Primacy of Darkness (8 page)

“Enrique, give him some overwatch,” their team leader ordered.

“Already on it.”

“Bravo One, sitrep,” Sven called in.

“Random noise in the alley, Alpha One. Andy and Enrique are checking it out.”

“Roger. Stay close. Call us in if you see anything definitive.”

“Roger, Alpha One. Bravo Two, anything?”

Andy was midway down the alley, with nothing large enough to hide a person in his path to the far end. “Negative, Bravo One. Probably just a big fucking rat. Maybe it’s one of Alpha One’s friends? I hear those Norway rats can get pretty damn big.”

“Squelch the commentaries, Bravo Two, and stay focused,” Sven ordered.

Shit!
Andy cursed himself. He had meant to say that in closed channel. “Roger, Alpha One.”

Andy turned and felt something brush his shoulder an instant before the cable bit into his neck and launched him into the air. He grabbed at his throat, letting his M4 dangle from its harness. He was level with the third-floor fire escape when Jack dropped past, riding the heavy air conditioner attached to the other end of the cable like an express elevator to the ground floor.

Jack’s slender falciform amputation knife flashed and deftly removed Andy’s head from his shoulders. Free of Andy’s weight, Jack and the air conditioner plummeted the last thirty feet in freefall. Jack leapt from the appliance before it struck the street with a crash.

“Fuck!” Enrique screamed into his comms and opened fire at the killer’s retreating form.

“Bravo Three, report!” Sven and Leona both ordered at once.

“That motherfucker just killed Andy!”

Leona was already moving. “Bravo Three, stand fast and wait for reinforcements!”

“Fuck that! I’m going to kill that sonofabitch,” Enrique shouted as he sprinted down the alley where Jack had already disappeared into the fog.

“Dammit, Bravo Three, I said stand fast!”

“Bravo team, hold your position!” Sven commanded. “Alpha and Charlie teams are ten seconds out and closing.”

Leona paused at the mouth of the alleyway. Several shots rang out from the far side. “Dammit!”

She had already lost one team member, and she could not stand idle and lose another. Leona raced toward the gunfire, unable to see more than shapes beyond ten meters through the fog. She was just able to catch sight of Enrique’s silhouette before it vanished into an alleyway.

Enrique pressed his eye to the thermal scope, playing it around the street and up the fire escapes in search of his target. He swung the weapon toward a sound to his right. The image in his scope showed a cat racing from another alley and out onto the street. He crept toward the entrance, pressed his back against the building, and peered around the corner.

He zigzagged the barrel of his M4 up the alley, but his thermals showed only a few rats scurrying for cover. A dark, amorphous blob rose up and blotted out the scope. He looked up from the scope and found Jack standing before him. Enrique tried to back away and bring his weapon in line, but Jack grabbed the barrel and swung him off his feet.

With the M4 strapped to his body, Enrique fell victim to the laws of physics. His body collided with the wall as Jack swung him about and he struck the street a second later. Jack darted to the side, wrenching Enrique from the ground before he could gain his feet, and slammed him into the alley’s other wall.

The strap securing the weapon to his harness snapped when Jack tried to whip him forward for a third strike against the wall. Enrique tumbled away, dazed, but managed to spring to his feet and draw his sword.

“He’s gone cold!” he shouted into the comms unit dangling from his head by the cord, before charging.

“Bravo Three, where are you?” Leona called back.

Jack brought his blade up and slapped Enrique’s heavy chop aside as he sidestepped his charge. Pushing his sword away with just a slight impact, Jack brought his free hand around and punched Enrique in the back, sending him sprawling headlong back to the ground.

“Enrique!” Leona’s voice cut through the fog.

Jack cocked an ear toward the call and smiled as Enrique climbed back to his feet. “I do wish I had more time to play with you, but there are others waiting to join the game, and you are already boring me.”

Enrique took two cautious steps toward Jack, his blade held at the ready. Jack reached into his waistband, drew out one of the automatics he had liberated from the cop’s body, and fired two quick shots. The first round blasted Enrique’s right knee and collapsed the leg. The second shot struck him just above the right eye.

While such a headshot was likely not fatal to a mature vampire, it left them stunned and vulnerable. Jack strode forward. Enrique tried to bring his sword up and fumbled for his holstered pistol, but his movements were sluggish and clumsy. Jack’s amputation knife flashed, and Enrique’s world vanished.

CHAPTER 11

I hate coming here. The noise assaults my ears from half a block away. Opening the door is like an acoustical dick slap in the face. At least the doorman recognizes me, so I don’t have to break anything—like a leg or spine.

It’s 3 a.m. and the party is still going strong. Techno music blares and lasers stab across the room like an epic Star Wars battle. Most of the people in the club certainly look as if they are from another planet. Thanks to the Molly and other assorted drugs pumping through the crowd’s system, most of them are mentally in another world.

Nick’s entourage parts before me like the Red Sea, and I didn’t even have to raise my hands. The fear I have managed to cultivate has reached biblical proportions, and I can’t say I don’t enjoy it just a bit. Nick is a world-class piece of shit, but he is occasionally useful, especially since I began employing him and his people to be my eyes and ears on the street.

He looks ready to shit himself when we make eye contact, and I jerk my head toward his office. It’s probably the “I really need to kill someone” look on my face. Nick manages to control his bodily functions and follows me. The door and walls of his office are blessedly soundproof, cutting off about ninety percent of the club music once I close the door behind him.

Nick swallows and presses his back against a wall. “Hey, Leo, everything good? We still cool, right?”

“You’re still alive, right?”

“Wh-what’s up?”

“Bloodling, Asian, female, thirtyish. Excellent fighting skills.”

Nick’s eyes bobble back and forth, and he pauses for me to continue. “Uh…sounds hot?”

I grab a fistful of silk shirt and gold chains, lift him from the ground with one arm, and push him against the padded wall. “She jumped me earlier. You run all the bloodlings in this city or near to it. Who is she?”

Nick’s jaw works up and down, then his eyes go wide as recognition dawns. “Oh, shit, you mean the guy who almost kicked your ass was a chick—and a bloodling?”

“You know about her.”

“No, I saw that shit on YouTube. When that van hit you, and you went flying…Dude, that shit was hilarious!”

I pull Nick away from the wall and slam him back hard enough to make his teeth rattle.

“I mean, that shit was fucked up!”

“What do you know about her?”

“Nothing, man! I don’t have any chicks who look like that. I got one dude who comes close, but he’s been here all night except for a few trips to the bathroom to work the glory hole in stall three.”

His feet slap the floor when I let him go. “I need your people out on the streets. She might have a white girl with short black hair working with her. I only got a brief look, but I got a distinct Goth vibe from her, someone who might come into a shithole like this.”

“Hey, I run a nice club!”

“Yeah, stall three really classes the place up.”

He shrugs. “I got a diverse clientele who have certain expectations. As a good business owner, I have to cater to their needs.”

“Get me some information or I will burn this festering pit to the ground.”

“You probably would anyway,” Nick mumbles.

“Maybe, it depends on how the rest of my night goes.”

My phone vibrates, demanding attention. I pull it out of my pocket, swipe the screen to unlock it, and read the text three times before putting it away.

Druitt. 161st and Jamaica. Now.

“What’s that?” Nick asks, likely seeing my happy-go-lucky face slip into something more brooding.

“A reminder for you to make sure your insurance payments are up to date,” I say as I stalk out of the room.

***

Leona jogged toward the sound of fighting, hunkering down to maintain a low profile. She dropped, rolled, and pressed her back against the building when a pair of shots rang out.

“Bravo Three, report!” Only silence broken up with static answered her. “Bravo Three!” She breathed a mental sigh of relief when her earpiece crackled, heralding an open channel.

“Nine little vampires hunting Jack; one wandered off, and he’ll never come back. Eight little vampires down by one; Jack’s just getting started, he’s nowhere near done. Seven little vampires hanging by a thread; keep chasing Jack and he’ll take your head.”

Leona spotted a dark shape move through the fog for just a split second. She raised her assault rifle, but something large and heavy struck her hard enough to make her stagger. She found the object a few feet away. She recoiled from the sight of Enrique’s eyes staring at her, blind yet full of accusations.

“Fuck!”

“Vincent, are you somewhere on the other end of this contraption?” Jack asked into the radio. “Stop sending these children after me and come play.”

Inside the command center, Gertrud met Vincent’s eyes and shook her head.

“Bravo One, Alpha One. Sitrep,” Sven ordered.

Leona leaned against the wall as she tried to shake the horrific image from her mind.

“Bravo One, Alpha One. What is your status?”

She shook herself free of the terror gripping her. “Alpha One, Bravo One. Bravo Two and Three are down. Bravo One holding position.”

The pause in Sven’s response was brief, and yet the chasm within that moment of silence was as vast as the Grand Canyon. “Roger, Bravo One. Continue to hold your position. We are almost to you.”

“Copy, Alpha One,” Leona responded, fighting and failing to keep her voice from trembling.

Her body tensed at the sound of approaching footsteps. She swung her M4 around before her brain could process the fact that it was several pairs of feet and not the padding of a single lunatic.

Sven’s team enveloped her, taking up a defensive position against the wall. It was all Leona could do to keep from reaching out and throwing her arms around her squad leader. She despised feeling so scared and unprofessional, but she had never been so relieved to be with her compatriots.

“Charlie One, Alpha One. We have Bravo One. What is your position?”

“Alpha One, Charlie One. We are one block east of your location at the Applebee’s and heading your way. Would you like me to pick you up a pie while we’re here?”

“This is not the time, Charlie One,” Sven replied, his voice sharp and devoid of humor.

“Copy, Alpha One. Just trying to lighten the mood. Moving to your position.”

Charlie team jogged up, using cars and corners for cover while keeping a low profile. Charlie One made his way to where Sven crouched next to Leona near the wall.

“What’s the situation, other than the obvious clusterfuck?”

“Jesus Christ, Dan!” Leona snapped. “Have some goddam respect for the dead.”

“Hey, we all grieve in our own way. I’ll cry into my beer later when we’re all doing shots out of this motherfucker’s eye sockets.”

Leona released a resigned sigh and let her shoulders slump. “I didn’t see shit on my thermals except maybe the heat of his weapon being discharged, so I think he’s gone dark. He also has Enrique’s comms unit, so we need to switch channels.”

Sven nodded and keyed his radio. “Frequency hop tango.”

The remaining squad members, as well as central command, changed channels and switched to the predesignated encryption key.

“What now, boss?” Dan asked.

“We stick together. Leona, you are now Alpha Four. Dan, you take your team across the street. No one loses sight of anyone for any reason. There is no way he is going to get the jump on all of us, especially if we are watching each other’s backs.”

“How are we going to box him in and trap him between us if we don’t split up?” Dan asked.

“We won’t have to,” Leona answered. “He thinks this is a game. He’ll come after us until we’re all dead or he gets bored.”

“There are still seven of us. He’s one guy. He’s probably halfway to Hoboken by now.”

No one could say what they registered first, the sound of the manhole cover striking the sidewalk, or Alpha Three’s blood and gore spattering them when it cut through him. Half of the squad pressed themselves against the wall and sought out the attacker, expecting him to leap out of the fog and take their heads.

Sven, Leona, and Dan rolled away from the wall and came up firing at the top of the building four stories over their heads. Dozens of bullets cratered the brickwork along the edge of the roof with several times that number shooting past to fly off into the darkness.

“Fuck!” Leona screamed in impudent outrage.

“Seven little vampires for Jack to get his kicks. I cut one in half, and then there were six,” Jack sang out from the roof of the building.

“You motherfucker!” Leona screamed and emptied another magazine just over the wall. “Come down here and face us!”

“I am afraid that is not how we play this game. Do not fret, I shall teach you. I shall teach you all.”

Sven pointed at Dan with his index and middle finger and swept them toward the middle of the street. Dan nodded once, swirled his hand over his head, and stabbed at a point in the road.

Charlie team backed away from the wall, keeping their weapons pointed at the foggy backdrop above it. Alpha team moved along the side of the building and entered the alley. Leona quietly cursed once more when she had to step past Enrique’s headless corpse.

Sven climbed the fire escape first, poking his head over the edge of the roof before climbing onto the top and waving his team up. Alpha team secured a small corner of the roof, searching through the fog with their thermal scopes and heightened vision.

“Charlie One, Alpha One, you have eyes on me?”

“Barely. If you keep to the edge I can see you.”

“Copy, Charlie One. Alpha team is going to clear the roof. Follow us on the ground so we can provide you with overwatch.”

“Yeah, if we’re real lucky, you can overwatch him kicking our asses.”

“Stow it, Charlie One.”

“I’m just pointing out that with the current visibility, none of us are going to see shit until it’s right up our asses. No pun intended.”

“Just stay alert, Charlie One.”

“I’m wearing one of my friends like a fucking Jackson Pollock painting. Trust me, I’m as alert as one can get without being hopped up on crack.”

“Shut your dickhole, Dan!” Leona barked.

Gertrud broke into the channel. “Keep it together, people.”

“Roger, Tower Six.” Sven led his team around the building’s upper perimeter, searching the roof while doing his best to keep Charlie team in sight. “Roof is secure. Charlie One, anything on the ground?”

“Negative, Alpha One.”

The sound of a crash followed by a blaring car alarm broke the eerie silence.

“Alpha One, does your team have eyes on that disturbance?” Charlie One asked.

“Negative. It sounded like it came from a few blocks up. Move your team up Jamaica. We’ll stick to the roofs and follow.”

“Roger, Alpha One. Moving now.”

Charlie team broke into a run, knowing that Alpha team would need to move at a good clip in order to leap the chasms between buildings. One good thing about the fog, at least it was highly unlikely that anyone would spot the figures jumping across the streets.

“I see lights flashing ahead. It looks like a car at the corner of Archer and Merrick,” Sven said.

“Copy, Alpha One. Charlie moving forward to assess.”

Sven and his team leapt 161st St and took up a position on an adjacent roof. Charlie team raced toward them and approached the area from the street.

“You got us, Alpha One?” Dan asked through his radio.

“I have you, Charlie One. Proceed with caution.”

Dan led his team toward the intermittent, blaring horn and flashing lights, using parked cars and doorways for cover. “It looks like a car hit something at the car wash. It’s dark as shit, and there’s water everywhere.”

“Any sign of the driver?”

“Negative, Alpha One. Hold one.” Dan busted out the driver’s side window with the butt of his M4, popped the car’s hood, and ripped the battery out. “That’s better. Blessed silence.”

Sven was not paying attention to Dan’s words as he studied the area. The entire street corner was cast in darkness, an unusual occurrence in a city known for its night-time illumination. The only reason for such a small area to suffer an electrical outage was if something cut the power.

A dreadful chill ran up Sven’s spine. “Charlie team, get out of the water!”

“I think only Tower Six is afraid of getting her feet wet, am I right? I’m meltiiiiiing.”

“Move your asses!” Sven screamed.

Jack hid behind a parked car, holding the severed end of a live power line. He cast it away from him and into the expanding pool of water he created by busting one of the water lines feeding the car wash. The sheriff team had taken only a few steps when the line splashed into the water and sent thousands of volts coursing through their bodies.

He then punched a hole through the gas tank of the car he was hiding behind and pushed it toward the immobilized team. The tank hemorrhaged gasoline as it rolled forward. When the car neared the agonized group of hunters, he lit a road flare, its red light illuminating his sinister glee before he pitched it beneath the leaking tank. The spilled fuel ignited with a whoosh, the flames quickly spreading across the ground as it floated atop the water.