Deadman's Blood (45 page)

“I figured as much. Give it your best shot, Dominic, unless that punch was the best you could do,” Dr. Rowe said pompously.

Normally, Dominic might have circled around, sizing up the scene, but he was too worried Dr. Rowe might see Dean trying to free the prisoners, and so he lunged forward, surprising Dr. Rowe a bit when they made contact. At lightning speed, Dominic threw a flurry of uppercuts to Dr. Rowe’s stomach, doubling him over. Dr. Rowe rammed him with his shoulder, landing Dominic on his back several yards away. Taking advantage of Dominic’s fall, Dr. Rowe came at him fast, but Dominic anticipated this and swung his left leg out in a wide circle, catching Dr. Rowe’s feet and causing him to fall hands first to the floor.

Enraged that he had been duped, Dr. Rowe jumped like a crazed fiend, arms wide and ready to rip apart anything that got in his way, but Dominic, on his back kicked hard with both legs, planting both feet into Dr. Rowe’s chest, then rolled away and got to his feet. Was Dr. Rowe just playing with him? Or had years of hiring others to do his dirty work, softened him? Dominic wasn’t sure, but there was no time to think about it as Dr. Rowe lunged at him, pulling him into his knee and cracking something, and throwing Dominic back several yards in a heap. Dominic was doubled over, holding his ribs and trying to catch his breath. While he was down, Dr. Rowe kicked him several times in the back, hard in the kidneys.

With all his might, Dominic punched Dr. Rowe in the side of his knee, taking him to the ground, while Dr. Rowe howled obscenities. Dr. Rowe slowly rolled to one side and got up, favoring the one leg as he made his way to a doubled over Dominic.

Dr. Rowe pulled Dominic to a standing position with one arm as the other pummeled Dominic’s face with multiple under cuts to the jaw. Dominic started to see stars when Dr. Rowe said, “Sophia’s lips tasted so sweet when I kissed them to stifle her screams of pain when I killed her.”

That was enough to fill Dominic with a short lived burst of energy enough to knee Dr. Rowe in the groin and kick his already injured knee. Dr. Rowe doubled over only for a moment when his eyes turned their vampire crimson red and his fangs appeared. He hissed in pain and anger, pulled back his right arm, and shot it forward with such great force that when it connected with Dominic’s already bloodied face, it lifted him several feet in the air and threw him back three yards or more like a rag doll, knocking him unconscious.

Limping, Dr. Rowe made his way towards Dominic to finish him off when he saw an apparition…an illusion…a ghost. Sally learned in her few weeks of dealing with spirits that they had two views. The one most natural to the spirit was the state of their body when they were killed, which could be gruesome if the spirit in life had been mutilated in some way. However, when a spirit wanted to be seen by a relative or a person with whom they want to communicate on a more friendly basis, they could, with an effort, make themselves look as they did in life.

In this instance, Sally had asked Nathaniel Bloomington, Sophia, and Abby Larsen Bloomington, along with other Larsen spirits that happened to be around, to show their gruesome side; after all, they wanted to scare Dr. Rowe, not have a happy conversation. Not surprisingly, they were more than happy to torture the man who had seen to their demise.

A flash showed Sophia in a white nightgown, beautiful but pale, standing in front of Dr. Rowe, her arms outstretched towards him in malice and the lower half of her nightgown drenched and dripping in blood. In a second it was gone and another flash to his right and Abby appeared, her head slightly askew as if someone haphazardly set it back in place. Blood ran from the circumference of her neck down her nightgown to her feet. She was about 10 feet away, and then suddenly she was inches from his face. Next it was Sophia and she was whispering in his ear.

He didn’t know what was happening. Had Dominic hit him so hard that he was seeing things? He shook his head as if jostling his brains might make the visions go away, but instead they were intensified and more horrific. All around him were ghosts of Larsens he and his relatives had killed over the centuries. His breath caught in his chest. How was this happening?

Like a flood of ice cold water, a feeling washed over him and drowned him in acute fear. Never had such a fervent unease taken over him. With the flashes of ghosts in every direction and such crippling fear, Dr. Rowe cowered into a ball as the spirits bombarded him one after the other. He was a sitting duck in the middle of the warehouse as Mark, Josh, Melanie, Sally, and Katarina appeared. Quickly, Dean and Katarina switched places. Katarina was now finishing freeing the prisoners with Melanie now guarding her, holding a small loaded crossbow. The others spread out in front of Melanie in the shape of an arc with Dr. Rowe and an unconscious Dominic in the center, all weapons loaded and aimed at Dr. Rowe.

*****

After Julianna got off the phone with Josh, she explained the circumstances to Dr. Donaldson, enforcing the urgency of time, and the doctor reminded her of the danger in which she was putting herself, for what she hadn’t told Josh was that in order to reverse the damage done by the Deadman’s Blood, a type of potion would have to be made and infused with the blood of a made vampire at least 300 years old. This usually was a rare thing as made vampires hardly ever made it past 200 years old. But lucky for Devon, Anton, and Blake, Julianna just happened to fit the bill. The problem was that it took a huge quantity of blood from the made vampire. Times that by three and it would leave Julianna drained.

Dr. Donaldson knew this and was trying to drain her blood more slowly so that she could replenish by healing in between each of the three remedies to be made, but Julianna was insistent.

It worked like a charm; Blake was conscious within minutes of its administration and though hazy, he was asking for food and seemed to have his strength back when a cart went by the open door and a little tub of pudding floated up off the cart, through the doorway, and into his hands. Rowan laughed heartily as she kissed his cheeks while Blake shoved spoonful after spoonful into his mouth.

Twenty minutes later, Devon was given the remedy and quickly awoke to a smiling Darby at his side. Nurses by the dozen poked and prodded the two men, testing this and checking that to see if the Deadman’s Blood was indeed gone.

Another twenty minutes later, Anton was getting his dose. For some reason, his awakening took a little longer but when he did wake up it was as if he’d never been sick at all. Restless from being in bed, their bodies dying to move around, it was like trying to keep three puppies still for five minutes for a picture so that the nurses could finish their tasks. Having been in a coma all this time and the girls having been in Baltimore, the most updated person in the room as to what was happening with the family was Anton. When he gave them what he knew, they were anxious to get back to the house. The girls did not know why there were guards outside the door and all were shocked to find that Dr. Rowe had come in another attempt to kill them all the day before.

After hearing this, Anton had a pang of guilt as he remembered his conversation with Jules when she told him to be wary of Dr. Rowe. She had been right and he had been awful to her - horrible even.

When the doctor was finished with depleting Julianna of her blood, he ordered her to rest, gave her a bag of blood to calm her ravenous cravings, and said that he would check on her in an hour or two. Knowing the impending danger to Dominic’s life, she tried to get up after ten minutes only to have her head swimming and a gray-black fog dancing before her eyes, making her lie back down. Feeling honor-bound by her promise to Josh, she tried again after another ten minutes, this time making it to a sitting position, but not ready for standing. Five more minutes passed and she was able to stand. She sluggishly made her way to Devon, Anton, and Blake’s room, swatting away nurses who tried to deter her. She took a deep breath and walked into the room.

Within minutes, she had explained what was happening and how there were lives in the balance. Ten minutes later, all were dressed, getting into two cars, and racing across town to 1408 Harbor Drive.

*****

A sudden realization came over Dr. Rowe that though the apparitions of dead Larsens plagued him, they weren’t hurting him, and he got ahold of his fear and pulled it back, strangling it in his mind so that he could see past it. When he did this, he saw the armed intruders in front of him.

He had thought he was angry when Dominic held his own for as long as he did, but now he was past that anger and onto rage.
How could some puny humans have outsmarted me? How have they played with my head? My emotions?

Once again his anger changed him into his red-eyed, fanged form. He started for them and the yew-laced arrows came at him fast and furious. It slowed him but didn’t stop him. Melanie and Sally stretched out a large net made from the vervain, hairy redwood bark, and wolfsbane. They ran towards Dr. Rowe, ensnaring him in the net. All but Katarina, who was desperately trying to wake an unconscious Bernard and Alyssa, came at Dr. Rowe, holding down the net as best they could with what seemed to be a wild, flailing beast entangled within.

Dr. Rowe stopped for a moment and each of them could feel him trying to seep his compelling tentacles into their brains. They could feel it, and they wanted to do what was being commanded, but the concoction Sally had made was keeping him from controlling them. Dr. Rowe roared out in frustration, standing up, arms thrown out to the sides, like a seedling breaking through the shell of its seed and then bursting through the soil with such force that it sent all the net holders flying. He spun around heaving the net from his back, spinning around, hissing and growling at the loathsome humans.
How dare they best me?
His pride was wounded and in its place a fury was swelling.

Alyssa was starting to come around, but Bernard was in bad shape. Melanie had crawled to Dominic to try her healing powers on him. She knew they would not work like they do on humans, but maybe she could send him some energy or something to wake him up. The rest were just getting up. Mark was reloading; Dean was in his werewolf form and growling. Sally was throwing apparitions here and there and sent a few lightning balls that grew in strength as they grew in size. Mark tossed the now loaded cross bow to Josh. Josh sent everything he had telepathically at Dr. Rowe, creating an intense feeling of fire within Dr. Rowe’s head. He stumbled for a moment before he could get some kind of handle on it. It was strong and Dr. Rowe reeled in pain like he’d never felt before, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from moving towards them.

More yew-soaked arrows flew at him. Josh thought he looked rather like a porcupine, but he kept coming at them. He reached Melanie and swatted her away from Dominic, landing her twenty feet or more in a most uncomfortable position. Dean lunged at him, biting his leg hard and taking a rather good chunk out of Dr. Rowe’s good leg. Dr. Rowe grabbed him by the neck and tossed him at Sally who was still sending lightning ball after lightning ball. She was unable to get out of the way in time when Dean’s werewolf body smashed into her, knocking the wind out of her and smacking her head hard against the floor.

Dean’s fall had been broken by Sally’s body, so he got up and lunged at Dr. Rowe again about the time he’d gotten to Josh. Again, Dr. Rowe grabbed Dean by the throat but this time he took Dean’s front paw and snapped it like a twig, making Dean yelp in pain, then he tossed him to the side. Josh was stronger now and he grabbed Dr. Rowe around the neck and squeezed as hard as he could. To get Josh to stop choking him, he pulled him close with a jerk, ramming him into the backside of the arrows all over his body and puncturing Josh’s stomach with dozens of holes, then tossed him to the side like a blanket. Mark’s body went blurry and then scaly and he turned into a dragon with golden eyes like fire. It definitely took Dr. Rowe by surprise, but didn’t stop him. A guttural noise that started deep within the dragon grew with strength and volume and next, huge flames poured out of its mouth like a flame thrower aimed at Dr. Rowe. Dr. Rowe screamed as the flames consumed his body. He writhed and thrashed about for a moment, then picked up the long bow Mark had been using to send long, slender arrows at him, landing one of the arrows deep into the belly of the dragon.

Mark instantly turned back into a human as he dropped to the ground with an arrow protruding from his abdomen. Now smoldering and charred, Dr. Rowe made his way back to Dominic when Devon, Darby, Blake, Rowan, Anton, and Julianna filed into the warehouse.

*****

Anton was horrified, as were the others, by the macabre scene of bodies strewn all around. But these weren’t just bodies, these were friends, family, and loved ones. There was only one standing, limping slowly towards them, scorched beyond recognition with strange, peg-like things protruding from all over his body.

“You Larsens are like lice. Once infested, it’s impossible to get rid of you,” Dr. Rowe said, exasperated.

Rowan transformed into her wolf form and set him on fire again with her thoughts. Darby formed lightning balls in her hands, ready to take aim. Devon swept forward, quickly tripping Dr. Rowe up in the net that had been used earlier. Using telekinesis, Blake pelted him with arrows that had been abandoned on the floor as he, Anton, and Julianna made their way towards the blackened man. They descended on him like a pack of hungry wolves and for a moment it looked as though they had the upper hand, when suddenly, Rowan was thrown out of the dog pile, yelping with a charred arrow in her side. Next, Blake was heaved out, moaning in pain when his already broken arm was injured on the way down. He blacked out from the intense pain.