Chapter Nine #2
“The guy you take orders from. How old is he?”
“His name is John Brown?” he snorted and then grimaced as a wave of pain travelled through him. “He goes by Gunner. He’s like eighty, I think.”
I twisted the knife again. “You think?”
He yelped in pain and nodded. “Yeah. Come on, man. Stop. Please.”
I wasn’t going to get anything useful out of this guy.
He was low pickings and clearly didn’t know shit.
I stood up and looked down at him. “If you can pull the knife out, you can save yourself. But if you’re still there when I’m done with Gunner upstairs, you’ll be burnt to a fucking crisp with the rest of the building. ”
“That was awfully kind of you,” Bishop mumbled as I made my way upstairs.
“I’m not kind. I’m just moving onto the target.”
“If you say so,” he replied and I could hear the fucking smile in his voice.
I jogged up the stairs hoping this wasn’t going to take much longer. I had a man I needed to help and hopefully he’d reward me for it.
With his dick.
I was super motivated when it came to rewards that I wanted, and if helping Wilder got me more of him, that was all the motivation I needed.
It was surprising this group of vampires was so young.
There was no way they had the money to fund a mini criminal enterprise, and they seemed to be dumb as fuck.
They’d obviously never come up against someone like me and that wasn’t just my ego talking.
They weren’t attacking as a team or being proactive.
It’s like they were just sitting there, waiting for me to attack them.
Shit, were they expendable? There was possibly a bigger plan at play here that I just couldn’t see yet. I needed to take John alive and figure this shit out.
I loaded the crossbow up and stepped into the hallway.
There was a single vampire stood at the end of the hall, the one guarding whoever was behind the door.
This vampire looked older than the others.
Sometimes you could just tell. He held himself in a confident way, like he thought he could take me on and win.
His posture was relaxed, his hands tucked in his pocket and a cocky smile plastered on his face.
I aimed the crossbow at him. “Any last words?”
“Nope. Have you?” he asked, his smile widening.
I had a feeling this was going to be fun. “Nope.”
The air stilled between us and time slowed as I waited. A deep breath in and out. I tightened my grip on the handle of the crossbow and slowly closed my eyes. The vampire laughed then lunged.
His feet hit the wall, then the ceiling. He was running up and over me. I spun around and fired, opening my eyes to see him advancing on me with a stake sticking out of the hollow of his shoulder.
He slammed his hands in my chest, propelling me backwards into a closed door. I ducked just in time to see his hand pummel through it, splintering the wood. Oops. That was a bit close.
I grabbed another silver knife and sliced the outside of his thigh as I dived past him.
“You’ll pay for that,” he hissed.
“Why? Were they your favourite pants?” I taunted as I flicked the silver blade between my fingers, keeping a steady eye on him.
He darted towards me again, using his vampire speed. One second, he was at the far end of the hallway, the next I was pinned to the wall with his forearm against my throat and his fist punching my gut. Shit, that might have got my kidney.
The vampire laughed in my face, his breath rancid and like old pennies. Which was fucking stupid. If I were a vampire, I’d just kill my victim instead of playing with them like food. It left windows of opportunities for sneaky fuckers like me.
Hubris was going to be this idiot’s downfall.
I sliced my silver blade right across his laughing face and followed it up with a sharp punch to his nose as he stumbled backwards. Bones crunched beneath my hand and my knuckles rang out in pain that sang like a goddamn harmony.
I rolled out of his grip, and he tried to hold on to me, his talons scraping along my back and across my hip. Thank fuck for my protective gear. Without it, I’d have probably just lost a chunk of my spine.
I threw a blade in his direction, and it landed in the meat of his thigh. He roared in pain and his fangs extended even further. Crap, that was never a good sign. His primal instincts were taking over, and he’d soon be in full-blown survival mode.
I needed to finish this now. A normal vampire with some sliver of humanity made mistakes I could exploit. One in survival mode was pure, unfiltered rage and power that would stop at nothing to survive.
I went to grab the vial of the sunburst potion, but it wasn’t there.
“Looking for this?” the vampire asked as he held up my little satchel that I kept at my hip.
“Yes, actually. Would you be a dear and hand it back?” I replied, my chest heaving from the exertion.
He smiled, all fangs and sharp teeth, and threw it through the open door next to him.
My shoulders dropped. Fuck. This was going to make it somewhat more challenging. I slid my left foot back and brought my fists up. “Okay. Let’s do this the hard—”
A blur of white and grey shot through the door behind him and pulled him back into the room, disappearing from view. The sounds of screams and ripping flesh echoed down the hallway. Bones cracked and snapped and the screams slowly turned to raspy gargles.
What the hell was in that room?
I stepped towards the room and slowly opened the door.
Blood splattered the walls and pieces of flesh and muscle littered the floor. In the corner was a creature bent over the body, slurping up the vampire’s intestines like a long piece of spaghetti.
I watched in avid fascination as he licked his fingers clean, a euphoric hum pouring from his lips.
He had pale, ashen skin and sharp white horns that rose from dirty white hair. His hands were long elegant fingers that ended in sharp white fingernails and his face was sunken lines and sharp angles. He looked like he’d stepped straight out of a nightmare.
I took another step closer, the floorboard creaking under my foot.
Shit.
The creature’s eyes hit mine, and I froze. They were the palest blue, like ice chips caught in the sun. He cocked his head to one side, his eyes narrowing and his gaze assessing.
“Friend?” he asked, his voice a gentle low hiss.
“Not really,” I replied, hoping that honesty was the best policy here. There was a dirty mattress in the corner with a scrap of fabric for a blanket and a metal bucket in the corner.
His eyes narrowed even further. “Enemy?”
“Not unless you make me one.”
A crash came from the next room and the creature’s gaze darted to the wall, a bolt of fear making him flinch.
In all the excitement I’d forgotten about John Brown. I’m surprised he hadn’t run. Fucking idiot.
I pointed to the next room. “I’m going to go and deal with him. Enjoy your… snack and I’ll be back. If you’re still here, I’d like to help.”
He didn’t say anything, just stared at me as I walked slowly out of the room, closing the door softly behind me.
Was that a fucking wendigo?
What the hell was a wendigo doing in Misthaven?
“Everything okay?” Bishop asked, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah. These idiots are holding a wendigo.”
“As in a flesh eating, organ digesting wendigo?”
“Yes. He’s currently eating one of his captors, but I’ll see if he wants help when I’m done with Johnny Boy.
” I pushed open the only other closed door left in the hallway and saw John standing on the other side of a table, looking slightly stupefied.
There was a pile of burning papers in the fire grate and a couple of open laptops on a desk behind him.
John’s eyes were glassy and his pupils were blown wide, almost overtaking the brown of his irises. He stared at me but made no indication that he was going to move. Something wasn’t right here. There was no way a vampire would just stand there.
“He is coming,” John said, his voice bland and as empty as his eyes.
“Who is coming?” I asked and stepped closer. Still, he didn’t move. He just kept those dead eyes fixed on me.
“The King. He shall come with fire and brimstone, and he shall burn the world.”
What the fuck was this apocalyptic shit? “Who is the king?”
“He shall come with fire and brimstone, and he shall burn the world,” he repeated.
Was that all he could say? Fuck. He’d been compelled, and he was useless. “John, what were you burning in the grate?”
“He is coming. The King is coming. All shall bow at his feet.”
Fuck this. I walked around him as he spewed that biblical sounding shit and grabbed the laptops. Hopefully Bishop would be able to get something useful off them, but why burn the papers and not destroy these? Nothing made sense.
“Byron Blake. I see you,” John said, his voice a wet rasp.
My spine stiffened. There was something dark about that voice, something sinister, like it came from the depths of hell itself.
I turned to look back at John, and his eyes were two black voids. His smile was awkward and overly wide, like he’d forgotten how to use his mouth. I had the distinct feeling that this wasn’t John anymore and this was suddenly bigger than a lowlife crew trying to muscle in on Damyr’s turf.
“And I see you,” I replied to Not-John.
“Good,” he chuckled like a creepy clown. “I’m coming and soon I’ll tear this world to the ground. Are you ready?”
“For what?”
Blood started to drip from John’s eyes like tears. “Annihilation.”
Well, that didn’t sound particularly friendly.
Smoke started to rise from John’s clothes and the distinct smell of barbecue filtered through the air.
“I’ll be seeing you soon,” Not-John said before the man erupted into flames.
He just stood there, those pitch-black eyes staring at me through the fire.
He smiled another weird smile and then slowly closed his eyes.
When they blinked opened again, two brown orbs stared back at me in shock.
The flames engulfed him and John released an agonising scream that pierced my eardrums.
I pulled out my gun and shot a silver bullet straight through the middle of his forehead. He collapsed to the floor in a heap, his whole body being consumed by the flames in mere seconds. That was no ordinary fire.
“Shame to see it go to waste.”
“Fucking hell,” I gasped as the creature from the other room stood next to me. Although the horns had gone and he looked more human. He was still deathly pale and bore signs of malnourishment, but he looked less monstrous.
He was also completely naked.
And covered in blood and goo.
“Enjoy your snack?” I asked.
“It was okay.” He turned to face me, the lines of his face softer now he wasn’t in his wendigo form, but his eyes had stayed the same shade of pale blue. “Human is better, though.”
“Well, I’m not on the menu and you’re going to have to try harder than that to scare me.” I shrugged my coat off and handed it to him.
He eyed it warily.
I shoved it at him. “You’re not wearing anything and you’re covered in blood. People will stare.”
He took the coat from me and stared at it. “It’s full of holes.”
“I just fought several vampires and I’m still alive despite being human. You should be grateful it’s not in shreds.”
He cocked a pale eyebrow. “Do you want a round of applause?”
“Can we keep him?” Bishop chuckled over the comms.
“No,” I replied flatly before turning on my heel and walking away. I wanted to leave this shitshow behind and find Wilder. Nothing had gone as planned. I had a nasty scratch on my shoulder, a bruised kidney, a fucking wendigo in tow and no one to torture.
On the way out I grabbed my little satchel of potions and my silver knife I’d left in 90s Icon. Guess he had more stomach than I thought.
I stepped back into the street and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. I wondered if Wilder liked the snow. He’d look pretty with all the snowflakes clinging to his lashes.
Bishop strolled across the street towards me and the wendigo, and I thrust the laptops at him. “Can you get anything off these?”
“I’ll try when we get back to the mansion. I should have enough time to set and algorithm running in the background while we’re at Benji’s party,” he said as he shoved them into the duffel bag.
“Jeez, there are two of you?” the wendigo asked with a groan. “What god do I have to thank for that?”
“What?” Bishop asked as he took in my new acquaintance.
“Actually, I think you’re the prettier of the two,” the wendigo said as he took a step closer to my twin.
My protective instincts reared up, and I grabbed the wendigo’s arm.
He flinched and recoiled from my grip with a snarl. “Don’t touch me.”
“Then stay away from my twin,” I growled.
“Hey, easy Byron,” Bishop said softly and turned to the wendigo. “Sorry, my twin is very protective of me. What’s your name?”
The wendigo flicked his pale eyes between Bishop and me. “It’s Vee. Just Vee.”
“Okay, Vee. Nice to meet you. I’m Bishop and this psycho over here is Byron.”
“Great,” I snapped. “Now we’re all introduced, can we get the fuck out of here before the emergency services turn up?”
I walked away, irritation dogging my footsteps as I returned to the car. I’d taken one of Damyr’s out again, the all-black Mercedes G-Class. He’d been pissed when he’d found out I took the Ferrari and he’d forbidden me to take it again.
He hadn’t said anything about the rest of the collection…
It wasn’t that I didn’t have my own collection of cars, I did, I just rather enjoyed pissing off the boss.
He’d never get rid of me, I was too useful, but I was curious to see how far I could push him.
I’d almost lost my head when he’d brought Benji into the fold and I’d flirted with him quite a bit.
I’d backed off when we’d found out they were mates, though.
And I liked Benji. As much as I could like anyone, I guess.
More than I liked most people. He was also really good at patching me up.
Much better than the drunk we’d had as our in-house doctor before.
I turned on the engine and waited for the other two to climb in. Bishop helped Vee get in and then he jumped into the passenger seat. I didn’t even wait for him to put his seatbelt on before revving the engine and putting my foot down.
I needed to see Wilder, and I needed him right fucking now.