The Halloween Collection (9 page)

“We have arrived.” My ward’s voice brought
me back into the moment.

I had been so lost in memories of my various
servants I hadn’t realized the mechanized beast had carried us to
our destination. Four hundred years had certainly brought man into
a new age. I wasn’t sure I cared for their progress.

“Alex, you are to remain here until I
return. Do not move, do not speak.”

When the night air hit me this time, it was
not the air of death but the air of life. My strength had returned,
my senses were alive, my name remembered.

I am Vlad Kurval, progeny of Vlad Dracul. I
am the ruiner of land. I am a plague. I am a pestilence on
mankind.

I had returned to sow the seeds of sorrow
and waste among the firmament of Earth.

“Kneel before me weak and powerless vermin.
You are but cattle to me and I will taste of your…”

“Woo! Team Tyler! Go Vamp or go home!”

The young female dared cross my path and not
revere me or kneel in abject terror. Instead she held her hand
aloft, bearing a haughty pagan gesture with her finger and
laughed.

“Trick or mother fuckin’ treat, Count
Chocula.”

The male escort accompanying the wench
shouted over his shoulder.

Somehow I had missed the crowd of people
around me, standing in line. Were they waiting for slaughter?
Judging from their light colored auras, if they were being lead to
the slaughter, they were completely unaware. Such a shame to waste
fear and horror with ignorance.

Above the heads of the crowed, in
brilliantly lit letters, was
Nightfall
. Below the letters was a
perfectly rendered portrait of what looked like two lovers in
thrall. Only…only…the male was…

Vampire.

This could not be. When I was put to earth,
I was the only one of my kind. Now, now I must contend with an
overly coiffed, made up, fop laying claim to fangs.

“Go Team Tyler!”

Another young girl spouted the same
nonsense. I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to me.

“Who is this Tyler?” My spell took hold
immediately.

“V-Vampire. In the movie.” Her voice was
distant, powerless as she pointed toward the portrait in the
spotlight.

“Take me to Tyler immediately.”

I released my grip on the girl. She turned
toward the building, and began to walk. As I followed, the other
scraplings yelled in some misbegotten anger.

“Fucking cutter!”

“Where do you think you’re going jerk
face?”

“Look at the loser in the cape.”

Careful children, lest I lose my temper.

“Tickets please.” The man behind the glass
demanded.

My stare needed no voice to back up the
spell. The young man silently waved us on, into the building and
insisted we “Enjoy the movie”.

Once inside, the smells and the sounds were
caustic. The voices were too young, too shrill. Young ladies, who
should have had more self-respect than to parade themselves around
in such little attire, bounced about as if they were nothing more
than piglets on their way to the meat house. There were select few
in the crowd paying homage to the vampire in overly done make up
and false fangs. Had I not been intent on finding this ‘Tyler’ I
would have paused to rip the teeth from the masqueraders and
introduce them to the truth.

My young ward opened a set of doors and
beckoned me inside. The room was dark so my heightened sense of
sight kicked in to reveal a massive crowd of humans awaiting their
fate. This ‘Tyler’ must wield significant power to have enthralled
so many at once. My lady offered me a seat. I was to sit among the
cattle and wait for this vampire? Blasphemy.

I stood. I waited.

“Look at that guy Marissa. What a douche.
Who does he think he is?” The whisper was easily heard.

When I turned toward the sound, two of the
frailer girls, clad in what looked like nothing more than their
undergarments, pointed in my direction and laughed. Had I not been
so eager to meet this unknown vampire, I would have gladly
dismembered the youngsters and sucked the blood from their limbs.
Youth is so delicious when innocent. Although, looking at the
crowd, I had to wonder how much innocence was actually intact.

Before another thought could grace my mind,
one wall of the room lit up like the sun and the most incredible,
brilliant, moving and speaking images appeared. This was powerful
magic. Could it be possible a vampire more powerful than myself was
alive? It had never been, nor had I thought it to ever be.

“Tyler , I love you!” One of the girls
shouted above the din of the overly-loud music.

“Team Lindle!” A young male voice rose above
the crowd.

“Fag!” was the reply. Gales of laughter
followed.

On the lit wall, the face of the man in the
portrait appeared. Tears of blood streamed down his cheeks as he
spoke.

I love you Elizabeth. I can’t live without you.

The larger than life vampire began to
shimmer, sparkle. Members of the audience started screaming and
weeping.

Take me Tyler. Make me one of you.

A doe-eyed girl with pouty lips and the
curves of a young male servant spoke, her eyes overflowing with
sadness.

Elizabeth, you know I can’t. I have never fed on a
human and I won’t start now.

What? Never fed on a human? How could this
be? Before I realized what was happening, my feet had carried me
down to the front of the room, where the faces of the two lovers
were within reach.

“Hey, Old School McGhoul, down in
front!”

“Yeah, get your dusty cape out of the
way!”

The voices rang out from the crowd. My
patience with these mortals had run its course. I turned to address
the masses.

“How dare you. I am Vlad Kurval and you will
bow down and offer up your lives to me!” My voice cracked with
rage.

“Get the fuck out, Count Doucheula!”

The time had come. Without a word, I pointed
to one of the young females seated nearest me and drew her near
with a single finger.

“Give yourself to me.” I whispered.

The young girl tilted her head so that I
could feed. I indulged. With the first blood out of the way, I
could drain the girl of her very life.

This had been apart from the usual ways of
the vampire. The lineage of Vlad Tepes refused his progeny the gift
of draining the lives of man. My maker, Vlad Dracul, saw to it his
lineage broke free from the bonds Vlad Tepes had defined for our
kind. Although Dracula was our God, he was a God all too kind for
our kind. We were the bringers of death, not mercy.

The task of draining the young miscreant
took but a brief moment and the girl dropped to the floor, her life
expired. With the complete draining of a human life came the
succulent after-effect of the victim’s soul becoming one with mine.
From this act, I would grow even more powerful.

“Awesome!”

“I didn’t know they brought in an actor to
do this.”

“The guy’s gay…he’s probably like forty
years old!”

“He’s kinda hot.”

More whispers poured from the crowed. My
finger beckoned another youngster to meet the same fate. The voices
behind me interrupted my spell.

Tyler, the sun! Can’t it hurt you?

No, that’s only a myth. This shimmering aura will
protect me.

I shut out the sound of the voices behind me
and returned my complete attention to the crowd. “Take me to this
Tyler! I command you!” I roared above the din.

“You’re staring right at him, ass hat!”

I stood between a mockery of my kind and a
mockery of mankind.

“I am to be feared!” My voice shook the
walls.

My words were met with laughter. My next
actions would not. I beckoned a male to me. The laughter from the
crowd rose. This would all end soon. I gestured the boy to kneel
before me. When he did the laughter rose to a distorted level.

“Suck him!” A female voice rose above the
laughter.

“Your life ends now young man.” I whispered
to the boy, hoping the words would make it through to his conscious
mind. When the tears began flowing down his cheeks, I knew he
comprehended what was to happen. His jaw quivered. The smell of his
fear rose up to greet me, overpowering the horrendous stench of
perfumes and hormones.

The young man’s head ripped off with ease.
Blood sprayed the nearest voyeurs.

And with a single act, my power over the
human race had returned. Shrieks and screams filled the room. In
front of me, the children scrambled to exit the room. Bodies were
being pushed, trampled, broken—all in a vain attempt to save what
little life they actually claimed as their own. Those lives would
end soon. I would find each and every mouth that dared mock me.

“What the fuck are you doing dickwad?”

A young male, his chest puffed in a pathetic
display of strength, approached me.

“Whatever I want.” I laughed and punched my
fist through the man’s chest as if it were no more than a stomach
of rotting haggis. My arm raised aloft, the man slid down so that I
could sink my teeth into his neck and drain the remaining blood
from his now-still heart.

The screams reached a new fevered pitch. I
tossed off the dead body and sprayed blood over the scrambling
rats. One of the elder females in the young group attempted to
sneak out of the room. Her dress came off with nothing more than a
thought. I could have her here and now, but that would give the
others the false impression that there was any sort of pleasure to
be found. There was none. Instead I tore the girl’s arms from her
body and then tossed the blood-spraying limbs over the crowd.

Another insolent whelp attempted to run by.
I was growing bored of their childish fear. I grabbed the boy by
the head and caved in his skull with a single squeeze. As I licked
the gray matter and other bits of gore from my fingers, the sounds
of the vampire behind me begged for my attention.

Tyler, let’s run away. We can be together
forever.

Elizabeth, I don’t want to be what I am any longer.
I want to be like you. I want to be human.

I turned to meet the glowing, shimmering,
sparkly vampire.

“And you, Tyler, I will find you; and when I
do your suffering will be spoken of for ages. You have laid shame
to the Vampire and you will atone for such treachery.”

Music began playing on the screen as Tyler
and Elizabeth embraced. When I exited the room there were broken
bodies on the floor and the distant echo of fearful screams making
music in the night sky.

Alex was still waiting for me. I would keep
him alive, to act as my servant, until I found this Tyler. I
re-entered the metallic beast and demanded Alex drive onward. The
youth’s head snapped up, his hands grabbed the wheel, and his eyes
opened.

“Where to master?”

“Take me to Tyler.” I spoke with the air of
confidence I had been so accustomed to all throughout my undead
life.

“Yes master.”

The metal monster tore off into the night,
beams of sun shot from the front end of the beast. I would have my
vengeance, not on the King’s Mage, but on the entirety of
humankind, the vile creature that gave birth to the man that put my
fiery soul in the ground for centuries.

A smile graced my lips, lips that have once
again tasted the tang of man.

I have returned.

* * *

Check out Jack’s other work:

I Zombie
I

A Blade
Away

Gothica

Shero

Jack Wallen was born alongside the great pumpkin in a
patch called Midian. He knew at that very moment he was destined to
be the King of Zombies.

Get Jack’d

This story is dedicated to Scooby. I miss you,
little buddy.

Also, I’d like to extend a big THANKS to my badass
pack, Shéa, Heather, Alan, Jack, Michael, Talia, Lizzy and Julia
for inviting me into their wolf-den.

Raphael circled his prey.

The victim, a soft and pliant, raven-haired
beauty, lie motionless, her wantonly limbs spread out like a feast
before him.

Earlier, she’d tried in vain to resist him,
but she’d easily succumbed to Raphael’s raw strength. He’d only
used a fraction of his power to take her down. And now he prepared
to make her feel the wrath of his awesome animal prowess.

He crossed the threshold of the chamber, and
in once fluid motion, had the wench pinned beneath him. He laughed
menacingly under his breath, as he smoothed one extended claw down
the welcoming contour of her velvety smooth skin. He momentarily
thought about shifting to human form.

But no.

She had called him a monster and a
beast.

A mongrel.

Now he would teach the serpent-tongued wench
a swift and brutal lesson.

Let her writhe and moan against the animal
that he was until she begged for mercy…and release. For even when
Raphael was in animal form, no woman could resist the reckless and
wild abandon of his lovemaking.

Arching his neck, he let out a primal howl
before he cocked his hips and slammed into her with a jarring
thrust.

“Ralphie! Quit humping the sofa cushion and
get over here!”

Raphie looked up to see Alpha glaring at him
through hooded eyes.

Damn. Couldn’t a wolf get a moment to
himself?

Whimpering, he snatched up the black velvet
pillow with his teeth and tossed it on the couch. Growling under
his breath, he warned the wench to wait for his return and make no
attempt to flee or suffer his wrath.

He trotted over to his pack, ignoring the
jeers and snickers as he sat on the outskirts of their small
circle. Alpha had called together a secret meeting in their
mystical wolf den, otherwise known as the split level basement of
Alpha’s parents’ modest suburban home, located in the heart of the
mysterious and ancient city of Tacoma, Washington.