Demon Driven (3 page)

The house has massive front doors that look
vintage, the biometric lock, however, is state-of-the-art. The
panel scanned my palm and admitted me entrance to the house’s front
foyer. I nodded at the human guard on duty, Jeff, or maybe Justin,
I thought. I actually knew most of them on sight, but this one was
new. All ex-military, mostly special forces types, they protected
the Coven during the daylight hours. Hired and vetted by Arkady,
with help from the human supervisor, Deckert, they were extremely
well paid and had great benefits. And after many years of service,
some were even given the opportunity to Turn, becoming vampires
themselves. Most chose not to, but all remained loyal. Disloyalty
was a real, real bad idea.

Near the rear of the house a stairway leads
to the below-ground levels. As I headed down I could hear a sound
like machine gun fire coming from below. Not exactly like full-auto
gunfire, but sharper, more metallic – the sounds of vampire combat.
Most likely Arkady sparring with my girl. He was the only one
currently in residence who could give her much of a workout. Or
maybe a good warmup. The lowest level is one big open room, with
nine-foot ceilings and a concrete floor. It was originally designed
for cold storage, but the vampires had knocked down the internal
walls and opened the whole thing up into a sixty by ninety-foot
room.

As I came out of the stairwell, I could see
Arkady’s giant back, bare and overly muscled, covered in sweat. It
takes an enormous level of activity to make a vampire break a
sweat. Arkady was perspiring rivers. He shifted left and I spotted
the current head of the coven, and the only girlfriend I’ve ever
had.

Midnight black hair, skin the color of fresh
cream, eyes so blue they almost spark. She was dressed in black
volleyball shorts and a sleeveless red performance tee shirt.
Silver colored bracelets gleamed on each taut forearm, exactly
matching the silver shine of her twin swords. One hundred and
twenty pounds of girl vampire faced at least two hundred, sixty
pounds of mean, killer male. Her eyes didn’t flick my way, but she
knew I was there. Hell, she had known exactly where I was the
moment she awoke at dusk.

Arkady suddenly blurred forward, his great
two-handed sword swirling in a flashing arc of steel. Tanya met his
overhead strike with her blades crossed, not moving an inch. Then
she exploded in counterstrike, her blades hitting his in a
superfast staccato of sound, almost like…wait for it….machinegun
fire. She pushed him back by main force and fury, then skipped to
the side, sweeping his right leg at the knee with the flat of her
left blade. He fell backward, the edge of her right blade right at
his throat the whole way to the ground. He froze, his eyes black
rim-to-rim, the razor-like sword at his jugular. Tanya paused a
moment, then stepped back to let him flip to his feet. The black
left his eyes and the yellow that was his normal color returned.
Tanya slapped him on the arm with a blade flat, dropped both
swords, then spun and pounced on me in a running leap that left her
legs wrapped around my waist and her lips covering mine. My normal
greeting.

“Hi gorgeous!” I said, when she let me up for
air.

“Hi yourself, handsome.”

Conversation stopped for a moment as we
looked into each others’ eyes. I have no idea what she was thinking
about, but me, I was busy wondering at fate, that this girl should
choose me.

“Ahem!” Arkady cleared his throat.

We both looked at him. He wasn’t even
slightly uncomfortable with interrupting us.

“Can I ask what manner of beating you have in
store for the mortal?” he said, referring to me, even though I’m
not really mortal anymore.

Our first meeting had been rocky, but Arkady
was completely devoted to serving Tanya and if she chose me than
that was good enough for him. But, like her other close advisors,
he seemed to enjoy tormenting me.

“I’m thinking we’ll work on hand-to-hand this
evening,” she answered.

Goody. Getting my ass kicked in close
quarters combat was always such fun.

“Excellent choice, Young Queen. I’ll just
alert my security guys. They do so like to observe.”

He moved to an in-house phone on the wall to
call upstairs. Most of the human security force would still be on
premises, as one of their benefits was a chef cooked meal each
shift. They also loved to watch me spar with Tanya. Not comfortable
watching her fight other vampires, they seemed fine when it was
just me. Maybe I’m the most human of the freaks in the house. I
usually eat with them and talk guns and cop gear with them, and I
don’t drink blood or stare at their throats the way some of the
vamps do. Arkady’s vampire security guys got along fine with the
humans, but there was always a steady stream of visiting Darkkin in
the house and many viewed all humans as food. It was enough of a
problem that all the security guys had a tattoo like mine on their
necks -- -- Tanya’s initials in Greek . A simple, yet highly
effective ‘hands off’ sign. The one time a vampire had ignored it,
Tanya had thrown him headfirst through the ceiling before he had
more than touched my arm. With her training and my constantly
improving speed and strength, I’m more than capable of defending
myself. But Tanya rules the NY Coven, by brains, birthright, and
might. And as I mentioned, she’s territorial.

While I helped her put away the swords and
metal impact weapons (wood doesn’t survive first contact when
wielded by vampires), a small group of humans and vamps lined the
walls.

I had just finished putting her tungsten
carbide swords in their case, my back to the rest of the room, when
I
felt
she was ready. I slid to one side, her attack just
barely missing. Immediately, I punched her, hard, in the back as
she went by, then jumped back to make room. It sounds like a really
harsh way to treat your lover, but I simply can’t convey how tough
and strong she really is. She is arguably the third most deadly
vampire on the planet. She can go toe-to-toe with just about any
were, vampire, or other monster and win. My punch, which will break
a two-by-twelve pressure-treated beam, slammed her into the wall.
Poor wall.

Vampire hand-to-hand fighting uses kicks,
punches, throws and joint locks like human martial arts, but that’s
where the similarities end. The V-squared virus that causes
vampirism changes the DNA in the host’s mitochondria. These little
cellular powerplants change to using blood for fuel and they act as
tiny generators, allowing the vampire to harness energy not
available to other animal life. Dr. Singh, the vampire doctor who
treats the NY Coven, is of the theory that Darkkin, as vampires
call themselves, tap into Dark Energy, the current darling of the
particle physics world. Likewise, weres tap into Dark Matter to
give them their increased and much modified mass, as well as rapid
healing. Whatever the source, vampires can use this etheric energy
to move in ways unnatural and unlikely. Ever watch a vampire movie
and the vamp will be depicted as moving in a blur, and you can tell
they just speeded up the film to get that effect?

Well guess what? It’s actually pretty
accurate. But just try walking across a room at regular speed, then
retry it at double speed. It takes a lot of work and
feels..well..weird. Try taking off from a standing start as fast as
you can. If your footing is at all slippery, your feet will slide
out. If you’re on dirt, you’ll kick up a pile of debris. Vampires
don’t do any of that. The reason is that they can use Dark Energy
to anchor and to obtain leverage in unique ways.

The vampire martial art uses at least five
methods of energy control. Post, Push, Harden, Lighten and Cling
are the principal techniques. How they are applied is endlessly
adaptable. Oh yeah, and it turns out that I have enough vampire
attributes that I can use the same techniques, even though I burn
regular food, not blood.

Tanya Pushed off the wall, in effect sending
energy into the wall as she shoved with her arms, spinning around
as she did so, coming at me in a blur. I feinted to the left, but
stayed where I was and Posted, anchoring myself to the ground with
a thought. At the same time I Hardened my skin to the point where a
wooden spear would have bounced off. My goal was to have Tanya slam
into me and use her own momentum against her. Not so lucky. She
chose a combination of Lighten, Push and Cling to reduce her body
weight, repel off my immovable body and stick to the wall on my
left. Clinging is close to Posting, but instead of sending a column
of energy into the ground, tiny spikes of power are used like a
rock climber’s pitons to stick to a wall or ceiling. She
immediately sprang back at me as I turned, slamming me to the
ground and getting a really solid punch to my head. My fight brain
was still working, despite the stars in my vision, and I Pushed off
the floor, straight to the ceiling nine feet above. Tanya was on my
back and she only managed to spin us partially around, so she took
most of the impact, but not as much as I wanted. Not enough to keep
her from Clinging to the ceiling with her
back
! Didn’t know
she could do that, but I shouldn’t be surprised. So she held us up
there, her steel strong arms and legs wrapped around me and her
razor fangs at the back of my neck. Game over. I tapped out,
lightly patting her arm to show I submitted. She let us drop,
Lightened her weight and mine and we landed on our feet softly.

“That was pretty good,” she said.

“Good? It was like four seconds!” I said.

“Actually, three point two,” Arkady supplied
from the sidelines. “That might be your new record.”

It really wasn’t too bad, considering that
Tanya was the best, and vampire combat is
fast
.

“How the hell did you Cling with your back? I
thought it always took hands or feet?” I asked.

“That’s what most Darkkin think, but you can
project the energy from any part of your body,” she replied.

She spent the next five minutes showing me
how. Then we had another bout and I surprised her by Pushing
through my back to come up from the floor, kinda like Dracula
rising from his coffin without touching anything. I made it just
over four seconds that time. It should be tough on my ego to have a
girlfriend that can kick my ass at will, but we’re not as unevenly
matched as that. Fighting purely vampire style, she’ll hand me my
head every time. The only two who can beat her are Elder Senka
(Tanya’s grandmother) and Elder Tzao, and soon even they won’t be
able to.

But that’s if I play the vampire way. If I
use
my
power, my unique violet aura or
chi
, I can
best her two outta three times. We usually spend the first half of
a workout using just Darkkin techniques, but after that she insists
I use all my abilities. Tonight with so many observers, we just
stayed with vampire fu.

The workout over, I toweled the sweat and
concrete chips off my head (the walls are going to need to be
reinforced in a couple more workouts). Tanya was talking to a group
of visiting vampires that had watched part of the workout. One
vampire caught my eye. Sleek and dark, he reminded me of a vampire
Antonio Banderas, all suave and cool. He was staring at Tanya
intensely, like a bum looking through a bakery widow at all the
pastries. I hated him on sight. Standing next to him was a short
vampire who somehow managed to look ratty and shifty. Vampires have
a natural attractiveness, sort of bait for their human prey. If
this one looked this bad as a vampire, he must have been a real
prize as a human.

“Yo Northern, you’re staring holes in the
visitors. Don’t want to make them nervous, ya know,” said a peppy
voice from just behind me.

“Hey Lydia. Who’s Rico Suave’ over there?” I
asked.

“Why Christian Gordon, I believe you’re
jealous,” she said.

“Ya know what? I am. I don’t like the way
he’s looking a Tanya and I’m thinking of going over there and
shoving his head thru the wall.”

“Whoa Chris! I was just messin’. You can’t go
beating the crap outta the visiting Darkkin for no good reason.
Where’s this sudden hostility coming from?” she asked.

She was right. A sudden wave of intense
dislike had welled up from deep inside me, like a geyser bursting
from the ground. Across the room, the dark, handsome vamp was
pointing at Tanya’s chest and I was suddenly aware of the pooled
power in my right hand, microseconds from blasting an aura spike
across the room and through his slick face.

Tanya pulled her amulet from under her tee
and was apparently explaining it to his politely smiling face. He
held his hand out and asked a question. His words were easy to read
from across the room.

“
May I see it?”

My dislike ripened to hatred. Tanya shook her
head no, then turned to look at me, a question on her beautiful
face. She had sensed my emotions. Her eyes widened, then she
smiled
of all things, a knowing smile, gave me a wink and
turned back to the conversation. Don Juan was looking my way as he
followed her gaze and his expression was contemptuous.
Go ahead,
keep sneering, asshat! Watch what happens when the human (sorta)
blasts you back to preschool!

Being a combination rock/movie star and
royalty to the Darkkin society made Tatiana the target of many a
vampire suitor. Most of those hopefuls were confused by her
selection of me as her chosen mate. The ones from neighboring
covens knew enough about me to be wary, while the vamps from more
distant locations thought I was just a human blood donor. But the
New York Coven locals wouldn’t cross me for all the blood in China.
They knew that Tanya didn’t pull punches with me when sparring,
they knew I had blasted a young vampire right back to being human
(for a few days) and most of all, they knew the stories about Elder
Fedor’s gruesome death. Of course, I had had almost a ton and a
half of paranormal ursine help with him, but all that mattered was
he was dead and I wasn’t.