Demonspawn (33 page)

They knew more about me than I thought. I was
stunned at Heins' threats for a second. Then I got angry.

“If you even
think
about my friends
and family, I'll-”

“You'll what?” Bachner cut me off. “What will
you do? You'll kill us? I'm sorry, Alex, but you don't look like
much of a killer to me. More like a forklift driver.”

I smiled. I was also afraid. Not of them, but
because of the outright evil thoughts going through my head. I
didn't feel like myself.

Demon blood influencing me?

“Kill? Nope. That would be too quick. There's
worse things. I've seen them. Would
you
like to?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Heins
asked.

Suddenly, quick flashes of the demon world,
all around me. The van was gone, then back again, several times.
Each time, more and more demons surrounded me. Some were missing
limbs. Others walked around without heads. Some dripped what looked
like blood from their mouths and made noises that scared the hell
out of me. Snarls and moans.

But they were loyal to me.

“We'll kill them for you, master.”

“You're part of us.”

Hallucinations. At least, I prayed they
were.

“Listen, Alex, nothing is gonna happen to
your family and friends,” Bachner was saying. He gave Heins an
angry look. “All I want you to do is stay away from Victoria. I
can't guarantee your safety if you don't.”

“Are we done here?” I said. I felt like I was
gonna puke.

Bachner shrugged. “Sure. I've said my
case.”

Heins was furious. “You're a fuckin'
idiot.”

“Stop the van,” he called to the driver. He
pulled out a key and undid my handcuffs. “Think about what I said.
Be careful who you trust.”

“I think I'll trust someone who doesn't burn
down butcher shops.”

This time, Bachner had a look of surprise,
but only for a second. I could read it in his face.

He didn't know.

The van stopped at a light, and I opened the
rear door and jumped out. Bachner and I exchanged one last look as
he reached out to close the door.

A car honking behind me made me jump and get
out of the street. I watched the van drive away and make a right
turn.

“I don't think so,” I said out loud.

I vanished right in the middle of the
sidewalk, not caring if anyone saw me. I started to run. It didn't
take me long to catch up, since walls and getting tired weren't a
problem.

Me running through the city trying to keep up
with a van. It was deja vu all over again. The chase was
uneventful. I took a few shortcuts through a few buildings, almost
lost them a few times when they picked up speed. But they
eventually led me to a warehouse on the edge of town. I slowed up,
but still stayed vanished, as I watched the van pull inside a large
dock. I ran up and walked inside.

I found their home base.

I looked at everything I could see. There was
a makeshift living room in the corner. They had workout equipment
that dwarfed anything I had. A large table was against one wall,
full of weapons. Guns, crossbows, grenades. They had five vans.

There looked to be about thirty men. Some
watched TV. Others were checking the weapons. I saw two guys boxing
in the corner.

Victoria was right. It was a small army.

I got inside in time to see Bachner, Heins,
and their driver getting out of the van. Bachner and Heins were
loud enough to hear anywhere in the warehouse.

“I don't want to hear it, Heins.”

“Would you just fuckin' listen to me? I would
have had that little punk talking in five minutes. He'd tell us
exactly where the bitch is, and we'd be dragging her dead ass into
the sun right now.”

“You sound like the mafia. Maybe you missed
your calling.”

“Tell me I'm wrong.”

“It's not about that. You don't attack a
vampire in their lair. Come on, you should know this shit by
now.”

“And why not?”

“Because she doesn't live in a goddamn cave.
She lives in a house with people around her. We attack her, and
innocent people get hurt.”

“Oh Jesus Christ,” Heins said, rolling his
eyes.

Bachner looked over his men.

“Now, I want to know what really happened
last night. Did some of you careless bastards destroy a butcher's
shop? Did you put someone's livelihood out of business?”

A man stepped forward. I recognized him as
one of the guys from the night before. He looked horrible. Bruises
and cuts, and a bandage over his right eye.

“I'm telling you, Bachner. That was that
bloodsucking bitch. She torched the shit.”

Bachner didn't look convinced.

“Everyone listen up. We are in the business
of killing vampires. We do not put people in harm's way. We don't
destroy people's businesses. We are in control, not those fuckin'
bloodsuckers that we hunt. I'm trusting all of you to act smart and
be in control. If you can't get with it, there's the door.”

“Gonna believe a vampire's bitch instead of
your own guys. You're a pussy,” Heins said.

Bachner spun around and took a step forward.
For a second, I thought fists were gonna fly. They both had a
dangerous look in their eyes. Then Bachner calmed down. Heins
looked like he would kill him, but something told me Bachner was
just as dangerous. He looked over his men.

“There are vampires in this city. You track
them, you kill them quietly. Now this is a whole new ball game.
They're cooking up something. I want to know what
that
thing
is. Get me some answers.”

Bachner pointed to something covered in a far
corner. Heins followed him, and they argued some more. If it
weren't for the fact that Bachner wanted to kill my friend, he
would almost seem like an okay guy.

I walked over to where Bachner pointed, to an
empty corner where no one was. They had a tarp covering something
rectangular. I saw the tarp move a little.

Something was alive in there.

I took a deep breath, then pushed my head
through. I felt the tarp, then cold steel. It was a cage.

I was inches away from a male vampire.

He lashed out. Not at me, but at the cage
bars. He was wild, like all the other ones I'd seen so far. His
hair was a mess. His fangs stuck out just beyond his lower lip. He
wore a ruined security uniform that read W.R.S., whatever that
meant.

He didn't see me, but that didn't mean I
wanted to be near him. I backed out of the cage and took one last
look at the warehouse, trying to think about what I was really
seeing.

Bachner looked like he barely had control
over his own men. He and Heins were at each other's throats. They
were on the hunt for more vampires, and they had a feral one in a
cage.

Victoria would definitely want to hear about
this.

It took me almost two hours to make it to her
house. I had to run back to my truck, then fight city traffic. I
gave her a call on the cell phone to let her know I was on the way.
It only took her a second to answer the gate buzzer when I got
there.

“Alex?” she said.

“Yeah, it's me.”

“Come in. I'll unlock all the doors. Just
shut them behind you.”

Victoria was pacing near her living area on
her cell phone. I had to do a double-take as I got closer. She was
only wearing a bra and panties.

I tried to keep my eyes low. Her hair was
wet. She must have just showered earlier.

“Okay,” she was saying on the phone. “He just
got here. I'll give you a call as soon as the sun goes down.”

She tossed the phone on the couch and put her
hands on her hips. She turned straight at me, not trying to hide
anything. Not quite on Cindy's level, but hot nonetheless.

“That was William,” she said. “He filled me
in on what happened this morning. We're gonna head over to his
house when the sun sets. He has some notes he wants to go
over.”

“Uh, Victoria. Would you mind putting on some
clothes?”

“Sorry. Just got out of the shower. Hold on.
I keep forgetting you're not comfortable around hot women.”

“You're so funny.”

She talked while she slipped on a pair of
jeans and a tee-shirt.

“What happened to your eye?” she asked. “Make
some new friends today?”

I'd forgotten about the love tap Heins gave
me. My eye was a little swollen. Luckily it didn't hurt much. “You
could say that.”

I caught her up on what my day was like while
we sat on the couch. I told her about Heins and Bachner, their
base, the vampire they had in a cage. She listened to every
word.

“So, they found a feral vampire too,” she
said.

“Yeah. They didn't know what it was. “

“That makes two of us. It's good to hear
they're just as clueless as we are.”

I hesitated with my next question.

“Victoria, is it true you killed Bachner's
grandfather?”

She took a breath. “Yeah, it's true.”

“What happened?”

I could tell she didn't want to talk about
it. But she did. “That was about forty years ago, maybe? I didn't
want to, Alex. He was a vampire hunter, just like Bachner. He
wouldn't let up, tracked me for a year. I kept sparing his life,
and letting him go. I kept telling him, 'I'm not a bad person'. But
he wouldn't listen. I kept thinking if I let him live, he'd leave
me alone. Then one day he and five other hunters get me in a
corner. It was either them or me. I chose me.”

“He said vampires don't make friends.”

She almost laughed. “He might not be too far
off there. It's hard to have friendships with humans when you know
you'll outlive them. But you and me, we're friends, Alex. I hope
you believe that.”

I nodded.

“You look pretty bad.”

“Well, thank you.”

“I mean tired. Get some rest. We have a few
hours before the sun sets. I promise I'll keep my hands to myself.
Unless you say otherwise.”

I laughed, and stretched out on her loveseat.
She was right. I was exhausted. The past few days were starting to
get to me.

“No, thanks.”

“Damn. I can go to any club and have my teeth
in someone's neck in twenty minutes. What does Cindy got that I
don't?”

“I wish I knew, so I could maybe get it out
of my head.”

I was asleep in five minutes.

Too bad it wasn't restful.

*****

I woke up on the couch, but Victoria's
basement was long gone. I was in the middle of a red desert with a
hot sun overhead. I heard a thunderstorm coming. The sky had a
reddish glow. Before I could even wonder what was going on, I saw
them all around me.

Demons.

They were feasting on corpses. At least I
thought they were corpses. They started to move and moan in
pain.

Just like at the church in Blossom.

All I could hear was them eating. Chewing,
munching noises. Flesh being ripped from bone. Blood spilling onto
the sand. They noticed me, but didn't make a move. I could sense
fear. Whether the corpses were afraid of the demons, or the demons
afraid of me, I couldn't tell.

A quiet whisper echoed in my ear.

“Let us out.”

“No!” I said, anger in my voice.

“You're a part of us. Forever.”

Suddenly, the demon world was gone. Victoria
was shaking my shoulder. Her pale, pretty face was a few inches
from mine.

“You okay?” she asked. “You're having a
nightmare.”

I swung my legs over the couch and rested my
head in my hands.

“That's one way of putting it.”

“The sun's almost down. You ready for a
ride?”

I was still drowsy, but knew I didn't have
much of a choice. “I guess so.”

It was dusk outside. The sun had set, but
there was still a little light coming over the horizon. I knew
she'd say I watched too many movies, but I guessed vampires
couldn't come out unless it was pitch black. I was wrong.

We drove for a while in silence. I thought
back to the past two days. I wish I could figure out what was going
on. But if Victoria was in the dark, there was no way I'd be of any
help. I still didn't know why she wanted me along. Probably just
for company. She kept tossing out her little comments like she was
interested in me, but I knew that was part of how she acted. She
was my mentor, and she genuinely wanted to see me with Cindy.

That made two of us.

“What do you think is going on?” I asked.

“I don't know. Some bad blood going around,
maybe? Turning vampires feral?”

“Well, it must be pretty strong stuff.
Between yesterday and today, three crazy mindless vampires. Good
thing Bill is immune.”

“Why?”

“He didn't tell you? The one in the morgue
took a bite out of him this morning.”

She gave me a worried look, then grabbed her
cell phone.

“He said he'd been bit before,” I said. “That
you even drank from him.”

She didn't say anything. She spoke in her
cell phone.

“William. It's me, Victoria. If you're there,
pick up.”

Silence.

“Dammit. Okay, we're on our way over
now.”

She hung up.

“Everything alright?”

“I hope so. Let's just get there.”

We parked on the side of a street full of
town-houses, way on the other end of the city. His was the last
house on the end before one of those huge separating walls stood
between the street and the beltway. She knocked on the door.

“William! It's us.”

Nothing.

“Fuck,” she said.

She looked around for anyone else on the
street. There was a group of kids near the other end playing, but
they were far away. Victoria took a step back. I stopped her before
she could kick the door in.

“Hold on,” I said. “We can do this
quiet.”

I vanished. She'd seen me do it before, but
not without any other chaos going on.

“That amazes me every time you do it,” she
whispered.