Vamp Town (The Monster Keeper Series Book 1)

by Jeff Seats

  Liz blinked, “Copy.” She looked around at the mayhem as though she was just seeing the battle for the first time; nothing registered. Then a switch went on in her head, and she saw what was going on and stared wide-eyed at the battle.

  For the first time, Craig also looked around and took in the ensuing fight. His team was backed into the gazebo in a last stand style of defense. He grabbed Liz and dragged her out of the fray towards their target, Vlad.

  Craig keyed his radio calling the hovering Osprey. “Big Bird, this is Kermit. We have a potential situation here. Prepare to execute last option. We may need to erase Vamp Town.”

  “Uh, copy Kermit. Contacting Control now. The flyboys with the package left Mountain Home a little after we did so they should be here shortly and ready to drop on your mark.”

  “Roger. Make sure that they understand not to be too trigger happy. We're not done down here just yet.”

  “I get your drift, Kermit. Not to worry.”

  Liz snapped out of her stupor at the words she just heard. "Wait, what did you just call in?" She demanded of Craig. "What is the last option?"

  Still dragging her out of the park Craig explained over his shoulder, a MOAB. If we can't contain the vamps we sterilize the reservation."

  "A Mother Of All Bombs? On the town? With the team and us still in it? How about the people we came to save?"

  "Expendable, all of us, the vampires must be contained and if they are busting out we have to stop 'em. There's Vlad over there. If we do our job then it won't be necessary."

  Liz saw Okada and Timmons peek around the corner of the building north of them slightly behind where Vladimir and his few vamps were watching the fight. "Sir, look."

  Craig looked to where she was pointing and made eye contact with Okada. “They're going to help the team. We might have some hope left." Craig pulled out his .357, checked the rounds and ran towards Vladimir. Liz followed checking the clip of her 9mm as she did so.

  From the north, new gunfire was heard adding to the mix of the battle racket. Okada and Timmons were charging towards the gazebo bringing needed help to their teammates. Like a Hawaiian cowboy, Okada whooped and hollered as he and Timmons both fired their weapons spraying the vampires with silver clad rounds.

  Craig breathed a bit easier and pulled Liz with him towards Vladimir.

  —— FAMILY FEUD ——

  VLAD'S PIERCING WAIL for his people to attack the Action Team also served as a call for all the other vampires remaining in Vamp Town to assemble. They did not know why they only responded to the inexorable strength in the voice that made the call and the urge to follow was too potent. In Vladimir’s howl the vampires heard a summons from their master and they assembled at the fringes of the park, now a bloody battlefield, awaiting his bidding.

  Each of the vampires had entered the life of an immortal in a similar way; they had been selected and turned by another vampire. However, each one's experiences were as different as the flavor of blood from one human to the next. Some of the vampires were hundreds of years old. Others were young by comparison having just been turned before the treaty. The residents of Vamp Town represented all the human races; though race meant nothing among the immortals. Once turned, vampires found old prejudices dissipated as they learned that every human bleeds red be they black, white, yellow or polka dot. Vampires were “equal opportunity suckers.”

  But no matter how long they had trod the face of the earth an immortal was bound by certain natural laws and chief among them was their deference to their leader, the strongest of the group. Normally that would have been Alexei, who was absent, but there was something in Vladimir's call that they responded. He was projecting strength and confidence that the vampires could feel. Was this the power shift that many believed would eventually happen?

  For over a hundred years this group of vamps had been “locked up” on this tiny reservation, all thanks to the agreement Alexei made with the American president. That human no longer lived, however, but the immortals remained, as good as prisoners held there by Alexei's mental strength; a hold that some were starting to believe was beginning to weaken.

  Nonetheless, they remained fixed on the sidelines watching Vladimir and his followers make this defiant action of challenging the status-quo, taking on the humans in open rebellion. And from what they could see Vladimir’s people had the upper hand. The humans were making a last stand at the gazebo and did not appear to have a chance left in the world without more help. Even the addition of just a couple more vampires to the fight would assure a victory over the bleeders, but none chose to make a move. They waited to see the outcome of the mutineers’ actions, letting others do the dirty work then when the outcome was clear they would throw their lot in with Vladimir or remain loyal to Alexei. It was a matter of playing the odds.

  The various looks of lust, envy, and hunger that was visible on these vampires faces showed how most of them felt as they stood on the sidelines and watched humans bleeding and dying. The heady coppery smell of fresh blood made them salivate. Some licked their lips as they watched the precious red elixir soak into the dry ground. Others were just a hair’s breadth from tossing their caution to the wind and joining in.

  Then the show before them became clouded as black, smoke-like tendrils spread out across their view and then merged into a shadow and solidified into the form of a body. Alexei had arrived. There was a look of intensity in his eyes. All previous feelings of indecision and blood lust dissolved under the iron gaze of their master. The Khan. For an instant, they felt his mind penetrating theirs and they knew that his strength had not waned, but in fact, he seemed to be stronger than ever and they remained his to control.

  The "good" vamps had gotten their marching orders and charged into battle in one shadowy blur. Their directive was to insert themselves into the brutal fight and separate the militants from the humans without further death on either side. A tall order but their sheer force of numbers would easily overpower the relatively few followers of Vladimir.

  Satisfied, Alexei’s attention turned to his brother Vladimir and saw Craig and Liz approaching him. What are they thinking? Alexei asked himself. Vladimir will destroy them.

  He saw Vladimir grab Liz by her chin, lift her up and toss her to the side with one hand as if she were a piece of lint picked off of his coat. Then his brother grabbed Craig by the throat with his other hand and lifted him up off of the ground.

  Alexei knew that he must act immediately to save Agent Wright...his friend. In that instant, Alexei made a decision and reaffirmed his commitment to another friend, Theodore Roosevelt. He drew an arm across his body and very quickly dissolved, morphing into black tendrils and then filtered himself in, around and through the battle towards Craig and Vladimir.

  ««« ‡ »»»

  CRAIG HUNG, SUSPENDED off the ground by the iron grip that Vlad had on is throat. Breathing became more difficult as Vlad’s hand slowly tightened, crushing his trachea. He fought for his feet to find some purchase so he could break the choke hold, but his feet merely waggled, uselessly, in the air. A portion of his oxygen starved brain thought how silly he must look with feet dangling, kicking back and forth over the surface of the sidewalk like some kid sitting on an over-sized chair. “And that’s the truth. Thzzzt!”

  Vladimir stared into Craig’s bulging eyes. “How long did you think you could hold us; keep us from our needs, our desires? You support an individual’s rights here in America? Yes? How about OUR rights?” He let out an ironic almost crazed laugh. “Now I lead. I am stronger than Alexei. My people do what I say from this point on. My declaration of independence.”

  Craig just gurgled, unable to say anything, as he uselessly kicked his feet trying to free himself from Vlad’s firm grasp.

  Behind all this, Ellie and Paul had worked their way over to Liz who was sprawled out on the ground next to the brick wall against which Vladimir had tossed her. A line of blood ran down her cheek from a cut on her scalp. Head swimming, Liz struggl
ed to get to her feet, desperate to help Craig but she had no weapons. Her gun had to have fallen from her hand when Vladimir picked her up and tossed her into the wall, and she had no idea where her wooden knife was; probably in the gut of some vamp. She awkwardly tried to stand, but a wave of vertigo washed over her, and she collapsed back to the ground vomiting.

  With the focus on the man that Vlad was choking to death, no one saw Ellie and Paul rush in to help Liz who was wiping her mouth with her sleeve as she stood again to go at Vladimir. They grabbed Liz and tried to hold her back. Still stunned, Liz thought that they were vampires. She flailed her arms, desperate to keep them away. In the tussle, Liz's hand got caught on the chain around Ellie's neck and ripped it to the ground. Some still coherent part of Liz's brain spotted her reflection in a nearby window. She suddenly stopped fighting when she also saw the reflections of Ellie and Paul...and Craig, seemingly levitating in the air, but no Vladimir in sight. Liz's knees buckled, and she crumpled to the ground against the wall. Next to her hand was the chain and the cross. She reached for it and handed it up to Ellie.

  No words were spoken as Ellie accepted the chain from Liz and smiled fingering the silver cross. In that instant Ellie knew that she had to help these strangers who had come to rescue them. She firmly grasped the cross in her hand and rushed up to the imposing vampire as he finished squeezing the life out of Craig.

  With hate and vengeance coursing through his very being, Vladimir could think of nothing but the red face of the agent that he was choking to death and didn't see Ellie as she charged in and shoved the crucifix into his face. There was a flash as the silver cross burned the vampire’s cheek. A smell of cauterized dead flesh wafted up from the wound. Vladimir faltered, dropping Craig to the ground and staggered backward. Ellie crouched down at Craig's side as he gasped for breath.

  Paul added to the attack on the vampire with his sharpened walking stick and rushed Vladimir as he regained his footing. Targeting Vlad's heart, Paul charged forward to skewer the monster. Sean the bartender, who had stayed with Vladimir saw the threat to his master and inserted himself between the advancing spear and Vladimir's body—the vamp equivalent of throwing himself on a hand grenade.

  Paul's forward motion drove the stake deep into the bartender’s chest just missing the heart by fractions of an inch. The vamp’s eyes flashed wide with surprise and pain. He grabbed the spear with both of his hands and tried to pull it out, but Paul applied more pressure driving it deeper into Sean's body until the point stuck out of his back.

  The bartender collapsed to his knees, wounded, and struggling to remove the spear. His frantic actions only served to move the wooden stake closer to his heart. Fine threads of vapor began to escape from his nose and ears. “Vladimir, help me.”

  Vladimir turned and looked down to Sean and reached out. The bartender smiled, grateful for the master's help. Vladimir opened his hand and wrapped it around the wounded vamp’s throat. “Vladimir!” His hand started to tighten. “You are too weak to take with me.”

  “Nooo...”

  Vladimir’s fingers closed tightly around the bartender’s jugular veins and windpipe and with his claw-like nails he ripped them out. The bartender's body convulsed as his internal organs boiled out of the opening in his neck. His body distended as it ballooned outward stretching the skin to the point of tearing before collapsing in on itself and into the vaporous heap of viscera that all dead vampires became.

  Vladimir touched the burn on his cheek from the silver cross then looked at the humans and laughed. “You think your superstitious totems and wooden sticks are strong enough to stop me?”

  Defiantly Liz rose to her feet and approached the smug vampire. “No, asshole. But I can think of one thing that can. Good morning Vlad.”

  The triumphant smile faded from Vladimir’s face. His eyebrows rose wondering how he had been caught so off guard. He turned and looked. There, in the east, was a slight glow outlining the top of the mountains. Vladimir turned back and flashed his fangs in a rage ready to lash out and finish these insignificant humans. He decided that he would take out this new female first. She looked tasty.

  As Vladimir stepped towards Liz, black threads of vapor flashed onto the scene and converged between her and Vladimir. Alexei materialized giving his brother a withering scowl.

  Behind them, the battle was slowing. The addition of the "good" vamps on the side of the Action Team had swung the tide of battle. The exhausted Action Team readily accepted the help from these vampires and fell into the role of support helping subdue Vladimir's fellow rebels.

  The glow in the east continued to grow brighter as the rebellious vampires were brought to stand with Vladimir. The "good" vamps and Action Team surrounded the entire group.

  Alexei and Vladimir stood face to face in the ultimate sibling showdown; neither showing any emotion or moving a muscle. The intensity of the moment silenced vampire and human alike. No one moved. The civil war had begun. Brother against brother.

  Then Vladimir backed up to his fellow mutineers pulling Steph along with him. “There is no point in trying to stop me, Alexei. I am as strong as you now.” He inhaled, his new found power coursed through is veins. “I am going to leave this failed social experiment, and I will take whomever else wants to follow.”

  “We signed an agreement...”

  “YOU signed an agreement. I had no say in the matter. No one did. You, Alexei; always stronger, always smarter. Even as mortals you were the older brother who always knew better.”

  “The treaty saved our lives. Without it, we would have been hunted to extinction.”

  “So you say. You are naive my brother and Roosevelt was an idealist. You think that because you drive that old jeep, wear flannel shirts and blue jeans, and go camping that you are somehow mortal again? That you don’t have to sleep in a box during the day? How long did you expect me to play at a life that is as unreal as this toy town?”

  “There has to be a way we can make this work.”

  The morning sunlight began to spread across the valley floor creeping like a moving wall towards Vamp Town and those that stood, gathered in the park.

  “No brother. I am...” Vladimir gestured the others and Steph. “No. We are leaving.” He turned to all the assembled vampires who had followed Alexei and helped put an end to the fighting. “Follow me. If you stay you are nothing more than zoo animals, an orca in a tank. What new tricks will they teach you to perform, I wonder? Your lives continue only at the whim of your keepers.”

  For the first time since they were mortals, these vampires felt out of their element; inherent tendencies momentarily stifled, as though an ancient spell had been lifted. Two leaders of equal strength stood before them, and neither Vladimir nor Alexei could compel them to do anything. With no clear leader, the vampires were free to choose whom to follow, which path to take. But with the brightening day swiftly approaching life altering decisions had to be made quickly.

  In the face of such a monumental decision, some of the assembled were clearly torn but remained frozen in uncertainty. Many of them stepped behind Alexei while several others moved over and joined the group of rogues that wanted to follow Vladimir.

  Alexei pleaded with these vampires. “Please, can’t you see that Vladimir will only bring you to your demise? You will be hunted and killed. Is that what you want?”

  The silence that followed answered his question.

  “I shall reunite the fragments of our race that would not go along with this ridiculous farce of an existence.” Vladimir declared. “I will rebuild our once great house. We will be stronger than ever.”

  The drone of aircraft engines cut off further debate. It was the C-130 with the MOAB making its initial approach. Everyone looked up and saw the approaching war plane.

  Craig got a call from the circling Osprey which he heard in his ear bud. “Big Bird to Kermit.”

  “Go for Kermit.” Craig got a couple of questioning looks from the Action Team and vampires alike. Kermi
t?

  “Sir the C-130 is making its approach to drop the payload. Do they execute or stand down?”

  Craig looked around at all assembled. Glancing up, he saw the transport with its rear ramp open ready to drop the explosive device. He could stop Vladimir now with one word. Then he looked into the eyes of his team. They knew what was about to happen, but they accepted it as a part of the job which they signed up to perform. Then he looked at Liz. Her first day on the job and he realized that she had come to accept it too.

  Finally, Craig looked at Alexei. His expression was one of betrayal, not believing that the CSC had a plan to exterminate everyone to keep the vampires in line.

  “Theodore would not have proposed such a thing.” Alexei lamented.

  Craig and Alexei stared into the other’s eyes; not a battle of wills but a fight for understanding. After a moment, that seemed like eons to those watching, Craig keyed his radio. “Stand down. Repeat. Stand down.”

  The Hercules had been circling over the top of Vamp Town. The bright orange casing of the MOAB could be seen ready for deployment. A crewman waved as it passed over one last, the rear ramp closing.

  Vladimir raised his voice for all to hear. “You see? They are ready, even now, to destroy you!”

  A few more vampires stepped out and joined Vladimir.

  Looking sadly at Alexei, Vladimir continued, “Farewell my brother. You will not stop us. And do not follow. I will destroy you if you force me.”

  Paul broke through the crowd. “Steph! Don’t! You don’t have to do this...”

  Steph looked at Paul and spread her lips in a mock smile showing the beginnings of her new fangs protruding as a response.

  Craig put his hand on Paul’s shoulder, partially as a comforting gesture but mostly to hold him back.

  Alexei stepped in. “There is nothing that can be done for her. She is not entirely turned, but the process is not reversible. Stopping the process will kill her.”