Drew D'Amato:Bloodlines:02 (34 page)

3

V
lad entered the top floor, the forty-fifth. 
Empty, black, but he knew Radu was in here, somewhere.  He also felt he wouldn’t have to look
too hard
for him. 
T
o h
is left sat an old oak desk, R
ichard’s.  He looked deeper into the room.  In the
back-
left
corner stood
a dark metallic silhouette.  He focused on the silhouette at first but
then came the sound of footsteps from his right
.  He
turned and in the blue shadow tint of
vampire sight he saw Radu
come out of the bathroom in the southwest corner
.
  He had both his arms behind his back under his black cape.

“Brother,
I knew you would make it here
.”

“Is that why you left your number?”

“Of course.  I was not going to wait around for whenever you would find me to make your move.  And
you would make your move
.  You are a man who would die before surrender.”

“And you were confident enough to think that if I came here you would win?”

“Of course.  Vlad, I am surprised you actually made it through Gabriel and all the men before me.”

“Well one floor was just sleeping vampires.”

“Oh that.  Those were
your
vampires.”

“What?”

“You really should get to know your own people.  Those were the ones who didn’t like your idea of becoming a human again.  You wiped them all out and didn’t remember any of them.  That put a smile on my face.  How little you care about your own people.”

“You just let them die.”

“It was worth it for you to kill them.  Besides, I didn’t like the idea of them enjoying my reign anyway.  Traitors.  You got too many traitors on your side.  That is your downfall.”

“And you’d rather have me kill my old soldiers, than kill me when you had a chance.  Your arrogance is your downfall.

“Oh, I’m not too scared of a human killing me.”

Vlad remained silent.     

“Ah, but you are not a human, or you wouldn’t be able to see me in this darkness.  So how did you become a vampire again?  The Crusaders kept the Blood for themselves didn’t they?  That is what happened in the Vatican, isn’t it?”

“Yes, brother.  I gave up my love, a peaceful life I finally had, just so that I could kill you.  And you were cocky enough to think that you could stop me.” 
Vlad drew
one of
his
gold Desert Eagles
.

“Oh brother, that’s not the way we fight up here.”

Those words froze Vlad in his place.  Radu could not have
had any idea what impact those words
had on him. 
Just a crazy coincidence
,
Vlad resolved
and snapped back. 
He started to squeeze the trigger.

“C’mon Vlad
,
we hav
e been fighting this war for years.  Is
this t
he way you want it to end?
”

“
As long as it ends with you dying.
”
Vlad found though that something subconsciously stopped him from pulling the trigger.  “What do you have in mind
?
”

Radu pulled out two identical three-foot long broad swords he h
ad
behind his back.

“Like the way we used to ki
ll, before there were these noisy
guns.  I have one for you.  I
’ve been waiting for this moment for years.  I assure you, they are both made of silver.
”

Radu threw off his back cape.  He was shirtless and his chest was covered in tattoos of ancient symbols that would frighten anyone who understood them.  He also had on a pair of black pants and was barefoot.  Vlad tightened his tie with his free hand. 

“I have no guns on me
,
I assu
re you.”  Radu turned around to show
him that he had no guns hi
ding behind his back.

Vlad held his gun low by his waist
,
thinking. 
This may be a
nti-climatic, but vanity is a deadly sin.  He could kill him now, and how many times befor
e had Radu gotten away from him?
 
Besides there was too much at stake.  The world deserved more than for its fate to be decided by one sword battle.

“Sorry brother, again your arrogance is your downfall.”

Vlad went to pull the trigger, but Radu was already on the move.  He ducked under the shot and swung his sword as quick as lightning, cutting off the barrel of the gun.

“You know, I could have killed you when you walked in here.  I could have killed you as a human, but I offered you the chance to stay human and be with your love.  I have shown you mercy, and we both know it.  Now take the fucking sword!”

He had another gun on him.  He could move farther away and shoot to kill, but for some reason at that moment he really did feel he owed this last request to his younger brother.

“It’s okay Radu, I have my own.”
  Vlad unsheathed his sword from behind him. 

He held it in front of him with
both hands ready for an attack.  Radu’s pupils grew.  Fear rushed through his body. 
He’s scared, now that he got what he wanted? 

Radu
had
always respected his brother as a swordsman. 
He was better than him, from back when they were kids.  Radu
had to have something else planned.  He wouldn’t agree to a situation that put him at a disadvantage. 

“Well, pardon me
then
if I use b
oth,” Radu said.  Now he had his advantage.

Radu’s swords moved around like the bottom of a blender.
  Both blades turned in one motion toward him like a fatal fan.  Vlad responded fast.  He blocked the strike from Radu’s left and then jumped back to avoid the right.  With the room’s fifteen-foot high ceiling, Vlad could not use his advantage of flying against Radu.  Radu jumped over to him.  Vlad rolled back when he landed and had about eight feet
between
him and Radu.  Radu smiled and the
two jumped at each other.

Radu swung one time with each sword.  Vlad
parried
both
strikes
.
They landed
seven feet away from each other.  Radu held both swords in front of him.  His left arm
held its sword low like a
shield
and he held his hand
behind his head running horiz
ontal. 
Vlad held his one sword the same way Radu held his right.  His left elbow around his chin, his hands gripped the handle that was about an inch away from the top of his head.  The blade ran horizontal with the tip pointing
down
at Radu.  There was a pause.

Go for your gun,
screamed in Vlad’s head
.

Radu, as if hearing that thought rushed
at Vlad again. 
C
LING
,
CLING
,
CLING
,
high-low-high and then they stepped back from each other
.  Vlad could only block, he couldn’t strike.  He would leave himself open
for a counter-strike from Radu’s other sword,
if he didn’t connect.  He had to get one of the swords out of Radu’s hands. 

They circled around
ea
ch other. 

“You have gotten quicker, is this an upgrade?” Radu asked sarcastically.

“Watch this.”

Vlad extended his arm out at Radu.  The invisible force that had pushed over humans but never affected a Raduson before, this time knocked Radu on his ass.  His swords fell out of his hands.

He came after Radu.  Radu only had time to grab one sword.

Vlad swung to his right, Radu
was able to
block it.  Vlad spun backwards to his left in a circle and swung as he came forward again.  Radu blocked that one too
and was standing again
.  They locked swords
.  Radu grunted.  Vlad could see on Radu’s knuckles s
harp
,
two-inch cones of bone
sticking
out. 
Since
most battles were fought with guns he hadn’t had to use
this trick
for a
few centuries
.

Radu
pushed away and
then came
back
with an array of swings.  Vlad blocked the first aimed at his right breast.  He ducked under the second for his head.  On the next
swing,
Radu
came
low and he jumped over it.  When he landed
,
Radu punched him square in his right peck with the bone pyramids on his hand.  Vlad fell back from the instant pain.

“I had
n’t fought without a gun in years.  I forgot about these
babies
,” Radu said
kissing his right hand
.

“Those
little spikes aren’t go
ing to
do you any good.  You
sucked
at hand
-
to
-
hand combat,” Vlad said as his chest healed.

“You’re right, but you know what I
am
good at?”
 
Radu took a thrust at Vlad, strai
ght for his heart.  Vlad jumped
back
,
high in the air
,
as his only way to avoid it.  On his way down from the jump he felt a sharp pain in his back.  A blade of some sort
had
cut throu
gh his back and came out of
his chest.  The blade pierced his body about three inches down from his right shoulder and about two inches in from his right armpit.  He didn’t stay in the air for long.  Gravity brought his body down to the floor and the blade cut through his body with some resistance like gutting
a fish.  The blade came out of
the top of his right shoulder.

“Backstabbing.” Radu said with a smirk.

Vlad looked up to see what had stabbed him.  There the
dark figure stood
.  The culprit was Richard’s medieval knight suit that he loved.  The metallic silhouette
Vlad had noticed when he first entered the room. 
The figure of the suit held the sword by the handle low.  The sword’s blade stretched about three f
eet long like the swords the
vampires used.  The tip of the sword ended at a
bout the
height
of the helmet for the suit
.  Vlad
had landed right on it
.

He l
ay
there looking up at the suit and
started to
los
e
some feeling in his right arm.  It would heal
, but first he had to disengage himself from the sword.  His blood had run low fighting in the darkness, using his vampire sight.  He was in pain, and he was weak.
 
He didn’t have the strength to stand up. 
He thought to himself
:
This will be the end of me
.

Radu smirked,
look
ing
at his slain brother lying in pain.  Radu had him right where he wanted him.

4

M
alachi’s energy had also gotten low.  His view was starting to get dark, unable to use his vampire sight in the blackness of the room. 
He couldn’t keep up with being
transformed as a gnat
.  The
Radusons searched around the room aimlessly.  Malachi heard their conversations as they debated what to do next. 

Maybe Gabriel killed him.

But where was Gabriel then?
 

Maybe he went up to help master. 

Should we go up and help him too? 

Why not, we’re not doing anything here? 

The Radusons started to make their way toward the west stairwell.  The vampires were going after Vlad.  Malachi couldn’t let them. 

He
quickly
changed back to human form
, and threw a grenade from each hand into both the northwest and southwest corners of the room.  The Radusons turned back to fire at him.  He transformed quickly back into a gnat to escape their bullets.  His was only a gnat for second and then, without choosing to, he changed back into a human.  He closed his eyes and waited for bullets to be fired back at him, but none came.