Akeldama: This Dark World - Part One - The Rogue

By Ardy

The long awaited sequel to Akeldama - Field of Blood (now available for free on Smashwords), The survivors of Hidden Valley, New Mexico are awake in a dark world ruled by vampires. Some are holed up in an abandoned farmhouse, recovering from battle and mourning their loses, all the while surrounded by the most vicious of blue suckers. Some find themselves in a prison that has been turned into a farm where their blood is harvested for demonic cmqsomption, hiding their true identity from their evil masters. Others are gathering, preparing themselves for a battle to retake their world, all the while struggling just to survive. But then he appears. A vampire? Or something else? Is he friend or foe? Ally or a sinister deceiver?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ardy
• Release date: Mar 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463850909

Ardy

I live in Northern New Mexico. My biggest influences include Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Frank Peretti, and Trey Parker. I write mainly fantasy, science fiction, and horror, often with a Christian slant.Some of the things I write are just for fun, like most of my free short stories, which I will continue to produce as long as these interesting, and sometimes quite messed up ideas keep popping into my head. Some things I write because I feel that they are important. I don't intend to be preachy and try not to insert messages into my writing unless I forewarn the reader that they'll be there. My main intentions with my works are to entertain the reader, make the reader think, and sometimes just to give them a good little scare.Two things seem to creep into my writing often. One is my faith. The other is my proclivity for horror, which even rears its ugly head in my Christian pieces.Check my blog for special coupons and discounts that will be available exclusively at smashwords.com.I appreciate any review, and please be honest.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

THANKSGIVING

There was no turkey, no mashed potatoes, no cranberry sauce or green been casserole or stuffing. There was only deer meat and canned beans. There was also nobody saying what they were thankful for. Besides being alive, there didn’t seem to be all that much to be grateful for, and lately, even being alive didn’t seem all that great. The four people sitting around the table in the candlelit kitchen picked slowly at their meal, the fourth such dinner they had had since Katja had killed the deer, and no one made any mention of what the date was, though they all knew it was Thanksgiving.

Matt Reilly had said a short prayer over the meal, thanking God that they were still alive, that they had food to eat and a safe place to sleep, and praying for the millionth time that his brother would recover. LaCai Milton had stared off at the wall while he prayed, her black eye and swollen face a mask of rage. Peter Brown, or Peter Romanoff as he now chose to be called, had gripped the hand of his girlfriend, Anita Cross, and joined in the prayer. But both were more focused on what was going on outside.

They were coming back. At first, it had just been the Dwarf. He had followed them as they fled Hidden Valley, the city they had called home now nothing but a burned ruin, overrun with Vampires and reeking of evil. They had driven all night, finding the farmhouse two hundred miles east of the city, and deciding that it was as good a place as any to settle in until they figured out what they were going to do. They had thought that it was bright enough to get out of the van when they stopped. They were wrong.

There was a wicked snarl as Dave Reilly, Matt’s younger brother and the most experienced Vampire fighter among them, got out of the vehicle. He was the first out, and he had barely set foot on the driveway when he was attacked. A small creature that only one of them had seen before came out of the darkness and tackled the man. It was a dwarf Vampire, one time Master of the Vampires in Hidden Valley, and he still showed the effects of his battle with Matt Reilly. His body was thin and frail, his skin too pale for even a Vampire, and when he opened his mouth, he revealed only one tooth, a dark and rotted looking fang that didn’t look like it could pop a balloon.

The others had been out in a hurry, but it was too late. The Dwarf had knocked Dave onto his back and was straddling his chest, his red eyes glowing with rage and hunger, and as frail as he was, as weakened as he was after Matt had stuck that magic rose into his mouth at the cemetery on Halloween night, he was still much faster and stronger than any human. He didn’t go for Dave’s neck. The tooth probably wouldn’t have broken the skin, but he went for Dave’s left eye. He sunk his rotted fang into Dave’s eye and before Dave’s agonized screams filled the night, there was the sound of the eye popping, and then the Dwarf slurping the blood and goo out of it.

Matt ran at the thing, a silver knife in his hand, confident that he could defeat the little monster. He had done so before, back when he was much more powerful. But the reverend was wrong. The Dwarf looked up from his screaming little brother and glared at the pastor. His face seemed to have regained some color and his body looked stronger. He grinned, and though he still only had one tooth, it was now snow white and deadly looking, blood, pus, and what looked like a piece of the cornea hanging from it.

Too slow, preacher man! the Dwarf cackled, and he ran at Matt, knocking him on his back. Matt had fought back, slashing with his knife, but the little Vampire was too strong. He overpowered the preacher and straddled him as he had his brother.

Your brother’s blood is powerful, Matt, he said. I feel like my old self again!

He was about to bite down on Matt’s neck when LaCai fired an arrow at him from her crossbow. Matt had seen the trick before, when he had first encountered the little beast, but seeing how quickly the Dwarf moved as he caught the arrow in mid-flight, just an inch from his heart, was still one of the most awesomely terrible sights he had ever seen. The Dwarf looked up at the girl.

Where’s your brother, little girl? he asked, laughing. LaCai screamed with rage and ran at him, but he was out of her reach, standing on the front steps of the farm house,before she had even taken five steps. Fast as fast can be… he laughed.

Matt looked up at the sky. The sun was rising in the east, but it looked like it would be a good ten minutes before it was bright enough to harm the little Vampire. Matt had only faced him once, but he knew him well. If the Dwarf had indeed regained even a fraction of his strength, he could easily kill all of them in that time.

Katja Milton, LaCai’s gypsy sister-in-law and widow of her brother Dimitri, who had been killed two days earlier, had rushed to Dave’s side. He was still screaming, clutching at the gaping wound that had once been his left eye, blood gushing everywhere. Katja tried to calm him down, moving his hands away from the wound so that she could see it. Her grandmother, also killed the same night as her husband, had been a gypsy healer, and Katja had picked up a little of the skill, though not nearly as much as she should have.

Matt looked from his brother to the Vampire, who was walking slowly towards them, an evil gleam in his scarlet eyes. LaCai held the crossbow up, but she didn’t fire. It would be a waste of a good arrow. He would be upon them in a moment and he would kill them all before the sun finally rose.

Then, the other two of their group came out from the van. Peter, still cradling his injured wrist, though by nightfall the bones that his great grandfather had crushed in the graveyard the night before would be completely healed, great strength and speed not the only things he had inherited from the Vampire side of his family, walked right up to the Dwarf, followed by Anita, a girl with an unknown, and sometimes uncontrollable power. They stood hand in hand on the driveway, blocking the Dwarf’s advance.

Talk about powerful blood! the Dwarf said, grinning his toothless grin. If I were to drink from you two…

Go away, Anita said.

The Dwarf looked at her curiously. Then he smiled again.

Nice try, little girl, he said. The old bitch tried that on me once. Didn’t work then either. I’m just a little too powerful for that little trick. You should have seen that old woman run when she realized I wasn’t about to do what she told me.

Too powerful for that trick, huh? Peter said.

The tiny monster took another step forward, leering up at the two teenagers as they blocked his path. Peter and Anita exchanged glances. Matt noticed that they both looked completely unafraid. Anita let go of her boyfriend’s hand and stepped forward the meet the Dwarf. He looked up at her, and then made the nearly fatal mistake of reaching for her arm. Once he had a hold of her, once physical contact was made, she was able to fully do what she was only partially doing before. She took in his power, soaking it up like a sponge, and she grabbed his little neck with both her hands, lifting him well off the ground. He screamed and kicked at her, but she was too strong for him.

Twenty-four hours earlier she had literally taken the head off of one of the most powerful Vampires in recent history, but at that time she had been infused with a power so great it had overwhelmed her, causing her almost to kill her two closest friends in the process. There was no such power now, but there was enough to seriously hurt the little beast.

She held him like that for a couple minutes as he fought against her, allowing the others to recover and begin to tend to Dave. Finally, the Dwarf broke free and he backed away from Anita, glaring at her, but no longer moving to strike.

Weren’t too strong for that trick, were you? Peter asked him. He hissed and moved to attack Peter. The dhampir merely smiled at him and pointed to the eastern sky. How about that? You aren’t immune to the sunrise, are you?

The Dwarf spun around, just in time to see the light creeping over the hills, and he was gone in a flash, moving westward and out of sight.

He had been haunting the woods outside the farmhouse ever since. They hadn‘t faced him in battle again, but of course they were reluctant to go out after dark. With the exception of LaCai, none of them had set foot outside of the farmhouse after sunset since arriving there. They hadn’t even known that LaCai had been venturing out after dark until a few days earlier, when the wounds she had come back with were impossible to ignore or explain away. She had been going out alone after the others fell asleep, battling the Vampires that lurked around the farmhouse after dark, and somehow making it back alive every morning, pretending to have slept all night long.

They knew they were being watched. There were Vampires moving out in the night, keeping an eye on the house, waiting for their chance to attack. They hadn’t seen them often, but they didn’t have to. Two of their number had the ability to sense the presence of Vampires, one inheriting the ability from his great grandmother, who had been infused with certain powers the night her undead husband had returned and impregnated her with a half-Vampire baby, and the other possessing a power the origins of which were still a mystery to all of them. Every night since finding the farmhouse, Peter and Anita had sensed them out there, watching the house, hungering for them. They hadn’t been able to approach the house yet, but they were certainly around, and on more than one occasion they had seen the Dwarf. Apparently he had either regained some position in the Hidden Valley coven, or he had formed another.

Tonight was no different. While the humans picked at their food and listened to the wind howl outside, every once in a while hearing another sort of howl, Peter and Anita looked at the large picture window in the front room, knowing that somewhere out there, somewhere close, the Dwarf and his minions were lurking around the woods beyond the house.

Katja came downstairs. She had been crying again. She sat at the table, where a plate of food was waiting for her.

How is he? Matt asked.

A little better, she said. His fever’s gone down a bit, though it’s still well above a hundred. He’s getting some color back too. I think he may be through the worst of it.

I hope to God he is, Matt said.

Ever since the Dwarf had sucked out his eye, Dave Reilly had been sick. He had run a fever of over a hundred and three most of the time, vomiting up far more than he had been able to eat, which wasn’t much, and the wound had become infected. The infection had covered his face within an hour of the bite, and they had all feared he wouldn’t make it through the first night. But Dave was strong, and he was fighting the infection and the sickness that came with it. The infection was not natural. It was as if the sickness were conscious of what it was doing to him, and it was intent on killing the hunter. He had been delirious at times, seeing things that weren’t there, talking to people who were long dead, screaming out the names of lost friends like Kirk Black, Maria Romanoff, Dimitri, and his big sister Mary, trying to get out of his bed to fight Vampires who weren’t there. It had frightened them all, especially his brother Matt.

But they had tended to him, kept him clean, fed him whenever he was able to eat, and Matt and Peter had even driven to a nearby town to raid an abandoned pharmacy for some penicillin. Normal medicines didn’t seem to work on the supernatural illness that was wracking his body, but all of them, except LaCai, had also been praying for him, and that seemed to help more than anything.

Are they back? Katja asked, looking towards the window.

Yes, Anita said. More than ever.

They hate to leave things unfinished, LaCai reminded them. That dwarf has a score to settle with you, Matt, and he won’t rest until he gets what he wants.

Well, I’ve got a score to settle with him too, Matt said, looking towards the staircase, and the upstairs bedroom in which his brother had lain near death for three weeks.

I say we go out there, LaCai said, confront them. We can’t just stay holed up in here for the rest of our lives.

We don’t know how many of them are out there, Cai, Katja told her. There could be dozens, hundreds even.

And they’re strong, Peter said.

We’re strong too, remember? LaCai said. Nobody said anything. They just picked at their food. Cowards! You would rather hide in here than go out and fight! None of you want to go out there and face those monsters!

What would you have us do, LaCai? Matt asked. Grab some stakes and go out into the night?

We’ve all killed hundreds of those things! LaCai yelled. We could handle ourselves. We may be the strongest group of humans left alive, and we’re just sitting here on our asses while the Vampires take over the world!

The Vampires have already taken over the world! Matt yelled back. We can’t change that, no matter how strong we are!

And sneaking out at night, alone, is foolish, Katja told her.

At least I’m doing something! LaCai said. At least I’m not hiding in here, useless and scared. At least I’m killing some of those bastards!

You’re going to get yourself killed, Peter told her. One of these nights you won’t come back. Do you want to die?

LaCai glared at him, but didn’t say anything. They all looked at her. The first time they had noticed a wound was a week after they had arrived at the farmhouse. She had a large red mark on her left cheek. She claimed to have slept wrong, her face against the cold wall of her room instead of a pillow, and by that afternoon, the mark was gone. She had other excuses for her other wounds. She had fallen in the bathtub, she had tripped while going to the bathroom at night, she had cut herself shaving. But when she had come down to breakfast three days ago looking as if she had gone twelve rounds with a championship boxer, they had confronted her. They had long suspected she was sneaking out at night to fight the Vampires haunting the area, but they couldn’t prove it. Now she readily admitted it, and had been shouting accusations of cowardice at the others ever since.

Now, as they all looked at her, awaiting her answer to Peter’s question, they realized that he had struck the nail on the head. LaCai wasn’t going out to fight Vampires out of vengeance or some sense of duty. She was trying to get herself killed. She hadn’t been the same since losing her brother. Dimitri had been more like a father to her than a brother, and she felt completely lost without him. He was her trainer and her friend, and she had nearly broken down after he was killed.

That’s ridiculous, she said.

That’s it, isn’t it? Matt asked. LaCai, are you trying to get yourself killed?

No, Matt! she snapped. "I’m trying to kill them. I’m fighting for humanity, like my brother taught me to!"

Your brother wouldn’t want you to go out and face those things alone, Katja told her.

No, LaCai said, he wouldn’t. So why don’t you come with me?

LaCai, Katja began, but LaCai just scoffed at her and stood up from the table.

Enjoy your dinner, you cowards! she said, and she went towards the front door.

LaCai, get back here! Matt called, getting up himself.

She turned to look at him. She was crying again. It seemed that tears were always close to the surface for all of them. They weren’t just mourning their own personal losses, the friends and family that had been killed since the Vampire uprising had started a month ago. They were mourning for the world, for all of humanity. Matt had found himself starting to cry with no warning, tears falling down his face while he shaved, while he ate, while he went to the bathroom. But in many ways, LaCai had suffered more than any of them, with the exception of Katja, who had not just lost her husband of only one day, but also her son.

Matt went to her.

LaCai, he began, Please. Don’t go out there tonight. Anita says that there’s more than there’s ever been. That dwarf is out there. You’ll be killed.

I can take care of myself, she replied. I have so far.

He put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him, defiantly at first, but her face began to soften. Please, LaCai. I know what you’re going through. I lost my family too, remember? Getting yourself killed won’t bring him back.

I know, she said. Her voice now held no anger, no bitterness, just complete and total sorrow. Matt had been a pastor all of his adult life and he had counseled hundreds of people through every sort of loss imaginable, but he had never before heard such intense pain in anyone’s voice.

Sit down, he said. Eat.

She nodded slowly, looking back at the table where the rest were watching anxiously. They were her family now. She felt as if everyone at that table was her brother or sister, and Matt seemed like a fatherly uncle to her. She started towards the table and Matt went with her, his arm around her shoulders. They sat together and ate their dinner, listening to the sounds outside, knowing that very soon, they would have to go out there and face the monsters in the dark.

CHAPTER TWO

Erica Wilson sat alone on her bunk, staring out at the night through her barred window. She was in a prison cell, but it was no ordinary prison. She and the other survivors from Hidden Valley had been brought to this place, a few miles outside of Santa Fe, just before sunrise on November fifth and had been there ever since. It was an old prison, not used anymore by the state except as a tourist attraction or sometimes a movie set. There were two other facilities on the same property, but both of them were already full. Once the Vampires had gotten a firm hold on the world, they began gathering people up for their food supply. The prison systems around the world proved very convenient for them. Millions of people were already locked up secure in a place built to house them, care for them, and keep them from escaping. It was perfect. The prisons and jails around the country had been turned into human farms, under Vampire guard, and the other securable buildings, such as hospitals, military bases, and unused, but still operable, prisons had been filled up with survivors like Erica and the others.

There had been no attempt to separate the prisoners by age or sex. The Vampires didn’t care about such things. If a woman became pregnant, that simply meant another source of food for the blood suckers. In fact, Erica had heard that they were going to begin a breeding program in order to keep their supply of fresh blood up. The thought of bringing a child into this dark world just so that he or she could be raised in such a place and then fed upon by the undead sickened her, but she was young and healthy and she knew that it was only a matter of time before she would be selected for one of the breeding programs.

She shared her cell with two children, but both were out. The Vampires wanted their food to be healthy, so they allowed a lot of physical exercise, plenty of food and water, medical attention, and even playtime for the children. James Milton and the girl he had come to call his little sister, Mary Parker, were currently in the old gym playing with the other children. They would be back soon, and she did love them both, but for now she was happy to be alone for a while.

Three more people had disappeared that night.

In the weeks since she had been brought here, she had been taken down to the old infirmary about ten times to have some of her blood taken. The Vampire who hooked the hose into her arm was dressed as a nurse, and Erica supposed that she had once actually been a nurse, before being transformed into a creature of the night. She seemed to know what she was doing. She actually was sort of nice, having a kindly old face that would have put a person at ease, had it not been for the fangs and the eyes that began to glow red with hunger as the bags of blood filled up. She said her name was Martha and even tried to talk to Erica like they were friends, almost like they were both human. Carrying on a conversation with a demonic blood drinker sickened her, but she pretended to want to talk. She wanted information, and if she could make Martha believe that they were friends, in some sick way, she might just learn a few useful things.

It was her talks with Martha as her blood (O positive, my favorite! the Vampire nurse had said) filled the bag that told her that most of the humans would simply be called upon to give blood in such a way for the rest of their lives. The Vampires would love to just take the humans and suck them all dry, but that would be foolish. There weren’t enough humans left to waste the precious resource of their blood in such a manner. Maybe one day, but for now the hungry masses would be fed by the blood shipped out of the prisons and hospitals. Of course, some Vampires wouldn’t settle for bagged blood and they could, for a price, procure a live human from which to feed. Erica had no idea what sort of economy the Vampires were setting up for themselves now that they were free to rule the world, but she was curious as to what price could be placed on a live human.

The blood taking left her weak and tired for a few days, and Martha assured her that they wouldn’t take enough blood to actually endanger her life. Still, she had given what must have been gallons of herself over the past three weeks. It didn’t seem safe, and she doubted that the high protein and high liquid diet that the humans in the farm were on was enough to replenish their supply, but she knew that after a few days, she would regain her strength. Once the Vampires saw that, they would send her down to the infirmary the next day for another donation. She had decided earlier that night while Martha stuck the hose in her vein and talked on and on about the world that the Vampires were beginning to create for themselves, that she would pretend to be weak for a long time this time. Maybe she could prolong the duration between the blood taking.

If she was ever to escape this place, she would need all the strength she could get.

She had almost fallen asleep on the bunk when someone came into her cell and sat on the bunk next to her. It was Arnold Jackson, a Catholic priest from Hidden Valley who had joined the battle against the Vampires on Halloween night, along with Erica and a few of her friends, at the Hidden Valley Mall. He had survived the attack on New Hope Methodist Church along with Erica and the others.

Erica, he said as he sat. How are you feeling?

Drained, Arnold, she said. She still found it weird not calling him Father, but it had been decided on the night of their capture that it would be unwise to reveal to the Vampires that he was a priest. It wouldn’t be safe for him, and he could do more damage from the inside if they didn’t know who and what he really was.

Learn anything new? he asked her.

Just that the Vampires are trying to form some sort of society, she said. I can’t imagine what it would look like.

I don’t want to, Arnold replied. He took a deep breath. Gertrude is gone. Leonard said that they took her just after the sun went down.

Not to the infirmary? Erica asked.

I’m afraid not, the priest said. She told me few days ago that the Vampires told her she was too old to be giving blood like the rest of us. One more donation might have killed her.

She was over seventy, Erica said. The old woman had been one of the ones who had escaped the burning church with the rest of them. She was frail to begin with, and after a couple of blood takings, she was too weak even to stand most of the time.

I think they took her to give to some bloodsucker as live food, Arnold went on.

I wonder how much they paid for her, Erica said. Anybody else?

Two more, he said. Nobody we know. But still…

Still human, she finished for him.

It’s disgusting, the priest said. I hate going down to that damned infirmary and watching my blood be sucked out of my arm knowing that some Vampire’s going to slurp it down like some sick juice box!

Would you rather disappear too? Erica asked him.

I would have thought it was better to be alive, Arnold sighed. But this is not living. This is not surviving. We’re as good as dead right now.

The man who had been leading the people hiding in New Hope, a Vampire hunter named Dimitri Milton, had told them that as long as they survived, as humans, the Vampires could never win. After his tragic death, Dave Reilly had taken over and told them the very same thing. Erica had insisted to her little band of survivors that they stay alive, try to hold onto their humanity, and attempt to cause as much damage as they could. But Arnold was right. It was hard to hold onto your humanity when you were little more than a farm animal. But they would cause damage, if they could. And Father Arnold Jackson, along with the two teenage gypsy boys they had with them, were already doing so.

Any word on our little plan? she asked him.

Things are in motion, he said. I’ll fill you in in the morning, when no undead ears can overhear us.

What about the living ears, Erica asked. There’s more than a few people here I wouldn’t trust with my middle name, let alone any real information.

Father Jackson nodded sadly. There were a few people among them who were willing to sell humanity out in exchange for better food, fewer blood drawings, a more comfortable bed, even the promise of one day becoming a Vampire themselves. By night, the place was guarded by Vampires, some of them actual prison guards from before the war, when they had been human. By day, though the locks and gates and razor wire and electric fences were more than enough to deter any escape attempt, the halls were patrolled by humans. There were a few dozen of them, moving freely through the halls while the rest of them were on lockdown. They were nowhere to be seen at night, which was probably for the best. If these collaborators were to find themselves face to face with most of the people they were guarding without steel bars or locked doors between them, the Vampires would find themselves mopping up blood instead of drinking it. And there were some among them who wanted so desperately to get out of their present circumstances that they had expressed interest in joining the human guards. Others were informants. It was easy to tell which ones had given the Vampires information on their fellow humans. They weren’t taken down to the infirmary nearly as often.

They had only been there about a month and already there were some willing to betray their own kind for a better life. Erica felt that she could trust all of the people who had come in with her, and a few of the others had gained her confidence, but she would be very careful about what she said and to whom she said it. She and Father Jackson had a plan. It wasn’t anywhere near a real escape plan, more like some general mischief that would make life a little more difficult for their farmers. But if any of those treacherous people got wind of it, there could be a lot of trouble. If the Vampires found out what she was planning, it may very well be she who disappeared the next night.

After a few minutes, James and Mary came back to the cell. Their faces were flushed and their hair was sweaty. They had been playing with the other two dozen or so children who were staying in the old prison, but they didn’t look like kids who had just come in from playing with their friends. There were no smiles on their faces. Both kids seemed a lot older than they were, much more mature and much more aware of the world around them than any normal six or nine year old should be. James had seemed that way when Erica had met him the day after Halloween. With Mary, it was a new development.

Did you guys have fun? Erica asked them.

We tried to, Mary said.

Erica nodded, understanding. For all of the toys and games and sports equipment that the Vampires had brought in for the humans to play with, there was one thing that they couldn’t provide. That was freedom. Erica had watched the children play on a few occasions, and it was a surreal experience. She had never witnessed over thirty children engaged in a game who were so quiet, so stoic. There was no laughter, none of the usual high pitched squeals she remembered from her own childhood. They just went through the motions.

All of the children had been taken to the infirmary at least two or three times. They weren’t drained nearly as often as the adults were because they were so young, but Erica had noticed, not without a certain amount of sick anger, that the children seemed to disappear more often than the grownups. There had been almost fifty of them when Erica had arrived. Apparently, their blood was in high demand, and some Vampires were willing to pay quite a price to get their teeth into a child’s neck. She prayed every night that the day would never come that James or Mary would be taken. She would die before she let either of them be sold as dinner to some rich Vampire.

Well, the sun’s almost up, she told the children. You know what that means.

Lockdown, James said.

That’s right, Erica said. Get ready for bed, you two.

I should be getting back to my room too, Arnold said. I’ll be in touch as soon as the Vampires are gone.

Look forward to hearing from you, she told him. He gave her hug, kissed both of the children on the cheeks, and went out of the cell. About half an hour later a Vampire in a black uniform came and locked the cell door, counting the three people who were supposed to be in it, and moved on down the hall. Before he left their door, though, he had given Erica a look that sickened her. His eyes flashed red with hunger as he saw her, and then they got even redder when he saw James and Mary sitting together on their bunk, glaring at him. Erica wished for a stake, or better yet the sword she had fought with on Halloween night.

Soon, she told herself. Soon.

CHAPTER THREE

But why don’t you want to fight, Matt? LaCai asked. The others had gone to bed, trying to drown out the sounds coming from the darkness outside, and she and Matt were sitting by the fire place in their pajamas drinking hot cocoa.

It’s not that we don’t want to, he told the girl. We all do. We sit here every night listening to that noise out there, knowing exactly what it is. We know that there will come a day, and very soon, when we won’t have any choice but to face them. Personally, LaCai, I want to go out there with my brother’s axe and chop a few of those things to pieces.

Then why don’t you? she asked. We can take those things! I know we can!

We aren’t ready, Matt said. The war has taken a lot out of all of us. We need time to recover, both physically and emotionally. We all lost somebody, not just you. Katja lost both her husband and her son, not to mention all the other gypsies. Peter lost his great grandmother. Anita lost her whole family. I lost my church, my friends, and almost my brother.

So you’re all just gonna sit here and mope?

Not moping, LaCai, Matt said. Mourning. If we were to go out there now in the state we’re all in, we would most likely get ourselves killed. None of us are thinking straight.

I’ve survived, she reminded him.

I have no idea how, he said. You must be very lucky.

LaCai was about to reply with the same words that Samuel had used about luck a month earlier. There is no such thing as luck, the old gypsy had told the two teenage brothers who had come with them to fight the battle in Hidden Valley. Only good fortune or bad fortune. God controls our fortune. But she wouldn’t say that. She no longer had any faith in God. She wasn’t sure she believed He existed at all. Besides, Matt was probably right. While LaCai wasn’t consciously trying to get herself killed out there every night, a big part of her wouldn’t care if she did die. She had done some foolish things while killing the Vampires, getting herself into battles that she was sure would be the end of her, and somehow she had always made it out alive. Three nights ago, her last night out after dark, had been the closest call, but she still managed to make it back to the farmhouse. It was as if someone was looking out for her. She wouldn’t call it God, but she wouldn’t exactly call it luck either.

And what about Dave? Matt went on. If we were to go out there and face those things, and something happened to us, what would become of him? There would be no one to take care of him. He would die alone in this house.

LaCai looked towards the staircase. In the bedroom upstairs, her old friend lay battling the Vampire evil within his own body. Matt was right. Dave needed them. He needed to be taken care of. He was getting better, but he was far from a full recovery. If they were to go out and fight and be killed, then Dave would be helpless.

You’re right, she said. But still, Matt, I hate hiding in this damned house while those bastards taunt us!

So do I, Matt told her. Once Dave has recovered, we will discuss what to do. I don’t want to make any decisions without him. He’s got more experience with this than any of us.

LaCai took a sip of her cocoa and then yawned. She was exhausted. She had hardly slept since leaving Hidden Valley. None of them had. They were all worn out, in every way a person could be, and LaCai began to think that Matt was right. They needed time to recover, to rest, and to figure out what to do next.

I’m going to turn in, she said. She stood up from the couch where she and Matt were sitting.

You better be going to bed, young lady! Matt scolded, but his voice was playful. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

I will, she said. I promise.

Night, Cai, Matt said. I love you.

Yeah, she said. Love you too.

Matt watched the girl go up the stairs towards the room she had claimed for herself. He then reached for his Bible, which sat on the coffee table in front of him. By the fading light of the fire, he read long into the night, until he fell asleep on the couch. The Vampires’ taunting howls and snarls were his lullaby.

LaCai couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she was faced with a nightmare. It had been this way since Dimitri was killed. Sometimes she dreamed of Maria Romanoff coming to her in the night. At first she was the kind old lady that LaCai remembered from her childhood, and from the days leading up to the war. She would call to LaCai, who was overjoyed to see her and ran to her, only to find herself not in a loving embrace, but the cold death grip of the monster the old woman had become in the end. Sometimes she dreamed of the war, of fighting battle after battle with millions of Vampires who would not stop coming. In these dreams, she would watch all of her friends and family die and she would be helpless to save them. Sometimes she relived that night at the cemetery when she, Anita, and Peter had faced off against the boy’s great grandfather, the Vampire Vladimir Romanoff. When she dreamed of the battle at Mount Hope, they always lost, and after she had watched her friends die at the hands of the monster, he came to her and fulfilled his promise of a slow, torturous death.

And sometimes she dreamed of Dimitri.

This night it was her brother who visited her dreams. He was lost, wandering in the night, looking terrified. He was in pain, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck where Maria had bitten him. His body was weak and pale and his voice was choked with blood.

He was calling her name, calling for help, calling for guidance. She could see him and she tried to call out to him, but he couldn’t hear her. She ran to him, but no matter how far or how fast she moved, he was still just as far away. She knew he needed help, and she wanted nothing more than to help him, but in the dreams, she could do nothing but watch him suffer.

Not wanting to relive any of her nightmares again, especially not that one, she sat up in bed. Tears were falling from her eyes as she looked out her window into the night. She wanted nothing more in that moment than to crawl into Dimitri’s lap and have him hold her until she fell asleep in his arms. She had always felt safe when her brother held her. He would ask her if she was having bad dreams, and she would reply, Are there any other kind?

But that was impossible. Dimitri lay buried six feet under ground next to a burned church a hundred miles away. He would never hold her again. She picked up his coat, which lay on the bed next to her. She had taken to sleeping with it like a ratty old security blanket, trying to take in her brother’s scent as she fell asleep. Even his smell was fading from the old coat.

Dimitri, she whispered. Looking out the window. Her room had a westward view. That was why she had chosen it. Even though Hidden Valley was far beyond view, she could still look in its direction, towards the place where her brother’s body was. On nights like this, when she couldn’t sleep, she usually got dressed, grabbed her brother’s sword, which leaned against the table by her bed, and went out to kill the monsters lurking in the woods around the house. She wouldn’t do it tonight. She had promised Matt, and she had really begun to think about what she had been doing. Although she had no real desire to keep on living, she really didn’t want to die either. And Dimitri would not want her getting herself killed, that was for certain. He had spent her entire life protecting her. It would be total betrayal to him and his memory for her to commit suicide by Vampire.

Oh, Dimitri, she cried. She stood and went to the window, holding her brother’s jacket against her face, soaking it with her tears. I miss you so much. I need you, brother. You have no idea how much I need you right now!

There was no answer. She didn’t expect one. She stood there in her black nightgown, crying into her brother’s jacket, watching as glowing red eyes appeared and disappeared in the night.

Peter and Anita had chosen a room together. It had once belonged to two little boys and had two twin beds set up with a table between them. Most nights they slept separately, but on this night, the evil they were both sensing outside was too much for them. Anita had climbed into Peter’s bed and wrapped her arms around him, shivering with cold and fear. Peter knew what she was doing. The strange powers that had begun to awaken in her on Halloween caused her to absorb the power and the essence of those around her, When she was around good people, she took in their goodness and their strength, and when she was around evil, she took that in as well. On more than one occasion during that terrible week in Hidden Valley she had been nearly overwhelmed by the Vampires and their dark power and hunger. She had even come close to killing Peter a couple of times. There were more Vampires outside the house every night, and Anita was finding it harder and harder to resist their evil. Being close to Peter, taking in his own supernatural power and his goodness, had always seemed to ground her. She needed that now, so she held him tightly, trying to take as much of him in as she could.

Anita’s strange absorption had been its strongest that night at Mount Hope Cemetery when the three teenagers went to confront Vladimir Romanoff. She had taken in his power, becoming very strong and very dangerous, but was still no match for the immensely powerful Vampire. In the end, it had been a combination of the late Maria Romanoff’s power, which she somehow took in after landing on the old woman’s grave, and some dark evil from an unknown source, that had enabled her to kill the monster. They still didn’t know what that evil power was or where it had come from, but Anita had told Peter once that she expected to encounter it again, face to face, before the war was over. And she hadn’t told anyone what had happened to her in the few moments she lay unconscious over the old woman’s body, but Peter suspected that it had been something amazing. She no longer questioned her power, but she seemed even more upset by it.

When she had climbed into bed with him, Peter had seen a familiar flash of red in her eyes. He had learned not to fear this. Though he knew that Anita was feeling the dark hunger that drove the Vampires outside, she had learned to control it. Taking in an evil of such great proportion in the graveyard made every other Vampire pale in comparison. If she could overcome that, with Peter’s help, she could resist the demonic urges that filled her as the monsters swarmed around the farmhouse. After getting as close to Peter as she could, taking both of his hands in hers and laying her head against his, she had taken enough of his goodness and strength in to feel almost normal again.

I don’t like this, she told him. There’s more of them every night.

I know, Peter said.

They’re angry, she said. They know who we are. They know that you and I are in here, and they want us more than anything, but they also want Matt and Dave. They want LaCai and Katja. They won’t rest until they’ve killed us all.

And as long as they won’t rest, Peter could feel the anger and the hunger from the Vampires, you and I will never rest.

Maybe LaCai’s right, Anita said. Maybe we should go out there and confront them. We can’t hide in here forever.

No, Peter said, not forever. Just until we’re ready. Matt said he didn’t want to do anything until Dave had recovered.

Anita nodded. She had felt Dave’s struggle as well. He was strong, stronger than any of the others knew, and she was sure he would pull through. But she doubted that once Dave Reilly was back on his feet, he would be the same man he had been before the Dwarf bit him. It wasn’t just his eye, which was totally gone. A gaping wound under a bandage that always had blood on it in the morning was all there was left. Something else was missing. Anita hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, not even Peter, but she knew that Dave’s wounds went deeper than flesh. He had been bitten by a Vampire who was very old and very powerful. There was something growing inside of him that frightened the girl, but she had faith that Dave was strong enough to beat any spiritual infection the same way he was fighting off the physical one.

The Vampires won’t wait, she said. They don’t give a damn if Dave’s recovered or not. Sooner or later, they’ll get tired of just taunting us in the night. They’ll make a move soon.

We’ll be ready, Peter said. He had felt this too. The only thing they can do is burn us out, right?

Anita nodded again. That seemed to be their only option, since they couldn’t get into the house. But she wasn’t so sure. She sensed that their might be another way that the Vampires could get to them, but she couldn’t imagine what it was.

So far, they haven’t come out of the woods, Peter went on. LaCai said that they didn’t even come into the yard when she went outside. She had to take the fight to them. Maybe it was what you said to the Dwarf. When you told him to leave us, you may have set up some sort of barrier around the property, like the one Gramma had on our house in Hidden Valley.

Maybe, she said. I wasn’t trying to set up a barrier. I was just trying to get him to go away.

What else could it be?

I don’t know, Anita said. Sometimes I feel something else out there besides the Vampires. It’s familiar, but very strange. It’s like it’s evil and good at the same time.

Like what you felt at the graveyard? Peter asked.

No, Anita said. It’s not as strong as that. There’s just this presence out there that’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before. Whatever it is, I think it’s holding the Vampires at bay.

Peter looked to the window. He could feel them out there, angry and frustrated, growing impatient. All he felt from outside was pure evil, but he didn’t have the sensitivity that his girlfriend had. His power only involved Vampires. It had been inherited from Vladimir Romanoff, along with all of this other dhampir abilities. Her power went beyond that. He could sense Vampires, feel what they were feeling, even sometimes touch their minds, which happened very rarely and in brief, disjointed flashes. Whatever she was sensing out there in the night was something else.

Let’s not worry about it now, Peter said finally. They aren’t going to make their move tonight. Let’s get some sleep.

She kissed him and then lay her head on his chest. He held her in his arms until he fell asleep a few minutes later, expecting nightmares and telling himself that he would try to sleep through them this time. She didn’t sleep for another two hours. She tried to draw strength from Peter, to take in his power and banish her own fear, but as strong as he was, his essence could barely block out what she was feeling from the night.

Katja Milton was having trouble sleeping as well. One of the reasons that she had taken it upon herself to care for Dave, besides the fact that she was a healer, was that it was a good distraction. In twenty four hours she had lost her grandmother, her