack, he managed to will a barrier just enough to allow the Grand Alpha to slip and teleport behind Xairin. Xairin didn't turn fast enough and was kicked in the back, sending him flying.
The man wanted to pursue who he knew, had to be something purely unexpected but decided to flee instead. He knew that if Xairin managed to muster another attack like that on him, he couldn't fight it off. The power that this young delta was wielding was beyond anything he had experienced coming from one that smelt so young. He knew he had to get out of there quickly.
Lord Vladislav vanished from sight, slipping. Xairin got up and charged at the man that disappeared into a red whirl of sparks.
Two hallways away, the man in black stepped out of the whirlwind of red sparks. He was surrounded by cinder block walls painted white and dingy from age. Right as he went to reach for the doorknob to the metal door at the end of the hallway, he felt his back light up with burning pain. He was being hit again by another bioelectrical surge. Xairin had tracked the scent…
"Fine, you want to die!? THAT WORKS FOR ME YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" The man in black yelled.
Using more power this time, he created a barrier that looked like a bubble being outlined by Xairin's flow of red electrical energy.
The Grand Alpha knew this man was a delta. It was a matter of letting him run out of steam. Vladislav kept his barrier going. Xairin's crimson lightning outlined the entire field as the man stood there smirking. It took two minutes for Xairin's powers to start to wane.
Seeing the flow diminish, Vladislav slipped. He formed right behind Xairin and grabbed the redheaded vampire by the back of his hair. Forgetting to activate his holo armor and his helmet, it made it easy for Vladislav proceeded to beat Xairin's face against the molded cinder block. "How you like it? Huh, you little bitch?" The man taunted with a Romanian accent.
Xairin's face was growing bloody. The sheer strength and speed in which the grand Alpha deployed made it difficult for Xairin to catch his breath.
Inside Xairin's body, his cells reacted the only way they knew how in an effort for self-preservation. They lit up sharing energy. The blood Xairin had fed upon had allowed his cells to mature a bit, giving them the increased bioelectrical output that he had exhibited in his attacks. This time, the energy covered his skin. Vladislav found himself holding on to what felt like to him, an electric eel. The man shrieked. "FUCK!"
He held on. His skin on his left hand blistered and burned even more. Xairin's defensive attack was waning. The grand Alpha held tightly waiting it out.
"Now you little electric shit, you die…" he said confidently as his hand burned and his face smoked.
"SUCK MY DICK YOU OLD BASTARD!" Xairin actually taunted.
"Not into men, sorry!"
The older vampire went back to bashing Xairin's face into the wall now that his skin had lost the electrical charge. Two more bashes, followed by a third, then a fourth. Xairin's face was becoming less recognizable.
His cells tried for one more thing. They needed to escape this horror. His cells used every bit of power they had left and radiated from the inside out. Instead of slipping, Xairin's body became like that of a specter, a ghost or a phantom. Right as Vladislav went to slam his face into the concrete one more time, Xairin's body passed through the concrete wall as if he were, in fact, a ghost. Vladislav's hand was still attached to Xairin's hair. His arm was becoming incorporeal from holding on to Xairin. The man had to stop himself from falling through the wall with the redheaded delta. Out of instinct, the tumble forward caused him to release his grasp. As soon as he let go of Xairin's hair, the man's arm materialized and became trapped in such a way, that it became one with the concrete. The pain was excruciating. On one side, his hand fell to the floor and began bursting into green steam and on the other, he pulled back a bloody stump that began just an inch above the elbow.
The grand Alpha was quick to hold pressure. There was no way he could pursue the man now. His blood was spurting out faster than he could slow it by holding pressure with one hand. Vladislav had to think fast. He let go of the wound and willed his right hand to create a flame by using his energy field to speed up the vibrations of the air particles above his hand. He created a fireball that floated six inches above his palm. He stuck his bloody stump into the flame. The man screamed louder as it cauterized.
On the other side of the wall, he found himself in a dimly lit hallway. He had performed a power known as phase walking. It was a power that most that could slip could one day develop, though it wasn't common for a delta to have. Even grand alphas had difficulty developing it. He had slipped into another layer of the astral plane that closely mirrored this plane of existence. In it, it was like the slip, time stopped. Xairin's body left the out of phase existence the moment his body hit the floor and returned to the primary plane. He laid there for a moment to reflect on the arm that was melting away. He wasn't being pursued, but he could hear the man screaming.
Xairin's face was severely beaten. Only one eye could see. The other one had been severely damaged from the constant bashing against the concrete. The entire situation caused Xairin to relive the sewer events. He reached for his head with both hands shaking. His brain was replaying images faster than a two-year-old kid with ADHD could change channels. His body was trembling from the effects. Xairin curled up into a fetal position slowly while pulling at his hair. His heart pounded. He remembered his face being beaten; his ribs being kicked repeatedly. He was in the throes of a PTSD induced panic attack.
A thrall was coming down the hallway. The thralled guard saw Xairin lying on his side, balled up. He pulled a silver stake from his holster, while a gun in another hand was ready. He squeezed off six shots, six silver bullets that tore through Xairin's back. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He cried out.
The thrall was perplexed. "A tough one, huh? Guess I got myself an alpha!" The man readied his stake. "How about I shove this silver stake up your ass and see if that don't kill you!"
Xairin heard every word. The six stinging bullets in his back brought him out of the attack he was having. Hearing the thrall make that taunt, didn't throw Xairin into another but reminded him of the savagery of what was done to him. Xairin could only think about what he wanted to do, to the fuckers that shoved that glass bottle inside him the way they had.
The thrall knelt down over Xairin; he had his silver stake ready. He was about to aim it, just precisely where he said he would. Xairin was facing the opposite side. His red eyes didn't glow, they lacked that power at the moment. His fangs and talon-like claws; however, they were ready.
Xairin flipped over quickly and clawed at the man's stomach. The thrall fell backward, bleeding out. Xairin pulled himself along the floor as the man screamed. He was panicking, trying to pull his intestines back inside him. Xairin kept pulling himself along the ground until he was pulling at the man's leg. He tried to kick at Xairin, but all he ended up doing was giving Xairin a chance to grab the man's right foot. Xairin bit into the side of his ankle, shearing the back of the Achilles tendon. He chewed on it, pulling it out with his teeth.
He began sucking on the wound using his powerful clawed hands to hold the foot in place. He gained enough strength to move. He pulled himself upward onto the thrall, pulling at the man's black military style
clothing until his face was right in front of the entrails he had ripped out. Xairin buried his face into the man's guts like a hungry lion and gorged.
The sounds Xairin made sounded like a vicious beast snarling as he fed. With each ripping bite that filled his mouth with blood, his body began to heal rapidly. The silver bullets in his back began to emerge from his flesh as his body forced them out.
He kept feeding.
Ten minutes later, Vladislav had made it outside and exited a door on a rooftop where Helena Dolenigan was standing. The man was slowly healing from the burns all over his face and torso. Even his stumped arm had a small set of infant-like fingers, five of them starting to emerge. It looked like a newborn's hand sticking out of the stump. His shirt and pants had nearly burnt away, leaving him in smoking shreds. Seeing the Alpha on the rooftop, he had just enough time to lock eyes with the woman standing there. Helena seemed surprised as her eyes scanned his. She knew him, and he knew her. She called out. "Vladislav?!"
The Grand Alpha was tired, missing an arm that was at the start of regenerating and depleted from using any further powers from his injuries. He wasn't a match for the Alpha right now. Helena could sense it. He managed to speak, asking in a hissing voice. "Keeping secrets are we, Helena?"
Out of breath, the vampire with the charred face spoke gain. "No matter, I would love to stay and chat about old times, but I have other places I'd rather be…"
Damage Control Page 27