Date: 2013-11-25 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Horror; Fantasy
Description: Jessica is a 15 year old girl with autism. Her whole life, she has struggled to fit in, and always viewed as helpless. That all changes the night a vampire attacks her. She survives the attack and discovers her autism gives her a special advantage against the deadly creatures. A group of vampire slayers take her in and teaches her to become a slayer. Using a variety of weapons and skills to fight the vampires and their minions, she develops her skills, while continuing to discover the person and warrior she has always been. Jessica rescues Hawk, a flying unicorn, who impales vampires with his
Publisher: Tim Miller Publishing

Blood Slayer

Tim Miller

Copyright © 2013 by Tim Miller
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Covermecreative.com

Edited by Lori King

This book is dedicated to my Ashley, who will always be my favorite super hero

Chapter 1

The teacher droned on and on about angles, and theorems or something. Jessica had no idea why she was even in geometry. It’s not like she was going to college. Her mom seemed to think she was going to be some big scientist. Jessica thought her mom watched “Rain Man” too many times. She was the only one in her class with Asperger’s disorder.

“Miss Byers? Is there a problem?” Mr. Gruber called out. Jessica hadn’t realized she was staring out the window.

“What?” She asked.

“Is there a problem?” He repeated.

“Um, no, no problem here…”

“Great, then you won’t mind explaining what I just talked about.” He said, with a smirk on his face. She hated Mr. Gruber. He didn’t seem to like her too much either. Most of her teachers were aware of her condition, which affected the way she focused, communicated and related to people. Most were pretty supportive, but Mr. Gruber was not. He was in his sixties and seemed to think it was some kind of made up disorder since he had never heard of it. Since there was no visible sign of illness, then she must be making it up.

“When I was a kid, if someone acted like you, we got our butts whipped!” he once shouted at her. When she was little, she’d had her butt whipped plenty, and it did little good. For that kind of discipline to sink in, one has to understand what they are being disciplined for.

“Um, I don’t remember,” Jessica said in answer to the teacher’s question.

“Just as I thought; you’ll get a zero for today’s work as well since class participation is part of your grade.” He looked to the rest of the class. “I guess there is one like you in every grade.”

The class laughed as Jessica looked around. She suspected they were all laughing at her, but had no idea what to say, so she just sat there. Something hit her in the back of the head. She looked down and saw a large paper wad on the floor next to her. Gunnar Reid was sitting behind her giving her the middle finger. She didn’t care for him either.

When it came down to it, she had very few friends, and she didn’t relate well with most kids. Everyone thought she was weird, or rude. She didn’t try to be, it was just how she came across. Thankfully, the rest of the day was mostly uneventful. After school she went straight home to work on her homework. Her mom wasn’t home yet, which was a huge relief. That meant she could sneak in an hour or so watching TV.

Her mom was real strict and always insisted Jessica stick by a specific routine; a routine that included very little TV watching or play time. It was always homework, chores, more homework, and then more chores. She hated doing both, but her mom would go nuts if she gave her any flak about it. She flipped through the channels and found one of her favorite shows. It was about unicorns. That was something else kids at school teased her about. She loved unicorns.

She had unicorns on her notebooks, backpacks and even stickers on her locker. At age fifteen, most girls had grown out of such things. Jessica had not. Some thought it was part of the Asperger’s, keeping her interested in things most consider childish. After about an hour the phone rang.

“Hello?” she said answering.

“Hey kiddo it’s mom.”

“Hey, mommy,” She said. “Where are you?”

“I’m still at work. Someone called in, so I have to stay over for a few more hours. You doing your homework?”

“Uh…yeah,”

“Are you lying?” Her mom asked.

“No! I’m doing it.”

“Ok, it had better be done when I get home. There’s a TV dinner in the freezer you can make for yourself. And make sure you take the trash out.”

“Ok mommy.”

“I’ll be home as soon as I can. I love you.”

“Love you too mommy.” She said and hung up. While she liked having some time to herself, she hated being home alone for too long. She always got scared, especially when it would get dark as it was starting to. Before she’d forget, she decided to go ahead and run the trash outside. She grabbed the bag from the garbage can and walked it to the end of the driveway.

“Excuse me, miss?” A man said from nearby. “Do you have the time?”

“Umm, I think it’s almost eight,” she said.

“Great,” he said walking closer. He was much taller than her and wearing a dark hoodie. “Can I ask you something?”

“My mom says I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.” She said backing up a few steps. He looked large and muscular. She was glad she’d been watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for so long that she figured she’s picked up a few moves from them.

“Well my name is Lyle. Guess that makes me not a stranger now doesn’t it?”

“I-I guess so?” She said, unsure of what to do next. Something didn’t feel right about this guy.

“Ok then. Just come closer. It’s very important.”

“Who are you?” She asked again.

“I said I’m Lyle.” He approached her quickly, too quickly. He was standing inches from her and she hadn’t even seen him move. He grabbed her by the arms and smiled, exposing a mouth full of jagged, shark-like teeth. His eyes glowed yellow as she stared up at him. “Now be calm,” he said. “There is nothing to worry about. Just give yourself over to me.”

Jessica looked at him, confused. Was he trying to hypnotize her?

“Let me go!” she shouted. “Help!”

His eyes glowed even brighter as he pulled her closer.

“Don’t struggle,” he said. “Just be come, and come with me. It will all be fine.”

She instead slammed her knee up into his groin. It didn’t seem to hurt him, but stunned him enough to break his grip. She turned and ran back toward the house. She was no match for his speed though. He grabbed her arm and spun her around, sending her tumbling to the ground. He stood over her, his eyes and teeth glowing in the darkness.

“I tried to do this the easy way. But I guess I’m going to have to make it hurt,” he said as he took a step toward her. When he was within inches of her, an arrow tore through his chest from behind. He let out a scream as blood sprayed from the wound. His skin turned to gel as he appeared to melt before her eyes. His skin, blood and tissue oozing off his bones as his bones disintegrated and turned into dust.

Jessica sat up, horrified. Some of Lyle’s blood was on her shirt and face. She looked around to see where the arrow came from. In the streetlights, she saw a man approaching holding a bow.

“What is going on?” she said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Adam. That guy was a vampire, he was about to kill you.”

“What? A vampire?”

“That’s right. I’d been tracking him for a few days. I saw him here with you, but had to wait to get a good shot. How were you able to fight him off?”

“What? I didn’t! He threw me around like nothing.”

“No, the trance. You can’t look a vampire in the eyes, they’ll hypnotize you, and then you’re powerless. He had no effect on you.”

“I don’t know. I have no idea.”

“Well, you’re not safe here. He’s dead, but his nest will be coming looking for him. Come with me,” he said holding out his hand. “Your life is about to change.”

Chapter 2

“Wait a minute,” Jessica said. “You’re a stranger too.”

“I just saved your life,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Trust me. You’re not safe here. Just come with me. I’m not one of them and I won’t hurt you.”

Jessica slowly took Adam’s hand as he helped her to her feet. He was almost a foot taller than her, though she was only five foot four herself. She thought he was cute, with his short, cropped brown hair and a few days’ worth of stubble.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. He began to run while holding her hand. She ran along with him doing her best to keep up. They ran for almost a block as she realized how bad of shape she was in. Her lungs began to burn as her breathing sped up. At the end of the block, was a black sports car. It sat so low to the ground Jessica thought she was going to fall into the street as she climbed in.

“What kind of car is this?” She asked, not that she knew anything about cars. This one just looked like something she’d seen on TV.

“It’s a Lotus Esprit,” he said. “Hang on.” Before she could fully buckle her seatbelt, she was thrust back into her seat as Adam punched the gas. They took off so fast, she was sure they were about to leave the ground. The car remained on the road though. She managed to click her seatbelt as they darted in and out of traffic. She also noticed their headlights weren’t on. All she could see in front of her was pitch black and some tail lights of the cars they whizzed past.

“How can you see?” She asked.

“The driver’s side has night vision heads up display?” He answered.

“What?”

“On my side, it’s got night vision like what the military uses. I can see at night. Also tells me how close other cars and obstacles are.”

“Who are you?”

“I told you, I’m Adam.”

She sat quietly trying to piece this all together. None of it made sense to her.

“Where are we going? I need to call my mom. She’ll be home soon.”

“She’ll be fine,” he said.

“But she’ll worry about me. And won’t those things get her?”

“They don’t want her. They want you. So the closer you are to her, the more danger she is in.”

Before she could answer, he turned the car toward a large building without slowing down. They headed down a long ramp and through a dark tunnel. The tunnel wove around for several minutes before they came to a stop.

“Ok,” he said. “We’re here.” As he opened the door and stepped out, Jessica stepped out as well. Looking around, the lighting was a bluish tint. She could see most of the place was concrete, like it was some kind of huge basement.

“Where are we?” She asked.

“We’re home for now. Let’s go meet the others.”

“Others?”

She followed him through a door and into a hallway, also lit with the same blue lighting. She noticed Adam was wearing some kind of black body armor, but it was form fitting. His bow was slung across his back as they walked down the corridor. As they reached the end of the hall, he pushed through large wooden double doors and into what looked like a large arena. They were standing on a catwalk. Below were at least a dozen others dressed like Adam; many of them also had bows and arrows. They were shooting targets. Some of them had crossbows, and others were using Karate or something on each other.

Jessica stood in awe of the whole place. It was like something she’d seen on Yu-Gi-Oh or Power Rangers. She wondered if Adam and the others had magic powers.

“Welcome to the lair,” Adam said.

“Lair?”

“We are all vampire hunters. This is our base of operations.”

“Really? My mom told me vampires weren’t real.”

“You saw that thing that attacked you. Did he seem real to you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“There you go then.”

Her heart sank as she took it all in. That vampire wasn’t nice or handsome at all like in the “Twilight” movies. He was mean and ugly and had scary teeth.

“That vampire was different than Edward,” she said.

“Edward? Who is Edward?”

“The vampire from Twilight... he was handsome and friendly. He tried not to hurt anybody,” Jessica explained.

“This isn’t Twilight sweetheart. And these vampires are about as far from friendly as you can get.”

“So why am I here?”

“There is something special about you. Something the vampires fear. So you just might be the one to stop them for good.”

Chapter 3

She followed Adam down the stairs toward the training area. The others stopped and looked at her. Most of them, including Adam only looked a few years older than her. There were both boys and girls in the group.

“Is this some kind of club?” She asked.

“I guess you can say that,” Adam replied.

“Oh cool! Can I join?”

The others looked at Adam as if to say “what did you drag in here?”

“We’ll see. There’s a lot to learn. I hope you are up for it. Let’s meet everyone.”

“Awesome!”

“Hey guys, gather round a minute. This is Jessica. She was attacked tonight by a vampire.”

“And she lived?” A tall girl said from the group.

“Yes, she did. She was immune to his trance. He had no effect on her,” Adam explained. “So I brought her here so we can maybe learn some things about why. This will help us in our fight.”

“Is she going to fight along with us?” One of the guys asked.

“I don’t know yet. I’m going to help her get settled. Anna, can you come along?” The tall girl walked over to them. She had long, black hair pulled back into a pony tail. “I’m going to set her up with a room, was hoping you could help her get situated.”

Anna shrugged her shoulders.

“Sure,” she said. “I guess so.”

They walked through into another corridor and down another flight of stairs. There were some rooms along the lower corridor. The area was all concrete and dimly lit. It reminded Jessica of the basement at her grandma’s old house. She never went down there because it was cold and dark, like this place.

“I have to stay here?” Jessica asked.

“It’s the safest place there is. They have no idea we are here. The weird lights you saw when you came in, those are ultraviolet lights. The same kind of light the sun gives off. If a vampire tries to come through there, he’ll catch on fire.” Adam said.

“Wow, really?”

“Yes…really. We have them down here too. They just aren’t as bright. Plus we have people keep watch 24/7. So trust me, you’re plenty safe.”

“Do I get something cool? Like a crossbow or something?”

“What is wrong with her?” Anna asked. “How old are you?”

“I’m fifteen,” Jessica said, holding her chin up proudly.

“Then why do you talk like you’re nine years old?” Anna asked. Adam shot her a glare as Jessica lowered her head slightly.

“I have Asperger’s.” Jessica said.

“What the heck is that?” Anna asked.

“It’s a form of autism. I have a hard time paying attention to things, I talk weird and my mom says I’m too quick to trust people.”

“You take medicine for it or something?” Anna asked.

“No, not really. There isn’t really anything for me to take. During school I take stuff to help me pay attention. But that’s why people think I’m weird.”

Anna looked questioningly at Adam.

“You’re not weird at all Jessica. You might be the answer we’ve been looking for.”

“Really? I’m really good at video games.” Jessica said.

“I’m sure you are. Here is your room.” Adam said. “Anna will get you your bedding and some clean clothes. Just talk to her if you have any questions.”

“Ok, thank you Adam,” she said. She couldn’t help but smile as he walked away. Anna glared at her as she smiled.

“What are you so happy about?” Anna asked.

“I think he likes me.” Jessica said.

“Who? Adam? He’s like twenty. Besides, every girl here has tried to go out with him. He doesn’t like anyone here. At least he hasn’t gone out with any girls here.”

“Really? Well, maybe I’ll be the first.”

Anna rolled her eyes. Let’s just get you settled. They stepped into the room, and Jessica was happy to see that it looked more comfortable on the inside than from the hallway. The walls were painted an off white. There was a small closet in the back, along with a small bathroom with a shower. There was a cot set up on the floor with a pillow on it.

“I’ll go get you some bedding, I’ll be right back,” Anna said as she stepped out into the hallway. Jessica looked around the room. She wished there was at least a window instead of just four walls. She also wished she could have brought some of her things with her, like her iPhone, or her tablet. She mostly played games on them. Now she would go nuts without something to keep her mind occupied.

Anna came back in with some sheets and a blanket and got the cot set up.

“Ok, there you go,” Anna said.

“Where did they come from?” Jessica asked.

“What?”

“The vampires…where did they come from?”

“No one knows. They’ve been here for centuries. But have remained mostly underground until the past five or ten years. Most of us here, our families were killed by them, or were turned,” Anna said matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” Jessica said. “So your family was killed?”

“My mom died when I was a baby. My dad was turned two years ago. Adam took me in shortly after.”

“Wow. My mom wasn’t killed. The vampire guy came after me. He was scary.”

“Yeah,” Anna sighed. “They’re like that. They’ll kill you in seconds. Or turn you, just depends on what mood they’re in.”

“Turn me? Like into one of them?”

“Yeah one of them,”

“Well I don’t wanna be a vampire,” Jessica said.

“Then I suggest don’t let them catch you and if they do, don’t let them get any of their blood into your system. Oh and it’s not like the movies. These vampires don’t just bite you all nice in the neck. They rip your limbs off and suck the blood from the stump.”

“Ewww gross!”

“Yeah, gross. You should get some sleep. Adam will go over more with you tomorrow.” She patted Jessica’s leg and walked out of the room, leaving Jessica alone. She pulled the door shut, and locked the deadbolt. The door was heavy and made out of metal, and the deadbolt was thick steel that made a loud clack as it slid into place. She didn’t like being all alone in this strange place, but curled up on the cot. She stayed dressed and left the lights on. She tried to stay awake in case something tried to get her, but in less than an hour, she’d drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 4

“Wake up buttercup!” A voice shouted from the doorway. Jessica shot up to see Anna standing in her doorway. “You slept in your clothes?”

“I wanted to be dressed in case a vampire came after me,” Jessica said.

“Like I said, you’re pretty safe here. But whatever…I’ll take you to breakfast then Adam wanted to show you some things.”

“He did?” Jessica hopped to her feet at the mention of his name. “Wants to spend time with me?”

Anna rolled her eyes.

“Just come on.”

Jessica slipped on her shoes and followed Anna down the hall. She noticed Anna was wearing a pink t-shirt and jeans instead of the armor suit from last night. She trailed behind Anna down the corridor, then up several flights of stairs, then down another corridor until they reached a cafeteria. The others were sitting around eating as the sound of light chatter filled the room. Several of them looked at her again as she walked in.

Jessica followed Anna as she walked over to a large bin and took out two brown, rubbery packages and handed one to Jessica.

“What is this?” She asked.

“It’s breakfast,” Anna said.

“Breakfast? I wanted Froot Loops.”

“Sorry. This is what’s called Meal Ready to Eat; it’s what they eat in the military when in the field. You open it up and there are different packets of food there. Adam has a connection at a nearby base, so they give us this stuff in bulk. It doesn’t go bad and it’s portable which we need sometimes, so eat up. You got a busy day ahead.”

They found an empty table and got seated. Jessica struggled with the MRE package, tugging and tearing at it but having no luck.

“Here,” Anna said taking it from her. She grabbed it, and showed Jessica the perforated corner, pulled on it as it ripped open. She handed it back as Jessica dumped the contents onto the table. There were more packages like the main one but smaller. The larger one felt soft and squishy. She looked at the printing on the side and read it out loud.

“Beef ravioli in meat sauce? I love ravioli!” She ripped it open and grabbed the spoon that came in the package. She plunged the spoon into the pouch and hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” Anna asked, already digging into her own meal.

“It stinks! Ewww!”

“Yeah, they taste better than they smell.”

Jessica looked at her suspiciously then took a bite. Her face shriveled as she chewed the ravioli. It was dry and pasty. It did have some flavor to it, but was also quite salty.

“You ok?” Anna asked.

“No. This is gross. Can I get a different one?”

“No. We can’t waste supplies. Besides, they all taste like that. You’ll get used to it, trust me. Eat as much as you can. You’ll need the energy.”

Jessica took a few more bites but couldn’t handle much more. She did eat the cheese and crackers that came with it, and mixed the cocoa powder with some water, that tasted ok.

“What’s wrong? Not the fine cuisine you are used to?” One of the guys said from another table. There were four of them at that table, all of which burst out laughing at his comment.

“Shut up David,” Anna said. “Cut her some slack.”

“Why? Because she’s retarded? That’s what will defeat the vampires! The retard army!”

“I’m not retarded!” Jessica yelled. “I’m autistic, big difference!”

David looked at his friends and made a face, mimicking a bad overbite.

“Doh, I’m autithtic! Big differenth!” He said mockingly.

“You are such a jerk!” Anna said. “She hasn’t done anything to you!”

“Not yet, but she’ll get one of us killed.”

“Or she might save your butts!” A voice said from the entrance. Everyone got quiet, looked and saw Adam standing in the doorway. He was suited up in his armor. “We’re all on the same team here. Jessica is one of us now. Anyone who has a problem with that, leave now.”

He looked around the room; Jessica could see everyone sitting motionless, their eyes fixed on Adam.

“No one?” He said. No one made a sound. “Good. Then this is the last time I plan on addressing this, in the meantime…Isaac?”

A stocky kid, who looked to be seventeen or eighteen stood.

“Yes, sir,” He said.

“Get your team together. We have a lead on a nest. We’ll hit it in the day light.”

“Roger that,” he said as he and four others gathered their trash and ran out of the hallway.

“Anna, go down to supply with Jessica and get her some gear. I want her to come along.”

“Are you sure?” Anna asked. “She just got here.”

“No better way to learn. I’ll keep an eye on her,” he said as he turned and headed out.

Chapter 5

Jessica walked as quickly as she could to keep up with Anna. Being a few inches shorter, she had to take twice as many steps just to keep up.

“Do you have to so fast?” Jessica asked.

“We don’t have a lot of time. Run if you can’t walk fast enough. You’ll be fine.”

The walk wasn’t too far when they reached a storage area. There were all sorts of clothes and gear lying around and hanging on racks. Anna grabbed a black jumpsuit and tossed it at Jessica.

“Here, try this on.”

“Here?” Jessica asked.

“There’s no one around but you and me kid,” Anna said.

Reluctantly, Jessica stripped off her t-shirt and jeans, and slid on the suit. It fit her snug, but not tight. She pulled up the zipper and ran her hand down the front. It was thick and rubbery, yet she didn’t feel smothered.

“It’s a special polymer suit,” Anna explained.

“A what?”

“Polymer…It’s a special kind of material. It’s thin and flexible, but can withstand heavy impact.”

“Wow,” Jessica said. “I didn’t know they had stuff like this for real.”

“Yeah, it’s not very common. Adam provides it somehow.”

“Where does he get it?”

“I have no idea. I don’t ask,” Anna turned and dug through some more boxes and came back with a vest, knee pads, socks and boots. Jessica tried on each item, they had to dig a little to find boots her size, but found a pair that fit nicely. “There,” Anna said. “Now you look like a killer.”

“Cool! Do I get a gun or something?”

“Um…no,”

“No? Why? We’re gonna be hunting vampires!”

“Yeah, sleeping vampires, so no need for a weapon; we only use guns on grubs since bullets don’t hurt vampires. Mostly use crossbows, UV lights and other things. But you gotta be trained first.”

“What are grubs?” Jessica asked.

“You’ll see. Talk to Adam, he decides when someone gets a weapon. Now let’s go.”

“I’m not a baby! I’m fifteen!”

Anna rolled her eyes and walked out of the room and briskly headed down the hall and to an elevator.

“Where we going now?” Jessica asked.

“To the garage, you’ll be riding with Adam.”

“Really? Awesome!”

Anna shook her head and was thankful Jessica had no more questions the rest of the way to the garage.

“Well look at you,” Adam said. “You look ready to go.”

“Thanks!” Jessica hopped as she spoke. Adam gave Anna a confused look, but she just shrugged.

“Well ok then. Go ahead and get in. You’ll be riding in the black truck with me and Carlton. You’re going to be observing, so as we go in, just stick to me like glue,” Adam explained.

“Yes sir!” Jessica said, saluting.

“Oh God,” Anna said, putting her face in her hands.

“Don’t be jealous,” Jessica said.

“Just hop in the truck please, in back,” Adam ordered.

She climbed in the back of the large SUV and strapped herself in. There were three others in the vehicle. There was a short, Hispanic guy behind the wheel who nodded to her as she climbed in.

“Hey,” the driver said. “I’m Carlton.”

“Hello,” Jessica said.

Adam climbed in the passenger seat. Jessica looked at the other guys who were all staring at her. They had on the same kind of suit as her, but most of them were carrying large crossbows. One of them was a hulking black kid who had a sword slung across his back. They all had other gear hanging off them, like spotlights and canteens. They were also wearing ballistic vests like hers. She looked at the guy with the sword.

“Why do you have a sword? Can you kill vampires with a sword?”

“No,” he said. “But it’s funny to watch the things flop around after I cut their heads off.”

“Ok kids, play time’s over,” Adam called out from the front seat. “Let’s get this done!”

Chapter 6

The drive lasted around twenty to thirty minutes. Theirs was the third of a caravan of five SUVs. No one talked through most of the trip. Jessica watched as the other slayers kept their heads down while riding in silence. The caravan pulled off the road, onto a trail leading back into the woods. The trail wound around deeper into the woods as sunlight shone through the trees in single blades of light.

“Where are we going?” Jessica asked. No one looked up and no one answered. “Does anyone know?” still no response. “Adam? Hey Adam, where are we going?”

“Will you shut up?” The slayer with the sword shouted. “We’re about to go into battle. Our minds need to be right!” He said, pointing at his temple. “We can’t do that, with you yelling and asking a bunch of questions.”

“It’s ok Cedric,” Adam chimed in. “She’s still learning.”

“Learning what?” Jessica asked. “Where are you taking me?”

“This is where the vampire nest is supposed to be, somewhere out here. You’ll see, just hang tight. Ok?”

“Ok,” Jessica agreed. She glanced at Cedric who was staring out the window. She leaned up to Adam and whispered, “He’s mean!”

Adam just looked at her then looked back ahead as the caravan slowed. Adam said something into a hand held radio then turned to the slayers in the back.

“Ok guys, this is it. Keep an eye out. Just because it’s daytime, doesn’t mean it’s totally clear. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” They shouted. Jessica looked around and watched them as they climbed out of the SUV.

“Jessica, stay with me,” Adam ordered.

“Where are we going?”

“There,” he pointed to a small hillside covered in branches and vines. Just through it she saw an opening.

“Is that a cave?” She asked.

“It is indeed.”

“We’re going in there?”

“Yes we are. They’ll go in first.”

“Don’t you guys have to make a plan or something?”

“No, we’ve cleared caves like this before and we’ve been working together a long time. So we all know the drill.”

Jessica watched as three other teams formed up in groups of four and filed into the cave. Cedric’s team was staying outside of the cave as the others went in.

“Cedric’s team is staying out here for security,” Adam explained.

“Security against what?”

Before he could answer there was a scream from above one of the SUV’s. They looked up and there was a woman on top screaming something Jessica couldn’t understand. The woman’s eyes were solid white, and her hair was disheveled long with her clothes which were ripped and tattered.

“Crap, it’s a grub!” Adam yelled. The woman crouched with her arms up as if she were about to leap onto them when a wooden arrow pierced her head, sending her tumbling to the ground. Jessica looked to see Cedric lowering his crossbow.

“I got her,” he said. “Keep an eye out. They are usually in groups.”

“What are grubs?” Jessica asked. “No one said anything about grubs. Are they vampires?”

Adam was barely paying attention as he looked around the area. One of Cedric’s men circled behind the SUV’s to make sure no one else has snuck back there.

“All clear,” He shouted. There was another scream, this one near Cedric’s direction. There was another grub standing over one of the shorter guys hacking at his face with a hatchet. Cedric pulled out his sword. Jessica had thought it was like a samurai sword at first, but now she could see it was a huge, broadsword. The kind you’d someone named Stark fighting with. With one quick swipe, Cedric cut off the grub’s head.

Before he could put the sword down, three more grubs came from over the hill. Some of the men shot bolts at them from the crossbows, while Cedric charged one up the hill, thrusting the huge sword through its face.

“Look out!” One of the men shouted, pointing toward Jessica and Adam. They turned to see a dozen more running out of the woods, toward the SUV’s. These were men and women, some looked like kids. They were carrying axes, knives, bats, pipes, swinging them wildly as they charged the group.

“Adam! What do I do?” Jessica cried.

“Stay behind me!” He yelled raising his crossbow and firing a shot and hitting one right in the forehead. The others fired as well in an alternating pattern. Several would fire while the others reloaded. Then that group would fire. It was similar to how the colonists fought with muskets during the Revolutionary War.

“Cease fire!” Cedric screamed as he ran toward the mob of grubs waving his sword over his head.

“What is he doing?” Adam said as they watched Cedric charge into the middle of the pack, swinging his sword and moving about as a madman doing a dance of death. Blood, heads and brains splattered about as Cedric dispensed of the grubs faster than they could approach him. After a minute, all was quiet as he stood over the body of the last grub, holding his sword and looking around for more, but none came. Cedric was breathing heavily and covered in sweat as he glanced around. The rest of the team stood still as well. They weren’t sure if they should be more concerned about the grubs, or Cedric.

Chapter 7

Once things calmed down, the other teams emerged from the cave.

“We got them,” One slayer said. “There were at least fifty down there. A few grubs on the way, but not too bad.”

“Fifty?” Adam said. “I’ve never seen that many in one nest.”

“Me either. Not sure what that was about.” The blond haired kid suddenly noticed all the bodies and body parts strewn about. “What happened here?”

“All the grubs were out here. Cedric took care of most of them.”

“Wow, well remind me not to piss him off,” the kid said and strolled over to his team.

“What was that?” Jessica asked. She was physically trembling from what she had just witnessed. She’d never seen so much as a fist fight up close before, let along the carnage Cedric had just unleashed.

“They’re called grubs. Remember when I told you earlier about how the vampires hypnotize people?” Adam explained.

“Yeah?”

“Well, when they do that, the vampires have a few options. One is to eat them. And these guys don’t just suck your blood with dainty little holes in your neck like in the movies. They rip your head off and drink the blood from the stump.”

“Ewwww, that’s gross!” Jessica said.

“Yeah, other option is to make them a slave, or grub as we call them. Since they are basically like mindless insects. They control them with their minds and use them for things like this, to stand guard outside a nest during the daytime. The only way to kill them is by destroying the central nervous system. So breaking their necks, cutting off their heads or shooting them in the head is how to keep them down.”

“Are you serious?” Jessica asked.

“Yes, I am. They are no joke, but easier to kill than the vampires themselves. Grubs are strong and don’t feel pain, but as you saw, they are slow and clumsy. Vampires move incredibly fast, are ridiculously strong and can jump so far and fast, it looks like they’re flying.”

“Wow. Kind of like the Hulk?”

Adam tried not to roll his eyes.

“I guess so. Let’s go see the cave. It should be safe in there now.”

Chapter 8

Jessica followed Adam into the cave. He lit up a large flashlight as they headed down into the darkness. Jessica noticed the stalactites hanging from above as Adam grabbed her hand. She felt a shiver run down her spine as his hand touched hers.

“There are some steps here, so hang on and be careful. It's kind of slippery,” Adam explained. She held his hand tight as they navigated the steps slowly. There were at least a dozen steps that wound downward in a spiral. Jessica kept squeezing Adam's hand once they reached the bottom. He went to pull it away, but she wouldn't let go. He looked back at her with an awkward smile.

“Jessica, I'm going to need that hand back,” he said.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, blushing.

They continued through the cave, which opened into a large cavern. Once in the opening, Jessica was stunned with a horrid stench. It smelled like rot and decay. There were openings along the walls with huge pods inside them, dozens of them. Adam shined the light onto one as he walked toward it.

“Look here,” he said. “Vampires don't use coffins. In the morning, they seal themselves inside this sticky membrane where they sleep. But it's not really sleep. It's more like hibernation, or even dying again, they are completely gone, then they re-animate when the night falls.”

“Wow. It looks gross!” Jessica said. In the pod, it was a large opening within the rock, filled with thick, mucus like fluid. There was a figure that almost looked human inside. There was a large wooden stake protruding from its chest. As she looked closely, she could see the creature's face. Its eyes and mouth were opened wide as if frozen in the middle of a scream. Its razor-like teeth were exposed.

“Is it dead?” Jessica asked.

“Yep, they all are. This is why the best time to hunt is during the day. We try to stay in at night, but sometimes we'll send teams out to find the nests.”

“Wow.” She continued to stare at the dead thing. This was the same kind of vampire who had approached her, but that one looked more human. This looked like something out of a horror movie.

“So what happens when they sleep?” Jessica asked.

“It's when they regenerate. All the blood they drank the night before settles, you see they go back to more of this ugly form and as the night falls, they look more human again and wake up.” Adam explained. “Let's get going. We'll have a team come in and seal this off. Make sure no other vampires can use it. I just wanted you to see what we are up against.”

Jessica felt a shiver down all through her body. While she had a hard time understanding things at times, it was clear to her how dangerous these things were. And now, she was somehow in the middle of a war with them. She followed Adam back through the cave as they went back through the tunnel then back up the stairs. As they walked out, a group of guys were going back in, they were carrying sticks of dynamite and wires.

“That's our demolition team,” Adam said. “They'll blow the cave from the inside to it collapses and can't be used or accessed.”

“If it's so dark in there, can't the vampires stay awake during the day?”

“No, for some reason, their body senses the time of day. No one knows why exactly. Same reason about wooden stakes being the only things that can kill them; bullets go right through them like nothing. Cut off their head and they grow another one. But shoot them with a wooden arrow or stake them, and that's it.”

“Wow. I saw a movie where they used crosses and holy water,” Jessica said.

“Yeah, that stuff is worthless. They aren't a supernatural thing. They're like large rodents. Whatever causes them is more due to an illness. If they bite you and you live, you become one of them. They will turn folks once they have fed for that night. Make their nest larger.”

“Will other vampires be mad at us for killing all of them?” Jessica asked as they climbed back into the SUV.

“No. Each nest is its own little community from what we know. It's almost like rival gangs. They will fight each other over turf and territory. So this nest was likely one old vampire and all his 'family'.”

As she climbed in, Cedric was sitting by the window, staring at something.  Jessica tried to look to see what it was.

“What are you looking at?” She asked.

He slowly turned and glared at her.

“Nothing,” he replied.

“Looks like you're looking at something.”

“Just leave me alone,” he said. “You won't get it.”

Chapter 9

The ride back to the compound was quiet. Once they arrived Jessica climbed out while everyone else milled about putting their gear away.

“Well look at that,” Adam said. “We're back in time for lunch.” A few people laughed half-heartedly. Jessica wasn't sure why everyone seemed so down, after they just killed a bunch of evil vampires with no one getting hurt. Adam pulled her aside as Cedric walked by silently.

“Hey,” he said. “I know it’s hard for you, but try to take it easy with Cedric. He's a good guy. He's just very intense. Don't take him personally.”

“I don't think he likes me,” Jessica said.

“I'm sure he likes you fine. He just really gets into this. Everyone does….but him more than anyone. Ok? Just give him some space.”

“OK,” Jessica said. She wasn't totally sure what all that meant, but went along with it. Through most her life she had to “fake it” around others. Even if she wasn't sure what “it” was.

“After lunch, I want you to meet up with Anna. We'll start working on your training.”

“Training?”

“Yep, can't have you out fighting vampires with us without knowing what you're doing.”

“You serious?” her voice elevated almost to a squeak.

“Yes, you'll learn some pretty cool stuff.”

“Awesome!” She jumped up and hugged him so tight he had to pry her off. “Ok,” he grunted. “Ok, Jessica, its ok, thank you I think.” She finally let go and walked toward the cafeteria. She never stopped smiling through lunch.

After lunch Anna took her to the large training area. They had both changed into t-shirts and shorts. Anna brought her to a big storage locker in the back. Inside there were crossbows and other weapons hanging from the wall. Anna pulled down a Stryker Strykzone 380 crossbow and a quiver of bolts and headed toward the target area.

Anna gave Jessica a quick demonstration firing a shot just missing dead center.

“Ok, come here,” Anna said. “Hold it up, against your shoulder, pull it in tight.”

The weapon wasn't as heavy as Jessica had thought. She followed along as Anna stood behind her, walking her through. She got the bolt loaded and aimed at the target. She pulled the trigger hard, sending the bolt flying to the top of the target.

“You are jerking too much,” Anna said. “Just relax and squeeze and lean in a little.”

For the next shot, Jessica took a deep breath, aligned the sites on the bulls-eye and took a deep breath. Gently, she squeezed the trigger until the bolt released. It hit the bulls-eye dead center.

“You see that?” Jessica said. “You see that? I got a bulls-eye! I did that!” She was jumping up and down.

“Yes I saw,” Anna said with a crooked smile. “Good job kid. Don't get too excited could have been a lucky shot. Let’s do some more.”

They spent the next several hours shooting bolts at the targets. Anna was impressed at Jessica's abilities. Despite being autistic, she was a better shot than many of the seasoned slayers they had.

“How much longer? This is getting kind of boring?” Jessica said.

“We can call it for now.”

Jessica turned and noticed many of the others were watching her. She wasn't sure why, unless they were angry at her but she had no clue what they would be angry at her about.

“Why is everyone staring at me?” She whispered to Anna.

“They're either impressed by you, or scared of you.”

“What? Why?”

“You put on a little clinic back there. You only missed dead center maybe 3 times out of dozens of shots. Most these guys can't hit at that rate and they've been at it a few years,” Anna explained; her voice just above a whisper.

“So that's good right?”

“I guess so.”

“So why would they be afraid?”

“Because you just picked up a crossbow for the first time today and mastered it. That's not normal to most folks.”

“Well, I've never been normal.”

Chapter 10

They walked out of the training area and up several flights of stairs before arriving to a small room. Anna knocked and waited as someone opened the door after a minute. A guy Jessica hadn't seen before let them in. They stepped inside where Adam was sitting at a table with four other guys. All of them looked to be from the ages of late teens to early twenties, Adam being the oldest.

“How'd it go?” Adam asked.

“She did amazing. Hit bulls-eyes almost every time.”

“Really? You shot that well kid?”

Jessica beamed as he looked her direction.

“Yeah, I did good,” she said, smiling. The other guys gave Anna a questioning glance as she just shook her head.

“That's great,” Adam said. “You might be ready sooner than we all thought.”

“When can I see my mom?” Jessica asked, taking the whole group by surprise.

“I don't know if that's safe Jessica. The vampires are after you, not her. If you go see her, you could lead them right to her. You wouldn't want that would you?”

She hung her head.

“No, I guess not. I just miss my mom.”

“I'm sure you do. We'll see if we can't work something out soon,” Adam said. As he finished, an alarm sounded. It was blaring so loud it made Jessica's whole body shake. Adam and the guys all jumped up, grabbed their crossbows and ran into the hall. Anna and Jessica followed.

“What is going on?” Jessica yelled, but it was no use, Anna couldn't hear her. They ran up several flights of stairs, after which Jessica was feeling out of breath. When they got to the top floor, there were several grubs in the halls. The guys all shot bolts from their crossbows, dropping most of the grubs with that round. Jessica backed away from the commotion and pressed against the wall. She'd wished she had her crossbow. Now that she knew how to use it, she'd be able to help.

Something grabbed her from behind. Before she could react, someone was holding her around her arms, and someone else had picked up her legs. They carried her through a doorway and onto the roof where there were more grubs. Jessica screamed but no one could hear her over the noise of the alarm and the fighting going on. She struggled with everything she had, but the grubs were too strong. She was certain they were about to throw her off the roof.

They didn't, however. Instead a large man was at the end of the roof on a huge horse. Except it wasn't a horse at all. It had wings, like a pegasus, but the wings were bat-like wings. It also had a horn coming from its head. Jessica stopped struggling for a moment to figure out what she was seeing.

“Is that a unicorn?” She asked. The grubs didn't reply as they pushed her up onto the creature. The man was also wearing black and had short, cropped hair. She didn't think he was a vampire, but why was he with grubs?

“You might want to hold on,” he said as the beast lifted into the air. Jessica craned her neck around to watch the compound disappearing behind her. She looked up and saw that night was beginning to fall. She had no idea who this man was, or where he was taking her, but hoped Adam would be able to find her and save her before the vampires ate her.

They moved through the air with great speed, not the gliding you see such animals move with in the movies. The air was cold and stung her face and legs as they soared over the city. She also realized she hadn't eaten dinner either. This was upsetting to her as well, she hoped the vampires would have something to eat, or maybe these vampires would be nice, like the “Twilight” vampires. Or maybe this guy with his flying unicorn bat horse wasn't a vampire at all; maybe he was here to take her to her mom. But he was helping the grubs. She knew the grubs were always bad.

She just wanted to fall asleep but held on to the strange man for dear life as she saw the city beneath her. She pinched her eyes shut tight hoping it was all a horrible dream that would be over when she awoke. After what seemed like hours, they finally landed and the beast trotted to a stop. Jessica opened her eyes and saw it was now dark out. They were standing in front of a small cabin surrounded by woods. Behind her in the distance, she could see the lights from the city. There was another man standing in front of the cabin with his arms crossed.

“James, now this is a nice thing to wake up to!” The man by the cabin said.

“It wasn't as hard as I thought. She came up to the top of the building with them. We just had to grab her when the others were distracted,” James, the man on the horse said as he climbed down. He put his arms up offering to help Jessica down.

“Come on down Tinkerbell. No one is going to hurt you, not yet anyway.”

“My name isn't Tinkerbell. It's Jessica!” It was all she could think to say.

“Right kid. Let's go. Where do you want her Ivan?”

“Bring her here first,” Ivan, the man by the cabin said. James took her to him and Ivan grabbed her shoulders tightly, causing her to tense. “Look at me,” he said. His eyes glowed white, then yellow as he spoke. “You are no longer Jessica. You want to serve me in every way possible. You want to be my slave, and my food. Don't you?” Ivan said.

“What are you talking about? You're a jerk. Let me go!” Jessica cried.

Ivan looked up at James who shrugged his shoulders.

“Fascinating,” Ivan said. “I've never seen such a thing. Put her in the cellar for now. I'll deal with her after breakfast.”

Chapter 11

James dragged Jessica to a small set of doors next to the cabin. Pulling one open, he gave her a shove where she tumbled into a dark cellar. The first thing she noticed was the horrible smell. Like something died in there and has been rotting.

“Sorry kid, boss's orders. I don't think he'll hurt you though. Not if you do what he tells you.”

“Who are you? What do you guys want?”

“You'll find out soon enough,” James said as he slammed the doors shut.

“No!” Jessica screamed as she heard it lock from the outside. She ran up the steps and pushed against it, but the doors wouldn't budge. She collapsed to her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably. In the span of a day, she has been attacked by vampires, taken away from her mother, attacked again and locked in a dark, smelly cellar. She usually tried not to cry, but this time couldn't stop herself and didn't even try. So much had happened in the last few days.

In her old life, everything was routine; up at a certain time, to school, chores, homework, meals, all on a scheduled routine. Now there was no routine at all, just chaos.

“There's no use in crying,” a voice called from the darkness.

“Who is there?” Jessica called out. “Who said that?”

“I did,” a man stepped out from the shadows. He was old, and limping.

“Who are you?” Jessica asked.

“My name is Desmond. They've kept me prisoner here for many years. So I'd get comfortable if I were you.” His voice was hoarse, as if he labored to speak each word.

“Why are you a prisoner? Why am I a prisoner? I don't even know what's going on.”

“It's a long story.” He hobbled past her and took a seat on the steps. “I once filled a roll like old James up there. The vampires don't always hypnotize humans to make them slaves. They sometimes don't have to. I wanted to be one of them. I was an angry young man. My wife had just left me for my best friend. I'd just lost my job, almost sounds cliché.”

“Sounds what? And how old are you anyway? You look like you should be dead.”

He lifted his eyebrow at her. “Not the most tactful young lady, are you? Kid these days I guess.” He stopped to cough before speaking again. “So I met Ivan one night. He found me walking home drunk from the bar. I think he was going to turn me. Tried to make a game of it he did. He could have killed me easily without me ever knowing he was there. Instead he vamped out on me, making his eyes all white and flashing those huge teeth at me. For some reason, it didn't scare me at all. It was probably all the Jack Daniels I'd had earlier. Instead I just told him to go ahead and kill me.”

“You what? Why'd you say that?”

“Well I didn't care anymore. My life was crap, I just wanted to die. Plus I was drunk. That never helps, which reminds me, if you get out of here alive, don't drink or do drugs. It doesn't help with anything.”

“Oh no,” Jessica said. “I don't do any of that stuff. My mom said it is bad news. So no, thank you.”

“Well, your mom is a smart lady.” Desmond said. “So where was I? Oh yes. I told him to kill me. But he was like 'What? Aren't you going to scream?' but I was like, why bother? You'll catch and kill me anyway. I asked him what he was, and he told me he was a vampire. I thought such things weren't real, but now we no different, eh?”

Jessica just listened, trying to follow along.

“So, I asked if he was immortal, he said yes. Then I asked if he got to tear around and kill whomever he liked, and he said yes. So I asked him if he could make me like him. He said he could, but I had to earn it first. I had to help him.”

“Help him with what?”

“With whatever, guarding his nest during the day with those crazy things they like to keep around. Helping gather other humans for him to eat, maintaining his and others' finances in his nest. They can't exactly have day jobs you know. And those grubs they call them, they sure can't help with any of that. The deal was, I do that for a few years, and he'll turn me.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, one year turned into three years, then five years and he still hadn't turned me. I'd seen him turn others. I did all sorts of unspeakable things too. I held people down so he could kill them. I brought people to the nest. I took children away from their parents.” He paused as his voice cracked. “I even brought the nest babies to feed off of. They love the blood of babies and children; it's more pure they say. I don't know. I was their errand boy and I did all this gleefully.”

“That's terrible. He should have just killed you,” Jessica said as a matter of fact.

“There you go again, and yes, I suppose you're right. After several years, I got angry with Ivan and the others, started to refuse to do their work. Told him I was done being his slave. If he wanted anymore from me, he could turn me, kill me or make me into one of his grubs. Instead he locked me down here. They send me scraps from their kill to eat.”

“What? You eat people?”

“Yes, they throw bodies down here with the blood drained. Only the meat and flesh left on the bones. I eat it all. There is a faucet in back with running water. That's all I've lived off of for years.”

“Why don't you escape?”

“Oh, I've tried, several times. Finally, Ivan would break my legs. The last time I tried several years ago, he broke both of my femurs. That was pain like nothing I'd ever felt before. After that I gave up. I tried to just not eat and starve myself, but that is quite hard to do when its right in front of you. He didn't want to kill me, he wants to torture me. And he's managed to do just that.”

“Well sounds to me like you deserve it. Feeding babies to vampires; that's horrible.”

“You don't hold back do you?” He struggled to laugh but ended coughing.

“Yeah, I hear that a lot. Part of why everyone thinks I'm weird. So will they leave me down here too?”

“I don't know. What is your name anyway?”

“Jessica.”

“Well Jessica, you're the only other prisoner I've seen them put in here since I've been here. So I have no idea.” As he spoke, the cellar door swung open. The both looked up to see James standing at the doorway.

“You still alive, old man?” James asked. “Get back away from the door before I break your legs again, though that would probably kill you these days.”

Without a word, Desmond stood and shuffled back into the darkness.

“Come on kid,” James said. “The boss wants to see you.”

Chapter 12

When she came out of the cellar, it was night time. There were grubs wandering around in front of the cabin, staring at her with their hollow, empty eyes. James noticed her moving back toward the cellar.

“Don't worry kid,” James said. “They won't bother you. Not unless the boss tells them to.”

She relaxed a little as he took her inside the cabin. There Ivan was sitting at a desk with his back turned.  He spun around in the chair to face her. His face was white, and eyes were black and empty. She hadn't noticed his eyes before, but they had that weird glow earlier. So did the vampire who came to her house that first night.

“So Jessica,” Ivan said. “I've heard a lot about you.”

“You have?”

“Well of course. It's not every day someone is immune to our hypnosis. Usually in seconds they are sniveling freaks like your pals out there, unless they volunteer to be my slave like James over there. Hoping I'll turn him one day. Right, James?”

James just shifted uncomfortably.

“See? He doesn't dare talk back to me; I might kill him, or turn him into one of those things. And who wants that?” Ivan said and laughed. “Oh, but anyway, I digress. So what to do with you? Can't have you helping the slayers now can we? That's no good.” Jessica stared at him as he spoke. In the movies and books she'd seen, vampires were always attractive. Ivan was anything but. He wasn't exactly ugly. He just looked rough, but not old. His face looked weathered and leathery and his hair was thick and white. Yet, he was in great shape. He looked like someone who was old, but without aging.

“I wasn't helping them,” she said. “I was just staying with them for protection.”

He laughed; his voice was deep and sometimes raspy.

“You're a horrible liar. They don't just protect anyone. You have to earn your keep with them.”

She hung her head, and looked to James who looked away from her.

“So what are you going to do with me?”

“Well, I can't turn you into a grub, so that's out. I could kill you, but you could be useful to us in some way.”

“I don't want to help you kill people.”

“Oh, who says there's killing involved?” Ivan asked sarcastically.

“You're vampires. You kill people.”

“And how many people have you seen me or any of us kill?” He stood and crossed his arms. “Hmmm?”

“Well none yet.”

“Of course not; how many vampires have you seen the slayers kill?”

“They killed a few this morning...” she trailed off.

“A few? Fifty, they killed fifty. They were asleep in their tombs, not hurting anyone. Your pals went in and staked them all in their sleep. Real stand up guys they are.”

Jessica started feeling confused. Adam was her friend she thought. He and Anna helped her, made her feel safe. Plus they said the vampires were dangerous killers. Now Ivan was saying the opposite. What he said made sense. She never saw the vampires hurt anyone. The guy who came to her house hadn't done anything to her yet before Adam killed him.

“So what do you want me to do?”

“My first thought is to send you back and have you spy for us. But you seem quite impressionable, so that wouldn't be a good idea. Interesting one you are. I can't hypnotize you, but you'll believe almost anything.”

“No I don't. Who says I believe you now?”

“I can tell you do. You're not like most humans.”

“I have Asperger’s.”

“What is that?”

“Means I'm different, my brain works different than others.”

“Obviously. James will get you something to eat before you go back to the cellar. You'll have to excuse the cuisine here. Our chef is on vacation,” he laughed a loud, cackling laugh at his own joke.

“Let's go kid,” James said.

“My name isn't kid. It's Jessica.”

“Whatever. Come on.” She followed him into a small kitchen in the back of the cabin. He grabbed a bag of pork rinds and a bottle of water and handed it to her.

“There you go,” he said.

“I don't like these,” she said.

“It’s all you got to eat. You'll need it. So eat up.”

She took one out and stared at it before putting it into her mouth. She chewed on it several times. It was chewy and hard and incredibly salty. She swallowed it and took a drink of the water which turned out to be warm.

“These are gross!”

“They have protein. Eat up.”

“What about Desmond?”

“What about him?”

“Does he get any food?”

“Ivan deals with him. Let's go.”

Chapter 13

She followed James around the cabin; she heard a whinny from her left. The black flying unicorn was tied to a post on the other side of the cabin. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t like James and didn’t like being locked in the cellar. She sure didn’t like Ivan. Adam hadn’t come for her yet, which bothered her. Why hadn’t he come to save her? Didn’t he like her?

It was hard to look away from the unicorn. He was so beautiful. He deserved better than to be tied to a post like that. He should be able to run or fly free.

“Hey, kid, stop drifting and come on!” James shouted. She hadn’t realized she was walking toward the unicorn while he walked in the other direction. He was a good twenty or thirty feet away. She wanted that unicorn, to ride him, pet him, brush him and take care of him. She’d never tie him to some stupid post.

“I’m not gonna tell you again kid. If I have to bring you over here, it won’t fun for you. I guarantee it!”

Without another thought, she turned and ran toward the unicorn. She was only a few yards away. Once she reached it, she quickly worked the rope to untie it. The knot was tight, but she pulled at it frantically, working her fingers between the knots. James footsteps got louder as she felt it loosening up.

Finally the rope fell free. The unicorn let out a whinny and even stood on its hind legs for a moment. Once it settled down, she tried to climb on but was having a hard time. She was too short. It lowered its wing for her to use as a step. She stepped onto it as he lifted her, allowing her to easily climb onto its back.

“Don’t do it kid!” James shouted from a few feet away. He grabbed at her, getting a hand on her leg as the unicorn ran several steps and began flapping its wings, lifting off the ground. Jessica shook her leg as James only had her with one hand. There was a knife in his other hand he was using to swipe at her. The unicorn turned hard to the left, then quickly to the right. The turbulence was too much for James as he lost his grip and fell.

They were already quite a ways up, so the fall would hurt James pretty badly. She couldn’t see him fall since it was too dark. She just held on to the unicorn’s mane as it flew them upward.

“Where are we going?” She asked it. “Can you talk? Where are you taking me?” It just made a huffing sound as its wings cut through the night air. Unlike the first right, she looked around the city and saw the lights beneath her. It was such a beautiful site. The cool air blew against her face and hair. Though she still wanted to know where they were going. She had no sense of which direction they were headed.

After a while, the lights below started getting larger. They were going downward, but slowly. Were they about to land? They were! She saw a rooftop not far away. At first, she couldn’t make it out. Then she recognized it. It was Adam’s place, the compound! She had no idea how the unicorn had found his way back, but she was happy.

As they sailed to a landing she heard voices screaming.

“Stop right there! Don’t move!” Several men with flashlights came running toward them. As they got closer, she saw they had guns. “Who is there?”

“It’s me!” She cried out. “It’s Jessica! Is Adam here?”

“Jessica?” One of the men lowered his gun and walked up to her. It was Cedric. “I thought they got you.”

“They did. I got away. I stole their unicorn!” She said with a gleefulness that seemed inappropriate considering she had just been kidnapped by vampires.

“I can see that,” Cedric said, looking the beast up and down. “I’ve heard about these things, but never knew they actually existed. I thought they were extinct.”

“Well, here he is. What should I name him? Can I keep him?”

“How did you get away?” Cedric asked, his voice showing no sign of emotion.

“I told you, I took the unicorn.”

“I know what you said. People don’t just escape when the vampires take them. They are either drained and killed, turned into grubs, or turned into a vampire. Did they turn you?”

“Turn me what?” She wasn’t understanding what he was saying.

“Did they turn you into a vampire?”

“Do I look like a vampire? Hello?” She climbed off the unicorn, bouncing off its wing and onto the rooftop.

“Come on. Let’s go see Adam.”

“What about my unicorn?”

“He can stay out here. One of you guys, tie him somewhere so he doesn’t get away.”

“No!” She shouted. “You’re not tying him up. The vampires kept him all tied up and were mean to him.”

“Tie him up,” Cedric said, ignoring her.

“I said no!” She ran up to it and stood on the edge of its wing. “I’m going to just fly away with him, and I’ll never come back and never help you again!”

“We will open fire if you try to run kid,” one of the men behind Cedric said.

“Stand down,” Cedric ordered. “All right. We won’t tie him up. We’ll keep some guys out here with him. Look him over guys; make sure he’s not infected or anything. Jessica, you come with me. We’ll go see Adam.”

Chapter 14

When they walked into the building, Jessica couldn’t believe all the damage. A vicious battle had taken place their earlier. She hoped no one was hurt badly. There were bodies lying around all over covered in blood.

“Who are all these dead people?” She asked Cedric.

“They’re all grubs. Fortunately we didn’t lose anyone. A few people were hurt though.”

There were others moving the bodies around, cleaning up the walls and trying to get things back to normal. They went down several flights of stairs and into a large room. There Adam was with a group of other men sitting around a table. When Jessica walked in, Adam’s eyes widened as if he was looking at a ghost.

“Jessica?”

“Yep! It’s me!” She squealed.

“The vampires got you. They didn’t kill you or hurt you?”

“No, I think they were going to, but I escaped!”

“I need to talk to you,” Cedric cut in. “Alone for a moment.”

“Ok, excuse me everyone.” Adam said as they stepped into the hall. “Ok, Cedric, what’s on your mind?”

“She flew in alone on that flying unicorn the vampires took her on. Something is wrong.”

“You think they let her go? To spy on us or something?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t turn her into a grub. They didn’t her to a vampire either. Not this quickly, she wasn’t gone that long.”

“So you don’t believe her?” Adam asked.

“The kid is a space cadet. No way could she outsmart a group of vampires.” Cedric replied.

“She’s autistic Cedric, she’s not stupid. And I don’t think a group captured her. I saw James on the rooftop. That unicorn is his. James is human. He’s one of Ivan’s little handymen. He thinks Ivan will turn him one day.”

“So he’s one of those?”

“Yep. ‘They’ are worse than the vampires as far as I’m concerned. The vampires do what they do because it’s their nature. The collaborators have a choice. They chose to betray their own species. That is the worst.”

“I didn’t even think the vampires accepted collaborators anymore.”

“There’s still a few. They rarely actually turn them though, only when they need to fill their ranks. But if they screw up even a little they kill them or turn them to grubs,” Adam said.  “I think Jessica is ok. They can’t turn her into a grub because of her autism. For some reason, she’s immune to their mind tricks. She probably got away from James. He’s not the brightest.”

“Ok. I’ll still keep an eye on her,” Cedric said.

“That’s fine. Just cut her some slack. She’s still a kid.”

“Got it.”

When they stepped back inside, Jessica was sitting at the table talking to the rest of the men in the group.

“And then this Ivan guy talked to me and they were going to lock me back in that nasty basement. But I didn’t want to go there. So I saw the unicorn tied up outside and ran to him.” She was saying, but looked up as Adam and Cedric stepped inside.

“Hey Jessica,” Adam said. “Welcome back. We’re glad you’re safe. Cedric will take you back to your room so you can get cleaned up.”

As they walked back down to her room, Cedric didn’t speak a word the whole way.

“Are you mad at me?” Jessica asked.

“No,” he said.

“Then why do you act like you are?”

I’m always this way. Here’s your room. I got work to do,” Cedric said as he walked off.

Chapter 15

As she washed off in the sink and changed her clothes, there was a knock at her door. It was Anna.

“Hey kid, glad to see you’re ok.” Anna said.

“Anna!” Jessica squealed and hugged Anna. She squeezed so tight, that Anna had to pry her away.

“Thanks Jess, I’m happy to see you too. I have to breathe though.”

“Oh, sorry. I guess I get carried away!”

“Yeah, you can I guess. Hey. When you’re feeling up to it, Adam wants to talk to you. He would like to find out where they took you, who was there, what they were doing. All that good stuff.”

“Oh, well I really don’t know where I was. The unicorn flew me back here. It was like he just knew the way.”

“Yeah, I heard about the unicorn. Adam went to go take a look at him. See if there is a way he can use him.”

“Use him for what?”

“I don’t know,” Anna said. “A decoy maybe or maybe Adam will ride him into battle.”

“But he’s mine! I saved him! He likes me!”

“Ok, I’m not going to argue with you…” Anna began.

“Wait! Desmond!”

“Who?”

“Desmond! The old guy in the basement!”

Anna shook her head, having no clue what Jessica was talking about.

“Desmond who, and what basement? You’re not making any sense Jess.”

“Desmond is the guy the vampires are keeping trapped in their basement, the basement where they kept me. He’s been trapped in there for years! We have to help him! They just feed him dead people. It’s so gross!”

“I don’t know any Desmond. And I’m sure Adam isn’t going to authorize a rescue mission for save a guy none of us are even sure exists in a cabin we can’t find.”

“The unicorn knows how to get there.”

“Jess! Listen to yourself. We can’t load up all the vehicles to go save some old guy none of us know where he’s at. And we’re not going to follow a unicorn there. Ok? Adam has something planned after last night’s attack. Maybe we can find him then. But you just have to sit tight, ok?”

Jessica hung her head and slumped onto her cot.

“Ok,” she muttered.

“Do you understand? It’ll be ok. I promise. Just trust us. Adam knows what he’s doing,” Anna assured.

“Ok.” Jessica lie back on the cot and turned her back to Anna. She stood looking at the girl for a minute and left the room. She knew Jessica at Asperger’s, but it was so frustrating to deal with at times.

After Anna left, Jessica sat up and looked around her room. There had to be something she could do. The first thing she wanted to do was go look at the unicorn. He needed a name. She changed into her polymer suit and zipped it up. Once it was on, she reached under the cot and took out her cross bow. She had an extra quiver of bolts they had given her before she was taken. She slung the quiver over her shoulder and fixed the other to the crossbow. The last thing she grabbed was her backpack. Anna gave it to her after their last training. It had survival items in it, but Anna hadn’t had a chance to go through it with her.

Once she was geared up, she stepped outside the room and into the hall. It was late, so most of the compound was asleep. She ran to the stairwell as fast as she could and climbed the stairs until she reached the roof. Once at the doorway, she cracked it slightly to peek onto the rooftop. Adam was there with Cedric and Anna. They were looking at the unicorn. Adam kept trying to climb on, but the unicorn would buck each time, knocking him away. Cedric held the rope that was still around its neck as Adam would make an attempt, but the unicorn always pulled it right out of his hands.

Jessica let out a giggle watching the scene. They all turned when she made the sound.

“Jess!” Anna called out. “What are you doing?”

With that, Jessica decided to make her move.

Chapter 16

She came out from behind the door as the three of them looked at her.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Cedric said. He was standing in front of the group with his arms crossed.

“I’m going to go save Desmond.” She said.

“Anna told me about him. She also explained to you why we can’t go after him.” Adam said.

“I know what she said. But I can’t just leave him there. They’ll kill him.” She looked at all of them and they were staring at her like she was crazy. This was the same look she often got from her mom, teachers and classmates. It was always as if anything she wanted to do made no sense to anyone else. Either that or people just assumed she was incapable of doing anything. “I’m taking Hawk, and I’ll go by myself.”

“Who is Hawk?” Adam asked.

“The unicorn. He soars like a hawk. So I named him Hawk.” She started to walk toward Hawk, but Cedric stepped in front of her. “Just let me go,” she said.

“That’s not gonna happen kid. It’s too dangerous. You can’t do this alone, especially at night.”

“I can do it! I escaped from them, didn’t I?”

“Jess, just go back inside ok? I can take you to the range and we can shoot the crossbow some more.” Anna said.

“No! You guys aren’t listening! Ugh!” It was so frustrating. Just because she had Asperger’s, didn’t mean she was a dummy. She thought these guys were different, but they are now treating her like everyone else always had. Like a little kid, or even a baby. She was still fifteen, Asperger’s or not. She quickly tried to run around Cedric, but he grabbed her by the arm.

“Let me go!” She screamed.

“No! Enough is enough!” He began to jerk on her arm as he started walking toward the door.

“You’re hurting me!” She cried.

“Cedric, that’s enough, let her go.” Adam said.

“She’s already put is all in danger. I’m not gonna let her do it again!”

“Let me go!”

Something large and black knocked Cedric to the ground. He released his grip on her arm as he hit the rooftop, out cold. Hawk was standing there extending its wings. He’s swooped over to them to protect Jessica. Hawk positioned himself between Adam and Anna, letting out a loud a loud neigh, causing the two of them to back off.

Using his wing as a step, Jessica climbed onto his back, and with one big leap, they were sailing skyward into the night.

Chapter 17

Hawk soared through the night, his wings beating against the air. Jessica had put her hair back into a ponytail, so it wasn’t blowing all over this time. The air was cool and crisp as they moved through the sky.

“Where are we going boy? We going back to the vampires?” Jessica asked. Hawk replied with a gruff whinny as they sailed along. Somehow, her and Hawk had formed a bond, maybe because she rescued him. Either way, he was there to protect her. Before long, Hawk was headed into a dive, but not slowing down.

“Hawk, what are you doing? We’re going down too fast.” She could see the lights below getting bigger and bigger. Just ahead, there were several small pinpoints of light. At first, she couldn’t tell what they were. But as they got closer, she could see. They were eyes; vampire eyes.

There were at least three vampires ahead, looking right at them.

“Hawk! Those are vampires! What are you doing! Stop!” She closed her eyes as Hawk sped up, going into a straight dive. He lowered his head, his single, thick horn pointed at the ground. Without slowing down a bit, Hawk plunged his horn into one of the vampires. The creature exploded. Vampire goo splattered all over Jessica. She closed her eyes as the sticky mist sprayed around her.

Hawk swooped back into the air and circled round. Jessica looked down and the other two vampires started running toward the cabin. Hawk flew downward and landed firmly on the cabin’s roof. Just as he touched down, one of the vampires jumped onto the edge of the roof. His eyes were glowing white, razor sharp teeth were exposed. He looked like he was foaming at the mouth even. Some kind of white substance dripped from his teeth as he stared at Jessica. He stood there staring at her for a minute and then looked confused. He was trying to hypnotize her.

“Sorry ugly, that doesn’t work on me,” she said as she lifted the crossbow, hitting him dead center in the chest. He also burst into a pile of slimy chunks and goo. She lowered the crossbow, looking around.

“Those things are so gross!” She said. Hawk let out a whinny in reply. There was one more vampire that she knew of down there. Hawk flew up in the air again but she couldn’t see him. He must have gone inside. Hawk sailed downward and landed in the clearing in front of the cabin. She was going to have to go in after him. Slowly she climbed off, holding the crossbow at the ready after loading another bolt.

She approached the cabin off to the side. This was like hide and seek she used to play with the neighbor kids except they wouldn’t eat her if she didn’t shoot them first. She remembered Anna had told her vampires can see in the dark, and it was really dark. Chances are, he could see her, but she couldn’t see him. Once she reached the cabin, she opened the door slowly.

It creaked as it swung open. The inside was pitch black. Her heart was racing as she looked around. She didn’t want to go in, but didn’t want to risk him sneaking up on her later. Her breathing was so fast, she thought she would pass out for a second. She stopped and took a few deep breaths.

What would Adam do? Would he be scared? She thought.

She had a better idea. Backing away, she went back to Hawk and took off her backpack. It was hard to see the contents, but she felt each item. She found a box of matches as she went through. There was a knife, compass, a fishing kit and she found it; a small bottle of lighter fluid. She unzipped her suit part way, and tore off a piece from the bottom of her under shirt.

Taking the piece of cloth, she wrapped it tight around one of the bolt tips. She then poured lighter fluid all over the cloth. Setting the bolt in the crossbow, she used a match to light the end. The bright flame lit up the night. She was surprised the vampire hadn’t come back out after her. But he was probably expecting her to go in after him. She just hoped if this worked, she could still get to Desmond on time.

Lifting the crossbow, she took aim and fired the bolt through the window. At first, she wasn’t sure if it worked. After a minute, she could see the flames inside the cabin. The flames got bigger and bigger and began to spread. Within a few minutes, the whole structure was ablaze, lighting up the night. Someone came running out, covered in flames and screaming.

A horrible feeling came over her then. What if there were other humans in the house? She didn’t think so though, she just had a feeling. The screaming man fell to the ground a few feet in front of her. After a few more seconds, he also exploded. This time it was burnt sticky, smelly goo. More got on Jessica as she tried to shy away.

“Ok,” she said to Hawk. “Come on, hurry!” She ran toward the side of the burning cabin where the cellar door was. There were several grubs walking around, but they all looked confused. Perhaps with their masters dead, they didn’t know what to do. So she ignored them. Once at the cellar doors, Hawk leaned back and kicked the double doors, splitting them open. Jessica ran down the stairs where she found Desmond.

“What are you doing here? What’s going on?”

“I came to help you. I escaped earlier. Let’s go!” She said.

“My legs. I can hardly walk,” he whined.

She ran to him, and put his arm around her and helped him up. He was very light and frail. They hobbled up the stairs as she helped him onto Hawk’s back.

“I didn’t see James,” she said.

“They killed him after you left. Ivan was furious.”

“Oh.” She said, unable to process that a man died as an indirect result of her actions. “Let’s go Hawk!”

Hawk let out a neigh as he took off. As they approached the compound, the sun was beginning to rise in the distance. She would definitely need a nap.

Chapter 18

They landed safely on the rooftop of the compound. Adam, Cedric and Anna were still there. None of them looked at all happy. The sun was starting to appear over the horizon as cracks of sunlight began to light up the morning. Desmond had been quiet the whole trip. Jessica had tried to talk to him during some of the flight, but he seemed exhausted.

“You gotta be kidding me?” Adam said as she hopped down. “This is Desmond?”

“Yep, that’s him. I think he needs help. His legs are all messed up. Plus he’s been eating people for a long time.”

“Eating people?” Adam said.

“It’s a long story,” Desmond said from Hawk’s back. “Can someone help me down?”

Cedric and Anna walked over and helped the old man off Hawk’s back. Cedric had to help hold him up, as he could barely stand. In the light, Jessica noticed he looked much worse than he had in the cellar. His hair was white and matted in some places, missing from other places. He was so skinny; he looked like a skeleton, but with skin hanging off him.

“This is a tough little girl you guys got here.” Desmond said.

“And stubborn too,” Adam replied. “We weren’t sure we’d see you again. There was no way we could have helped you, since we didn’t know where you went.”

“It’s ok, Hawk helped. We kicked some vampire butts!”

“You can tell me all about it at breakfast. Cedric, can you take Desmond here to the infirmary. We might need to take him to a regular hospital, he looks pretty bad.”

“No no, that won’t be necessary,” Desmond said. “No hospitals. The place they were keeping me burned down. They might think I died in the fire. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Fair enough,” Adam said.

At breakfast, Jessica told Adam everything that happened. Using her silverware a napkin and cheerios as visual aids, she described how her and Hawk killed three vampires, burned down their cabin and saved Desmond.

“That is crazy! What made you think to shoot a flaming bolt in there?”

“I saw Daryl do it on ‘The Walking Dead’ once, but he shot it at a pack of zombies. I figured if the cabin was wood, then it should burn.”

“And the vampire on the roof?”

“He was stupid. He tried to hypnotize me. I guess they all don’t know about me. So I shot him with my crossbow. Hawk stabbed the other one with his horn and he blew up.”

“Good God kid. You learned more than I thought.”

“Thanks! So I did good?”

“Well, taking off and defying my orders wasn’t good. But we can get Desmond healthy. You said he used to be a collaborator?”

“That’s what he told me,” she said.

“Maybe he knows where more of them are.”

“I don’t know; he’s been down there for a long time.” She said.

Once they finished eating, Anna walked Jessica back to her room.

“Anna?”

“What’s up kid?”

“Can we go see my mom? I miss her. She has to be worried about me.” Jessica said as she flopped onto the cot.

“We’ll have to see what Adam says. I know you miss her. We just need to make sure it’s safe.”

“I was pretty safe last night.”

“You were lucky,” Anna said.

“Whatever. I’m tired.”

“Get some sleep. I don’t think much is going on today.”

“Will Desmond be ok?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure he will. Once he starts eating regular food and everything.”

“I hope so. He’s a nice man.”

Chapter 18

Hunger pains awoke Jessica after several hours. Sitting up in the cot, she figured it was time for lunch. First, she wanted to check on Desmond. She headed up to the infirmary and found him in bed, resting. He had IV fluids running into his arm. His face had more color than she’d seen on the rooftop.

“Hi Desmond,” she said.

“There’s my hero,” he said. “Please excuse me if I don’t sit up. I’m quite exhausted.”

“Oh, that’s ok. Did you get to eat something?”

“Not yet. They wanted to give me IV’s first. Said if I tried to eat too soon it would mess me up. But I think I’ll be ok. I don’t know how I can ever thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. No one deserves that.”

“Well, even you said earlier, they should have just killed me. I did a lot of terrible things.”

“Yeah. Well maybe all that time in the cellar was enough punishment. Maybe now you can help us!”

“I would definitely like to help you in any way I can. I think for now, I need a nap. Thank you my new friend.” He said, as he closed his eyes.

Jessica stopped in the cafeteria and had three grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. She must have worked up a serious appetite from fighting the vampires. Once she was done, she walked into the training area. When she stepped inside, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She froze, looking around, trying to understand why they were staring. After a few seconds, the whole room broke out in applause. Anna ran over to her as the rest of the teams continued clapping.

“Jess! Come on!” Anna said, grabbing her hand.

“What’s going on? Why are they all clapping?”

“For you kid! Everyone heard what you did last night.”

Jessica smiled and walked through the training area with Anna. She noticed she was blushing as she skipped over to the crossbow range. The applause died down as a few others came over to pat her on the shoulder or shake her hand.

“Wow, I’m like a hero!” Jessica beamed.

“Don’t let it go to your head Jess. You did good, but that was just one battle. We’ll be fighting them again real soon.”

They spent a few hours practicing on the crossbow. This time, Anna had Jessica run through some different scenarios. The hardest one was with the pop up targets. Some would pop up and looked like vampires, others looked like humans. She only had a second to make a decision on taking the shot. Each time, she nailed it. Her Asperger’s had zero effect on her reflexes.

“Ok Jess, you are a real killer on that thing. I’m glad you’re on our side,” Anna said.

“Me too!” Jessica squealed. “Oh, can we go see Hawk. I haven’t seen him all day, I hope he’s ok.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. We have a sentry on the rooftop 24/7. So they’ll keep an eye on him. But we can go see him. I wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at him. He’s a pretty animal.”

On their way up, Cedric caught them in the hallway.

“There you are,” he said.

“Hi Cedric!” Jessica said. He ignored her and continued talking to Anna.

“Adam wants to see you in the war room….both of you.”

“Me too?” Jessica asked.

“That’s what the man said,” Cedric replied. “I wouldn’t keep him waiting.” and walked off.

They headed down the hall to the conference room, or war room as they called it. They stepped inside and Adam was there by himself reading a book. He looked up as they stepped inside.

“Hello ladies. I’m glad you could make it,” he said.

“What’s going on?” Anna asked.

“I tried talking to Desmond. But he doesn’t seem to like me too well.”

“Desmond? Why doesn’t he like you?” Jessica asked. “He’s a nice man.”

“Well, as we started talking, I remember him now. We have a bit of…well…history let’s just say. So, he hates my guts.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Anna asked.

“Jessica rescued him, and he seems to like her, though everyone likes Jessica, so no shock there. I’d like Jessica to go talk to him. I’ll have you go with her. Find out what he knows about the vampires. I suspect they have a main nest somewhere. That attack they launched here, I have no idea how they found us but that many grubs swarming on us so fast a handful of vampires couldn’t have pulled that off.”

“So you think besides all the little nests we keep finding, there is a main one? Like a home base?” Anna said.

“Something like that, yes. I have a feeling Desmond knows.”

“Jessica can’t force him to talk.”

“She doesn’t have to. I think he wants to tell her. She just needs to sit and chat with him, be herself and he’ll tell her. Even when he was being angry with me, he asked how she was doing.”

Anna looked to Jessica who was just standing there.

“You think you can do this Jess?”

“I’d love to! I like talking to Desmond. He tells me stories.”

“Ok, it’s a plan. Report back to me your findings.”

Chapter 19

At the infirmary, Desmond was sitting up and talking with one of the nurses. He smiled when he saw Jessica step inside.

“Well hey little girl, good to see you. And you brought a pretty friend I see.” He said as he looked over at Anna.

“Hi Desmond! You look like you’re doing better!”

“Yeah, starting to get some energy back. They said I can have solid foods in a day or so.”

“Cool! Hey! Where do the vampires hide out? Adam wants to know.”

Anna put her hand over her face, shaking her head. She knew she should have discussed this with her more before coming up there. Jessica has no filter at all.

“He does, does he? So he sent you to talk to me?” Desmond asked, looking to Anna, then back to Jessica.

“Yep! He sent me!”

“Look, Desmond,” Anna said. “I know for whatever reason you don’t like Adam. I get that. But you seem to care about Jess. The vampires were already after her. Now they are really going to be gunning for her. So if you care about her, you’ll help us. So we can protect her.”

“She can protect herself better than you realize, but I understand. I know where their nest is. At least where it used to be.”

“You think they moved it?” Anna asked.

“I have no idea. They kept me locked in that cellar for almost twenty years. They could have moved it a bunch since then.”

“Well where was it last?”

“Last place I knew of it was in the mines.”

“Mines? What mines?” Anna asked.

“How old are you? And what is your name anyway?”

“I’m Anna, and I’m nineteen. So what mines?”

“Well before you were born, there used to be an old copper mine outside the city. It hadn’t been in use for years. It was up in the hills about a mile or two past the city limits.”

“The city has expanded a lot over the last ten years or so. It might be closer,” Anna said. “Though I think I know where you’re talking about. It’s never been developed. Too many rocks and hills, but I think it’s all sealed off.”

“That’s probably it. There’s a mine shaft out there somewhere. The vampires kind of use it as their headquarters. I’ve never been in there though. I’ve been told its way underground. Like an ant colony.”

“My God,” she said.

“As far as the stories go, there are thousands of vampires down there. The ones we see are only a few. I guess they take turns sleeping, like hibernating. Eventually they will all wake up and come out, all at once. Then feed off us humans like cattle.”

“And you wanted to join them?” Anna said.

“I was young, angry, and foolish; I saw it as my revenge on the world. Guess they got the last laugh though. But if you guys are thinking of attacking there, I’m not sure how you’d do it. That mine is filled with tunnels and shafts. Plus there’ve been some small cave-ins over the years. That is if they’re even still there.”

“So why do they keep all the smaller nests?”

“Think of it like terrorist cells. They keep all these small bands of vampires all over with a goal or purpose. None of them knows the big plan, just what they are supposed to do. Where do you think terrorists got the idea?”

“So how do you know all of this?”

“Ivan was one of their lieutenants. I was there for a lot of their meetings, discussing the big nest. The Hive they call it.”

“Didn’t I kill Ivan?” Jessica asked.

“No, I’m afraid not. The three you killed were just sentries. That cabin is one of many they have around here. Remember, these guys are hundreds, maybe thousands of years old. They’ve had a long time to settle in and get organized. Best thing you kids could do is get as far away from here as possible. Maybe South America, they’d never go there. The days are too long and it’s too hot.”

“Thanks for the concern,” Anna said. “But we’ll take our chances. Those things killed my parents.”

“Well good luck to you.” Desmond said. “Just make sure you take this little one with you. You’ll need her.”

Chapter 20

The girls found Adam in the conference room with a large map laid out across the table. They came in and explained to him what Desmond had told them. Adam listened intently while making little notations on the map. He circled an area on the map where the mines had been located. Adam also made some notes about the terrain in the area. Once complete, he sat there propping his chin on his hands, staring down at the map.

“Everything ok?” Anna asked.

“This is going to be a tough place to launch an attack. It’s really the perfect defensive position. Only one way in, one way out, and a giant maze waiting for anyone who tries to get in,” Adam explained.

“Can’t we just go during the day?” Jessica asked.

“That would be part of the plan. But they’ll have grubs all over the place. Maybe even hanging out in the hills to give us a big fight before we can even get to it,” Adam said.

“What about a great big bomb? Just drop it in there.” Jessica said.

“Well, that’d be great, but we don’t have a great big bomb. And once again, have to get by all the grubs. Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.” Adam said.

“Can I go see my mom?” Jessica asked. Anna rolled her eyes at the question. Adam looked up.

“Your mom?” He said.

“Yeah. You guys came and took me away from her. She’s got to be really worried. And I really miss her.”

He leaned back and let out a sigh.

“You have a point,” he said. “Anna. Could you take her to see her mom? Take one of the cars.”

“No! I wanna take Hawk.”

“God no. We can’t have everyone seeing that thing. People will freak out. Just go in a car.”

“People have always treated me like I’m stupid, like I can’t do anything. Well, I can do things. I proved it earlier. My mom will be super proud of me.”

Adam sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked completely exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept in days.

“You can’t just take the car?” He asked.

“Just let her take the horse,” Anna said. “She will bug me the whole time if you don’t.”

“Will not.” Jessica said. “And he’s a unicorn. A flying one!”

“Whatever.”

“OK!” Adam shouted. “My God, I’d rather fight vampires than listen to this. Just take Hawk. Ok?”

“Yay!” Jessica squealed. “Thank you Adam! Thank you! Thank you!”

“All right, all right. Just go already.” He said as he sat back down. Jessica turned and bolted from the room. Anna walked behind her.

“Just hang on Jess,” Anna called out. “We’ll be there soon enough. I just hope we don’t freak your mom out.”

“Why would we freak her out?”

“Well, swooping in the middle of the night riding a flying unicorn, not something you see every day.”

“But she likes unicorns.”

“Never mind, let’s go.”

They got to the roof where Hawk was walking around with one of the sentries guiding him along. Jessica ran toward him, as he perked up and flapped his wings once he saw her. She gave a pat on the nose and then hugged him before climbing onto his back. Anna climbed on behind Jessica and held on around Jessica’s waist.

“You know what you’re doing, right?” Anna asked, uneasily.

“Sure! Well Hawk mostly does the work. We just have to hang on.”

“Do you know how to get to your mom’s from here?”

“No. I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Wonderful,” Anna said. “Just don’t let me fall off.”

“Oh, Hawk would never do that. He’s a good unicorn!” She turned and yelped at Hawk. “Giddy up!” As she spoke, Hawk galloped to the end of the rooftop, and with a couple flaps of his wings, they were airborne, sailing once again into the night sky.

Chapter 21

Hawk landed in the backyard of her mother’s home. The flight took longer than it should have. Jessica had trouble remembering where it was, so they flew around for a while until she spotted it. Once they landed, both Jessica and Anna jumped off Hawk’s back.

“Should we tie him to something?” Anna asked. “So he doesn’t take off?”

“He won’t. He’s loyal, right Hawk?” Jessica said as she petted his nose. Hawk let out a whinny in response. Jessica was sure he could understand her, though Anna had her doubts. They walked around to the front door where Jessica rang the doorbell. After a few minutes, the light came on and a woman opened the door.

“Yes?”

“Mommy!” Jessica squealed reaching out to hug her mom. Her mother just looked in shock as Jessica squeezed her tight. Slowly she returned the hug. “I missed you mom. But I wanted to come see you and let you know I’m ok. This is my friend Anna; she’s been helping take care of me.”

“Hi,” Anna said uncomfortably.

“Hi, I’m Joyce.”

Joyce moved aside and the girls came inside. Joyce was wearing a pink housecoat. She didn’t look very old, but her hair was prematurely turning gray. Her eyes had bags under them as she grabbed a soda and returned with one for both girls.

“I was really worried about you,” Joyce said. She paused, looking both girls over for the first time, noticing their clothing. “What are you wearing?”

“These are fighting suits! I’m a vampire hunter now!” Jessica said. Anna let out a sigh as Joyce looked at Anna, confused.

“You’re a what?” Joyce asked.

“A vampire hunter. We go around and kill vampires.” Jessica went on to tell her about everything that had happened since the first night the vampire came after her. Anna looked on quietly as Anna spoke. Joyce listened intently, her facial expression not changing once through the story. Once Jessica was done, Joyce put her soda on the coffee table, stood and walked to the window. She stood there, staring outside for a moment.

“Mom?” Jessica asked. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. I’m glad you’re safe. I was hoping you wouldn’t have to go through any of this,” Joyce said.

“What do you mean?”

“Your father didn’t leave when you were little. He was taken, by them.”

“The vampires?” Jessica asked.

“Yes.” Joyce turned to face the girls again. “Not long after you were born, we were on vacation. Your grandmother was watching you. We were walking back one night from a party to our cottage up north, and a vampire attacked us. Someone killed him though. A young man named Adam.”

“Adam?” Anna chimed in. “Like almost fifteen years ago?”

“Yes, that sounds about right.”

“How old was he?”

“Oh I don’t know, in his 20’s maybe…why?”

The two girls just looked at each other, though Jessica wasn’t quite making the connection.

“Nothing, go on,” Anna said.

“Ok. So Adam talked to your father. And he went to help them fight vampires. I didn’t like it then. But Adam made sure we were taken care of. We always had plenty of money, Adam made sure of that. Your father was gone a lot, but always came home. Then one day he didn’t. Adam came here instead.”

“Did they kill my dad?” Jessica asked.

“I’m not sure. He just said they took him. They could have killed him, made him one of those awful creatures they uses as slaves, or turned him even. Though Adam says that isn’t likely. When you vanished, I feared they had taken you.”

Jessica placed her hand over her mouth, trying to take it all in.

“So why did you lie to me? All those years you never once told me about this.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. But most of the world doesn’t even know vampires exist. I didn’t want to expose you to that if I didn’t have to. I sure didn’t want you off doing this. But it looks like it’s too late. Not to mention, it sounds like you’re safer with them if that vampire came right outside our door.”

“I am really safe with them. But how did Adam save dad and me so long ago? He’s still pretty young.”

Joyce looked concerned.

“I really don’t know.”

“Is he a vampire?”

“Absolutely not!” Anna said. “Adam is not a vampire.”

“So why doesn’t he age?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a good reason. We’ll ask him later,” Anna said.

Jessica shrugged and turned back to her mom.

“Why don’t you come back with us?” Jessica asked.

“I can’t Jess, there’s no place for me there.”

“Sure there is.”

“It’s ok. I’m all alone now. I don’t think they’ll bother me. Plus, with you out there, I’m sure you’ll keep them plenty busy.”

“I sure will!” Jessica said.

“We should get going,” Anna said. “It’s almost morning.”

They both stood, Jessica hugged her mom and said goodbye. They walked out to Hawk, climbed on his back and he took off back toward the compound.

Chapter 22

Back at the compound, Adam sat in the conference room or the War Room, as he called it. Another man came inside, this one much older. He lived at the compound as well, stayed in the lower levels and rarely came out other than for a large battle, and sometimes not even that. He opened the door and stepped inside, getting Adam’s attention immediately.

“Randall? What brings you up here?” Randall was a tall black man. His hair showed some gray specks, but that was his only real sign of age. He completely filled out the doorway as he stood.

“So you let the girl go see her mother,” Randall said.

“Yeah. I didn’t think it would hurt. Plus it will ease her mind. So I let her go.”

“And what if she learns the truth?”

“I don’t think she will. Her mom doesn’t know enough for one. And I don’t think Jessica could put it together with what she does know.”

Randall took some steps in side toward Adam who was still sitting and crossed his arms. Adam stood, but was still several inches shorter.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Randall said. “Look at how she did against the vampires.”

“Yes, I know. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You need to get her under control. We need her. She is our best weapon against them.”

Adam looked away.

“Oh, come on now. You’re not getting soft on me, are you?” Randall asked.

“No. It’s not that.”

“You like her don’t you. I told you not to get attached. Not to her, not to any of them. We are leaders. This is war! We send soldiers into battle; many of which will die.”

“I know,” Adam said. “This is just different. She’s not just a kid, but she’s a disabled one.”

“She seems pretty capable to me. She might be perfect to lead the attack.”

“Lead the attack? Are you kidding?” Adam asked.

“Reconnaissance; they can’t get into her head. She could easily slip into those mines and get a look at the place before we all go in. Send her in with a video camera so she can stream it back to us.”

“That would be a suicide mission.”

“She would be another sacrifice to the cause.” Randall said.

“And just what cause is that? We’ve been fighting for so long, I’m not sure I remember.”

Randall grabbed Adam’s jacket and slammed him up against the wall, lifting him a few inches off the ground so they were at eye level.

“Then perhaps I should refresh your memory,” Randall said. As he spoke, his eyes turned black as stared at Adam.

“Randall, you’re turning.” Adam said.

“Maybe this is what it will take to remind you of our mission. The vampires are like rats. They’re vermin. Just like you’d smoke out a rat from its hole, we must go to their hole and smoke them out, or kill them where they lie, no matter what the cost. This is our chance for total victory. I will not have you jeopardize it because you feel sorry for some slow kid. Do you understand?”

Adam looked down and nodded slightly.

“I said do you understand?” Randall said louder.

“Yes! Yes. I get it.”

Randall’s eyes turned back to normal as he sat Adam down.

“I hope so. I have much more convincing reminders if needed.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Adam said. “I’ll tell her about going and scouting. I’ll sell it to her.”

“Good. I’m sure it won’t be too difficult. Use that charm of yours.”

“Yeah. Too bad I can’t pass some of that charm over to you.”

“My days of being charming are long gone. Now it’s just force. I’m going back to my quarters. Remember, keep her under control. Make sure she goes on that mission. Even send Anna with her if you need to. She won’t last long enough there to be a distraction.”

Adam recoiled at Randall’s coldness. Adam has led battles and had to send fighters to their deaths before, but he always tried not to think about it. It was just part of the job, but not one he cared to focus on. Randall seemed to revel in it.

“She won’t be. It’ll get done. I’ll make sure,” Adam said.

Randall turned and walked to the door, turning back just before stepping out.

“Good.”

Chapter 23

When they returned to the compound, Adam was waiting for them at the rooftop. Jessica smiled and jumped from Hawk’s back once they landed.

“Hey Adam!” She said.

“How’d it go?”

“Really good!”

Anna sat on Hawk’s back, staring at Adam. Finally, he noticed her sitting there.

“Everything ok?” He asked.

“Yeah, fine.” Anna said as she climbed off.

“So how was your mom, Jess?” He asked.

Jessica went on to fill her in on the visit, and told him the things her mom told her. As she got to the part about Adam’s age, Anna was going to jump in, but Jessica was too quick.

“So then my mom said you knew my dad!” Jessica exclaimed.

“She what?” He asked.

“She said you knew my dad. You saved him from a vampire just like you did me. And then he fought for you for a long time until the vampires got him. I was just a baby I guess; though you don’t look very old to have been around my dad. How old are you?”

Adam looked around uncomfortably, glancing at Anna who crossed her arms.

“I’m only 21 Jess. Your mom must have been mistaken.”

“Oh no, she’s sure it was you. Or is your dad named Adam and look like you?”

“No, let’s go inside. We can talk more about this later. I want to talk to you about something.”

They all walked inside and to the conference room. Once inside, Adam explained to Jessica his plan for the vampire nest in the mines.

“You want me to go in?” Jessica said.

“Yes. Not by yourself. We’ll be nearby. But we can’t send a whole army in there. We need someone to scout. Since the vampires can’t hypnotize you, I think you’d be the best one to go in.” He explained.

“Adam,” Anna chimed in. “She’s just a kid, you can’t send her in by herself.”

“Sure I can,” Jessica said. “I want to do it.”

“She’ll be fine,” Adam said. “We won’t let anything happen to her.”

“How? You won’t even be there with her. If those grubs gang up on her or...” Adam put his hand up, silencing her.

“The decision has been made. She will go in tomorrow at noon, so you will want to get some sleep. But first, take her down to supply; I got something for her that will help her on this.”

The girls got up and Anna took Jessica down a few floors to supply. Linus was there arranging armor and helmets.

“Do you ever sleep?” Anna asked.

“Not if I can help it,” he said. Linus was short and walked with a cane. His left leg was almost torn off by a vampire the year before. While they were able to repair the leg, he’d never be able to use it the same way again. So he worked in supply. “So what do you ladies need?”

“Adam said you had something for her.”

“Oh, this is Jessica?”

“That’s me!” Jessica said.

“Well, I’ve heard a lot about you Miss Jessica. I’ve been working on this little number for a few months, finally got it working.” Linus reached into a cabinet and pulled out a black helmet. It was thin, and looked like it was made from some kind of               latex, but thicker. It covered the entire face and had what looked like mesh where the eyes would be. He handed it to Jessica who looked it up and down, not sure what to make of it.

“What is it?”

“It’s a helmet,” Linus said, as if it were the most obvious answer.

“I can see that but how would I even see out of it?”

“Try it on, you’ll see.”

She pulled it on over her head. Once it was on, she was surprised she could see clearly in front of her.

“Now step in here,” he said pointing to the back of the room. She walked to the back and he switched the light off. As he did so, everything lit green as the night vision kicked in. Also, Linus and Anna were colored orange and yellow through the helmet’s visor. “What you’re seeing is the infrared. Down in the mines, it’ll be dark. Instead of a flashlight to rely on that will give you away. You’ll wear that helmet. It will protect your head, and you can see in the dark.”

“This is so cool!”

“Yeah, it is pretty neat.” Linus said as he turned the light back on.

“How do I look Anna?”

“You look like a ninja.”

“Adam said you did some firearms practice with her also?”

“Yeah, we’ve done some on the pistol range mostly,” Anna said.

“Great! She’ll be fine with these.” He dug into a large, steel locker and pulled out a pair of pistols. “Now, these look like regular handguns, but they’re not. They shoot 9mm at full auto. I rigged them to hold special magazines with 150 rounds each. They have a computer chip in them, so the sighting is synced with her visor. So she can shoot in the dark. It will target for her.”

“Oh! Like Robocop?” Jessica asked.

“Yes! Exactly like Robocop. Except you’re Robo-Jess, but not a robot. Anyway, between these bad boys, four extra magazines, her armor and visor. I think she’ll be just fine.”

“See Anna? I’ll be just fine,” Jessica repeated.

“Ok kid. Let’s go. You should get some sleep before the big day.”

Chapter 24

Anna came in and woke Jessica around 10:00 a.m. Jessica dressed in her armor, and loaded the guns. Once she was geared up, thy walked up to the conference room to meet with Adam. He was waiting for them when they came in. He went over everything with Jessica one more time. Through the whole conversation, he wasn’t sure if she understood. She’d interrupt with a reference to a TV show or movie. Though he figured it was just her way or understanding things.

“Are you nervous?” He asked.

“Nope!” Jessica said. “I’m gonna kick some vampire butt!”

“No, you’re not. You’re just there to scout. Your visor also has a camera built in, so you’ll be streaming back to us. We’ll be able to see what you see. Do not engage anyone or anything unless you have to. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Adam looked at Anna and nodded.

“Let’s go Jess, it’s time.” Anna said.

They walked to the rooftop and Jessica climbed onto Hawk’s back.

“Jess,” Anna said. “You’re going to do fine. Just be careful. If it gets too weird in there, get out. Ok?”

“Ok Anna. I’ll do fine. I’m not scared.”

“Well you should be. You’re about to do something really dangerous. Just keep your eyes open, remember the things we’ve practiced.”

“I will. I gotta go.” Jessica said as Hawk trotted to the end of the rooftop and took flight. Jessica pulled down the visor as they flew over the city. Before long, they were flying over the hills toward the mines. Hawk landed and came to a stop and she hopped off. The entrance to the mines was only a few feet away.

She got to the entrance and saw there were large boards covering it. Grabbing the ends of it, she pulled on one of the boards. It was a struggle, but she managed to slide it out of the way. There were two more she struggled with, but finally got moved. Now, the large opening to the mines was open.

Drawing both guns, she stepped inside and headed into the mine. She walked for quite a while and saw nothing. The tunnel wound around at a downward angle. After a little over an hour, she saw one. A grub was wandering around the tunnel. It was a man, his shoulders were hunched over and clothing tattered. It hadn’t seen her. She lifted the visor to look around, but it was pitch black without it. She lowered the visor again and silently moved forward.

Jessica stood about ten feet behind the grub, raised her gun and fired a single shot in the back of its head. There was a silencer on each gun, so it fired making a quick flash and a click! The grub dropped to the ground.

“You guys!” She whispered, as if Adam and Anna could hear her. “Did you see that?” There was no answer of course as she looked around. After a minute she continued forward. The tunnel wound around awhile before she had more contact. This time, there were several grubs, four or five of them. One of them saw her, but before it could react, she opened fire, dropping all of them in seconds.

Pressing forward, she ran into several pockets of grubs, with little resistance. She was too quiet and too quick for them to stand a chance against her.

Back at the compound, Adam, Anna and several others watched on a large screen Jessica’s live feed.

“Why didn’t you put a mic on her?” Cedric asked.

“Radio communication would just distract her,” Adam explained.

They watched her take out dozens of grubs as if they were nothing.

“She is amazing,” Anna said.

Adam looked at her and smiled.

“You trained her.”

“Yeah, but she picked everything up so fast. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

On the screen, she ran into a big pack of grubs, dozens of them. She opened fire, mowing each of them down. She stopped, reloaded and continued firing. After several minutes, they were all down. In front of her was a large opening. She stepped into the opening, which opened into a large cavern. Looking around, there were pods all along the rock walls, hundreds of them, maybe thousands. In the pods, were sleeping vampires.

Jessica looked around the cavern at all the vampires in the pods.

“Wow! There’s so many! I hope you guys can see this,” she said. There was movement behind her, causing her to spin and fire at a grub that was walking up to her. She fired a volley of shots, hitting it in the head with each shot. It fell to the ground, but stood back up, its eyes glowing white.

“Oh crap,” she said while backing up. It moved toward her baring its fangs. She couldn’t figure out why a vampire would be awake in the middle of the day, even this far below ground. She pulled off her visor and tossed it aside and then reached for her crossbow which was slung across her back.

The vampire took a few more steps toward her, and started laughing as she fumbled with the bolt. It stared directly at her, making eye contact. She could tell it was trying to hypnotize her, so she kept working the bolt. Suddenly, he stopped and cocked his head to the side.

“Jessica?” He said.

“What? How do you know my name?” She asked.

“I’m your dad.”

Chapter 25

“Daddy?” Jessica said. “How do I know you’re my dad?”

“Well, you were born at St. Thomas Hospital at 3 a.m. Your mom’s name is Joyce. And you love unicorns.”

“Daddy! You’re a vampire?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I don’t know to be honest. Ever since they turned me, I’ve never slept during the day. I just come down here, out of the sunlight. As far as I know, I’m the only one like this.”

“How did you know it was me? They took you away when I was real little,” she asked.

“I would watch you from a distance over the years. Not all the time, but I’d look in on you occasionally. I never wanted you to see me like this. Hey, how come I couldn’t hypnotize you? I tried, but it didn’t work. That’s never happened before.”

“Because I’m autistic, for some reason, that doesn’t work on me.”

“I always knew you were special. I take it Adam sent you?”

“Um, yeah, I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you that or not.”

“It’s ok. So, you going to kill me?” He asked.

“I-I guess not. I didn’t even know you were still alive.”

“Well, I’m not technically.”

“So now what?” Jessica asked.

But before he could answer, a bright light shown in from the tunnel; several men stormed through shouting. “Don’t move! Don’t move!” Jessica ran around her dad and in front of the men.

“No! No! Don’t shoot him!” She screamed.

“What are you doing?” One of them said. She recognized the voice as Cedric’s.

“He’s my dad. They made him a vampire.”

“You gotta be kiddin’ me.” Cedric said. The other men had surrounded them, their crossbows trained on her dad. “He’s not your dad anymore. He’s a vampire. Your dad died a long time ago.”

“Maybe we can help him,” she protested.

“The only way to help him is a bolt through the heart.”

“No! I won’t let you kill him.”

“And what are you going to do about it?”

Jessica drew one of the guns and pointed it in Cedric’s direction. Cedric lowered his crossbow and glared at her.

“You are way out of your league little girl,” Cedric said. “You don’t want to do this.”

“You’re not going to kill my dad.”

Cedric put his hands up at shoulder height and backed away.

“Fine. You can have him. But if he gets even remotely aggressive, and I put a bolt in him.”

She lowered the gun and walked back to her dad. Cedric walked further in, shining his light through the cavern.

“Good lord,” he said. “How many are in here?”

“A couple thousand,” her dad answered. “I’m the only one who doesn’t sleep for some reason.”

“We’re not equipped to take them all out right now. It’ll be dark before long. So we need to get out of here,” Cedric ordered. The rest of the men backed out of the cavern and headed through the tunnel. Jessica walked with her dad through the tunnels as well.

“So you’re coming with me?” She asked

“You didn’t give me a lot of choice.”

“Well, I’ll take you back to Adam. He’ll know what to do.”

“Oh, I’m sure he will.”

They reached the end of the tunnel. It was still daylight out, so they waited until dusk before stepping outside.

“You know,” he said. “When the others wake up and see I’m gone, and all their slaves are dead, they won’t be too happy.”

“Oh. Well, I guess we’ll just have to be ready.”

He shook his head, giving up on making her understand. Once outside, they climbed onto Hawk’s back. Hawk trotted for a ways before flapping his wings, launching them into the air.

“Don’t worry daddy. We’ll find a way to fix you right up!”

Chapter 26

“Have you completely lost your mind?” Adam shouted. Jessica stood before him in the conference room, hanging her head. It was just the two of them in the room. Adam wasn’t happy she brought a vampire back to the compound. “You pulled a gun on Cedric, you brought a vampire here. All you had to do was go in and scout. You’re done going on any missions….ever.”

“Adam! But he’s my dad!” Jessica argued.

“No he’s not. He may have been once, but he’s not anymore. He’s a vampire; a cold, dead vampire. They don’t have feelings. They don’t love, they don’t care. They just kill, and feed, and enslave. It’s like having a pet rattlesnake. No matter how well you take care of it, or how much you love it, it will always be what it is.”

“How do you know they don’t have feelings?” She asked.

“Because,” he said. “I used to be one of them.”

“So you’re a vampire?”

“I used to be.”

“So how did you stop being one?”

“It’s very, complicated. Besides, that has nothing to do with what’s happening now.”

“Yes it does! You could cure my dad,” Jessica said.

“No. I can’t.”

“You just don’t want to!”

“That’s not true Jessica. To put it simply, I don’t know how I’m not a vampire anymore. I just one day wasn’t one, though I still have some of their abilities. But I don’t know how it happened.”

“So you just woke up one day and were human again?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m gonna talk to my daddy. Maybe I can help him,” she said as she turned to walk out.

“Jessica, wait—“ Adam started, but she had already left.

Jessica walked to the infirmary where her dad was.

“Hey daddy!” She said. He was lying on a bed with four guards around him with crossbows trained on him.

“Hey kid. They haven’t killed me yet. Adam didn’t kill you, so that’s a good sign I guess.”

“Adam wouldn’t kill me. He’s my friend!”

“Adam doesn’t have friends.”

“Sure he does. I tried to talk to him about helping you. He said he used to be a vampire.”

“Yes, I know,” he said. “That’s why he doesn’t age.”

“Wow. He doesn’t know how he got better though. Do you know?”

I don’t. That all happened long before I met him.” He said. The door behind Jessica swung open and Adam stepped inside. Jessica’s dad looked surprised when Adam stepped in. “Well,” he said. “Hello old friend.”

“Hello Steven,” Adam said.

“You don’t look too happy to see me.”

“I’m not. Give me one could reason why I shouldn’t put a bolt in you right now.”

“Because Jessica wants me here, and I have information that you guys might find useful.”

“And what might that be?” Adam asked.

“In time. I don’t want to play all my cards right away, or you will put a bolt in me.”

“I just might anyway. I doubt you know anything useful.”

“You mean like the attack they are planning?”

“They are always planning an attack.”

“Yes, but this is the big one. Didn’t they tell you how many vampires are holed up in the mines?

“Yeah, around a thousand or so,” Adam said.

“Not even close. Try fifty-thousand.”

“Fifty thousand? You’re full of it. There aren’t even that many vampires in existence.”

“It’s been a long time since you left us friend. They’ve been planning this for a long time. Most of them are in hibernation. That cavern Jessica found was only one. There are dozens of those pods deep underground. Some of them will wake up tonight and see that you’ve been there, but they won’t act on it just yet. They have all the time in the world.”

“So why did you give yourself up so easily?” Adam asked.

“Not every day your own daughter comes to kill you. She seems to think you can make me human again.”

“Do you want to be human?”

“Since I’ve been a vampire, all I’ve wanted is blood…until today. I’m not sure why.”

“You won’t be getting any blood while you’re here. If you so much as try, you’re dead.”

“Understood.”

Adam turned and walked out, signaling Jessica to follow him. As they stepped out, another man came walking toward them, this one wearing a white lab coat.

“Doctor Rothstein,” Adam said. “Come with us please. I need your input.” The three of them walked down to the conference room and closed the door.

Chapter 27

The three of them sat down at the large table as Adam looked down at his folded hands for several minutes. Dr. Rothstein sat there waiting for a reply. The doctor was an older fellow. The hair he had left was white. He wore wire rimmed glasses and had a thick, white mustache. He joined the cause after his wife had been killed by the vampires. Up until then, he never believed such things existed, not until he saw it with his own eyes.

“Ok,” Adam said. “Dr. Rothstein, I’m hoping you can help us here. As you know, I was once a vampire. I never totally figured out what turned me back.”

“Yes, I’m aware.” Dr. Rothstein said.

“So, Jessica thinks we can save her dad somehow. Jessica herself cannot be hypnotized by them. What she doesn’t know is that also makes her immune to being turned.”

“Really?” Jessica said.

“Yes,” Adam replied. “Really. Vampirism is spread through the hypnosis. They can scramble your brains and turn you into a grub. Or they can go deeper and turn you completely. We’re not sure what happens, but it totally changes your brain chemistry, then everything else about you. I know this because I experienced it.”

“So you think Jessica might have the answer to a cure?” Rothstein said.

“I think it’s worth checking out. That would be our best weapon. Instead of killing them, turn them back.”

“You know,” Rothstein said. “You just gave me an idea. If Jessica doesn’t mind, I’d like to do some tests.”

“What kind of tests?” Jessica asked.

“Some blood work and a few other things. If I can figure out why you are immune, then I can figure out a cure possibly.”

“Will there be needles?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Then no! No way! No needles.” She said, waving her hands in front of her.

“Jessica, I’ll tell you what,” Adam said. “If you do this for me, I’ll get you some video games for your room.”

“Really?”

“Sure, but you have to help the doctor with any tests he needs.”

“Ok! I just hope I survive the needles.”

Adam had a hard time understanding her. She wasn’t afraid to fly on a flying unicorn, or enter a dark mine with a huge vampire nest and half dead grubs, but she was terrified of needles.

“Ok then,” Dr. Rothstein said. “Let’s get started shall we?”

Chapter 28

After Jessica went with the doctor, Anna came in to speak with Adam. He explained to her the situation with her father and the doctor.

“So Jessica might be able to cure vampirism?” She asked.

“That’s the hope. What has been wrong with you? You’ve been acting strange around me since you guys went to her moms.”

Anna looked away, and scooted her chair a few inches back.

“Her mom told us what happened to her dad. And how the vampires had taken him,” she began.

“Yes? That’s it?”

“She said you recruited him when Jessica was a baby, and you were in your 20s at the time. You’re in your 20s now, or at least you look it.”

“Yeah, I told Jessica and the doctor earlier. I try to keep it low key. I was once a vampire; many, many, years ago.”

“So what happened?”

“I don’t know. One day I woke up, and I was human again, or at least mostly human. I had to eat normal food. I could go out in the day, sleep at night; though I’m still quite quick and strong. I don’t have sharp teeth, and I don’t age.”

“Wow…and no idea why?” Anna asked.

“Nope, none.”

“So how old are you?”

“I’m not sure you’re ready for that,” he warned.

“Try me.”

“I’m almost three-hundred years old. I was born in England in 1730. I came over to the colonies with my parents when I was a teenager. We lived in New York for a long time. Not long after my parents died. I was out hunting, when I was attacked. The vampire’s name was Thomas. He was a huge man, or huge creature I should say. He charged at me and I shot him, but it didn’t faze him. So I took out my knife and stabbed him, right here.” Adam pointed at the center of his chest.

“I managed to step out of the way. He tumbled to the ground and lunged at me again. That was the first time I saw the teeth. They were enormous, like sharks teeth, dozens of them, coming toward me. I slashed at him several more times, punched, kicked anything, but he was too strong. He finally overpowered me, and began to hypnotize me. Through the hypnosis he could actually communicate with me. He told me how strong I was, and what a good fight I put up. He said instead of killing me, he would give me a gift. From there he turned me.”

“Wow,” Anna said. “That is crazy.”

“Yeah, from there everything changed. I had to leave; I couldn’t be around my family. The thirst for blood immediately hit me. Thomas took me back to his nest. There were ten of us at the time.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then I lived that way, for years as a vampire.”

“So you killed people? Drank their blood? Turned people into grubs?”

He hung his head.

“Anna, you have to understand. Being a vampire, it’s like being a lion. You can’t domesticate a lion. The lion doesn’t consciously attack the zebra, it just does because the zebra is there and the lion needs to eat. It has no conscience, no feeling, no thought goes into it. You need to feed, you see your prey, and you attack.”

“So what happened?”

“I’m not sure. I’d been hunting one night in 1968, I fed. Then I woke up in the middle of the next day, which never happens. So I woke up, and had feelings again. My teeth were gone, I was human again, but I didn’t know it yet. I hung around the next until the other vampires woke up. Right away they knew. Humans have a different smell to them, different everything. They freaked out. They’d never seen this before. Instantly they attacked, biting me, tearing at my clothes, my flesh, ripping me to pieces.”

“Oh my God! And you lived?”

“Yeah, I’m still immortal. I healed up within minutes, I was still strong enough to throw them off of me and get away. Over the years, I’ve been shot, stabbed, bitten, in car wrecks, thrown off buildings, but I can’t die.”

Anna sat in stunned silence as Adam spoke. Finally, she shook her head.

“You know what, this can’t be true.” She said as she stood. “That just doesn’t happen.”

“But it does,” he said. “And it did. None of that changes who I am now. After that happened, I found a group of slayers that used to chase us around. They were skeptical at first, until they couldn’t kill me. From there, I grew the resistance to what we are today. That’s how I’m able to finance all this. Vampires accumulate a lot of wealth and assets over the years. I had a lot of my own, but was able to steal a lot of theirs as well.”

The door to the conference room flew open with a bang, causing both Anna and Adam to jump. Cedric was standing in the doorway, covered in sweat.

“Adam, get up to the infirmary. We got a situation.”

Chapter 29

They all ran up to the infirmary. When they arrived, Steven and broken loose and was pounding on the door. They could see him through the thick, glass window; his teeth were bared, eyes glowing bright.

“What’s going on?” Anna asked. “He was so calm earlier.”

“He’s hungry.” Adam said. “Like I told you, they’re animals. They have no control over the hunger.”

“That door won’t hold him for long,” Cedric said.

“But if we open it, he’ll come flying out here,” Adam explained.

Jessica came running up when she heard the commotion. She saw her dad pounding on the door, growling and snarling.

“Daddy!” She cried. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He needs to feed, Jessica. I told you he isn’t your dad anymore.” Adam said. Before he could stop her, Jessica ran to the door and pulled it open. Without any hesitation, Steven jumped on Jessica, biting into her shoulder. She screamed as Adam and Cedric jumped on Steven. His teeth bit and tore into her suit and flesh as blood sprayed everywhere. Finally Adam pulled Steven off, but Steven began to cough and twitch.

Anna and Dr. Rothstein ran to Jessica, pressing towels over her wound. She laid there crying as Anna pressed the towels against her shoulder. Dr. Rothstein helped her up and walked her into another room.

Adam lost his grip on Steven, who was now vomiting something that looked like blood, only it was much thicker, and darker. Adam noticed it smelled like rotten fish. Cedric came running up with a large wooden stake and raised his hand. Before he could thrust it through Steven’s back, Adam put his hand out to stop him.

They stood and watched Steven convulse and cough up more of the nasty substance, and finally he lay still. He let out another couple of coughs, and then sat up looking around, his eyes no longer white or glowing. His irises were blue, and his had turned a normal pink color.

“What happened?” Steven asked, as he looked around. “I feel so tired, and hungry. Like, I want to eat actual food.”

Adam and Cedric looked at each other. Adam knelt down next to him.

“Open your mouth,” he said. Steven opened as Adam examined his teeth. “Your teeth are back to normal. No more shark teeth.”

“Am I human again? What’s going on?”

“Her blood.” Adam said to no one in particular.

“What?” Steven asked.

“You attacked Jessica, bit into her and drank her blood. Now you’re human. Her autism prevents her from being hypnotized or turned but her blood can cure vampirism. That has to be it.”

“That’s impossible.”

“No it isn’t. I used to be a vampire, remember? I didn’t know how I turned back, but maybe that’s what happened. If I had drank from someone with autism that could have done it.” Adam said. “We’ll have doc take a look at you.”

“Wait a minute, I attacked Jessica. Is she ok?” Steven asked.

“I think so. The Dr. walked her into one of the rooms.”

“I have to see her.” He jumped to his feet and followed Adam to one of the exam rooms. As he stepped inside, Jessica was sitting on the table. She had a blanket over her upper body with her left shoulder exposed. She was crying and cringing as the doctor was cleaning out the wound. It was a good sized bite.

“Is she ok?” Steven asked. Dr. Rothstein looked at him and stepped back, but Adam nodded to him, letting him know its ok.

“Yes, she’ll be fine. I just need to clean this out to prevent any infection. She lost a fair amount of blood though, but not as bad as it could have been.”

“Daddy?” Jessica said. “Why did you hurt me?”

He ran over and took her hand.

“I didn’t mean to sweetie. It wasn’t me, I wasn’t myself. But I am now, look.” He showed her his hands, and opened his mouth. “I’m better. You made me better.”

“I did?” She said, smiling.

“You sure did. I always knew you would be special. Now you get to be my hero,” he said as he hugged her close to him.

Chapter 30

Dr. Rothstein examined Jessica’s blood samples under the microscope as well as running various labs on them. He had given her some pain killers, so she slept soundly in the exam room as her dad looked on. Adam came in as the doctor stepped away from his work station.

“So what do we know doc?”

“Not very much. I looked at Steven’s blood and he’s definitely no longer a vampire. His blood looks similar to yours. So it’s likely he’ll still be immortal the way you are, which I still can’t explain.” Dr. Rothstein said.

“Well, that’s good at least. She was right. We could help her father, except it was her.”

“True. So looking at her blood and here’s the thing, there is still a lot we don’t know about autism. We don’t fully understand what causes it or what physically makes them different. Not to mention there are so many variations across the autism spectrum. It affects each patient differently. What we do know is, autistic patients have higher levels of serotonin in their blood. Jessica’s is no different. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that causes good feelings or happiness. That’s why for depression patients, we give them SSRI’s which help people increase their serotonin. Vampires on the other hand, have very little. At least it appears that way from the samples you’ve brought me. So I don’t know if that is what makes the difference or not. It could have something to do with it. But the fact is, Steven was a vampire, he drank Jessica’s blood, and now he’s not.”

“That is strange,” Adam said. “He mentioned earlier how he never slept, even during the day. Any thoughts on that?”

“No clue. But you said yourself many vampires were different and had their own quirks. Maybe this was his.”

“Could be. Is there a way to use this against them?”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Rothstein asked.

“like, if this can make them human. Is there a way to say, put it in a syringe, or on the tip of an arrow or something, so when used against a vampire, it makes them human?”

The doctor looked away thoughtfully while rubbing his chin.

“You know,” he said. “That’s a good question. I suppose I could work on it. It would help if you could capture a few vampires for me to run tests on.”

“Oh yeah, no problem. I’ll just go ask them for volunteers,” Adam said.

“Right. Well, you’ll have to field test it then. I also need Jessica’s consent.”

“For what?”

“I’ll need a few pints of her blood, given over time. For that I need her consent.”

“But she’s just a kid.”

Dr. Rothstein turned to face Adam.

“Her age is irrelevant, as is the cause. I’m a medical doctor, and she is the patient. I will not take pints of blood from her or run any further tests without her consent.”

“Fine.” Adam said.

“Look, she’s agreed to everything so far. I’m sure she’ll be fine. But we need to let her rest and let that would heal, it’s a nasty one, but there shouldn’t be any long term damage.”

“Good to know.” Adam turned and walked out as Dr. Rothstein stepped into the room to check on Jessica. Steven looked up as he stepped in.

“How’s she doing?” Dr. Rothstein asked.

“She’s sleeping pretty hard.”  Steven’s eyes were red and watery, with dark bags under them. His whole face sagged as he spoke.

“Are you ok?”

“Just started feeling really tired all of a sudden. Not used to feeling this way.”

“Well, you haven’t slept in over ten years, so I imagine you would be. How about you lay down? I can have a bed set up for you.”

“That actually sounds good. I can’t promise I’ll wake up anytime soon.”

“That’s all right. Your body has been through a lot, so get some food and some rest.” Dr. Rothstein said as he stepped out. Anna came in right after the doctor left.

“You must be Anna,” Steven said.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“I heard you’ve taken really good care of Jess.”

“She’s a good kid. So it’s been fun. She really loves you and her mom.”

“Oh, Joyce.” He said, putting his hands over his face. “I can only imagine what she thinks.”

“She thinks you’re dead,” Anna said. “She never remarried.”

“I knew she hadn’t remarried, I’d look in on them from time to time, but I’m sure she hates me.”

“I don’t think so. You should talk to her.”

“I don’t know if I can do that. Would she even want to see me?”

“You’re her husband, and the father of her daughter. Nothing will ever change that. I don’t know if you guys would get back together, but you should at least try to talk to her.” Anna explained.

“Maybe after my nap, I can barely hold my head up.”

Chapter 31

Jessica woke up the next morning in the exam room. Her shoulder was sore and throbbing, but not as bad as the night before. She felt groggy from the painkillers and felt her stomach growling to the point of physical pain. She climbed out of bed and looked around. There wasn’t anyone around so she headed downstairs to her room.

She changed into a t-shirt and jeans and headed to the cafeteria. It was hard to lift her left arm, so using her right hand as best she could she filled her tray with eggs, bacon and pancakes. She sat down then went back for a glass of orange juice. As she scarfed her food down, she heard a familiar voice.

“There you are,” her dad, Steven said. He was standing on the other side of the table holding a tray.

“Hey daddy!” She jumped up and hugged him. “So what happened? I don’t remember much other than you bit me. But you look different.”

“I’m sorry I bit you sweetie. I wasn’t myself. That’s how it is as a vampire, you can’t control yourself. The hunger for blood just takes over, and you just go on instinct no matter what you actually want to do.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice.”

“No, it isn’t at all. But the doctor says I’m better now.”

“You mean you’re not a vampire anymore?” She asked.

“Nope. The doctor said it was your blood that made me change back.”

“Yay!” She squealed and clapped her hands. “I knew there was a way to fix you. I told Adam, but would he believe me? No, not at all.”

Steven laughed. While he found her child-likeness cute, at the same time he felt a little sad. His little girl was becoming a young woman, but because of her Asperger’s she behaved years younger than fifteen. Though he was still proud of her for all she had done since joining Adam and his team.

“Well, you were right Jess that is for sure.” Steven said.

“When I first got here, no one thought I could do anything. But because of my Asperger’s, I can fight vampires easier than them. Now I can even cure them!”

“That’s right. So we really need to protect you. If they find out what you can do, they will come after you for sure.”

“What for?” She asked.

“If they know you can make them human again, they won’t like that. They’ll want to kill you.”

“But won’t they want to be cured?”

“No, they are what they are. They don’t know of anything else.”

“What about you? Didn’t you want to be cured?”

“I didn’t know what I wanted. When people become vampires, they leave their old life behind. Some of them even killed or turned their family. I left mine behind to protect you. It’s very rare we ever run into our family again. When I saw you, it was weird. I’d had no feelings for so long. Then I saw you, and suddenly I was confused. Like my old self and new self were fighting with each other. That’s why I came with you. I was curious.”

“Oh. Hey! Did you know they have Froot Loops here?”

He paused at the quick subject change, but before he could reply he saw Anna walking up to them with an older woman.

“Hey guys. I brought you a visitor.” Anna said.

“Mommy!”

“Joyce?” Steven said.

“Hello Steven.”

“Well,” Anna broke in, “I think we should let you guys talk for a bit. Come on Jess.”

“But I’m not done eating,” she protested.

“Then bring it with you. Let your mom and dad talk.”

“Oh, right. Bye mommy and daddy!” She stood and hugged them both, grabbed her tray and followed Anna.

“Anna told me you had been turned,” Joyce said. “That’s why you never came back. Not even to say goodbye?”

“Vampires don’t say goodbye Joyce. There was still a little part of me left, but it wasn’t in control. I just knew I had to stay away. I would look on from a distance, watched Jessica grow up over time. But no way could I approach either of you. Besides, I was way too scary looking.”

Joyce was holding a cup of coffee and wearing a pink sweater. Steven couldn’t believe how much older she looked though he looked like he’d barely aged since he was turned. She looked like she’d aged enough for both of them.

“I’m sorry Joyce I didn’t know what else to do. But I’m back now. And Jessica is doing great. She cured me. She might be able to cure the others. Our little girl can save lives.”

“I know. It’s amazing. Her whole life I just herd how slow she is, how messed up she is and how she’ll never amount to anything. Not that you’d know anything about that.”

“That’s low Joyce.”

“Now she’s here, fighting these vampires, like you did. It’s just a matter of time before they get her too.”

“But she can’t be turned.”

“So they’ll just kill her, even better.” She took a sip of her coffee and looked around.

“I suppose you’re going to stay here with her?”

“I think I have to. I can’t let her fight them alone. I have a lot of knowledge about them. Jess can help us defeat them for good.”

“That’s what I figured. I always suspected I’d lose her one day, the same way I lost you. This vampire thing, this is your thing, her thing. It’s not mine.” She said.

“What do you mean?”

“You fought vampires and then became one. Now you’re human again and will still fight them. She fights them. It’s something you two will do together. She doesn’t need me anymore.”

“That’s not true.”

“I’m afraid it is. I’ve known it since she first left.”

“Joyce—“ he started but she had got up and began walking away. Steven thought for a moment about the young woman he once knew, loved and married. Thought about the sweet young wife and mother he’d shared his life with many years ago. He now realized that woman had died a long time ago. He didn’t know this woman who came to see him today. He just knew he’d never see her again.

Chapter 32

Jessica sat in her room with Anna finishing her breakfast. Jessica was sitting at her little desk, while Anna was leaning back on the bed with her feet up against the wall.

“So what do you think they’re talking about?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t know. They haven’t seen each other since you were like a baby. I’m sure there’s a lot for them to discuss.” Anna explained.

“You think they’ll get back together?”

“I really don’t know. That’s just up to them to work out.”

“Well I hope they do. That would be awesome.”

Just then, the door swung open. They both looked up to see a hulking black man in the doorway. Anna sat upright as Jessica just stared.

“Hello ladies. I hope I’m not interrupting.” The man said.

“Who are you?” Anna asked. I’ve never seen you before.

“No, but you may have heard of me. I am Randall.”

“Randall?” Anna said. “I didn’t know you were still alive, or that you were here.”

“I know. I like it that way, but I felt the time had come for me to reveal myself. I heard our friend here may be the cure for vampirism once and for all.”

Jessica still sat motionless; she looked over to Anna, then back at Randall.

“I-I guess so,” Jessica said. “Are you going to hurt me?”

Randall laughed.

“Now why would I do that?” He asked.

“I don’t know, because you’re big and scary.”

He stopped laughing and his expression became stern. It was a look that would stop people in their tracks.

“You don’t know the half of it my dear. But I need you to come with me. Dr. Rothstein needs your help.”

“My help? With what?”

“Your blood holds the key to getting rid of vampires for good. So he’ll need more of it, but don’t worry, he’ll only take a little at a time.”

“I don’t know if I wanna do that,” Jessica said.

“It wasn’t a request.”

He stepped aside as Jessica and Anna came out of the room. They walked down the hall when Steven came around the corner. When he saw them, he froze where he stood, his eyes wide.

“Randall?” He said.

“Hello Steven. It’s been a long time.”

“I thought we killed you.”

“You thought wrong. Don’t worry, I’m not mad. And I hear you’re human again, so I can’t hold it against you.”

Steven turned and looked at Jessica.

“You ok Jess?”

“I’m ok daddy. Randall says the doctor needs my blood to cure all the vampires.”

“Ok, I’ll go along with you.” Steven said.

“That won’t be necessary,” Randall said.

“I’m her father, so I say it is necessary.”

Randall walked up to Steven, he stood several inches taller than Steven, but Steven never backed down. They stared at each other for several minutes, and then Randall laughed and backed away.

“I’ll let you win this one. But I wouldn’t push it,” he said as they headed to the infirmary.

Chapter 33

When they reached the infirmary, Dr. Rothstein explained everything to Jessica and her dad then began to draw her blood. She handled the needles just fine as her dad held her hand. He would take a pint a week for a few weeks, though he hoped he could replicate the properties that would cure a large group of vampires. Outside the room, Adam approached Randall who looked on.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked.

“Since when do you question me?” Randall answered.

“Since you’ve decided to just wander around out in the open; are you going to be ok watching her blood being drawn?”

“I’ll be just fine, as long as you do your job.”

Adam rolled his eyes as Dr. Rothstein stepped in the hall. He paused when he saw Randall. The doctor looked the large man up and down, taking a few steps back.

“Don’t mind him doc, he was just leaving.” Adam said, as Randall shot him a deadly stare.

“Um, ok,” the doctor said. “I just wanted to let you know, once I have this pint, I’ll start working on some things. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I have a few ideas.”

“Sounds good.” Adam said.

“She asked for some Froot Loops once we are done.”

“I think we can manage that.”

“What are Froot Loops?” Randall asked. Adam laughed and shook his head.

“I guess you do need to get out more.”

“Very funny,” Randall said.

Several hours later, Jessica was starting to feel better. The needle was out of her arm, and after a bowl of Froot Loops and some juice, she was feeling less dizzy. Anna came walking into the exam room and pulled up a chair.

“How you feeling kiddo?” She asked.

“Oh, pretty good. Giving blood wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad. You might not know this, but everyone in the building is talking about you.” Anna said.

“Really why? They making fun of me again?”

“No! Why would you say that?”

“In my school, when all the kids were talking about me, it was usually to make fun of me,” Jessica explained.

“Well this is just the opposite. What you did at the mines, in rescuing Desmond, and now this. You can cure vampires! Make them human again! You have any idea what that means?”

“Uhh, no?”

Anna laughed as she shook her head. Sometimes Jessica seemed so smart and so with it, then others it was like talking to a six year old. Either way, the kid was growing on her.

“It means if this works, and we can get it to spread, it would mean no more vampires. No more fighting, no more slaves or death.”

“Oh, I guess that would be cool. Could I still ride Hawk and shoot grubs?”

“There would be no more grubs silly.”

“Then what would I shoot?”

Anna groaned.

“Never mind,” she said.

Dr. Rothstein took the bag of blood to his table and began working on it with some objects that looked like large cans.

“What are you doing now?” Jessica asked.

“I’m going to dilute your blood cells into a vapor, and embed it into these ultraviolet grenades. Or try to at least. When the grenade goes off, the vapor will go into the air and infect any vampires in the area. That’s the plan anyway.

“Wow, cool!”

She watched him working for what felt like hours, but she was fascinated with the process. He poured the blood into a machine, then some other liquid, the machine heated up and he watched the doctor filling several tubes with the gas, then inserting them into the grenades. She managed to not ask too many questions as Dr. Rothstein worked. He turned around and held up one of the grenades.

“There, done!” He said.

With that, the door burst opened. Anna didn’t recognize the guy who ran in.

“Gear up guys!” He said. “And hurry! They’re coming!”

“Who’s coming?” Anna asked.

“The vampires!”

“What? How many?”

“All of them.”

Chapter 34

They ran to the rooftops, Adam and Randall was with them. The sun was just starting to go down as they looked into the horizon. The sky was blackened by the site of thousands flying toward them. They were in the distance, and looked like a swarm of locusts heading toward them.

“When did vampires start flying?” Anna asked.

“Beats me,” Adam said. “We couldn’t fly when I was a vampire.”

“It’s the ancients.” Randall said.

“Ancients? I thought you were the oldest.” Adam asked.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know.” Randall said.

“Wait? Randall is a vampire?” Anna asked. Randall shot her a glance that made her step back.

“It’s complicated.” Adam said. “We’ve got a bigger problem.”

The horde of vampires grew larger as they got closer.

“What do we do?” Anna asked.

“Everyone inside!” Adam yelled. “Lock everything, reinforce the doors. Sound the alarm. We need everyone.”

They were all running back inside, but Jessica turned and ran toward Hawk.

“Jess!” Anna yelled. “Get back here!”

“I can’t leave Hawk out here,” Jessica yelled. “They’ll kill him.” She hopped on his back and took off into the sky. They sailed away from the vampire horde that approached the compound. Anna watched and then ran inside.

“Where’s Jess?” Adam asked.

“She jumped on Hawk and took off, I yelled for her but she wouldn’t listen.”

“Great. Get our weapons. Get the UV floodlights going. It won’t stop them, but will slow them down some.”

Anna gathered her armor and weapons, getting everything together as she ran back to the conference room where Adam and Randall were waiting. She noted the concern on both of their faces.

“We’re not gonna make it are we?” She asked.

“Yes we will,” Adam said. “I promise.”

She put together her cross bow and waited. They didn’t stand a chance against thousands of those things. All they had was crossbows, guns, and UV lights.

“I have an idea,” Adam said.

“What is that?”

“Get everyone down below, to the basement.”

“Basement? Aren’t we going to fight?”

“We can’t win a head to head fight with those things. There is a bunker under this compound.”

“Are you serious? Since when?” Anna asked.

“Since before it was built. I had it put there in case something like this were to happen, but never used it. It’s a ways underground, but it has supplies and can hold us all until morning. Ancients or not, they can be in the day light.”

High above the compound, Jessica circled on Hawk’s back. She was even above the horde and could see them swarming around the compound, landing on the roof, along the outer walls, pulling at the roofing, the doors, windows, anything to get inside. She had to think of a plan. Some of the creatures had torn sheets of metal off the walls, other were digging through the concrete. She couldn’t even see the actual building. It was as if a pack of ants had taken over the compound.

Some of them had caught sight of her. They turned and flew up in her direction.

“Oh no! Hawk, get us out of here!” She yelled, but the creature was already getting closer. This was the first time she’d gotten a good look at them. He they could fly, but had no wings. Their faces were distorted, eyes glowing white and their mouths fill with sharp, jagged teeth. There were several others behind him but this one had caught her first. He grabbed her by the leg and sank his teeth into her calf.

Jessica cried out in pain, and tried to shake the creature off. Blood sprayed from her leg, but in seconds the creature’s irises returned to its eyes, it began to gag as a look of horror overtook his own face. He lost his grip on her leg, and fell to the ground. The other creatures watched him fall for a second, and then went back after Jessica. Blood was still dripping from her leg as they flew toward her. She lifted her leg, trying to ignore the dull, throbbing pain. The bite was deep, but she hoped wasn’t too bad. It was still bleeding quite a bit. She began wiping the blood off her leg, and smeared it onto her hands, face and arms.

Another of the vampires reached her, this one almost climbing on to Hawk’s back. She shoved her hand in his face and stuck her hand in his mouth, pulling it out before he bit down. She knew he was quicker than her, but he was so surprised, he failed to bite down. He began to choke and gag as well. She pushed him off Hawk’s back and watched him fall.

She looked and saw the other three vampires hovering in front of her. They looked at her and at each other, and then turned and flew back toward the compound. She sat and watched as they fled.

“You see that Hawk? They’re scared of me!”

Chapter 34

Alarm sounds were ringing loudly through the compound as everyone headed to the basement. Anna, Adam and Randall were together toward the front of the group. Once they reached the basement, Adam went to a large pole that looked like a support beam. He pulled on it for a few seconds, throwing all of his weight into it. After a bit, the pole started to move downward. As the pole moved down, one of the walls began to slide open, revealing a large stair well.

They all headed down the stairwell while Adam stayed at the top. Once everyone was in, which was around three hundred people, he pulled a lever inside the stairwell, as the big wall slid shut. He ran down the stairs which felt like they’d never end. He’d forgotten how far down it was, until he reached the bunker.

The bunker itself was nothing fancy. It was just an oversized basement made of concrete. There were blankets and folding cots scattered about. He’d had it made years ago when they first built the compound. But this was the first time it was ever needed. No doubt the compound would be ruined by morning. Anna and the others gathered at the far corner of the bunker. Anna tried to keep her distance from Randall.

“So what exactly is your story?” She asked Randall.

“My story is none of your business, rodent!” He snapped back.

“Hey, easy!” Adam said. “I think she’s entitled to some answers. I’ve kept too much from everyone already.”

“She is entitled to nothing!”

“She is, or I’ll see if Doctor Rothstein’s little concoction works on you. How’s that sound?”

“If you try it I’ll—“

“What? Kill me?” Adam said. Randall backed off finally. Adam turned to Anna. “Ok, here’s the deal. As you know, I was once a vampire. Randall still is, but he’s—unique.”

“Unique how?” She asked.

“Unique as in, up until tonight, I thought he was one of the oldest, like thousands of years old. He’d been turned by one of the ancients. That’s why he is so powerful. During the dark ages, there was a great purge of vampires. They thought the ancients had been extinct, but it would seem they had just gone underground. Vampires can do that. They don’t die, so they’d just be week, though not sure how they fed this whole time.”

“I know how,” Steven said joining the group. “The rest of us gathered blood for them and stored it over the years, feeding them a little at a time. Keeping grubs alive as long as we could help too. They had this planned for ages though I think Jessica sped up their timeline a bit.”

“So what is with Randall?”

“He survived the purge. He also found out that it was some of the younger vampires who started the purge. They worked with humans to weed them out. So Randall also went underground. But because of his mixed bloodline, human blood with that of an ancient, he’s much more powerful than many younger vampires. Only ancients can fly for example. The ancients are a race, or species. They never were human; they were around since the dawn of time.”

“My God,” Anna said.

“Exactly. So once Randall got tired of hiding, he joined the hunters like us and has worked with us ever since. He considers himself better than the vampires of today.”

“So why is he scared of the ancients?” Anna asked, glancing to Randall who by now his back had turned.

“They know he’s betrayed them. So they would rip him limb from limb and leave him out in the sun.”

“Wow,” Anna said.

“You happy now?” Randall said.

“Not really. Don’t be mad at me your people are all screwed up. I guess that’s what happens when you live forever, you get bored.”

“Want to find out?” Randall said.

“Enough!” Adam said. “We need to figure out what to do if they get through here.”

“Can they make it through down here?” Anna asked.

“I don’t know. I’d rather now find out. So everyone needs to be ready just in case.”

As soon as he was done speaking, they heard the most horrific screaming any of them had ever heard.

Chapter 35

Hawk went into a dive, flying toward the compound. The vampires had finally torn a huge hole into the side of the building, and were pouring in. As she approached, many of the creatures looked at her and moved away. She had expected them to come after her, instead they let her and Hawk coast straight into the opening. As they went in, Hawk managed to spear several of them with his horn, causing them to splatter onto the other vampires.

She recognized which floor they were on. It was the same as the infirmary. The corridor was large enough Hawk could come through with no problem. He galloped down the hall, ripping through any vampire that got into his way. The creatures were tearing through the rooms and doors, and headed down the stairs. Jessica was surprised she saw no humans around at all. She though perhaps the vampires had gotten to them already.

They reached the infirmary and she hopped down from Hawk’s back and ran inside. She looked through Dr. Rothstein’s lab until she found it. She had watched him working on her blood she had given. Even though it had only been a pint, he was able to dilute it enough and placed it into some of the UV grenades. There were a dozen grenades on the table, all marked with her file next to them. She grabbed a bag from one of the tables and filled it with the grenades. There were also a few vials of her own blood left, she grabbed those as well. She hadn’t had a chance to use one in a real fight yet, but had used them in practice.

She ran out and saw Hawk galloping up and down the corridor, impaling vampires as he went. Once again, they all cleared out of her way as she approached them. They must have figured out what her blood can do, so wanted to avoid her. Either way, it would work. As one mob of vampires came pouring in through the opening, she took out one of the grenades, and pulled the pin, throwing it into the group. After a few seconds, there was a loud explosion that shook the whole floor. A bright flash of light temporarily blinded Jessica as dozens of the vampires were knocked backward. There was a red mist that began to drift through the corridor after the explosion. The creatures began coughing and choking, and then they were calm.

Several stood, looking around, confused. They looked at their hands, and looked at each other. Many of them reached up to feel their teeth, which were now normal. One woman walked right over to her.

“Who are you? What have you done to us?” She said. Her hair was long and tangled, with her clothes tattered.

“I’m Jessica, and I cured you.”

“Cured us from what?”

“From being vampires. You’re human again!”

“We’re ancients. We never were human.” The woman said.

“Well, you are now I guess. You need to stop eating people. It’s not very nice.” Jessica said.

No sooner did Jessica speak, than another group of vampires came in, this one attacking the ones who had just turned human. They jumped on them, tearing into their flesh. The new humans screamed as their blood sprayed everywhere. After a few minutes, however, the vampires began shaking and coughing violently. They fell on the ground and went into an all-out seizure, all of them screaming in pain, as their pale faces turned blue, and then read as they exploded into dust. The woman near Jessica looked up at her.

“What just happened?”

“I think you guys who just turned human killed a bunch of vampires.”

“What? How?”

“I dunno. My blood makes you guys human. I guess your blood then kills vampires. Looks like it hurts, too,” Jessica explained.

“What? Are you mad?”

“No, I’m autistic. You wanna help me fight the others? I think they’ll keep attacking you if you don’t.” As she spoke, a vampire jumped on the woman, only to scream, gyrate and explode after a few seconds. The woman stood, a huge chunk of flesh was missing from her shoulder as blood now covered her clothes. Within moments, the wound closed and healed itself before their eyes.

“That is so cool!” Jessica said. “Well you can stay or come with me, but I have to fight the rest of these guys.” She then rode off toward the freight elevator. Hawk stepped on to the elevator as Jessica hit the button for the basement. She had a feeling everyone was there, since all the vampires were heading downstairs.

As they got to the bottom, the elevator gates couldn’t even open. The floor was packed wall to wall with vampires.

Chapter 36

Jessica took out another grenade and threw it into the crowd, watching them scatter as it went off. Before the red mist settled, Hawk ran through the gates, into the opening in the crowd. She threw two more grenades ahead of her. There weren’t enough to change all of them back to human, but they would attack the new humans and go through some horrific pain and screaming before they’d explode. Though after the third or fourth grenade, the vampires seemed to figure it out.

The ones who were left started to flee up the stairs. Jessica had no idea how many had died, or how many had been turned back. The ones who had turned human stood or sat around with the same, bewildered looks on their faces. Jessica didn’t bother chasing the others. She hopped off Hawk’s back and limped further down the corridor. The bleeding on her calf had mostly stopped, but it still hurt a lot. As she reached the large room at the end, she saw one of the walls sliding open.

Adam stood there with Anna and her father. Jessica didn’t realize she was still covered with her own blood.

“Jessica,” Steven said. “My God, are ok? Are you hurt?”

“Hey daddy! I’m ok. One of them bit my leg, but he turned human and died.”

“Are you serious?” Adam said. Several others came out of the bunker, and walked around looking over the mess in the basement, as well as all the strange people standing around.

“Who are all these people?” Adam asked.

“Well they were the vampires, ancients I guess?” Jessica said. “I got Dr. Rothstein’s blood bombs or whatever and threw them at them. They all turned human. Well, most of them did. The ones that didn’t tried to eat the ones who turned human, but they got sick and blew up.”

Adam looked at her, looked around at the scene and shook his head.

“Umm, well. Wow. That is really amazing.”

“Yeah! It was pretty fun. Hawk kept stabbing them with his horn, that’s why I’m all covered in yuck.”

Randall finally stepped out and looked around. His face registered clear shock at the scene.

“You did this?” He asked.

“Yep, I did it!” Jessica said, standing tall as she spoke.

“You dared change ancients into humans? Are you insane? You need to—“ Before he could finish, Jessica took one of the vials of her blood and jammed it into Randall’s mouth, the glass breaking as his mouth closed around it. He choked and spat, cursing as he grabbed his throat.

“Jessica!” Adam yelled. “What are you doing?”

“I’m fixing him.” She said.

When Randall stopped choking, he looked around at them; his irises had returned to his eyes, teeth were human again.

“I got tired of him being so mean,” Jessica said. “So I made him human again.”

Adam thought Randall would be angry, but he was more confused. Randall grabbed the wall for balance and sat down, nothing but a blank stare on his face. Anna stifled a laugh at Jessica’s comments.

“So are they all dead?” Adam asked. “Or human?”

“No, a bunch of them ran away after they saw me do this. I can go after them later if you want.”

“That’s ok. I think you’ve earned a break,” Adam said.

“How about some Froot Loops? Fighting vampires makes me hungry.”

“You can have all the Froot Loops you want kid.”

Anna looked around at all the new humans standing around.

“What about all of them?” She asked.

“That, I have no idea. Hopefully we can get them to join us. They look rather confused.” Adam said.

While the rest of the slayers walked around, gathering up the newly converted humans, Steven walked over to Jessica and put his arm around her. He sat down against the wall as she leaned against him. In minutes she was sound asleep. As a vampire, he’d had no feeling, yet maintained his love for his daughter. All he could think about was those years as a vampire slayer, and then a vampire and thinking he’d never see her again. He never imagined his own little girl would be the salvation of them all, and perhaps create a union between two worlds, bringing life to those who’ve lost it and making the world a safer place. Until that time officially came, she would live to fight another day….

THE END

About the Author

Tim Miller has studied various religions, as well as psychology and has worked in several fields involving the study of human behavior. After serving four years in the U.S. Marines, Tim spent six years working in corrections and social services. He currently lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife and their children.

Tim became a fan of horror as a teenager. At the age of fourteen he would often read Stephen King books while listening to Iron Maiden on his head phones. He would write short stories to entertain himself and his friends.

His book, Dark Exorcist is currently in development with Eradicate Productions for a feature film.

Also by Tim Miller

Dark Exorcist

The Hand of God

Revenge of the Three

You can visit Tim’s official website at http://timmiller.org

Follow Tim on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TimMiller2011

Table of Contents

- Copyright
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Chapter 30
- Chapter 31
- Chapter 32
- Chapter 33
- Chapter 34
- Chapter 34
- Chapter 35
- Chapter 36
- About the Author
- Also by Tim Miller