Chapter 7
Gunfire erupted as I got my first look at a Red Court vampire.
The night vision spell on my glasses did what it could to mute the flashes of Eliot's AR15 as he fired down the hallway we'd come from. I watched as the bullets tore through the dark and fleshy forms of the fully turned vampires.
Their bodies were humanoid, with two arms and two legs. The limbs were sickly thin, and both feet and hands were capped with sharp black nails. Their bodies were a mass of dark folds of skin, save for their bulging stomachs. As they stretched their arms out, I could see the thin membranous wings stretching from their arms to their sides.
I couldn't make out any more details. They were still a dozen yards away when Eliot's fire gunned them down. Controlled bursts took them in the bellies, and I saw gore spill to the floor as they tumbled over one another, desperately scrambling toward our position.
"Eliot, rotate!" Dillon called, and I saw the mountain of a man twist to his right, even as Dillon stepped back from his corner and turned to mine. When he was in position, Just Eliot saw the horde of bodies heading down the other tunnel, and quickly raised the mini-gun up and opened fire. The sound of the screaming vampires was drowned out by the quick staccato of the mini-gun. The brief gaps between controlled bursts were filled by the fire from the others.
Dillon was beside me, trying to keep the mass of vampires at bay, when a shadow loomed up from the doorway only five feet away.
The room had been cleared, but I had just enough time to recall that some of the rooms had been interlinked by side doors, before the vampire was leaping at me. They'd navigated their way around the majority of the hallway, and were suddenly on us before we knew what was happening.
The first fell on me as another aimed for Dillon. I lost sight of that one as the mass of black, slimy flesh knocked me to the ground. I got the flat end of my rod between us, and pushed it up against the vampire's jaw, keeping its gnashing mouth away from me.
Up close, I saw that it really was a face from a nightmare. It looked like a bat, with a flat nose with curling nostrils, beady black eyes, and wickedly sharp teeth. The rest of it wasn't any more attractive, with skin like leather and saggy flaps hanging here and there. All of the nasty flesh wriggled as it thrashed at me with its long curving claws. It was damp from the drizzle outside, and it reeked of rot and wet dog.
It screeched as it dropped its head toward my neck, but I pushed at it with the rod, keeping it at bay. The thing made to grab at the rod, but not before I barked the command word, "Senna-ehtë!"
The beast's scream cut short as a foot-long length of silver steel shot through its skull. Blood and ichor dripped from the wound as the body sagged against me, and I had to push with both arms to shove it aside. As soon as I was clear of it, I saw the other beast atop Dillon. I shoved my blade at its neck as I shouted a second magic spell.
"Saiwa-nasta!" At the command, power flowed through me and into the weapon, the spellworked steel doing the heavy lifting for me. I might not have much in the way of magical ability, but with the spear, I didn't have to. The power simply channeled into the spear, making the spearhead glow red-hot.
The stench of burning flesh joined the overpowering smell of gunpowder in the enclosed space. My swipe cut half of the vampire's neck off, and it sagged to one side as the gunman rose up.
Dillon fired down the hallway with his AR15, cutting down those that had gained ground during the interruption. I joined him, drawing my Beretta and emptying the magazine at the oncoming horde. More vampires fell, but it wasn't going to be enough.
"Down!" Cooper shouted, and I crouched to one side as he sidled over to our hallway. The Saiga 12 opened up, the blasts from the automatic shotgun shredding everything in front of it.
"Need some help over here!" Schaeffer shouted, and I turned to see how the others were faring.
Elliot still had one hallway pinned down with the mini-gun. A pile of bodies had formed, slowing the others down as they tried to crawl over and around it. The behemoth was taking shots at those that tried to get past, but was too busy to help Schaeffer.
Natalia and Anya were both firing down the hallway where the vial had been leading us, with a bladed weapon in their spare hands. Those vampires that got close enough were cut down, and I saw that both of the beautiful creatures were drenched in black blood, much too dark to be their own.
I turned to Schaeffer, and saw that he was holding the fourth hallway on his own, with only his Glocks. The AR15 had run dry, its hundred round payload spent on the mass of bodies before it. He hadn't had time to reload, so he'd fallen back on the pistols. Each had another fifty rounds, but those would only last so long, and there seemed to be a never-ending supply of the Red Court vampires.
Twisting around, I scrambled to my feet and quickly holstered my gun. I held my spear in my right hand as my left flicked toward my wrist. Tearing one of the snap button heads from my new bracelet, I glanced to confirm I had the right one.
"Down!" I shouted to Schaeffer, who dropped to a crouch automatically. My hand whipped out over his head as I shouted the command word for the spell worked into the snap. "Lith-luth!"
The brown crystal embedded on the small metal head seemed to glint in the low light of my glasses as it flew toward the ceiling. I'd aimed a dozen yards down, and as the snap hit the ceiling, the spell activated. Earth magic flowed outward from the crystal where it'd been imprisoned, turning any earth it touched into particles as fine as sand.
The affected area wasn't that large. The spell was designed to be used on flat ground, to trap an opponent within a narrow but deep pit of quicksand. The magic atomized the earth, and anyone who stepped upon it found themselves neck deep in a matter of seconds.
As I'd thrown the snap against the ceiling, it didn't cause any vampires to sink into the earth. What it did do was weaken the structural integrity of the tunnel overhead, and a metric ton of dirt and earth collapsed into the hallway. The hole spread beyond where my spell had hit, collapsing a good portion of the tunnel. The vampires underneath were crushed beneath it, while those beyond were cut off from us.
Schaeffer made quick work of the vampires in front of the earthen wall, but I was already moving across the intersection to Eliot's hall. I pushed at the mammoth's shoulder, and he shifted to one side. I repeated the process there, aiming a second sandstone snap just above where he'd built up the pile of vampires. The collapsing tunnel finished off the bloody bulwarks he'd managed.
Free from attack on two fronts, the two shifted to help the others. I saw that in the chaos, Cooper had been hurt, and was lying on his back in the hallway facing the stairwell. Eliot shifted around to help Dillon hold the hall, while Schaeffer helped the women.
The Red Court vampires before them were creeping down the hallway while the three of them reloaded. The high capacity drums for the Glocks and AR15s had been spent, and they were falling back to the standard backup magazines.
I pushed my way past the three of them, and snatched another snap from my wrist.
"Gwelu-ur!" I shouted, hurling the white crystal snap into the midst of the vampires. It struck one in the chest, and the hall lit up as the ball lightning spell ignited.
A sphere of blue-white energy erupted from the snap, sizzling and burning its way through the vampire I'd struck. Bolts of electrical energy shot out in all directions, causing the vampires around them to scream in agony. Those closest to the spell were killed instantly, while the rest were left convulsing on the floor.
The two vampires I'd come with darted past me, their blades striking like their own form of lightning. The wounded Reds were dead in seconds, and those beyond them hesitated to press in.
I threw another ball lighting snap, and those remaining either died or fled.
Natalia started to run after them, but skidded to a halt as a side door opened, and someone stepped into the hallway.
Everything we'd faced up until then had been like something from a nightmare. Bat-like forms with slick flesh, long teeth and longer claws. They were alien to my mind, and my visceral reaction was to kill them before they could kill me. But the thing that stepped from the door was…
Well…
He was dapper.
He wore a black tuxedo suit tailored to his slim form, with pointed tails of fabric trailing down in the back. The shirt was white, contrasting with the thin blood-red tie around his throat. Even in the dark with night vision lighting the space, I thought the man looked tan. Which I thought was odd for a vampire that supposedly couldn't go out in daylight. His dark hair was a mess of curls, and his features were strikingly sharp. When he saw us he smiled a brilliant white smile.
And then he tried to take Natalia's head off.
I barely saw him move, a thin sword I hadn't noticed in his hand whipping toward the warrior vampire. She pulled back, deflecting the blow with her curving knife. The hallway was still too compact for her to have pulled her axe, and she desperately tried to defend herself with the short blade.
She managed for a few exchanges, but then the Dapper Man got a lucky strike to her leg. As she stumbled, his sword took her in the chest, and I saw it jut from the back of her leather vest.
The Dapper man twisted the blade back and forth, skewering the vampire. Then he kicked out, his leg incredibly fast and unbelievably strong. His foot took Natalia in the gut, and she was thrown backward at violent speed. I saw her bounce off the wall and sag to the floor in front of me.
I looked up to see the Dapper Man grinning at me. I had just enough time to realize that nothing stood between me and the man that was faster than the dead White Court vampire, and then he was darting toward me.
His sword lashed out, a strike sweeping across my vision. The blade struck my spellworked glasses, the reinforced glass and wood frame holding up long enough to keep him from cutting my head in two. The sword cut a gouge into the right lens and across the bridge, and then the glasses were gone as the sword tore past. My vision went dark even as I felt blood spurt from a wound to my nose, and I started falling backward.
Before I knew what was happening, his sword swiped again, this time across my chest. The blade tore across my leather jacket, and made a ringing sound as it slid across the spear shaft in my right hand. The force of the blow sent me spinning to the ground, and I lost sight of him in the dark. I raised my spear above me blindly, trying to use the red-hot spearhead to see by as I gasped for breath.
The sword swung across again, and I lost my grip on the spear. It hit the wall beside me, and was nowhere near ready to block the next downward strike coming my way with supernatural speed.
Fortunately, Anya arrived just then, her short swords held before her to catch the blow and deflect it aside.
The two monsters dueled at impossible speeds, with the slightly shorter woman using both blades to keep up with the single weapon of his. My eyes couldn't track their movements in the dark, but I saw when one of her blades was knocked away, and then his sword criss-crossed in front of the girl. I thought I saw a curtain of blood in the dark as he shredded her, and then she fell to one last strike across her throat.
As she collapsed, I saw the Dapper Man turn back to me. I couldn't make out his features, but something told me he was still grinning wickedly as he strode forward with the confidence of a man who'd just been assured of victory.
Schaeffer appeared beside me, his AR15 up and firing at the man. I saw a flicker of movement as the Dapper Man dodged, impossibly quick, and a knife whipped out of nowhere. It cut across Schaeffer's arm, and I heard him grunt as he dropped the weapon.
And then the only sound was the gunfire of those behind us trying desperately to hold back a wave of vampires, even as more surged forward from the darkness behind the Dapper Man. Their screeches and howls filled the tunnel, and I knew it would only be a moment before they were on us.
I reached for the spear, still only in its short form. There was another foot of steel that I could extend from the pommel end, but it would only make it that much more difficult to wield it in the narrow hallway. So I left it as a short spear, and stood as the Dapper Man strolled forward.
"I expected more," he said softly, a dark humor in his voice. "The rulers of the White Court stand at death's door, and all they send is worthless scraps? Maybe we shouldn't bother with all of this, if they're so useless in a fight," he added, casually kicking Anya's bloody form.
"You'll never get away with this," Schaeffer muttered, which was about as cliche as it got. They obviously didn't pay him for his wit.
My chest was hurting from the blow, and I found it hard to breath. I could feel blood dripping down inside the mask on my face. Even my right arm was throbbing from where the disarming blow had struck. My hand was a little numb, and I couldn't quite feel the spear in my grip.
Still, if I was going to die, I was going to die fighting. And with my glasses gone, I wouldn't last long. Not that I would even if I could see them coming.
But something seemed wrong about dying in the dark, being overrun by bloodthirsty monsters. Something in me recoiled at the thought, and I whispered another command as the horde of vampires leapt forward and around the Dapper Man.
"Cala-nasta," I wheezed, replacing the red-hot spear spell with the illuminating one. I twisted my upper body and prepared for their rush, holding the spearhead forward. It's glow shifted from bright red to a brilliant silver-white light that filled the tunnel with a warm glow.
A glow, in fact, that made the vampires scream.
The light touched on those that had been approaching, and their bodies convulsed under it. Tendrils of smoke rose from their skin, and those closest to us burst into flames as the argent light expanded outward.
The Dapper Man shielded his face from the glowing spear as the others retreated past him, and I saw even his skin begin to smoke. A animalistic growl escaped his throat, and I caught a flash of furious eyes before he darted off down the tunnel.
I stood there, stunned, as the others all responded to the unexpected chance. Those behind us opened fire, killing those vampires that were still writhing in range. Even Schaeffer responded, snatching my gun from its holster. The magazine was empty, but his wounded hand was still functioning, and he tore one of my spares from beneath my arm and jammed it home as two more forms emerged from the doorway ahead.
The first was a thin woman, dressed identically to the Dapper Man I'd just seen. Her curling dark hair was longer, but other than that and the slight feminine curves to her suit, she could have been his twin, even down to the thin blade she wielded. Her skin began to smoke from the light, and she gave an angry hiss at the sight of it.
The second was an old woman, the dark skin of her face weathered and wrinkled. She'd been crying, and flinched as the Dapper Woman yanked her into the hallway. I was surprised to see that the light didn't have the same effect on her as it did the others. She clutched at a box, and had an old leather bag hanging from her shoulder.
Schaeffer opened fire at both of them, not caring which he hit. Based on situation and her ethnic garb, I was willing to bet the old woman was a witch of some sort. Schaeffer had likely guessed the same, and figured that killing her would end things just as well as killing the vampires.
The female vampire stepped in front of the woman, and I saw her body shake as Schaeffer's rounds struck her. All too quickly, the magazine was spent, and the vampire sagged against the wall.
Sensing an opportunity, I hefted the spear and hurled it at her. The spearhead seemed to grow brighter as it hurtled through the air, and the vampire screamed as it set her afire. She blurred to the side, my strike missing her entirely.
But it didn't miss the woman behind her. The glowing blade cut at her side before clanking against the wall.
The woman cried out as she fell, gripping the wound. Blood pooled under her fingers, but the female vampire didn't give her time to recover. Schaeffer and I saw the blistered Dapper Woman grab the older woman with one hand and the box with the other, and then the two were gone in a flash, disappearing back down the hallway where the man had fled.
And then we were alone, four mortal men standing or lying on the floor of the hallway, trying to catch our breaths. I shared a surprised look with Schaeffer, who seemed just as amazed as I was to be alive.
