Homeward Bound (Journeyman Book 1) (2 page)

“Untrue,” she shot back without any hesitation. “You know I like my men older, more experienced. I don’t think you know much about that, right? Experience? Perhaps with some, you’d manage to hit something with that weapon of yours.”

He glanced over, seeing a little more sass in her step. “I can hit plenty of things with my weapon, gorgeous. Especially if they’re moving at the speed you do,” he said casually.

There was silence as she shook her head, the slightest hint of a smirk escaping from beneath the brim of her cap.

He moseyed to the tailgate as Joey greeted them, holding three sets of what looked like head bands.

“So my man, what do you have prepped for us tonight?” Gage asked. Leaning forward, he rested those large arms on the edge of the truck like a big kid eagerly awaiting toys.

“Mostly the same old cutty, stabby, keep-the-biters at bay fare,” Joey responded, casting a lingering stare at Gage while he rubbed on his dark beard, much thicker than his own. His arms looked truly massive pressed up against the tailgate. Shaking his head, he coughed before struggling to continue. “But I… uh... thought we could give these new guys a whirl.”

He raised the gadgets to show them off in more detail. They were circular headbands, each outfitted with a battery pack, small microphone and several rows of light emitting diodes. “I’ve been working on these for the past few weeks: voice operated UV lights. Perfect for any tight spots we may encounter in there.”

“How do they work?” asked Adrienne, shifting herself over to the back of the truck next to Gage for a better view.

Joey handed them each a unit then flipped a switch on his battery. There was a brief pop and a hum which lingered for a few seconds before fading.

“Well, as you know,” he said, “we always seem to get caught in some kind of close combat situation when fighting these guys. Hell, when we’re fighting pretty much anybody. With these, we should be able to loosen their grip if we get pinned and things get particularly… necky.”

“Some of us like necking,” muttered Gage, throwing a glance over towards Adrienne, “and being pinned. Isn’t that what you told me the other day, Ady?”

Her middle finger shot up. “Yup, I recall mentioning just that.”

Joey laughed then squatted, looking down at the truck bed.

“If you two kids are done,” he said, pulling his hair into a loose bun and placing the device on his head. “Now let’s say you do get caught in a tight spot, all you’ll have to do is say these magic words and you should be set: ‘light 'em up!’”

The unit beeped and in an instant the floor was bathed in an otherworldly blue light, the air buzzing gently.

“Oh, this is good!” Adrienne said, reaching in to pat his shoulder. “Nice one J!” Yet again Joey didn't fail to impress with his tech prowess. He was always the hard worker, even more so since the loss of his dad about this time last year. She started to ponder: had it already been a year since that fateful night? The blue began to fade away at the edges of her vision and it grew dark as sights and sounds, horrible in memory, threatened to rush in.

Then came the screams…
Noooo!

She snapped back and her gaze now twinkled in the moonlight. She brushed away what could have been an overflowing tear, wondering if anyone had noticed, and smiled.

“Thanks!” he beamed. “Deactivate.” The lights on his unit flickered, then faded and the area became bleak once again.

“Good work, my man,” said Gage, his words unexpected. Adrienne and Joey exchanged puzzled looks, waiting for a smart ass chaser to the compliment. It never came. Instead, Gage thumped a fist on the tailgate. “Now let’s finish up and get to business.”

They had come to rural Houston that night to complete a clearing of a local vampire coven, which was a focus-grouped way of saying ‘exterminate the damn place and everyone inside of it’. The Order of Journeymen, despite years of gradual dissolution and dwindling numbers, still prided itself on committee-approved correctness, often with a panache for the superfluous and verbose.

This particular coven was small, estimated at no more than six vampires, yet they managed to raise a host of questions being at the epicenter of seventeen unexplained deaths and three disappearances across the counties in the area. The attacks were getting more brash and the collateral damage drifted ever further into the public eye. The latest kidnapping was no exception, with County Sheriff Mike Blake missing for over a week.

Lucky for the team, the heightened awareness of a missing elected official along with an ample amount of local press investigations made things easier for them. With a little detective work and lots of greased palms, they were led to this derelict plant.

Joey removed a series of small grenade-like items from the box, passing a few carefully to Adrienne before clipping the rest to his belt. A couple of knives were also pulled out and he tossed Gage some ammo clips, painted blue, along with a few vials of holy water. Although most of the traditional folklore about supernatural creatures was false, some of the elements were tried and true.

Joey hopped over the tailgate and pressed a small button underneath the rear bumper. For a brief moment, the truck seemed to shimmer from within before returning to normal. He reached back into the bed and pulled a baseball bat off a side mount, a sharp blade slotted into the barrel.

“Hope
Bolo
gets lucky tonight,” said Gage.

Joey looked at him, slapping the handle to his palm and returned a thumbs up.

Gage turned his attention to the magazines, ejecting a spent gray one from his gun and slapping in one of the new blues, tucking away the spares in his holster pockets. He checked his phone for the time and noticed the battery had drained quite a bit before switching it into vibrate mode. That’s when he noticed Adrienne pacing in his peripheral vision.

“What're you thinking?” he asked, approaching her from behind. A large, calming hand touched her on the back.

She had just adjusted her belt for what had to be the hundredth time, then looked down the same path he had earlier. She placed her hands on her hips. “I’m not sure,” she said gently. “Something seems off. Not necessarily the situation…” she paused at that notion, letting out a scant chuckle:
killing vampires had become the norm
, “but the why”.

“If it makes you feel better, I agree,” he said, folding his arms while also looking down into the dark. “It's been what, a couple months at least since we've heard of any blood-sucking in the area? In fact, the same amount of time since we’ve heard of
any
supernatural shit going down. It’s been all quiet, then outta nowhere we have this beastly feast right in our backyard.” He shuffled, looking uncomfortable even for the mighty Gage Crosse. His knuckles cracked as he went on. “Hell, I thought we had driven them all out west toward Pine Springs…”

Joey stepped up beside the two of them and Gage took in the faces that were with him, looking to one, then the other. Who would’ve thought he would be with anyone, especially a team, for over a year? Certainly not the self-expressed loner himself.

It hadn’t been all rainbows, roses, and unicorns by any means (well, there was that one unicorn about eight months back). The nights were still as long and as harsh as they’d ever been, though he supposed notably less than the pre-company days. They had all been through much together and he was certainly glad to have them by his side. He gazed at Adrienne for a moment longer.

Especially her.

“But,” he snapped, “we can dwell on all that afterwards.” He strode to the back of the truck one last time. A serrated steel machete lined with combat sigils caught his attention. Yanking the blade out of the box, he closed it up tight and tossed Joey the key.

“You both ready?”

They nodded and looked to him for direction.

“Alright then! Let’s do this!” he said, taking point as they walked together into the dark.

AFTER A SHORT HIKE,
the trio arrived outside the crusty building, more ominous up close than it was from afar, searching for the nearest way in. Much to Gage’s disappointment there wasn’t a gaping hole they could simply waltz through, but Adrienne soon spotted a door off to the right in a smoker’s area, coated in brown vines and rust.

Joey knelt in front of the entrance while the others covered him. He reached into a side pocket in his jeans and pulled out several lock picking tools, nimbly working to refine his breaking-and-entering skills. “This is so much easier with a video game controller,” he said in frustration as the door didn’t yield right away.

A rustle came from the bushes; Gage honed in on the sound, but it turned out to be just the wind.

“
Voila!
” Joey said proudly after a few more moments. “Master lock picking skill achieved.”

Gage pushed the corroded door open slowly to minimize the sound of moaning metal and ushered them inside once there was a gap large enough. One after the other they entered the darkened room.

A few windows lined the crumbling walls, damp and sweating with black mold, while rows of benches and tables ran down the center. Refrigerators and microwaves on the far side rested against flaking safety posters and corporate notices that had long gone unread. In the corner stood two vending machines, one full of expired snacks and the other stuffed with cobwebs and spider spawn.

“This is definitely the right place,” whispered Adrienne as she pointed to the open fridge doors. Inside were trays of blood and assorted body parts, marinating at room temperature on the powerless shelves. If anyone had been hungry, they definitely weren’t now as a bitter stench of vinegar and death wafted into their noses and stung their throats.

Joey made his way toward a hallway to the left of the entrance, rounding the corner straight into a massive spider web that completely covered his face. Its maker dangled right at the corner of his eye and quickly he shoved it into the wall, smearing bug guts across the factory’s posted injury record. From the looks of that weathered document, this place hadn’t won any awards for a safe work environment. Ever.

That's when the distant patter of footsteps echoed from the silence ahead.

Without words the team split: Adrienne holding back in the break room while Joey slid into a supply closet midway down the hall. Gage, in typical fashion, stayed put with arms patiently folded across his chest.

A man, outwardly in his early forties, walked around the corner. He was tall but thin and dressed in plain, everyday clothes that were dirtied from a distinct lack of washing. Groaning, he tried to light a cigarette with a stubborn lighter that was only delivering sparks. He took a few more steps down the hall before noticing Gage blocking the way ahead.

His breathing labored as their eyes met. Those long arms fell to the side, protruding out as yellowed fingernails inched their way into sharp claws. His eyes narrowed as the cigarette fell from his mouth, now agape as if to scream. But no sound came. Instead, his teeth became razor-like and deadly.

The two stood facing each other like a standoff in the Wild West.

“Well, you gonna make a move?” Gage whispered impatiently. “Time’s wasting and we ain’t all undead.”

The vampire charged down the hall, surging off the ground onto the walls. As he rushed by, the supply closet the door opened and Joey stepped out,
Bolo
in hand
.

The vamp’s charge was met with a power jab to the gut. Winded, he stumbled before engaging with Gage in a furor of fists and talons.

Gage knocked the creature into the left wall, then to be fair sent him into the right, dislodging flecks of paint and debris that threatened to cause a sneeze. But there was no time to lose focus. The beatings continued, ending with a heavy boot to the chest that sent the biter flying back down the corridor on his back.

Sliding to a stop, his large brown eyes locked in on a passing streak of silver.

“Night night!” said Joey as he swung the bladed bat down like an axe. With a single strike, the vamp’s head was hewn.

Gage finally let loose a sneeze. “Man, it’s fucking dusty in here!”

Adrienne came chuckling from the break room and walked past the two of them to the end of the hall. She turned to say something sarcastic at them, but cold, dead hands yanked her around the corner before she could get a word out.

Gage and Joey bolted down the passageway and rounded the corner. They met with the sight of …

… Adrienne standing over the hunched body of a female vampire, middle aged with curly blonde hair.  She was wiping blood off her silver dagger with her shirt, the vamp’s neck cut clean from side to side. The wound shimmered with a faint yellow light.

They both gave her a startled look.

“I guess you’re good then, no need for a dashing rescue from two handsome men?” asked Joey with half a smile on his lips.

“Good for now, studs,” she said, pointing at the center sigil on the blade before twirling it in her fingers and sliding it back onto her belt. “Trusty number fourteen.”

“No need for the extended warranty, Solomon guarantees product effectiveness will last three thousand years or more after one's death,” said Gage as he kicked the vamp’s limp legs. He gestured toward the next set of doors. “Badass ladies first.”