Luke Irontree & the Last Vampire War (Books 8-10), page 25
Luke stepped off the pile of dirt and joined Simone. “Fuck. That was fast. Is Pearl safe?”
“Yeah, Delilah’s getting her inside right now.” Simone fidgeted, looking back to the northeast.
“What do you need?” Luke asked.
“Three people—one with a shotgun, and two with those little machine guns should do the trick. It’s not a big party.”
Luke grabbed a shotgun. “Owen, Jung-sook, you’re in charge here. Connor and Ahmed, grab those machine pistols and follow us.” He gestured toward the north. “Lead the way, Simone.”
Simone turned and ran off, Luke, Ahmed, and Connor in tow. When they made it to the log barrier, they slowed and ducked under it, crouch walking until they met up with Delilah.
“Granny Pearl safe?” Luke asked.
“Yeah. She wanted a gun, but I talked her out of it for now.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to it, but we may have to if things get desperate. But she needs some rest before that. Where and how many?”
“About seventy-five yards straight back in the trees. I can’t quite see how many. At least six or eight,” Delilah reported.
Luke peeked over the top of the log, his scope in hand. “They’re starting their advance, creeping in quick and low. Two werewolves in bipedal. A couple of vamps, at least. Not sure about the rest.”
“What’s the plan?” Delilah asked.
Luke ducked down. “Wait until they get closer, twenty-five yards, then open fire. Take the werewolves down first. Then I’ll take the vamps.”
Everyone nodded. Luke popped back up to check on their attackers. He held up four fingers on his left hand and motioned that those were coming in on the left. Five on the right. Reaching down, he flicked off the safety of his shotgun.
“Ready,” Luke whispered.
Safeties clicked off around him. The shotguns already had a shell in the chamber, but the two subcompact machine guns needed to be charged. Collecting nods from everyone, he took a deep breath and let it out.
“Go.”
He popped up and took aim, putting his first shot center mass on the nearest werewolf. Blood and howls of pain blossomed from the wolf as it went down, writhing in agony as silver burned under its skin. It wasn’t a mortal shot; if it’d penetrated to the heart, the wolf would be making his final shift to his human form. Off to the other side, the other wolf went down and stayed down, dead. The machine guns rattled to life, spraying in short bursts. Luke’s next shot took out a vampire, puffing it into dust. He fired another round, hitting someone in the knee. He couldn’t tell if they were man, vamp, or human form wolf. The screams of pain were indistinguishable.
He pumped another shell into the firing chamber but couldn't find anyone still standing or running. He reloaded quickly and waited. All he could hear were moans of pain. A few people tried to crawl back into the trees. There were at least a couple vampires still alive based on what he sensed.
“Delilah, want to go over the top with me?” Luke asked.
Delilah gave him a single, quick nod.
“Behead the vampires, but don’t stake them.”
“What about the werewolves?” Delilah asked, reloading her shotgun.
“Let’s see how they respond. If they’d like to keep their lives, we can turn them loose. Maybe it’ll encourage some of the less enthusiastic of their lupine brethren to seek other adventures for the duration.”
Delilah shrugged. “I guess it’s your party, but since we can’t afford to hold them prisoner and guard them, it’s better than killing them outright.”
“Vamps first, keep an eye on the wolves so they don’t lash out.” Luke pulled himself on top of the log and slid down into the ditch, careful to avoid the few stakes planted in the bottom of the trough.
They hadn’t had time to do more. Maybe if they made it until sunrise, they could work on that next. Delilah dropped down next to him. Shifting the shotgun to his left hand, Luke pulled the gladius from his left hip and darted forward, beheading the first vampire he came upon. Delilah had thrown her shotgun over her back and pulled her jian. She had one head off and spun to take the next. With that, Luke’s sense of vampire winked out.
“Wolves,” Luke called out. “You may keep your lives, for now. If you come against us again, there will be no mercy for you. Dee, take a picture of them so we’ll know they’re one shot is spent next time we see them. If this sounds like a deal you wish to take, throw your weapons away from you.”
A few of the human form wolves looked at each other, exchanging glances, then as one, they threw their weapons away, digging into pockets to find more.
“Ammo, too,” Delilah added.
The only wolf that wasn’t complying didn’t appear to be in any condition to as he writhed and whined piteously, still in his bipedal wolf form. When their temporary prisoners ran out of weapons and ammo, they looked at Luke expectantly.
“Disarm your friend and get out of here. If any of us see you again, you die.” Luke caught Delilah’s eye and gestured back toward their defensive perimeter.
Together, they sheathed their swords and brought their shotguns out, keeping them aimed over the field of battle in case the wolves got any poorly conceived ideas about making a go at them. Once Luke and Delilah backed off, the wolves disarmed their friend, dodging a couple of jaw snaps, then hoisted the injured wolf up. They all had wounds, but the ones not screaming from silver would heal quickly, probably leaving some bullets embedded in their flesh.
Carrying a wounded wolf, none of them were terribly fast, but eventually they disappeared back into the woods, though they didn’t seem to be angling back toward where their main group was. Luke had no idea if his threat and mercy would work, but he hoped it would sap the fighting spirit of the wolves and inspire them to sneak out.
Luke set his shotgun down, propping it against the bottom of the log, and gathered up all the weapons, handing them up to Simone, Ahmed, and Connor.
“What do you want to do with these vamps since you didn’t want them staked?” Delilah stood over one of their bodies and nudged the head with her foot.
“Let’s take them into the camp. Roxi and I will top up on vamp juice, but I have a plan for the heads.”
Delilah raised an eyebrow and shook her head, but she helped him get the bodies over the wall with the help of their friends. They laid the bodies out of the way in case they dissolved into goo. The heads, Luke sent to Roxi to hold on to while he found a notepad.
He scrawled the same promise of mercy to wolves and the threat of true death to the vampires onto three sheets of paper. When he was done, he met Roxi at the catapult. Delilah and Simone waited with Roxi. The three women had become increasingly close the longer Roxi got to know Delilah and Simone. Despite their vast age differences, they seemed to be forming a true friendship.
“You writing love notes to me?” Roxi asked, leveling a slightly sultry gaze his way.
“Not today, but they do go with the little presents I sent you.” Luke squatted down and shoved the notes, one each, into the mouths of the three vampire heads.
When he finished, he grabbed them by their hair and loaded them into the bucket of the catapult. With the help of Gabe, Luke winched the arm down, the ropes providing the torsion groaning. As soon as the bucket was all the way down, Roxi slid in the pin that kept it cocked.
“Alright, everybody clear.” Luke picked up the rope attached to the pin and uncoiled it as they stepped away from the catapult. “Would you like to send a little housewarming gift to our guests, my love?”
“Ah, you’re such a sweetheart, dōšagīh.” Roxi’s hand brushed over Luke’s as she took the rope. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, then yanked the rope hard, pulling the pin holding the firing arm of the catapult at bay.
The whole rig creaked and groaned as it sprang to life, bucking as the arm hit the crossbar with a thwack of wood on wood. The three vampire heads disappeared into the dark night. Bark flew off the logs, settling around the catapult.
Luke smiled affectionately at Roxi. “I’m going to go see if they like our present.”
“You go ahead. I’m going to reset the catapult and make sure she’s holding together.”
“You two are weird.” Delilah shook her head, chuckling.
Simone hid a giggle behind her hand. “Let’s go take another survey around the wall, Delilah. We’ll take Brutus back to the main building to keep Pearl company.”
Giving Roxi’s hand a final squeeze, Luke jogged back to the overturned trailer and climbed up so he could look over the top, bringing his scope to his eye. He found a couple of the heads—one must have flown off course—but he was impressed that two even made it as far as they had.
“Luke,” Jung-sook said, “they’re sending someone through the trees to check out your little handiwork.”
“You mean his heady-work?” Owen said.
Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head. The pun earned groans from several of the others standing around.
“Want me to discourage them?” Jung-sook wiggled, adjusting her aim.
“No. I want them to find them. Can you see the notes sticking out of their mouths?” Luke asked.
“The one is facing away, but maybe on the other one. It’s hard to tell at this distance in this light. They’re close to the heads now.”
Luke watched as a werewolf in bipedal form darted from the cover of the forest to snag the two heads, then sprinted into the trees on the other side of the road.
“So, what now?” someone asked.
“Now, we wait,” Luke replied.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
They didn’t have to wait long. About thirty minutes after they returned the vampires, Jung-sook noticed activity through the scope on her sniper rifle.
“We got movement,” she called. “Looks like a couple big pickups. They’re loading people into the beds.”
“Owen, get ready on the mortar,” Luke yelled over his shoulder.
“Ready,” Owen replied.
Luke nodded at Jung-sook. “The fire call is yours.”
Jung-sook and Owen had worked out some markers so Jung-sook would spot and give timely commands. She’d done enough shooting down the straightaway to have a pretty good grasp of ranges. In the distance, the pickups pulled around the corner onto the straight approach to the logging camp and revved their engines. The sound of tires spinning out and spitting gravel alerted them to the start of the race.
“Hold ready,” Jung-sook called. “And…FIRE!”
The mortar shell popped into the air. Luke held his breath as he waited to see if the shot would land, the tension rising as the pickups quickly drew closer. When the shell landed on the second pickup and exploded, turning the shiny, jacked-up truck into scrap and twisted bodies, a ragged cheer went up from Luke’s forces. The first truck kept speeding toward them.
“Take out their driver?” Jung-sook asked.
“No. If they’re going to keep coming, let’s let them know we can defend our walls in full view of everyone.” Luke turned to his crew, expectant faces looking back. “Safeties off. Wait until my command to fire. One round at a time, unless I call fire at will.”
Luke pumped a round into his Winchester M12 Trench Gun. Around him, guns were readied.
“Repellers, ready your spears. Aim to kill.” Luke called out.
The bipedal wolves grabbed their long spears and waited. The truck continued to pick up speed until the last moment when it locked up its brakes, tires screaming and rubber burning. As soon as it came to a stop about twenty yards from their barrier, it disgorged its attackers. Luke felt the presence of at least some vampires, though he couldn’t tell how many of the dozen were fangers.
“Aim and fire!” Luke yelled.
He drew a bead on a speedy bastard he guessed might be a vampire and squeezed the trigger, splattering the fanger’s nearby friends with goo as the shot struck home in the creature’s heart. Around him, more shots rang out and more attackers fell, though some still charged, either bravely or stupidly, Luke didn’t care. The pickup driver, seeing the swift decimation of his payload, slammed the truck into reverse and gunned it.
“Now would be a good time, Jung-sook.” Luke took aim at a werewolf about to breach the walls. “Repellers, your turn.”
The crack of the Steyr followed by the shattering of the windshield sent the pickup careening backward until it slammed into a tree. The growls of Luke’s werewolves rang over their little battle front as they engaged, plunging their spears into the attackers; soon their screams joined the growls. Those wolves that hadn’t been killed on the initial thrust were quickly dispatched. The engagement had lasted only a few minutes, but they’d come out on top again.
By now, he hoped Sam had found a cell signal and was getting the ball rolling on their relief, but every skirmish meant more ammo spent with no resupplies available. It might be best to go mostly hand-to-hand and save what they had, but that exposed his people to a higher chance of injury and death. Either way, he was left with nothing but shit decisions and few options.
“Alrighty, folks. I want the vampire heads and the bodies.” Luke pulled his gladius and dropped down off the trailer.
In quick order, he beheaded the few vampires left corporeal. Working as a team, they lifted the vampire bodies over the barriers, then they took the remaining bodies and lined them across the road like speed bumps. Feeling salty, Luke darted from tree to tree, using the pickup as a screen to reach it. He popped the door open, dragging the dead driver out.
He wiped down the wheel and seat as best he could, swiping the bits of brain and skull onto the road. With a shrug, he jumped into the seat and drove forward, avoiding the corpse speedbump, and wove through the trees to leave the truck at the back of the camp. Their patrol helped him over the back barrier. With a quick thanks, he jogged to the catapult.
Roxi strolled over to him, her hands clasped behind her back. “Hey, Luke. Hope you don’t mind, but I sent the heads back whence they came. I put a few notes in them.”
Luke cupped his hands around his mouth. “Jung-sook, they take the heads yet?”
“Yeah, they came to collect them already,” she replied.
“Want to go drain some vampires?”
Roxi laughed. “I hope someone’s holding one of the heads when it goes into decomp.”
They walked over to the line of headless vampire bodies, each of them pulling out their rudis, and drained the vampires one by one, recharging and healing the little aches and pains they’d accumulated since their last vampire draining.
“How you feeling?” Roxi asked.
“Tired, but vampy refreshed. You?” Luke reached out and moved a thick strand of hair out of her face.
“About the same. I could really use a nap.”
Luke exhaled noisily. “Yeah. I could, too. We should probably cycle a few people out to get some rest.”
“Yeah. I’m beginning to wonder if my body will ever get back to where it was before the arena.”
He squeezed her arm. “I know. It seems like I can’t dig my way out of that hole.”
She pulled him in for a quick hug, then released him. “Not much we can do about it. Better get back to business.”
Luke nodded and jogged back to the front. “Ahmed and Charlie, I’d like you to start patrolling. Run the opposite of Delilah and Simone.”
“Roger that.” They stood and jogged off, starting their patrol with a counterclockwise circuit.
“Jung-sook, you’re in charge for a few. I need to go get some water and a snack,” Luke said.
After finishing the vampires, he felt a pit in his stomach he needed to fill, not sure whether it was anxiety or hunger or most likely a blend of the two. Grabbing a water, he surveyed the ammo stocks, shaking his head and pursing his lips at the tiny stacks. They’d have to dip in soon enough, probably before the sun even broke cover. Done worrying over the ammo situation, he took a few strips of jerky and dried fruit before heading back out.
Chewing on the jerky and dried apricots at least gave him an outlet to work out some of his frustration at being stymied in his attempt to get home, a place he’d rarely had, in the spiritual sense, most of his life. He’d always had a home of sorts, a covering over his head, but few places had ever been home. As he walked under the moonlight, he thought about what had made those few homes he’d had, and it had always been the people. When he’d felt the true sense of home, it was because he felt a deep connection to a person.
Now Portland was his home because of Gwen and Maggie and his friends, Delilah, Pablo, Sam, and Simone. Home was the place he genuinely wanted to be, it was the place he wanted to take Roxi so he could have her as part of his home as well. But right now, this improvised fort was his home, and he’d defend the people in it until his last breath.
They’d repelled a couple more probing attacks around the sides of the camp. With a couple of hours before dawn, the vamps and their allies even ventured a three-pronged attack, hitting two spots at the back and one at the front, but they couldn’t make it through the hardened defenders.
When the first glow rose over the mountains in the east, they all released a collective sigh of relief. The vampires would go to bed soon, leaving only whatever collection of werewolves and possibly allied humans they had. Taking advantage of the transition time, he sent Pablo and a group back to the cabins to get a few hours of sleep and sent a couple folks to relieve Delilah and Simone from their patrol so they could rest, leaving Luke, Roxi, Jung-sook, and Owen awake to handle the camp while they rested.
Luke couldn’t stop yawning, some so big he felt his jaw pop.
“You should be back with them taking a nap. You’re no good to us half asleep.” Jung-sook dipped into her pocket to pull out a snack.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m as fresh as a daisy.” He barely made it through the statement without yawning again.
Several people chuckled, though Luke wasn’t sure if it was because he’d tried a Doc Holliday accent or because he’d yawned, graphically proving Jung-sook’s point.
