Christian (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 10) (31 page)

Marc didn’t look happy about the plan, but he nodded his agreement. Scoville’s nod was more matter-of-fact, a warrior obeying orders. Christian was his sworn lord now. That two-minute ceremony was all they needed. Everything else was irrelevant.

“Do we have any guns?” Marc asked Scoville. “Those would help even the odds.”

He grunted an affirmative, but said, “Guns aren’t the problem. It’s ammo. We used everything we had in fighting off Hubert’s creatures. Have you seen those fuckers? They’re vampires, but not like anything I’ve ever seen. They’re like—”

“Zombies,” Christian supplied, and Scoville nodded.

“That’s exactly it. It’s like they’re alive, but not. Like they don’t have a mind of their own.”

“I don’t think they do. I’ve seen Hubert do this before, though on a smaller scale. The poor souls he turned had no purpose other than to serve him.”

“Fucking creepy is what it is. But they’re effective. They swarm like insects, simply overrun you until you can’t even move. We must have killed thirty or forty of them, injured more, but it didn’t stop them. As long as they could crawl, they kept coming.”

“But you killed some of them, and they’re too new to dust when they die. Which means they carried away their dead,” Christian observed thoughtfully. “Hubert didn’t know you had survived, and he didn’t want me to see the bodies. Maybe he feared I’d retreat right away to wait for reinforcements, and he doesn’t want that. He wants me here, with no one but Marc to back me up.”

“And me,” Scoville reminded him.

“But you’re supposed to be dead.”

“I nearly was, and I’d prefer he didn’t get another go at it. So let’s talk ammo. We can probably salvage four mags, thirty rounds each. The weapons are MP5s. You know how to operate one?” he asked Marc.

“Of course,” Marc said, his tone conveying his insult at the question. Marc had been in the military when Christian found him, and he remained a military man, through and through. Even though he was a vampire now, with power and strength he’d never had as a human, he still kept up on human weaponry of all kinds, big and small.

“Had to ask,” Scoville said, by way of apology. “Let’s see what we can round up.” He turned for the deserted building and Marc followed.

Christian remained outside while the two of them disappeared into the outpost. He kept a mental eye on Marc. Scoville had sworn to him, but Christian didn’t fully trust him yet. Not with Marc’s life. Standing in the yard, he studied the battlefield, hands braced on his hips. The outpost was in a desolate area, with no other structures for miles on all sides. He could see the dim lights of a single structure in the distance, probably industrial from the number and location of the lights. Far beyond that were the much brighter lights of Laredo. It was unlikely anyone would come from there to investigate. He hoped not, because humans could only die in the coming battle, and this wasn’t their fight.

Turning his head to look in the other direction, Christian saw nothing but endless black desert, dotted with clumps of cactus in the moonlight. There were plenty of low hills out there in the darkness, more than enough to hide an army. Christian opened his senses to a cautious probe, but he was immediately swamped with the life force of so many vampires that he couldn’t count them all. And hiding behind them, or driving them forward, was Hubert. Christian knew Hubert well. He and Mathilde had been friends of a sort, and Christian had spent decades in Mathilde’s court. He knew the taste of Hubert’s power, the feel of his mind. And he had no doubt that it was Hubert he’d be facing tonight.

“Marc,” he called, then waited until his lieutenant poked his head through the open doorway.

“Time’s up. They’re coming.”

“Right,” Marc acknowledged, and Christian could hear him calling to Scoville deep inside the building.

The helicopter had been idling beyond the yard, far enough away that their rotor wash didn’t blow everything to pieces. Christian did a crouching run over there, climbed into the passenger compartment, and donned a headset to talk to the pilots. “You need to get out of here,” he told them. “Do you have a place in Laredo where you can wait for us?”

The co-pilot nodded. “Yes, sir. How long?”

“An hour or two at most.”

“We’ll fuel up while we wait. You have our number?”

“I do.” Christian climbed out of the chopper, and moved away, watching as it flew off toward Laredo and was soon out of sight. He heard footsteps behind him.

“That was our ride back,” Marc observed.

Christian had trouble concentrating on what Marc was saying, his senses nearly overwhelmed by awareness of the vampire army now bearing down on them. He stared out into the darkness, unable to see them yet. But they were coming.

“They’ll come back when we call,” he told Marc absently, as they started walking back to the outpost. He glanced over, his gaze sharpening as he noted the HK MP5 that Marc now wore on a combat harness in front of him. Christian nodded his approval of the gun. “Get ready,” he said. “They’re coming.”

He’d just reached the yard of the building when a flicker of movement caught his eye, and the first enemy vampire appeared in the near distance. “Hold your fire,” he told Marc quietly. He didn’t want anyone killing this vamp before he had a chance to scan it, to ferret out what Hubert had done, so he could figure out how to kill them.

The vampire was quickly followed by another, and then several more. But Christian kept his attention on that first outlier, digging deep into the creature’s brain to determine what made him tick. He was Mexican, more indigenous than European in appearance, probably some poor farmer Hubert had captured and changed. The vampire’s eyes glowed a dull red, but seemed focused on nothing. And while he moved well, it was slowly, as if he had difficulty getting his body to obey his brain.

But then, there wasn’t much brain left, at least not if one only counted the functioning parts. Christian smashed easily through the vampire’s natural shield, the bare minimum that every vampire was born with, and immediately saw what Hubert had done. It was the same here as in Europe. He’d turned all of these vampires, then starved them of blood, giving them only enough for their basic instincts to kick in. Since the most basic instinct of all was a vampire’s link to his Sire, these creatures would do anything Hubert asked, without question or any sense of self-preservation. They would be merciless in their defense of him, and from what Scoville had said, they were vicious fighters.

Christian fired off a sharp jolt of power, and took down the vampire he’d been scanning. The vamp dropped to the ground in a boneless heap, but he didn’t turn to dust. As Christian had surmised, they were far too new to dust upon death. The bodies would lie there until the sun rose. More incentive to make this short and brutal.

The vampire’s abrupt death had no effect on the army behind him. They plowed on, stepping over, on, and around their former companion’s body, as if he were no more than a rock in their way. A steady noise emanated from their throats, a high-pitched keening that seemed never to stop, as if they didn’t need to breathe. Or maybe it was just that there were so many of them, he couldn’t detect the break when the creatures drew breath.

“Now, my lord?” Marc asked, coming up to stand next to him.

“Now,” Christian agreed, as Scoville took his place on the other side of Marc.

The night came alive with the sound of the two submachine guns. With ammunition so short, they didn’t go to full auto, but their vampire-enhanced vision and reflexes made their single-shot rhythm sound every bit as fast as automatic fire. The two vampires swept their weapons from side to side, taking out one zombie vamp after another. But despite the carnage they were wreaking, none of the approaching vamps made any attempt to evade their fire. They didn’t even slow down. They just kept coming.

Christian didn’t try to count, but instinct told him there were at least a hundred of the zombie vampires still out there. He resisted the impulse to grab a gun, or even to drop a few of the oncoming zombies with his vampire abilities. He could sense Hubert out there behind his fighters, and didn’t want to give the European lord any more data than necessary about his power. He figured Anthony had probably shared whatever he knew, but fortunately, not even Anthony knew everything that Christian was capable of.

When the main force finally reached them, however, Christian knew the time for caution was over. He stood side-by-side with Marc and Scoville, sending bolts of his power to take down the zombie fighters as they charged forward. A small contingent made a dash for it, trying to outflank Christian and his small team. But Christian caught their charge, and dropped them mid-stride. Despite his success, however, it seemed inevitable that they would be surrounded in relatively short order. There were so many more of the creatures than the hundred he’d estimated at the beginning of the assault. Their power levels were so low that they barely pinged against his vampire senses even now, when he could see them in the flesh. As a group, they were noticeable, but as individuals, they were barely there.

“We need to pull back,” Marc yelled, dropping the mag from his MP5, checking to verify it was empty, then slapping it back in. “I’m out.”

“Same here,” Scoville called. He slung his weapon over his back, freeing his hands to fight.

“Back to the outpost.” Christian had to shout to be heard over the unceasing and high-pitched growl of the enemy. “On my mark.” He killed another two zombie vamps who tried to slip behind them and cut off their retreat, before shouting, “Now!”

The three of them ran back to the outpost and the horde followed. By the time they put their backs to the building, they were trapped. The only way out was through the bodies of their enemies. So be it.

The fight was brutal and bloody. The attacking vampires had no weapons but their bodies, and they used them without regard for survival, launching themselves into the air, fingers curled into claws, nascent fangs protruding through bloodied lips. With no ammo, Marc and Scoville fell back on their own vampiric powers. They weren’t as strong as Christian, but they weren’t lacking, either. Together, the three of them fought systematically, taking out vampire after vampire with controlled bursts of power. Christian knew that eventually the other two would run out of juice. Their strength would drain well before his did. He had the power to end it before that happened, to mow these pitiful creatures down with a single massive blow. It would kill most of them, and knock the rest senseless. Marc and Scoville could then deliver the
coups de grâce
. But while it was tempting to get it over with, he was wary of using up too much of his power in a fight against these weaklings. Not with Hubert still lurking out there somewhere.

Christian had every confidence he could defeat the French lord, but victory could not be taken for granted. Hubert was powerful and ruthless, and Christian would have to be at his best. Which was why he had to resist the temptation to end this part of the battle quickly.

One of Hubert’s vamps suddenly came roaring through the swarm. Bigger than the others, his red eyes bore a gleam of intellect that the others lacked, and it seemed to drive him forward. He made straight for Marc, rolling beneath the bursts of destruction being generated by all three of them. He managed to tackle Marc around the legs and send him tumbling to the ground, where he wrapped gnarled fingers around his throat, and bore down. His face was contorted with hatred, fangs gleaming, and ropey muscles straining, as he tried to choke the life out of him.

Christian spun around, grabbed the vamp by his long, greasy hair, yanked him off Marc, and tossed him through the air. He landed on top of the horde who immediately began attacking him, biting and clawing, seeming not to understand that he was one of their own, knowing only that he’d come from the enemy. And all the while they kept up that weird keening growl.

“Marc?” Christian asked, his attention fixed on their enemy, killing any of them who ventured too close.

“I’m good,” his lieutenant said, jumping gracefully back to his feet. His neck was bleeding where the vamp’s fingernails had dug into the skin, and, at any other time, Christian would have pulled him out of the fight to treat those wounds, which were surely filthy. But not tonight. It was only the three of them, and everyone had to keep fighting. But even with all of them giving their best, Christian knew they couldn’t stand against these creatures for the rest of the night. Exhaustion would take its toll, and he was wasting his power on these pathetic vampires when no matter how many he took down, more would come to fill the gap.

He had to end this grueling stand-off. He had to find Hubert and kill him.

It was a struggle to search for Hubert, while fending off the horde, but he managed. He’d no sooner begun, however, than he heard the low buzz of a helicopter rotor, growing louder by the second. He had the brief thought that their pilot must have come back to evacuate them, but dismissed that quickly. The pilot was human. He’d have no idea what was happening here. And if he did, he’d take one look at Hubert’s zombie army, and get the hell out of there.

He had the even more unlikely thought that the approaching copter was Anthony sending help. But that was such a ridiculous idea that it was there and gone before he could draw the breath to laugh about it.

The zombie vamps didn’t seem to care either way. If they noticed the helicopter, they didn’t react to it. Christian had nothing but his peripheral vision to spare for the new arrival, and it showed him a single, large male jumping from the helicopter when it was still well above the ground, which meant the jumper was a vampire. But friend or foe?

“What the fuck?” Christian muttered. Like he needed anything to make this night worse.

But the vampire who burst through the horde, sword in hand, slicing left and right as he strove to join them, was definitely a friend. Cibor hacked a path to Christian’s side, put the building at his back, and wordlessly joined their defense, wielding his sword and his power with deadly accuracy. He fought with a confidence and grace that were the product of his history. He’d been born in a time when men fought with swords, and he’d wielded a blade from the day his hands were big enough to hold one.

“Jaclyn sends her regards,” Cibor said finally, not even glancing aside as he cleared a cluster of vampires, slicing them open, then stabbing them in the heart to be sure they were truly dead. It was much easier to know such things when your enemy simply dusted upon death. With these zombies, you had to make sure.

Christian raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn’t expected Jaclyn’s aid, not with her close association to Raphael. But he was happy to have it. “I’ll thank her personally when this is over,” he said.