Blood Harvest (36 page)

Alpha was feasting on a new mercenary, his snow-white hair becoming stained by the bright red blood and he looked as ghastly as any ghoul that Hollywood could ever have dreamed possible. In the end, the hallway was filled only with the violent snarling and undulations of the hunters tearing away at their victims who, their blood sapped, flailed helplessly while the last moments of their lives slipped away.

Alpha rose slowly to his feet. As he moved so too did all of the eyes of the hunters, even those still feeding. Without a word, the hunters abandoned their victims and stood at a kind of attention. With a royal grace, Alpha raised an arm and pointed to the door behind which was Lei.

Steve watched as the hunters moved toward the door. Alpha cut them off with a grunt, pointing up. Each of the nearly two dozen hunters shifted positions and began to form a human ladder until a few of them were again moving within the crawl spaces of the ceiling.

A muffled crash emanated from inside the room followed by an animal like snarling and the pleading screams of a man begging for mercy. Then there was only silence until the sound of the locks on the door “click/clacked” as they were released. The door swung open slowly and revealed Lei standing in all regality, completely nude with a smear of blood running from her chin down her neck between her breasts to her navel. The bruises on her face and the small stitched area to one side of her abdomen didn’t take away from how impressive she was visually.

Rage welled up inside him as Steve took in the sight of her injuries and a strength filled him as he moved forward, effortlessly shoving his fellow hunters aside before taking Lei into his arms and holding her tightly.

Lei returned the fierce embrace, clinging to him in a more possessive manner than in an act of receiving comfort.

Steve broke the embrace and put his hands to her face as he peered deeply into her eyes. He didn’t speak, instead he gently ran his fingertips over the welts on her cheeks and the split in her lip.

“I’m all right.” Lei whispered. Her voice was soft, barely a whisper, and in it Steve heard the years of loneliness and longing she must have felt ever since he had left her all those years ago. He would spend the rest of his life making it up to her…if she would let him.

Lei looked up into his eyes, “you look awful.” She chided.

Steve smiled and was surprised that he could find his voice, “I’m better now.”

Alpha cleared his throat and removed his trench coat, offering it to Lei. Lei reluctantly dropped her arms from Steve’s waist and took the coat but merely held it in her hand, making no attempt to cover herself in any fashion, them moved to Alpha’s side. The hunters gathered around Alpha who beckoned to Steve to come over to the group.

“Gentlemen, and lady,” Alpha began, “our people are located inside the room which lies beyond the vaulted door. All are alive and in no immediate danger; however, they are hooked to machines and rest in a state akin to a coma or a suspended animation of some sort. At the moment I have no idea how to revive them. You are all my hunters. You have been trained in the old ways to act as leaders of our people in times of need, so I put the question to you. Do we try to disconnect our people from the machines and bring them to a safe location where we can attempt to revive them? Or do we call upon those not of our community, those of the outside world, and pray they are both willing and able to help?”

The hunters looked genuinely distraught at the idea of asking for help from anyone not of their world.

Steve listened to Alpha and could not keep quiet, “You can’t try to revive them or even move them unless you know what you are dealing with here. You could easily do them more harm than good.” Steve’s voice softened, “I’m sorry, but we need to bring people in on this for help.”

Alpha responded with a calm and passive question, “And if the people brought in are successful in reviving my people Detective, what then? Will they be locked up for observation? Will they be imprisoned on the premise it’s ‘for their own good’?”

“I seriously doubt the LAPD officers, who are presumably locked up around here somewhere, will arrest those who just rescued them, as well as these other poor souls,” Steve said with confidence.

Alpha was clearly ill at ease with the idea but, Steve thought, to his credit, Alpha let the group make the final decision.

To Steve’s surprise, Lei spoke up first, “All those in favor of calling those not of our kind for help?”

Not a single person moved, no hunter spoke up or said anything as Alpha scanned the group.

Then the unbelievable occurred. Alpha stepped forward and raised his hand into the air. All of the hunters, including Lei were visibly taken aback by the gesture, too stunned to move or respond in any way.

Lei walked over to Steve and wiped blood off of his chin.

“You back home now?” She asked as she wiped the blood on her fingers across her lips. Steve looked deeply into her eyes then at the red slick down the front of his shirt and back at Lei. He removed his badge from where it hung on his belt and tossed it aside. No words past between them as Steve pulled Lei in and kissed her deeply, each tasting the blood on the others lips.

Alpha rolled his eyes, but smiled at the reunion. After the merest of moments Lei’s hand went up as well, her lips still locked on Steve’s.

When the pair finally separated Lei shook out the trench coat Alpha had handed to her and in a graceful sweeping flourish, swept the coat around like a cape, pushing her arms into the sleeves. Using the belt attached to the back of the jacket she tied the coat closed in the front then slapped Steve across the face.

“That’s for making me wait.” Lei exclaimed, giving Steve another quick kiss.

The hunters regained their animation and each walked up to stand with Alpha and Lei until the vote was unanimous in favor of the group reaching out for help from a world that had only ever exploited them in the past.

“All right,” Alpha began, “Tracker, I want you to organize my people. Protect the innocent and get communications back online so we can get the help we need.”

Steve chuckled as he heard Alpha call him by his old nickname. “What are you gonna do?”

“I am going after Daniels.”

Chapter 50

Alex Daniels’ mouth hung agape in combined horror and astonishment at the scene he had just witnessed on the security monitors in his private office.

“Oh God!, Oh God! They’re eating them! They’re actually eating them! They are the real deal! Real vampires and they are eating my security team!”

Daniels tried to think. Kunnert had told him to stay put, but he had to get out of the building. Besides what did that buffoon know? This wasn’t some clandestine operation or demilitarized zone. This was his skyscraper. A building he had bought through all of the hard work he’d put in over the years making his fortune.

Well, in truth it was a fortune he had made on the hard work of others, but it was his vision that made the company all of the money those inept intellectuals would have lost if kept to their own devices.

Yes, that was right.

It was
his
genius,
his
vision that took the information and used it properly to make billions. And think of all of the people who have benefited from the mass production of the drugs he “acquired” who would not have been helped if the medicines had been produced on a smaller scale.

Yes, that’s right!

This wasn’t fair. These demons were going to kill him for doing no more than trying to make the world a better place. Clearly they didn’t understand this, so he had to make sure they didn’t find him. He wasn’t threatened at the moment; the security cameras showed all of the demons on the tenth floor. Daniels moved away from the monitors and to the safe on the wall where he kept all of the computer files regarding the “Donor Program.”

What Daniels didn’t see was the blur which passed under the camera located just outside his office door.

Frantically, Daniels spun the tumbler on the combination lock, failing to get the door open on the first or even the second try. The third time, as the saying goes, was the charm and with a snap the fastening latch disengaged and the door pulled wide open. Daniels shoved stacks of money out of the way as he groped inside the safe for the small diskettes. These were the only records indicating his direct involvement in the project. These diskettes were crucial to the company.

They were encoded with Daniels’ business and marketing plans for the new anti-viral drug to be developed worldwide. Daniels kept these files separate and secure in his own safe. He knew from experience that every company, from time to time, is subject to investigation. Proper police procedure would always call for warrants to be filled out ahead of time, which gave his paid people from the courts and law enforcement the time they needed to give him a proper warning of the pending investigators. Daniels had always used this time in the past to hide or destroy any incriminating evidence against himself or the company. Having set up these particular destruction procedures well in advance, Daniels had minimal work to do in order to gather the material and decide how to best hide or dispose of it.

His fingers touched then grasped the diskettes. He was placing them in his pockets along with a handful of the stacks of hundred dollar bills when a low voice called politely from across the room.

“Going somewhere, Mr. Daniels?”

Daniels whirled around with such speed he almost fell.

“What?!?” Daniels stammered out before recognition came, “Dr. Whelan? What are you doing here?”

“Just following orders like a good soldier,” the doctor chuckled as he spoke. “Funny to think of me as a soldier, isn’t it?”

Daniels broke in, “Doctor, I don’t know if you realize but this isn’t a good time for…”

Daniels would have continued but he noticed the doctor’s eyes had shifted to the open safe and the stacks of money inside.

“Listen to me, you can have the money, as much as you can carry, but we have to get going.” Daniels began to stuff some of the money he had taken out for himself into a briefcase and searched his desk for his car keys. He was ready to leave and this fool wasn’t going to slow him.

“Thank you for the gift. I will of course accept such a generous attempt at recompense; however, it is too little, too late.”

The doctor removed something small and shiny from his pocket and a small amount of light glinted off the metal catching Daniels’ attention.

Daniels froze. “Is that?”

“A smaller, portable version of the flash box? Why, yes it is!”

The predicament he was in now registered. Daniels was barely able to protest when a blinding white light flashed in front of his eyes. The next thing Daniels knew he was sitting in his office chair, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, with the doctor looking down at him with a compassionate and concerned look on his face.

“Are you all right Mr. Daniels?”

The doctor’s low voice was always so unnerving, especially coming from such a slight man. The look on the doctor’s face was pained, as if he were reluctant to tell him something, but the doctor placed a hand on Daniels’ shoulder and in a caring and calm manner he proceeded.

“I want you to remain very calm and try not to move.” The doctor sighed, “Regrettably I see you were leaving with my research diskettes. I wondered what happened to them when I found them missing from my personal safe just now.”

Daniels tried to move but found himself completely immobilized by the device.

“Betrayal is a very foul act Mr. Daniels. It represents not only an act of deceit, but a fall from grace in the eyes of those who had faith in you.”

The doctor brought a small knife into view and twisted it before Daniel’s eyes. There is no greater crime to perpetuate against the faithful than betrayal.”

The knife dropped out of view. Alex Daniels suddenly felt horrific pain across his abdomen then a dropping sensation as if he were descending rapidly on a rollercoaster.

Chapter 51

Kunnert looked in disbelief at the radio he held in his hand as words played over the speaker. Everything was going south in a hurry; a strategic withdrawal was looking more and more like a prospect worth considering. At this point Kunnert reasoned his best move would be to collect Daniels and the doctor and beat a hasty retreat to the parking garage.

The techs had been producing the anti-viral medicine non-stop for two days and had it prepped for shipping. With a minimal amount of help he could get a truck loaded to capacity and escape with enough medicine to make him millions on the black market. Sales to certain terrorist organizations would be extremely lucrative since its effects make their soldiers immune to their own dirty bombs.

“Doctor, give me your position.”

The doctor quickly responded, “At this point I am just cutting loose ends.”

“Copy that. I want you, and only you, to break off and head for the loading dock.”

“Oh?”

“When you get there use the forklift to load as much of the product as possible into one of the newer trucks and get the motor running.”

“Live to fight another day?” Kunnert could hear strange amusement in the doctor’s voice and it disturbed him.