The Tome of Bill Compendium Vol. 1 (Books 1-4) (88 page)

Ed, putting two and two together, said, “You should have let me shoot that dick when we first met him.”

I nodded. “From here on in, consider yourself to have free rein to shoot whatever asshole vampire you want...minus me, of course.”

“THE CHALLENGE IS ACCEPTED.” No shit, Sherlock. The moderator then went on to ask the other faction the same thing. Each and every one of Turd’s little shits wanted in on the action. Unsurprisingly, though, he shot them all down in favor of handling this personally.

Oh, fuck. I could feel a quiver of fear running down my spine. My knees felt unsteady and suddenly my throat was very dry.

“What do you want us to do?” Ed asked.

“There isn’t much you can do. Get Sally to the sidelines. Tom, I can’t believe I'm saying this, but go see if maybe Christy can do something to snap her out of it.”

“Got it,” he replied, for once not adding a snide remark.

“What about you, Bill?”

“Go see if one of us packed a squeegee,” I replied. “When this is done, use it to scrape what’s left of me up.”

“THE FIELD WILL BE CLEARED, SAVE FOR THE COMBATANTS.” With that, the ball pulsed again and then zapped the table. It began to disintegrate before our eyes. I quickly snatched up my blood bottle before it could tumble to the ground. No point in letting it go to waste.

I unscrewed the cap and chugged it down. I doubted it would do much to steady my nerves, but at least I wouldn’t die parched.

“Take this and toss it...” I started to say when suddenly I doubled over. “OH, GOD!” I screamed, falling to my knees.

My roommates were both dragging Sally’s still unresponsive form to the sidelines. When I went down, they nearly dropped her.

“What is it, Bill?” Tom cried.

What indeed? It felt like a nuclear bomb had gone off in my stomach. I had felt similar sensations before, but never even remotely this intense. I finally realized why James had been winking at me. He had filled my bottle with blood all right, vampire blood.

Any vamp in the world takes a sip from another and they’re going to finish the day puking their guts out. Not me, though. However strong the vampire I take a bite out of, I temporarily add their power to my own. I only knew one vamp this powerful who might take a chance like this. I had no doubt James had filled it with his own blood.

My god, so this is how he felt? Before my friends could utter another word of concern, I bounced to my feet. Well okay, I first bounced ten feet into the air. I felt incredibly light as the blood continued to pump into my veins.

“Bill?” Ed’s voice rang in my ears, several times louder than it should have. My senses were amped up too. “Are you okay?”

I smiled, feeling my canines elongate. “I’m right as rain, motherfuckers.”

* * *

Without warning, I staggered again. What the hell? Something was wrong. My body was still reacting to the blood, but it was going beyond just strength.

Oh, no!

I looked down at my hands. My nails had extended into claws, albeit they seemed longer and sharper than usual. That wasn’t all, though. I noticed that the hands they were attached to looked bigger too.

Instinctively I knew what was happening. I was changing. James was at least twice as old as any vampire I had previously sampled. His blood was too powerful. It was awakening the beast inside of me. The creature, whatever it was, that had escaped only twice before - both times under extreme anger - was ripping free of its chains.

“Bill?” a voice, a human one. It was starting to get hard to think. I knew that voice...Fred? Red? Oh, yeah, Ed. My roommate...my delicious, human roommate. Wouldn’t his blood taste...NO!

“Run!” I yelled at him. Before he could protest, I again roared out, “RUN!”

Neither he nor Tom needed to be told twice. They grabbed Sally and dragged her from the arena floor.

I felt my sleeves begin to rip as my muscles went from flab to fab. Whatever was happening, it sure as shit beat going to the gym three times a week.

I looked up to see Francois’s buddies still standing there, looking at me in shock. My vision began to flash red and I understood. These creatures before me weren’t my betters. They weren’t even my equals. They were food, plain and simple. I was the predator of predators.

And still, the changes continued.

“COMBAT WILL END WHEN ONE OF THE COMBATANTS CAN NO LONGER CONTINUE.”

Combat? With these pathetic creatures in front of me? Don’t make me laugh. Almost as if sensing this, they broke and fled. Foolish prey. Did they truly think they could escape?

Before I could run them down, a shadow loomed over me. It was the beast with the stupid name. Odd, I remembered him being larger. A snarl was on his face, but my senses told me different. There was an undertone of fear. Perhaps the creature wasn’t as stupid as it seemed.

*WHAM*

Perhaps not. I found myself airborne, and not of my own power. I flew twenty feet before crashing back down to the ground. The blow had been massive. It would have been more than enough to break a weaker creature.

But, I was not weak. That was a lesson the brute in front of me would soon learn.

I got back to my feet and leapt, feeling the thrill of the joined battle coursing through me.

Did somebody get the number of the bus that ran over me? What about the three before it? Holy shit, when I go on a bender, I really go all out.

I shook my head to clear it a bit, then looked down at myself. My clothes were a mess: torn to shreds and covered in dirt, blood, and whatnot. Fuck! Mom was gonna be pissed. She always hates when I come home for the weekend from...

Hold on. I’m not in school anymore, haven’t been for a couple of years now. I blinked and looked around. It took a few seconds for the world to come into focus. No wonder why. There was a big crack in my left lens. Motherfucker! I liked these glasses. Good thing I have a spare back in...my hut?

I looked around again, slowly remembering where I was. Creatures of all shapes and sizes sat in crude bleachers looking down upon me. Why were they staring at me? Oh, yeah. I was just about to get my ass handed to me by Turd.

What the hell happened? Did I faint? That would be just my luck. Sally’s never going to let me live that one down.

Speaking of which, where was she? Hope she didn’t get her hand chopped off again.

The fog in my head cleared some more. Oh, that’s right. Tom and Ed dragged her away after I...drank...that...blood.

Oh, boy.

“FREEWILL, YOU ARE THE VICTOR. YOU MAY DETERMINE TURD’S FATE.”

What the fuck? I reached up, slapped myself across the face to clear my thoughts...and almost immediately fell on my ass. I felt a spray of blood shoot from my nose as my head rocked back from the force of the impact. Ouch! Holy crap! Guess I must've still had some residual strength running through me. Gotta watch that. Wouldn’t do me any good to knock myself out.

Painful or not, it did the trick. My head finally cleared. I saw Turd lying a few feet away. Bruised, bloody, and with what appeared to be a dislocated jaw, he looked like someone had driven a freight train over him. He was still breathing, but seemed to be out cold. Thank God for small favors.

Whatever the fuck just happened, I had won...somehow. Apparently, it was just in the nick of time for the worst of the effects from that blood to wear off too. Goddamn, that was intense.

“FREEWILL, I REPEAT, THE BATTLE IS YOURS. WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT?”

It was then that I finally noticed the sounds of the crowd again - howls, grunts, and screams. This time, though, I sensed a decisively different attitude toward me.

“Kill him, Freewill!” something shouted.

“Death to the vanquished!”

More joined the chorus, encouraging me to kill my foe.

Yeah, well fuck that. They could get some other monkey to dance for them.

I held up a hand to silence the crowd. They did, surprisingly enough. Guess people listen when the champ speaks. I could get used to that.

“We’re done here for today,” I shouted, partially to the crowd and partially to the glowing thing still floating above me. “Clean up Turd (
heh
) and make sure he’s back at the table tomorrow.”

The crowd started in again. Some of them approved of my decision; others were quite vocal against it. I couldn’t have cared less about any of them or their stupid supernatural opinions. I scanned the audience and saw my friends. Christy was with them, apparently working some magic. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working. Sally still had a thousand-yard stare on her face.

I wandered over as the crowd began to disperse. Christy got a momentary panicked look on her face, presumably over what had just transpired on the battleground. She held her ground, though. I could respect that.

“How’d I do?” I asked, looking back. I could see several Sasquatches dragging Turd away.

Tom answered first. “Two words: fucking awesome!”

“I agree. That was...something,” Ed replied.

“You really are the Freewill,” Christy said in a small voice.

“So they tell me,” I replied, blithely. “How’s Sally?”

“Whoever compelled her is really strong,” Christy replied, composing herself. “She’ll probably snap out of it on her own, but I’m not sure there’s any way to keep her from going under again. A lot depends on what they commanded her to do.”

“Fuck!” I punched a nearby stump out of frustration. To my surprise, it split upon impact. Guess I was still juiced up.

“Maybe you should take this opportunity to kick Francois’s ass,” Ed suggested.

“Hell, I’m still wondering how you were able to take out Turd,” Tom said. “Have you been practicing hulking-out behind our backs?”

I shook my head and then explained the blood.

“Whoa, James did that for you?”

“Yeah. Pretty cool, eh?”

A thoughtful look appeared on Christy’s face following my explanation. She leaned forward and asked, “Are all of your powers heightened?”

“I dunno. Still figuring this shit out, but I guess so.”

“Then why don’t you try compelling Sally to wake up?”

Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know if it’ll work. Francois is older than James.”

“Why don’t you try rather than bitching about it?” Tom suggested

“He’s got a point,” Ed said. “It might work, especially since I get the impression Sally’s not too fond of that asshole.”

“Make that two of us,” I replied. “Stand back. With the extra power in my system, I don’t want to pop anyone’s head off.”

“Because standing back will really help with a
psychic
compulsion,” Ed muttered.

“Bite me, asshole.”

“Just do it already.”

Jeez, no patience from mortals these days. I concentrated on trying to focus on Sally and Sally alone. Here goes nothing...”
SALLY, SNAP OUT OF IT!!
”

Holy shit! The compulsion felt like it had ten times the juice of the one I had used on Alfonzo. Sally’s head rocked back as if I had decked her; however, her eyes immediately cleared. Wow, it actually worked.

“What happ...” she started to say, when a quick thought popped into my head.

“
AND DON’T LISTEN TO ANYMORE OF FRANCOIS’S COMPULSIONS!!
”

Again, her body jolted as if from an electric shock. This time she fell backwards, slamming her head into the rocky ground. “Ow!”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Besides having my skull almost caved in?” Yeah, she was fine.

“Holy shit that was loud, Bill,” Ed said, shaking his head to clear it.

“Sorry. Still kinda new at this.” Fortunately, my effort to focus seemed to have mostly worked. Sally was the only one who had been knocked for a loop.

“I need to get going,” Christy said, standing up. “The others are going to wonder what I’m doing.”

I nodded, then added, “Thanks, Christy. I mean it. I...owe you one. You didn’t have to help.”

She sighed. “I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me.”

“The Silver Eyes?” I asked, having a pretty good idea of what Turd had been talking about.

She gave a single nod. “Nobody calls them that anymore, but yeah, the Icons.”

“You know I’m not purposely trying to destroy anyone, right?”

“I know.” She threw a quick smile at me, then a much wider one to Tom before turning and walking off.

“Well, since we’re in such a thankful mood, I guess I should do the same,” Sally said, getting back to her feet.

“It’s no problem. Any...URK!” I gasped as her hand shot up and grabbed my crotch in a vice-like grip.

“But just so you know; if you
ever
try to compel me again, I will rip this off and use it as a purse. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” I squeaked in return.

* * *

We were still seated in the now nearly empty hollow. Sally had just finished explaining what had happened. Apparently, my compulsion had not only erased Francois’s but the safeguards he had implanted in her mind too. He’d caught Sally on that first morning while she was out tramping up some breakfast. His compulsion had been very specific with regards to what she was supposed to say and do. It also showed just how skilled he was. He had left it much the same way a hypnotic suggestion would work. She had no knowledge of it until it had been triggered.

“He set us up,” said Ed, matter of factly.

“How?” I asked. “I mean how could he possibly know that we were going to do something to piss off the Sasquatches?”

“Well, if he knew your track record, it wouldn’t be too hard to guess.”

“Thanks for the insight, Sally. There’s just one problem with that: the guy
doesn’t
know me.”

“Well maybe...” she started to reply before suddenly clamming up. A moment later, I heard footsteps approaching from behind us. Guess whatever upgrade I had gotten from the blood was now out of my system. That was fine by me. That had been some scary shit back there.

I turned to find James and Nergui walking toward us. They were otherwise alone.