Vampire Nation 3: Titan Rules, page 3
“So we have a game plan. I can drop Titan off at Gnome’s before flying home. It is on the way.” Arria was relaxing some.
“Call before you land in Chicago in case I have other things to suggest.” Ghost told me. I understood that completely, Arria and Lorac might not. Ghost would have already considered everything with our current information. He must have something he didn’t want them to hear. I was intrigued.
“I will.” I promised. It took only a second to see it. “Arria will be needing to go to the after party soon. Is there anything else?”
“We will let you know.” Ghost said, before disconnecting. I could hear his smile.
“Alright, I need to make an appearance. I am going to try and make it a short stay. Tell Reptile we will be leaving early in the morning. Make sure the plane will be ready for us.” Arria instructed. She kissed me before walking out the door.
I waited a few minutes to make sure Ghost was away from Lorac before I pulled my phone out.
“I needed to make sure you understood how careful you need to be. Honestly, if I hadn’t met him I would be blaming this on Ares. Any old one could kill these six without them being able to defend themselves. The thing that gets me is the reasoning behind it. I’m expecting a lot more calls to come in over the next few days.” Ghost was speaking in that tone that made my head hurt. I was very happy I couldn’t read his mind through the phone.
“Arria wouldn’t let me out of her sight if she’d heard you say that. Good call on keeping this from them.”
“Lorac isn’t much better these days. He sees how great things are with you as the enforcer for the council. He might move to be there to help protect you himself.” Ghost surprised me with that one.
“Well, thanks for the warning. Any ideas on who this could be though? Are you sure it isn’t a group? Hermes or Gronk come to mind for what you are proposing.”
“Not them. They don’t have a problem with vampires living on their own away from the facilities. That is the best motive for the first two that died. Some don’t think we should risk letting vampires live freely among humans at all, as you know. Gronk and Hermes are more agreeable to that concept. Lorac and I have had many discussions on things like that. I knew this kind of information could come in handy from time to time. Looks like I was right.”
“Why couldn’t this be a group though?” I asked.
“It would be harder to hide. Remember, the group from last year was being protected by some of the council. They had all the help they needed to keep things quiet. This is small and more surgical in nature. It leads me to think it is a solo effort.” Ghost reasoned.
I knew not to question Ghost’s conclusions. I can catch up when he is leading me by the hand but I can’t truly match his intellect even with time for reflection. He doesn’t need the time. Smart bastard.
“Why there? Why Chicago? Does the location give us any clues?” I asked.
“Gnome would be a questionable persona that would draw anyone wanting to clear the shady parts of the vampire world. That explains why this vampire stuck around. It does throw some timing questions off. There are things that are confusing the hell out of me.”
“No way! You’re confused? I didn’t think that was possible.” I teased.
“That is the biggest reason for the warning. Be careful, Titan.” Ghost tone told me how concerned he was.
“I will make sure I stay alert. Let me know if those calls do come in like you are expecting. It will make a difference when we have proof to back you up.”
“Will do. By the way, I doubt I need to say this but don’t take any of the group with you. They would be in too much danger.”
“I agree.”
We disconnected.
I sat down heavily. I didn’t really feel like thinking this deeply at the moment. I tried to push it out of my mind but couldn’t. The phone was mostly forgotten in my hand. When I realized I was still holding it, I moved to put it away. That reminded me to call Reptile and the pilot to get them prepared for an early departure. No, my mind wasn’t in the right place for this level of thought.
Chapter 4
The plane landed at Gnomes facility. His place was a little southwest of Chicago. Arria spoke to him during the flight to make sure he expected my arrival.
“Handle this one quickly if you can. We need to burn the bodies or get rid of them somehow.” Arria started in for the hundredth time.
“I will find a way.” I tried assure her.
“Use the packets I placed in the briefcase. When working with humans, money talks louder than anything.” Arria was much more nervous than I was.
“Got it.” I smiled at Arria. She got the point.
“I know, I know. I need to relax. You know what you’re doing.” She tried a nervous smile.
“If I run into problems, you and Ghost are only a phone call away. I will take care of this.” I restated. I wasn’t nearly as confident as I sounded but I knew she needed to hear the words.
I left the plane, heading into Gnome’s facility. I was surprised to find the hangar empty. Usually, the old ones would make sure to have someone greet me. I shook it off and entered the shaft that would lead me to the main parts of the underground maze.
The walls were metallic gray. It looked a bit unusual to me. The walls became a gray streak as I started to run.
I stopped running soon enough. I grabbed my phone but wanted to see more before I made the call. I followed a few more corridors to what I knew would be a populated area. My fears were now confirmed.
One of the donor rooms had four headless vampires and seven dead donors. The bodies were laid out at random. The killer left them where they died.
I searched the employee section to find many more headless vampires. The fourth floor had fewer corpses but they were there.
I made the call.
“Hello?” Arria answered quickly as was her custom.
“Don’t leave. We have a much bigger problem.” My tone silenced her more than my words. “Come in alone. It might be best not to let the others see this until we know the killer isn’t still here.”
“All?” Arria’s one word question said it all.
“So far. I am still looking.”
She disconnected.
I went through corridor after corridor. Nothing moved. Every vampire was missing a head. I knew I needed to find Gnome. He was the one who counted the most. I made my way to his suite but he wasn’t there.
I searched through the main rooms I would expect him to be in but couldn’t find him anywhere. I was so intent on the search and so unnerved by what I was finding, I jumped three feet when my phone rang.
“Hey.” I said, simply.
“Where are you?”
“The training room. I have been looking for Gnome but can’t find him. I’ve been through his quarters and the rest of the fourth floor.” I spoke in a monotone. Seeing dead vampires wasn’t the same as it would be if they were human but there was still a sadness at the loss of life.
I heard her approach and knew the phone was no longer necessary. I turned to see her coming to a stop a few feet away. Arria’s eyes were bulging.
“The whole facility?” She asked in disbelief.
“Every part I’ve seen so far.”
“I was just talking to Gnome not thirty minutes ago. Everything seemed fine.” Arria’s voice carried more than a bit of fear.
“We need to find Gnome. Or his remains. I would say call his number but with the size of these facilities, we would never find it.”
Arria pulled her phone and dialed. Obviously, we couldn’t hear the ring. She saw the futility in this. It would take hours to narrow down his location this way.
Arria dialed a different number.
“Hello, Arria.” Lorac answered.
“The whole facility is dead, Lorac. We haven’t found Gnome yet. Everyone here is dead.” Arria stated simply.
“Everyone? How?”
“I spoke with Gnome thirty minutes ago. He was fine. Now, every vampire and human in this facility is dead.” Arria was starting to come out of her shock. It looked like anger would be taking its place.
“Hold on.” Lorac was running. Vampire hearing made his actions plain. He was running at great speeds. I heard when he stopped. “Ghost is here now. Walk us through it.”
Arria held the phone out between us. Her look told me she wanted me to be the one to speak. I swallowed and started relating what we’d seen. Lorac and Ghost didn’t interrupt. Their stunned silence spoke volumes though.
“Ghost, what would be the fastest way to find Gnome?” Arria asked.
“Show Titan what Gnome looks like, Arria. Then have Titan use his illusions to show all of your employees. They can spread through the facility and help search.” Ghost answered quickly.
I took out my own phone and dialed Reptile’s number.
“Hello?”
“Reptile, bring the employees to the training room. Tell the fighters to stay put. This is pretty serious. We need you to hurry.”
“Yes, Titan.” Reptile disconnected.
“This is bad but we need to remember the cops have corpses of dead vampires. We can’t let this distract us from the primary goal.” Ghost reminded us.
“I will deal with that tonight. For now, we need to regroup.” I said. I was a bit shaken by this.
“Ares wouldn’t do this. A group of vampires would leave more evidence.” Arria was speaking her thoughts. I wasn’t sure she even knew she was speaking out loud.
“Remember, while you were on the phone with Gnome, these other vampires could have been dying already. It doesn’t mean the whole facility was wiped out in thirty minutes.” Ghost knew to make that clear.
“Still doesn’t narrow it down. It would take someone with considerable age to kill this many vampires. I can’t see where they even fought back. It would be hard to tell that for sure though.” I added.
“Exactly. We can’t tell anything for sure yet. It would be nice if you could find a survivor.” Ghost was in deep thought mode. I doubted even he could do much with the information we had at this point.
We were silent for a few minutes. I was at a loss and would have remained silent. Reptile entered with our group then.
The look on their faces told the story. They were in a state between anger and shock.
“Arria, think of Gnome so I can get a picture to show them.” I instructed. I saw the picture clearly and formed the illusion. “Everyone, study this closely. We need to find this vampire if we can. This is Gnome, the old one for this facility.”
“I want you to travel in pairs. Keep each other in sight at all times. If one of you is attacked, run. Don’t try to fight back. Find me or Titan as fast as you can. Whoever did this would be more than any of you could face.” Arria told them.
The group was paired off and assigned floors to search. I reminded them to be as careful as they could be while they looked for Gnome or any survivors.
Nothing. We spent over an hour looking but found nothing. Gnome wasn’t found. No survivors. We gathered our vampires in the lobby room.
“I still need to go into Chicago. I have to deal with the corpses.” I reminded Arria.
“I know. Gnome will have a car for you to take. I hate this. It’s too much to deal with at one time.” Arria’s mixture of sadness and anger made me want to stay and comfort her. I knew I needed to go though.
“I will be back as soon as I can.”
With a kiss goodbye, I headed out.
Chapter 5
Luckily, we already had the number for the detective on Gnome’s payroll. Detective Washington would be at a small twenty-four hour coffeehouse waiting on me.
I never liked big cities. I found myself sticking to small towns in out of the way places for most of my days after I ran away from home. Arria found me in a diner outside of Nashville. Her facility was a little north of there.
Chicago was as I expected it to be. Crowded. As a human, I didn’t like being around a lot of people. As a vampire, I didn’t like being around a lot of people.
My looks were helpful as a human. If I draw too many stares as a vampire, someone might notice just how pale I actually am now. It would have been much better if I were more average in appearance. It’s tough being gorgeous.
I parked on the street and made my way into the coffeehouse. The detective made a slight motion to let me know he was the one I was looking for. I made my way past the other tables to sit across from him.
“I don’t know how much I can help. Eight bodies can’t disappear so easily.” He spoke nervously and in a rush.
I looked him over quickly. He was black, tall, and around forty years old. He looked scared. I wondered at his experiences with Gnome. I decided to find out.
I entered his mind. Humans had no concept of how to hide their thoughts. I searched quickly to find his memories. Gnome paid well but used scare tactics and threats. I needed to use a calmer approach.
“It can be done. Where are the bodies?” I asked. I saw everything in his head before he told me out loud.
“The morgue at the county hospital. Access to the bodies is restricted. There are only a few who can get in to see them. If I acted, there would be an investigation and I would be found out.” Detective Washington spoke the truth.
“Give me a minute to think.” I told him.
What I really wanted was more information. I went through his memories of the hospital where the bodies were. I saw the layout and found my way to get to them. Getting the bodies out would be harder.
Knowing how fast vampire bodies burned would help. A full corpse would be nothing but ashes in little more than a minute. I hated the thought of a fire hazard in a hospital full of humans but I didn’t see an alternative.
“Alright. I can take care of the bodies. Now, for you.” I brought the briefcase up to the table and opened it. I pulled one of the fifty thousand dollar envelopes to give to the cop. “This might be your last deal with a vampire. The bodies will be disposed of by me. All you need to do is try and keep them on the wrong track. It shouldn’t be too difficult. We have your number if we need to ask for your services again. Consider this a retainer.”
He didn’t open the envelope. His relief was apparent on his face. I’m fairly sure he thought he would be killed when he was no longer needed. I didn’t bother to check his mind to see if that was the case.
“Thank you.” He said.
“I hate this part, Detective.” I looked him in the eye to make sure he heard every word completely. “I don’t make idle threats. If one word of us gets out, you will be the one we look for first. Please make sure to keep your knowledge to yourself. You really do not want to see me again.”
“I understand.” He did. I saw the fear in his mind. He would take our secret to the grave. More importantly, he would do what he could to hide our involvement in what I was planning next.
The hospital was busy. It would make what I was planning a little harder. I turned invisible before entering the building. I followed the cop’s memories more than the signs for the morgue. Once there, I walked through the walls using the incorporeal gift.
Two men were there. Damn. I’d hoped to find the room empty so I could get this done quickly. I walked forward to see what they were doing.
One of the vampires was being autopsied.
“His organs look in pristine shape. It is one baffling thing after another. There is no trace of food in his stomach. No signs of aging at all. Even the decomposing isn’t natural. This man appears to be in his twenties but it looks like his organs have never been used.” The doctor’s confusion rang true.
I went into his mind. His mental state was scary to watch. There were more anomalies in this one corpse than he’d seen in his thirty years of medicine combined. This was the first of the corpses. He was supposed to get through as many of them as he could during this shift. He wanted to forget the others and concentrate on this corpse.
He had a thought that sealed his fate. He and a colleague regularly discussed the bizarre. They even went into hypotheticals during their discussions. Each wondered over what an immortal’s internal organs would look like. This corpse was fitting that profile.
I pulled out of his mind to enter the other man’s head. He was a bored intern. He was supposed to be learning but was nearing the end of a very long shift. He was barely paying attention to the doctor. I hoped he might get to live.
“Can’t be that strange. He was just a man.” The intern stated.
“That’s just it. I’ve done hundreds of autopsies and have never seen these things. A full grown man whose liver is in better shape than a newborn baby’s isn’t supposed to happen. It is like his entire body was healed of everything just before he died.” The doctor persisted.
“Maybe he was a vampire.” The intern was trying to make a joke. It hit home with the doctor. It hit too hard.
“That’s it!” The doctor was almost jumping for joy.
“I was joking. You don’t really think he was a vampire do you?” The intern was between worry and laughter at the old doctor.
“No food in his stomach, unused organs in mint condition, and not one scar on his entire body would make sense if he was a vampire. They are supposed to heal themselves really quickly. Every movie or book has it.”
“Those are movies and books. This is real life. Have you lost your mind?” The intern was getting more worried now.
“Why are there so many tales of vampires? There have been myths about them for thousands of years. Did you ever think there was a reason behind the myths? They would know humans would kill them if we found out!”
Their little debate went on. I was looking around the room to find out what I could use. I needed to make this look like an accident. These two would have to die and the bodies needed to be burned. I was drawing a blank. Where was Ghost when I really needed him?
My attention was drawn to a security camera in the corner of the room. I thought myself invisible so I didn’t look when I entered. I would need to hope I wouldn’t show up on camera. I walked over and unplugged the camera just in case.
