Defending the Lost

by Michael Anderle

  As Lady Regent screamed, Robin nodded to a couple of the now-freed slaves. “You know what? Fuck it. That’s my preference, but you all do whatever the hell you want with her.”

  The slaves smiled at that, and dragged her out of there.

  “Way to be a leader.” Valerie smirked.

  “Hey, I never claimed to be a leader or a person who makes decisions like that,” Robin said. “In fact—hell, no! I refuse. All I ever wanted was my family back.”

  Valerie nodded. “Fair enough.” She turned to the audience and shouted, “People of Toronto, this city is yours once again!”

  As the celebration commenced, Valerie and Robin walked out of there with Robin’s parents. Valerie waved for Martha and the others to meet them outside, while Robin just wrapped her arms around her parents, never wanting to let go.

  ***

  Leaving the town of Toronto behind was both a relief and a tough call for Valerie. On the one hand, she wanted to stay here and see that it was set right, but she knew that her long-term mission to dole out justice and ensure the world wasn’t ruled by tyrants meant she couldn’t stay in every city she liberated. Would evil rise again? It was possible, but she was hopeful that putting the right people in the right positions would alleviate that concern.

  That was why, when Robin’s parents had volunteered to stay and help set Toronto right, it had made so much sense to her.

  But when Robin turned, eyes on the ground, and told her, “I’m staying too,” it had felt like a silver dagger plunging into Valerie’s chest.

  “I don’t… I don’t understand,” Valerie replied, standing at the outskirts of the city and looking back at the dome and the spear-looking building. She wondered how Robin could possibly want to make this place home. “What about justice? Making the world a safer place and all that?”

  Robin shook her head, taking Valerie by the hand and walking away from the others a few paces. “Dear, that was always you. Did I want to help? Yes. But right now I just want to be with my family, and maybe make a difference here. I can make sure that there’re no other groups of Nosferatu around, establish a foundation here. Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll be ready to move south, join New York or something.”

  “But… New York isn’t my home.”

  Robin nodded, then dropped Valerie’s hand as she folded her own in front of her. “I know, Val. Right now, this is what’s best. I told you that, basically. We discussed it, and you knew it was coming.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean it hurts any less.” She turned, looking at the ships waiting for them; the people who would sail with her to fight for those in need. She could stay here too. But that wasn’t who she was, and part of her had to admit that this whole relationship had felt like a bit of a dream anyway. She had left France a vampire who had lived a long life relative to humans, but had no relationships. Now she could say she had two, and better understood who she was. She understood her need to focus, to stand for justice and not be distracted by matters of the heart. As much as that sucked, she glanced at Robin and reminded herself how such thoughts could cause her to wander from the path. How many people would suffer if she let such feelings dissuade her from her calling?

  Maybe there’d be room for all that relationship stuff in her future, but not now.

  “I’ll be fine,” Valerie told her, smiling again. “And so will you and your parents. I believe in you.”

  “Thank you, Val. For everything.”

  Valerie was about to leave when Robin threw her arms around her. They held each other, Valerie breathing in the sweet honey scent of Robin—possibly for the last time. It was different, as if changing with Robin's moods? Maybe it was because she was closer to her parents now, and hopeful. Or maybe she had simply bathed.

  “Send word to Cleveland, Chicago and the others,” Valerie asked. “Let them know Toro has fallen and Toronto is back in play.”

  “I will.”

  Valerie held her a moment longer, then sighed and muttered, “Fuck, I’ll miss you.”

  Robin smiled and rolled her eyes. “You’ll be too busy kicking ass to give a damn.”

  With a laugh, Valerie nodded, then turned and walked off to join her crew. With a final thought, she paused and looked back.

  “I don’t know when, but if I go to space, and if you’re around then, I could use someone with your skills at my side.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Robin replied.

  Finally, Valerie left and didn’t look back. When she reached the ships, she found a surprise waiting for her.

  “We thought you might like that,” one of the women announced, beaming.

  “Hell yes, I do,” Valerie replied, stepping up to the side of her airship, tracing the large design they had carved into the hull. It was a vampire skull over crossbones, bat wings on each side. While she didn’t have bat wings—another part of some old legends about vampires—it was perfect.

  Rand stepped forward. “What’ll it be?”

  “Let’s sail!” she called, and her followers shouted a cheer before moving in to prepare the airships for takeoff.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Old Canada

  The fighting itself wasn’t the fun part for Cammie. It was the thrill just before the fight when all the adrenalin was running through her. Killing for the sake of killing was barbaric. Proving herself against someone trying to take her life, however, made simple sense.

  From where she stood, she felt there had been enough proving herself for three lifetimes.

  Over the last week they had made a large dent in the locals’ claim to a land where anything goes. That wasn’t going to be the way of it; they needed the rule of law, and they needed people to be accountable for their actions. It was the only way the land could rebuild in a civilized fashion.

  But this group standing before her seemed to be the worst. All the pirates who had vanished from Prince Edward Island and not gone with the Prince were here, along with a hodgepodge of others. They had apparently heard she was coming, because they had thrown together a wall of old cars, metal spikes, concertina wire, and anything else they could get their hands on.

  If there was one thing she was sure of, it was that they would all die if they continued down this path.

  With a sigh, she realized that she didn’t want them to die.

  “You have your history, your past,” she shouted, stepping forward, hands out to show she meant no harm. “That does not have to define who you will be in the future.”

  Several heads stuck up from behind the wall under a sign that read “Welcome to.” It had the bottom half blacked out, replaced with spray paint so that it said, “HELL!”

  “You’re the one, right?” a woman shouted. “The one they’re calling the devil?”

  “If I were, would this be my home? Would you be my welcome committee?”

  The woman stared at her in confusion, clearly having forgotten the sign was there.

  Cammie shook her head. “No, I’m no devil. Are they calling me that now? Not long ago that was a title some gave my good friend Valerie. If it has been transferred to me, I’d say it’s an honor. But do I condone evil? Far from it.”

  “Is she or isn’t she?” a man next to the woman asked.

  “Hell if I know, she’s going on about some bullshit,” the woman answered.

  Cammie wanted to facepalm but instead shouted, “You can’t stick to the old ways anymore. It’s time you joined civilization.”

  “We choose freedom.”

  Cammie glanced back at the people aboard the airship. William was there, ready with his rifle, the others nearby with other weapons. No, it wasn’t time for that.

  “Listen to me very carefully.” Cammie took another step closer to the compound. “Men and women have fought for generations using the word freedom as their excuse. Fuck that. I fight for freedom. Freedom for children to grow up without the threat of violence or death by some asshole, or worse. Freedom from dickheads who would like to take what�
��s mine without permission, and freedom to relax in peace with the person I love, knowing that we won’t have to shed blood ever again. You want freedom? If your freedom stands in opposition to mine, if you want freedom to rape and pillage, to practice cannibalism and do whatever the hell you want…then fuck you. If that’s you, you’re going to die today. The rest of you need to join me on my airship or find some other way of getting to Prince Edward Island, where we’re building a society of the free. My kind of free.”

  There was a long pause, and then the woman disappeared. Cammie heard shouting from two more voices, a man and a woman arguing that they couldn’t go out there, that someone by the name of Big D would slaughter them all, and then there was a gunshot, followed by another.

  Cammie shifted uneasily, then readied herself as a metal grating sound came from the side of the improvised wall, followed by a door opening. The woman from above stepped out, followed by a dozen men and women and four children.

  They approached her cautiously, stopping a few paces away.

  There was a smoking pistol in the woman’s hand.

  “I take it there were two of you who didn’t like the idea of coming out here?” Cammie asked.

  “Don’t none of us like it,” the woman answered. “We don’t know if we can trust you, but you speak language that sure sounds like the truth, so we made a choice. You turn out to be some serial-killer son-of-a-bitch or worse, I swear I’ll gut you myself. We’ve got kids here, kids I mean to see to adulthood.”

  A broad-shouldered man stepped up behind the woman, hand on a blade in his belt. “We’re not so proud that we can’t see reason.”

  “Good,” Cammie replied, and then froze at the sound of shouting from inside the compound. “And that would be?”

  “Big D,” the woman responded. “He has another fifty or so fighters in there, men mostly, who won’t be coming so easily.”

  “Truth be told,” the man added, “we heard more about you than your dark side, and were ready to come over if you assured us the good rumors were true. You mostly did.”

  Cammie nodded, focusing on the compound in case anyone started firing. “Get the children to the ship and tell my fighters to get their asses ready.”

  “Don’t need to tell us twice.” The woman motioned for one of the younger men to go. He started off with the kids, but the others stayed.

  “Go on then,” Cammie commanded. “What’re you waiting for?”

  The woman turned and lifted the back of her shirt to show fresh blood in streaks. “Devil lady, I know you’re going to teach Big D a lesson in humility, hopefully introduce him to Lady Death herself, but I’ll be damned if I ain’t going to get mine. That boy needs a whupping, and I mean to help give that to him.”

  Cammie smiled. “Shit, I’m liking you already. What’s your name?”

  “Bertha,” the woman said with a smile that revealed three gold teeth. “Fucking Bertha if you’re pissed at me, Fucking Bertha if you play your cards right.”

  A laugh escaped Cammie’s mouth and she nodded. Yup, this woman would fit in just fine.

  “What’ve we got?” William asked, running up to join them. The other fighters were right behind him.

  “Some jackhole who calls himself Big D,” Cammie replied.

  William scoffed. “Wow, sounds like a fun guy to kill.”

  “Likely.”

  Bertha glanced at the ship, then at the wall, and Cammie guessed what she was thinking.

  “He prepared for a land attack, but not one from the air, am I right?” Cammie folded her arms across her chest, smiling when Bertha nodded. “Oooh, this is going to be that much more fun.”

  They went back to the airship and heard cheers from the compound as the remaining fighters must have assumed Cammie and the others were in retreat. That made it even more fun when Cammie had William take them up and start sailing for the fortress.

  “Get her out of range,” she commanded. “And ready the ropes.”

  “If we’re out of range the ropes won’t be long enough,” he shouted from the control room.

  “A wolf can land from quite a distance,” she replied. “When the shooting stops, you lower the ship. Oh, and get the kids into the secure hold.”

  The shooting started moments later, but the extra plating on the airship that had made their travel slower proved its worth. Shot after shot pinged off the ship, not doing a bit of damage.

  Whatever she had been before back in the days of the Golden City and as a Hunter, that was an old her that was gone, and she felt it. This new her had a purity flowing through her blood, a connection with Valerie, maybe even with Bethany Anne and the greats of old. She wasn’t here by anyone else’s command, but for the higher power of honor and justice. She was here to protect the weak and punish evil.

  Fuck, it felt good.

  Now she understood why Valerie always seemed so secure in herself, so at peace with who she was. She had a purpose, and that purpose was clear.

  “Remember, when the shots stop hitting the ship, that means go!” she shouted as she ran, leaping over the side of the ship and grabbing a rope.

  Yeah, it hurt like hell as she slid down, the rope burning the palms of her hands. But it hurt less than the bullets would if they hit her, and she knew rope burns like that would heal in no time.

  When she reached the bottom of the rope she spun, smiled at the sight of the shocked fighters below as she let go, and transformed into her wolf form before she hit the ground and rolled.

  She came up with a growl and took down the first shooter right away. All of the fighters turned their attention on her and, like clockwork, the airship dropped as it let out hot air. More men and women appeared on the ropes above, but these fighters were too focused on the large wolf tearing through them to see the approaching danger.

  BAM! A shot took out her next victim, and she turned to see William there, rifle now turning to another.

  BAM! The other one fell.

  With the thrill of the fight coursing through her veins, Cammie ran on all fours toward the large man at the rear of the compound. He stood there with a shotgun in one hand, a grenade in the other.

  The first shot sent buckshot through her and it hurt like hell, but it wasn’t silver. She pushed forward, knocking the shotgun away.

  He backed up, pulling the pin of the grenade, eyes on the ship.

  No way was that happening.

  She tore a chunk out of his thigh with her teeth and then dropped it as she transformed back into herself, turning to snatch the grenade away and slam it into his mouth with all her Were strength. It shattered teeth and with the assistance of an elbow to lodge it in place, was stuck.

  Not wanting to feel the burn of its shrapnel, she dropped and spun, kicking his legs out from under him and then catching them with hers to twist him so that he fell face-first. Next she transformed and ran away as fast as she could until—

  KA-BOOM!

  The blast sent her sprawling forward, but she was unharmed. When she stood, turning back to see what had happened, all she saw was red on the compound doors and ground. The lump of his body that remained was just nasty, not worth a second glance.

  His followers were in shock, and one after another were cut down or shot. Cammie’s companions knew their role. These people hadn’t come over willingly, and they weren’t in the habit of creating prisons on the island.

  When it was done, Cammie found her clothes where they had fallen during her descent from the ship, dressed, and waved everyone to her.

  They gathered around her, not a single one of them injured.

  “That’s how the fuck we do business,” Cammie shouted.

  They replied with a war-cry-style cheer.

  She looked around at the carnage, then continued, “Our work here is done for now. Let’s get home and take a well-earned vacation. You with me?”

  Again they cheered, and then headed for the gate as the ship touched down just outside it so they wouldn’t have to climb back up the r
opes.

  When they were all back aboard, Bertha and the others looked at Cammie with wide, terrified eyes.

  “Oh, you didn’t hear the part about me being a Werewolf?” Cammie asked.

  Bertha nodded. “We heard, just…never had any reason to believe in horror stories.”

  “Think of it more like a superhero story.” Cammie let her claws grow and eyes flash yellow as she told them, “These are my superpowers, and I’m here to save the world.”

  “Vampires?” the man beside Bertha asked. “Demons, necromancers, all that stuff is real too? How about dragons? Armies of the dead, like zombies and whatnot?”

  Cammie laughed. “Vampires, yes. But again, the ones I know are on the side of justice. They’re good, just like you all, though there are good and bad. The rest of it is all hogwash.”

  “That you know of.” The man gave a doubtful look at the others around him. “For all I know, any one of you could be a shapeshifter and sprout dragon wings out of your back at any minute.”

  Bertha whacked up him upside the head. “Shut up, you’re going to give me nightmares.”

  “What? I’m just saying that if a Werewolf’s real, anything could be.”

  “And I’m saying don’t fill my mind with that garbage. I’ll just keep on believing only what my eyes see and nothing more.”

  Cammie smiled, finding herself enjoying their bickering for some reason. Then it hit her—a memory of her own parents fighting like this long ago. Of course, the topic then had been something simple like what to eat for dinner, but the tone was the same.

  It was followed by a quick flash of a memory, one of her dad rocking her to sleep as he sang a song…something like “Coombaya Milo.” She laughed at the memory, more of a pleasant nostalgic chuckle really, and then turned to march into the control room.

  William was at the controls, starting to turn the ship around already.

  “We’re really done out here?” he asked. “For now, I mean?”