The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (24 page)

I moved upstairs slowly, until I could see
the third floor. The end of the stairway led to a door, not a
landing. I wondered if this door was locked.

I decided to run the rest of the way,
gaining momentum so I could break the door down. If the door was
locked, my speed would help me bash through it. If the door was
open, then I’d make a more startling entrance.

Not that I was always reckless, but over the
past months I’d discovered that sometimes recklessness was the
right choice.

I took the stairs two at a time and hit the
door with my shoulder. It slammed open and I leapt into the room
before the door could swing back. To see dozens of what appeared to
be monks wearing brown, hooded robes tied with rope around the
waist.

These must have been fighting monks – the
room looked like a training area; I’d spent time in a similar room
when preparing for my mission. I could have seen all this without
my goggles, because there were lit torches along the walls.

I didn’t hesitate. My goggles confirmed the
story my nose and ears had already told me – none of the bodies in
the room gave off enough of a heat reading to be human.

I still seemed to have the element of
surprise, which I didn’t have time to question. I just spun and
grabbed the nearest “monk” with my Nightstick – I got his neck on
the first try, clamped the vise, and twisted. His head came off,
but not before he managed a shriek.

As the body turned into a puddle of blood
and far less savory things, I grabbed the next nearest with my
other Nightstick and ripped his head off, too.

Then they were all around me, and as I spun,
kicked, hit, and grabbed them with my Nightsticks, I realized that
for the first time since my arrival in the past, the Nightsticks
were once again working as intended – as they had in the time
they’d been created.

While this was excellent news, clearly the
entire Abbey had been turned. And with that knowledge came the
clarity, the realization, of how the vampires had managed to spread
so far and wide and effectively.

The last vampire Marcus and I had killed
together had been a monk, a real monk. The vampire plague was being
spread through the Church.

Maybe it was because they’d been monks
before being turned, but the Nightsticks were stunning these
vampires – they moved more slowly than any I’d run across in this
time.

Those I couldn’t grab with the pincer end of
the Nightstick I brained with the rounded end. As the Star of David
slammed against them, they dissolved as surely as when I ripped
their heads off.

As I fought, I looked for the leader, the
vampire who had turned the rest. He was still there, I was sure.
The big question was where.

He dropped on me just as I looked up, his
face a mask of rage, fangs bared, snarling incoherently. He’d been
above me, floating.

He landed, screamed in pain, and ripped off
my goggles and skullcap. He was the first vampire of this time to
react to my clothing. But he wasn’t the first vampire to try this
technique, and I was able to drop, spin, and shake him off. As I
did, I spotted another vampire staring at me.

He was younger than most of them, maybe in
his mid-twenties. He was a bit taller than me, but since I stood
less than five and a half feet, this didn’t make him a giant. He
looked slender under his robe, and his features were rather sharp,
but not unattractive. He had a thin moustache that went down the
sides of his mouth to meet the beard that ran along his
jaw-line.

The leader grabbed me, screaming in pain,
and my attention turned back to him. He was a better fighter than
the others and dodged my Nightsticks as if we’d fought before and
he knew all my feints and parries.

Had we met through the ’Pires he’d created?
Vampires had a telepathic link to their maker, it was how a maker
controlled his vampires and thralls. Did that link mean they’d
given information back to their master?

As I spun, I saw the younger vampire again.
He was still staring at me, not fighting, not running, just
staring. This wasn’t normal, and it unnerved me. The leader called
for reinforcements, and I was surrounded.

The young vampire was close to me now, still
staring. I couldn’t give him my full attention, but out of the
corner of my eye I saw him reach for me. I tried to catch him with
the Nightstick in my left hand, but he dodged the pincer, grabbed
the shaft, and wrenched it from my grip.

The leader laughed, a truly unpleasant
sound. “Kill her. Kill this abomination,” he said in Latin as he
kicked at me.

“
You’re the abomination,”
I said, also in Latin, dodging out of the way. “How many have you
made like you?” I thrust my Nightstick towards him and he jumped
back.

“
Enough.” He bared his
fangs. “You should have been dead already.” He feinted another kick
and, as I leaned away from it, he hit my chest. He shouted in pain
as I fell back.

“
How do you even know I
exist?” I regained my footing. The young vampire was nearby,
watching us.

“
I know because you’ve
killed my children with your weapons.” He glared at me. “Through my
children you’ve infected me with your beliefs. You are the last of
your kind, and you must be removed from my presence!”

I pulled the wooden Cross of Christ off my
neck with my free hand and threw it at him. It hit his forehead and
he screamed. The necklace fell to the floor – the vampire had a
cross burned into his skin. “She is a demon! Her weapons, her very
existence, go against God’s will! All of you, destroy her!”

My weapons I’d always expected to be a
problem for the ’Pires. But no vampire had ever mentioned my being,
my existence, to be an issue. Was it rhetoric or fact? There was
only one way to know.

I spun and slammed my free hand against the
leader’s chest. He shrieked. “Stay back,” I shouted. “You cannot
touch me and survive because you are the demons…and I am the demon
slayer.”

For the first time since going back in time,
I knew this to be true. I’d found the pattern and its source, and
now everything I’d been trained for, everything I’d learned, was
once again right.

The leader no longer wanted to touch me.
However, this was a training area, and these monks knew how to
fight with staffs. The leader grabbed a staff and attacked.

Nightsticks were good weapons, but they
didn’t have the same kind of maneuverability as a staff did, and
they certainly didn’t have the reach. I was staff trained, but
loathe to let my Nightstick go.

He slammed one end of the staff into my
chest, which sent me backwards into some of the vampires around us.
I was winded and the ’Pires could have attacked. They should have
attacked. But they didn’t. Instead they shrieked in fear.

I didn’t question. I grabbed one’s arm with
my Nightstick, using it to pull myself up while I ripped the arm
off. The vampire screamed again and I kicked him towards his
leader. The staff slammed through the injured ’Pire as I flipped
myself forward and to the side.

The vampire dissolved into dust, still
screaming, as the leader pulled the staff out and aimed it towards
me again, this time swinging it to hit my head.

I leaped forward and down into a somersault,
gaining my feet in time to see his staff slam into another
vampire’s head, taking it off. This vampire certainly had the
strength I was used to from my time and rage was clearly making him
stronger. Which meant I needed to avoid his blows at all costs.

The ’Pire leader was shouting orders to the
others, but they seemed terrified of me. Some muttered about my
scent, others about my weapons. Some begged their leader to let
them leave before they were destroyed. I wasn’t sure why they were
so frightened – they outnumbered me and I’d never met a ’Pire
afraid of a human before, not in this time, and not in mine. There
was no logical reason for their fear.

Unless the majority of vampires were afraid
because their maker was afraid.

They weren’t fighting or attacking me, but
they still surrounded us, so limited my options for where to go and
what to do. I’d been running on rage, fear and adrenaline. But I’d
been fighting for long enough that I was tiring.

The staff came for me again, this time aimed
to sweep me off my feet. I jumped but the ’Pire was fast and he
flipped the staff up, hitting my side while I was still in the
air.

I hit the ground hard and again had the wind
knocked out of me. The vampires near me backed away as the leader
strode forward, staff raised.

All seemed terrified – except the young
vampire. He moved closer, still watching me and only me. His gaze
distracted me again, and the leader grabbed me and pulled me up,
snarling at the pain his touching me and my clothing caused.

“
You die now,
abomination,” he growled. He looked at the young vampire and shoved
me towards him. “Use her weapon. Use it now!”

The young vampire looked straight into my
eyes and gave me a small smile as he raised my Nightstick.