Darkest Hour (28 page)

He couldn’t answer, not with anything that contradicted Kate’s own theory.

“She’s still here,” Kate said. “And she’s waiting for you to save her.”

Can you believe this chick?
Lockman didn’t recognize this voice. It sounded like a bad impersonation of a Jersey accent.
She’s trying to guilt trip you. How low can she go, right? Am I right?

Lockman squeezed his eyes shut. “You don’t understand.”

Her cool hand touched his face. “Craig, our baby needs us.”

Yeah, she needs you like she needs a freakin’ blood transfusion. Am I right? Like you can make that poor girl’s existence any worse. You’re better off crawlin’ back into the basement and chewing some lead bubblegum, right? I mean, am I right or what?

With some effort, Lockman forced his eyes open. “Kate, I’m broken. My head...”

Aw, now don’t go tellin’ her about the voices. She already thinks fruitcake with extra nuts.

“I’m not right anymore.”

“Why do you think I didn’t let you kill yourself?”

“Because you wanted answers.”

“So? I’ve got them. Why am I still here then?”

“Why
are
you here?”

She took his hands in hers. “Just like I know Jess is still out there, I know you, the real you, is still here.”

“After all I’ve done...”

“To protect Jessie.” She visibly swallowed, took a second, then continued. “I raised that girl on my own for most of her life. You think I never screwed up? Never hurt anyone’s feelings?”

“I’ve done more than hurt some feelings.”

“You’ve made a number of grave mistakes. But who am I to judge? If our roles had been reversed, now that I know everything that happened, I can’t say I’d do different.”

Her strength astounded Lockman. That she could stand there, look him in the eye, and... “Are you forgiving me?”

“Are you willing to try to save our daughter?”

At any other time in his life, that would have been the most ludicrous question ever posed to him. That she had to ask him now turned his stomach. “Yes, but...”

“Craig, I know you’re sick. I’ve been taking care of you for the past week. That you made it this far, seeing what you have seen, is a miracle all by itself.”

You hear that? I told you she thought you was crazy. That’s what
sick
here really means if you didn’t get that little hint there. I was right. Am I right? Yep. I’m right.

“I’m no good to you or Jess like this. I hear voices in my head, for fuck’s sake.” He turned away, didn’t want her to see him, couldn’t stand her scrutiny.

She gently rubbed his back. “Remember how I was after that ghost had possessed me?”

All too well. Another example of what he had come to think of as The Lockman Effect. Get close to Craig Lockman, something was bound to fuck up your life, and not your run-of-the-mill relationship dysfunction. A game show host voice spoke up in his head.

You, too, can end up possessed by a ghost, turned into a vampire, taken over by a malevolent soul, or ripped to shreds in any of a variety of violent ways.

“Jessie helped me then,” Kate said. “Let me help you now.”

Lockman turned back and looked at her as if she were the crazy one. Was she really suggesting working some mojo on his head?

She held up a hand before he could object. “Are you willing to try to save our daughter?”

That horrible question again. “Yes.”

“Then let me help you.”

What have you got to lose, Ace?
The faux-Jersey voice again.
This broad wants to screw with a head that’s already screwed using unnatural powers. It ain’t like she can make matters much worse, right? I mean, am I right?

For once, Lockman thought, yes, the voice was right.

“Okay,” he said.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

They left Barrow in ruins.

Not a single mortal remained.

Gabriel had taken up residence in the mayor’s house. The mayor had a set of twin daughters on the cusp of their teens that Gabriel had made watch as he tore open their father’s throat and drank down his blood. The little girls’ horror alone was enough to charge Gabriel’s power. Another trick the ancient voices had passed to him. He could now store power made through blood and pain, and release it only when he needed it. It took more to reach similar levels than with fresh sacrifices, but Barrow had offered him tremendous resources.

After mentally torturing them with their father’s violent death, Gabriel turned the twins. Mostly for entertainment value. And because it disturbed Jessie so much. Gabriel had made it a hobby to horrify his body’s former host.

The twin vampires followed Gabriel like a pair of puppies. He enjoyed the attention. The only puppy he had as a child was the one his father had forced him to decapitate. Father had no real skill for magic, but Gabriel and Otto could both attest to his skill as a torturer.

Is that what all this comes down to
, Jessie said with patented snark.
Daddy issues?

Gabriel shoved the girl’s consciousness aside. He wasn’t in the mood for banter.

He sat in the mayor’s living room. A modest space for the leader of a modest town. Gabriel had most of the furniture removed except for a leather easy chair and a sofa. The twins lounged on the sofa with their mother between them, each sucking on a wrist. Their mother had a wisp of life in her, but the twins would drain that in the next hour at most.

Gabriel sat in the easy chair, his makeshift throne during his reign over Barrow. He watched the plasma television mounted to the wall. A news anchor for a national cable network looked at the camera with mock distress.

“
For those of you just joining us, we have word that all contact has been lost with the United States’ most northern city of Barrow, Alaska. U.S. officials blame the lost communication on an abnormal weather disturbance, however we’ve uncovered a video posted to the internet taken by a supposed resident of Barrow shot yesterday.”

Gabriel smiled as the picture switched to a dark and grainy video of a young man directing the camera at himself while he crouched under a desk. He whispered at the camera, the sound tinny but clear.

“
They’re all over the place. Everyone is dead. I’m telling you, they’re vampires. I know it sounds crazy but—
”

The camera jostled. It dropped to the floor, the lens aimed at the ceiling. From off camera came a snarling. A shadow passed across the screen, too quick to make out any details, but there was a glimpse of something pale that could have been a face. Then terrified screaming ensued, going on for a dozen seconds or more.

The network cut back to the anchor who visibly shivered. Perhaps his distress wasn’t so feigned after all.

“
Rumors are spreading across the web that Barrow’s extended nightfall during this part of the year has allowed for a vampire invasion. Others, however, are convinced the video is a hoax. We will, of course, keep you apprised of the situation as it develops.”

Gabriel flicked the TV off with the remote and tossed the remote aside. Goody. They had started some rumors. The taking over of an entire city had lead to some
rumors.
He shot off his chair and paced.

The twins looked up from their lazy feeding, but went back to it when they realized their master wasn’t leaving.

The conditions in Barrow had been perfect, and Gabriel had done everything right. Aside from his sweeping victory against Lockman, he had taken control of a rampant group of vampires and turned them into unstoppable followers. He helped them finish wiping out the city of its mortal population, swelled their numbers, and demonstrated great power.

All of this, however, had happened in almost total obscurity. He hadn’t considered having a media presence to document the conquest. And the city was so remote, there were no outside witnesses to spread the word. The few that might come to investigate would make for an insignificant audience. No. Gabriel’s performance had been a smashing success, but he needed a larger stage.

To spread his message, he needed to take this horror show on tour.

Yeah, right,
Jessie said.
You might be able to teleport a few, but how are you going to get close to three-thousand vamps out of the middle of nowhere?

Gabriel stopped pacing. He idly watched the twins as they discovered their mother’s blood had gone cold and started to congeal. One twin bit further up her mother’s arm as if a fresh wound would make a difference. The other twin crossed her arms and pouted.

“Girls, all things must die,” Gabriel said.

The twin that had tried a second bite spit out what was in her mouth and gave Gabriel a puppy dog face. “Except for us?”

He strolled over and patted her on the head. “Except for us.”

All the while, a part of his mind wandered. Jessie was correct. Even he did not have enough power to send so many to a new location. He supposed they could form up a caravan of vehicles and drive out of Barrow. It lacked dramatic panache, but what other choice did they have? Then he laughed when the obvious answer came to him.

The twins giggled along as if they knew what was so funny.

If Lockman found a way to send his army, surely Gabriel could do the same. He only needed to find out how Lockman had done it. Gabriel had sensed the magical energy building when Lockman had opened his portal. That was how Gabriel knew where to send the vampires to greet them. Perhaps he could trace that energy back to its source. There he could find what Lockman had used to make his portal and use it to make his own.

“Girls?”

They both gazed up at him with admiring eyes.

“I need one of you to fetch me...” He trailed off, thinking. Barrow had its share of mystics, and Gabriel had picked out several whose talents carried over to the vampiric side. One of them stood out among the group. “Titus. Tell him to bring an assistant of his choosing.”

Both twins stood. “I’ll go,” said one.

“No,” said the other. “I’ll go.”

Gabriel had yet to learn his pets’ names. They both looked exactly the same to him. Might as well have been the same. “You may both go.”

They shared a smile, then skipped out of the room holding hands.

Gabriel folded his hands behind his back and gazed at the blank television screen. He imagined the story they would run when they had live footage of a vampire army tearing through someplace much harder to ignore than Barrow, Alaska.

He just had to decide which place was worthy of such an honor.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

It took some getting used to the silence. After a week of hearing voices, to have his own head back left Lockman with a nagging sense that something was missing, like that feeling you get when you walk out the door without your keys. He would often have to stop and remind himself that this was a good thing.

What he did not miss one bit—that overwhelming urge to destroy himself. Those incessant images of him putting the barrel of a gun to his head or in his mouth. That constant certainty that if he did not explode, the whole world would.

He sat on the front porch, gaze directed out toward the horizon, but vision directed inward. Though Kate had managed to clear his mind with little more than a touch after cutting herself again, he still had much to sort through. Decisions to come to. Like what was he willing to do to save Jessie.

Anything.

What about the mojo? Would he even continue to use Kate’s power?

If it meant getting Jessie safe, he would give Kate the blood himself.

The smell of stewed tomatoes rolled out through the screen door. After working the mojo on him, Kate had parked Lockman in the chair on the porch, covered him with a scratchy army blanket, and went inside to prepare lunch. The plan was, once they finished their meal, Kate would try contacting Kress to recruit his team’s aid. Lockman didn’t know how they could help, but he had promised Kate to keep an open mind.

He missed Adam. He even missed Teresa. While Kate’s touch had fixed the damage to his psyche, it hadn’t cured him of basic human emotion. He still felt the pain of losing so many comrades to death or, in Teresa’s case, mere disagreement. He could use their counsel now. Teresa had a knack for tactical strategy. If anyone could figure out a way to get at Gabriel through all those vampires, it was her. And Adam always knew how to instill confidence, and inspire his fellow warriors to do their best. Lockman could use some of that about now.

While his thoughts had turned negative, they didn’t drag Lockman into the hole he had spent the last week cowering in. Instead, he tried to channel his old friends’ best traits to come up with some strategy of his own.

“Lunch is ready.”

Lockman blinked and turned to find Kate standing in the doorway. She had the screen door propped against her hip. He hadn’t even heard her open it.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m—”

The wail of the sirens cut him off.

The whole compound was rigged with sensors to detect unauthorized supernatural activity. The sensors were attached to an alarm.

Something had just tripped it.

Lockman threw off the blanket and shot to his feet.

“What is that?” Kate asked.

“Alarm. We have visitors.” He rushed into the house, tugging Kate along by the arm. He retrieved the AR-15 he had leaning against the wall by the door, grabbed an extra magazine from the stack he had ready on the desk, then guided Kate into the kitchen and to the basement door. “Hunker down in the basement while I go check it out.”

He tucked the spare mag into his side pocket and started to turn away, but Kate grabbed at his shirt. “Excuse me?”

“What?”

“You can’t tuck me in the basement while you run off to face who knows what.”

“You’re the connection to Jessie. You need to stay safe.”

“And if something happens to you, you don’t think someone can find me hiding in the basement?”

The sirens continued their air-raid cry.