Rule of Vampire (26 page)

Hoss’s troops came inside, and most of them continued on through a hole in the wall and into the room beyond. Feller saw a crude handwritten sign over an overstuffed armchair that was raised on a dais. On it was listed the Rules of Vampire.
How cute.

“You’ve been hiding here the whole time?” he asked.

“I’ve tried to abide by the Rules,” Hoss said. “They’ve kept us safe, exactly as they were intended to do.”

Fitzsimmons put on as big a smile as he could summon. “Very good! Just as it should be! Now then, where’s this Jamie, the cause of all the commotion?”

“This way,” Feller said before Hoss could answer. Fitzsimmons saw a frown cross Hoss’s young face. There was some tension there. No doubt Feller was chafing at being under the direction of a teenager.

Jamie was tied up in the last room, trussed from head to foot. She glared at him.
She’d be dangerous if she ever got loose
, Fitzsimmons thought. Next to her was a young-looking, dark-haired vampire who was also tied up, though obviously in his case it was more for show than anything else. The guy didn’t look like he could move, he was so terrified, much less escape.

Fitzsimmons leaned down and grabbed Jamie by the hair. “Where’s your Maker?” he demanded. “Where would Terrill hide?”

Surprise flashed across her face, as if she hadn’t known that Terrill was back in town. Then her eyes widened with realization, as if she’d figured out exactly where he would hide.

Feller slapped her. “Answer him!”

“I don’t know,” she said. A trickle of blue blood ran from the corner of her mouth and down her chin, and Fitzsimmons resisted the impulse to lick it off.

She isn’t going to tell me,
he thought. His eyes fell on the frightened vampire next to her. “Who’s this?”

“We don’t know,” Hoss said. “He was with her when we caught her.”

Fitzsimmons saw concern in Jamie’s eyes
. She is worse than a human!
he marveled.
I’ve got her. Her emotions are so easy to read.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Marc,” the vampire whispered.

“I’m going to hurt you, Marc. Then I’m going to hurt Jamie. Then I’m going to come back to you and hurt you even more.” Fitzsimmons leaned down looked him directly in the face. “You’re vampire. I can torture you to the point of death and you’ll come back. And then I can start all… over… again.”

Marc flinched at the tone of Fitzsimmons’s voice.

“But you can avoid that very simply,” he continued. “All you have to do is tell me where Terrill would hide. Where do you sleep during the day?”

Marc’s eyes flicked toward Jamie, who was shaking her head.

“Don’t look at her, Marc. She won’t want you to tell me––but you don’t know Terrill. There is no reason to protect him. And believe me, you’ll tell me what I want to know, one way or another.” Fitzsimmons took the sword out of Peterson’s hand and shoved the blade all the way through Jamie’s shoulder. She cried out.

“I’ll tell you!” Marc said.

“No, Marc,” Jamie gasped. “Don’t.”

Fitzsimmons pulled the sword out of Jamie’s shoulder and sliced into her leg.

“Stop!” Marc cried. “I know a place they might go!”

Fitzsimmons nodded with satisfaction. The boy was too terrified to lie.

“Get him on his feet,” he said to Feller. “You’re not just going to tell me where this place is, Marc; you’re going to show me. We’re leaving Jamie here, and if you’ve lied to me, I’m going to kill you and come back and torture Jamie until she gives me what I want. Then I’m going to kill her, too. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Marc whimpered.

“Feller? I want you to stay here and guard her. Don’t let her get away, no matter what. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Feller said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Very good!” Fitzsimmons said. This was going to work out after all! He had Jamie under his control, and he had a vampire hunter turned vampire who was calling him “sir.” And soon, he’d have Terrill back.

He grabbed Marc by the shoulder and propelled him toward the door, waving for Peterson to follow. Hoss turned to his crew, ordering them to line up.

“Not you,” Fitzsimmons said dismissively. “You stay and take care of your little clubhouse. When I get back, we’ll discuss whether the Council wants a junior chamber.”

Peterson laughed.

Fitzsimmons didn’t look behind him. If he had, the look on Hoss’s face might have given him pause. He might have tried harder to placate the young vampire.

Hoss sat back in his armchair, put his chin in his hand, and started to think.

Chapter 41

Time had never passed more slowly. Callendar was ready to throw his watch away, because it had become a distraction. It lied to him, telling him only minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked when he knew it had been hours.

The Wilderings were finding the cracks in the Armory’s defenses. There was a row of skylights down the center of the roof, barely visible but just large enough for vampires to get through. The creatures squeezed through the broken glass and fell with loud thumps to the concrete floor. A few minutes later, if not dealt with, they got to their feet, seemingly no worse for the fall, and started attacking people.

It was easy enough to move everyone to the side and dispatch the wounded vampires before they could recover. But then the metal sidings of the building began to be pried apart. A few of the humans inside were grabbed, pulled toward the gaps, and bitten. Several vampires even managed to make it into the Armory.

To the horror of the trapped people, the cops inside with them killed the newly bitten before they could Turn. By now, the civilians were gathered at the far end of the building, which was flush with the hillside. So far there hadn’t been any breaches there. Callendar wasn’t sure if the people were more afraid of the vampires or the cops, armored in SWAT gear, who were supposed to be protecting them.

More and more vampires were falling through the skylights, and the gaps in the sides of the building were getting bigger, despite the best efforts of the vampire hunters. They were running out of bullets, even with the extra ammo that Abercrombie and his crew had brought.

Three of the dozen vampire hunters had been killed so far, taken down from behind or simply overwhelmed by the number of Wilderings. Civilians who had some training had picked up the dead hunters’ weapons, but they had also been killed.

The lack of firepower wasn’t the problem: bullets didn’t kill the vampires, only slowed them down. It was the lack of more permanent solutions that was the real issue. Beheading was the only sure means the humans had to dispatch the vampires, and they had only a few sharp knives. It was awful work, and they took turns doing it. They were all covered in blue blood. Fire would have worked, but within the confines of the building, it was deemed too dangerous.

They had barrels of gasoline, and Callendar was getting ready to suggest that they clear a space in the middle of the floor, pile up the bodies, and take their chances with fire.

He looked at his watch.
The damn thing’s frozen,
he thought. Only three minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked. Dawn was hours away, and the last weather forecast he’d heard was for a continuation of the previous day’s overcast, rainy skies.

There was a rhythmic pounding at the front door and someone outside cried, “Let us in!”

Callendar sidled over to the door. It was the most secure part of the building once it was locked, so no one was near it. He opened it a crack, peeked out, and saw a slender, dark-haired woman who was obviously human; beside her was another woman, tall, fair, and blonde, who moved so fast as she fended off the vampires attacking them that she must have been vampire herself. On the other side of her was…

No
, he thought.
That’s impossible.

He had studied the pictures of Terrill for decades, never expecting to actually meet the Alpha vampire. Yet here he stood. At his very doorstep. Killing other vampires.

Callendar opened the door. Later, he would ask himself how he could have done such a crazy thing. But at the time, the sight of Terrill’s speed in fighting off the Wilderings decided him. Terrill, it was rumored, no longer killed humans. He was the originator of the Rules of Vampire, which forbade the very things that the Wilderings were doing.

And frankly, the humans needed the help. If something drastic didn’t happen soon, they were going to lose this fight.

Terrill held the rear as the tall female vampire led the human girl into the Armory. Terrill slashed left and then right, taking out several attackers with each movement. To Callendar, he was a blur––until he appeared inside the Armory. Then, standing very still, he said, “Better close the door.”

Callendar slammed it shut. Abercrombie had made his way over and had his assault rifle trained on Terrill. “Tell me that isn’t who I think it is,” he said.

“I’m Terrill. I’m here to help.”

Abercrombie raised the barrel of his gun. “Well, I’ll be damned. And Clarkson too, if I’m not mistaken.”

In response, Clarkson rushed to his side and caught the vampire who was about to jump onto the agent’s back just as it leaped. She beheaded it with one swipe of her claws.

“If you could help us dispatch the wounded vampires,” Callendar said, “that would be a big help.”

“Please make sure that Sylvie is safe,” Terrill said in a calm voice.

Robert had approached by then. “I’ll take care of her.”

Terrill nodded and motioned to Clarkson, who followed him as he moved swiftly toward the vampires who lay, broken and battered, under the skylights. Callendar shuddered as the Alpha vampire began efficiently beheading the enemy wounded. The cops went back to firing at the invading Wilderings, trying for head shots.

Robert led Sylvie toward the cluster of Crescent City civilians, saying, “This is the safest spot.” He turned and smiled at her. “If that is Terrill, then you must be Sylvie.”

Sylvie looked at him curiously. There was a warm, friendly tone in the cop’s voice, almost as if he knew her.

“Have we met?”

“No,” he said. “But I know your sister, Jamie. She’s told me all about you.”

“Jamie! Is she here? Is she safe?”

He shook his head, troubled. “I’d hoped she was with you.”

Half the vampire hunters were positioned between the civilians and the rest of the building, making sure that none of the Wilderings got through. Robert took up the last position, directly in front, and put a fresh clip into his rifle.

Toward the front of the Armory, Callendar checked his watch and cursed. Only ten more minutes had passed. It was as if they were the last humans on Earth and everyone outside this building had turned into vampires. The walls shuddered under the force of the attacking horde.

One minute at a time,
Callendar thought. Without looking at it, he peeled off his watch, dropped it to the ground, and stomped on it.
One minute at a time.

#

Hoss had his spies out all over town. One of them returned in the middle of the night, a couple of hours after Fitzsimmons left, reporting that there was a battle raging at the county fairgrounds, and what’s more, several vampires had joined the humans in the fight.

“Describe them,” Hoss demanded.

The vampire described Clarkson almost exactly, and the other vampire––the tall, dark one––had to be Terrill.

Hoss was puzzled. Fitzsimmons hadn’t seemed to be concerned about the outbreak of Wildering vampires breaking the Rules en masse. No, he’d seemed more interested in tracking down Terrill, who, it appeared, had been his prisoner.

How was that possible? Terrill was the author of the Rules of Vampire; how could he be a prisoner of the organization whose very purpose was to enforce the Rules? Clearly, everything wasn’t what it seemed.

Fitzsimmons had acted more like the vampires whom Hoss had sent to the curtained room to be executed: concerned only for himself, not the welfare of all.

Hoss was beginning to wonder whose side he was supposed to be on. Jamie was his grandmother, in a way. She was the Maker of all these new vampires––but it appeared that was not by choice. Indeed, from what Pete and Jimmy had told him, it was likely she had tried to stop it from happening.

Now Hoss was being told that Terrill had joined the humans in fighting the Wilderings, thus breaking Rule One: Never trust a human.

If the Rules were strictly enforced, Terrill was condemned. Yet these Wilderings were breaking
all
the Rules. Perhaps, Hoss reasoned, Terrill was joining the enemy of his enemies, for the greater good. Which was more dangerous to vampire kind: letting a few humans who already knew of their existence live, or a bunch of Wilderings who threatened to break out into the wider world and let all mankind know about the vampire species?

Terrill was right, Hoss decided. Fitzsimmons was wrong.

He made his way to the room where Feller was guarding Jamie. Pete and Jimmy followed him.

“What do you want?” Feller asked.

Hoss examined the former vampire hunter.
Should I just get rid of him?
Hoss wondered.
He’s going to keep on being a problem.

Jimmy gave him a look, as if to ask,
Should I take him out?
Hoss shook his head slightly. “I wish to talk to this vampire,” he said, nodding in Jamie’s direction.

Feller clearly wanted to deny the request but couldn’t think of a reason to. Hoss ignored him.

“Your Maker was Terrill?” he asked Jamie.

At first, she was stubbornly silent, as if she was going to refuse to answer any questions, but then she seemed to figure out that he wasn’t like Fitzsimmons: he was only asking because he was curious. “Yes,” she said.

“How is that possible?” he asked. “Terrill stopped killing humans.”

“I was an accident,” Jamie said. “A mistake that he has tried his best to atone for.”

“So you trust him?”

She hesitated, then nodded. “He loves my sister, and my sister loves him, so I guess I do trust him. I wish I had stayed in Bend under his tutelage. All of this might have been avoided.”