by E.R. Baine
Xin reeled backward, his left leg a shoulder’s length in front of his right, his sword lowered, waiting for the other combatant to make his appearance.
The other man entered the clearing, looking down to assess the obstacle that he nearly tripped over. He had no time to be surprised at the bodies at his feet before Xin brought his sword upward in a sweeping arc and the blade severed his neck.
A whip of lightning flashed across the black sky, illuminating the clearing in which Xin awaited the next man. His eyes closed, Xin swung his sword downward, expecting to feel the counter-pressure of the wall of flesh, but the blade met thin air instead. His eyes flew up to meet the shocked wild fear in the eyes of the fourth perpetrator, who assessed the bloody scene before reaching for his hand gun and firing off two shots in Xin’s direction.
Xin straightened and pivoted on his right foot, dragging his left foot to his right side from behind. Facing away from the gunman, he pulled his katana forward above his head. The blade against his back, Xin steadfastly blocked each shot from entering his body – sight unseen. He then waited for a lapse in firing to quickly turn around, wielding his sword in a 360-degree turn, counter-clockwise, drawing the sword down heavily.
Shwoop; the blade slashed the flesh of the neck hard, sending the man’s head spinning through the air. Blood splattered in an uneven spiral, and the rest of the man’s body tumbled to the forest floor.
Fuckin’ shit!
Xin cursed silently. He coolly slashed the air beside him with the katana shaking off the blood and flesh with a vwip.
Xin was vexed with himself for allowing the last man to get some shots at him. He had hoped to cut down more men at this stage, but because of the early release of gunfire it was already time for phase two. He could hear the other men speed up, advancing towards his point. Untroubled by the bloody cadavers at his feet, he sidestepped the slaughtered guards.
Xin crouched down by the side of the path beyond the boulders and felt for the ropes he had tied into a heaving line knot and stashed beneath the dense carpet of wet leaves. The ropes were extended across the path at particular intervals, parallel to each other, and camouflaged by fallen leaves. Xin held the loop of the knot and waited as the footsteps of the men to come nearer and nearer. As feet of the front-line guards trampled on the hidden ropes, Xin stood, yanking on the heaving knot. The ropes rose, causing the men to collapse upon each other as they lost their balance. Xin then attacked the men where they lay. Coming upon them he proceeded to stab them on the ground in the jugular and heart. He gouged out their stomachs, moving quickly.
Xin managed to slaughter nine more men before an armed gunman at the rear spotted him and opened fire. Xin then jumped over the boulders to his right and disappeared into the darkness of the night forest.
CHAPTER 5
“ Payne!” Viktor barked, looking down at Kelly. Kelly nearly jumped at the unspoken threat in the violent spew of his name. He eyed Viktor warily, crouched on the floor as he cradled the head of one of the armed gunmen in his hands. He shook his head.
“Shit!” Viktor expelled through clenched teeth. “Not good Kelly-not good at all. Try one more then we move door-to-door.”
Kelly nodded. “Aye, commander.” He saluted him, never without his sense of humor. Viktor did not waver at the official address. He spun around and continued to monitor the hallway beyond.
Kelly yanked a thin gold acupuncture pin from the base of the gunman’s head, which he had used to puncture his spine. The pins were constructed from nano-technology and served as a transmitter between the gunmen and Kelly, who often used them in his interrogative techniques. With an unconscious combatant, it was proving difficult to force the information he wanted to the forefront of the enemy’s thoughts. He had to feel himself around thoughts of vague, dreamlike elements.
Kelly righted himself, carelessly letting go of the gunman’s head. It landed with a hard thud on the floor. Kelly went to the next unconscious man and stabbed him at the base of his head.
Viktor looked out upon the dark corridor. This compound was familiar to him, but he was not prepared to search door-to-door until he had an exact location for his wife. On the other hand, time was slipping away and he could bet money on the SWAT team being moments from charging onto the scene.
Viktor’s ears perked up and he glanced at his team behind him. The girls and Darksmith all looked at him knowingly - more men heading in this direction. “Wait here.” Viktor stared steely-eyed into the darkness as he walked down the corridor.
The compound structure had three levels. The first level was below ground, a main storage area and sleeping quarters for the help. The second level was the main foyer, which led into a dining area, study, and garage. The third level housed the kitchen and bedrooms. That was how Viktor remembered it from the last time he was here, five years ago; the first time he met his wife. He didn’t want to go from room to room, guns blazing, just in case there was a protocol to kill Audrianna as a means to instigate a cover-up.
Viktor took a few steps into the darkness before he came across two gunmen. They fired shots at him – one held a hand gun, the other an AK-47 at full automatic. Right before the shots came into contact with his body, they were deflected off into another direction, encountering a mystically-charged force field, projected by Hell’s Embrace, which surrounded him and protected Viktor from all harm. Once armed with Hell’s Embrace, Viktor could attack at will, all the while being automatically covered from all direct fire in this full defensive mode.
Viktor reached out, held each man by their necks with either hand, and squeezed. Any officer would only dream of being this close to an unarmed target. The men fired. Groups of shots hit Viktor’s chest and shoulders, as the men were raised above his head against the wall with his bare hands.
Eventually they managed to fire shots at his head, but it made no impact on their current situation. Viktor, teeth gnashing, eyes coldly intense, continued to squeeze with a viselike grip at the men’s throat until each man went dead still. He released them, allowing their bodies to slump and crumble to the floor. He grabbed their collars and dragged them to the opening of the room where Kelly and the others waited.
“Anything?” he ground out at Kelly.
Kelly responded with a shake of his head, looking down at the knocked-out figure in his lap with the needle in its head. Kelly, sweat-drenched and fatigued, felt the strained muscles at the base of his neck. He reached behind his shoulder and squeezed to alleviate the tension. He looked up at Viktor. “Nothing- yet. Many of these men were kept out of the loop, probably just hired thugs. At this rate we’ll be the ones knocked out if we have to brace for more of them coming at us.”
“Try these.” Viktor released the men roughly before Kelly. “If you can’t get anything from them, then we move on.”
Kelly slapped his palm to his forehead and dragged it up to his hairline, wiping away the sweat. Looking down at the two unconscious men thoughtfully, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out what looked like a gold cigarette case. He opened it to reveal more of the gold-plated needles he used to infiltrate the minds of his prisoners. He and removed two before returning it to his pocket. Holding the two men by the nape, he pressed them forward at the waist. They slumped over, unconscious, the backs of their necks exposed to him. Kelly stabbed each man with a needle, pressing them into the flesh hard.
He gritted his teeth at the pain of the double exposure to the senses. His mind became full of the aggregate memories of each officer. Usually, one ‘brainstorm’ was jarring enough, without losing control of the senses, but the inconsistency of brain activity of two men in unison strained the limits of his cognitive abilities. “Holy shit!” He ground his teeth from the pain, hugged his waist, and doubled over. Wave after wave of each man’s memories crashed through his mind, overpowering him like a twenty-foot tidal wave.
His head felt the pressure as though jumping from a skyscraper. Still, he forged on with h
is mind spiraling out of control, sifting through the memories of the unconscious men as though they were his own. Then one of the men stirred, groaning, as though he too felt the probing of his mind like a physical touch. But Kelly knew better; only he was aware of the feelings during this connection.
Sensing an ideal opportunity, Kelly, straining against the tension that had built up in him, yanked the needle out of the man who hadn’t moved. He then bent over the man that was fighting his unresponsive state. Bracing his hands on either side of the man’s head, he concentrated.
His breathing erratic, Kelly finally staggered to his feet. “Oh man.” His eyes flew open. “I think I hit something.” He paused, massaging his eyes. “And a name. Someone they report to.”
“Do you have her location? Did you find my wife?” Viktor grabbed his shoulder forcefully.
“I think so, in a room on the next level.” Kelly felt calmer now that he’d stopped processing the men’s thoughts. He drew in deep breaths, steadying himself on his feet. “Two doors past… the left of the stairs.” He paused as he caught his breath. “Opposite a window.”
“Good,” Viktor said as he whirled around, heading for the darkened hallway. “Alright,” Viktor gave the three young werewolves a seething look, “It’s time now. Let loose.”
The three young women smiled at him. They had been trembling with the need to rebel against the ordered operation and hunt for the men who had killed their friend in the earlier ambush. From this moment forth there would be no holding back.
Viktor led his rescue team through the corridor, which turned left four times before it met a staircase. At the top of the stairs they met a barrage of bullets. Viktor led his team down the stairs into the direct line of fire. The men kept firing at him, backing up as they did so, shocked as they realized the fierce man had walked by them unaffected by their gunfire. They noticed too late the snarling, hairy beasts in front of them.
The petite femmes had transformed into werewolves, standing on their hind legs. The men’s faces contorted in fear as they shrieked before they felt the ripping of their tender flesh by large black claws, and their heads being seized between the jagged teeth of supernatural creatures.
Viktor brushed past each man with a machine gun, quickly drawing their fire and leaving them unaware of the approaching doom from the blind spot over their shoulder. He finally reached the door, where a sentry stood blasting at Viktor’s head with rapid fire rounds from an AK-47.
Viktor clutched the man’s head on either side. The man’s head became hot as it grew colder and colder. He released the rifle, letting it collapse to the floor. Thin streams of blood escaped his eye sockets and his nose. Almost immediately, the man’s whole face turned blue, then a light purple, then black, in rapid succession until the whole face resembled that of a black, charred, charcoal mask. His whole head became light ash and crumbled in on itself. The man’s body collapsed and blood from the hole in his neck pooled in the flimsy ash that was once his skull. Viktor then turned purposefully towards the closed door and kicked it open.
A lone gurney lay before him in the center of the room. On it laid his wife.
CHAPTER 6
Xin felt the bullet land squarely in his right shoulder from behind, nicking his collar bone on entry. He howled and nearly turned into a werewolf at that moment. His teeth gnashed as the wound bled. He felt the hairs on his neck nearly give way to the sharp bristles of his supernatural self. Luckily, he reined in the werewolf transformation. Not yet, Xin thought, deliberately calming his beating heart. Then he stilled. His nose twitched at a familiar smell – vampire.
Xin stood at his full height, his face a mask. If he was having fun before, now he was deadly serious. “Vampires, here?” Xin snickered. He turned, spiraling out of the darkest fringe of the clearing and slashing a gunman across the back diagonally from left to right. He was dead. His body did not regenerate. He was human. But there was a vampire…somewhere.
“Hmph.” Xin placed his hand in his pocket, casually walking into the jungle canopy that shrouded his presence. As he did so, three men with firearms walked into the clearing Xin had been using as his vantage point since he had arrived on the site.
Xin watched the men closely circling the clearing. He studied their expressions. The dead bodies they had encountered so far on their way to base headquarters must surely have them spooked. If he weren’t so astutely trying to accomplish a stealthy approach, he would surely have enjoyed having a fit of brazen laughter at their expense.
The men were anxious and their movements were jerky. Beads of sweat leaked from beneath their black berets down the side of their faces, disappearing into the damp open collars of their black fatigues. Their eyes frantically searched the dense darkness of the tropical jungle around them.
Xin stood up. The clearing was not much to bolster his position: everyone was about six or seven feet from each other. He withdrew his twelve-inch hunting knife and held it by the blade, lifting his throwing arm. As the man farthest from him turned around, Xin flung the blade with such force into the man’s chest that the gunman was thrown back to land hard against a tree trunk. His rifle released a few shots, drawing the attention of the two men closest to him.
Xin used the diversion to come upon the remaining men from behind. He pierced the shorter of the men through his jugular with his blade.
No, Xin thought to himself quietly.
He drew his sword upward, slicing through the rest of the man’s neck before the blade entered the other man’s head, slicing it at such an angle that the head was severed diagonally, leaving one eye intact. The third man was dead before the body of the second man collapsed to the floor.
“No,” Xin thought again. “Not a vampire.” But there was no mistaking that dank, familiar smell of rotting corpse. “Hmph.” Xin swung his sword to allow the guts and blood that had collected there to slide off. He deduced that the vampire must have been on the island a long time, having to deal with the Caribbean heat, in order to allow its body to pass along its scent so strongly to a human.
The gunman stuck to the tree was still firing at him. Xin grabbed the body of the third man whose head-top was lopped off and proceeded to use it as a shield as he advanced towards the gunman.
The man’s aim was irregular; the bullets from the rifle tore into the “shield’s” lower abdomen and legs. Xin covered the few steps to the enemy right away. He drew the corpse he held with his left hand up against the arm that held the rifle and the handle of the knife in his chest. The burdensome weight preventing the gunman from reciprocating, his rifle fired shots at the earth.
Xin then pressed down on the corpse, placing pressure on the handle; he looked down into the eyes of the gunman until they rolled back into his head.
Xin stilled.
Another one?
Smiling, he swiftly swung the sword upward, overhead. The tip of the blade landed dead center into the head of an armed gunman who had been hiding so as to catch him unawares.
So, the others exposed themselves to draw me out, did they?
He slowly eased his index finger onto the trigger that rested at the collar of the katana. Xin pulled the trigger, and a bullet escaped the spacer of the katana and blasted the head of the gunman clean off.
The unique magazine hidden in the hilt of his katana couldn’t retain many bullets, so he made sure the ones there were capable of maximum effect. He normally resorted to such tactics when dealing with vampires. Firepower that exploded on impact made all the difference…against a human it was a total waste.
Hmph , all human…
Xin heard the rest of the men heading in his direction. He turned right and darted towards the building. A bullet entered his midsection from behind and he released a fierce howl before he leapt a yard into the air.
In mid-air he felt the proportions of his human form contort grotesquely into an abnormal shape. The drastic change was so sudden and crippling a regular human unfamiliar with
the pain would have lost their mind to the agony. But for him it was a clean and welcome occasion that he could acutely manipulate. His whole body convulsed as he transformed. Thick, dark-grey, bristling hairs grew out instantaneously along the stretch of his back. Brown fibers mirrored the effect on the other parts of his body. Human ears gave way to long, thin ears that burst out on either side of his head. His human face transformed into the massive embodiment of an overgrown jackal.
With the transformation into a were behind him, he landed onto the side of the building. The strong claws of his large, newly-formed jackal paws grappled the stone face, chipping away at its white brick finish.
Xin, now a fully formed were-jackal, scanned the crowed of overzealous pursuants firing at him. He still wore the dark suit, which had been especially tailored to suit his needs for transformation. A young pup would have been left bereft without such attire in a sudden- transformation situation such as this.
Xin turned his blade downward, his thumb rest handily on the butt cap. With one sure press of the hidden button at the base of his katana-gun handle, he detonated the grenade that was hidden inside the hunting knife that he had planted in the gunman moments earlier. The gang of gunmen was decimated by the explosion that ripped through the tropical jungle. Burnt body parts flew into the air over the ball of fire that surged and threatened to go further than the three mile radius it had impacted.
Xin sheathed his unique sword and dutifully began the arduous task of climbing up the side of the building with all fours, bullet wounds in his back.
CHAPTER 7
Viktor found it terribly disturbing that he had to fight for his composure He stared at his wife, lying unconscious on the gurney. His wife’s skin, the color of dark chocolate, had lost its luster and was now ashen. Her cheeks were sunken; her lips dry, and cracked. She wore a hospital robe that did nothing to veil the fact that she was bare beneath. A catheter had been connected to her bladder and was strapped to the inside of her right thigh.