Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Lord help me, Jesus,” I shouted as I appeared on the bridge with both middle fingers extended. “Come and get me, you weak-assed sons of bitches.”
“Contain her,” Charlton bellowed to the shocked guards. “Tie her in silver chains!”
They obeyed without question and played right into my hands. All thirty of the armed guards ran at me. I waved and smiled. Ironically—or maybe not, the cowardly masterminds stayed back. The bridge was about to burn. I was willing to burn the bridge while standing on it because the time was right. However, I didn’t just burn things, I blew them up. And while I might stand on the bridge while it burned, that didn’t mean I was going to stay on it…
As the last of the thirty stepped foot onto the metal bridge, I slashed my hands through the air. The explosion rocked the bunker. I was concerned that Ethan and Lizard might be jostled and let go of the ropes prematurely, but I shouldn’t have worried. They were badass warriors who trusted me with their lives. Neither moved a centimeter. They stayed as still as statues. I also had Tracy there as backup to keep them steady.
The screams of the guards as they were blasted into the air and deposited into the piranha-filled moat were not music to my ears. It brought me no joy, but it was them or me, and I liked me a whole lot more. The heat of the fire seeped into my skin as the gnashing of the deadly animals’ jaws made short work of the undead assholes who tried to mess with me. I was half Demon, and a little fire didn’t bother me. Hell, Uncle Fucker lit himself aflame to relax.
As the bridge melted and turned to ash, I transported myself to a spot in front of Ethan and Lizard. The expressions of shock and fury on the faces of Charlton, Josephine and Petro were delightful. Stephano was terrified. He was the only smart one of the bunch—smart being a very relative word.
“Don’t make a move,” Charlton snarled, pulling a razor-sharp katana from beneath his cape while still believing he had the upper hand. “If you do, I’ll pull the rope. The women will die, and the Dhampirs will destroy you, Ethan, and the Demon.”
I raised a brow. “You think so?” I covertly wiggled my fingers and dropped a magical barrier around the women. My foes had no clue.
Josephine laughed. The sound was oily and slimy. “Oh, Astrid, your days of being in charge are over. You’ve always thought you were better and more powerful than us. You were so very wrong. On my order, my children will eat your mate and the disgusting Demon he traveled with. It will be glorious! You will be reduced to nothing, and we will win.”
I laughed. They were all confused. “You’re hilarious,” I said, slapping my thigh. “Should have been comedians. I have a question before you all win … Do any of you happen to know what happens to Dhampirs when they reach puberty?”
No one answered. They exchanged wary glances but had no verbal reply. That was fine. It proved their ignorance. I shrugged and approached Ethan and Lizard. I prayed to every deity that I could think of, and some I probably made up that my hunch and Poosh’s history with the Dhampirs was correct. If not, we’d have to end the Dhampirs along with the scum who’d created them.
Of course, there was only one way to discover the end of the story.
Without fanfare and or any extraneous movement, I pulled the ropes from Ethan and Lizard’s mouths. Charlton, Petro, Josephine and Stephano tried to fly back to the balcony. However, I had a few invisible people in the air.
“Stop them,” I instructed my crew.
Without a moment to spare, Martha, Jane and Poosh launched Augustus and Felix at the fleeing Vamps. When one doesn’t expect a two-hundred-pound muscled rock of a man to bash into you, it’s rather alarming. The four scum of the earth were dropped to the ground like sacks of potatoes hit by a rocket.
“What the fuck?” Lizard muttered.
Ethan shot me a confused glance.
“Augustus and Felix. Martha, Jane and Poosh threw them,” I explained.
“Fuckin’ A,” Lizard shouted. “My gals are the shit!”
The ball had started rolling and it moved fast.
The guillotines didn’t fall. The women were safe. They’d be mentally and physically scarred, but we could solve that problem by erasing their memories of this horror and the others they’d been through, but that would have to wait.
As the Dhampirs left the cages, their screams of agony and pain pierced my heart. The thought of killing them was killing me, but I didn’t see a way out.
I felt Ethan grab me from behind and whisk me into the air. Tracy grabbed Lizard and did the same. We had a bird’s eye view of the worst carnage I’d seen to date… and I’d seen some shit in my time.
“Back,” Charlton shrieked as the Dhampirs approached. “Back. NOW. I command you as your father. Move back.”
His children didn’t listen. Bad dad. Bad kids. What was telling and a massive relief was that the Dhampirs cared nothing for the women in the guillotines. They only had eyes for their makers.
Josephine tried to run, but every time it looked like she was getting somewhere, she was knocked to the ground by invisible forces named Augustus and Felix. My boys were flown back up in the air to safety by Martha and Jane after each surprise attack. Petro was confused and terrified as the crazed and hungry Dhampirs converged on him. It occurred to me he was about to get the same treatment from them as he’d given to the poor human man he’d killed. I felt no pity.
“I beg mercy,” Stephano screamed as he got down on his knees and stared up at Ethan and me. The Vampyre shook like a leaf. “I beg of you. Please spare me.”
“Like you spared all the human women you killed?” I roared as the Dhampirs ran in circles around their makers yelping and shrieking like coyotes.
“I thought I was doing good,” Stephano cried out. “We should rule. We’re the superior species, but this isn’t the right way.”
“You think?” Ethan growled with so much fury in his voice that I shuddered. “You will have no mercy from me. All of you deserve far more than death, but that will have to suffice. You shall suffer the consequences of your crimes.”
The tearing of skin and the rending of limbs mixed with the horrified wailing of the perpetrators was chilling. Josephine’s blood as it poured from her body matched the sequins on her shredded dress. Charlton’s body lay in pieces on top of his cape. His top hat was unrecognizable, as was much of the rest of his body. Stephano didn’t try to fight. He gave in immediately and was ripped to shreds in seconds. I didn’t know if it was guilt or fear. I would never know, and it didn’t matter. Petro tried to bite the Dhampirs back but lost his fangs and his head in the melee. Typically, Vampyres turned to ash shortly after they died. This time, there was nothing left to disintegrate. The Dhampirs ate every bit of their creators’ bodies and licked the blood up when they were done. It was sickening to watch, but watch I did.
Something in their DNA had messed terribly with their brains. It was heartbreaking. They were only children. The reversal of the spell was impossible, but was the reversal of the DNA?
“To the balcony,” I shouted at my people as the Dhampirs walked around in a daze.
“What about them women?” Jane shouted back.
“They’re safe,” I assured her. “I dropped a barrier.”
When we got to the balcony, Tracy removed the cloaking. Ethan questioned Jane and Martha about their lack of shirts. When they explained the reasoning behind the partial nudity, he was speechless. It was difficult to believe. However, when Jane’s nip told us there was sunshine on the horizon, he was a true believer. Lizard hugged his topless women, and Ethan and I exchanged a quick kiss. Tracy and Ethan had a sweet moment of recognition and hugged tight.
It was time to have a talk. I had an idea. Probably a terrible idea, but an idea nonetheless.
“What if we could kill the human inside the Dhampir and leave only the Vampyre?” I suggested.
“That’s insane,” Ethan said, pacing back and forth. “Impossible.”
Everyone looked at me like I had three heads… except Tracy. A small smile pulled at the corner of her lips, and she nodded for me to go on.
“Hear me out,” I pleaded. “While it might not work, it would give them a chance. If I’d just killed the Zombies instead of diving deeper, I would have murdered my grandma.”
“Welp,” Lizard said, smacking on his ever-present gum. “You got a point, but it’s still kinda fucked up. Zombies are half-turned Vamps. Dhampirs are just a shitshow.”
“Lizard, I love you, but I’m gonna disagree. They didn’t ask to be this way anymore than the Zombies did. Who are we to play God with the lives of others?”
That shut everyone up for a moment.
I glanced around as my people absorbed the crazy I’d just spoken aloud. We were in a high-tech office with labs and living quarters. It was lush and filled with expensive décor. Standing in the room where such heinous plans had been hatched and carried out, I felt dirty. When this was over, I would shower for a full twenty-four hours. What we needed to do was get to the over part. If no one was going to speak, I would.
“Can we try it on one of them?” I bargained. “If it doesn’t work, we can kill them quickly and painlessly.”
Ethan tilted his head and squinted at me. “Try what exactly?”
I looked over at Tracy. She nodded again. The woman had read my mind and was on board.
“Ethan,” she said, taking his huge hand in her small one. “Let’s take a stroll down memory lane. Shall we?”
Ethan had no clue where Tracy was headed, but I did. The fact that she was willing to help me said volumes about her character. She was the best.
She kept talking. “As I recall, I helped you out of a scuffle back in the day.”
“Far more than a scuffle,” he told the Vamp with a grateful smile. “You were incredible.”
“I was,” she said with a giggle. “My fangs hold a magical venom. A venom that was able to bight the fight out of the Trolls. Pretty rare don’t you think?”
Ethan eyed his friend and me warily. He was clued into the direction we were going and he didn’t like it. However, he was a true leader and was willing to listen.
“Very rare,” he agreed. “But that was entirely different.”
Jane raised her hand and spoke without being called on. “I’m fuckin’ confused.”
“Me too,” Martha said.
“Hang on,” I told them. “We’re getting there.”
“If Tracy is willing,” I began.
“I am,” she cut in before I finished.
I put my arm around her and finished my thought. “If Tracy is willing to bite a Dhampir to see if she can kill the human without killing the Vampyre, I’m willing to hold the Dhampir down so she’ll be safe.”
Ethan’s brows shot up. “I will hold it down.”
I shook my head. “Not an it. He. They’re boys. Boys like our son. Young boys who are like this through no fault of their own. I’ll be the one to hold them. One, I’m a mother. Two, I’m a True Immortal, and I can’t die unless I choose to do so. I’m the safest bet.”
The love of my life pressed his temples and closed his eyes. “It’s killing me that you’re making sense.”
“I’m good like that,” I told him.
He answered me with a lopsided grin. He was in. He didn’t want to be in, but he was. He turned to Tracy. “You’re fine with this?”
Tracy gave him two thumbs up. “More than,” she replied. “I like happy endings. We need one after all this shit, sweetie.”
Ethan laughed.
I was good to go, but there were safeguards to put into place. “Martha, Jane and Ethan, I need you to hover a few feet over Tracy during the bite. If shit goes sideways, swoop in and get her out.”
“Done,” Ethan said.
“Our fuckin’ pleasure,” Martha accepted as Jane nodded.
“We need to separate out just one of the Dhampirs, and I’ll drop a barrier to keep the rest out,” I said.
“I can create a distraction,” Lizard announced smacking his baseball bat on his open palm.
“Be a little more specific, please,” I told him. “I don’t want you getting eaten.”
He chuckled and Poosh laughed. I was confused.
“Remember when I told you about the legion of Demons who were sent to deal with the Dhampirs and the Vamps who created them?”
I nodded.
“Lizard was the general!” she explained. “He does this dance thing that drives them nuts. They won’t come near him once he starts. It’s really cool!”
“That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said.
“Weirder than my titty talkin’?” Jane asked.
She’d made an excellent point. Someday, I’d learn not to comment on the bizarre. “Mmkay, so Lizard, you will… umm… dance, and I’ll fly in and grab one of the boys. Ethan, once I separate him out, can you drop a barrier?”
“With ease,” he assured me.
“What should we do?” Augustus asked, referring to himself and Felix.
“How good are you at mindwiping?”
“Excellent!” Felix said. “Shall we take the human women to safety and green-eye them?”
I smiled at the two Vamps, who I thought were just idiots. They were not. They were lovely and caring idiots. “Yes. Once the barrier has been dropped, please take the women back up to the first floor and wipe their memories of this hell. Can you leave their prior memories intact?”
“But of course,” Augustus promised. “We are geniuses!”
Poosh giggled. “I have a boner.”
While I was tempted to tell her that was impossible, I didn’t. I was about to try the impossible and wanted it to work. I wasn’t going to jinx it. “Poosh, go with the boys. It might be helpful to have a woman present.”
“Will do!”
“Ethan, with the barrier up, can you create a safe tunnel for the guys and Poosh to get the women out?” I asked.
“I can.” He walked over to me and cupped my face in his hand. “I love you, Astrid. I think you’re crazy, but I also admire the hell out of you for what you want to do. However, I need you to agree with me on something.”
“What?”
“If Tracy can’t kill the human side of the Dhampir, we need to end them. It’s inhumane to leave them like this.”
I’d already agreed to those terms but didn’t quibble about it. He wanted reassurances from me, and it cost me nothing to give them. So, I nodded. “I agree.”
“Then I am ready to try.” He was a fair and compassionate man, and I loved him for it.
I threw my arms around him impulsively and kissed him. “I love you, too, Ethan.”
The hardness in his eyes softened. “You ready?”
“Yes.” I forced a smile. “Ready.”
It was time to test my theory. It was very different from Charlton’s theories. Mine didn’t involve world domination. It simply encompassed love.