Dragula

Zack meets up with a valuable ally

In the E.D.G.E. Zack and the others were gathered shocked and confused the day’s earlier events.

            “I can’t believe Rican was killed like that. Why him? I thought the endangerment of our lives were over so who the heck were they? I swear I landed a solid kick on that guy and he didn’t even wince when he got back up.”

            “And I couldn’t do a thing.” Mei added. Everyone knew that this was hardest on her. Rican was a father to her and, literally, in the blink of an eye he was gone. “I just took one punch.” More tears fell down her already streaked face. “One punch and I was down. I haven’t felt so much force in one blow.”

            “The female was equally as terrifying.” Xana chimed in. “She was extremely quick and no one could even think of catching her. She knew it and toyed with the guards and anyone else opposing her. She just took all out without any mercy.” As Xana talked another person walked into the room silently. It was Tanji, E.D.G.E.’s combat expert. As well as one of the few cherished top members.

            “There was a technique she used to take me down that seemed frighteningly familiar. It was like Sarah’s technique. That dark aura that was like a bomb blowing up in my face.”

            “Obviously, they caught us off guard. We don’t know what their motive is and we don’t know if they’ll strike again.” There was a knock on the door.

            “Come in.” Zack said. The head secretary of the corporation stepped in.

            “There’s a phone call for you. He says it very urgent.” Zack gave the secretary a confused and took a nearby phone off the receiver. He then looked at the secretary again and she suddenly blushed. “I-I’m sorry. Line six.”

            “Thank you.” Zack pressed the button on the phone and spoke into the phone. “Hello?” There was a brief silence and then a low but almost familiar voice came over the phone.

            “Ah, yes, there you are. I’ve been hearing you are going through a tough ordeal.”

            “What do you want?” Zack said thinking that this was a prank to a joke that clearly wasn’t funny.

            “Calm yourself. I only want to help.”

            “Yeah? And who is this?”

            “I’ll answer your questions if and only if you meet me at the bridge over Ethel Bridge in one hour. Don’t be late.” The man hung up.

            “Your not going are you?” Xana asked.

            “You guys are going to back me up.” Zack said already on the move.

            “Yep, he’s going.” Tanji said.

            “Make sure I get a mic on me as well as a tracker. Follow at a distance in a van just in case something goes wrong"”

            “And probably will.” Xana cut in giving Zack a worrying look and for the first time all day he managed a smile.

            “Just make sure you’re hidden. I don’t want him to know you’re following me and if he’s smart then he’ll know you are and won’t try anything stupid.”

 

 

           

Zack was standing on the bridge in the pouring rain at fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. He was about to make a sarcastic remark to Xana who was on his receiver when a man wearing a long coat approached. Zack figured that this was the man that made the call.

            “Now, what do you want with me?” The man lifted his head to reveal that he was Snyder.

            “Zack Yumari?”

            “Yeah, who wants to know?”

            “I’m here to kill you.” A scoffed escaped Zack’s mouth.

            “Like I haven’t heard that line before. Are with those assassins?”

“What if I am?” Zack shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll beat you down like you are one of them and all the other scum I’ve put down either way.”

“Don’t compare me to one of your previous opponents. I’m not like those careless punks. They are dead or dying in one way or another and now you have me.” Snyder unsheathed a large sword that made claymores look like children’s toys. “That’s all it amounts to.”

“Oh, yeah? What does this amount to?” Zack pulled out a hidden gun and started firing at Snyder. Snyder dodged every bullet with amazing speed without even moving his feet. When Zack emptied the clip he knew the weapon wouldn’t do any good and he tossed it. “Little help here!” Zack called into his receiver the acted as an earring.

“There’s a military chopper already on its way.” Xana replied from a van four blocks from Zack’s position. We also have a sniper getting ready here in the van and is coming to your location for support. Can you hold out for three minutes?”

“I’ll try.” Zack muttered then ran to the end of the bridge, turned around and pulled out a compact rocket launcher. He fired directly at Snyder. When the smoke cleared Snyder was standing unscathed. “No way! That was nothing less than a direct hit.” Zack barely managed to dodge the vertical swing of Snyder’s sword and was taken by surprise when Snyder followed thru with a jump kick, using the sword as leverage. Zack to the full force of the kick in the face but he kept himself balanced and duck under the sword being swung at his head. Zack kicked Snyder in the chest, knocking him back.

“You’re going to have to use a elemental shell.” Xana’s voice could barely be heard above Zack’s own beating heart.

“Use my trump card already?” Zack said trying to decide if he could try to manage the battle without the use his ammo that he could rarely come across but seeing Snyder approach made up his mind. He pulled out what looked like a colt python and swung out the bullet chamber with a single cylinder in it. He then pulled out a large shell and loaded his weapon. “Alright,” Zack murmured. “let’s see you come out of this without a scratch.” Zack fired the gun, the recoil, literally, pushing him back. A ball of lightning shot out from his gun and right before the impact Zack saw a shield form in front of Snyder. When the explosion happened Snyder instantly jumped back. He shook a smoking device from his hand.

“I didn’t think it would take a direct hit from an elemental shell without it at least getting damaged.” Zack looked on in shock and surprise.

“What is this guy?” The realization that he might actually die came over him as Snyder charged at him but was stopped by a machine gun that fired towards him. The military chopper had finally arrived. Snyder dodged every bullet shot towards him with the same movements he used to dodge Zack’s gunfire. Zack’s eye caught a glimpse of a flash of light on a tall building from the heart of the city not far off from where they were. “Xana, incoming missile heading towards the chopper.”

“Already on it.” The helicopter pilot’s voice could be heard and Zack saw the helicopter sway out from the path of the missile. Snyder took the opportunity for another attack as he smashed his sword on the ground, making ice spikes surge forth from the ground in a path that headed for Zack. Zack jumped out the way before the spikes reached his feet. “Zack, take cover!” Zack knew that the warning meant one thing and he quickly jumped into the river as a hail of missiles rained down on where Snyder stood, blowing up the bridge as well. “That should do it.” The helicopter pilot praised himself.

Zack came out of the water gasping for air and looked at the decimated bridge. “Did we get him?”

“I don’t know.” Xana said. “There’s no sign of the target on neither the bridge nor the building.” Then a shot rang out and there was a sharp sound of the helicopter’s tail being hit. The shot forced the chopper to turn 180 degrees and another shot hit it on the other side.

“I’m hit! I lost steering control.”

“The person is on the roof of another building, already.” The sniper was already in position. “But I don’t have a clear shot yet. The wind from the chopper is making things difficult.”

“We don’t have much time.” Xana shouted. The sniper lined up a shot and pulled the trigger and was soon rewarded when the target fell back but it wasn’t before the person got a final shot with their RPG headed towards the helicopter again. Zack knew that there would be no chance that the helicopter would dodge the shot and he dove under water moment before the chopper was hit. The burning wreckage hit the ground on the opposite side of the bank from where Zack was but the impact still knocked him around the water, making him scrape against the bottom of the river. When he emerged from the water he instantly noticed that his receiver and tracker were fried. He then looked up to see the barrel of a gun pointed at him.

“Only humans…” Snyder smirked but it instantly faded when a gun was pressed against his head.

“Dodge this.” The gun shot sent Snyder to the ground and upon hitting the ground he shattered into tiny shards of ice. Vincent held out his hand in an offer to help Zack. “That was quite unexpected.” Zack took the man’s hand.

“You’re late.”

“No, you’re early. But it’s good to see that there are some people that can be relied on to do what they say they’re going to do.”

“I’m glad to see that my actions seem to be a convenience to everyone. So now do you think you can tell me who you are?”

“Not yet. I don’t want you sending out a search team for me but for now you may call me Darkrose.”

“You won’t tell me you’re name but you expect me to trust you?”

 Vincent smirked. “I just saved your life.” The sound of sirens could be heard approaching and Vincent’s smile faded. “We must leave. We’ll talk on the way.”

“But my team should be here any second.”

“I rather our conversation be kept confidential for now. They will come searching for you after they see that you’re not dead in the river and I’m confident they will find you. But right now you must meet someone who is crucial to what is going on.” Both Vincent and Zack started walking at a brisk pace into the woods that outlined the city.

After a couple of minutes of walking deeper into the woods for a couple of minutes Zack started to question whether he was being led into a trap or not.

“Where are we going? You can at least tell me that can’t you?”

“We’re going Helena’s place.” Vincent said without even looking back nor slowing down.

“And who’s that may I ask?”

“A vampire.”

“Of course.” Zack said. He had seen so many things since he joined E.D.G.E. He shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore, even a tree just started talking to him. After a couple of more minutes of walking the storm only intensified. A clearing in the woods was coming up and Zack turned to Vincent to ask how much longer were they going to walk but he was gone. “Figures…” Zack muttered to himself and soon saw a large mansion over a high hill. “Seriously?” Zack approached the mansion and a woman stepped out the door. She instantly froze when she saw Zack and just stared at him as he walked up.

“What are you doing here? You are trespassing on private property.”

“Huh? I�"uh�"” Zack stuttered, caught off guard and the woman put up a hand.

“Don’t speak!” Helena approached Zack and looked him over.

“Hmm…Come on out of the rain.” Helena led Zack inside her large house and closed the door behind him.

“Are you the only one here?” Zack asked.

“That lives here? Yes. How’d you get here? You looked like you were kind of lost.”

“Well, yeah. I wasn’t expecting to end up here and the fact that your mansion is like something out of a horror movie�"with the help of the thunderstorm of course.”

“Um…Thank you?” Zack saw the topic of conversation wasn’t getting anywhere so he decided to change it. He looked for something when he noticed her large windows were all covered.

“Do you take the time to open up these curtains. It would seem like quite a task.” Helena hesitated.

“I don’t fair well with light. Something that I had for a long time.” Zack looked Helena over. She had short red hair so it was natural that her skin would be pale. If it weren’t for Vincent’s tip off Zack might have believed her.

“I can tell. You’re as pale as a ghost.” Zack was here for a reason. Small talk wasn’t getting him anywhere at the moment. “Normally, I would think you were just a sickly person but someone told me otherwise.” Zack tried to choose his words carefully. “I know you’re a Vampire but don’t worry.” His words came out quickly and Helena gave him a wry look. “I won’t try to hurt you or anything. What gets me is all of these crosses you have around here. Aren’t vampires normally repelled by these things?” Helena didn’t take her eyes off Zack as she answered his question slowly.

“Yes, they are but I’m…different. For some reason I’m not affected by them so I use them when I hunt.”

“Hunt what? Vampires?”

“Mostly dragulas but, yes, vampires are an occasional target as well.”

“Look, I’m not here to harm you so can you stop starring at me?”

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t really know? I think it is because I need your help. I risked my life to get over here to meet you. It might be because you hunt dragulas, or whatever, and vampires.”

“Dragulas are really not much stronger than humans. With the exception of a few, dragulas are a lower class and some even serve vampires. Vampires are on a different level. Especially, pure bloods. Do you at least know if you’ve come in contact with any of these creatures?”

“I don’t know. I’ll look at the teeth of the people I meet from now on.” There was a knock on the door.

“So many guest today.” Helena said in a sarcastic tone. When she answered the door Zack heard Xana’s voice at the door.

“Did someone come by here?”

“Who’s asking?” Helena said in a defensive voice. Zack stepped by Helena.

“It’s all right. Thank you for taking me in out of the rain. Is there anyway I can contact you?” Helena looked taken aback.

“Why would you want to keep in contact with me?”

“Like I said we could really use your help.” Helena looked as if she were pondering the idea.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be around when you need me.