Drew D'Amato:Bloodlines:02 (17 page)

“Master, killing him with a gun is not amusing anymore.  He is no longer a challenge,” Ash said to Radu.

“So what do you have in mind?”

Ash smiled. 

Like a blur he dashed at Jericho, and picked him up by his neck off the ground.  Malachi braced to see the painful death of his friend.  But then Ash disappeared.  Jericho stood there with blood coming out of his right hand, and his lucky Cross sterling silver pen in his left.  He had pierced Ash’s heart with it.  Jericho got to take out his rival.  Malachi smiled proudly at his friend.  The victory did not last long.  Two silenced bullets entered Jericho’s chest.  Malachi ran over to him.

Malachi held his friend’s head in his hands.

“Malachi,” Jericho said coughing up blood.  A bullet had pierced his lungs.  “You must survive, you must warn Vlad.”

“Jericho don’t die, you can pull through this,” Malachi whispered to him, tears starting to fall from his eyes.

Jericho shook his head.  “Malachi…it was a hell of a show.”

Jericho died in his arms then.  Malachi looked up holding his friends body.  Gabriel had his arm extended, the smoke still rising from the silencer of his gun.

“So you’re going to kill me too?” Malachi asked.

“No,” Radu said.  “I need you around to tell Vlad.  Tell him he can keep his woman and his human life as long as he doesn’t interfere in my plans.” 

Gabriel started to walk over to Malachi.

“I thought you were going to let me live,” Malachi said.

“Oh I am, but I’m not going to leave you unscathed.”

Malachi turned his attention to Jericho’s silver pen.  Gabriel noticed it and kicked it out into the street.

Malachi stood up and stared right into Gabriel’s face.  “You better kill me now motherfucker, or I will kill you.”

“Oh I doubt that very much,” Gabriel said and then backhanded Malachi.  He felt his left cheek crack as he was hit.  Gabriel threw a pulled punch into Malachi’s gut.  Malachi collapsed in pain.  It felt as if all his internal organs had exploded inside him.  He fell to the ground.  Gabriel did one last stomp with his foot on Michael’s right leg.  He heard his femur—the strongest bone in the human body, it can take up to a ton of stress—break.  He lied in unbearable pain.  Radu walked over and looked down at him.

“Remember to tell my brother not to try anything.  And I’ll let him and his love live.”

Radu walked away.  Malachi stared up at the cloudless night sky.  Then everything went black.

7

“V
lad escaped from his home in Romania!”  Bandini told the person on the other end of his cell phone.  He was still in his office.  Even though it was his own office, he kept his voice lower than normal during conversations regading
his real job.
 
He also hid this part of his life from his wife.  He, in turn, allowed her to have her affairs.  He didn’t care.  He knew he wasn’t around, and she wasn’t a priority to him.  The wife was just a good cover, and he loved his two kids.  If he could enjoy them with the little effort he puts into his family, he would take her affairs with her old boyfriend.  He knew.  He hunted vampires?  He wouldn’t be able to spot an unfaithful wife?  It’s actually easy when your heart is not into it. 

He was fine, she was part of his cover.  Being married helped him be chosen for Inspector General.  The Crusaders were so secretive, not one person involved in his appointment to this position from the Security and Civil Defense Services Department for the state knew of his other work.  The Crusaders did not get him this position, he got where he was on his own.  He also had no ace up his sleeve if he fucked up.  Every Crusader was on his own.  

He had a lunch meeting that was scheduled five minutes ago.  He would already be a little late at best, but this was more important. 

“He is dead,” the voice on the other line said.

“They found an escape route attached to the panic room.  And it was used, it was deadbolted from the inside.”

“Trust me he is not a threat.  I have seen it with my own eyes.”

“They also didn’t find any ancient, weird looking books.  I thought you said it was destroyed in the battle.”

“It was destroyed, blown up.  Interpol wouldn’t find a book but scraps of paper they couldn’t give a shit about with the rest of the enigma they had to figure out in front of them.  Now speaking about things being destroyed was the Blood of the Betrayer also destroyed?  Did you give Vlad the real thing?”

“Yes Radu, you are the only master vampire left.”

Radu hung up.  Radu had been in bed with the Crusaders for over a hundred years.  That was why he was not that concerned about them discovering the coffer.  If the enemy of their enemy is their friend, the Crusaders could be friends with either allegiance of vampires—as long as they worked together to destroy their mutual enemy.  It was very Machiavellian in dealing with two forces.  Play one against the other, instead of fighting a two-front war.  Why risk those two aligning in regards to the destruction of the Crusaders?

When the Crusaders started out they dealt with mostly the vampiric attacks in Southeast Europe—Radu’s bodies.  Radu had to clean up his act, the Crusaders were closing in.  Humans had a fair shot aginst Radu, if they could find him unguarded during the day.  The pursuit of Radu led by Van Helsing had been what kept him in check.  This led Radu to briefly visit the New World and the fear of vampires had died down due to his brief absence and the publication of
Vampyrismus
by Gerard van Swieten.  The Crusaders were not even aware of his return, and it took a while for them to close in on him again.  But by the end of the 19
th
century the Crusaders were again getting too close, and so Radu decided to extend an olive branch.

Radu was always a more astute politician than Vlad.  He knew he and the Crusaders shared one goal—to kill Vlad.  If he could use the Crusaders to destroy Vlad, why not?  Then he could crush the Crusaders. 

He started a correspondence of letters to the head of the Crusaders at the time, an Adolf Koch, who was a distant relative of Larz Van Helsing.  He told them Vlad had lied to Van Helsing and Radu presented his case that he was an innocent man trapped with this curse, and his brother was the
monster
tearing up the countryside.  He implored them to look at the history of the man and ask how he could not be a monster.  Then he told them where Vlad normally hunted at.  Six Crusaders went out to that area and they were all killed. 

Radu and his men killed all of them.  Vlad was still in America but the Crusaders didn’t know that.  Radu just wanted to rev up their hatred toward Vlad.  It worked.  The Crusaders now wanted revenge.  Radu had started to gain some credit with the Crusaders.

As a final act of good faith, Radu inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula.  Stoker raised some eyebrows in the Crusaders’ circle when he starting asking too many questions about the folklore about vampires.  The Crusaders learned he was doing this research for a book, a horror novel.  The Crusaders asked Radu for a favor, and like any favor with a devil, it had its catch. 

Radu inspired Stoker, and showed him his powers as a vampire, threatened his life, and then promised him he would tell him the truth about vampires.  However, he painted a story where Vlad was the only master, and he was an evil, cruel bastard.  Radu took interest in doing it to fuck with Vlad and turn the attention back on him. 

The Crusaders were disappointed though with the final product.  Their other goal after killing vampires, was proving them to the world.  They left no bodies so they had nothing conclusive.  The Crusaders up to this point had to keep their silence—like Bandini did with
Interpol—out of self-preservation.  If any of them came out and said anything they risked discrediting and disbanding the entire order.  So they wanted Stoker’s book to be accepted as a work of non-fiction.  They wanted people to believe it as a fact.  But even Stoker himself stated that it was fiction.

Radu did not share in their desire for the world to know the truth about vampires.  He didn’t want everyone in the world hunting them out, so he warned Stoker.  He promised him, he would never see him again and if the book was a hit, Radu would ask for nothing monetarily.  But, if he ever tried to insinuate to
anyone
that his book was based on fact, Stoker would not wake up the next morning.  Stoker was wise enough to not test a vampire on their threat.

He did throw the Crusaders a bone though.  The hero of the book was a Van Helsing, albeit named Abraham, but that was after the writer’s and his father’s real name.  What could Radu do?  Writers were always weird with how they created their character’s names. 

Still, the relationship was strained in the aftermath of
Dracula,
but then Europe saw two world wars, and Radu offered the Church protection.  The two groups worked together in regards to getting Nazi war criminals out of Europe and in protecting the Church from the Soviet Bloc.  They had a mutual relationship, but that was no longer necessary.  The status quo has changed.  Radu would crush them along with the rest of the world.

He would do that in a month, but not now.  Now was not the time to make any sort of move.  Now was the time to set up the dominoes.  He will knock down the first one just before Christmas.  He has the gift that keeps on giving.   

The Crusaders were fools, who thought they knew far more then they did.  They believed that house in Romania was Vlad’s even though the last name on the house was Frumos—
Frumos, handsome, Radu’s nickname—
and that Radu had killed him
. 
But people
believed what they wanted to.  Radu was guilty of that too.  He believed the Crusaders posed no threat.

Radu was not the only deceitful one.  The Crusaders had planned on killing Radu once Vlad was out of the picture.  Now they could work on that and at the same time their second goal.  Bandini made his way to his lunch meeting, and even though he would be late, there was a smile on his face. 

There was only one master vampire left
,
but Bandini knew there would soon be others.

THREE

1

J
asmine woke up dizzy.  It wasn’t from sleeping all night on a boat, she had slept on boats many times before.  It was from the dream she had that started to fade as she woke, but it was vivid enough to stay in her mind like a stain.  She was in a castle, and she knew she was the lady of the house, even though she had not spoken to anyone.  It was her dream and she just
knew. 
She walked to a tower.  The view from it opened to a landscape of rolling trees with brown mountains rising above them.  She looked below her and saw the fall was long.  At the bottom, she made out a river that flowed along the scenery like a vein.  Between the tops of the trees and the river there was an orange light—the woods were on fire.  There was an army below.

She looked closer at them and got dizzier.  One face stood out to her.  A handsome face with evil eyes.  She leaned over to get a better view and felt her footing slip.  She was also aware that she was letting it happen.  She slipped and was now falling.  The river grew closer.  Her speed was too fast even for a dream.

She willed herself to wake before she crashed.  She ejected out of the dream.  As she woke she heard the sound of a body splash into water.  The sound of someone falling into water made the transition of that dream to reality even harder, but she got her bearings.  It was Vlad. 
That guy loved swimming last night, like he had never done it before.  She woke up naked, her breasts hanging from her body.  She felt a little umcomfortble to find the bed empty.  But then she smelled the bacon.

On the counter next to the sink (which had clean pans inside it) was a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and a note. 
I would never want to disturb such a beautiful sight as you sleeping.  I’m taking another swim, love Vlad. 
The note warmed her heart. 

She grew a tad concerned, she wasn’t known to be a late sleeper, and yet, Vlad had cooked an entire meal and didn’t disturb her.  She put her hand over the food, it was still warm.  She checked her cell phone.  The time was 10:42 but the screen also read:
No Service. 
She knew her father would be upset.  He didn’t mind when she slept out, he was liberal like that, but he didn’t like when he couldn’t get in touch with her.

Jasmine walked out to the bow of the ship to find Vlad swimming in the Pacific.  She didn’t realize she was naked as she walked out.  It was all right though, so was Vlad.

“Hun,” she said

Vlad looked up at her but found he couldn’t speak.  The sun was just overhead and the sight of her was too much too fathom all at once. 

“Vlad?”

“Sorry something beautiful just came into view.”

Jasmine smiled.  “Do you like me just for my looks?”

“Nooo, I don’t know anyone else who can steer a boat.”

She smiled again. 
He was good. 
Jasmine felt a little fear grow inside her.  That foreboding fear that this was too good to be true. 

“Do you have any service on your cell phone?” she asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t tried.  But I haven’t gotten any messages, so probably not.”

“Mind if I use yours in case you do?  My dad gets nervous if he doesn’t hear from me.”

“Not all, go ahead.”

She walked into the cabin, and a few seconds later came back out.

“Nope, you don’t have any service either.”

He could tell she was a little distraught.  He started to swim back to the boat.

“Well let’s get ready to go back in.”

“No, we don’t have to do that already.”

“No, you have class today.”  Vlad climbed up the ladder and onto the boat.  “Besides, it’s not like you aren’t going to see me again.”

2

J
asmine steered the craft while Vlad stood next to her drinking his coffee in the flybridge above.  They were dressed now.  The coast started to come into view.

“Vlad can you go see if any of our phones are working, yet?  I left them both on the table below.”

Vlad nodded with the cup at his lips and turned around.  He climbed down the ladder to the galley below underneath.  He picked up both phones on the table.  As he turned to make his way back up he glanced at his phone.  There were three voicemails, and two text messages.  He checked the text messages first.  They were both from Malachi:
Vlad call me it’s an emergency
,
and:
Vlad please call as soon as you can.

Vlad grew nervous.  He hurriedly climbed up to the flybridge, handed Jasmine her phone, told her he had to make a call, and made his way back down to the galley.  He didn’t
even hear what Jasmine had said. 
Where was Jericho, and why hadn’t I heard from him? 
He dialed Malachi’s phone expecting to hear either Malachi or Jericho.  Neither answered, but someone did.

“Vlad?”

“Father Pacami?”

“Vlad, where have you been?”

“I was out at sea, I just got service now.  What is going on, and tell me from the beginning?”

“I got a call last night from a nurse at the Cedars-Sinai Center, telling me there was a patient in here asking for me specifically to give him his last rites.  Cedars has their own Catholic, Jewish, and Christian Chaplain, but he asked for me specifically.  I told Father Montes about it and then took a taxi here as soon as I could.  It was Malachi, he was beaten to a pulp.  He and Jericho were found in a parking lot near the Staples Center.  The cops assumed they were at the Lakers game.  They found ticket stubs in their wallets.”

“The cops?”

“Yes, LAPD got an anonymous phone call that two men were mugged in a parking lot.  Malachi can talk, but that was all he told the cops, too.  He and Jericho were mugged and he was beaten with some type of small bat.  The police did not find any money missing.  They figured the perps got scared for some reason and ran off in fear.  Malachi told them they were wearing ski masks, he couldn’t describe them.”

“How is Jericho?”

“Vlad… Jericho’s dead.”

Vlad dropped the phone.  He sat there like his life was just flushed out of him.  He broke into tears as he sat on the couch next to the table.  He heard Jasmine coming down the ladder, “Vlad, my Dad was just nervous where I was, he said we don’t have to—”

Before she could finish her sentence, she had made it down the ladder and found Vlad holding his head in his hands crying.

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong?”  She started to panic.

He couldn’t respond.  She saw his phone on the floor next to it, and picked it up.  She could hear Pacami’s voice asking for Vlad as it got closer to her ear.  She spoke into it.

“Hello.”

“Jasmine, this is Father Pacami.  Is Vlad all right?”

“He’s sitting here in tears.  Father, why are you calling Vlad?”

Pacami did not know how to answer, and what would be telling her too much.  He didn’t know if Vlad explained anything about Malachi or Jericho.  Pacami was trying to stall.  Vlad had his wits to know he had to do some explaining.

“One of my cousins that I lived with died last night.  Father Pacami was asked to give the last rites to my other cousin who survived.”

Jasmine started to understand.

“Father, where are you?” she asked into the phone.

“Cedars-Sinai.”

“We will be there soon.”

She hung up and hugged Vlad.  “What happened,” she asked.

“They were mugged after the Lakers game.”

“Did they catch who did it?”

Then it dawned on Vlad. 
Who did do this? 
             

“They were wearing masks.  They don’t know who did this.”  Vlad was trying to hold back his tears in front of his woman. 

Jasmine made her way out of the galley and back up to the flybridge.  Vlad felt the boat throttle up.  He climbed up after her.

“Are we going too fast?” he asked.

“It’s about an hour from the marina to Cedars
without
LA traffic.  We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Who did do this? 
They better hope whoever they are that the police got them before Vlad did, because he will have no mercy on them, he will…Then it dawned at Vlad,
what would he do? 
He was after all, just a man.

3

V
lad acted like a zombie as he worked through all the paperwork for checking the boat in.  Jasmine could see he was in no shape to drive, so she drove his Mulsanne to Cedars-Sinai.  Vlad was very quiet on the drive.  She tried to console him as they dealt with the traffic.  He was responsive enough to be polite, but he never let her on at all to what he was really thinking. 

He felt guilty.  He felt his love had killed Jericho.  If he had not given up immortality for what he felt, if even he allowed Jericho to drink the blood and not destroy it, Malachi would not be in intensive care, and Jericho would not be dead because to two punk muggers needed some money—probably to buy drugs.  They had mugged two gods. 
Ex-gods. 
Was this a cruel twist?  Was this the other foot dropping?  The dark karma that made life par.  He gets the love of his life, and then loses his closest friend. 

Hours later Vlad would wish that was the
only
bad news.

4

J
asmine took the lead when they got to the hospital.  She was familiar with Cedars.  She led him to the information desk on the plaza level.  However, when the nurse asked for the name, he was blank.  He wasn’t spacing out.  He just had no idea what name Malachi was registered under.  It wasn’t
Malachi,
it was one of his aliases.  Time was adding up.  How could he explain not knowing the name of the cousin he was just crying over?

“George Patterson,” he heard from the voice of Pacami behind him.  Vlad turned his way.  “Are you George’s cousin?  I was the priest he asked for.”
             

“Yes, yes I am.” Vlad said.

The nurse kept looking at the computer, but Jasmine had found the whole exchange odd. 
I thought his name was Malachi, and why are they acting like strangers, they were just talking on the phone?
It appeared there was something more between these two than Vlad was letting on.  But why would he hold back?

“He’s in the Saperstein tower.  That’s the critical care tower, attached to the north tower,” the nurse said. 

“Can I visit him?” Vlad asked.

“Yes, but only one person, and only for an hour at a time.”

“That’s fine, how do we get there?”

“I know where it is,” Jasmine said.

“Hold on though, I have to call up to make sure they’re not busy with him now.”

The nurse called.  The three of them looked at each other, each not sure what to say, each full of questions.  Pacami and Vlad each had questions for the other, but neither wanted to say it in front of Jasmine.  Jasmine wanted to ask Vlad why he paused for his cousin’s name and why Pacami acted like he didn’t know Vlad, but she didn’t want to say anything about it in front of the nurse.  So all of them stood there with no idea of what to say, and if the nurse looked up from the phone she would have seen the awkwardness written all over their faces.

The nurse hung up.  “You can all go up, room 542, a doctor will meet you outside.  But we could not find any type of insurance for your cousin.”

Vlad pulled out a wad of cash, and dropped fifty hundred dollar bills on the desk.

“That’s five grand, keep the tab open.”

“Well okay,” the nurse was a little shocked.  “I just need ID’s from you all to give you your passes.”

Shit,
Vlad thought as he dug into his wallet.  Jasmine hadn’t noticed the fake name Vlad used to charter the boat, even when he returned it.  Vlad kept an eye on making sure of pocketing all the paperwork, and avoiding her seeing the name it was rented under.  But now as the nurse handed back the visitor’s pass, he saw it coming,

“This is yours Miss O’Reilly, and this is yours Mr. Wellington.”

Jasmine’s face rose in surprise and she stormed off from the desk.  Pacami and Vlad followed her lead.  As they got out of range of the nurse, Jasmine started with her questions. 

“You said your name was O’Connell.  Who the hell is Mr. Wellington?”

“It’s a fake name.”

“What, Father do you know about this?  How do you guys know each other anyway?  You seemed familiar on the phone, then acted like strangers back there.  What the hell is going on?”

Pacami paused unsure, and let Vlad answer.

“I actually met Father Pacami at a book store.  We had an interesting discussion, and he was the one that sold me on the idea of getting back into the church and so I chose his parish.”

Pacami nodded in approval.  The story worked, it was simple, and Jamsine bought it too.  The next answer would be trickier.

“What is the deal with your cousin?  He has no insurance, and you seemed to blank out when asked his name.  Father, why did you two act like you didn’t know each other?”