Hell Is Coming (The Watcher's Series Book 1) (12 page)

“Go where?”

“I got a lead on a case I’m working on. I gotta go check it out.” He started to walk away. “I’ll be back later.”

“Hold up,” I said, following him. “I want to come with.”

“No, it’s too dangerous.”

I took offense to that. “You’re supposed to be training me. Isn’t the best training on the job? That’s what you said to me.  Come on, Frank.” I widened my eyes at him, almost willing him to take me with him.

He thought for a moment. “Alright, you can come.” Before I could say how awesome it was, he said, “On the condition that you do as I say, no matter what.”

“Got it, sure, no problem. Do as you say.” He still didn’t seem convinced by the idea. I think he thought I was humoring him, which I was a bit. I couldn’t help it. I was just excited to go into the field for the first time. “I’m supposed to be this Watcher now, I should be doing…Watcher stuff. I need the experience.”

“Experience.” He said like it was a bad word, motioning for me to follow him. “Believe me, once you get it, you’ll probably wish you didn’t.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

Chapter 9

About half an hour later, Frank was driving us through Mercy City in his black Chevrolet, heading towards the rundown east side that was predominantly populated by gangbangers and drug cartels. They were never done killing each other in that part of the city. I ventured into it a few times in the past with Kasey to buy drugs, and last time, I vowed never again after we got surrounded by a bunch of gangbangers who refused to let us leave unless we gave every one of them blowjobs. Seriously. It was only a passing cop car that allowed us to get away, distracting the gang long enough for us to run.

So I wasn’t exactly thrilled that Frank was driving us into that area, passing by the projects and youths hanging around on every street who looked at us like we were their mortal enemies. “What the hell are we doing here, Frank?” I asked. “This place sucks.”

“Well, you’d better get used to things sucking,” Frank said, seemingly unaffected by the stares we were getting from almost everyone we passed. “Because this job sucks big time.”

“That’s encouraging, Frank. Thanks for that.”

“Just telling the truth. Did you think chasing monsters was going to be a walk in the park?”

“No, obviously.”

“Well then, welcome to the job.” He pulled the car up along a stretch of wasteland on the edge of the projects. Across the street was an old abandoned factory building that was just about the grimmest thing I’d ever seen. It was long and sprawling and every window in the place had long since been broken. Through the windows all you could see was vast darkness.

“What’s in there?” I asked. “You still haven’t told me what we’re doing.”

“I’ve been chasing a vampire for months now,” Frank said, looking out the window at the factory building. “Normally I don’t bother too much with vamps, not unless they do something to get on my radar.”

“Like killing people for  blood, you mean?”

“Vamps do what they gotta do. I’m not going to chase every one of them down. This one turned a senator’s daughter a while back.” He pulled a photograph out of his jacket and handed it to me. The picture was of a young girl, pretty with long blonde hair and big blue eyes, dressed in riding gear and standing by a stable with a horse in the background.

“Poor girl,” I said handing the photo back. “Still, a senator’s daughter is more important than anyone else, is that how it goes?”

“No, but I got asked by the senator to kill the vamp who did it. It pays to keep in good graces with these guys sometimes. Now he’ll owe me.”

I shook my head. “Politics.”

“Politics makes the world go ‘round. Don’t be so naïve.” He got out of the car and I followed him to the trunk. When he opened it, he lifted a false bottom, revealing an entire array of weapons underneath.

“Holy shit, Frank.”

“I like to be prepared.” He reached into the trunk and took out two machetes, handing me one. “Here.”

“No stakes? I thought you needed wooden stakes to kill a vampire.”

“Decapitation is the best way. Cut the sucker’s head right off. No pun intended.”

I hefted the machete in my hand, took a few practice swings. It was heavy and very sharp and I wondered how many vamps Frank had killed with it over the years. He also took a gun and put it in the waistband of his jeans. “I thought guns couldn’t kill vampires,” I said.

“It makes me feel better carrying it.” He closed the trunk and looked around to make sure no one was watching us. We were pretty much alone it seemed, though I still felt jumpy. “A few ground rules before we go in there,” Frank said. “Number one, stay behind me at all times and don’t wander off on your own. Number two, if we meet any vamps in there—which we will—you don’t hesitate, you use that thing to kill them or they’ll kill you.”

I nodded, the reality of the situation we were about to walk into now sinking in. Fear whispered in my ear as it waited in the wings. “What’s number three?”

“When we find the head vamp you let me take care of him. No heroics. This vamp is old and very cunning. You wouldn’t be the first hunter to die at his hands.”

“What if you need help? Am I supposed to just to stand there?”

“Hopefully, I won’t need help, but if I do…just be careful. I don’t want a teen vampire living in my cabin.”

I laughed nervously. “A teen vampire, seriously?”

“This vamp enjoys turning people more than killing them. He’s got a serious grudge against humanity.”

I didn’t like the idea of having to feed off human blood the rest of my life. “Just make sure you kill him then.”

Darkness was descending as we entered the old factory building through a set of double doors that were swinging openly in the wind. As I followed behind Frank, stepping into the darkness of the factory, my stomach turned over, making me nauseous. I switched on the flashlight Frank had given me and was glad when I felt the buzz of the Light Energy pulse in me, helping to alleviate some of the fear that was making its presence felt in ever greater amounts. I gripped the machete tight, ready to swing it at anything that came near me. My breathing was shallow so I forced myself to take a deep breath. “It stinks in here,” I said in a hushed voice. It was the smell of decay. Rank. Awful.

“No talking,” Frank admonished.

I shut up and moved my flashlight around as I followed behind him. The place was quiet, ominously so, apart from the ambient sounds you would expect in such a building—creaking metal, the scurrying of rats and pigeons, dripping pipes. I was thoroughly creeped out by the situation already, and I wished I hadn’t been so insistent about coming along. I was also full of admiration for Frank, at the fact that he would even consider going to such a place alone.

Had my mom been that brave?

Probably. Not too sure if she passed her bravery on to me though. It didn’t feel like it as I moved through the dark factory, wondering what I was going to do if I ran into any vampires. Scream maybe. Run like hell. The latter wasn’t an option, not if I wanted to build any credibility as a hunter.

We moved down a wide corridor with doors on either side that lead to old office rooms that still  had furniture in them. Frank quickly checked each room, shining his flashlight into the dark. I kept expecting some vampire to suddenly appear in the light, all fangs and burning eyes, ready to come at us, but nothing did. “They usually stay together in a nest,” Frank said as we moved deeper into the factory. “I don’t know how many there are, so stay alert and ready.”

I swallowed hard and nodded, trying to come across like I had my shit together. On the inside I was a bag of nerves and at one point I almost screamed as a pigeon came flying out of one of the empty rooms, swooping past my face, making me jump back in alarm and almost drop the flashlight. What an idiot! Frank didn’t pass any remarks. It seemed he expected such amateur behavior from me.

The air seemed to get thicker and the smell more pungent the further into the factory we went. We had covered most of the place already, and I was starting to wonder if Frank had gotten his facts wrong, that there was nobody in that place except pigeons and rats. But then as we turned the corner of the corridor we were walking down, Frank suddenly stopped and I nearly slammed into him. “What is it?” I whispered.

He pointed with his machete towards a set of swinging doors to the right of the corridor. “In there,” he said. He moved towards the doors and I followed him, wondering what sound he had heard because I heard nothing. Maybe he just
sensed
the presence of a vampire, I didn’t know. I just know that as we walked through the swinging doors my heart was pounding so loudly in my chest that I was sure any vampire nearby would be able to hear it.

The room we ended up in used to be some kind of storage area. It had racks of shelves in it, some of which still held boxes, though I didn’t know what was in them, nor did I care. The only thing on my mind at that point was staying alert and sharp enough so I wouldn’t get killed. As we shone our torches around the room, my eyes widened and I felt a rush of adrenaline when I noticed a face and two burning red eyes in the light. The creature snarled in our direction for a second, showing its fangs.

Holy shit. So they really do exist.

The vampire didn’t look like I expected it to. I always thought vampires kept their human appearance but this one didn’t. It looked more like a creature than anything human. It was completely naked for a start, with waxy white skin that reminded me of the fat on a cut of beef. Underneath the skin I could make out blue veins like dye had been poured into the things blood stream, causing every vein to stand out in the light. There wasn’t a single hair on its head either and its mouth seemed too big for its face, stretched grotesquely to accommodate the multiple rows of sharp teeth in there. Some sort of fluid also dribbled from its mouth, maybe saliva, I didn’t know or care. The thing scuttled out of the light and I heard it hissing as it retreated.

Frank and I shone our flashlights into the room, trying to locate the creature again as we stood with our machetes at the ready. I swore to myself that if that thing came near me I would cut it to pieces rather than let it touch me. The light being was straining within me and I took comfort from it, despite the fear that made me shake like a person on a narrow ledge a thousand feet up.

“Look out!” I heard Frank’s voice and looked around me in a panic but couldn’t see anything. Something made me look up and there was the vampire crawling down the wall towards me like some grotesque spider, its huge mouth open and drooling, its razor teeth bared. I looked into its fiery red eyes and froze as it detached itself from the wall and jumped down to land in front of me in a crab-like position, its long talons clacking of the hard floor.

Before I could even think about raising my machete I felt a rush of wind and saw Frank’s machete swish past my face, missing me by inches. His blade connected with the neck of the vampire, slicing right through until its head fell from its shoulders. I could only stand in shock as the headless body fell to the floor in front of me, blood pumping from the stump where the head used to be. “You alright?” Frank asked.

I nodded, unable to speak.

“Stay on guard, there’s probably more of them.” No sooner had the words left Frank’s mouth than the swinging doors burst open and two more vampires came running into the room. The creatures both looked nearly the same except for their decrepit genitalia. Obviously one was a man, the other a woman. Both had burning red eyes and bared teeth. So many teeth. If they managed to get a bite in they would do major damage.

Frank immediately rushed forward and swung his machete at the two vampires, one of whom—the woman—climbed one of the shelving units and crouched on top of it, staring down at me like an angry gargoyle. I knew it would pounce, so I took a defensive stance, raised the machete over my head, and prepared myself.

The vampire launched itself off the shelving unit, hurtling down towards me, its arms outstretched with clawed hands ready to grab and tear me to pieces. I jumped back as the vampire landed in front of me. “You’re dead, bitch,” it snarled in garbled growl, all those teeth making it hard to even talk, then it stood up and ran at me. Instinctively, I stepped to the side and swung my machete high and fast, felt it hit something a second later with a squelchy thud followed by an inhuman screeching sound that made my ears hurt. Frantically, I shone the flashlight into the gloom looking for the injured creature. I spotted it crouching in the corner like a wounded animal, blood pouring from a deep gash in its neck.

I didn’t think. I charged towards it and brought the machete down hard on the creature, hitting it with a downward slash that connected with the open wound in its neck. The machete went half way into the vampire’s neck and it screamed again, its claws swiping at me as I kicked it in the chest to keep it down.  Pulling the machete out, I took another swing and finally took off the vampire’s head before staring half in shock at what I had done, adrenaline blasting through me, my stomach heaving at the bloody carnage I had inflicted. It was the first time I had ever killed anything and my mind struggled to deal with the fact.

“Leia, you okay?” Frank appeared beside me, blood splatter on his face.

“I’m okay,” I said, still trying to decide if I was.

Frank put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Good job. The other one is dead as well.”

I looked over and shone the torch to see the other vampire laying dead on the floor, dark blood still spurting from its headless body. “This is fucked up, Frank.” I was wired with adrenaline and Light Energy, my eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. I’d never felt so switched on, so anchored in the present moment. As scared and confused as I was, I was also exhilarated. I realized then why my mom was so into hunting monsters. Aside from the bloodletting the hunt was the biggest thrill I’d ever felt in my life.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said. “Let’s go. We have to find the senator’s daughter and the head vamp.”