Drew D'Amato:Bloodlines:02 (3 page)

“A
ndrew and Stephen, go downstairs,
”
he ordered.

The two
vampires got up.  Matthew, sitting next to Malachi,
was confused.  “What about the rest of us?”
he asked.

“I think we have some Crusaders in our midst.  We are going to stay
here and keep an eye on t
hem.”

Matthew
turned to the direction Malachi was looking.  He
understood when he saw them.
  He gripped the stock of
the Beretta in
his pants.

5

A
ndrew and
Stephen made their way out of T
he
Caviar House
.  Smoothly they passed behind a counter
on their way to the lowest level
.  Stephen got down like he dropped something and Andrew went
down
to help him.  They never came
back
up.  What did come up were two gnats barely noticed by anyone in the airport.  The
y
flew down
above
the escalators to
ward
the
bottom floor.  They could see Jericho and Vlad following behind a man wearing a heav
y green jacket like the kind
that group
of men back at T
he Caviar House
had on
.

This was the source.  He carri
ed a gra
y backpack over his shoulder. 
Jericho carried an identical backpack. 
He waved
in
the direction of the
windows in the
front
of the place.
Jericho and Vlad stopped following
him,
and went
in the
direction
he pointed at
.  They waited next to
a garbage pail, with their backs to a wall of
windows
at about the middle of the bottom floor
. 
On their left was the entrance to Altitude.  The source walked to their right, to a group of men near the wall opposite the restaurant.  The wall of windows ran perpendicular to these two walls. 
Jericho swung his hand behind the garbage pa
il and dropped the backpack
.  Vlad and Je
richo stayed by the garbage pail,
scoping the place out. 

The
group of
five men
by the right wall wore the same type of weathered
clothes
as Peterson
.  The source shook all their hands, and they were all smiles.  He talked to one of the men who had a
leather carry-all
over his shoulder.  The source had said something
important
because the
n the
other man’s f
ace went from relaxed to focused
.  The
n
the two of them walked over to a bathroom
door in the wall opposite Altitude, a few feet left of the
windows. 

Andrew and Stephen flew down behind some chairs and transformed again back into their human form.  Vlad
and Jericho didn’t see them.  T
hey were looking off to
ward
the bathroom the two men had gone
in
to
.  Then a figure approached Andrew and Stephen
from behind.

6

T
he Crusaders ate caviar, but drank only water.  They were also on high alert.  They did not believe that just two vampires were at this airport right now, but they didn’t think the others
were this close.  Then one of them noticed four men across from them.  Two in a booth facing them, the other two sat in chairs with their backs to them.  They were dressed in all black with almost all of them with long hair. 
Could they be vampires? 
There was one way to tell for sure.

The man took out his cell phone that had a camera on it.  He folded his arms and kept the camera underneath them to hide it.  He snapped three quick pictures in their direction. When he checked his phone the proof was there.  He looked at three pictures of an empty booth, even though his eyes told him four men sat there.  They weren’t able to be photographed—they were vampires.

“Men,” the cameraman said under his breath to his compatriots.  “There are four vampires in the booth across from us.”

“How do you know?” another one asked.

He titled his phone so that they could see the pictures.

“So what do we do?” a third asked.  “We don’t have any weapons on us.”

“Nothing for now.  We don’t want to do anything to alert them.  But if we need to…”  The man paused and looked reflectively at the fork in his hand.  It flipped it over and noticed the name
Gorham
etched on the back of it.

“This is some nice
silver
ware.”

THREE

1

V
lad and Jericho waited by the pail as Peterson entered the bathroom with the other Crusader.  They kept their eyes peeled, but aside from the other Crusaders Peterson met with, there wasn’t much more to see. 

“So what do you think about this?” Jericho asked Vlad.

“Something’s rotten in Denmark.”

“What do you mean, just because he didn’t want to become a vampire back there?  I don’t blame him.  I wouldn’t want that on my plate right now with everything else he is about to pull off.”

“It’s not just that, this whole plan seems weak.  I’m curious as to how he pulls off this whole switch without any of the other Crusaders finding it funny.”

“Well the other Crusader didn’t object and walked with him into the bathroom.  So maybe if we knew their boss, this story about wanting the coffer together wouldn’t seem that odd?  As far as the switch goes, as long he gets the coffer all in one bag I don’t care how smooth the actual switch is.  Peterson will escape with us, and the Crusaders will be stuck wondering what just happened.  An airport is not an ideal location, but it also keeps their side handicapped too.  Our group still has weapons.  I doubt their side has any with them.”

“I’m looking for our cavalry right now.”

“Michael was supposed to let Malachi know when we were making the switch.  But you’re right; I don’t see any of them down here either.”

“Text Malachi yourself.”

Jericho took out his phone.  He was about to start typing when he looked at Vlad.  “You seem a bit off, master.”

“Maybe I’m just spreading myself too thin.”  He smiled.  Jericho’s eyes opened in amusement realizing what Vlad meant.  Before he could smile himself, Vlad grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him down.

A bullet crashed through the window next to them leaving a spider crack.  The hole was at the height of Vlad’s heart when he was standing.

2

A
Porsche SUV was parked on the street across from the airport.  The window behind the driver’s seat was opened.  Inside the car, sat a Crusader with a high-powered Barrett M82 Sniper rifle loaded with silver bullets.  He squeezed the trigger and missed.

“Vlad ducked,” he said.  “I don’t know how.”

“Well keep firing until you kill him, we won’t get a second chance,” said the Crusader riding shotgun.

Then the door behind the passenger seat was opened from someone outside.  The figure grabbed the sniper out of the car and took the gun from him.  The driver of the Porsche panicked and drove off.  The attacker aimed the rifle from the sniper in one hand and fired at the car speeding away.  One shot hit the gas tank of the car.  The car blew up and flipped over.

The sniper, held at the neck by attacker’s left hand, squirmed in a frenzied panic.

“I just saw you inside, how the hell did you get out here?”

“There’s a lot of me going around,” Vlad said with a smile.

Vlad crushed his neck and let his lifeless body fall.  He turned to his left to Andrew and Stephen who were also outside with him.  “Stephen, go see if those two survived; Andrew, tell Malachi it’s on and to get down here.”

The driver of the car had died on impact.  The one sitting shotgun had some breath left in him.  He crawled out the car, and opened his cellphone.  He texted the Crusaders up in the Caviar House:
T
arget is still alive, take all necessary action.

He hit send and then welcomed a bullet to the back of his head.  Stephen stood up and looked back at Vlad and Andrew.  “They are all dead.”

“They are dead,” Vlad said.  “But far from all of them.”

3

M
alachi stared at the strange men across from them.  One of them had received a text and looked down on his phone to read it.  Gregory who sat across from Malachi didn’t notice Malachi staring behind him.  His face was buried in the menu, as was Daniel’s who also sat with his back to the Crusaders.  Matthew, sitting next to Malachi faced the Crusaders, too, but he had taken a moment to glance at the menu also.  Malachi was hungry, but not for food.  He was focused on the Crusaders when their waitress came to the end of the table between Daniel and him.  He glanced over to speak to her, and then everything happened so fast. 

Two of the Crusaders made their move toward their table.  They threw their water at the vampires.  It was not regular water, it was holy water.  Malachi saw the men bless it themselves
earlier.  It splashed all over the back of Gregory and Daniel’s head and a good amount also got onto Matthew’s face, too.  It burned their skin like acid.  In the sudden shock, the Crusaders were able to stab silver forks through Gregory and Daniel’s back in the confusion.  They both disappeared.  

Matthew screamed in pain.  Malachi thought quickly.  He pulled out his Uzi from its holster under his arm and shot under the table.  The two Crusaders fell dead.  As one fell he crashed onto the waitress who then fell onto Malachi’s lap.

“They have weapons,” a third Crusader said.  As Malachi pushed the waitress off him, the remaining four Crusaders used this moment to escape out of the restaurant.

“C’mon, lets go before the Border Guard get involved,” Malachi told Matthew.

“I’m having a tough time seeing.”  Matthew’s face was still burned, but moved like a liquid as it was trying to heal itself.

“Don’t worry it will heal, let’s go.”

They ran out of the restaurant after the Crusaders.  The people in the place stood frozen in fear and confusion. 
Did those two men just disappear?

4

J
ericho and Vlad had stayed on the ground after the first shot.  They heard more gunshots and the explosion of the SUV out front.  Vlad took everything in.  To his right he found the bullet that almost ended his life.  It had ricocheted off the steel garbage pail that he was standing next to.  He grabbed it and put it in his pocket.  He turned left and saw the panicked crowd of the airport running in all directions trying to make sense out of everything.  Jericho however kept his eyes focused on the bathroom, waiting for Peterson to come out. 

Vlad turned his attention to the four other Crusaders.  They had gone to their luggage, which were loaded with weapons.  They moved quickly but to Vlad it seemed like forever.  They would have all been dead by now if he had his gun on him.  Vlad and Jericho were mixed in with the frantically running air travelers.  The two stayed on the ground in the prone position behind the trashcan.  He hoped they would take a while to find him.  They didn’t.

They had never taken their eyes off him.  They had Vlad and Jericho pinned down.  Vlad scrambled to think of what to do next.  It would take a few seconds to get himself, Andrew and Stephen back inside the airport—seconds he didn’t have.  Two of the Crusaders aimed their guns at them.  The other two inspected the scene looking for any other vampires or security guards to come into the scene.  Vlad welcomed the presence of security guards right then.  Their bullets couldn’t kill him, but they could kill the Crusaders.  His blood was draining every moment that passed.  He didn’t have much power left.  He was in no position to pull a trick. 
Does it end like this?

Michael threw a steak knife at one of the shooters.  The second Crusader turned in Michael’s direction to shoot—Altitude’s entrance from the basement level—but Michael and Deacon had ducked out of sight.  Four men, who Vlad suspected might also be Crusaders, came into the view running down the escalators, but they had no guns.  Malachi and Matthew followed them with Border Guards racing after them.  In one shot Malachi took out the eye and the back of the brain of the second shooter aimed at Vlad.  Matthew missed with his shots.  His face was disfigured.  It looked like it was trying to heal itself, but his sight was still not good.  He fired blindly.  

Border Guards came out from the customs office opposite of the windows.  

Jericho was still focused on the bathroom.

In the chaos Vlad saw the four other Crusaders starting to make their way toward the remaining two with the weapons.  The two with the weapons fired back at Malachi and Matthew.  Malachi dodged the bullets and fell off the escalator to the floor.  Matthew’s sight wasn’t clear, and he was killed as he tried to make his way down the escalator.

Everything that happened next, happened in rapid fire.  The Border Guards shot and killed the two Crusaders left with the guns.  The four weaponless Crusaders paused in their movement when they saw their other comrades killed by the Border Guards.  They were trying to devise a way to get to the suitcases with weapons.  Michael and Deacon grabbed a Crusader each from behind.  Michael twisted one’s neck.  Deacon punched his hand right through the other’s chest.  The other two broke out and ran toward the suitcases full of weapons.  Malachi shot one in the head.  Then the Border Guards turned their attention on him.  Malachi was shot three times in the chest with regular lead bullets.  He fell down to feign like he was human, but he would be on the move soon enough.

The last remaining Crusader was about to run by Vlad, unaware that the master vampire was right at his feet.  Vlad threw his arm out and tripped him.  He grapped the man around his neck and pulled him closer to him.

“How many of you are there left?” Vlad asked him.

“You have no idea what we have in store for you.”

5

O
utside, Vlad in his second form instructed Stephen to wait by the window next to the bathroom Peterson and the other Crusader had disappeared into. 
When they ge
t out
,
kill them on
sight.
  He instructed Andrew to go back into the airport and get the rest of his men out.  It was getting too hot. 

They had to move, not leave, but relocate.  Those Crusaders would have to leave the airport sometime and they would follow them, but right now they had to get out of there.  No more innocents had to die.  Vlad’s secord form waited outside.  He started to get tired.  The trick of splitting himself into two different forms was draining his blood fast, which was why he barely used this trick.  The world was starting to get dark around the edges.  His time was short.

6

M
ichael, Deacon, and Malachi—who gave up on playing dead—followed Andrew back outside.  Jericho and Vlad were the only two left inside the airport.

“Jericho we got to get out of he
r
e.
”  Vlad was starting to trail off like he was going to sleep.

“Vlad, what’s wrong with you?”

“I need blood.”

“You have some right next to you.”

The Crusader heard this and struggled to get free of Vlad’s grip, but Vlad had enough strength to still keep the grip on his neck.

“I can’t do it until I am one again.”

“Well then get yourself together—literally.”

The Crusader who had the Blood of the Betrayer came out of the bathroom with a Heckler and Koch MP5 in his arms.  Before he could take one shot he caught a bullet to his temple.  Stephen killed him by shooting through the window from outside.

“Jericho, we have to get out of here.”

Jericho still stared at the bathroom door.  “No, I put you in harms way.  I promised you the coffer.  I’m getting you the coffer.”

“We have to wait them out.  I’m sure he is waiting in there with a rifle loaded with a silver bullet pointed at whoever goes through that door.  Now is the time to move.”

And then the airport was hit with a thunder of silver bullets.

7

M
alachi, Michael, Deacon, Andrew, and the second form of Vlad stood at the Southwest end of the wall of windows.  Stephen was at the other end of the wall.  Barreling down the street from the Northwest came a white Volkswagon Sharan minivan.  Stephen started to make his way toward the others when the side door of the van slid open.  An XM214 microgun—basically a modern day Gatlin gun—was mounted in the middle seat and loaded with silver bullets.  The gun was capable of firing up to 4000 rounds a minute.  The Crusaders put it to the test.

It annihilated Stephen as he tried to make his way to his five friends.  The gun hit almost anyone who was standing up inside the airport.  It would make it to the other end of the airport’s driveway in a matter of seconds.

“Men, get the hell out of here,” Vlad ordered.  “We’ll meet up later.  Just get somewhere safe, away from the heat.”  He stumbled as he walked.  His energy was draining but he had to get back together.  The minivan raced toward him.

Malachi and Michael led Andrew and Deacon up in the air as the four quickly flew to safety.  Vlad could barely move.  With the strength he had, he slapped himself to wake up.  The minivan was approaching.  He used whatever energy he had and ran through the window the
sniper had fired the first shot through, a few meters before the minivan got to that window.  He crashed and landed on top of his own body, becoming one again.

Once he was reuinited with his other form he
looked at the Crusader in his grip.  He dug his teeth into his neck and drained him of all of his blood, then clawed off the skin on his neck.  Vlad snapped back to life like he had just injected himself with ten gallons of an energy drink.