The anger began to build on top of the grief. It started as a small trickle that swelled into a creek and gave way to a raging river. The pain drifted away. My fists curled into tighter balls. My talons started to grow and they pierced the flesh of my palms, but I didn't care. The pain in my hands felt good compared to the throbbing in my head. The claws hit the bones in my hands and I forced my fists open. I couldn't see the blood trickling into my eyes from my forehead because my vision hadn't returned, but I could feel it. The sting felt good.
"It's a good thing you're going to die tonight," Greer continued. "When Strozzini died, I knew you had something to do with it, I just couldn't prove it. I couldn't let an abomination like you continue, so I dispatched a letter to the Vampire Council, telling them all about you. What a shame, they'll never get to see your body. I'm sure they would have found it interesting." I could hear his shoes as he took several more steps while he gloated.
The pain in my hands had completely ebbed and vanished as I opened my hands. I rubbed them together and heard a strange scraping noise, like somebody rubbing pieces of sandpaper together. Frantically, I wished for my vision to come back. I wistfully wished for Vic to still be alive. That thought started the tears. I let them fall from my eyes and land on the back of my hands. Dimly the room came back into view. I blinked twice at the scaly paws in front of my face. It took me a moment to realize they were mine.
My skin had been replaced by something else. Most of it had become a deep crimson color, but a myriad of tiny black shapes covered it like angular gooseflesh. It gave the appearance of reptilian scales, but they didn't overlap. I rubbed my hand over my arm and couldn't feel anything. I looked up and saw Greer had closed the distance between us.
He looked down at me with both hatred
and
amazement. I could only imagine what I looked like to him. Maybe he saw his death in my eyes. Maybe he just saw the pain and anguish I would be so willing to impart on his immortal ass.
I stood and he backed up a pace. I could feel the weapons Greer's children were holding swing from the open doorway to target me. I took a step and Greer took another one backward. I took a second step and he frantically backpedalled, opening his eyes wide as he scrambled to get away.
The first shot rang out and I yelled, "Now!" I heard the surge of agents and SWAT as they frantically tried to shove thirty people through a space the size of Thompson. I focused my attention on my prize. The first shot hit me in the shoulder before I heard it. I felt the impact, but no pain. I snarled in outrage and doubled my efforts to get Greer's neck in my hands. Nothing else mattered.
He gave up trying to run backward and turned to flee outright. I leapt and landed on his back, pinning him to the floor. He screamed in outrage while I decided what to take off of him first. I decided on his right arm when he spun, throwing me off of him. He headed toward the door, the only entrance or exit to the room, and realized he had counted on his strength and that of his children a little too confidently. He had expected an easy victory and never counted on the necessity of retreat. Hell, he probably thought they would still win, but not before I killed him.
He spun on me and pulled another knife. My friends finally started getting through the door and took positions behind what little cover they could find. Shots filled the room as the vampires answering to Greer returned fire. People and vampires fell, wounded or dead within minutes with Greer and I in the crossfire. Bullets pounded into me, but no pain blossomed from the wounds. Greer wrenched a smoking silver stake from his calf without breaking eye contact with me. I smiled and feinted as he swung his deadly silver blade at my face.
Power surged from him as he held up his left hand. I felt something, but not anything different. He looked at his palm and back at me as if he'd just discovered his lifeline had come to an abrupt end.
One of the SWAT members tried to get a kill shot on the governor, but got too close. Greer held out his hand again and thousands of bone deep lacerations appeared on every inch of visible skin. Judging from the amount of blood flowing from his vest, shirt, and pants, those lacerations covered everywhere not visible too. He fell dead before he could scream.
Greer held his hand up and smiled at me again. I braced myself from the impending rush of power from the palm of his hand, but nothing happened, again. Greer comically looked at his palm and shook it before trying again. I smiled when it failed the third time. He looked pissed. I ran forward and he struck inhumanly fast with the wickedly curved blade. I didn't have time to dodge it, so I held up my forearm, willing to take the hit to get my hand around his throat. The blade struck with a shower of sparks and cut me even through my new spiffy skin. It hurt, but I smiled and bashed him open palmed with my right hand. I wanted to knock him on his ass, but he landed on his feet and launched at me again.
I braced for the impact, but he grabbed me where he'd cut me. This time I felt the surge of power from his hand as he released his curious power right over an open wound. Pain shot from the gash throughout my body like the roots of a tree. Everywhere it hit, my skin pain blossomed as well as a wound. My body became slick with my own blood. Greer smiled triumphantly. I spat in his face.
I lost an immense amount of blood before the lacerations closed. I could at least take satisfaction in the fact that Greer looked shocked the wounds closed at all. I didn't waste any time. When I lose blood, I lose energy. The emotional damage I took watching Vic die, as well as the physical damage from Greer's power, weighed heavily in my limbs. I could feel my speed and strength being sapped every second that passed. I slowly circled him as he narrowed his eyes.
He'd figured out I was drained. He closed in for the kill and actually slipped the curved blade up through my stomach into my chest. If he'd been a hair to the right it would have pierced my heart and he might have been able to finish me off. Because he hadn't, I wrapped my hands around his shoulders, too bad.
I leaned in close to his face before I killed him. I locked my gaze with his. I shouldn't have looked, but I wanted to see the fear I'd just started to smell on him.
As soon as our gazes locked, something clicked. The room spun around us as if we stood in the middle of a centrifuge. Within moments, the walls of the cavern flung away leaving a vast starry night. Greer wasn't in my clutches anymore. He floated above a calm ocean that had been electrified with living color, as if the rolling waves themselves radiated light rather than reflecting it. I looked down and saw my vast turbulent ocean and knew I'd trapped his mind.
"You can't do this to me," he said snidely and waved his arms and legs, trying to propel himself toward me.
"I can and I have, you piece of shit. Look at me!"
He did and his arms and legs went limp. I wanted to tear him apart, piece by piece, but I couldn't do it here in this realm of the mind. He didn't look panicked; he looked like he had a plan. Wind that wasn't real blew me back as his ocean surged forward and pushed against mine. We both floated over his power now and fear gripped my chest. I closed my eyes and called my waters. I felt them trying to push his back, but couldn't. Sweat beaded on my forehead as his sneer grew more confident moment by moment. It couldn't end like this. Nobody would be left to avenge Vic.
She saved me. The moment I thought of her, my power didn't push his back, it split in a V shape and worked itself around Greer's power. He looked from left to right and lifted his hands to call his to him. It wrapped around him like a cocoon and he smiled at me from within the depths of his shell. A tendril of power shot out and tried to spear me, but purely out of reflex, I lifted my hand to ward it off. A wave of my power shot up and blocked his. He looked at me in disbelief. I looked back in shock.
I looked down and my power looked smaller than before and less reflective. Like the color emanating from it had dulled to a matte finish. I needed to end this quickly.
I brought my hands down like a child bowling for the first time. I think they call it granny-style. I lifted both my hands and called everything I had with one large pull. The waters below me shot forward and wrapped everything Greer had and him in a large wave. I watched him panic as he drowned in my power. I mentally squeezed with everything I had. His power grew smaller and smaller, squeezing the very life out of him. I gave one final mental scream and my waters went from matte to shiny black obsidian and froze solid, trapping everything within it.
The room spun back into focus. The sounds of fighting around us still echoed off the stone walls of the cavern. I held Greer in my arms and had his neck in my mouth. I sucked and nothing came out of the empty husk he'd become. I opened my arms and he fell to the ground, quite dead.
Chapter 26
As it turned out, the moment Greer died the rest of his vampires stopped fighting and attempted to surrender. The Agents of the FBI involved in the firefight, including the members of the FBI SWAT team, didn't wait for the federal executioners to come in. After the vampires had thrown down their weapons, everyone finished them without batting an eyelash. I stood in the middle of the room and watched silently. Vic deserved that much at least.
I had Vic's body cremated and I flew back to San Francisco and spread the ashes over the bay. It seemed fitting. She loved San Francisco and Sacramento had been a sort of punishment for her. I wanted her to be happy, even in death. As I dumped her ashes, with tears rolling down my cheeks, I vowed to never make another vampire again as long as I lived. Silently, I hoped that wouldn't be much longer. Everywhere I went, death followed, and if Marcel could go on without making companions, so could I.
We lost seventeen members of the FBI that night and still the Deputy Director dubbed it a success. He said we walked into a trap and came out alive. Most of us had anyways. He chalked it up as a win. I wasn't convinced. I know part of me died in Sacramento.
I have one huge problem other than Vic's loss. When I enveloped Greer with my power and drained him dry, every vampire tied to him as master of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Jose became mine. I knew right away, not only because I could feel every one of them, but when the FBI massacred the rest of Greer's vampires, I felt every shot, blade, and stake as they pierced their flesh. I took each one as a sort of penance for failing Vic at the end. I know, I'm a martyr, or at least that's what the therapist the FBI is making me see told me.
I received a commendation from not only the FBI, but from the Department of Homeland Security too. I put them in a drawer and haven't seen them since. Thompson smiles every time he sees his sitting on his desk. Then he notices me staring at him while he's doing it and quickly starts shuffling papers.
True to his word, Sanders stationed Thompson and me back in Chicago. Reese is only slightly happier than Thompson's wife. The moment I walked through the doors of the Chicago Field Office, he hugged me for a half hour straight. He had another surprise for me as well. Completely going against my wishes, he used the story I'd given him about how I'd come to be and cross referenced the data against fatal accidents at the time and discovered my last name is Thorn. It was the one thing about me I never wanted the FBI to know. But he figured out who my aunt was and saved her house from probate, much to the chagrin of the estate lawyers. He not only had all my records changed to Ashlyn Rowan Thorn, he had the house put in my name as sole heir. I don't know how he did it, but he did. At least I don't have to rent an apartment while I'm staying in Chicago.
When I'm not doing FBI stuff, I'm spending all my free time with Marcel learning how to be a vampire. He took Vic's death hard. I guess he figures if he'd stayed, she'd still be alive. I passed along what my therapist told me. I hoped it helped. It's easy to be around him. He helps me forget what I lost and what could have been. I also passed along Greer's revelation of the letter he'd sent the Vampire Council. He isn't too happy about that. I told him we'd get through it.
He
doesn't seem too sure.
I've visited my first partner Michaels' grave six times since I've been back. I smile every time I see him. I told him all about Vic and how much he would have liked her. I buried her cat's eye bracelet at his grave. I hope he doesn't mind, but now I can say hi to both of them at the same time. I also introduced myself to Michaels' parents. His dad is the spitting image of his son and has the same sense of humor. Even though I inadvertently caused his death, they not only don't blame me, they've sort of "adopted" me and keep introducing me to all their friends as Pete's partner. I try not to cry.
For now, I'm living day to day and learning all I can. I know the Council will come looking for me and knowledge is power. Hell, it might be the only power I have against them. We'll see. In the meantime, I keep waiting for the call that will take me to another city to fix another problem. I just hope I don't get anyone else killed or screw up too bad.
Epilogue
Asmodeus sat on his throne contemplating a solution to his problem. The All hadn't placed a time limit on fixing his latest indiscretion, but one didn't dally when commanded by the All. They hadn't provided him with a way to remedy it, but that was his problem, not the All's. He had his seneschal scouring all the tomes in his kingdom looking for a way for him to enter the mortal realm without being summoned. Humans had long ago severed all ties to his kind and burned most of the tomes in their world on how to summon even a minor demon, let alone a demon lord. Sometimes being one of the fallen had more than its usual share of disadvantages.
As he sat he felt a shift in the power that permeated every corner of his kingdom. Someone had arrived in his realm unannounced. He hadn't summoned anyone, so he could only assume it was his annoying cousin, Raphael, or one of his ilk. He rolled his slit eyes in annoyance as he ran his taloned finger over the top of one of the hundreds of skulls adorning his throne.