by Ben Zackheim
“And you think the ghost is the boy coming back for his body.”
“I know it’s him.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense! How can you push a spirit out of its body? That’s magic beyond anything I’ve ever heard.”
“I don’t know.”
“And what would that make you? Like some kind of soul snatcher?”
“I don’t know, Rebel.”
“You just wander around taking over little boys’ bodies?”
“Yeah, so, I don’t know, and you can shut up now.”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to understand.”
“I am too, but try to do it without all the creepiest possible interpretations.”
“I’m sure you didn’t mean to take him over.”
“I’m pretty sure I did.”
“That would make you not you, more than you taking over someone’s body.”
“I’m trying to untangle that sentence, but you lost me at the you-not-you-more-than-you part.”
“I’m just saying, you’re an asshole.”
“Thank you.”
“Let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re an asshole and a pretty unreliable partner sometimes.”
“Thank you.”
“Let me finish!”
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“You’re all of those things, but you’re not fucking evil, Kane. You’re also a good person. Good people don’t go around body-napping.”
“Maybe I’m a good person with a bad soul.”
“I don’t buy that. I wouldn’t have partnered with you if I sensed that about you. I’m a good people-person.”
“You hate people.”
“Because they deserve it. That doesn’t mean I don’t know them well.”
“So you’ve never heard of a spell like this?”
“No. Have you ever heard of it?”
“No. Maybe Pandora would know.”
Rebel jerked her head back, surprised. “You trust her?”
“No, I don’t trust her. But we could ask and see where it goes. I can read her. I’m a good god-person.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“You could, but thanks for not trying.”
A low rumble rose from below us. The temple shook slightly. Just as quickly as it had started, it stopped.
“We need to get out of here, fast. Feifei said the temple would start to fall apart.”
She turned to face me with her annoyed face. “You managed to switch the conversation and make it all about you. Again. Well done.”
“Thanks. Do you feel better now?” I asked her. “It’s all out on the table.”
“No.”
“Me neither.” I stood. “You ready to go?”
The floor beneath our feet jerked hard enough to make me stumble.
She downed her candy bar in a couple of big bites.
“Yef,” she said through chocolate teeth.
She licked the last of it off of her fingernails.
She smiled. It was a pre-apocalypse smile. I missed that smile. And it was followed by a pre-apocalypse Rebel attitude.
“Look out vamps,” Rebel said. “Here we come.”
Chapter 10
We stepped from the temple into complete chaos.
We were ready for a fight, sure. We knew that we’d be surrounded, out-fanged, and in enemy territory. But we didn’t expect to be trapped in the middle of someone else’s fight.
A vampire flew past my head. The flapping cloth of his jacket slapped my face and knocked me to the grass. Another vamp leapt up and grabbed the flier’s ankle. The two of them slashed and grabbed at each other until blood and gore started falling to the ground.
I got out of the way before a bundle of guts smacked the lawn where I’d sat.
The vampires were fighting each other.
“Fuck,” is all I managed to say. I looked around and witnessed a couple dozen undead re-deading each other as violently as possible.
“Is this a free-for-all?” Rebel asked, licking her lips, eyes wide. “I’m all-in if it’s a free-for-all.”
The vampires hadn’t noticed us yet. Most of them were stuck in a Fury. But if that Fury turned on us, we’d be in for a fight.
“Hold off. I can’t tell what’s going on yet.”
The undead shadows danced in the moonlight. It was too dark to see everything, but we could hear every grunt, slice, and tear from the battle all around us.
“Maybe we should hang low and let them kill themselves,” Rebel whispered.
“That could work. It might also give them time to sniff us out. Maybe we can cut their numbers before they notice we’ve joined the party.”
“I like that. But it means no magic.” She clacked her fingernails together, and smirked at me. I could see her white teeth flash in the silver light.
I smiled back, and pulled my Glocks out, twisted on the silencers, and waited for my first target.
He appeared soon enough.
The vampire was skimming the treetops, scanning for a target. He slowed down, probably to line himself up to attack someone on the ground below him. I took aim at his head and squeezed the trigger.
A whispering snap was followed by a cloud of bone and other people’s blood.
A vampire flew into the same area. He’d seen the head-shot and looked around to find the shooter. I tried to get him in my sights, but he was moving in small circles, too fast for me to get a good bead on him.
He was about to slip into the low clouds above. Had he seen me? I had felt a surge of adrenaline when I made the head shot. Adrenaline makes human blood more pungent to a hungry vampire. I probably smelled like a dead skunk to the hovering hemogoblin.
Just as he disappeared from my view, something yanked him back into the moonlight. He was being dragged to the ground. At first I thought it was one of his fellow vamps, but I caught a glimpse of red hair.
“Nice move,” I told Rebel through our comm.
She zipped past me, so close that my hair parted the other way.
Three vamps were in hot pursuit of her.
Three shots from my Glock and there were no vamps in hot pursuit.
“You could say thank you,” I said.
“I could have handled them.”
“You’re welcome. So, I guess that means they know we’re here now.”
“Yeah, a few of them saw me do an enema on their comrade.”
“I hope it was worth it, Rebel.”
“It was pretty spectacular, actually. You hear that?”
I did. A low rumble shook the trees around us. “The ground is shaking down here for us mere mortals,” I told her. “Earthquake, maybe?”
But the steady rumble kept on rolling. It was too consistent to be an earthquake. Too controlled.
Too mechanical.
“I’m not in the mood for Leviathans right now,” I mumbled. I didn’t realize I also said it through the comm.
“You kidding me? I am. I’ll hit it high. You hit it low.”
“With what? Glocks aren’t going to do anything, and I can’t see clearly enough to pick off one of its pilots.”
“Oh, ye of little imagination. Don’t you remember Cairo?”
“Shit.”
“You know I’m right, Kane.”
“Maybe. But shit, anyway.”
“Let’s do it again. With feeling this time! Lift up your arms.”
I sighed.
I lifted my arms, and stuck my hands straight up. My Glocks pointed at the stars.
I heard Rebel flying toward me before I felt the squeeze on my armpits.
She lifted me into the air, and pulled me into the sky.
I was in her domain now.
Chapter 11
I saw the lights of the Leviathan before I noticed one more little detail.
It was being attacked by its own army.
The gigantic machine rolled through the suburb on its three-story wh
eels. Gun turrets and flame throwers, designed to terrify, and decimate, covered its rusting flesh, facing a thousand directions.
“Okay, this is bigger than we thought,” I said, loud enough to be heard over the wind.
“We should stay on comm,” Rebel shot back. “They can still hear us, even with wind in their ears.”
“Good idea. What do you think?”
“I think it’s exactly what it looks like. They have some issues to fight out.”
I guess my silence said a lot more than nothing, because Rebel grumbled out loud, “Okay, Arkwright, what are you hiding from me now?”
“Nothing, Rebel,” I said with the comm. “You know that Hakkar helped us win Paris. Without him betraying Set, we would have been doing the whole Serving Eternity With a Hot Poker Up Our Asses.”
“You, maybe, but I’m choosing hel, not hell. One infinite party with Vikings sounds like heaven to me.”
“Yeah, spending an eternity slapping Viking hands off your ass sounds like a fucking dream come true.”
“Better than hot pokers. Hakkar may have helped us win Paris, but he also killed Dino.”
“Rebel, that’s…”
“Hakkar could have called off Set’s Leviathans and we would have slipped away. But he had to play the role of loyal grandson and prove he was trying. The troll is dead because of that little game.”
“Maybe. But this is war. Lots of shit happens that we don’t plan on.”
“Are you softening me up for another one of your big revelations, Arkwright?”
“Not this time. I’m just thinking that maybe Hakkar is behind this rebellion.”
We both watched the mayhem going down around us, surrounded by the false comfort of the warm evening’s breeze, and the scent of the bay.
“You think he’s tearing the vamps up from the inside?” Rebel asked.
“Maybe. I hope so. Would that buy him some good will from you?”
“I don’t think he gives a shit about my will, but I’d be willing to listen to his plan if he wants to share it.”
“Good. Then we’re on the same page.”
“It’s been a while since we could say that.”
“I know you were ready to feel the blood of the undead on your fingertips, Rebel. But this may be too big for us to jump into.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll find another way to crack them open. What’s the plan, Kane?”
“We capture one. Quietly. We find out what’s going on.” I glanced up at Rebel just in time to see her pout.
“Fine, but what leverage do we have over the fucker? Interrogation doesn’t have a high success rate with the undead.”
“Your sister teach you that?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t take my sister to tell me the obvious, jackass. Vamps don’t feel pain the same way we do.”
“I’ll think of something. Let’s snatch one first and then we’ll figure out the rest.”
“I see you’re back to devising tissue-strong plans.”
“I’m offended. Strong as double-ply toilet paper. Maybe triple if I’m on a roll.”
“How about that guy over there?” She nodded her head toward a nearby hill where a vampire was crawling his way up. From the jerky movements, I could tell he was already injured. Hurt, but still kicking.
Perfect.
“Let’s scare the heaven out of him,” I said.
She took us down a little too fast for my stomach to handle. I felt my stale potato chip lunch try to escape through several orifices, but managed to keep the salty carbs down.
I dropped and somehow managed to stay on my feet. I had to run about twenty steps before I could stop myself. If you’ve ever had sea legs after returning to solid ground, it’s nothing compared to sky legs. The whole world shook and swung and jittered as my body tried to remember how to exist on terra firma.
The vamp gasped when he spotted me coming for him.
“You’re mine now,” I whispered, hoping none of his comrades heard me.
“Stay away from me!” he yelled.
When I got my first good look at him, I stopped.
Was it the moon light playing tricks, or was he what I thought he was? I knelt down, and got a good look at his face.
Yup. We’d caught ourself a Blue.
Nasty things, Blues. They suck the blood of any living thing. Human, cow, mosquito, you name it. The mix of life juice in their diet gives them a blue hue.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.
I pulled a Glock out and pointed it at his head. He dropped to his stomach, face-down in the grass and splayed his hands out to his side.
He was a talker. I could tell already. A Newblood. Newblood vamps still showed signs of self-preservation. Some part of them liked the new lease on life, and didn’t want to lose it. They were the weak ones. They were exactly the ones Rebel and I were looking for.
“Good boy,” I said. “Now tell me what’s going on here?”
“I need help.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
He turned onto his back. “I’m wounded and I’m having a panic attack!”
I’d never met a vamp who was that weak-kneed. That human.
“I’m Tim,” he said, his blue face and long fangs making him look nothing like a Tim. At all.
“Shut up and tell me what’s going on here,” I growled. “And keep your voice down, or I’ll find another one of you to answer my questions.”
“I don’t think… I don’t think you understand the ramifications of me revealing such a thing to a mortal. May I ask your name, sir?”
“No. But you may answer my question before I put a holy water projectile up your dead, dried out ass.”
“So rude.”
“What kind of a Blue are you?” I asked.
“A blue? Oh, a Blue! Yes. I’m a volunteer. Just before the Settling of Set.”
“That’s what you bloodless freaks call the apocalypse?”
“Some of us. Others call it the ‘Settling of the Score’, or ‘Game, Set, Match.’ Or ‘The ReSet.’”
“Clever.”
“You think so?”
I shot the ground between his legs. The silencer kept things quiet. He yelped, and scampered back a few feet, eyes wide.
Rebel landed behind me softly. Her red hair glimmered in the soft light. Her fingernails flashed, as if lit by their own fire. They’d been damaged in Paris, but they were already long, and deadly enough.
Tim’s eyes went wide, and his ugly mouth dropped open, revealing the shark-like fangs that were a Blue trademark.
“You…” he said/spit/gasped. Yeah, he did all of that at the same time.
“Me,” Rebel said.
“You’re the Red One.”
“That’s me,” my partner said.
“You are the red to our blue.”
“Hey, dial it back there, smurf,” Rebel said, frowning.
“I love you,” Tim said.
Rebel looked at me. I shrugged.
“I say we find another candidate,” she said as she stepped toward our hostage.
Nails out and ready.
Chapter 12
“Wait!” the pitiful vampire cried.
He held his hands up, and cowered.
Rebel raised her nails high.
“Wait,” he whimpered. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, my dear.”
Oh shit. Big mistake, dead man. Never call Rebel, ‘my dear’, dude.
Rebel’s strike pose froze. “What did you call me? Did you just call me, my dear?” she asked with an edge to her voice that this fucker was about to fall over.
“No!” the Blue lied with a whine. “Nononono. You misunderstood. My…Dare! Yes, mydare. It’s… a Peruvian name for… ma’am?”
Rebel shot me a look as if I could verify his bullshit Peruvian. I shrugged. I wasn’t going to get in the middle of this shit-storm. I had enough shit-storms brewing.
She could have gone either way. Mercy or hellfire.
>
“Talk,” she said, settling on mercy for the moment.
“Hoooly shit, you are one lucky vampire,” I said with a whistle.
Tim tried to compose himself. He scored a five, and I’m being nice. “We’re defending the city from a… rogue element, Red One.”
“The vampires are turning on each other?” I asked.
“If by ‘turning’ you mean having a spat, yes. But it’s more like an argument between siblings.
Several gallons of blood and gore rained down on us from the battle above.
“I…” he started to say, before a severed head smacked him in the shoulder. He composed himself, and cleared his throat. “I don’t think it will last long.”
“Clearly,” Rebel said, wiping something off of her.
“Nothing a talking-to couldn’t fix up,” I said, leading him down my preferred path. That path being Set, and his plans.
“Precisely,” Tim said, pointing at me with a long, blue finger. “Our master will intervene when he sees fit. And when he does, the naughty ones will be punished.”
“Naughty?” I asked. “When did you turn, Tim?”
“Turn? Into a vampire you mean?”
“No, into a moron. Yes, into a vampire.”
“Okay, okay, you don’t have to be rude, sir. I was turned just before Set loosed the Leviathans and his army upon the world, so that mankind could learn their place and…”
“You need to shut up, sugarblood,” Rebel said. Tim’s eyes went wide. Sugarblood was another derogatory term that vampires used for newbies. Sugarbloods were essentially on parole. If they messed up enough, they could end up falling on a wooden stake ‘by accident.’
Tim pursed his lips, and bit down to keep himself from getting into more trouble. His fangs stabbed right through his gums.
“So who’s running this rogue outfit?” I asked.
Tim spit some blood into his hands, and licked it up like a kitten drinking milk. It was at that moment, I decided that Tim was the weirdest fucking vampire I’d ever met.
“No one knows. Well, not no one. But no one anyone knows. At least no one anyone knows who doesn’t know enough to keep his mouth shut.”
“Can I kill him now?” Rebel asked me.
“Not yet. Close. But not yet. Tim, can you simplify what you just said for us mere mortals? If you had to guess, who would you say is leading the… naughty ones?”