by Ben Zackheim
Rebel flipped her wrists and the shutters opened, exposing the room to the dim moonlight of Iceland.
Somehow, by walking down some stairs from the Valhalla/Hel underground, we’d ended up back on the surface.
Supernatural physics. Drives me nuts.
The door ahead of us flipped open with a flick of her wrist and the brisk, clean Iceland air flowed over us, cold but welcome.
We’d emerged miles away from where we’d entered Valhalla.
I had twenty seconds of peace. We stretched and breathed deep and Rose even smiled. I almost did, too. We were on a hill that was surrounded by a low mist. Over the mist we could see for hundreds of miles in every direction.
I turned to see what was behind the nearby hut.
At first, I thought I was looking up at a giant, wrathful Merlin, preparing to rain vengeance upon my face.
But it wasn’t the wizard.
It was the last thing I ever thought I’d see in the 21st Century.
“No fucking…” I started.
“Way,” Rebel finished.
Chapter 47
“Those aren’t what I think they are,” I said.
“They are,” Rebel said, crossing her arms. “Leviathans.”
The two distant machines were a half mile away but they still managed to loom over us like skyscrapers. Their awkward legs, designed to carry 1000 tons of metal over any terrain, bent in a hundred ways to support their weight. I’d heard about the weapons and I’d even seen a blurry picture of one when I broke into Spirit’s classified files. But seeing them for real was a treat. Their huge square bodies and spindly legs reminded me of a daddy long legs spider with a disproportionately huge torso.
The Leviathans were in mobile mode which meant their wheels were down. The feet hung over the ground by ten yards but could activate at any second to help the machine maneuver over bumpy terrain. The Leviathans appeared to be slowly making a circle around an area. My guess was that the tectonic plate’s weak spot was their focus.
“I don’t like the looks of those,” Cassidy said.
I realized the kids probably didn’t know much about Leviathans, if anything. It was ancient history to them.
“They’re from World War II,” I said. “A secret weapon that the allies only used once.”
“The Germans had buddied up with giants,” Rebel said. “So the Allies had to fight back with something that could make the enemy scramble.”
Cassidy laughed. “Giants? Seriously?”
“Giants aren’t real,” Rose said confidently.
“Giants are real,” I said.
“With a little magic and a lot of science the Allies built those things,” Rebel said.
“For hand-to-hand combat,” I said. “With bombs and guns, just for shits and giggles.”
“Nasty,” Rose said.
“Cool,” Cassidy added.
“Not if you’re the one fighting them,” I said. “They were supposed to be destroyed by the allies in the 40s.”
“Someone hid some away,” Rose said.
Cassidy looked up at the metal monstrosities. “And the vampires got them.”
Four people against an army of Vamps and a couple of giant killers wasn’t a good idea. But it’s the fight we faced.
“Is there any way we can see what they’re packing?” I asked Rebel.
“Vision Spells aren’t my thing. We’ll have to draw their fire to test them out.”
“That’s a really stupid idea,” I said.
“Thanks.”
“We’ll get close to the closest one,” I said, knowing I was on the spot to come up with a better plan. “We’ll get a good look and, if possible, we’ll jack one for ourselves.”
“Now you’re talking,” Cassidy said, rubbing his hands together.
“Rose,” I said. “Lose the strap.” She wore a strap holster around her shoulder where she kept her cell phone. She didn’t have any friends but she had to have it nearby in case someone called her.
“No way,” she said. “I got this for Hanukkah.”
“That’s hard to do being that you’re not Jewish,” Cassidy said.
“I got it for myself. I identify with the Jewish people.”
“It’s hot pink,” I said. “We’re trying to blend into the landscape. Earth tones only. Cover up the bright and sparkly stuff, guys.”
Rebel sighed and pulled some nail polish out of her bag of tricks. She painted over the silver glitter that gave her nails a particularly dagger-like look. It took her one minute. She’s a pro. She held them up and gave me a fake smile.
“Nice,” I said. “You know any Cloaking Spells?”
“None that can cover all of us. I could go ahead and scout the Leviathan out myself.”
I could have let her go. I should have let her go. Things might have gone better if it were just the two of us, one cloaked and one crossing his fingers. But I didn’t want to have to manage the twins by myself.
“Let’s stick together,” I said.
“Sure,” she said, shrugging. And probably knowing exactly why I didn’t want her to go off without me.
Once the heavy mist lifted there would be no way to avoid being seen. We were on low land with almost no terrain to hide behind.
Basically, we were four bugs waiting to be squashed.
If the Vamps had lookouts on those things then we were meat. I held out some hope that all eyes were on the tectonic plate. Sounded like it was going to be one hell of a party.
We entered the mist. It was already starting to lift.
After ten minutes of walking we had to duck low to keep our heads under the cloud. I gave us another 5 minutes before we were completely exposed. But we were close enough to a Leviathan to give me some hope that we could pull it off. With a little luck.
Which is when our luck ran out.
We heard the scuffling of footsteps nearby. Just in front of us, from the mist.
Their shadows emerged from the white blanket in one large, dark mass.
Some had spears. Some swords. A few even carried maces that dragged on the stony ground, shattering rock with each step.
The moon hit them with a gray light. At first I thought they may be ghosts. Then I noticed the perfect skin and the hungry eyes.
Vampires.
Viking Vampires.
Chapter 48
“Oh, shit,” Rebel said, jinxing exactly what I was thinking.
“Jinx,” I said.
“You didn’t say it out loud, dipshit.”
“Doesn’t matter. You owe me a Coke. Get ready.”
If I had to guess a number, I’d say we were up against 50 undead warriors.
Rebel knew what to do. She cast the Wood Spell. It gave her fingernails a sheen of wood that would be deadly to our new friends if she could pierce that leather armor.
I could still feel Skyler’s potion in my veins. The extra strength would come in handy. I hoped.
Then I felt something. Something new.
The air felt charged. My skin stung. I could feel my body hosting millions of tiny electric shocks.
And the twins didn’t look right at all.
Rose took deep breaths and let them out swiftly. A creepy glow started to transform her face until I couldn’t recognize her. Her face looked like a smirking death mask.
Cassidy’s transformation was faster and more, let’s say, dramatic. His nose bloated as his chin rose to meet it. At first his teeth cracked in his gums but the long whiskers that grew from his lips supported them like tendrils. The teeth let off dozens of pops and suddenly tipped off, as sharp as daggers. It must have been as painful as thirty two root canals with no drugs.
His screams made the Viking Vampires stop in their tracks. None of us could take our eyes off of him.
Cassidy’s back grew a hunch which forced him to kneel and then stand on all fours. His fingers pressed against his palms until they broke through the skin and slid out of the back of his hands. Each digit made a bloody snappi
ng sound as he licked his wounds, whining like a wolf in pain. It worked for a second but when his tongue turned to jelly he screamed again. It flattened and elongated until it dropped out of his bloodied mouth.
He howled and the Vikings stopped in their tracks. It was the scream of pain itself. Sorrow, violence, loss, desperation, hunger, all of it flew through our ears.
It was enough to make a vampire feel pity.
All of this was happening to them because of a couple of drinks? Or Skyler did this to them somehow. He was the one who mixed the drinks.
“Cassidy,” I shouted. I wanted him to know I was there. I wanted to keep him grounded, focused on what we were doing. As far as I knew he’d start tearing into his friends as well as his enemies within seconds.
His human eyes turned to me just as his brow collapsed on itself, ripping his eyeballs in two.
He howled in pain again and this time the vampires took some big steps back. He shook his head and splattered the blood from his eye sockets all over the rocks around him. He blinked and look at me, his eyes now golden but still dripping red.
He wasn’t a werewolf. He looked more like a bear with long arms and legs.
I didn’t know what he was until Rebel said, “Wendigo.”
Cassidy tore all of his clothes off, still standing on two legs. His body was covered in a gray and brown fur that was as thick as a wolf’s. The fur was covered in blood but it shone in the dim light as if it gave off light of its own.
With two deep breaths, he looked done.
He looked ready.
And I have to say, he looked damn impressive.
“You with us, kid?” I asked. He snapped his head to look at me. For one second I thought I would be his first meal of the day. But then he growled and trained his eyes on the vampires.
He was with us.
“Then let’s get this party started,” I said. I’d have to do hand-to-hand but I was pumped on Strength Serum, so that was fine with me.
Rebel and Cassidy leapt at the same time, arching through the air like an arsenal of sharp spears, claws, teeth and Chanel Wood #4 aimed at the Vikings’ hearts.
My fist went through the first Vamp’s face and came out the back of his head. I grabbed the second Vamp with the bloody hand and ripped out his throat. I got stuck while pulling my hand out of the guy’s head and three Vikings were on top of me.
Rebel took all three of them out before I even got a swing in.
“I can take care of myself,” I said.
“I can see that,” she said as she looked at me standing there with vampire larynx hanging from my clenched fist and weaving through the split head of another vampire.
“I’m kind of turned on right now,” she said.
“Me too. Behind you.”
Another vampire leaped from the mist. Both of Rebel’s hands disappeared into his chest with a wet thump.
Rose floated over us, her arms lifted like the wings of an avenging angel. Her target was one of the larger Vamps who took a swing at her with his sword.
It went right through her. I still wasn’t sure what she’d become but it was something I appreciated one hell of a lot. It scared the shit out of me, but it was a good thing she was on my side.
For now.
We’d pushed a dozen Vamps back into the mist. We’d taken out ten more. But I needed to understand the situation better.
“Rebel!” I yelled. “Assess!” Rebel was good at that. I guessed we had a dozen strays wandering around us, hidden from view.
“100! Maybe 120!”
“What?” I saw her looking over my shoulder. I turned to see a wall of vampires coming down on us like a really ugly wave.
Chapter 49
I didn’t have time to yell the “FUCK!” that swelled up inside me. It was a big one too. It would take a few years to release all the fucks that needed to come out at that moment. I’d been in danger before. But something in me was screaming out, “This is the end for real, asshole!”
Or maybe that was Rebel.
I lifted a boulder from the ground and threw it at the rush of vampires. It crushed a few of them and slowed the ones behind them.
I had to look straight up to see the top of the Leviathan now. It was 100 yards away. The thing was so huge it felt like it had its own center of gravity tugging at me. I had no idea how we’d jack the thing.
Turns out Cassidy was the Wendigo with the plan.
Rip. Tear. Destroy.
Good plan.
He attacked the 12 foot high tires of the Leviathan one at a time. There were dozens of them supporting the massive monstrosity.
Rebel’s eyes met mine.
“Babysit Cassidy, please,” I said.
She ran after him. When she caught up she did the last thing I expected her to do. She jumped on Cassidy’s back. He was running on two legs, though his hands touched the ground when he was looking for more speed. His hind legs got knocked to the side under the impact of Rebel’s leap but he kept his balance, growled, and kept running.
Three leaping steps later and he was arching toward the top of another wheel. He clawed at it until it burst and then leaped straight up to grab onto the hydraulics above him.
Rebel swung off his back and started climbing straight up the Leviathan too.
I ducked under two swords, grabbed my attackers’ helmets and smashed them together a little too hard. Their heads burst like melons and covered me with vampire.
I wiped my eyes clean in time to see Rose floating above me like an angel, picking off Vikings with a barrage of fire arrows. No other way to explain them. They were slashes of fire that stayed pointed until impact. Then they burst, covering the target in flame like he’d been covered in oil and then lit up. That would slow them down, but I knew that burnt flesh just got Vamps riled up.
It bought me a few seconds.
“Rose!” I yelled. “Go! Take out the Leviathan. See if you can make it fall this way. Toward me!”
She hesitated. I wasn’t sure how to read her expression. It wasn’t her face anymore. Worried? Maybe. It was more like she felt sorry for me.
I watched her fly up, looping around one of the giant killer’s mechanical legs.
Then I turned to face the hordes. They’d found the courage to regroup after their brief encounter with Cassidy.
“Come on then,” I said in the eerie silence.
Five of them rushed at me. I jumped straight up and they missed.
I forgot how high I could jump on the serum. I liked the feeling.
So I kept jumping.
Rock to rock. Vamp to Vamp. I had them chasing me in circles while I took out the easy targets. They hit me with a couple of spears, one in the shoulder and one in the leg, but I felt the serum shove the pain aside. Even when I yanked the spears out.
I heard three explosions in rapid succession. The sound came from above.
The top of the Leviathan cracked open, spitting fire and metal. Chunks of who-knows-what arced through the air.
My team had done it.
My pride turned into terror as the dead Leviathan bits fell toward me.
I’d been expecting it so I had a slight advantage over the Vamps. I punched my way through a small crack in the wall of undead and sprinted through it.
The sad howl of bending metal cried from above.
We all ran. The Vamps chose to run in the same direction as the falling debris. But I ran at a right angle to the toppling columns. I figured it would be the quickest escape from a quarter mile high machine.
Chunks of metal fell all around me. Rubber and armor and weapons and bodies slapped the rocks. Gas fell on my back.
I spotted a hill in the lifting mist and ran for it.
I looked over my shoulder right when the bulk of the Leviathan crashed to the ground.
The explosion was blinding, deafening, terrifying.
I covered my eyes with my forearm and forced my legs to run blind up, up, up.
The violent sounds around me bega
n to fade.
After a few seconds, all I could hear was the sound of burning, a few distant cries and the calm wind.
I dropped to my knees, exhausted, and opened my eyes. There was a big spot in the middle of my view from the big explosions, but I could see.
As the spot faded from my eyes I studied the bedlam. One thousand tons of war machine had been taken out by three of my team. I was proud.
Then I was horrified.
Through the billowing smoke I spotted Rose being carried from the wreckage.
By Viking Vamps.
Chapter 50
I hid.
I found a spot behind a boulder on the hill and waited for my vision to come back as I scoped out the area. But I heard a lot of noise coming from one direction. Shouts. A search party. They were coming from the south.
I heard the voices of the search party getting closer. The mist and smoke mixed to make a wall that even Vamps would have a hard time seeing or smelling through.
“Over there!” a male voice yelled. “He’s got to be in this area.”
“Unless he kept running,” another low voice said.
“Then the Leviathan will spot him. Be careful. He could be listening to us right now.”
I was tempted say something. Maybe take a shot to throw them off. But I heard Rebel in my head, telling me to put it back in my pants.
I hoped she was okay.
I laid low until I was sure they’d passed. Then I walked in the direction they’d come from.
I could see stars again. The sky was purple with the pink sun peeking over the horizon. It wouldn’t come up completely. Not for another month or so.
It was total chance that I looked down. Good thing, too.
I was on a cliff. About fifty feet up.
Below me, a small army of Vikings stood in a circle around one man.
Hakkar. Bonehead.
My team floated a few inches off the ground and circled him like a wheel spinning at forty miles an hour. They were using my friends as a shield.
Then I saw him. The emperor walked from behind one of his larger Vikings. He circled Hakkar until his back was to me.