The Pilgrims of the Damned: A Vampire Thriller, page 40
“So can he see you?” Carol asked.
“It’s why I removed it,” Miles said.
“Why would they make a deal with the Magistrate?” Bethany asked.
“They found something in the library that suggested the blood of a Dusk can be used to kill vampires,” Miles said. “The Magistrate have scientists who think that they can use it to create a weapon, although I don’t know if they really can or not. Ulfrik saw it all. Thought it was pretty funny, considering that he was just going to kill them all anyway.”
“They were just going to betray one another,” Lauren said.
“That’s what happens when you get a bunch of egotistic arseholes together and ask them to cooperate,” Miles said, tapping his head. “I also have a lot of shitty memories of Ulfrik now living in my head. Ulfrik wants what’s his. Those who betrayed him took away his city, moved him away from it. He wants it back. He has a connection with those he turned; he knows that some of those who betrayed him are still in the city. He wants vengeance first before he continues his plan.”
“And that was?” Bethany asked.
“The subjugation of humanity,” Miles said. “He wants to destroy anyone who is of a bloodline he decrees to be lesser than his. And he thinks all bloodlines are lesser than his. And his throne sits directly under a human city. A human city that would give him a lot of people to subjugate.”
“Ulfrik is heading to Brunswick,” Lauren said.
Miles nodded. “That horde of desolate we saw outside of Waterville is going to Brunswick. They’re following their master. Or their master’s master. Either way, Ulfrik is the pied piper where the desolate are concerned. Thousands of desolate are making their way through the Maine countryside toward Brunswick.”
“You sure?” Carol asked.
Miles nodded. “Yeah, he’s like a gigantic beacon for desolate. Every single one of their number in this state is linked to him, even if it’s by generations removed.”
“If we kill him, will that kill everyone he turned?” Bethany asked.
“No,” Lauren said.
“It will weaken those he turned,” Miles said. “But it will be temporary. Killing him shouldn’t be our goal. I don’t even know how we’d kill him.”
“Brunswick,” Amelia said from the doorway. “We need to get a warning to them.”
Miles stood and stretched. “Yes we do. They’re about to fight tens of thousands of desolate. By the time they’re done, no one is going to survive. Ulfrik is probably the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen. He’s not fully powered up, and he’s not altogether there in a mental sense. He’s also very not human. He looks like some kind of monstrous amalgamation of vampire beast, and a desolate. It’s not good. He’s stronger than me, faster, definitely more resilient, and honestly I’d like to not have to fight him alone. So, anyone who wants to can come with us and try to stop a vampiric god-like creature from, I presume, murdering a lot of people.”
“This is going to be a hell of a day,” Lauren said.
“Aye,” Miles said. “So, now everyone is caught up. Let’s get to that tram, let’s get back to Brunswick and stop him. Because I don’t think any of us is prepared to fight a Dusk if that same Dusk ever actually recovers all of his power. Also, does anyone have a satellite phone? I have friends at the border, and we might actually need help.”
“Friends?” Carol asked.
“The FBI,” Miles said. “Or a part of them. Anyway, we need to stop Ulfrik, and the more the merrier at the moment.”
“We haven’t been able to use it for a few weeks,” Bethany said.
“Oh, fucking hell,” Miles exclaimed, before he thought for a second. “Okay, where’s the Major?”
“Outside,” Bethany said.
Miles exited the room with everyone following him as he descended the stairs outside, crossing the parking area at the front of the motel toward the car he’d abandoned a while ago. Where the Major and Maeve stood talking.
“Hey, I need a hand,” Miles said. “You up for a very dangerous job?”
“Glad you’re awake,” the Major said. “What do you have in mind?”
“I need you to get to Kittery,” Miles said. “Move fast, don’t stop. Take whatever you need. We need Samuel Austin—he’s an FBI agent, and hopefully he’ll be able to get some people to help stop Ulfrik if we can’t. When you get outside of this miasma bullshit, get in contact with Drest, First Lord of House Venator. Let him know what’s going on. If we can’t stop Ulfrik, you’re going to need every bit of help to take down a Dusk.”
“You think you can kill a Dusk?” Maeve asked.
Miles shrugged, thought for a second, and shook his head. “I tore his throat open, and he still managed to get away without much trouble, so no. But if we can hurt him enough, he’ll be forced to go back into hibernation.”
“So, we just have to hurt a Dusk?” the Major said. “Not sounding a whole lot better.”
“At this point, I’ll take forcing him away from the town with thousands of people living there.”
“We’re not exactly brimming with good odds here,” Lauren said.
“What happens when you get into the city and Ulfrik takes control of your mind?” Miles asked. “Between him and this talisman, they had you for a while.”
“The talisman interferes with his ability to communicate or control me,” Lauren said. “He could never talk to me if Stuart was nearby, it was like having them both together shorted out that power. I won’t be able to fight Ulfrik, but so long as that talisman is near, I won’t worry about being controlled.”
“The last time I wore it, my brain broke,” Miles said. “And he’ll be able to see what I see.”
“So don’t put it on until we’re close enough that the latter doesn’t matter,” Lauren said. “And maybe try it on now that the blood you drank has dissipated.”
Miles reluctantly put the talisman on, bracing himself for… whatever might happen. When nothing did, he looked over at Lauren. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Maybe you shorted it out,” Lauren said.
Vampire. A familiar voice boomed in Miles’s head.
Miles removed the talisman. “He can see me,” he said. “If it stops him controlling you, I’ll keep it with me. Maybe it’ll be useful.”
“I’d like the chance to give some payback,” Lauren said.
“I guess I’m your shield, then,” Miles said, not exactly thrilled about wearing the talisman again, but hoping by the time it was necessary any advantage that Ulfrik might have when Miles put it on would be useless.
“Anything else?” the Major asked.
“We need to rescue Thomas,” Miles said. “I’m not leaving him in the hands of the First Priest. Also, I’d very much like to kill the First Priest. Definitely sure he can die.”
“I think it would be better to keep him alive,” the Major said. “He needs to answer for his actions. I think First Lord Fuller would like to have a conversation.”
“I’m not promising anything,” Miles said. “But I’ll do my best. How long to get us to Brunswick? And I mean without stopping like the pilgrimage.”
“Few hours,” Carol said. “But I can’t leave Bangor undefended.”
“What about Commander Bailey?” Amelia asked. “He won’t be happy to see us again.”
“The Commander knows where the library is,” Miles said. “He let Simon and Liam use it to find out more about using Dusk blood as a weapon, so we find him, he tells us where it is.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Amelia asked.
“We’ll ask him nicely,” Lauren said.
“If Simon and Liam found something that lets the blood of a Dusk get turned into a weapon against vampires, we need to know exactly how much they told Bailey, and how much the Magistrate knows,” Miles said. “One way or another, Bailey has a reckoning coming his way, but let’s get to the library and intercept Ulfrik first. Who knows what else that mad bastard has squirreled away in there.”
“This is going to be a long day,” Lauren said.
Miles looked around at the determined faces before him. “Okay, let’s go stop a Dusk from burning a city to the ground.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
You could see Brunswick burn from miles away.
The second Miles smelled the unfortunately familiar scent of burning, he climbed out of the back of the truck, where Lauren, Amelia, and Church sat, and onto the top of the truck cab. The wall around the city was broken in several places, and a lot of the larger buildings spewed dark smoke and fire into the night sky.
The truck pulled to a stop several hundred meters from what had once been one of the fort-like entrances into the city, and was now little more than a heap of burning brick and stone. Gunfire sounded from inside the town, populated by the screams of people who had been unfortunate enough to encounter the huge number of desolate that Miles expected inside.
“There are thousands of them in there,” Lauren said as she joined Miles on the soft dirt road. “Tens of thousands. I can feel them like a pressure on my mind. So many desolate.”
Miles grabbed Lauren’s hand as she stumbled back, catching her before she fell.
“Thank you,” Lauren said. “I’m okay. It’s just… a lot.”
“Are you going to be okay in there?”
Lauren shrugged. “I have to try.”
Miles watched as the second truck took a different turn behind where they stood and set off along a firmer road. He touched the talisman that was inside his pocket. He couldn’t risk putting it on and having Ulfrik see where he was, but at the same time, it was something that might come in handy.
Five soldiers climbed out the back of the truck, along with Xander the vampire councillor from Brunswick, and Bethany, who Miles wasn’t sure had ever seen actual combat before. Bethany climbed down from the truck cab and leaned up against it, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag, before blowing smoke rings into the air.
“Right,” Miles said. “We get inside, and all head toward wherever Commander Bailey is. After that, Church, Lauren, Amelia, and I will find Thomas. Bethany, I want you and the soldiers here to help the Commander’s people. That means killing a lot of desolate. Do not engage Ulfrik, just try to help the people here.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldiers all said in unison.
Bethany flicked her cigarette onto the floor, stamping on it with a world-weary sigh. “Let’s go.”
They moved up toward the town as quickly as possible, with Church taking the lead until they reached the hole in the wall, and the smell of the dead made everyone pause.
Miles looked around the wall and saw the uniformed bodies that littered the ground, most missing large parts of them, which certainly explained the stench. He wished they could’ve gotten the trucks into the city, but it would have meant clearing out a lot of debris, and they didn’t have time.
“Church, check out the inside, and remove any targets that might be a problem,” Miles said. “Stay low. Stay hidden.”
Church licked Miles’s hand and bounded off into the remains of the fort-like structure. Miles, Lauren, Amelia, and the others followed shortly after, with Miles motioning for the soldiers to head off to the right toward a two-storey building that looked like an old repurposed office block.
The inner courtyard was a mess of blood and bodies—both human and desolate—but the controls to the gates were still functional, and Miles was grateful that they opened without any problems. Although that feeling quickly went away when the scale of what had happened to Brunswick was visible.
“Holy shit,” Amelia said.
The street beyond the fort was awash with more bodies, both desolate and human. A large apartment block sat at the end of the street, flames flickering out of the smashed windows as the desolate crawled over the outside. Some desolate were sitting on the front lawn of the apartment block, feasting on those people unlucky enough to get caught.
“Clear,” one of the soldiers said as they exited the old office block to the side of the courtyard. They stared at the carnage a few hundred meters in front of them. “We have to help.”
Everyone set off at a wordless run toward the apartments, when a Humvee pulled up outside of it, a machine gun sitting atop, which opened fire on the desolate, turning them to chunks of meat in seconds. An APC rolled in behind, the doors opening and troops in full tactical gear exiting, quickly making their way into the block.
The machine gunner atop the Humvee noticed Miles and the others, and swivelled the gun in their direction.
“On your side!” Miles bellowed, raising his hands in the air. “Not desolate.”
The door to the Humvee opened and a young man got out. “Miles!” he shouted.
“Clint?” Miles called back. The group hadn’t stopped walking the entire time, but every single one of them kept an eye on the machine gunner hoping they didn’t have a nervous disposition or a twitchy trigger finger.
“It’s okay,” Clint said. “He’s on our side.”
“He’s a vampire,” the gunner said. He was loud enough that even without his exceptional hearing, Miles would have heard.
“Stand down, soldier,” Clint snapped.
That did the trick, and the machine gunner visibly relaxed.
Miles reached Clint and they shook hands. “Where’s Louisa?”
“She’s farther in the city,” Clint said. He had spots of blood on his face and armour, along with several scratches along the armour itself. He’d been in a hell of a fight.
Gunfire sounded out from inside the apartment block.
“You need any help?” the soldier asked.
Clint shook his head. “We’ve got this.”
“Where’s Commander Bailey?” Miles asked.
Clint looked a little confused.
“We need to coordinate,” Amelia said. “Otherwise we’re all running off doing our own thing.”
“The Commander is fighting inside the city,” the machine gunner said and chuckled. “He’s killing a lot of desolate; we can take whatever is thrown at us.”
“I assure you,” Lauren said, “you can’t.”
“She’s right,” Miles said. “This isn’t something your people can do alone.”
“He went over toward the bay to look at the defences there,” Clint said. “He was there when the attack happened. I imagine he’s still there.”
“What’s the quickest way to get there?” Miles asked.
Clint motioned off down the road to the left of where they stood. “Straight down here for a few miles, until you reach a sign pointing to the right. It says Bay Area on it in red writing. Turn down there, and follow it until you reach a bridge. Over the bridge, turn first right, first left, and continue on. It’s signposted after that. You can’t miss it.”
“Any chance of a vehicle?” Amelia asked.
“About a kilometer in that direction is an old garage,” Clint said. “We use it to take our transport to get fixed. Should still be a bunch of vehicles there, although I can’t vouch for their condition.”
“That’ll do,” Miles said. “Take care, Clint. We’re going to go stop this mess before anyone else gets hurt.”
“You too, sir,” Clint said, shaking Miles’s hand, before nodding to Lauren and Amelia. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”
“Me too,” Miles told him.
The group set off at a run along the road, the sounds of fighting getting more intense the farther into the city they went.
“This is bad,” Lauren said. “I can smell so much blood.”
“Can you ignore it?” Miles said.
“It’s not easy,” Lauren said. “It’s… a lot.”
Miles continued on until they reached the garage that Clint had told them about. The garage was open, tools thrown onto the floor, presumably in the haste for everyone to get away from the impending desolate attack.
There were two converted Toyota Land Cruisers that had been adapted to include several bulletproof panels around the doors and wheel bases. Each vehicle also had a roll cage inside, and most of the extraneous parts of the interior that had once been there for comfort or storage replaced with bare floors and seats, which looked as if they would keep you strapped in should the car flip but not actually provide anything close to a comfortable riding experience.
They found the keys easily enough as they were on a rack at the rear of the workshop, and Miles was happy to discover that they were both fuelled and ready to go. With the soldiers in one vehicle and everyone else in another, they set off through the streets of Brunswick.
Miles considered flying the distance to where the Commander had last been seen, but he didn’t want to arrive tired and be forced to turn back into his more human vampiric self, removing a large weapon from his arsenal when he had to go up against a Dusk. He knew he was going to have to at some point, and he didn’t want to fall at the finish line.
The two cars stopped a short distance from a burning two-storey wooden building, as pieces of fiery paper fluttered out of the smashed windows and rained down onto the ground. The building was beyond saving, and Miles was pretty sure it would collapse under its own weight at some point. The bridge that Clint had mentioned was off in the distance, and there was a lot of fighting between him and their destination.
Miles grabbed the radio from the car, which he’d already made sure was set up to talk to the soldiers in the other vehicle, and activated it. “We’ve got a rough run ahead of us. After that is a lot of open ground, and almost certainly a lot more fighting. Be prepared for some shit to hit the fan.”
“We’re with you,” one of the soldiers said.
Miles replaced the radio and turned to Church. “You ready?”
