Demon Sprawl
Vampin Book Series #7
Jamie Ott
Copyright
2012 Jamie Ott. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used
without written permission.
ISBN-13: 978-1467980009
ISBN-10: 1467988000
For all inquiries, please contact ladysonoma@americamail.com.
Demon Sprawl
Chapter 1
A knock at her door brought her out of the sleep she’d finally slumbered into.
Starr rolled over onto her side and said, “What?”
Mica poked her head in and said, “We have another problem.”
Using her ability to see in other places – a talent she picked up after being turned - , she scanned the outside of the clinic.
A vampire managed to climb over the barbed wire they’d installed a week ago. Somehow, his hand hooked right onto a barb and he was hanging, swinging stupidly while trying to yank his hand from the metal.
“Can’t you get Lucenzo to do it?”
“He’s out getting supplies.”
“What?” she asked angrily.
“I know, I know,” she said, “he’s always getting supplies, but he says we should get them before others do.”
She closed the door.
It had been two weeks since she’d returned from Ukraine to find the city had undergone a, sort of, vampire apocalypse. Perhaps, not on a grand scale, as often depicted in movies, but enough so that, after witnessing a few mob scenes, Starr and the others at the clinic decided it would be a good idea to hole up until someone took care of the mess; i.e. government or the Council.
Unfortunately, stowing away in the clinic wasn’t enough to keep them from, constantly, being attacked, and they were faced with the daily mess of killing and destroying the bodies of those who tried to break into their place.
Starr climbed out of bed, slipped on her pink fuzzy slippers; a gift from Lily. Out in the dark hall, Mica stood waiting.
“You know, you’re gonna have to start helping because I can’t do this all the time. Come on,” she motioned to Mica.
“I don’t want to.”
Starr grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her past the other kids’ rooms, out the back door, and into the yard.
“You don’t have to do it, this time, but you’re gonna watch because, next time, I’m not doing this. Next time, you’re gonna get bloody.”
She slipped off her slippers and put the blood specked rubber boots, that sat next to the door, on.
Hanging on a loop, above the boots, was a half dozen machetes. Starr pulled one off and walked up to the vampire. As she got closer to him, he started to panic and wiggled himself, wildly, trying to get away.
Just like the others, he was brainless, thirsty, and zombie-like. He also had a funny scent of pheromone, sort of like cinnamon, only repugnant.
“Now, you want to position your hand upward, like this,” she motioned across her neck, “because if you don’t hit them right, and with the right amount of force, you’re going to be going back for a second and third hack. All the while, you’ll be giving them time to freak out, even more, and make it harder for you to behead them,” she said, and then demonstrated by bringing the machete outward and down at a slight tilt.
The vampires head fell to the ground and spun away, and the body, still hooked by the hand, wiggled and flopped, shaking the entire fence.
“Now you wanna make sure to break in the head because, last time I didn’t, the damn thing started wailing. Naturally, he could have attracted even more vampires,” she said as she followed the head, then, stiffly, lifted her boot and brought it down fast and hard, obliterating the skull.
When she looked up, it was too see Mica with a repulsed look on her face.
Rolling her eyes, she picked up the smashed in head, held it away from her body so the skin, hanging off the skull, didn’t drip onto her pajamas.
She unhooked the hand from the wire and dragged the body over to the underground fire pit.
Easy, like breaking down boxes, she pulled his arms and legs from their sockets, and tossed them in, each one making a loud popping noise. Then she lifted the heavy mesh door over and secured it to the pit before flipping the switch on the side.
Immediately, the gas hissed and ignited. She and Mica sat in the chairs and watched the flames consume the body parts.
“Still haven’t been able to reach the Council?” asked Mica.
The Council was a group of lawful vampires; essentially, a world police organization responsible for making sure vampires followed human law, but something happened to them right after Starr left them, in Romania.
It was a setup, she told herself. We had only just rescued a dozen Ukranians from the town, Fedir.
But if the rescue crew set them up, then why did they bother bringing all those vampires back to The Council? Why not just level them all?
She sat up in her seat, and looked to the other side of the pit: a leg wasn’t catching fire.
Because the Ukranians were involved, too.
“No, the phone just rang and rang. Anything on the news?”
“Not a word. I can’t believe it. What do you think it means?”
“To tell truth, I really don’t know. You’d think there would be some report of people going mad in mass numbers, and even if the government doesn’t understand that they are vampires.”
“I still think we should call the police, even if the CDC doesn’t believe us.”
“Like I told you, I already checked out two of the police departments, and they both were overrun with vampires. If you don’t believe me, then you can go and check it out, but I’m not going back; it’s too dangerous. Some of the ones that were locked up had taken to eating each other. When have you ever heard of a vampire eating another of its own kind? Something strange is going on here, and it’s just best if we sit tight.”
“Then what about the Fleet, as you called them, The Council’s so called militia? Why aren’t they here?”
“I told you; I don’t know. You can ask me a million times, Marla, and the answer isn’t going to change.”
“I just want my life back.”
She sighed long and loud, “Tell me about it.” She grabbed the fire poker, stuck it in the side slot and pushed the leg into the path of the flame.
They sat in silence, watching the flames until a loud vibration disturbed the air. It got louder, and they looked around for the source. Just another helicopter, they figured, but then it got closer until they found themselves backing up to get away from the blasts of air.
The backdoor opened; the others came out of the clinic to see what was going on.
The engine was cut and the door slid open. Out came members of The Council’s Fleet.
Happiness warmed her; he was safe!
“Chanler?” she said.
Alin and Saul came next, followed by four other people she hadn’t met before, but all in the same black wing suits as before.
He walked up to her.
“Hi,” he shouted over the dying rumble of the helicopter. “We need to talk, somewhere, privately.”
The Fleet
Chapter 2
Lucenzo had gotten back with a couple cartloads of groceries and was, now, pouring coffee for the Fleet members, who sat at a long table in the waiting room.
Starr, Marla, Mica, and Shane sat across from them, watching and waiting for them to tell them any news. In the back, Starr could hear the kids whispering, and some were leaning against their doors trying to hear what they were talking about.
Alin looked at Starr with his ember light brown eyes and said, “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but can we talk somewhere more private? Just you and us, Starr.”
“What about us?” asked Marla.
“We’ll come back and explain in a few minutes, but, at the moment, there are some private things we need to discuss with Starr. Besides, it’s not good for the kids to hear.”
As they stood and grabbed their cups of coffee, Starr eyed Mica whose hearing abilities had quadrupled, since being turned. She could hear people whispering several blocks over, and she could certainly hear through most walls.
Outside, they stood around the fire pit that had just devoured the last of the vampire’s leg meat, leaving behind bits of charred bone.
Starr watched Chanler’s handsome face, keenly, remembering the last time they were together. He was sweet to her; he held her hand, talked to her.
She wondered if he thought about her in the short time they’d been a part, and then a short brunette with a round face came up and whispered something to him. His response was to kiss her and put his arm around her.
If there were blood that still rested in her veins, its pressure would have fallen. They must have felt her scathing gaze because, suddenly, both their eyes flicked at her, but Starr stared back, defiantly.
“We don’t have time for much, so I’m just gonna drop you right in it,” Alin said, distracting her from Chanler and the woman. “Someone set us up, on our last mission to Ukraine.”
“Yeah, I figured that when I saw them use your, so-called, Big Fire too soon. How did you make it out?”
“We made it back inside the hotel right when Saul discovered the bodies of the other Fleet members; they were dead on the bathroom floor. It was then we figured the Ukranians, and traitors among us, had set us up. We stood there, putting these clues together, and the next thing I knew, we were under a pile of rubble.”
“I saw them napalm Fedir,” Starr said. “When I got back to the Council, I tried to speak to Blakely, but some guy, named George, insisted that I leave.”
“Everyone, there, is dead; there is no one left. They were probably already dead by the time you’d landed, and the Ukranians are gone without a trace.”
Starr’s chest tightened. If the Council was gone, then there was no more world police. Such news made the threat of apocalypse seem more likely.
Her natural instinct, in the face of bad news, was to think he must have been lying.
Alin, who was the best telepath in the Fleet, said, “I’m not lying, Starr. When we got there, our friends were dead.”
“So there is no one to stop this thing, then?”
“There aren’t enough of us left.”
“Why did you come here then? Why not go into hiding?”
“After we use the Big Fire, we always comb the area and see what’s left, what still needs to be destroyed, and if there’s anyone we need to help.
As we inspected the town, we happened by the post office, from where a strange pheromone emanated; it was the same scent of these new vampires, only a thousand times stronger. We dug through and found pieces of cardboard boxes that had the scent all over it and, though the packages they were attached to were destroyed, and without return addresses, they smelled of the Atlantic Ocean. Obviously, they came from here and, since Credenza was last seen in Boston, the night she killed Levi…”
“You figure whoever started this mess is here?” she cut in.
“One thing we know is the first signs of trouble started when people were making deliveries into Fedir. Workers disappeared, and then showed up, hungry, crazy, and vamped out. It really only makes sense, too. With today’s technology, we’d already suspected that something like this could happen.”
“Why does their smell disturb other vampires?”
“Can’t be sure of why, but, on some level, I think our own inner demon is telling us that there is something wrong with these new vampires; that they are dangerous to us.”
“Okay, so why are you here? Why aren’t you out there, finding Credenza? She’s supposed to be the strongest, isn’t she?”
“We’re all that’s left of the Fleet, and we need your help.”
“I’m not leaving my friends, here, alone.”
“Unfortunately, Starr, we are to bring you with us, whether you like it or not. Credenza left us specific instructions that, if anything should happen to her, we were to find you and protect you.”
“How is dragging me into the middle of this fight, protecting me?”
“It’s not protecting you, but we need all the help we can get and, if you can help us end this attempt at taking over the world, why would you stay here and do nothing?”
“This is the last time!” she said angrily. “Next time, I don’t care if the sky is falling, do not come calling, here!”
She stomped back inside and changed into some old black jeans and a sweater.
All she kept saying, over and over again the last few months, was that she wanted the Council to leave her alone, but, every time she turned around, there they were, in her face.
“Starr,” Marla and Mica walked in without knocking. “You’re not actually leaving?”
“I have no choice!” she snapped. “These jerks insist on dragging me into everything, it seems!” and she slammed her weapons on the bed.
She buckled a work belt around her waist. On it, she looped the sterling silver nunchucks that Antony gave her, before she beheaded him, and the two back up machetes she liked to carry when about to fight. Then she pulled out her long leather cloak to cover the weapons, and in which she hung her ruby studded sickles and a couple switchblades.
“Starr, I don’t like it. We need you here!”
“I know, Marla,” she sighed as she strapped her long black hair into a pony tail. “I don’t want to go, but if it’s gonna help put an end to this, then I should. You have Lucenzo though, and he’s old and strong. I think you’ll be fine.”
“Take care of them,” she said to Lucenzo, as she walked back out into the all. “Tell Lily I’ll be back.”
The Fleet members were already in the helicopter, waiting.
~~~
An hour and a half later, they lowered down into the parking lot of a Home Depot. Starr was amazed to see that things were just as bad, there, as they were in the city. Every window of the shopping strip had been broken into, and their displays emptied and destroyed.
“What are we doing here?” asked Starr. “Why not just start at Lucenzo’s house and track her from there.”
“Because we want to stop at the post office, first. I have a suspicion that if we can track the scent in the envelope, then we’ll find Credenza,” said Alin.
He started walking north; Starr and the others followed.
She caught up to him and asked, “How do you know it didn’t come from the other side of the Atlantic?”
“With the exception of the U.K., the salt and exhaust is thinner there, due to its global position. The packages came from along this coast line, of that we are certain. Besides, it’s just too big of a coincidence that the last place she was seen was here, and just shortly after, the world has major outbreaks of vampirism.”
“Do you have any idea of how old, or how many vampires, we could be up against?”
“Not really, so we have to be very careful. There are several old families here, but they are very quiet. They only reveal themselves to the Council and people they’ve known for centuries. More importantly, their hearts have hardened, over the centuries. If they come from a time where nearly everyone was barbaric, and you take away their already scrubbed at humanity by turning them into an emotionless vampire, then you’ve got an extremely savage clan of people. Now if any one of these families should have something to do with these outbreaks, then we could be looking at one hell of a fight.”
They walked a few blocks, on which there was not a single sign of another human being, and then he said, “Stop, I hear something.”
In the emptied jewelry store to their right, a man screamed out as a woman ripped into his gut. Beside him was an opened safe. Starr could tell he’d come to get something, and then was ambushed.
Starr made to go over and help, but Alin grabbed her and said, “Stop. He is already dead. We need to keep going.”
As they crossed the following intersection, they were horrified to see about six vampires tearing into another vampire who wailed and growled. A couple turned and ran at them.
Starr was about to pull out her machetes, but the man, who called himself James, shot them in the head; they dropped to ground. Then he continued to shoot the other four, and the one they were eating, in their heads.
“That way,” Alin pointed to a building on the corner.
They followed him to the Boston Postal branch. Inside, Starr’s stomach contracted, tightly, for that same cinnamon-like smell made every cell on her body recoil.
The round faced brunette, Michelle, picked up a blank envelope that was lying on the floor. She pulled a blank piece of paper out of it.
“Ugh,” she said and gagged. “Why is it so nasty?”
“Let me see,”Alin said. “There’s another scent on it, and it’s familiar. Sari, take a whiff. Smell familiar?”
“All I can smell is latex glove. Whoever planted this knew that scent would throw us off.”
“I don’t get it, how did these papers spread the virus?” asked Starr.
“We figure it spreads like a common cold: you touch something and touch your face, then you give yourself the virus,” answered Chanler.
“So, what do you think?” asked the tall guy, Sari.”
“I’m really not sure,” answered Alin.
“Great! No leads, here. What do we do, now?” asked Emil, in a Swiss-German accent.
“We visit the Scamalls. Surely they must have noticed something,” said Chanler.
“Who are they?” asked Starr.
“A tribe of Irish vampires; very old, very proud, and very vicious,” he replied with a serious face.
“They’ll kill us on the spot,” Michelle shouted.
“Will you calm down?” asked Chanler annoyed.
“I will not calm down!”
“Please, shut up, Michelle. You’ve been screaming nonstop, for days, and you’re driving me crazy,” Emil said, shaking his fist at her.
Chanler put his arm around her waist, pulled her into him and whispered into her ear.
Trying to ignore her feelings of jealousy, and the burning sensation, along the scalp line of her forehead, she asked, “Why would they kill us?”
“Because we had a falling out during the Celtic revival period, last century; while others were bringing back art, they were bringing blood baths and human sacrifices. We tried to ignore it, but when they started stockpiling whole families in underground homes, we went to war with them,” said Sari.
“You think Madam Balaji was bad? Well, the Scamalls’ Bealtaine feasts would make them look like the USDA at a livestock plant: humane,” added Alin.
“It was one of the worst wars we’ve ever had with a tribe,” said Saul. “We lost twenty of our men. Before then, we’d never lost a single person, ever.”
“Well, at this point, we don’t have a choice,” said Starr adamantly. “We need help; we can’t do this with just us. Now, surely, with their Irish pride, they wouldn’t like to be at the mercy of these nasty creatures, what could, easily, outnumber them.”
“I’m agreed,” said Emil. “Let’s go,” and he walked out; the others followed.
Clouds
Chapter 3
The Scamalls lived three hundred miles outside of town. Since not all of them could levitate, Sari hotwired an abandoned SUV and drove north east, into the mountains.
After ten minutes of silence, Michelle lent forward and turned on the radio. Nothing but silence came from the speakers.
“Guess no one’s around to work the radio stations,” she said.
“Keep trying other stations; maybe there’s an automatic broadcast,” James said.
Snow sounds went in and out of the speakers as she rotated the dial. Finally, on the far end of an a.m. station, a man with an extremely deep voice delivered news dryly, and in such a manner that gave, even Starr, the creeps.
“The government,” the man said deeply and slowly. His vibrato overwhelmed the speakers, making them deliver fuzzy sounds with every word. “The government has issued a warning: do not stay in your homes; it is not safe. The metropolitan bus station has agreed to help remove citizens from the town, and will be running along Main Street every hour, on the hour. You are allowed to pack one… small… bag,” he dragged his words. “We’ll get you and bring you to safety. You can trust us. We don’t want to hurt you. We just want… your blood. We will get… your blood, hahahaha.”
“Obviously, the virus made him insane,” said Saul.
“We will rip and tear at your flesh. Slit the vein and drink from your necks. You will die, my darling pets. You will die.”
“A little vampire haiku?” asked Starr.
“Well, I’d say that’s enough news for me,” and Michelle turned off the radio.
“What is the government really saying about this, Starr?”
“As far as I know, nothing. We don’t have cable-satellite, at the clinic, so we’ve had to rely on the radio. People come on and don’t mention anything about what’s going on in the cities. Some of them mentioned a string of murders and angry mobs, but that is all. I’ve checked the internet and, while there are many citizens writing about people eating each other, no one is responding.”
“Aren’t you girls worried?”
“Yeah, of course, but what can we do? We have to wait it out.”
They didn’t reach the grounds until sunset. When they turned onto a particular road, Saul slowed down the vehicle and began looking for an indicator, or marking, on the side brush. When he saw a tree with a branch that had all of its leaves bent in half, they turned and went off road, driving straight ahead over bumps in the ground, until they came upon a gravel road.
The gravel brought them to a gate the size of a hill with a lion crest on it. When it didn’t open, automatically, they decided not to press the intercom button; they didn’t want to risk being told to leave before they could speak with them. So, instead, they left the SUV behind and jumped over the gate.
Ten more miles, they walked along the gravel road, and through hillsides, green and lush.
When the first stars in the sky began to gleam, they reached a house the size of Buckingham palace. Instinctively, she scanned the inside, and saw a jumble of images, from people relaxing, eating or cooking, to cleaning reading and getting dressed.
“In the back, they’re having some sort of party,” Starr said. “They’re dressed in tuxedoes and gowns. There’s shamrocks and moss everywhere; it’s frighteningly green.”
“It’s Saint Patrick’s day,” said Emil.
They walked up to two doors large enough to pass a house through; they opened automatically.
No one was there to greet them so they walked into the large bright entrance hall, followed the trail of shamrocks on the marble floors, through to the back where the party was in full swing.