I turned and they were almost on me, the light illuminating both of them, their faces, their fangs. I had burned them, patches of black charring sullying their smooth, pale skin. The light caught the stomach of the blond one I had baseball swung; his belly was laid open from my attack, guts hanging out. It did not seem to affect him as he moved just as effortlessly as the other.
I paused to prepare myself. Raising my weapon and dodging to the side, I hit the blond one with a kick to his open entrails while I swung the club to keep the other back. My kick landed and knocked the blond-haired one to the side while my swing of the club convinced the other to alter his movement to avoid it. He did so successfully and I couldn’t follow up, since I was still in the process of catching my balance after the kick.
Blondie dropped to the ground in front of me as I caught my footing. He landed on his back, and before he could scream, as they were so fond of doing, I brought the burning end of the club down and rammed it into his open guts, shoving hard. I wondered if there was any truth to the idea that a stake to the heart would kill them; if so, I assumed a flaming club would do just as well.
He screamed, and it was not a hissing affair, as the others had been. This one was pure, bellowing torment that went up to the heavens as he writhed so hard he bounced a foot off the ground. I shoved him down harder and pushed my weapon into the softness under his ribcage, tearing even louder screams from him. His accomplice hissed at me and drew up for an attack as I withdrew the torch-club, the flame sputtering but still burning, and I waved it in front of me at the other, giving the black-haired vamp pause.
“Succcccubus,” he hissed, his black hair and red eyes caught in the light of the helo’s spotlight.
“Vaaaaaaampiiiiire,” I said, mocking, and I stomped his mewling friend in the face before I took a step away from the prostrated blond fiend. He rocked back and forth slightly, but did not try to get up; had I known a sure way to kill it, I might have taken the chance, but all the methods I could think of were exhausted and I didn’t want to take my torch-club away from defending me in order to explore the ins and outs of slaughtering these creatures.
I started circling toward the one still standing; I only needed to take him out of action and we could get airborne and away from these things. “How about you come over here and I’ll give you a sweet, tender probing with this?” I waved it in front of my face. “Got an ass? I’ll be glad to shove it up there for you. If not, I could always tear you a new one like I did with your pal Spike over there.” I waved my club to indicate the blond vampire, still writhing on the ground.
He hissed at me, but didn’t reply other than to keep up with the circling. He maintained a distance of about twenty feet from me, but now he was heading more toward the chopper and the doors. I could see everyone was aboard now, and I heard the rotors spinning up, the speed of their rotation increasing as it readied for takeoff. He sashayed toward the entry and I began to fear what he might try when he reached the door. I took two steps forward and, mindful of the rotor above, lunged at him, keeping my head down and swinging the club in an arc in front of me.
The black-haired vamp dodged and halted by the door. I came at him again, this time drawing the torch behind me, giving him an opening. I saw his red eyes flash and I slowed myself, trying to entice him to make a move. He went for it, leaping at me, keeping low enough to dodge the rotor, and he caught me as I brought the weapon back around, grasping onto my arm and sinking his nails into it. I felt pain that I dismissed and began a full spin with him hanging onto my arm and shoulder. He was off-balance, and I ripped him from the ground, whipping him around as if he were a club I were swinging.
I brought him around, using my strength and some momentum to sweep him through the air. I let loose of him after bringing him in a full circle. I felt his claws tear flesh as his momentum carried him about ten feet back, where he spun perfectly to allow the tail rotor to catch him in the belly. The shriek of metal buzzing was like a blender hitting something it wasn’t supposed to and a grinding noise ensued as he was flung away, back to the ground after a sharp bounce against the main rotor. He landed a few feet from me, a bloody mess, his guts in worse state than the blond one, who was starting to push to his feet, albeit slowly.
I took a step toward him. “Okay, Angel, let’s see how tough you really are to kill.” I felt a hand grab hold of me from behind.
I raised my club and started to swing but stopped; it was Zack. “Let’s go,” he said, and pointed to the blond vamp, who was starting to pick himself up off the ground, still a horrific mess, but almost mobile. “You could tangle with them all night and not kill them.” He looked me in the eyes, and I read the urgency in them. “Come on.” I tossed the club at the blond-haired one, hearing the satisfying sound of the metal hit him in the face as I let Zack lead me, his hand taking care to grasp me by the shredded cloth of my shirt that still clung to my arm as he guided me into the cabin of the Black Hawk.
“Problem with the tail rotor,” I heard the pilot say as we got inside. “Engine’s gonna have some issues after being hit like that.”
“I’ll keep it spinning,” Reed said, stepping up to the door and sticking a hand out. I watched a vortex form around the laboring tail rotor, which appeared to be rotating on a strange off-axis, wobbling. “Just get us in the air.”
“All right,” I heard the pilot shout back, and we started to rise.
I saw sweat beads pop out on Reed’s forehead. “You might want to sit down,” he said. “I can’t guarantee the quality of the ride we’re about to experience.”
I let Zack lead me to my seat and help strap me in. I looked down at my arms, which were slick with blood, dripping to my hands. I held them up and looked at my palms, covered and slick, and marveled that I had been able to keep a grip on the club. They were shaking now, and numb, but what little I could feel hurt a lot. Zack fastened me into my seat without saying anything, but his eyes said enough for an entire conversation. He buckled me in and sat down, with only a glance at Reed, then me, before he took his own seat. We were rattling, but in the air now, shaking with the currents that Reed was summoning to keep us aloft and from spinning out. But me – I was shaking for an entirely different reason, both inside and out, as we swirled through the hot summer night and back home.
Chapter 13
We set down a few minutes later at the Directorate after what could only be described as an uneven ride. We bumped on the final touchdown and I heard the engines throttle down, the rotors coming to a slow stop as several loud, clunking noises came from the rear of the craft. Smoke had been belching out of it the whole way home, but Reed’s wind had blown that clear of us and we only knew about it because of the pilot’s occasional warnings.
I breathed a little sigh of relief when I felt that last shudder of the aircraft’s weight being taken up by the earth, and I closed my eyes for a beat before I opened them to look out the door. Ariadne was waiting, as was Dr. Perugini, Dr. Zollers, a couple of people I’d seen Perugini use before as orderlies, and my most favoritest person in the world, Michael Mormont. Eve lurked behind them, looking around as if searching for the ambush that was sure to fall on us at any moment. A couple of agents were visible in the distance, but I couldn’t see their faces from where they stood outside the field of spotlights that illuminated the helicopter pad.