Vampire Nation 3: Titan Rules, page 4
I saw a small oxygen tank and had a bad thought. I dismissed the thought since it might explode and kill many more humans. I knew I could make the doctor and intern look like they died in a fight between them. How could I explain the fire to burn the corpses?
My thoughts were interrupted by a security guard. He came rushing into the room and looked around warily. His eyes passed over me a few times.
“Can we help you?” The doctor asked the guard.
“Where did the man go?”
“What man? It has only been the two of us here for some time.” The doctor replied.
“He was walking around looking at the two of you. He seemed to be paying close attention to what you were saying. Then he walked over and unplugged the security camera.” The guard walked over and plugged the camera back in.
“Are you on drugs? There hasn’t been anyone here!” The intern was nearly shouting now. “The doctor thinks this guy was a vampire and you are talking about someone who wasn’t here. I guess you’ll think it was a ghost!”
“I tell you I saw it! It is on the security feed! I can prove it.” The guard was upset now too.
I saw the thought in time to stop him. The guard was about to leave the room and start a fuss over what he saw on the monitor. I made a quick decision.
First, I sped over and unplugged the camera again. Then I became visible and used the mind control to make the guard stand still. The doctor and intern were in a state of shock since it looked like I just appeared out of thin air. I headed over and locked the door so there wouldn’t be any more visitors.
“What the hell?” The intern uttered.
“Both of you would do well to shut up. It looks like I will need to kill you both. Don’t give me more of a reason.” I told them.
“Why would you need to kill us?” The doctor asked.
“You’ve seen too much. Just so you know, you were right. This was a vampire.” My words had the desired effect. The intern was terrified and the doctor was pleased as punch. They both shut up.
I pulled out my phone. I really needed Ghost.
“What’s up?”
“I’m at the morgue with the corpses. There is also a doctor, an intern, and a security guard present. Things are getting a little messed up right now.”
“I would have thought you would go invisible.”
“I did but there was a security camera that brought the security guard. You can probably figure the rest out.”
“He came to investigate. Damn, now you might have to kill them. I know you hate to kill humans.”
“What I am worried about is the camera feed. I unplugged the camera but you know it recorded everything up until then.”
“Hold on.” Ghost said. I heard the wind rushing by the phone and knew he was running. “Lorac, we have a problem. Do you have a hacker or anyone who is good with electronics? We need to erase security camera recordings.”
“Yes, Zap. What is going on?” Lorac asked.
“Let’s get him and I can tell you both at once.” Ghost told him.
I heard more wind then. I watched as the doctor and intern looked at me in both wonder and fear. I wasn’t in their minds to know their actual thoughts.
“Zap, we need you.” Lorac’s voice could be heard.
“Yes, Lorac. How can I help?” I guess it was Zap. I didn’t recognize the voice.
“Titan needs to know how to erase recorded video feeds at a hospital. Is that possible?” Ghost asked.
“Of course. I will need to know some things before I can walk him through it though.” Zap replied.
“Let me finish the job here in the morgue. We will get to that soon. I just needed to know we could more than anything.” I told them. “Hold on for a minute.”
First, I went into the guards mind. I saw where the feeds led to. There was a room he had been watching from where they monitored things. There was another guard there. One more to deal with.
Second, I pulled the other vampire corpses and piled them on the floor. I made sure to get the heads and any organs the doctor had removed so far. Once they were in a pile and ready to burn, I turned my attention to the three humans.
“Do we really have to die?” The intern asked.
“It would be better for you than being turned. It is hard to survive the gauntlet.” I spoke without thinking.
I was busy devising the best fight scenario. I figured I could have the intern stab the doctor first. Then he could stab the guard. The guard could get off one shot to the chest of the intern. That would work. I would wait until the bodies were burned to fire the gun. It would be good enough.
“You, grab a scalpel.” I told the intern.
I walked over to where he and the doctor stood. Once he had the scalpel in his hand, I quickly grabbed his hand and used it to stab the doctor through the heart.
“Holy shit! Why did you do that?” The intern yelled.
“Be quiet! He had to die. So does the guard.” I told him.
Before he could react, I carried him closer to the guard and repeated the stab through the heart. I used the mind control again. This time to make the intern stand still while I burned the corpses.
I walked over and called one of the fire gifts to mind. I selected the gift that was like a flamethrower. The flames shot out of my hand and hit the corpses. They were burning quickly as all vampires must. The bodies were ashes in less than one minute. Luckily, the fire alarm did not go off.
I sighed as I braced my mind for the next few minutes. This would be the last of the calm for the humans in this hospital for some time. I used the guards hand to pull the gun from the holster at the guard’s side. He was on the floor where he fell after being stabbed by the intern. He was already dead. I aimed carefully and shot the intern through the heart.
I then sped back to the door and unlocked it. Once that was done, I turned invisible and incorporeal. This was the time to head to the security office to erase the feed.
The halls were full of frightened people. The other security guards were rushing toward the morgue. I calmly walked to the security office. This would give the remaining guards time to leave the room.
It didn’t quite work out the way I’d planned. One guard was still there watching the monitors. I made myself corporeal again and locked the door. I let the guard see me so he would stand up. I used the mind control to make sure that was all he did.
“Now, Zap, here is the system. I need to know how to erase what the cameras have recorded.” I said, before using the camera on my phone. I panned across the system slowly.
“Okay, Titan. I’ve seen what I need to know. Now…” Zap walked me through step by step of finding what I needed and erasing the copies of me being in this hospital. It only took a few minutes to complete.
“Thank you, Zap.” I said in relief.
“Anytime.” He responded.
“Titan, do you see any more problems?” Lorac asked.
“Only this guard. Lorac, will you need a newbie anytime soon? He is young and strong looking.” I was reaching but I hated the killing.
“Sure, bring him with you. At worst he can be used as a donor.” Lorac sounded amused. He usually sounded that way.
“Thanks guys. I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Glad we could help.” Ghost replied.
We disconnected.
I walked in front of the guard and released the hold of the mind control. His eyes grew with his fear. He had heard everything, he just wasn’t able to react.
“If you behave yourself, you will live…sort of, anyway. I am a vampire. I am one of the strongest of my kind. If you do anything to draw attention to yourself while we walk out of here, you will die and so will other people. You don’t want to be the cause of other people dying do you?” I spoke in a calm manner. I wanted him to understand what I was saying.
“N-No.” He stammered.
“Good. Now, I am going to become invisible. I will be right by your side the whole way. I am going to lead you to my car. Don’t say a word to anyone. One wrong move and people die.” I hated this. I sounded like the bad guy in a movie. I was the good guy, damn it!
“I understand.” The guard wore a sad but determined look. He knew he was in trouble but he didn’t want others to suffer.
“Good. Let’s go.” I turned invisible and placed my hand on his back to guide the way.
We made it out of the hospital without any further incidents. My sigh of relief was satisfying to say the least. I didn’t get to enjoy the relief though. I still needed to see the neighbor to find out what she heard.
“We have a stop to make. I need to find out how much a woman heard.” I said, offhand.
“What if she doesn’t want to tell you? You aren’t going to hurt her are you?” The guard asked sternly. I wanted to laugh. He thought he was going to protect her from me.
“Look, first off, if I wanted to hurt this woman, there is nothing you could do to stop me. Relax, she won’t even know I’m there. I have a wide range of things I can do. Turning invisible and mind reading are among those things.” I told him.
“Can all vampires do this stuff?”
“You will be able to do one thing. You get one gift. It’s kind of a long story about me that I don’t feel like telling right now. I can do a bunch of things instead of just one. That’s enough for you to know.”
“Will I live forever?”
“Maybe. There is a ten fight gauntlet you will have to face. If you make it through that, then you could live a really long time. What is your name anyway?” I asked him.
“Thomas. And you are?”
“Titan. If you make it through a few fights, you get renamed.” I knew the address and was headed that way. I was using Thomas’s knowledge of Chicago to help me navigate. A new thought dawned on me. “Describe yourself to me. Tell me some of your personal driving points.”
“Like what?”
“Are you purely good? Do you consider yourself overly driven? Are you sensitive to other people’s emotions? Anything you think stands out about you.”
“I really like to help people. Doing good deeds for others has always been my goal. Why are you asking me this?” Thomas was confused.
“I have a theory. I’m hoping to see which gift you are given and compare you to others.” I knew it might be a waste of time. I couldn’t stop myself though.
We were nearing the apartment complex where the vampires died. I found a parking spot on the street and turned to Thomas. With the mind control, I made him sit still in the car while I went in to read the woman.
Once inside the building, I turned invisible and headed to the third floor.
I turned incorporeal and walked through the wall into the woman’s apartment. I had a funny thought that I might fall through the floor to the basement but I didn’t. Still, I had the flying gift ready to use if necessary.
It was the early hours of the morning. I found the woman asleep in her bed. Good, this would make things less complicated. I went into her mind for a look.
I found the memories I was looking for fairly quickly. Looking through a person’s mind could be a maze of never ending frustration. I figured that since this was recent and exciting, it was closer to the forefront.
She’d been watching television when it started. When she heard the raised voices, she hit the mute button on the remote. She even went to put her ear up to the wall. She was nosey.
“…then how did this happen?”
“How am I supposed to know? They were dead when I walked in. You were two steps behind me, moron! How could I have killed them without you seeing?”
“Shut up! Both of you! We need to figure out what happened here. They couldn’t have killed each other.”
“Maybe one killed the other and ripped his own head off.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Why are you always questioning every damn thing I say? I need to rip your head off!”
The woman was growing alarmed. They sounded really violent. She made her decision to call 911 then. Once the call was placed, she returned her ear to the wall.
“We need to call Gnome.”
“You do it. He killed the last one of us that brought him bad news.”
The voices stopped then. She heard light thuds. Then nothing. She listened for a few minutes but didn’t hear any more from the apartment next to hers. She went and looked out the peep hole in the door but couldn’t see anything unusual. She tried to shrug it off as she waited for the cops to show up.
I sped through her thoughts then. I listened to every word she told the police but saw there wasn’t anything to worry about with this woman. I was about to pull out of her mind when she let loose a huge fart.
I almost laughed but then the smell hit me. I decided to leave then. She didn’t know anything important.
I decided to check the room where the vampires died before leaving the building. There were chalk outlines and little yellow indicators where the police tagged things. I looked around briefly but found nothing out of the ordinary. I wasn’t really sure what I hoped to find in the first place.
Thomas was sitting where I left him. I released the mind control after I sat in the driver seat of the car.
“How do you do that?” Thomas asked.
“Mind control. It is one of my many gifts.”
“It is really uncomfortable! I can see and hear everything but I can’t move. I was just glad I didn’t start itching or something.” Thomas was shaking his head. He seemed to be handling this better than most I’d seen. Of course, most found out after they were turned.
I drove us back to Gnome’s facility. I had driven instead of using the flying gift. I would need the car if it looked easy enough to take the bodies. Since I needed to burn them, the car wasn’t necessary. I was glad I drove instead of flying because of Thomas. Flying might have been too much for him to handle.
It was nearly time for the sun to rise. I thought of Thomas then and made a quick decision. The hill we were approaching looked to be the best spot for what I had in mind. I pulled over and parked at the highest point.
“Why are we stopping?” Thomas was nervous. I saw in his mind that he thought I was going to kill him now.
“Relax, Thomas. This is for you in a way. I want you to watch the sunrise. It might be the last time you ever see it.” I told him.
He grew reflective then. He understood.
Chapter 6
“…so I drove us back here. I asked Lorac about Thomas. I figured one of you could use him for a newbie. He would need to die but I’d already killed three. I couldn’t stomach another.” I related the previous night’s activity. Lorac and Ghost were on the phone listening to every word. Arria was sitting by my side in Gnome’s lobby room.
Since so much was riding on what I accomplished during the night, everyone was still awake though it was now daytime. I could see how tired Arria was. Lorac and Ghost might not be too much better.
“I understand, Titan. Well, it wasn’t perfect but it will work. The corpses are disposed of and the cop is the only one left with knowledge of us.” Arria summed it up.
“He was too terrified to say anything against us. I saw his mind clearly. He won’t become a problem. He could even be used again someday.” I said.
“What about Gnome? Did you find him?” Lorac asked.
“No but I am sure he is in the incinerator. We found a few bodies there and the door was open. Whoever did this was trying to burn them. Titan must have interrupted the cleanup.” Arria informed us.
“Who could get by Titan unnoticed? He even sees invisible vampires by their gift. I still can’t see Ares doing this. Cronus maybe?” Ghost pondered.
“After three thousand years, Cronus isn’t going to announce he is still alive by killing an entire facility of vampires. From what I remember, Cronus was peaceful in nature. Lorac, do you remember him differently?” Arria looked puzzled.
“Peaceful is a good way to describe him. He was fair as well. He wouldn’t be the type to kill unless there was just cause.” Lorac stated.
“Lorac, call a council meeting for my facility. We will hold an event just for council members while they are there. I will have our plane in the air as soon as we finish cleaning this place. Every vampire will be incinerated. I am going to push my guys to get this done now. They will have the chance to rest on the plane and after we land.” Arria ordered. I agreed with her. It would be better to get this done and fly out of here today.
“Yes, Arria.” Lorac said, before disconnecting.
Arria sighed.
“I will go help with the cleaning. It will give me a chance to think. Doing busywork can do that sometimes. Although it seems wrong to call disposing of bodies as busywork.” I told her as I stood to leave.
“You did great, Titan. Those corpses would have caused us more trouble than you know.” Arria stood with me.
“I hated to kill those humans but I knew it needed to be done.” I leaned down and kissed Arria lightly before I headed out into the metallic gray hallway to help with the bodies.
The dull green hallways of Arria’s facility were a welcome sight. We’d taken a nap on the plane but it wasn’t a long ride from Chicago to Nashville. Arria and I decided to split the duty of running everything. She would go to bed first while I remained awake in case something important came up. These days it was becoming rare to go a full day without something needing our attention.
One more thing was decided by Arria. Since the timing was crucial in turning a newbie, she asked me to do it. I would be the one awake when Thomas needed to be turned.
“Hello?” Reptile answered.
“Hey, Reptile. Where did you put the human? Is he in the newbie room?” I asked.
“Yes. I wasn’t sure if he was going to be turned or going to be a donor. I decided I would put him in the room and ask you tonight.” He answered.
“Good. We are going to hold an event for the council members. They are on their way here for a meeting. It looks like I will be the one turning the newbie. I needed to know for sure that he was there. You can let the fighters know about the event when you have time.”
