Blood and Stone (9 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“-and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”

Colonel Chadwick Phillips, U.S. Army dropped his salute and sighed in relief. He’d made it through the whole pledge this time.

“Much better,” Colonel Kenslir said. “Looks like we
can
teach an old dog new tricks.”

Phillips frowned. Learning to force his hollow stone lungs to breathe had been difficult. And Mark Kenslir had a variety of weird tests he used for that purpose. Including blowing out candles, blowing a whistle, and finally reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, in its entirety, with no mistakes.

“Now what?” Phillips said. They’d only been at an hour, but he was feeling pretty accustomed to his stone body now. He’d been given a set of black fatigues and boots to wear, as had Jimmy and Captain Smith—who was assisting in the training. The fourth stone soldier, Victor, was nowhere to be seen.

“Manual dexterity,” Jimmy said, walking to a table in the training room, covered with little plastic blocks. His head was slumped, his enthusiasm at the project clearly lacking.

Phillips walked over to the table and immediately recognized the small, plastic building blocks from visits other members at the retirement home had from their grandchildren.

“Legos? Seriously?”

“Your tactile senses have been dramatically dulled,” Kenslir explained. “And you have super-human strength. You need to learn to control that strength, or you’re going to have a hard time doing anything more than breaking things.”

“It’s tougher than it looks,” Jimmy said. He had already sat down and started working on putting something together. A small house, the blueprints of which were laid out and ready.

Phillips raised a stone eyebrow but sat down and got to work.

***

The humans had settled into two groups now—worshipers and nonworshipers. The former, primarily Hispanic peoples from the region, had begun bowing and praying to Tezcahtlip, who now stood at the top of the pyramid. The latter had fled into the jungle in terror.

Tezcahtlip needed those nonworshipers, but he couldn’t be everywhere at once. He needed an army. And the first step in recruiting was to show what the benefits of following him could be.

The shapeshifter still had a large reserve of lifeforce energy within him—taken from the inmates at Alcatraz. He hated to use it up so quickly, but he was confident that he could replace it in short order. There were plenty of humans in the region that could be sacrificed to him.

Among the many magics the giant had taken from the sorcerers and sorceresses of this modern age there was a restoration spell that would show the world his power. The spell used a great deal of energy, but its effects were highly visible.

Tezcahtlip raised his hands and increased the glow of light pouring from his body. Then he began to trace symbols in the air.

Blue and red light began to trail from his fingertips, spreading out like glowing, electric mist. It swirled around the giant then settled toward his feet, expanding and flowing down the sides of the pyramid, like a sizzling, sparkling fog. The assembled worshipers stopped their prayers and stood, alarmed as the glowing energies settled on the ground then began to spread out from the pyramid, towards them.

In only a few moments, the crackling, glowing fog of energy and vapor had spread over the entire complex of Chichen Itza. Where it pooled around other structures, it began to rise, enveloping them in a cocoon of energy.

Bright flashes erupted within the energetic fog, crackling as mystic energies worked on the ancient structures. This continued for several minutes, frightening the worshipers who found themselves standing knee deep in the ethereal, otherworldly vapors.

Finally, the crackling subsided and the red and blue fog began to settle, rolling down the sides of El Castillo, and the other Chichen Itza buildings.

Where before sun-bleached stone had stood impressive, fighting the elements, but crumbling as time marched on, there now stood fresh, painted stones. Edges that had been broken and chipped now were as sharp and precise as the day they had been carved. Pigment filled crevices in carvings, coating the structures in bright colors as the ancient Mayans had first intended.

The mystic fog settled into the ground, absorbed into the soil, leaving behind clean, compacted clay and bright paving stones. It was as though the assembled visitors to the site had stepped back in time a thousand years.

The golden glow around Tezcahtlip faded, dropping to something subtle, like a reflection or the glow of the full moon that hung overhead.

The giant stepped forward, his white dress shoes moving from the roof of the restored temple atop El Castillo onto the air. Instead of falling, the giant seemed to hang in the air, as though walking on something invisible. Tezcahtlip continued, stepping down, his feet suspended in the air. Slowly, he walked down the face of the pyramid, hovering five feet above its polished, gleaming stones.

The worshipers were in awe. Many dropped to their knees and began to chant.

“Kukulcan, Kukulcan.”

Tezcahtlip finally stepped down onto the paving stones at the foot of El Castillo. He pointed to two worshipers in the audience and motioned for them to approach him.

The men were short, barely over five feet tall, tan with black hair and wearing brightly colored shirts. Their brown eyes showed great fear as they approached the red-haired giant.

Tezcahtlip studied the men, looking back and forth between them several times. Then he raised his left hand, palm out, facing the man on his left.

The tourist gasped and tried to double over in pain. An unseen force had gripped him, seizing him by his very skeleton. The pain was incredible, and he began to scream.

The scream died out when the man stood straight up, and his chest exploded—his ribs ripped outwards, like the petals of a flower suddenly opening. Blood sprayed out, and the man’s heart flew from his chest.

Tezcahtlip caught the heart in his hand and held it high, allowing the body to fall to the ground.

The worshipers gasped in horror, looking back and forth from the giant to the fallen member of their ranks. Many began to slowly edge backwards, reconsidering their decision to worship the giant.

Tezcahtlip lowered his arm and took a large bite of the heart—nearly half of it. He chewed it in his mouth, letting blood flow out of his lips, down either side of his chin. His white suit was now speckled with the spray of blood from the slain man, and fresh blood dripped from his hand and his chin.

The giant popped the last half of the heart into his mouth and swallowed it whole. Then he raised his right hand toward the man on his right.

The crowd gasped and the man on the right turned pale. He was too frightened to scream and stood still, paralyzed with fear.

Suddenly he felt himself lifted off the ground, held by gentle pressure over his whole body. Then he drifted slowly forward, toward the giant.

The massive six-fingered hand came down, resting lightly on the man’s shoulder, which was now level with the giant’s. The tourist’s feet dangled several feet above the ground.

Tezcahtlip opened his mouth, revealing his double row of teeth. Using his telekinesis, he gently opened the frightened human’s mouth as well.

Blue energy, crackling and flashing, snaked out of the man’s mouth in thin streams that twisted and turned around each other like lightning in slow motion. The energy poured into Tezcahtlip’s mouth for several long seconds before finally fading out.

The man, suspended in the air hung limply, lifeless.

Tezcahtlip turned the man around, his hovering body high enough for all the frightened worshipers to see.

Satisfied they had all seen the man was dead, Tezcahtlip turned the body back around and again opened its mouth and his own.

Red energy now crackled out of the giant’s mouth, flowing into the corpse’s. The energy was bright and flowed swiftly. In just two short seconds, it was done.

The body suspended in the air came to life, the head raising and eyes snapping open.

Tezcahtlip gently set the new vampire down beside him, ensuring he had control over it and that it did not immediately attack those standing nearby.

Who will follow me, and who will feed me?
The giant telepathically broadcast to the assembled.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Report,” Colonel Kenslir barked.

Gwendolyn Owens nearly jumped out of her chair at the sound of his voice. She dropped the fashion magazine she was reading, she was so startled.

Ignoring the magazine now on the floor, the telepath rose to her feet and fought back the urge to salute. As a civilian employee of the Department of Defense, she was not required to salute Colonel Kenslir, but his scary demeanor always made her want to. She hated how he could sneak up on her, undetected.

“She seems sincere—and a little pissed,” Gwendolyn said. She straightened the jacket of her suit, and smoothed out the wrinkles in her slacks. She’d been sitting outside the door to the vampire’s cell for hours now.

“Any hunger issues?”

Gwendolyn blushed, remembering all the thoughts the vampire had over the past few hours. “Uh... only some concerning you, Colonel.”

“Thank you. Dismissed.”

Gwendolyn again fought down the urge to salute and instead knelt quickly and retrieved her magazine and hurried away.

Kenslir moved to the cell door and placed his hand on the scanner. The device verified his identity then the dozen steel rods holding the door in place retracted.

When he stepped inside the hotel room-like cell, Kenslir saw that Laura was laying on her bed, reading a magazine, with the TV on. The red haired vampire had taken off her dirty slacks and was lounging around in her green blouse.

“Mark!” Laura said, happily. She leapt off the bed. “Back so soon?”

“Get your clothes on,” Kenslir said. “I’m moving you upstairs.”

Laura frowned. “I was hoping you’d go the other direction with that.”

“You want to stay down here?” Kenslir asked.

Laura quickly crossed to a chair and got her slacks. She slipped them on then stepped into her heels. “What made you change your mind?”

“I’ve had a telepath monitoring you.”

Laura raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Peeking inside my noggin? I had no idea you were so naughty.”

Kenslir stepped back and motioned for the vampire to exit the room.

She crossed over to him, running her fingers across his chest as she passed. “Where are we going?”

“Up.” Kenslir said.

He led the vampire out of the detention block, and back towards the freight elevator.

Laura looked back behind her, down the long hallway lined with blast doors. “What’s back that way?”

“The Fountain of Youth,” Kenslir said, stepping into the waiting elevator.

Laura laughed. “Have you finally developed a sense of humor?”

***

Officers Reinol De Hoyos and Ramiro Baro were running for their lives.

The two State Judicial Police officers had been on another boring night shift, patrolling the lone road leading from Chichen Itza to the nearby city of Piste’ when they had come across a large group of people on foot. Walking down the middle of the two-lane road, blocking the way.

The officers had stopped their car and exited, patiently calling out for what they assumed was a band of drunken touristas to step to the side of the road. They knew that in this area, the tourists were a major part of the economy, visiting Chichen Itza and staying at the luxurious hotels nearby. Even after 2012 had come and gone without the world ending, the ancient Mayan civilization was still a powerful lure for people from all over.

Instead of complying with the officers’ commands, the group of twenty or more tourists had broken into a run, hissing like animals.

Reinol had drawn his pistol and fired a warning shot.

The leader of the pack, a pot-bellied gringo with blonde hair and clothes that looked like they had come straight out of a gift shop, leapt forward, covering a distance of at least fifteen feet in one bound. He landed in front of the open driver’s door of the patrol car.

The blonde gringo grabbed the door and ripped it free of the car, flinging it to the side as though it were made of cardboard.

Reinol immediately opened fire into the chest of the gringo, pumping several rounds from his semiautomatic handgun right through the blouse-like white shirt.

The blonde staggered backwards, looking down at his chest, then back up at Reinol. His mouth opened wide, revealing long fangs.

Ramiro immediately took off running, away from the approaching mob.

Reinol was right behind him.

The two officers had covered a good hundred feet, and were beginning to tire. Then hands grabbed at the back of their shirts and their pistol belts and they were pulled to the ground. Fangs punctured their skin, biting into their arms, legs, necks, stomachs and even their scalps.

The two officers screamed and shrieked as the mob of vampires began to suck their blood from them.

***

“This is you,” Mark Kenslir said, opening a door on the nineteenth floor of the building. The number on the door was 193.

Laura walked past Mark, peeking in to the apartment. The Colonel followed her inside, leaving the door to the hallway open behind them.

Just inside the door, on the right, was a small kitchenette, that led to a ten foot by ten foot dining room. To the left was a closet, then further on a short hallway. Beyond the kitchen, the apartment opened up into a large living room that measured twenty feet across by almost twenty-five feet deep. The east wall was made entirely of floor to ceiling glass. Beyond the glass, Laura could make out the glow of clouds on the horizon, past the ocean. Dawn was not very far away.

The living room was decorated with nice furniture, a large tv, and all the amenities one would find in a modern hotel room. It was decorated like one too.

“Is there room service?” Laura asked.

“Cafeteria’s on the third floor,” Kenslir answered. “But I’d prefer you stay in your quarters until we can advise the unit of your unique condition.”

Laura smiled—she couldn’t wait to read that memo and see exactly how Mark was going to explain why a vampire was now living in the building. “So I’ll be free to move about, then? No more being a prisoner?”

“In a day or so.”

“And what about you? Where will you be?”

“I’m next door.” The Colonel pointed toward the south wall of the apartment.

“Keeping an eye on me?” Laura said, walking over to the Colonel.

“If the curtains don’t block enough sun, you can reach maintenance at 290. They can bring up some spray paint or something.”

Laura stood almost toe to toe with the Colonel, and looked up at him. “Can you stay a while? I’m feeling a little hungry.”

Kenslir frowned. “I think you’ve had enough for a few days.”

Laura licked her lips and lifted her hands, placing them around the Colonel’s neck. “I’m always ready for seconds.”

Kenslir blushed and stepped back, pulling Laura’s hands down. “Dr. Olson, let’s get one thing straight—I’m married. We can supply you with fresh blood, or even allow you to siphon some energy from me if the situation calls for it. But you and I are going to keep our relationship professional.”

Laura grinned. “Suit yourself. But don’t think I’m giving up that easy.”

Kenslir frowned again, then turned and walked quickly from the room.