Blood-Servant Reflexes, Zero

I buzzed the secretary from the security door, staring into the security camera and asking to speak to the preacher. She didn't want to let me in, this motorcycle mama in leather, with dark circles under her eyes and a look of death and danger about her, but I told her to tell Preacher Hosenfeld that the little girl with leukemia needed his help. Moments later, I saw the older guy coming down the hall to the door. He was wearing a cheap suit, white shirt, and tie, even on a weekday, his gray hair combed back with some kinda goop like they wore in the fifties, though he couldn't be old enough for that style to have been around in his formative years. He studied me through the windows before I heard several locks click and the door opened. "I hope I'm not being foolish opening the door to you, young lady."

"I kill vamps for a living, including the one who has Charly's mom. I intend to get her back."

"Charly. That is the little girl from Sunday," he said, hesitant.

"Yeah. A vamp put her mother, Misha, into a charmed circle and it's killing her."

Hosenfeld looked confused. It cleared up fast. "A circle. She's a witch, then, this woman you want to save."

I felt my heart shrivel. A lot of Christians felt witches were of the devil. "Yes," I said tersely.

"Are you a Christian?"

"Baptized in a river when I was a teenager. I go to church most Sundays. My favorite Bible verse is 'Jesus wept.'"

"Because it's the shortest?" He almost smiled.

"No. Because it says that Jesus knew what it meant to grieve. He'd just let his best friend in the world die of illness when he could have gotten there in time to save him. I'm thinking he was between a rock and hard place, and the hard place let his friend die. He grieved. Then, when he could, he went and raised his friend from the grave, and he knew that if he did that, he'd die himself."

"That is a very complicated scenario." His smile was wider now, and his shoulders had relaxed. "And do you pray?"

This man was an elder. He was asking me questions, and one did not lie to an elder. I blew out a breath and tried to find an answer to his question. "I think about G.o.d. I confess. A lot. But at the same time, it's been a while since I . . ." I shrugged, uncomfortable, "since I got on my knees."

"I have never met a Christian warrior such as yourself."

I opened my mouth and closed it. I had no idea what to say about that and no desire to debate it either. "Here's the deal," I said. "I want to use the church's baptismal water to flush out the vamps," I held up the empty vials I had bought from Walmart. "and I don't have time to play word games. But it isn't like I can steal the water."

"And you want me to help a witch," he clarified.

I shrugged and settled on, "People of all faiths are responsible to help the weak, the downtrodden, the sick, and the helpless, especially children. And of all the religions in the world, Christians are the only ones that are commanded not to judge, yet we do every day-gay people, ethnicities different from our own, people in mixed relationships, people with gifts they were born with, power they were born with, genetic mutations they were born with, illnesses of the brain and body. I've got a little girl's mother to save, and, yes, she's a witch. Are you gonna make it possible for me to save her?"

Herman Hosenfeld's face wrinkled up in a smile. "Of course. How do we do it?"

"We?" My voice squeaked just a tad on the word.

"Of course. I'll be there for prayer support, and"-he held up a hand to stop my reply-"I promise to stay out of your way. There are no other options, young lady. I have a daughter who is a lesbian and married to her witch partner for the past fifteen years. My wife and I lost her years ago through misunderstanding and judgmental att.i.tudes and sheer, blind stupidity. I am no longer so foolish to think G.o.d sees her lifestyle with greater ire than he does my judgments."

"The name is Jane Yellowrock, I am not young, and I am not a lady. And you are not what I was expecting."

"You are a surprise in my day too."

We had a small parade of vehicles all idling in front of an empty lot, wasting gas. It had started to rain again, spats of sprinkles. .h.i.tting the windshield, making the cars behind us waver through the Earth's tears. Eli opened the driver's door and climbed in. He was slightly damp, and his hands were empty. He turned on the wipers and said, "Canisters discharged. But without a better idea of the cubic feet of s.p.a.ce-"

"I know," I interrupted. "I understand." There hadn't been time to do the necessary research, even for whizzes like the Kid and Bodat. We had no floor plans or maps of the lair under the house. Most important, we were even guessing that Big H was still in his Clan home, having based that a.s.sumption on the fact that I had given him the plague vaccine at dawn and he would have been too tired the following night to move to another location. Guesswork and a.s.sumptions. c.r.a.p. Eli tilted his neck to the side and his cervical spine made a rapid series of cracks. "How's it going?" I asked over my shoulder.

The Kid and Bodat were in the backseat of the SUV, computers in hand, monitoring everything from police and emergency responsiveness to the weather, and keeping eyes on the inside of the house we were about to attack. "Piece of cake once we drilled into Big H's security system," Bodat said. "The vamp has cameras all over the place."

Excitement sparked down my nerves and worry pulled at my mind. This could go wrong in so many ways-not least that my theory about the copper necklace was wrong and the pendant was something else.

Or that the holy water wouldn't work. I rearranged the vials of holy water attached to my jacket. I had it in plasticized gla.s.s, so I didn't risk them cracking or shattering. But it still sloshed. I had never carried so many vials before.

I checked the gun in my lap again. It was a U.S. model M32, a lightweight, six-shot, 40-millimeter launcher that could be a grenade launcher or a riot gun. It was loaded with six rounds of rubber bullets and, while it was a pain in the b.u.t.t to reload, it gave me a chance of keeping my promise to Soul to not kill humans. I adjusted the military combat helmet with ear protectors and the built-in com unit. It felt weird on my head.

"We are live," the Kid said into the headset he wore. "Flash headlights if you can hear me." Lights flashed behind us. Eli and I raised our hands, thumbs up.

"The security system is in my hands," the Kid said, his voice all business.

"Alarm system is off," Bodat said. "Elevator is shut down."

"Feed is now being sent to your cell phones," the Kid said into the headset, "so use them if you get separated. Doors to the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs are unlocked and will not alarm." His fingers clacked on the keys of his tablet, and he took a breath that hissed into my earpieces. "Totally cool underground escape pa.s.sageway is sealed. No one can get in or out through it."

"Eli, time?" he asked his brother.

Eli, his eyes on his chrono watch said, "Now. Air should be clear."

Alex shouted into his mic, "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!"

Eli rammed the transmission into drive and took off with tires spitting debris, even with the extra load and the rain.

We pulled up to Big H's fancy-schmancy house outside of town, but we didn't stop at the curb. We squealed into the drive and then straight up to the front door, ruining the vamp's perfect green lawn and squashing a patch of azaleas.

Moving fast, Eli and Bruiser met at the back of the SUV while I pounded up the steps and into the house. I paused in the middle of the ornate foyer and took a quick, exploratory breath. I could smell fumes, but nothing we couldn't handle.

A man in a gas mask raced through the dining room opening, a shotgun in one hand. But he experienced a moment of indecision. Was I there to save his master? Or was I there to do him harm? In that single heartbeat of indecisiveness, I coldc.o.c.ked him. He fell like a sack of potatoes, and I dodged the gas mask as it flew off but caught the human.

Deep inside me, Beast huffed with laughter and milked my brain with her claws. Fun, she murmured.

"Sorry, Clark," I said, as I eased him down to the floor. "I promised Rick's Soul not to kill humans. I didn't promise not to hurt a few." I picked up his shotgun and broke it open, tossing the rounds and laying the gun on the nearest white couch.

I raced for the stairs and paused in the entrance, looking back. Behind me, Bruiser secured Clark with heavy-duty zip strips, pushing the body out of the way. Behind him came Eli. Framed in the doorway, back at the street, a figure stood in the rain. It was Herman Hosenfeld, his eyes closed, his hands half-raised in prayer. He was shivering in his cheap suit, a cold wind blowing and icy rain pelting him. Beside him stepped a woman wearing gauzy greens, her clothes whipping around her, looking already drenched. Soul. She spread her fingers, her lips moving. She was speaking a warding of some kind. Hosenfeld paused, looked at her, and smiled before going back to his praying.

A dark form sped in through the door. Faster than any human. Rick, his eyes glowing greenish. I cursed into my mic and the Kid said, "Sorry," into my earpiece. Rick was beside me in an instant, his cat musk strong in the air. There wasn't time to argue, and arguing with a big-cat is a waste of time anyway.

Eli looked up from the equipment he was readying. "I called him. We needed manpower."

I snarled and told Rick, "Put in your music spell."

Rick snarled back but put the earpieces in. He didn't have a helmet and wouldn't be able to hear the com channel, but if I kept him close, it shouldn't matter. I dropped the CNB-the communications nexus box-at the top of the stairs and aligned it, pointing it down. The tactical radio system being run by the Kid was designed to work in places where physical or electromechanical interference was high. When we went through the doors and lost direct radio signal, the Kid would switch to the UCU-underground com units. It wasn't the way I had envisioned using the set, but it was a handy thing to own when fighting vamps.

"Ready?" I asked Eli and the Kid.

"On your mark," Eli said.

"We are in the house's intercom," Alex said.

I nodded to Bruiser. He pushed a b.u.t.ton on his mic mouthpiece and said, "Attention, all Mithrans." The sound of his voice rang through the house, echoing through the intercom and sound system. "I am the Enforcer of the Master of the City of New Orleans, here for the Naturaleza, the breakers of law, the drainers of blood, the takers of lives. Leo Pellissier has the pledge of Hieronymus. Leo Pellissier has the right of might and of law and of the Vampira Carta. We have your lair. Give us your hands, and no one will die. Fight us, and all will suffer. I have spoken." He switched off the mic and nodded to me.

I handed the M32 to Rick and said, "Rubber bullets." It took a moment for understanding to enter his eyes, but he nodded once, a downward jut of his chin, his eyes going darker and more human. He took the weapon and checked it for firing. Braced it against his shoulder. I pushed open the door to the stairs leading down to the lairs. Rick fired three shots, hitting three humans, one with each shot. Cat reflexes, one; blood-servant reflexes, zero.

The gas-masked blood-servants fell. Semiautomatic weapon fire chattered off the stairway walls, a ricochet going wild. Rick caught a servant who fell forward and over the railing, hauling the man up by an arm. We raced down the stairs, Rick at my side, the M32 at the ready, followed by Bruiser and Eli, working together on our weapon. I just hoped that Big H hadn't equipped all his blood-servants with masks.

The hallway branched at the bottom of the stairs. "Which way?" I asked into my mic.

"Left," Bodat said. Behind us came the sound of running feet, the squeak of rubber, and the sliding of heavy synthetic fibers. I looked back and nodded to Eli.

There were three rooms. Bruiser held a PIR device to the door and said, "No vamps. Pa.s.sive infrared shows humans. Two, both p.r.o.ne."

I opened the door to show the expected humans, asleep. "I love technology," I said.

Using the PIR device, we cleared each room. All were full of sleeping humans, zonked in the middle of daytime activities by the sleepy-time gas. "Hallway is clear," I said.

"Go to your right now," Bodat said. "After that we are blind. There are no more security cameras, and we have no idea of the layout."

More humans slept in the rooms on the right. "Floor is clear," I said. "Heading down one flight." I dropped a second CNB and angled it down. It was the last one we had. Fortunately, the stairway ended in a foyer with three more closed doors.

Bruiser held the PIR up to each door and motioned at each one. There were two vamps in one room, four in another, and more than six in the last one. That made my stomach clench. If this didn't work, we were in trouble. We had no backup.

Scenting my reaction to that thought, Rick snarled. He pulled two handguns, semiautomatics. "Silver," he growled, his voice low, speaking of the ammo he carried. "Purest ever refined."

I pointed to the room with two vamps in it and Bruiser nodded. I snapped two vials of holy water off my weapon harness, unscrewed the tops, and nodded to him. He stood to the side, out of my way, and met my eyes in warning. "We have no firsthand confirmation that holy water works on vamps," he whispered, his words no more than breaths, "and our best experts say it's unreliable." He was talking about the Kid and Reach, who hadn't been able to offer proof positive that holy water worked against vamps. The historical record was iffy at best, perhaps being a matter of the quality of the water itself, as if maybe it went bad after a time, like sour tea or old eggs. But this stuff was fresh, the preacher was outside praying over it, and I was willing to try it.

I said loudly, "So let's try out our new secret weapon." Sometimes fear is better than a blade, and the idea of a secret weapon might give us the advantage. Especially if it worked, and the vamps in the other rooms had no idea what was happening until it had already happened to these two.

He nodded once and pointed to the direction of the cool bodies in the room. I would have a single instant to decide if the vamps were surrendering, shooting, or fighting. And then react accordingly. That put me on defense. In a fight, the one on offense always has the advantage.

Beast leaped into the forefront of my mind. Hunt! She thought at me. Her power flooded into me, and the world went sharp and stark. Energy so intense it heated my skin and each breath felt as if it contained the power of the universe, a black star of might at my core. I knew my eyes were glowing gold.

I nodded at Bruiser. He tried the k.n.o.b, expecting the door to be locked. It opened.

I had a single glimpse. Two vamps, both male, vamped out, were in midair. Leaping at me. I tossed the opened vials of baptismal water, and Bruiser slammed the door. On the other side, heavy thumps sounded-vamps. .h.i.tting the door. And then the horrible screams that vamps make when they are dying. Or think they are. Beast hacked with delight. By the screams, they were heading away, probably to the nearest showers.

Bruiser caught my gaze, taking in the gold glow. He looked at Rick and the greenish-glow of the cop's eyes. Whatever was in the men's eyes, I ignored.

Preacher Hosenfeld would be pleased that the baptismal water from his church worked against vamps as well as some old myths suggested that water blessed by a priest would.

Bruiser held up the PIR and smiled grimly. Loudly enough to be heard clearly through the other two doors, he said, "That heated them up a bit."

Rick chuckled, the chuffs of a cat. Beast turned to him and hacked with delight.

Bruiser looked at neither of us and moved to the next room, holding up four fingers to remind us of the numbers of vamps inside. I nodded and stepped back. Four was too many for me to handle alone. Eli dragged the heavy nozzle behind him. I had no idea where he'd gotten the fire hose, but this particular one would allow us to pump up to 210 gallons per minute through a special nozzle he'd gotten from a plant nursery-one that allowed a wide spray rather than the usual concentrated, unidirectional spray used for fighting fires. The tank it was attached to held a thousand gallons of baptismal water. And now we knew it would work against vamps.

I pulled two more vials, just in case. Eli braced himself, met Bruiser's eyes, and nodded. Bruiser tried the door. This one was locked, which was going to make our job harder, but we had planned for vamps with brains and good security personnel.

The former Ranger quickly placed charges of plastic explosives at the sites of the hinges and the lock. While he worked, we all backed into the relative safety of the stairwell. I had to hand it to him: the guy was fast, unwinding the det cord behind himself as fast as he could shuffle. I didn't know what we would be facing, so I screwed the tops back on the vial and pulled a blade and an ash stake. The last two vamps had been normal vamps. The old methods of vamp fighting should work.

Protected by the wall, he looked at us until he had our attention and counted down silently, mouth moving: One, two, three. He hit a switch. The door blew. The world went into slow motion, the kind where I could see everything in harsh layers of action, overlapping and intense.

Bruiser hit the holy water switch. I could see his fingers move. He was too late. A fraction of a fraction of a second too late.

Two vamps moved at us so fast, there would have been a pop of air had any of us been able to hear it. Vamped out. Deadly, I thought, even as their bodies catapulted over the spray of water. One landed on me. Her claws dug into my shoulder, catching on the plastic armor. The claws of her other hand swiped at my face. Normal vamps. Her legs swept up to wrap around me.

In my peripheral vision, I saw holy water shooting out of the nozzle like a hundred tiny jets. And Rick, with his mouth on a vamp's neck. A spray of blood flew into the air from his jaws.

Beast-fast, I stabbed up with an ash stake, hitting my attacker in the abdomen. She fell, the wood taking her in the central artery leading down to her legs. Immobilizing her. Her blood cascaded over my right leg. I dropped her, holding the stake in place as she fell.

The holy water hit the next two vamps in midair. They screamed and did ninety-degree turns, bouncing off the walls. They raced away, screaming in agony. I looked at Rick. He was rising from under the vamp that landed on him. The vamp had an ash stake in his heart and only half of his throat left, the bones of the spinal column visible. But he was still alive, gasping. I figured he'd heal. Sooner or later.

Rick's eyes were glowing green. He had fangs on his upper and lower jaw. Eli and Bruiser were backing slowly away from him. Rick spat and snarled, his human skin and flesh stretching like a cat's. Gently, slowly, I lifted my arm and my hand to him. And took up an earpiece. My ears were covered by the helmet, but I could hear tinny sounds of music from it. I lifted the piece toward Rick.

He jerked his head away but kept his eyes on me. I stopped all movement and waited, barely daring to breathe. Rick's face relaxed just a hair as the music became audible to him too. Then his mouth closed. I placed the earpiece in his ear. His eyes lost some of the glow and darkened toward his usually Frenchy-black eyes. He took the other earpiece and put it in. He chuffed out a breath. "Thanks," he said. The word was slurred as his mouth tried to return to human. "Don' wanna get stuck partway." Which might happen if Rick ever changed to his big-cat, thanks to the tattoos on his shoulder.

"Pain bad?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll stay back here for the other door," he said, "and cover my ears. Don't get yourself killed."

"Not my plan," I said.

"You two finished playing nice-nice? Good." Eli said, his own words a snarl, nearly as good as a big-cat's. "Six vamps inside," he said, "cl.u.s.tered at the back of the room, probably trying to get out the locked escape hatch. They're gonna be p.i.s.sed when they realize the hatch won't open and they're trapped. And it won't be long before we have wet, p.i.s.sed vamps, fresh outta the shower and wanting revenge. On three, people."

In the moments we had been standing there, Eli had used the last of his C4 on the third door. He didn't bother to count silently, and I drew a silver stake and my fourteen-inch-long vamp-killer as he counted down. "One, two, three."

The door blew. And nothing happened. No vamps flew at us. Nothing happened. At all.

I raced past Eli and Bruiser, pa.s.sing through the baptismal water, feeling it splatter on my hair and across my neck and back. Leaped through the splintered door, into the room. Landed, weapons out to either side, my body bladed, left foot forward, balanced. Ready for anything. I stopped. Water swirled into the room and around my feet.

Cl.u.s.tered in the back of the room were six vamps. Big H was in the middle, standing with his arms out at the sides, his fingers seeming to claw at the wall. Two vamps were on either side; one was crouched at his feet. All of them were vamped out, snarling, their bodies oddly twisted, but not like the spidey vamps. Like regular old vamps. None of them moved.

And I had no idea what to do.

I just stood there. Weapons ready. Breathing like a bellows. Inside me, Beast snarled, puzzled. Behind me, Eli turned off the water. Silence fell.

The guys moved into the room, forming a semicircle behind me.

Like the upstairs, this suite was done in white and scarlet, with a bed big enough to play touch football on, white-painted columns for bedposts, a seating area big enough to seat both teams on, tables and chairs at one end of the room, an en suite bath visible through an open door. And a pile of vamps so still they looked like statuary.

Hieronymus took a faint breath and said something I couldn't hear. I pulled off my helmet and he repeated, "I cannot."

I stepped closer, feeling the guys behind me keeping pace. "What can't you do?"

His face warped, as if his skin had been pulled to the side only to resettle like soft clay or putty that, left alone, returned to its original form. Something was hinky here, not what I had expected, not even subconsciously.