Coalition of the Damned - 03

Coalition of the Damned

A Monster Squad Novel

Book 3

Heath Stallcup

Edited by TW Brown

Cover by Ronak Kothari

Coalition of the Damned

©2014 May December Publications LLC

The split-tree logo is a registered trademark of May December Publications LLC.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any rese
mblance to actual persons living, dead, or otherwise, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author or May December Publications LLC.

Printed in the U.S.A.

For Mom

I wish you could have been here

to read them all...

Acknowledgements

Yeah, if you actually have read any of my previous a
cknowledgment pages, this sounds familiar, but this entire series wouldn’t have happened if not for my wife, Jessie. It was her patience and encouragement that made it all possible.

Of course, I can never repay Mark Tufo. His guidance in the beginning is the only reason this project has seen it as far as it has. And it is with his permission that a certain character that shares his name truly takes on a life of his own in this volume. Trust me, you’ll see the character blossom more in the final i
nstallment.

Todd Brown (and his brilliant OCD) polished this rough work into what you see before you. His hard work and dedic
ation to putting out the best work possible is the only reason I can hold my head high and call myself an author today.

The tireless efforts of Denise and everybody else at May December Publications who have had a hand in making this what it is…I can never thank you all enough. Not to mention simply taking me on as an author and adding me to the stable of other fine writers that you have. I am honored to be associated with each and every one of you.

And of course, my graphic artist, Ronak Kothari whose works you’ve seen on the previous covers came through again. His work truly amazes me.

I’d also like to thank my sister Sheila who stepped up and became my proofreader. She offered, I’m sure, in order to read the stories before they were published, but she proved to be more than capable, if not a bit TOO aggressive in trying to catch me at something and trying to prove me wrong. Maybe one day, sis...

My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to each and every one of you for putting up with me through each step of this journey. And, my condolences to you all, because there’s more to come!

-Heath

Author's Note

For those of you who have stumbled upon the Monster Squad series, you may have asked yourselves, where did this idea come from?  What made me think I could possibly write a story that an
ybody would ever want to read?

Well, truth be told, I didn't start out thinking "I'm going to write a story that everyone will want to read and people may (or may not) like and..."  No.  Truth be told, it all started out r
ather foolishly.  You see, my wife is an avid reader.  Like, she goes through a TON of books.  She started out with historical romance, then slowly over the decades, she made the switch to supernatural stories.  Yes, stuff like Twilight and Eragon and...anyway.  One night we're in bed and she's reading and giggling.  I asked her what was so funny.  She didn't want to tell me, but I made her.  Afterward, I sat dumbstruck.  Why would some girl CARE if a vampire loved her?  I made a comment about how she should break off the leg on the coffee table and ram it up his undead A$$.  She gave me a rather droll look and flipped the page, muttering something about, 'well, that would be a rather short story, dontcha think?'

"Well it beats playing kissy face with the guy!  He's a MONSTER!  Hello!?"  The same droll look.  "They should have NAVY SEALs or ARMY Rangers out there hunting these things down!"  I was practically jumping up and down in the bed by now...and no, at my age and the shape I'm in, that is NOT a pre
tty sight.  "As it is, the only 'hunters' are on Supernatural, and who wants to watch a couple of Emo's cruising around in a POS Chevy, whining and crying about their daddy issues and spending more time fighting with each other than fighting with the monsters!"

She flips another page and without even looking, she mutters something about, 'Then why don't YOU write it...'

So there I am, standing up in the bed, boxers hanging half off, covered in sweat, face all red from ranting and she tosses down the gauntlet.  Well!  What else could I do?  I picked up!  "Well, maybe I will!" I tell her.  There.  THAT will shut her up.

But, it didn't.

For the next three weeks, she walked around with a smirk, "How's my book coming?"

"What book?" I'm completely dumbfounded each time she asks, because I honestly have the attention span of a fruitfly.  Unless something is nekkid.  Then my attention span is SLIGHTLY lon
ger...but not much.

"The monster killer...thingy one." Same damned smirk.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Man, these cheezy poofs taste REALLY good.

So, one day, I'm sitting at my computer and I'm thinking, 'why not?'  So I lay down a few lines.  I really have NO IDEA what I'm d
oing.  But I made the mistake of
telling her.
  Then like all of the other 75 or more projects I started in the past, I walked away from it.

Fast forward about 9 months.  No...I wasn't pregnant, I just looked like it.  I told you, those cheezy poofs really tasted good.  But I'm cleaning out old files from my computer and I stumble across this Word document.  "My Story"?  WTF is this??  I open it and read it.  Hmm.  Has potential.  And I seem to recall som
ebody that lives in the house giving me grief for having started, then walking away from a certain project.  Grrr.  So, I started back with it.  And the dadgum thing took on a life of its own.  What I thought MIGHT be a pretty long story, turned into two.  Then three!  Yay! A trilogy.  Okay, a four book trilogy.

Then, the big test.  I let HER read it.

Lo and Behold, she actually liked it.

What to do?  I go out on a limb and email one of my f
avorite writers and ask him.  Surely he's gonna tell me to go pound sand.  Who wants competition, right?  Nope.  He took me under his wing, introduced me to good people, showed me what NOT to do and...well, now you're reading these words.

Poor you.

But, that is how this story ever became.  It was a dare.  From my wife.  Because monsters should be hunted down and shot between the eyes, not chasing teenage girls and playing kissy face.

Hmm.  I have twin thirteen year old girls. I wonder if Justin Bieber is a vampire?

1

Dominic DeGiacomo, United States Army Special Forces and Monster Squad operator, had been captured while on an o
peration in Ohio and spirited away on a trans-Atlantic flight to Rome. He thought he had made his escape when he spiked the vampire escorting him and befriended the pilot. However, the tables were turned on him when the pilot flying the aircraft turned out to be a vampire as well and knocked him silly. Imprisoned then befriended by another prisoner, he was fooled into escaping once more, only to have his fellow escapee turn his own weapon against him at the last possible moment and surrender him to the bloodsuckers once again.

Now he found himself being escorted through a series of passageways and standing in the remains of an old cathedral. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, walls had crumbled inward and the floor was littered with pieces of blocks and broken bits of statues. He could still see what remained of an altar at the end of the cathedral and he wished that the old legends of vampires burning when they stepped on Holy ground still held true. He’d love to see these ass-hats go up in flames right about now.

He saw a dark figure all but float through what was once a window up and to his left, beyond it and to his right was the courtyard he had spotted earlier during his attempted escape. The sun had just set and the last few licks of color were painted across the sky. Violet hues splattered with streaks of red indicated the final death throes of the day before night took over and somehow, he felt it would be his last day to walk this earth. Dom took a deep breath and rolled that thought around in his head a moment. Yeah, he was okay with it. He could meet his maker knowing that he had done his part.

The dark figure stepped into the cathedral and a wave of e
nergy came off of him that sent the vampires in the room trembling. Dom didn’t recognize the vampire, but he assumed he must be the leader from the way the others were reacting. He stood at attention, doing his best to defy the creature that stepped closer to him and assessed him from head to toe.

“Welcome to my city, Mr. DeGiacomo. You may call me Sicarii,” the dark vampire said softly.

“DeGiacomo, Dominic, Staff Sergeant, Service Number 243-55-61—”

“Please, Mr. DeGiacomo, I think we are beyond that, are we not?” the dark one asked. “You are my guest here.”

Dom gave the vampire a sarcastic stare. “Guest? Is that what you call your prisoners now?”

“I would not say ‘prisoner’,” the Sicarii answered softly.

“So I’m free to leave?” Dom asked, already knowing the answer.

“I’m afraid not,” the vampire replied, a smile playing across his features.

“Then I’m your fucking prisoner,” Dom shot back, his features hardening.

The vampire’s face hardened in return as he turned his gaze upon him. “I do not take prisoners, Mr. DeGiacomo. Therefore, you are my
guest
. How you are treated from here out…will be determined by how forthcoming you are.”

“I have trouble coming a second time. Coming four times is simply beyond my ability,” Dom spat. “I’m good, but I’d have to have Viagra to be
that
good.” His remark earned him a quick kidney punch that dropped him to his knees, followed by a left cross to the jaw that rattled his molars. He grunted and felt his knees bite into the stone floor as he fell to all fours. “Like I said,” he spat, “a
prisoner
.”

“Like
I said,
how well you are treated will depend on how forthcoming you are.” The dark vampire waited for another smart remark and smiled when Dom didn’t offer one. “Excellent. Perhaps now you realize that I only want a little…information.” He stepped forward and knelt down beside Dom. “This doesn’t need to get physical.”

“I ripped the head off one of your underlings,” Dom replied through gritted teeth. “You expect me to believe that you’re just going to let me waltz on out of here if I play ball with you?”

“A small price to pay to determine your worth.” The vampire’s face creased into an evil smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Your death would do me more harm than good. I actually need you, Mr. DeGiacomo.” The dark vampire noted the look of surprise on Dom’s face. “Oh, it is true, I assure you. I need you to take my intentions back to your people.”

“We already
know
your intentions, ass-hat. You’re the shithead that keeps setting up the ‘good guy’ vampires so that we attack them, aren’t ya?” Dom shot at him. The dark vampire’s face registered a slight surprise. “Yeah, I thought so. See, we already got your number, asshole.” Dom pulled himself up to a sitting position. He struggled to breathe. Between the concussion he suffered on the plane and the kidney punch, his whole body was a hurt factory. “Those other vampires already contacted my boss and they’re having a sit-down meeting about how to deal with you.” He chuckled. “So you just keep on trying to set them up and they’ll figure out how to knock you down.”

“So you’ve got this all figured out, do you?” the vampire asked mockingly.

“Oh, yeah.” Dom struggled to his feet, the pain in his kidneys letting him know not to be surprised if he pissed blood for the next week or so. “Apparently the ‘good guy’ vampires only drink blood from livestock…or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention, to be honest.” He caught his breath and worked at his jaw. “But my bosses? Yeah, they’re probably going to enter into an agreement with them. The vamps will point out where you fuckers are hiding and then we go in and clean you shadow dwelling blood suckers out.” He laughed. “So go ahead. Do your worst. Fuck me up…kill me. It won’t matter. Because it’s just a matter of time before a whole team of specialists come here and rain down the very fires of hell on your ass.” Dom leaned to the side and spit blood on the floor, hoping the smell would drive the other vamps crazy.

The dark vampire stepped back and addressed his minions. “Well, it would seem that our plans have been thwarted!” he a
nnounced. The other vampires chuckled or outright laughed. “These human hunters have an ally on their side. And it is US!”

He laughed. The others followed suit, giving Dom the di
stinct feeling that he was missing something. Something important.

“Go ahead. Laugh it up,” he insisted. “But it won’t be too much longer and you’ll be laughing out another hole in your fucking head. One carved by a
silver bullet
!” Dom spat.

“Ooh! Silver bullets!” The dark vampire cringed mockingly. “Please, no! Not that!” He laughed again and the others laughed harder.

The dark vampire snapped his fingers and one of the minions handed him Dom’s P90 carbine and his sidearm. He was still chuckling as he checked the weapons. He selected the Five-seveN handgun, pulled the magazine and held it up so Dom could see that it was still loaded. He used his thumb and extracted all but three bullets and put the magazine back.

Dom had no idea what the hell was going on. The dark vampire chambered the first round and set the safety on the weapon then tossed it to Dom and spread his arms wide. “Feel free to take your shots,” he said, smiling.

Without hesitating Dom put two in his chest and one in the middle of his forehead. None of the minions so much as flinched. In fact, they were laughing harder. The dark vampire bent at the waist and held a hand over his wounds. Dom watched the holes smoke as his body simply pushed the silver rounds out of the entry holes and into his hands. He stepped over to Dom and dropped them at his feet. “You may keep them if you wish. Consider them a token of my esteem.”

Dom stood there, still holding the weapon in his hand. He bent and retrieved the bullets, slightly deformed, but obviously made of silver. “How is this possible?” he muttered.

“I am the Sicarii,” the dark vampire stated matter-of-factly. “It is not just a name.” He stepped up to a pile of rubble and sat down. “Now, are you willing to listen to my terms?”

*****

Rufus Thorn, leader of the
Lamia Beastia
, or non-human feeding vampires, had traveled from his island castle in the Gulf of Mexico to Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma City to meet with Colonel Matt Mitchell, leader of the infamous Monster Squad. The squads, feared by monsters across the globe, had been misdirected by the
Lamia Humanus
, or human-feeding vampires, to inadvertently target the
Lamia Beastia
in the past. While attempting to negotiate a truce Thorn had been made aware of a larger threat, one that would affect mankind on a global level. Faced with this new threat, the
Lamia Beastia
and the human hunters entered into an alliance to face this impending attack together.

Thorn and Mitchell had been discussing tactics for some time in the training room with Laura Youngblood, the executive officer of the Monster Squads. Apollo Creed Williams, Darren Spalding and Jack Thompson, team leaders for the three diffe
rent squads were also present. Jack had invited ex-Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mark Tufo along as a way to bring him up to speed on everything; much to Mitchell’s chagrin. Tufo was one of the original Monster Squad team members when Mitchell ran the teams before it was decided to use the virus found in werewolves to ‘augment’ the team members in order to increase their reaction times, boost their speed, improve their hearing and sight and multiply their strength.

Thorn listened intently to Mitchell’s proposal to use the Groom Lake base in Nevada and he liked the idea to bait the Sicarii to the desert. With wide open areas and few to no stru
ctures for the vampires to hide within when they unleashed the UV satellite on them, turning night into day and killing large numbers of vampires in one blast sounded like a wonderful plan to Thorn. He had made it clear to Mitchell that the
Lamia Beastia
revered all life as sacred and they would fight to defend human life above all else…even if it meant their own deaths. As a secondary option, he brought up the religious relics that the Vatican was holding and his plan to send Viktor, his second, to retrieve them.

The Vatican held pieces of the original cross of Christ. One piece was large enough that stakes could be made from it, the other two might be large enough to be made into stakes, but one still contained a nail used to nail His holy body to the wood. A
nother relic was bloody rags used to clean Christ’s body after his death. They were hermetically sealed in a jar, and Thorn thought that if some of the blood could be liquefied or vaporized, it could be used as a weapon against the Sicarii much like mustard gas or silver nitrate was used on lesser vampires. The third and most intriguing of the relics were three of the thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot was paid to betray Christ. If any of that silver was somehow forged into a weapon, even a single bullet, Thorn felt it would be their best bet for affecting the father of all vampires.

Rufus explained what each relic was, its history and their hopes how each could possibly be used. Mitchell liked this a
pproach and called for Dr. Evan Peters, the Monster Squad’s resident vampire and techno-genius to take notes and begin devising applications for each of the three artifacts. It was their hope that perhaps Thorn and Evan could work together on the delivery systems while Viktor was gone to retrieve the items and Mitchell would travel to D.C. to gain support for their taking over the Groom Lake base as well as their borrowing the UV satellite for the Vampire Armageddon.

During the whole meeting, both Laura and Apollo tossed in ideas of how they could utilize the Predator drones and high alt
itude C-130s to both keep an eye on things and to ‘bring the rain’ when the shit hits the fan. Spalding suggested contacting some of the other supernatural beings they had met to see if they could join in the fray. It was a long shot, but the facts remained, if this Sicarii was intent on taking over the world, odds were he wouldn’t rest at simply destroying mankind. He would also see to it that all other creatures were enslaved as well. That included the Leprechaun, the Elves, and the Faeries. They were the three most intelligent and least hostile of the supernatural that the squad had met, yet they had the capability to wage war. Not all were exactly on speaking terms, and they weren’t exactly the easiest to reach, but if this was a war to save the planet from a marauding vampire gone loco, they would need all the help they could get.

During the entire meeting, Tufo sat quietly in the back of the room, taking it all in. As the meeting seemed to wind down, he stood up and cleared his throat. “I have a question.”

“Of course you do.” Mitchell groaned.

“What is it, Gunny?” Jack asked.

“Well, I realize that I’m coming into this a little late in the game, but if I’m gathering this correctly, this vampire that we’re about to go head-to-head with…he’s like the granddaddy of all vamps, right?”

“
Oui
,” Thorn replied. “He is the progenitor of us all.”

“Okay. And you say that he was created the day he tried to kill himself when he betrayed Christ, correct?” Tufo asked. “That he is Judas Iscariot.”

“
Oui
. This is true,” Thorn stated.

“Okay…so I’m following everything right,” he reiterated and slowly began to pace. “And he can basically ‘call up and control’ all the vampires in the world somehow, right? Theoret
ically through the blood or something, correct?”