She stepped in front of me blocking my path. I could see that the red-haired, hot hooker was bad news. Obeying instinct, I tried sidestepping her.
“Hold on Kole. We need to talk. Look in my eyes!” she demanded.
A primal part of me assumed she probably had a pimp hiding in the alley to clobber and rob drunks like me. I averted my eyes and hopped a couple steps away from the bar alley. She blurred in my path supernaturally swift and only then did I take in all the details.
She was taller than me with ravishing long red hair spilling down to her busty bosom, which was clad in a black bra open to display her impressive cleavage. Her legs were long below a dark miniskirt. Oddly she wore combat boots instead of high heels.
“Look at me!” She demanded again. My eyes rose to meet hers. They were a bewitching blue that sucked me in hypnotically. I managed to break free of her gaze and stumbled aside.
As though frustrated, she aimed a karate chop at my throat, which I blocked with my forearm. But the awesome impact sent me sprawling with my left arm numb from the force absorbed. I rolled up ready as the feisty female launched herself at me with fingers extended like claws. My side thrust kick caught her in the chest with bone breaking force. It bounced her back a brief instant before she lunged again, snarling, and revealing vampire fangs in her face. My second thrust kick caught her under her chin, snapping her head savagely back with a loud crack. Somehow she managed to pound me down with an arm like a lashing club. I rolled with the blow. She blurred phenomenally fast to snatch my shoulders and nip my neck. She was incredibly strong and cold as ice to touch. I drove my thumb in her eye to rip her retina and she screeched in my ear. I arced an elbow that jammed like a jackhammer into her jaw and I knifed a knee that rammed in her ribs. The twin hits broke her grip and I slipped free spinning, reeling, and fleeing from the monster.
Someone else slammed into me, bringing us both down into some garbage cans that tangled us up. It was a lean, mean-looking man that flashed fangs as his ice cold fingers with talons tore into my flesh. My hand touched a bottle beside me and I nailed his noggin with it. Glass loudly crashed as I smashed and slashed gashes in his face. His features became a red ruin, blinding him briefly. I snap kicked him back, stomping his stomach and bolted away.
The furious female monster was a barely perceived blur zipping at me. Largely by luck, I intercepted her with an uppercut of the bottle shards that knifed into her neck and rented her flesh open in a gruesome gushing gash of gore that poured forth. She gagged on the flood of blood. Terrified, I hammered a heel into her ribs, snap kicking her away from me as I fled the pair of monsters.
I only made it block before my legs folded under me. I was losing blood from where she nipped my neck. A truck pulled up, driven by a short and slim little lady with long dark hair and big brown eyes studying me with concern.
“I need a hospital.” I muttered, gripping my nipped neck.
She jumped out with supernatural celerity and propped me up with surprising strength. “I’ll drive you to the hospital.” She assured me.
I blacked out.
***
I woke up sometime later. I was a passenger in a little lady’s truck. My tongue touched my fangs. My eyesight ignited the night like daylight. My hearing was supersonic and sense of smell
supernaturally sharp. I glanced at her.
“The vamp lady that bit you is named Sylvest. You died from that bite. I gave you my blood to bring you back as a vampire. My name is Camilla. Sylvest is my enemy. We might not escape her troupe. She believes that you can lead her to a reincarnated witch, named Tempest. Soon Tempest will turn 18 and she will regain her past life’s memories and magic. In her past life, Tempest created a sunlight spell allowing vampires to walk in daylight. No one’s ever been able to duplicate that spell. Books of prophecy predict Tempest conjuring that spell and vampires overrunning the world. I want to find Tempest first and help her escape from Sylvest. The prophecy says a man of coal will find her and become her companion. Your name is Kole. It says she will turn 18 near here on Milwaukee’s south side. I have a magic crystal that will detect her at close range. I need your help. I can also help you.”
It was all mind blowing. I’d always liked books and movies about vampires. I even thought they might exist. Now I was one.
I was 38 and had survived a very violent life. I’d been in a lot of street fights, bar brawls and cage combat during my years in jails and prisons on numerous different occasions. I was also in a biker gang for years. In my 30s, I went straight and became a mixed martial arts fighter racking up numerous wins and headed for a near future shot at the heavyweight title. Then one night I was in a barroom brawl with a big dude that lost and he pressed charges on me with his buddy for a witness. I’d just done three years in prison for aggravated battery and now I had this new drama
descend upon me.
“I know this is a lot to take in.” Camilla assured me. “But if you stick with me tonight I can answer all your questions and give you some important info you need to be a vampire. Then, if you still want to go on your own, it’s okay. But for now Sylvest can sense you many miles away because she’s tasted and touched your blood and sorcery connects you two.”
She pulled a pistol and knife from her seat and dropped them in my lap. “Here. If Sylvest, and her troupe catch us, remember that to kill a vamp, you must bisect their brain or decapitate them. You must end the brain’s connection.”
I was struggling to understand everything as I pocketed the pistol and knife.
Abruptly a bigger truck plowed into us. Our truck flipped from the road down into the swampy marsh. I was thrown clear. I spotted several vehicles stopping with vamps getting out. I ran away into the trees. I quickly felt my foes coming on my trail.
I leapt into the marsh waters up to my chest and crouched my eyes deep to hide from sight. A male vamp vaulted in my way. I fired into his face with my pistol puffing a photonic flash at pointblank range. The 44 bullet blew brains, blood and bone all over. Then two males tackled me like we were playing marsh football. My gun was gone and steel speared through my side as a blade impaled me. I seized the stabber’s wrist with a jujitsu twist that gave me his knife, which I swiped through his throat. I spun and a gun exploded near my ear. Hot lead seared my head grazing by. My knife slice skewered his skull. I jabbed a stab into my final foe’s forehead and that slew him. The marsh waters steamed as the dead vamps abruptly ignited the night with bright hellfire that cremated them.
Suddenly I could see through Camilla’s eyes. Her Kevlar vest blocked her body from the barrage of bullets and buckshot. Magically she made a telekinetic shield over her skull that stopped several shots. She chucked a grenade that bombarded enemy bodies with concussion and combustion force as shrapnel shredded flesh and shattered bones.
Camilla stole one of their trucks and raced away. I couldn’t withstand her telepathic command. I ran to her mental beacon and found my speed to be a blur to anyone watching. A minute later I was beside her in the truck
“I thought you were dead.” I said.
“Close. I showed you what I saw.” She replied.
“I slew three after me.” I muttered.
“Sylvest lives. She’ll hook up with reinforcements. We have little time.” Camilla explained.
“I need to get you at least 30 miles from her for 24 hours before the magic of her bite on you dissipates. Then she can’t track you anymore. We’ll go north.”
“Why do my bad wounds only feel like dull aches?” I wondered aloud.
“Our vamp magic dulls pain while our flesh and bones regenerate and shove out foreign matter, like bullets. But the process drains our strength and energy. We’re going to feel very tired, very soon. “She explained.
“You told me that you want to keep Tempest from helping Sylvest weave a magic spell that will allow her chosen vamps to walk in sunlight. Wouldn’t you like to walk in daylight?”
“No.” She shook her head. “That’s a power no vamp should have. The only thing keeping
vampires from running the world is sunlight, which kills us and our magic. Change that and the human race will become compelled cattle to be slaves and food. I still care for many humans on this Earth.”
I frowned, then complained. “You want me to find a reincarnated, 17 year old witch that doesn’t remember her past life or magic. You don’t have a name or description. All you have is a crystal that should detect her astral soul within about 50 yards. You’re not giving me much to work with here.”
“Correct. What’s your hunting plan?” She demanded.
As crazy as it all was, I found myself compelled to answer her. “If she’s any kind of normal 17-year-old girl the major scene for teens and twenty-somethings living on the south side is the weekend raves. I know the warehouses where they happen. One’s going on tomorrow night. We’ll start there. If that fails, I’ve got other ideas.”
“Good,” she nodded.
“I didn’t like the way you were in my head controlling me. It felt like mental rape”. I said grimly.
“I’m sorry. I won’t make it a habit.” She promised.
I hate being controlled by anyone. I didn’t expect our partnership to last long.
Bio:
Tom Kropp’s work has appeared in Chiron Review, Short-Story Me, Churches, Children and Daddies, The Horror Zine, Down in the Dirt, Freedom Fiction Journal, Flash Phantoms, Dark Harbor, Lowlife Lit, The Listening Eye, J Journal, Evening Street Review, Conceit, Spontaneous Spirits, Bracelet Charm, Spotlight on Recovery, Muscle and Fitness, Outdoor Life, Woodworker’s Journal and many other magazines. His play Jailhouse Confessions was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in 2019. You can find more of his writings at tomkropp.wordpress.com. He has numerous audiobooks and eBooks free at Google Play Books.