Blood of the Undead

Continuing my undead saga, this is a sequel to Fleshing Out The undead, where a wider group of heroes emerge and a new threat is revealed.

Through the hallway two men marched methodically.  Footsteps echoing along the pale white walls.  Meters kept blaring and going off, while a silent voice came through the intercom.  “Paging Dr. Breller…you are wanted in the ICU.”  The two men barely noticed the voice as their footfalls were eerily silent.  Slowly they made their way down another branching corridor, this time the lights dimmed a little sparking to life once and then burning out again.  Both of them barely noticed.  They were just here for one thing and one thing only.

A press of a button called the elevator and they saw the numbers crawling upward.  They waited deathly quiet.  One of them shoved his hands inside his coat pockets, the cold filtered air made him tighten the coat around his waist.  The other barely felt the chill wearing nothing but a black tee.  His arms are broad and wide, almost athletic in nature.  Temperature did not affect him as the other.  Blank stares watched the numbers ascend just a couple more levels.

The man wearing the coat spoke hoarsely, “You know the job right?”  His brown gaze looking at the other standing next to him.  He knew what had to be done but he wasn’t sure if his partner was ready.  A shaggy mess of blonde hair tampered against his temples brushing in front of his sight.

“Oh I know why we’re here…”  The man standing next to him said.  His long black hair straight down to his shoulders did not flutter like the other’s.  His eyes looked back and blinked as the light splayed across his opaque pupils.  His smile widened and the other guy swore he could see two incisors growing.  “You got me in here. I hope you plan to see this through.  Unless you get cold feet.  She won’t be pleased if you hesitate.”

“Trust me I won’t,”  the other man stammered.  The elevator doors opened wide and they both walked in.

“What number?”  the man with the long black hair questioned.

“Bottom floor, level 2.”

The elevator jumped a little and began to descend.  The shaggy haired man stood there nervously.  It wasn’t like he hadn’t done something like this before.  He must have done it ten times, maybe twenty for them.  But he had always done this by himself.  I mean besides he worked here as an EMT.  All the late nights working the graveyard shift, flirting with all the cute nurses and interns, the countless bathroom breaks where he would smoke a joint before going out on a call.  But never once did they ask him to bring along a fledgling, especially one that was rising up in the ranks.

The elevator sped down, only a couple more floors until they reached the laboratory wings.  That was where they were headed.  All the necessary paperwork was filed down there along with lab reports, IV units and medications, defibrillator machines and testing areas.  But the one thing that interested the long black haired man was not any medical supplies or contraptions.  However the laboratory testing where they stored all the blood donors samples as well as those who came in for yearly blood work tests was more captivating.

“So how come they sent you this time?”  The shaggy haired man seemed nervous as the elevator doors opened to the basement level.  He began leading the way, always looking back at the other and making sure no surgeons or doctors would see them.  This time the shaggy haired man moved quicker, his feet moved briskly against the cold tile.

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…”  the dark haired man moved slowly, his hands behind his back folded together.  He did not keep up with the other who seemed to be in a hurry.  A slight chuckle came to his lips as he eyed the interior of the hospital basement.  This seemed much better, cold concrete and bulging brick, the smell of undergrowth from being underneath the earth itself.  A lone spider spun its way up into a little crack.  Those little things he began to notice more clearly.  Certain smells tinged his glands and thyroid, lights were not as bright but dimmer in comparison to what it was before, “She wants to reward you for all the help you’ve been giving us.”

The shaggy haired man led the other to an adjacent door opposite of a long bricked hallway.  Above the door letters spelled out: LAB TEST AREA - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.  As they both entered the long dark haired man felt faint, almost cathartic.  He gripped the edges of a nearby table only for his eyes to dilate momentarily.  The shaggy haired EMT patted him on the back and got him back on his feet, “Doing okay there, buddy?  It’s getting to you…the smell?”

“I didn’t know it was going to be this intense, this potent.”  The dark haired man gained his composure straightening out his back.  The other pulled out a rolling chair from the corner of the testing lab.  The dark haired man plopped down on it as he pressed two fingers against his temples still hearing a thud that radiated throughout his body, “Being turned only two days ago, going without food, no water, nothing.  It gets to you.”

“Don’t worry I’ll grab the stuff and then we’re out of here,” the shaggy haired lackey moved to three different storage lockers.  Rummaging through his pocket he found the key and decided to unlock one of them.  He pulled down one of the latches and undid a row yanking out a series of tampered plastic bags.  He grabbed one of the red coolers with the Red Cross label etched on the front and started loading them in one by one.  He thought to himself, two rows should do just fine, just random ones from each blood type so no orderly or doctor will ever find out how much was stolen on a monthly basis.

The long haired man was no longer sitting down.  The chair remained empty rolling back and forth by itself in some monotonous pattern.  As the shaggy haired man loaded up two Red Cross containers, the dark haired man approached the other from behind.  He was much shorter than the one who worked for the hospital but that did not make him less vicious.  A slight hand rested on the shaggy haired man’s shoulder and the other jumped around startled.

“It wasn’t the smell of the bags, old friend.  It was you,”  with that said he plunged his face into the side of the other’s neck.  His premature fangs punctured the outside of the skin, tore into his cartilage, piercing the main artery.  The shaggy haired man’s eyes widened with no warning, no hesitation.  He tried to push off the dark haired man but his strength dumbfounded him.  He tried to grip his arms with no avail feeling lightheaded, beginning to hear his heartbeat in his own ears.  His pulse lessened as he grew limp in the dark haired man’s arms.  And then just like that the dark haired man tossed him aside, his power unparalleled as he threw him back against the wall, the shaggy haired man’s back cracked.  

“Wh…why?”  the man cried out, tears falling down his eyes.

“It’s nothing personal, old friend.  You have pulled your weight for quite some time now.  Besides, the last couple of times you’ve gotten sloppy.  She has taken notice you haven’t been making your runs as often.  It is a shame really, she would have eventually turned you…but you know how things go.”

The shaggy haired man stared up with a horrible look in his eyes.  His teeth bit down out of anger, his blood boiling but he couldn’t do anything.  Trying to move he only felt his back give out feeling like his friend just shattered his spine.  His hands slid and slipped on the tile as he barely moved an inch.

“The coven brought you in a while ago and you played your part.  Sadly your services are no longer required.  She gave me this new life, a better one.  One with purpose and vision.  A gift that is beyond this world,”  the dark haired man narrowed in on his once-friend.  He knelt down, his jeans tightened along his thighs and lifted the shaggy haired man up into a sitting position.  He winced in pain as blood soaked down his neck onto his shirt, “I’m sorry it had to come to this but the plan has changed.  At first our numbers were large but from what happened a couple of months ago, we have to tighten up our ranks, double down on our security.  We can’t have any more mishaps or mistakes.  She’s given me more responsibilities, that’s why she made me this…” he pulled down his shirt revealing four large puncture wounds along his right chest, “The coven is mine now, our mission has been finalized.”

He stood up and walked over to a sterilization table.  Fondling through all the medical instruments he found a long syringe.  He opened up the medical glass cabinet along the right northern wall peering at all the wondrous drugs that mortals used for all kinds of ailments.  Amazing he thought, I will never have to use any of these ever again.  He smiled a toothy grin as he talked to his old friend, “It’s kind of funny.  All the allergies I had and I’ll never have to use any of this crap ever again.”

He found a Rx bottle right in the corner, one that was labeled arsenic.  He filled up the syringe not just with a couple of ccs but almost an entire milliliter of the harmful toxin.  His friend breathed heavy, his breaths coming out slow and erratic.  His nervousness shot through the roof as he stumbled along the ground.  The dark haired man moved and hovered over his friend.

“Don't do this, man.  She promised me a new life.  All the work I did…blood runs, scouting out the churches…clubs…bars…protecting your a*s from those hunters…”

“Your work has been admirable to say the least, Caleb.  But this is what she wants.  A new dawn is coming and we don’t need any loose ends.”  Immediately the dark haired man plunged the syringe into the other side of his friend’s neck.  Jabbing it in thoroughly he pressed on the syringe emptying the entire vial of arsenic into his friend he had been close to for many years.  But she was right all along, Caleb became too careless, too headstrong.  He thought he knew better than the lot of them, always skirting around issues and making backend deals with humans.  Caleb thought himself to be a recruiter and it swelled the coven’s ranks with a bunch of deadbeats and meth heads.  The old ties of friendship slipped away as he saw his friend turn a ghastly blue.  His hands came around his throat trying to gasp for air.  

He smiled devilishly watching his friend gasping out his final breaths.  All the inner turmoil of being human vanished.  This was his mission and he felt so alive.  A rushing sensation enveloped him as he stared down as his friend began to foam at the mouth.  The last couple of choking lumps exited his mouth until there was nothing more than a carcass of deceased flesh.  The last remains of any mortal coil were gone, this was his new life now and he would give anything for the coven, even if it meant his life, even if it meant dying for his mistress.  

Quickly but methodically he gathered the remaining blood donation samples.  His mistress would be pleased.  He pledged his allegiance a while back, his suave and charismatic nature gave him an upperhand among the plebs they had brought in months ago.  One being his friend, Caleb.  Oh, how careless he was.  There could be no deadweight just lying around.  His mistress wanted to have a coven of trusted and faithful devotees and he had been one of them.  Surely she would reward him, possibly granting a higher position with more power and authority.

Once the blood donation samples were collected, stored, air tightly sealed, he was already on his way out.  He stopped for a moment to eye his old friend, Caleb.  All the good times they had…partying, being young and naive.  But now the responsibility of a new life was all that remained, “Goodbye…maybe I’ll see you in another life.”  He laughed maniacally, storming and running down the hall, kicking his feet off the wall as he floated up in the air just a foot and his laughter increased.

The elevator was just moments away and his smile widened.  How good it felt to be so alive.  He felt as if he was a teenager, being able to get away with anything.  But he had to be careful.  Caleb was right about one thing…those hunters.  Those misguided fools thinking that they are doing God’s work, some stupid holy crusade.  At least that is what his mistress told him.  She knew them and explained everything to Eddie how they operated.  All the ins and outs of their little ragtag group, yet they had no idea how powerful the coven was.  All the new fledglings now turned and soon their powers would grow exponentially.  It gave him such excitement to be doing his mistress’ work.

Of course he would have to make his way across the way they came in.  Through the back in the loading dock where the ambulances and firetrucks parked.  Past all the interns, nurses, and doctors on the 2nd floor, he made sure he memorized Caleb’s direction down to the last letter.  He would grab a coat by passing along an empty room, once he reached the lobby which was next to the break room, he would finally meet his exit.  This plan was perfect down to the very last moment.  More would be waiting for him in the confines of the cemetery just five miles down the main road past the old wilderness preservation.   No matter if anyone stopped him, his new heightened senses would detect the human.  Even the thought of it made his thirst rise and his fangs grow just a tad more.  The only thing he thought about was his mistress, how she would give him praise and admiration.

The parking garage had been utterly silent.  One could hear a pin drop except for the two firefighters mingling their way down a loading ramp who barely noticed the dark haired man waltzing outside with two red coolers in his hands.  ‘The shadows are your ally, use them wisely,’ his mistress’ voice permeated his thoughts.  Undoubtedly they bent to his will as he briskly strolled.  About another minute and he would be free of tall extended street lamps looming over him.  After that darkness beckoned ahead and the moon’s rays would cascade him in some maddening shield of nocturnal hibernation.  

He smiled to himself all the way down the street but of course the main road was easily a death trap for anyone.  People would look and they would talk as they rode by in their cars.  A kid might peer out a window to see a haunting shadow hulking down the street giving him nightmares for the rest of the night.  A person might be walking their dog this late, he knew some mortals were weird that way, and might call the cops while on their cell phone.  So he moved onto a sidestreet to which there was nothing around except for the occasional squirrel and random raccoon rustling around in a garbage can.

Looking up he stared at the moon.  Oh how grandiose it was that night.  It’s eternal slumber smiling down upon him.  All of its darkened glory.  The ancient blood now runs in his veins.  Handed down from generation to generation straight from the source herself.  Of course that source was barely heard.  No one really heard her.  That dilution lasted on for centuries, perhaps even a millennia, Eddie had no clue.  But at least his mistress had the answers, she had all the preparations at hand.  Handed down to her by the one that came before her and the one that came before that one and the one that came before that one.  It was all confusing.  But after this, his mistress would share her secrets with him.  All the secrets of the past that were hidden are now finally coming to the light of the present day.

“Hey, you got a light?” a haphazard man appeared down the sidewalk from where Eddie was walking.

“Sorry.  Don’t have one.  I have to be somewhere,”  Eddie spoke harshly, he had no time for human concerns anymore.  As he kept walking the man got closer, almost too close.  Eddie’s vision became distorted for a moment but he brushed it off.  The man’s silhouette blurred in front of him making him out to be like some kind of ghost.  Shaking his head he had to put one of the containers on the cement just to wipe his eyes.

“Problem there buddy.  You okay?”  the silhouetted man walked towards him.  From the recesses of the distortion he could make out the man extending a hand.  He bent down to lift up one of the containers but Eddie lashed out, batting his hand away in frustration.

“Leave it alone!”  He screamed out loud, his mouth gorged open and sharp incisors flared.  His anger turned into a growl, his fierceness became apparent.  But something was not right.  He felt out of control as if something was off.  Eventually his eyes cleared and his distorted view diminished, “I apologize.  Something came over me, I don't feel so good.”

At that minute the man began to slowly appear standing before him.  A cigarette painted his lips hanging loosely in between.  He was short in stature much like him, having slicked black hair and dark brown eyes.  He wore a leather jacket that came down to his waist with a buttoned up shirt underneath.  A cowboy belt with an emblem of two swords held up his jeans held a dizzying aura around it, he could almost smell the metal of it.  It was repulsive.  Just then Eddie dropped the other container he was holding, letting all the insides spill out onto the side street.  Blood splattered everywhere, some of it trickling down a storm drain.  His flashing eyes caught the gaze of the man.

“Looks like you dropped something there, Eddie,” the young man spoke with a smirk on his face.  His fingers came up to take another drag off the cigarette.  His smile widened as he looked upon the undead.

“Victor!”  Eddie glared, his mouth curling upwards into a defiling snarl.  He did not back off, why would he back off from one of his dear old friends.  He laughed and his fangs held nothing back. 

Approaching him with astute precision, he got face to face with his adversary.

“What happened to you?  Last time I heard you made some new friends.  Not the kind I would make good company with,”  Eddie goading another friend still laughing underneath his breath.

“Not until I found out where your alignment stood,”  Victor persisted.

“You could have been one of us.  You could have had all the advantages.  She would have granted you the next life.  A better one.  You should have never left the coven.  All of your new brothers and sisters that stood by you, brought you into the fold.  You threw it all away.  And for what, to be with that misguided group of morons!?”

“Those morons just so happen to be my closest friends.  Way before I ever met you.  Once I saw what she was doing and how many people she turned, I had to get away.  Of all the things she promised…life eternal?  A grand vision?  A supreme path?  I knew it was too good to be true.  I saw the lies behind her eyes.  I saw the truth.  Nothing lasts forever.”

“My mistress holds the key.  All the secrets that you refused to hear.  She promised me those secrets.  The coven is stronger than it has ever been.  Actually, come to think about it, I just took care of a loose end not that long ago.”

“You mean that little stunt you pulled back at the hospital?  The one where you robbed a blood testing lab?”

Eddie's eyes widened.  How would he have known?  Was this some kind of game he was playing?  Was his old friend who used to be a part of the mistress' coven bluffing him?  Was he being tracked, a setup?

Inside the darkness of that sidestreet two more silhouettes came around the block.  One was tall and the other was of medium height.  His glaring visage turned into a frown, his feet back pedaling.  Victor stood there shaking his head, his arms crossing heavily across his chest.  He silently backed up down the street, his feet shuffled as he noticed the two figures emerge righteously.  One wore a black cardigan, the other wore a brown duster jacket.  He knew who these two were and he also knew they came prepared.  He could smell the silver and rowan tinted weapons sheathed, their nightshade and wolfsbane tipped daggers, the vervain-laced arrows and bolts.

The high he previously experienced was gone.  Fear was the way of the vampire, the undead.  Nosferatu plagued other people’s nightmares with distraught and feverish contempt.  It was the undead that placed the fear into others, not the other way around.  And at this very moment, he displayed that fear and the two men that had come under the light of a street lamp made their presence known.  He had known these two, the one was named Steve and the other was the acclaimed ringleader, Philip.

Eddie could run in the opposite direction, they would never catch up.  Their mortal appendages would not allow them to compete with his powers.  He started to hunch over and immediately darted the way he came but then stopped in his tracks.  Three more men jogged down the block, rounding about half way but coming to a halt mere feet in front of Eddie.  The first one wore a vest with a buoy knife strapped to one of the pockets, the other sported a ball cap on his head and a polo shirt with a celtic cross hanging around his neck.  He knew it was all a trap when he saw the last one wearing a blue sportsmen jacket with the paramedic star embroidered on sleeve.  

His vision distorted once again as he backed up into a nearby yard, his head pounding with death defying agony.  The one wearing the vest had a dog whistle between his lips.  With every whistle, his eyesight became inebriated.  Glitters in the forms of sparks danced before his eyes as he noticed all the weapons they were carrying, machetes made from cast iron, stakes made from ash and oak.  One of them brought out a harpoon gun, he noticed the laced barbed wire around the arrow dripping with garlic and smelled the absinthe upon the tip.  The man sporting the cap unlatched a crossbow from his back, loading one of the silver tipped bolts wrapped with mugwort vine into place. 

Once the whistles stopped coming his vision cleared and Eddie stumbled but the ringing continued in his head.  He gripped the side of his temple again, that pounding sensation neverending.  “Oh Victor.  You coward.  You turncoat.  You could have been one of us.  She could have given you a better life than this…”

Philip had enough of this philosophical talk, he ran up to him and punched the vampire right in his face.  Eddie flinched and his head cocked back from the blow.  Once again the laughter began.  This time his fangs extended just a tad bit more.  “Alright that’s it you son of a b***h!  You better tell me what my sister is planning or I shove a stake down your throat!”

Laughter came from Eddie’s mouth like a piercing howl.  The one wearing the vest looked around in all directions.  His eyes darted back and forth, “There could be more around.  He’s signaling them alright, maybe we should finish him off right now so he doesn’t warn the others.”

The one sporting the cardigan took his turn to speak brandishing a long cast iron stake in his right hand.  “Easy, Hector.  We don’t know that for sure.  I’ve been driving up and down these streets for the last couple of hours. I saw no one out of the ordinary.”

“No one out of the ordinary?  Really, Steve?”  the one with the baseball cap on his head spoke out of turn, “Oh yeah we’ll just pull up to the next guy crossing the street and asks ‘hey have you seen any undead manifestations wanting to drink your blood lurking around?’”  His snarky attitude got a little chuckle from the guy wearing the medic jacket.  

“Hey, Brett, I was on perimeter check all night down at the hospital.  There were only a couple of firefighters, about two or three paramedics in the parking garage.  About five interns clocked in around 11 tonight, just starting their shifts.  Most of them looked clean, some of them I know.  They’re good people.  Trust me, none of them seemed like the ‘undead’ type,”  the guy wearing a medic jacket exclaimed.  He pulled out two stakes, one made from an oak tree with silver edged into the tip and the other appeared to be a garden stake made of aluminum alloy, “So are we gonna do this guy in or what, Philip?”

Philip hesitated as he had this Eddie guy by his collar.  His grimace was not terrifying but disgusting.  He could smell death permeating his flesh as he let go of him.  Eddie stumbled back but looked around, eyeing up his old friend standing in the corner.  Victor took out a long machete from behind his leather jacket, and in the other he held a crossbow pistol, noticing that the arrow was made of some type of wood, probably harmful to his kind.  Victor cocked his head over to the guy wearing the medic jacket, “We shouldn’t, Robert.  He could give us solid information.  He might be able to lead us to where the rest of them are.”

The one with the vest on, Hector, moved around to the side to make sure Eddie wouldn’t escape.  Even if he tried to make a run for it or even worse attempt to morph into something else, something otherworldly, he had a 12 gauge pump action pointed directly at his chest.

“You honestly think that would hurt me?”  Eddie snarled and laughed once more.

“Well one that is made with blackthorn buck shots shaved down with cast iron and allium sativum injected to the cartridge that’s pointed directly at your heart…I don’t know.  I think it might do a lot of damage,” Hector smirked right back at his antagonist.  

“No, Victor is right,” Philip backed away and started to walk towards the group.  His hand went down to the side of his belt to undo the kukri blade.  He brought it out and started to state his case, “There is a possibility he might know where my sister is.  Last time I dealt with her.  The things she said.  What she turned into.  We already exposed the nest and dealt with all fledglings.  It’s time we start kicking the beehive.”

“From what you told us about your sister, they could be evolving,” the one named Steve who wore the cardigan said, “They could change into something else.  Mutate into a more violent form.  I remember when I went after one of them that sprouted wings like a bat out of hell.  Trust me, it's not a walk in the park with those b******s.”

Victor put in his own two cents, “So then we take him with us.”

The rest of the group looked stunned.  Steve’s mouth dropped, Hector shook his head, Philip looked perplexed, slightly intrigued by his notion, and Brett rolled his eyes.  Each of them had their breaking point and this initiative was pushing most of them past their limits.  Robert suddenly said out loud, “I am not going anywhere with one of these creatures.  You know what they did to my wife.  They took my own son when I should have been there protecting him.”  Robert had every reason to be wary and Philip understood the pain that their kind put him through.  

“We have all been through the same thing.  I second that.  He is not getting into my car.  We’re not going on a witch hunt road trip with your old friend, Victor,” Steve said, pacing back and forth down the sidewalk.  His hands came to the back of his head.  He knew this was a bad idea or even worse, they would run into a situation that was too difficult for them to handle.  They could encounter the worst of their kind, the ones who did not act like humans, the unhinged ones.  Those were the undead who were driven solely by bloodlust, not even a thread of humanity left.  Steve knew this all too well and he did not want to think of the consequences.

“Maybe if we latch him onto the hood,” Brett belted out, “Yeah, a little barbed wire, some dogwood and vervain that’s in the trunk.  We’ll wrap it around his a*s and throat.  He will be like a bobblehead floating in the breeze.  That little sonar in his head will go off…point us in the right direction,” Brett casually waltzed up to Eddie who happened to be listening to all them talk back and forth, “How’d you like that, you’ll be like our little radar detector.”

Most of them laughed out hysterically, this time even Philip joined in on the group dynamic.  He knew they were strong together.  They made a good team, each to his own abilities.  They all brought something to the table.  Brett with his snarky gun-toting attitude.  Hector with his ingenious weapon constructing and knowing how to get the job done.  Bob with his excellent tracking and hunting skills that he learned from camping when he was younger.  Steve being the more level headed one but just as dangerous when he needed to be which was most of the time.  His old friend Victor who used to be part of his sister’s coven but had the intelligence to break free their hold.  He was the newest to this rugged band of righteously dignified crusaders, but he proved his friendship and loyalty by giving Philip the necessary information.  Victor knew how dangerous the coven was, what his sister’s plans were, and the intel he gave them about the previous hunt that led them down the rabbit hole to the last nest of vampires they exterminated.  He just so happened to be an excellent marksman with a bow which added to usefulness to when things went south, he knew how to pick off nosferatu one by one.

Philip just stood there thinking about this, how they all came together.  How he not only dragged them into his own personal hell, but how they all experienced their own horrors in their own right so they knew what vampires are capable of doing.  Murdering and killing loved ones.  Turning others so they can betray one of their group members.   Even maiming kids just to hurt them not physically, but emotionally.  They had to go through it, Philip thought, they had to go through all of that to get where they are now.  And right now he had to make a decision.  Of course he became the de facto leader even if he didn’t want to be, but they trusted him and in turn he trusted them with his own life.  They did not listen to what Philip had to say merely for strength or leadership, they listened to him because his past was full of secrets and mysteries that needed to be unlocked.  Philip would go to the ends of the world to unlock those secrets, to do what his ancestors tried to do and failed.  They trusted him because he knew there was more to the story and he was the kind of person that would disclose that information to the group.  Accountability was the key to exposing them not deception and illusions as how the vampires came to operate.  He was going to the source and he needed his sister, Sarah, to take him there.  He hoped his friends would be there by his side when that time came.

“Load him up, we dump his a*s in the trunk,” Philip said out loud.

“Oh great,” Hector complained.

“Wonderful,” Robert whined.

“This could work,” Victor, the optimist, stammered.

“This just keeps getting better,” Steve uttered.

“Alright…buckle up you undead prick, we’re going for a ride,” Brett smirked.

“Oh s**t…” Eddie proclaimed as he saw the six converge on him just thinking of all the bad things they just might do.

The night had been chaotic.  The moon glowed its nightmare upon the tight knit group of crusaders.  Surely it had been Brett’s idea to strap Eddie to the hood of Steve’s car, but it was more convenient to have him uncomfortable bouncing up and down from every pot hole and divot that the road provided.  Steve was the pointman, driving slow and steady.  He eyed Philip who was in the passenger seat.  They both let out a slight laugh knowing what they did.

Eddie wide awake tumbled in the trunk.  His hands tied with barbed wire, each pin digging its exasperating pain into each of his wrist.  They tied nightshade thorns and thistles around his ankles so the poison seeped into the pores of his feet preventing him from escaping.  Hector rigged an ultraviolet light to the inside of the trunk, taping it to the underside of the wheel hold.  Every couple of minutes the light would turn on, burn his skin and scab his flesh, then exactly 3 seconds later it would turn off.  Torture was not the best word to describe the pain, it was more so humiliation.

Victor rode in the back seat and every once in a while he would jab a long garden needle made of refined iron that had wolfsbane attached to the end through the opened cup holder.  The three could hear his enduring panting and blood gurgling gasps.  Each time he wailed Steve laughed, and Victor began to talk, “So buddy…where to?”

“Don’t try anything stupid, like call out to any of your so-called brothers and sisters.  I know the kind of psychic link you have with the rest of them.  You’re already on Robert’s bad side and I don’t think Brett is fond of your little ilk.  Hector will just shoot you where you stand, and I will not stop him from pulling the trigger.  All three of them are in the van right behind us, and if they notice anything suspicious they’ll blow you till kingdom come.”

“Heart levels are stable…pulse normal…blood pressure is slightly elevated…” Robert’s  voice came from the walkie talkie that every one the group had on them at all times.  Robert made sure he hooked up a heart monitor to Eddie’s chest and a blood pressure valve to his right forearm just in case he decided to warn any others of where they were headed.  But first he had to give them the coordinates, and Philip was not letting him go by any means.  Eagerly he wanted answers and he was going to get them one way or another.

“I thought these b******s didn’t have a pulse,” Brett’s voice came through the talkie.

“Alive or dead, if they can walk and talk there has to be something that ticks inside of them,” Hector muttered through the other talkie.

“That means you better start talking, Eddie, or unless you want me to shove the wolfsbane up your nose,”  Victor jabbed him again and Philip gutted up another laugh.

“Cozy back there, or do you want me to brake?”  Steve peered through the rear visor.

“You b******s can torture me all you want.  I’ll never give up my coven.  My brothers and sisters hide in the darkness.  We have mastered the shadows.  We are the things of nightmares.  My mistress calls me by night, I will never betray her.  She grows stronger by the hour.  Evolving.  Masquerading and conquering institutions that your little band here have no knowledge of,” Eddie spouted and howling in laughter like a devious hyena.

“Yeah, you’re right about that one.  My sister was always a little bit of a b***h.  She never liked following rules or orders.  No wonder why she succumbed to those temptations.  Now she runs the show, gives the orders, makes her own rules.  I’ll tell you right now all her powers are a bunch of parlor tricks and illusions.  She does not promise you anything.  And the one who turned her?  Don’t worry, I took care of him a long time ago.  Cut off his head and burned his remains, watched as he turned into ash right before my eyes as I burned down one of your so-called ‘churches.’”  Philip made sure that Eddie knew that he meant business.

Over the talkie Hector blared out, “Oh trust me, we know all about your ‘churches.’  Do you know how many we have taken down, burned to the ground?”

“I count seven…” Brett broke in on the conversation upon the walkie.

“No it was nine…” Robert came over the talkie again, “After we took out the proposed leader.  You remember that drone who thought that he was some sort of god,  that son of a b***h that thought he could drain all of the southside?”

“Oh yeah…” Brett interjected, “the one with all those hot chicks that turned out to be bloodsuckers?  I was about to get with one of them.  She went down on me and that’s when her damn fangs came out…”

“They would have bled your dry if we didn’t save your a*s,” Victor laughed.

“That was right before I showed up and started mowing them all down,” Philip decided to get with the conversation.

“Time out here.  Didn’t I show up wielding the pick ax and the hatchet, cut off the one crazy guy’s head, and severed the other girl’s torso?” Steve entered in on the discussion.

“I thought you were going for your harpoon launcher?  I took out one of them with my shotgun then used the spears for the remaining three,” Hector uttered again.

“No that’s not what happened,” Victor started to talk while leaning towards the front of the car to talk into the walkie, “Philip showed up hacking and slashing up the place like a madman.  Steve here, took out the harpoon launcher and took out the one with the red hair. I was taking head shots from the balcony up in the loft and Hector came in guns a blazin’ just blasting them left and right.  And then Robert just lobs the grenade right into the master's tomb acting all Dirty Harry.”

“That explosion rocked the whole place; I couldn’t hear for about a week,” Robert squeaked over the walkie.  Once again they all started to laugh and enjoy their time again.  The bond between them not just as friends but as competent vampire hunters and slayers brought them closer than ever before.  Philip couldn’t even dream of anything less besides being with his close friends who became his family.  Through thick and thin they went, and somehow they made it out alive, unscathed.  But the war wasn’t over, and he needed to prod Eddie just a little harder until he would give up information.  

“Victor, your new friends seem to be quite the harmonious pack.  Tell me, you bunch of sadistic idiots, how many of yours have we killed?  I have killed?  Brothers?  Sisters?  Wives?  Daughters?”  Eddie stalled for a second, “Sons?  Oh yes.  Before your sister turned me, I used to be one of their watchers.  A humble servant for the undead.  Promised all the riches of eternity.  Oh, how many people I brought under your sister’s wings.  We spread out and we multiplied upon your miserable and pathetic lives.  Affecting every avenue of your consciousness.  The lives we have slain and turned; it was not all for nothing.  Your sister is beyond imagination.  She has vision into the great unknown and a purpose.  To do her will and drain all of you one by one would be such a great accomplishment.  Sarah would reward me handsomely if I just finish all of you off.”

Steve slammed on the brakes and the van trailing behind pulled up right next to the car.  Eddie’s emotional tirade and ghastly threats worked just as he planned, he truly agitated the lot of them.  The three in the van heard everything over the walkie talkie, the anger on their faces were on full display.  Philip didn't hesitate any longer unsheathing the kukri and hopping out of the passenger’s seat.  Steve pulled the harpoon gun lodged in the middle console.  Victor peeked at Eddie through the cubby hole in the backseat of the car, “You should have never said any of that.”

The six opened up the trunk and saw Victor’s old friend smiling his toothy grin in harrowingly laughter.  The three yanked him out of the trunk and Robert tossed him on the ground.  Brett gave him a swift kick to the ribs with steel toed boots.  Hector took out one of his hunting knives laced with wolfsbane and drove it into his chest.  Victor brought his old friend up to his feet and slammed against the side of the van that carried all their equipment.  Rounding the side of his car, Steve took aim with the harpoon gun and fired a deadly shot into his stomach making sure it pierced his decaying liver.  

Eddie squealed and winced in pain.  Philip went front and center with his kukri in hand and took a huge swing.  The blade came down upon his shoulder and severed his arm from the socket.  Howling like a wounded coyote he belted out a horrid wail.  Blood soaked the cement underneath and the van behind him, entrails oozed out from the open wound, crimson pools began to form on the ground.  Philip raised the kukri up to his throat, this time he meant every word.

“What you did to me?  You took everything from me.  I loved my sister like any brother would but the thing that she became.  She traded in her own life to become something not of this world.  Everything that she has done, all your little minions that serve her have destroyed not just my life but all our lives.  All the people that my friend’s have lost.  You took away my best friend’s wife and son.  My other friend lost his house in a fire to which your kind started while his 6 month old slept in her crib. You took away another one of my best friend’s parents and treated them like cattle before your kind bled them dry.  You kidnapped a 10-year old kid and tortured him for pleasure as you made one of my other friends watch.  And what’s worse is that your kind twisted one of my friend’s minds and manipulated him into becoming one of you.  I have all the reasons in the world to kill you right now.”

“That’s right Philip…maybe we should waterboard this lunatic until he breaks,” Brett grabbed unattached his crossbow from his holster and stormed towards the cult-like vampire.  In the heat of the moment he was going to break every bone in his body but unlike these creatures he showed restraint.

“Fine, I’ll tell you…” Eddie gasped for air as he rocked back and forth feeling the distortion come back to his perception.  Hector pulled out the dog whistle again and blew not just once but twice until Eddie fell to the ground.  His one hand grasping for the concrete.

“Sarah knows where she is.  The mother of all of us.  The Queen.  She hasn’t told me everything, at least not yet.  She is the secret your sister is hiding.  The one that came to you in your dream.  But only you had the dream, didn’t you? None of them did, you know I am right.”

“What dream is he talking about?” Hector came up to Philip’s side as his own eyes widened to the horror that Eddie had proclaimed.

“I saw her but I don’t know what she was,” Philip talked to the air, reminded of that perilous nightmare.

“There is a reason why you are the only one that had the dream,” Eddie coughed up blood, “Your sister had a similar one.  On the same night you had yours.  It is up to both of you to search her out but for different reasons.”

“Why?  Why am I so important?  What does Sarah have to do with any of this?”

Eddie laughed hysterically, his body contorting, his arms bending sideways, his head separating from limb to body and from body to limb.  The group backed up slowly, including Philip.  All of them were shocked in awe watching Eddie twist and bend into something horrific, something that only his sister could have done to one so willing.  And before the true monster emerged, Eddie mumbled one last thing from a mouth that grew and emerged only one gigantic fang through his gumline, “It is in your blood.  It is in your sibling’s blood.  It has always been the blood.”

Author's Note

What did you think? Do you like more of a Lost Boys kind of vibe? Did you enjoy the horror comedy feel of it?