Coalition of the Damned - 03 (25 page)

*****

Dominic stared at the old man that he knew as his grandfather when he was a child. He slowly approached him and poked at him tentatively. He felt real under his fingertip and the old man slowly smiled. “Yeah, I’d probably do the same thing.” He turned his head slightly askew and cast Dom a sidelong glance. He outstretched his own hand and touched Dom’s shoulder, his eyebrow raising. “Damned if you don’t feel real, too.”

“Maybe because I
am
real, Lou.”

“To you!” the old man stated. “Last thing I knew, I was fighting like hell to keep my trawler from capsizing. Then som
ebody that looked like my father was telling me that I had to get my ass back
here
to help you get back to home,” he said, his arms crossing his broad chest. “You mind telling me exactly how you got here, boy?”

Dom shook his head. “Grumpy, I have no fucking clue where
here
is…” He received a hand upside the back of his head that startled him.

“Son, I have no idea how old you may be now or how big you think you are, but if your mother heard something like that come out of your mouth, she’d wash those words out with lye soap,” he said solidly. “I’ll allow hell, damn and occasionally shit if the situation calls for it. But unless you’re drunk and fo
rnicatin’, you don’t talk like that.”

Dom rubbed at the back of his head and stared at his gran
dfather. “Jesus, Grumpy, what gives?”

The old man drew his hand back again and gave him a wild look. “You better be praying, son.”

Dom threw his hands up in surrender, “Okay, okay!” He stepped back and honestly appraised the old man, a slow smile crossing his face. “I’m starting to believe you’re really him.”

“You better believe it, boy,” the old man replied. “Now a
nswer my question.” The old sailor demanded. “How did you end up here?”

Dom shot him a pleading look. “Grumpy, I don’t know where ‘here’ is.”

The old man shook his head. “Son, you’re in Purgatory.”

“What the…” Dom trailed off. “How did I get here?”

“That’s what I just asked you.”

Dom shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Was you killed?”

“Huh?” Dom’s confusion was compounded by his situation, but it didn’t help that he didn’t understand what his grandfather was asking. “What do you mean?”

“Was you killed?” he asked again slowly. “Is your body lying in a ditch somewhere dead or near dead?”

“Oh…no!” Dom registered now what he was getting at. “It’s such a long story, Grumpy.” He sighed. “So very long…and I don’t think you’d understand if I told you.”

“Try me,” the old man said.

Dom sighed heavily again, unsure where to start, so he started at the beginning. He told him everything, the augment
ation, the abduction, the brain rape by the vampire, being in a hospital bed…everything that led up to him being
here
on this island. But he had no idea how a tropical island could be Purgatory. Louis DeGiacomo listened intently and tried not to judge. This was his grandson, after all.

When Dom finished his story the old man began to pace slowly in the sand along the fresh water pool. “Some of what you told me makes some sense,” he began. “The whole darkness and then it was light. That was probably you being given too much drugs and then either your body fought it off or the doctors brought you back.” He turned to Dom, “You
died
, boy. And you came back. But either a part of your soul or all of it or…I dunno. Most of it. Something. It ended up here. This is your personal Purgatory. YOU created this.”

“What?” Dom cried, “Why would I create this?”

“Everybody’s Purgatory is different. This is yours.” Lou looked around and smiled. “I have to admit. It ain’t bad. I could live here.”

“I need to get back,” Dom said. “But…there’s
something
I need to remember. Something that damned vampire stuck in my head and it’s important. I just can’t quite…reach it.”

Lou nodded. “I know. I can feel it in you.” Dom shot him a curious look. “Don’t ask me what it is, son. I have no clue. I couldn’t tell you that any more than I could tell you what you ate for breakfast this morning. It’s just something I can feel.”

Dom nodded, not sure he believed him, but simply accepted. “Okay, so how do I get out of here?”

“No idea.” Lou plopped down in the sand. “No flippin’ idea,” Lou repeated as he picked up a rock and heaved it across the pool.

Dom stood there and stared at the back of the old man’s head. “How can you say you were sent here to help me if you have NO CLUE how?!”

Lou shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I told you what I know. I was trying to keep my boat from sin
king…I’m guessing I failed because the next thing I know my Pops is telling me that I have to come help
you
. And then here I am.”

“Sweet Mary, mother of…Grumpy that was twenty years ago.” The old man shot him a dirty look. “You passed twenty years ago,” Dom explained.

“Boy, do you really think that time has any meaning on the other side?”

“I…don’t. I…I guess I never really thought about it.”

“Well, I can tell you that it doesn’t.” Lou picked up another rock and rather than throw it, he held it and rubbed it between his fingers. He held it up to his eyes and studied it a moment. “Everything feels so real here.”

“I take it that it didn’t feel real where you were?”

“I was only there a moment,” He said quietly. “I mean…it only felt like a moment. Like…I had
just
got there. Literally just got there. And my Pops says, ‘You gotta go help Dom, he’s in trouble. Help him get home.’ And then >poof< I’m walking on this island and I’m thinking to myself that was one helluva dream, except…I knew it wasn’t a dream. I can FEEL it inside. I know that it wasn’t a dream. Like I know my own name. But for the slightest moment I thought that maybe my boat went down and I washed up here, but…there are no tropical islands in the Atlantic, right? So…it wasn’t a dream. Except it sort of
is
because you dreamed this up because it’s your Purgatory.”

“Okay, now you’re screwing with my head, Grumpy.”

“Screwing with your head? Try being me…realizing you’ve been dead for twenty years and that everybody you know is either dead or about to be.”

“Yeah, that would be heavy, but it still doesn’t tell me how to get out of here and back to where I’m supposed to be.”

Lou shook his head. “How am I supposed to know? Maybe you click your heels together and say ‘there’s no place like home’ three times?”

“What?” Dom was beginning to think that the old man had really lost it.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never watched the
Wizard of Oz
?” he asked astonished.

“Uh…no. I don’t think I have,” Dom admitted.

“Boy, there is something fundamentally wrong with you.”

Dom sat down beside his grandfather and laughed. “Yeah, I guess there is.”

The two of them sat in silence for a while and just watched the waterfall. They listened to the sound of the birds, the wind and watched the water, enjoying the peace and the sunshine for a moment, neither saying anything while Dom sifted the dirt and the sands between his fingers.

Lou turned to Dom after a while and said, “What if I am supposed to help you remember what it is that you can’t reme
mber?” he asked. “Whatever it was that the vampire stuck in your head.”

Dom shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well hell, boy. It can’t hurt to try.”

“No. It certainly can’t hurt to try.”

“Worst case scenario, you remember it, and at least you’ll be ready should we DO figure out how to get you back.” 

Dom smiled at him. “Sounds like a heckuva plan to me, Grumpy.”

“Okay then. Let’s get started.” He shifted on the ground to face him. “Tell me again everything you remember, and this time, don’t leave out any details.”

*****

“Master!” yelled the little messenger as he trotted into the cathedral. “Master! I have news!”

The dark vampire entered from the side entryway going into the courtyard and surprised the messenger, causing him to a
lmost fall. “Puppet? What do you have?”

“Master, the computer technician that found the woman on the cameras…he was mistaken.” The little messenger was a
lmost beside himself with excitement. “It was not her!”

The Sicarii merely raised an eyebrow waiting for him to go on. But like most times, the messenger did not catch on. “And?”

“Oh! Forgive me, Master,” he stammered. “Um, well, he checked the cameras at the military base each day and the same car enters at almost the same time each day!”

The Sicarii shook his head, not understanding. “Master, it is not her. It is simply someone driving the same kind of vehicle.” The messenger scrambled to open a folder and pulled out a grainy photo. “See? He was able to get a picture of the driver on another day and it is a man!”

The Sicarii stared at the photo for a moment and handed the paper back to the messenger. “They are still looking for her then?”

“Yes, Master. I have asked that they redouble their efforts to find her,” he stated proudly.

The dark vampire nodded. “Very good, Puppet,” he stated simply. “You have done well.”

“And, we have discovered that the runaway woman’s pa
rents are on a cruise ship, Master.” The little messenger all but sang. “We are arranging for someone to intercept them and—”

“I don’t think it necessary to interrogate them. If they are on a cruise ship, one could simply ‘meet and greet’ them,” he said with an evil smile. “Funny how people on vacation just
love
talking about home.” He turned to look at the little messenger. “Their property, their pets, their kids…
grandkids
.”

The little messenger’s eyes grew larger as he smiled along with the dark vampire. “Yes, Master. As you will, so mote it be.”

“Tell me, Puppet, have you learned yet where the hunters are all going?” the dark one asked.

The little messenger lowered his eyes. “Not yet, Master. They are still in flight.”

The dark one simply nodded and waved the messenger away. He stepped back to his courtyard and considered the possibilities. If the woman hadn’t gone to her husband, then perhaps the human hunters didn’t know of his intentions yet. Or if they did, they weren’t aware of his attempt to abduct her. He wouldn’t know until he had her…but he
would
have her. He would notify his enforcers to use however many assets they had in the United States as necessary, but he would have her. If they had to use bloodhounds to scent her out, they would track her down.

He looked to the moon and could almost count the days u
ntil the next full moon by its shape in the sky. A little over a week left until he turned the largest army in the history of the world upon its human inhabitants. And once he had the woman, he would be able to use her against her husband and cripple the human hunters from the inside. Although he doubted seriously that they could ever cause him any real threat, he would rather hedge his bets and have an insurance policy. The one hunter that he had in custody for a brief time turned out to be far stronger both physically and mentally than he had ever dared hope and he didn’t dare risk allowing himself to underestimate them again.

He turned to the sky and bowed his head. He prayed once more the same prayer that he prayed every night since his cre
ation. He hoped beyond hope that
this
time, God would answer his prayer and remove the curse that damned him. He prayed that God would take pity on him and restore him to his humanity. He prayed that if God wouldn’t do any of these things that He, in his almighty wisdom, would see fit to relieve him of his life so that he would no longer have to suffer on this earth, a monster.

The dark vampire fell to his knees on the cobblestone cour
tyard and prostrated himself before the heavens and begged God to end his life before he could unleash his fury.

*****

“Colonel Mitchell, we’re being told that we’re entering a no-fly zone, sir,” the pilot said over the internal communications.

Mitchell stood up from where the four men were seated. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I better go take care of this.” He went forward to the cockpit and donned a radio headset.

“They’re threatening to send up fighter intercepts if we don’t divert our course, sir.”

“Get me on the radio.” When the chatter came up on the r
adio set, Mitchell keyed the coms. “This is Colonel Mitchell from Air Base Tinker. We’re just one civilian transport plane in a fleet of military…”

“I repeat, you are entering a no-fly zone. Divert course now or we will shoot you down.”

“And
I
repeat, that this is Colonel Matt Mitchell of the United States Air Force. The new Base Commander for Groom Lake. Maybe you better clear things with Colonel Anderson before you go making threats, son.” Mitchell seethed underneath but did his best to maintain a calm demeanor.