Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (51 page)

What made even more sense was that this was likely to be the place the remaining vampires had found to disappear. The police had barely given the basement a glance since there had been no gunfire or fiery explosions there. Merely looking for evidence of fighting, vandalism or obvious habitation might not lead them to look closer at a hidden door. He needed to get down there without being noticed or they would have to stake out the nest until nightfall or longer to see if they could end the threat.

“If you need to go to the third floor or above,” Detective McTeer was saying as he tried to control the man with the credentials to invade his crime scene, “then you will need to use stairway one on the east side of the structure. Number two is cordoned off because some idiot decided to drop a pipe bomb or something in the stairwell. Forensics hasn’t determined exactly what was used in the explosions so you need to stay out of those zones as much as possible to avoid contaminating them.”

Nick nodded, though he knew that there was little that he could do to confuse the bomb experts and forensic scientists. There had been no true bomb, just vampires dying from silver weapons, which would be unlikely to fit any of their usual lists of materials used in explosives. He merely had to humor the detectives until they tired of him, so that he could move to the truly interesting point of the building, which was outside of their narrow thinking.

On the first floor, they could see remnants from the fighting the night before, but with no bodies or blood thanks to the clean up of Nick and Marek’s people they were at a loss. Detective Sanchez was more forthcoming on that note as she said, “There was definitely a fight going on; but other than shells and blackened stone from explosions or fire, there isn’t a lot that we’ve found to point the fingers at a gang or anyone really. Homeless people don’t usually arm up the way these must have been.

“We’ve found dozens of shells, but no guns. There were explosions, but none of the usual fragments associated with typical bombs and grenades.”

The older man with his graying brown hair frowned at her assessment as they led the reporter and his assistant around the site. The voran knew that he was being micromanaged to make sure that any story he wrote wouldn’t bring a bad light to the Chicago neighborhood or the police. Nick could also guess that Detective McTeer in particular wanted him done and gone as soon as possible.

The second and third floors were a similar condition to the first, though Nick hadn’t been on these levels the previous night. He had seen enough of the action from the building across the way to know how the explosions on the stairway had happened. If the voran had been in favor of saving the reaper, he could have shouted warning of the assassin coming from behind in time; but they had remained quiet and watched until the point where the reapers were about to win unless the occupiers were reinforced.

“Is there much to see up above?” Nick asked as they finished reviewing the damage to the building’s third floor. Plywood had been brought to this level as well, but he doubted that anything above the basement was truly a living space for the vampires. The open air of the unfinished building let in too much light and it was also open to notice from anyone looking that way, though the upper floors would have had places to hide due to the extreme angle of sight from the lower surrounding buildings.

The male detective looked like he wanted to send them on a wild goose chase, but he said, “Nothing at all on the fourth and seventh levels.
There’s a few more gun shells on the rest, though nowhere near the activity we saw on the first few. The basement was somehow missed in all the activity. A steel door was locked and appeared untampered with so any subfloor access would be impossible.”

Detective Sanchez added, “From the basic walls put up on the lower floors, we’re guessing the homeless used the first three or four. I guess maybe the basement was too dark for them, since there isn’t any power running down there for lights unless generators are brought in to run them. The builder was
called and he said that they were waiting for more financing and wouldn’t be ready to do more until June.”

“So he left some equipment and materials out here unwatched?”

The detectives shrugged.

“Maybe he was hoping something would happen to collect some insurance for that extra financing?” Nick threw the idea out there just to give them something else to think about, as opposed to any thoughts of vampires. Unless they were feeding him basic theories to mislead him, the voran could assume that such fantasies were not on the table.

It took time to get the detectives bored with them and they had all begun heading down the stairs. Nick made them more comfortable with his lack of interest on the upper floors. No one wanted to walk up the extra stairs for no reason and his acquiescence implied that he trusted their advice. As a reporter, he already had enough for an article and figured to write one with his perspective. It would be a highly adjusted perspective about gangs and homeless people as well as the destruction inside of the partially abandoned property. Done correctly, Nick could parlay the fight at the nest into two or three articles. He might as well make a little money to help pay for all the extra bodies living in his apartment, eating his food and borrowing his vehicles, Nick thought in amusement.

He took some pictures with his phone where allowed. It would be enough to illustrate his articles if the editor wanted more than just words. Nick and Charlotte separated from the two police detectives and found their way to the slope into the lower floor. Acting like they were merely curious about the architecture of the building, the two wandered into the basement area with little interest shown by any of the police still roaming the site.

Cracking a glow stick that he had stashed in his pocket and shaking it to bring the light, Nick and Charlotte moved out of the daylight cast from the mouth of the entry tunnel. The voran and werewolf’s eyes could make out more in the darkness than a human’s, but it was definitely dark and the basement was very large. They hadn’t been told where the steel door that the police had found was actually located; but locked or not, Nick had a feeling they would find the remainder of the nest hidden beyond it.

He used his radar like sense to verify the dark auras of the vampire’s below them. There must be at least one more floor below the basement they were in now. Charlotte showed up the voran and tugged on his arm towards the west side. A stone wall jutted out from the side in a rectangle and they found the door turned from their view. He guessed that a stairwell ran parallel to the wall behind the steel barrier.

They remained as quiet as they could. Disturbing sleeping vampires wasn’t desirable. They wanted to catch them sleeping and make their jobs easy and safe. Slaying vampires in this way didn’t make a hunter feel good. It was much harder to believe the creatures were evil until they were trying to kill you, but a good hunter knew that taking out a dozen or so vampires while dulled to sleep by the sun was much safer than finding the coven ready to fight at night.

Breaking out a lock pick set, Nick toyed with the standard door lock for only a few moments before the voran conquered the simple lock. It was a self closing door, however, and he had Charlotte hold it open to place a cinder block from a small pile in front of it. With the block to rest against, if things went sideways they wouldn’t have to fight a closed door in the dark.

Nick moved into the stairwell as Charlotte set the door quietly against the cinder block. The two moved as silently as they could down metal stairs with jagged steps to insure grip even when wet. It was a very industrial feel in a building that seemed rough in its semi abandoned state.

Concrete walls insulated them as they descended the single flight of stairs and found a second door. It was frustrating to Nick as he found another self closing door at the bottom. Returning up the stairs cringing with each step, the voran retrieved a second block doing the best he could to simulate Charlotte’s care with the first door. Once down the stairs, Nick dropped the first glow stick at the foot of the stairs on the smoothed concrete landing. It would give them light to find the second door when they returned. Excellent night vision or not, a hint of the opening was still better than finding one’s way in the dark.

A second glow stick was pulled from his pocket and cracked so that the two fluids held separate would react and glow. Easing the bottom door open, Nick looked for trouble. His sense of smell and vampire radar told him it was clear, but he preferred to err on the side of caution.

One thing his radar did tell him was that this was the level they needed to find the hidden vampires. They were both spread and clumped together. Two were much closer to the stairway, but now Nick needed to find his way through a space cluttered with the machinery that would eventually run the building. Electrical panels on the walls led to generators. Pumps were hooked up and spread to deal with any water in the future. The very entry descending into the building could wind up letting in flood waters and only powerful, large pumps would keep the power center of the building safe.

The first sleeping vampire was found. He was thin and scruffy looking as he lay on his back on a piece of plywood set across a pair of pumps. Nick created an aura blade with his right hand. While he couldn’t have possibly smuggled his silver coated sword past the police, the voran was a weapon thanks to his ability to create swords made from his essence. Light to cut the darkness, Nick tried to keep the sword’s brightness muted as he beheaded the vampire where he slept.

While beheading certainly worked to kill a vampire, to clean up the mess it would make sense to pierce the heart instead to make them burn away. Unfortunately the sound and flash of fire from that kind of kill was likely to bring the rest of the nest awake in a hurry.

He moved to the second vampire. Perhaps they were closest to the door to act as sentries, but sleeping sentries meant dead guards. Nick removed a second head from its shoulders. Feeling like a simple executioner didn’t sit well with the voran, but it was necessary.

Feeling movement with his radar rather than seeing it, Nick threw the glow stick in the direction of the movement. Caught off guard as the vampire came to light when the stick landed at its feet; Nick followed the glowing light and only called up the aura blades as he finished crossing fifteen feet in a rush near the speed of a vampire. This was not a well trained fighter and the aura blade took its head, the surprise was still on the man’s face as the body fell forward and his head rolled down the back.

He could feel more of the vampires awakening, though his attacks had made little sound. Such stealth shouldn’t have been noticed by sleeping vampires at all, even with the dull thud of the falling body. It could only mean that most of those hidden behind a cross wall with a door at the end of the aisle of machinery, must have forced themselves to remain awake in spite of the sentries.

He looked at Charlotte and nodded his head towards the door while holding up his hand to the woman. Moving ahead of the werewolf, who felt tense as should be expected; Nick moved to the door before throwing it open. Stealth and surprised were gone and speed would be his best ally now. The first glow stick was thrown into a new room as he cracked and tossed two more to either side.

A vampire was on him. A female, her eyes were white with hunger. The aura blade pierced her heart before Nick kicked her back into the room where her body combusted in flame. Two more burned stumbling away blinded and on fire.

Both hands sported the glowing blades as Nick rolled through the doorway. One swiped where his head had been from the equipment he stood on, but Nick had sensed him and known to go low.

“Blood!”
Another female, who felt like she was starving and barely a vampire to his senses, lunged at him wildly screaming. Though completely in the moment of battle, the voran’s mind told him this was a newly turned vampire and possibly not even blooded. He guessed, since he felt no humans in the basement for food; that the nest vampires had tried to build numbers by turning everyone still alive.

Charlotte was behind him. Her claws bared, the werewolf slashed the vampire above the door across his face. It screamed and her claws went through his chest pulling out a black heart.

Surrounded by more than a dozen presences, Nick realized that he had underestimated their number being so close together; but most couldn’t really fight. They were merely vampires acting on instinct and no worse than dogs. While fast; those who were starving were little better than human in strength and quickness. Another man leaped for him gnashing his teeth trying to bite him, he was blood mad and Nick lopped off his head as he side stepped the charge. Unlike the vampires, the voran was able to attain peak speed and reflexes. He was also a product of decades of training.

They tried to use numbers, but he was like an elusive shadow darting between their attacks. An aura blade pierced a heart as another vampire charged crashing into one behind him. The two went up in flames together. Like some angel of death, the man with the glowing blades tore through those who fought. Fingers reached for his clothing, but not even that was touched as the voran was like a bull fighter in a ring. He maneuvered them close and was no longer there. More flamed out on the aura blades and soon just two willing to fight remained.

Charlotte had taken out two more. One had been knocked aside by Nick and her claws had caught him in the chest crushing his heart in a single strike. The room was clear of all save those cringing on the far side of the room and the two fighting Nick.