A Little Undead (18 page)

Then I looked back. The gun
shook in his hands as he looked into my abyssal eyes, their violet
light sharp enough to burn an impression into his retinas. The first
bullet burned through my hair as I hit the ground rolling, the second
bit into tar by my hand. I stopped counting after that, scurrying on
all fours to take cover behind an overflowing dumpster. I noticed
with ire that during the fall my handmade knife had spun out from the
loose cloth tie I had tucked it in. I was weaponless once again.
Though, in truth, as long as I had these claws I was never really
weaponless, was I.

“
Stop shooting at me!”
My words were slurred as I panted for breath I wasn't even sure I
needed. I was so thirsty it was hard to think, vision clouded at the
edges. The cuts on my face from the broken glass weren't healing as
quickly as the ones I’d gained when making the knife. I
couldn't go see Alex like this, I wouldn't last three seconds before
attacking him. As disgusting as it was I'd have to find a butcher's
shop or something, and soon. Already the shooter's heartbeat was
pressing incessantly on my mind.
'What did he just say?'
I was
sure I heard the word 'demon.' Honestly, how did he know it wasn't
just a costume? Was it the ten foot leap or was I just putting out
some sort of malevolent aura I wasn't aware of? “Don't you feel
you're overreacting?”

“
Come out where I can see
you.”

“
What, and have you shoot
at me again?”

A pair of handcuffs landed
beside me, oddly pristine against their background. “Put those
on and approach the fence.”

It wasn't as if I couldn't just
break free of them later, and a few close calls with those bullets
had me doubting my invincibility. I could afford to humor him for a
little while as long as he stayed too unsettled to call for backup.
“Okay, I'm coming out. Don't do anything crazy.” I
hesitantly extended my arm before peeking an eye around the edge of
the reeking dumpster. If I had been in friendlier company I would
have complained about the grime that covered me thanks to his freak
out. As it was I warily watched the end of his gun while I slapped on
the cuffs. “See? It's all good now. I'm just wearing a costume,
no reason to be alarmed.” In an abstract way I was rather
impressed with myself. Words kept pouring out but from where they
came I couldn't say, one after another too quickly to hold them back
if I misspoke.

“
I don't believe you.”
His left hand traced a cross across his heart. “Come over
here, I want a better look at you.”

I sauntered towards the fence,
too distracted to hide my eyes or claws though some lingering measure
of restraint kept me from clearly revealing my fangs. “What are
you so afraid of? There's no monsters hiding 'neath your bed.”
Though I knew I shouldn’t I put my hands on the fence, fingers
entwining with the wires as I slowly took pressure off my feet.

“
Stop! What are you
doing?” Even in the deep shadows, the sun blurred my vision of
his life energies, but still they called to me so beautifully. Like
a moth to a flame, how could I resist. Why would I want to?

“
You said to come to you,
that's all I'm doing. It would be hard to arrest me from the opposite
side of the fence.” Yes, I would go to him, it would be easier
to knock him out that way. Then I could take all the time I needed.
With a gymnast’s grace I twirled off the top of the fence past
the slanted barbed wire defense and ten foot drop that would trouble
a lesser creature. The gun was ripped from his hands and tossed aside
before his hand could follow the impulse of his fear. I stepped
towards him, breaking handcuffs for a second time that night as I did
so. My mouth hinged open as he fell onto his back, my fangs
lengthening fully in preparation for the feed. “Mom?”

The sight cut through the haze
clogging my thinking in an instant. They were only there for a moment
but I knew it was them. It was my father's car. My sister's
silhouette hung in the back window and it was no doubt my dad in the
driver's seat, hidden by the massive explosion that was my mother's
hair.
'What are they doing here?'
As long as I had known him
he had never driven that car. He only ever turned it on twice a
year, just to see if it still ran. Gas was just too precious for joy
rides these days.

I was at the end of the alleyway
in seconds, watching with rising horror as the car slowed to a stop
outside the police station.
'They can't be here, this is exactly
what he wanted.'
Slowly, inexorably, they filed away from the
van.
'What do I do? I can't let them see me like this. I'm not
even sure it's safe for them to be around me as I am now.'
Indeed,
m
oments ago I had been stalking that man with hardly a second
thought. As a bullet traced a burning line of red on the skin of my
arm I realized he had neither forgiven nor forgotten what I had done.
It was time to move.

Nothing was going as I had
planned, but before anything else I knew I had to warn them. No
matter what it cost me. Daytime or not, the structure wasn't high on
windows, and it hadn't been a vampire that handed me the letter in
the first place. Who knew how many he had loyal to him within the
police force, no, I couldn't trust any of them now.

Hiding behind an abandoned
museum’s pillared foundation from the cop's continued barrage
of bullets I marveled at the explosion of chaos. Stray shots struck
cars, their panicked drivers spinning their vehicles out of control
as pedestrians ran for cover. Yet, somehow, the doors that had closed
behind my family refused to open again. The insane cop appeared to
have run out of bullets but the screaming from the wreckage
continued. Despite all of it there was no response from the police
station. “Something is wrong.” I tore across the
pavement, the scent of burned metal and plastic thankfully hiding
that of the blood from the injured that might otherwise have lured me
like a siren's call.

A shaft of sunlight pierced
through the angry clouds above, forcing me to shield my eyes in the
moment I broke through the locked doors. “No.” I mouthed
the word but lacked the breath to speak it, too afraid to open my
eyes though the light had passed. “Please let me be wrong.”
Even sightless I knew a massacre lay before me. The dead blood didn't
entrance me, leaving the true horror of the scene raw upon my senses.
The remnants of the slaughter were slick against bare feet as I
stumbled onwards, searching with my ears for some sign of a
heartbeat. The silence was overwhelming but I had to know, I had to
be certain.

It was worse than I had ever
imagined. A cannon shot was clean in comparison. Limbs lay strewn
across the floor as if laid in some madman's tapestry. Throats were
ragged or torn clean out, bloody collars beneath faces locked in
terror. Though I knew their faces would haunt my dreams I felt
compelled to look at each one, praying I wouldn't see the faces I
feared with all my being would be there. It only grew worse as the
circus of horror continued, limbs twitching as they slowly
reanimated. '
Thirty seconds more before they try to devour anyone
left alive.'
I needed to find
Holly
now.
There was a shout. “Let me go!”

“
Holly!” Her voice
was faint but I knew it was my sister's. I rebounded forcefully off
the walls as I raced through the maze of corridors. Decades of
haphazard additions and renovations were keeping me from my goal and
I could care less about preservation of public property. My claws
raked into the drywall to redirect me as I nearly flew around the
corner. The lights flickered and died as I ran but the emergency
lights were more than enough to light my way as I moved ever closer
to the sounds of struggle. Caution was forgotten in my haste.

“
Boo.” The voice was
low and rough, like the voice of a lion. I kicked backwards, foot
impacting against his stomach. If it pained him he gave no sign of
it, grin never budging from his deformed face. I, in turn, was sent
sliding along the polished floor by the force of my own kick. Strong
though I was, the force of my blow was robbed by my lack of mass and
traction. “Hello, Little Fang.”

“
Bruce?” His arms
were long, hanging past his knees with crisscrossing muscles that had
no place on a human. His eyes were golden with large black pupils, a
wolf's eyes. Fur covered him, his face the only area where it was
thin enough to see the skin beneath. His ears stretched high, nose
and mouth stretching out into a muzzle. Yet somehow he was still
recognizable, if only barely, as the same Bruce who had treated my
cuts the first night I arrived at the station. “You were behind
it all along.”

“
Did you ever think
otherwise?” He ran one clawed finger down a metal door,
seemingly immune to the ear-piercing shriek it produced. “You
have intrigued me Julie, which is a rare thing. I have seen too many
things to be won over by a pretty smile alone. No, you, my dear, are
quite the puzzle.” Quicker than I could react his jaws were at
my neck, my arms locked behind my back. He was just as fast compared
to me as I had been to Fred. Or perhaps, as drained of energy as I
was, I was slowing down.

“
Why are you doing this?”
I futilely tried to keep my skin from touching him but he surrounded
me on all sides. Bristling, inhuman fur, covered in the still warm
blood of his victims.
'How could he have hidden all this the night
we met? How could a kind face so completely disguise such a monster?'
But it hadn't completely, had
it. I'd felt uneasy around him, harbored suspicions, and ultimately
had done nothing of note to stop him.

His voice was a breathy whisper
in my ear. “I'm doing it for you. You are a mystery and to
solve the question of who and what you are I must strip away the
chains that bind you and see what you're truly capable of. I need
soldiers, warriors like you.” He pried open my jaw, finger
caressing the fang he found inside despite my efforts to free myself.
“At one moment you seem so human, but the next a vampire. Do
you know who made you? Who gave you this glorious mutation that
allows you to walk so freely in sunlight?” He stared into my
eyes, unblinking. “No, of course you don't. But that doesn't
mean you can't be useful to me. Every vampire on Earth died the day
of the Outbreak, but not you. You are unique.”

“
How could you do
something like this?” I pleaded, hoping to find some glimmer of
humanity in him. “All these people dead just so you could
capture me?” Was this my fault? Maybe if I had told someone
they could have stopped all this from ever happening. I couldn't be
the only one who knew about these creatures. “Please, just
don't hurt my family, I promise I'll come with you.”

He laughed, dark and deep. “Your
innocence truly isn't an act. How pitiful, to be granted such power
and lack the will to use it.” I crumpled to the ground as he
released me, condescendingly showing his back to me as he walked
away, a pointed reminder of how little threat I was to him. “Come.
It would be foolish of me to waste someone of your potential, and
there is much to do today if you are to become a proper member of my
clan.”

“
Where are you taking me?”
His steps were deceptively slow, his large stride nearly forcing me
to jog. His knees, I noticed, bent backwards. His entire form was
grotesque in the light but in the dark he was a nightmare made flesh.
Alex possessed a certain grace as a wolf, but this wolf-man was
something else again. I could see his life essence, its sweet fire
tempting me to taste his blood, but it was a level above anything I
had sensed before. It would be like biting the tail of a dragon.

“
Not far.” He opened
a familiar door with a bow. “In fact, we're here already.”
It was the interrogation room. Hardly anything had changed since my
previous stay there besides the lighting changing from yellow to the
electric blue of the emergency lighting.
'Well, that and the bound
and gagged captain.'
“Kill him.”

“
What?” I blinked,
pulling my eyes away from his neck as Morris swore through the gag.
“Why?”

“
I can tell you're hungry,
it's only polite to offer sustenance.” His claw drew a shallow
cut across the captain's neck, blood soaking into the collar of his
uniform. “Besides, what good is a soldier if they cannot kill.”
He caught my arm, dragging me closer to Morris. A dull pain pulsed
through my bicep where he gripped me. “Drink.”

“
No! I won't do it!”
'I don't care how thirsty I am, I can still control myself. I'll
find some other way to get blood.'

“
You'll go mad if you keep
this up.” His massive hand became gentle, lifting my arm to
examine the imprint of his fingers. “You've nearly reached your
limit. The cuts on your face have stopped healing and you bruised far
easier than you should. Every injury you take now will linger until
the Thirst overtakes you and you drink. I commend you for your
willpower in lasting this long but there's no reason to resist
further. The Queen is dead, the zombies grow ever fewer, and the
humans are as weak as always. It is time for the Fae to regain their
rightful place in the world. I have long grown sick of pretending to
be human.” Bruce pressed Morris's head to the side, baring his
neck. “Join me.”

I dug my claws into my legs.
The pain was the only thing keeping me focused. “I-I won't do
it. There must be another way.”