Blood Slayer (6 page)

Chapter 17

     Hawk soared through the night, his wings beating against the air. Jessica had put her hair back into a ponytail, so it wasn’t blowing all over this time. The air was cool and crisp as they moved through the sky.

     “Where are we going boy? We going back to the vampires?” Jessica asked. Hawk replied with a gruff whinny as they sailed along. Somehow, her and Hawk had formed a bond, maybe because she rescued him. Either way, he was there to protect her. Before long, Hawk was headed into a dive, but not slowing down.

     “Hawk, what are you doing? We’re going down too fast.” She could see the lights below getting bigger and bigger. Just ahead, there were several small pinpoints of light. At first, she couldn’t tell what they were. But as they got closer, she could see. They were eyes; vampire eyes.

     There were at least three vampires ahead, looking right at them.

     “Hawk! Those are vampires! What are you doing! Stop!” She closed her eyes as Hawk sped up, going into a straight dive. He lowered his head, his single, thick horn pointed at the ground. Without slowing down a bit, Hawk plunged his horn into one of the vampires. The creature exploded. Vampire goo splattered all over Jessica. She closed her eyes as the sticky mist sprayed around her.

     Hawk swooped back into the air and circled round. Jessica looked down and the other two vampires started running toward the cabin. Hawk flew downward and landed firmly on the cabin’s roof. Just as he touched down, one of the vampires jumped onto the edge of the roof. His eyes were glowing white, razor sharp teeth were exposed. He looked like he was foaming at the mouth even. Some kind of white substance dripped from his teeth as he stared at Jessica. He stood there staring at her for a minute and then looked confused. He was trying to hypnotize her.

     “Sorry ugly, that doesn’t work on me,” she said as she lifted the crossbow, hitting him dead center in the chest. He also burst into a pile of slimy chunks and goo. She lowered the crossbow, looking around.

     “Those things are so gross!” She said. Hawk let out a whinny in reply. There was one more vampire that she knew of down there. Hawk flew up in the air again but she couldn’t see him. He must have gone inside. Hawk sailed downward and landed in the clearing in front of the cabin. She was going to have to go in after him. Slowly she climbed off, holding the crossbow at the ready after loading another bolt.

     She approached the cabin off to the side. This was like hide and seek she used
to play with the neighbor kids except they wouldn’t eat her if she didn’t shoot them first. She remembered Anna had told her vampires can see in the dark, and it was really dark. Chances are, he could see her, but she couldn’t see him. Once she reached the cabin, she opened the door slowly.

     It creaked as it swung open. The inside was pitch black. Her heart was racing as she looked around. She didn’t want to go in, but didn’t want to risk him sneaking up on her later. Her breathing was so fast, she thought she would pass out for a second. She stopped and took a few deep breaths.

    
What would Adam do? Would he be scared?
She thought.

     She had a better idea. Backing away, she went back to Hawk and took off her backpack. It was hard to see the contents, but she felt each item. She found a box of matches as she went through. There was a knife, compass,
a fishing kit and she found it; a small bottle of lighter fluid. She unzipped her suit part way, and tore off a piece from the bottom of her under shirt.

     Taking the piece of cloth, she wrapped it tight around one of the bolt tips. She then poured lighter fluid all over the cloth. Setting the bolt in the crossbow, she used a match to light the end. The bright flame lit up the night. She was surprised the vampire hadn’t come back out after her. But he was probably expecting her to go in after him. She just hoped if this worked, she could still get to Desmond on time.

     Lifting the crossbow, she took aim and fired the bolt through the window. At first, she wasn’t sure if it worked. After a minute, she could see the flames inside the cabin. The flames got bigger and bigger and began to spread. Within a few minutes, the whole structure was ablaze, lighting up the night. Someone came running out, covered in flames and screaming.

     A horrible feeling came over her then. What if there were other humans in the house? She didn’t think so though, she just had a feeling. The screaming man fell to the ground a few feet in front of her. After a few more seconds, he also exploded. This time it was burnt sticky, smelly goo. More got on Jessica as she tried to shy away.

     “Ok,” she said to Hawk. “Come on, hurry!” She ran toward the side of the burning cabin where the cellar door was. There were several grubs walking around, but they all looked confused. Perhaps with their masters dead, they didn’t know what to do. So she ignored them. Once at the cellar doors, Hawk leaned back and kicked the double doors, splitting them open. Jessica ran down the stairs where she found Desmond.

     “What are you doing here? What’s going on?”

     “I came to help you. I escaped earlier. Let’s go!” She said.

     “My legs. I can hardly walk,” he whined.

     She ran to him, and put his arm around her and helped him up. He was very light and frail. They hobbled up the stairs as she helped him onto Hawk’s back.

     “I didn’t see James,” she said.

     “They killed him after you left. Ivan was furious.”

     “Oh.” She said, unable to process that a man died as an indirect result of her actions. “Let’s go Hawk!”

     Hawk let out a neigh as he took off. As they approached the compound, the sun was beginning to rise in the distance. She would definitely need a nap.

Chapter 18

     They landed safely on the rooftop of the compound. Adam, Cedric and Anna were still there. None of them looked at all happy. The sun was starting to appear over the horizon as cracks of sunlight began to light up the morning. Desmond had been quiet the whole trip. Jessica had tried to talk to him during some of the flight, but he seemed exhausted.

     “You gotta be kidding me?” Adam said as she hopped down. “This is Desmond?”

     “Yep, that’s him. I think he needs help. His legs are all messed up. Plus he’s been eating people for a long time.”

     “Eating people?” Adam said.

     “It’s a long story,” Desmond said from Hawk’s back. “Can someone help me down?”

     Cedric and Anna walked over and helped the old man off Hawk’s back. Cedric had to help hold him up, as he could barely stand. In the light, Jessica noticed he looked much worse than he had in the cellar. His hair was white and matted in some places, missing from
other places. He was so skinny; he looked like a skeleton, but with skin hanging off him.

     “This is a tough little girl you guys got here.” Desmond said.

     “And stubborn too,” Adam replied. “We weren’t sure we’d see you again. There was no way we could have helped you, since we didn’t know where you went.”

     “It’s ok, Hawk helped. We kicked some vampire butts!”

     “You can tell me all about it at breakfast. Cedric, can you take Desmond here to the infirmary. We might need to take him to a regular hospital, he looks pretty bad.”

     “No no, that won’t be necessary,” Desmond said. “No hospitals. The place they were keeping me burned down. They might think I died in the fire. I’d like to keep it that way.”

     “Fair enough,” Adam said.

     At breakfast, Jessica told Adam everything that happened. Using her silverware a napkin and cheerios as visual aids, she described how her and Hawk killed three vampires, burned down their cabin and saved Desmond.

     “That is crazy! What made you think to shoot a flaming bolt in there?”

     “I saw Daryl do it on ‘The Walking Dead’ once, but he shot it at a pack of zombies. I figured if the cabin was wood, then it should burn.”

     “And the vampire on the roof?”

     “He was stupid. He tried to hypnotize me. I guess they all don’t know about me. So I shot him with my crossbow. Hawk stabbed the other one with his horn and he blew up.”

     “Good God kid. You learned more than I thought.”

     “Thanks! So I did good?”

     “Well, taking off and defying my orders wasn’t good. But we can get Desmond healthy. You said he used to be a collaborator?”

     “That’s what he told me,” she said.

     “Maybe he knows where more of them are.”

     “I don’t know
; he’s been down there for a long time.” She said.

     Once they finished eating, Anna walked Jessica back to her room.

     “Anna?”

     “What’s up kid?”

     “Can we go see my mom? I miss her. She has to be worried about me.” Jessica said as she flopped onto the cot.

     “We’ll have to see what Adam says. I know you miss her. We just need to make sure it’s safe.”

     “I was pretty safe last night.”

     “You were lucky,” Anna said.

     “Whatever. I’m tired.”

     “Get some sleep. I don’t think much is going on today.”

     “Will Desmond be ok?”

     “I don’t know. I’m sure he will. Once he starts eating regular food and everything.”

     “I hope so. He’s a nice man.”

Chapter 18

     Hunger pains awoke Jessica after several hours. Sitting up in the cot, she figured it was time for lunch. First, she wanted to check on Desmond. She headed up to the infirmary and found him in bed, resting. He had IV fluids running into his arm. His face had more color than she’d seen on the rooftop.

     “Hi Desmond,” she said.

     “There’s my hero,” he said. “Please excuse me if I don’t sit up. I’m quite exhausted.”

     “Oh, that’s ok. Did you get to eat something?”

     “Not yet. They wanted to give me IV’s first. Said if I tried to eat too soon it would mess me up. But I think I’ll be ok. I don’t know how I can ever thank you.”

     “You don’t have to thank me. No one deserves that.”

     “Well, even you said earlier, they should have just killed me. I did a lot of terrible things.”

     “Yeah. Well maybe all that time in the cellar was enough punishment. Maybe now you can help us!”

     “I would definitely like to help you in any way I can. I think for now, I need a nap. Thank you my new friend.” He said, as he closed his eyes.

     Jessica
stopped in the cafeteria and had three grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. She must have worked up a serious appetite from fighting the vampires. Once she was done, she walked into the training area. When she stepped inside, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She froze, looking around, trying to understand why they were staring. After a few seconds, the whole room broke out in applause. Anna ran over to her as the rest of the teams continued clapping.

     “Jess! Come on!” Anna said, grabbing her hand.

     “What’s going on? Why are they all clapping?”

     “For you kid! Everyone heard what you did last night.”

     Jessica smiled and walked through the training area with Anna. She noticed she was blushing as she skipped over to the crossbow range. The applause died down as a few others came over to pat her on the shoulder or shake her hand.

     “Wow, I’m like a hero!” Jessica beamed.

     “Don’t let it go to your head Jess. You did good, but that was just one battle. We’ll be fighting them again real soon.”

     They spent a few hours practicing on the crossbow. This time, Anna had Jessica run through some different scenarios. The hardest one was with the pop up targets. Some would pop up and looked like vampires, others looked like humans. She only had a second to make a decision on taking the shot. Each time, she nailed it. Her
Asperger’s had zero effect on her reflexes.

     “Ok Jess, you are a real killer on that thing. I’m glad you’re on our side,” Anna said.

     “Me too!” Jessica squealed. “Oh, can we go see Hawk. I haven’t seen him all day, I hope he’s ok.”

     “I’m sure he’s fine. We have a sentry on the rooftop 24/7. So they’ll keep an eye on him. But we can go see him. I wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at him. He’s a pretty animal.”

     On their way up, Cedric caught them in the hallway.

     “There you are,” he said.

     “Hi Cedric!” Jessica said. He ignored her and continued talking to Anna.

     “Adam wa
nts to see you in the war room….both of you.”

     “Me too?” Jessica asked.

     “That’s what the man said,” Cedric replied. “I wouldn’t keep him waiting.” and walked off.

     They headed down the hall to the conference room, or war room as they called it. They stepped inside and Adam was there by himself reading a book. He looked up as they stepped inside.

     “Hello ladies. I’m glad you could make it,” he said.

     “What’s going on?” Anna asked.

     “I tried talking to Desmond. But he doesn’t seem to like me too well.”

     “Desmond? Why doesn’t he like you?” Jessica asked. “He’s a nice man.”

     “Well, as we started talking, I remember him now. We have a bit of…well…history let’s just say. So, he hates my guts.”

     “What does that have to do with us?” Anna asked.

     “Jessica rescued him, and he seems to like her, though everyone likes Jessica, so no shock there. I’d like Jessica to go talk to him. I’ll have you go with her. Find out what he knows about the vampires. I suspect they have a main nest somewhere. That attack they launched here, I have no idea how they found us but that many grubs swarming on us so fast a handful of vampires couldn’t have pulled that off.”

     “So you think besides all the little nests we keep finding, there is a main one? Like a home base?” Anna said.

     “Something like that, yes. I have a feeling Desmond knows.”

     “Jessica can’t force him to talk.”

     “She doesn’t have to. I think he wants to tell her. She just needs to sit and chat with him, be herself and he’ll tell her. Even when he was being angry with me, he asked how she was doing.”

     Anna looked to Jessica who was just standing there.

     “You think you can do this Jess?”

     “I’d love to! I like talking to Desmond. He tells me stories.”

     “Ok, it’s a plan. Report back to me your findings.”