An Apostle of the Lord, Chapter 21
The gathering in the dining room began with an initiation. Compatriots from two other locations were celebrating onscreen from the monitors through online connections. The prey had been rolled in inside the iron lungs, which lined the walls, and guests were feasting on their living bodies.
The initiated was a frightened twelve-year-old boy. There was already evidence of bite marks on his neck, the first step had been taken for his transformation. He was lifted up to stand on a chair among the revelers.
"This has been a long time coming," announced one of the celebrants. "We just need to finish before Beryx and Anica get back." The others chuckled. "Fae, step back from your meal. I think that's the last one still living."
The boy was carried to the body. "Go on boy. Take a drink. Become a man. Be like the rest of us."
The boy resisted. The man insisted and again the boy resisted.
"Come on, Vlad. Drink!" Blood was splashed into his face. Finally he was pushed face-first into the barely-living body.
"Success!" said the host. Vlad squirmed loose, spitting blood and his face smeared with the gore, and ran for the kitchen. But he couldn't get through the door.
"Hey! Who blocked the door! What is that?" A couple of vampires went to check.
At about that time the iron lungs were being pulled out of the room and the panels above them dropped down. Alarmed members ran for the sliding doors and pulled them shut. The bar was dropped across them and everyone sat quietly, waiting for who knows what. A few hurried to wash away evidence at the wash basins, but nothing was going to disguise the bloody mess left where the iron lungs had been sitting. The mops were in the kitchen, which was now inaccessible.
They recognized screams from other vampires in the lobby and from the hall in the left wing. Someone on the outside tried the door handles. Then all was quiet but for some mumbling now and then and the sobbing of the child curled in the corner by the kitchen door. Unknown people were at the doors. They waited, sitting quietly at the table, and listening for anything that would forewarn them what was going to happen next.
Then an axe crashed through one of the sliding doors and another axe crashed through the other. Yet another slashed down the length of the kitchen door in back and the young boy ran screaming to join the others in the middle of the room. A man made of copper strolled in behind him.
Hands of both flesh and metal pulled back the front door panels and soon the faces of Dean, Nick and Captain Fyter peered in through the opening. Eddie stepped in and put his hand on the closest vampire, whose body instantly turned into salt. Eddie pushed the salt form and it crumbled. The vampires sat frozen for a while as the invaders finished ripping apart the sliding doors.
Finally. one vampire stood up, brandishing a pistol, and took a shot that struck Eddie in the head. A second did the same and shot Eddie in the chest. In the same instant Captain Fyter got to the first shooter and sliced off his head. Two vampires jumped from their seats and onto the wall behind them. They clung to the wall just under the ceiling near the kitchen.
Eddie wiped a butter smudge off of his shirt and a blob of it off of his forehead. Of course he hadn't been harmed. He slammed his hand on the table top, turning the table top and every vampire hand or sleeve or arm that was in contact with it into iron. Nobody at the table was going anywhere.
One of the perched vampires leaped across the room and through the curtains on the other side. He dropped to the floor where Captain Fyter dispatched him, too. The captain pulled the curtains aside to reveal the windows that Eddie had earlier turned into iron. He grabbed the two severed heads and waved them as he approached the two monitors. The viewers on the screens were horrified. Tik-tok pulled out the computer and ripped cords until the monitors went blank. He looked up at the remaining vampire on the wall as he headed back to the front of the room.
The vampire pointed at Eddie from his perch. "Wer sind Sie? Ich traf jemanden wie Sie in den Karpaten."
Eddie understood him. He heard the vampire's comment in English and didn't recognize the language actually being spoken.
The vampire continued, "Er wurde mit den Dämonenjägern-Gesellschaft in Wien verbunden. Kennen Sie ihn? Das spielt keine Rolle. Schau mich an. Toten Sie die Anderen."
Eddie suddenly turned towards Captain Fyter and grabbed the blade of his sword. The sword immediately turned into salt. Fyter jerked the blade handle to the side before the leading edge of the salt could reach his hand and the salt blade crumbled. The Captain had no defense from Eddie's touch but to stay back from him.
From the corner of the room and electric bolt shocked Eddie back to his senses. It came from Glinda's hand. She sent a second bolt at the vampire, stunning him as well, causing him to slip down the wall.
"Ich kann Deutsch.," Glinda told the vampire. "Don't anyone look into his eyes! He can muddle your thinking. Are you okay, Eddie?"
The vampire recovered from the shock and scurried along the wall. Dean took a shot with the Colt and the vampire dodged the bullet. He swooped lower and Tik-tok slashed his axe down the vampire's side. It wasn't deep enough to stop him. The vampire leaped onto Sam, Dean and Castiel at the doorway and knocked them over, then jumped out of the room into the lobby.
Soon Jody's body came flying into the room knocking the boys down again. Before for all could gather themselves and chase after him, the vampire had grabbed Claire and carried her out the front door of the lobby and into the parking lot.
Dean and Sam were first to get out the door and ran into the lot, looking carefully between each of the cars. The three metal men were right behind them.
"They did not go out there," Captain Fyter called out to the boys. He glanced around. "If they had I would have seen their heat trail. They had to have gone...up!"
The Captain turned around and looked up. "Their heat trail goes over the roof. Nick! Throw me up there."
Nick flung Captain Fyter up onto the roof. Tik-tok motioned for Nick to do the same with him and Nick did. The two men dashed up the roof and over the peak.
On the other side Fyter and Tik-tok scurried down the other side, and leaped off the roof to the ground. Captain Fyter glanced around and re-located the heat trail. He ran into the woods with Tik-tok right behind him. The vampire could see in the dark, but so could the Captain, and only the vampire would eventually tire out.
"Come on, guys," Nick told the others still by the front entrance. "We have work to finish."
Inside, Nick pried Dean's axe from one door panel and handed it to him. He pulled his own axe out of another panel. Sam displayed his knife and the three entered the dining room.
Whack! Nick sliced off a vampire's head. Whack! Another one. After the third decapitation he paused and looked at the Winchesters. "You two helping?"
"Uh, yeah," Dean quipped. "It just doesn't seem fair with all of them sealed to the table."
"Shall I cut a couple loose so you boys can chase them around the room?"
"No! I'm good." Dean lifted his axe.
Sam was distracted by something else. "Guys? Aren't they awfully passive for people about to die?"
"They still die." Nick began hacking again and the brothers followed suit. The job was quickly finished.
Nick Chopper looked over the bodies with a grunt of satisfaction. "Sam could you find Eddie and tell him the dining room is ready for a cleansing? He might be going around cleaning up all the dead bodies. Dean and I have one more task."
Sam nodded and left to find Eddie. Dean followed Nick down the middle hall and out the back door. They stood outside looking at the woods in front of them.
"Okay," Nick said shortly, then pointed to the right. "They entered the woods over there." A pause. "I hear them now in the distance in front of us." A pause. "Not moving away from us. Gaging from the distance the boys are behind the vampire and how noisy they are in the chase, I'd say they are steering him in a circle and he'll soon be right back here. Let's wait and see."
In the forest, the vampire was still running at peak speed with a re-hypnotized Claire flung over his shoulder. But the extra weight began to slow him down. With the metal men at his heals, having a captive wasn't going to benefit him anymore. So, he dropped her to the ground and picked up speed.
The vampire's sight was good but the running was taking its toll on his stamina. He couldn't see the metal men behind him. He heard them – they weren't being particularly quiet – but he couldn't pinpoint where they were. It sounded like they coming from two directions behind him. He turned to the left and then to the right and tried to keep up the pace. Finally he spied the edge of the woods and a structure beyond it. He was going to make it into the neighborhood and the men in pursuit didn't sound at all close to him.
A few more yards, then a couple of feet and the vampire was in the open.
Nick was standing there with his axe over his shoulder. And Dean was beside him, pointing his Colt at the vampire. A shot between the eyes took out the last vampire.