The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (11 page)

“
Yes, yes it is Victor
Inglewood. I called to extend my courtesy to you.”

“
Maybe if you told me where
you were, I could come on over and give you some of my courtesy
too.”

He laughed at me. This guy
knew how to get my blood pumping. “I don’t think it works that way,
but I appreciate the offer. No, my new sanctuary offers more
features fitting for someone doing God’s work. You and your kind
are blights to this earth. When I am ready, I will allow you to
come here and marvel in its majesty.”

“
I don’t think the big guy
upstairs considers what you do His work. That being said, this
needs to end, Tucker.”

“
For once, we both agree on
something. Did you know in your presence is one of the oldest
daemons by our records?”

“
What the hell does this
have to do with the price of apples?”

“
Do not interrupt me. Your
friend, Elizabeth Swansea has had many different aliases over the
years, but I think her most famous was ‘Bloody Lizzy’ or better
known in history, Elizabeth Bathory. You might not know the story,
but she used to slaughter the villagers below her castle in order
to quench her hunger.”

I didn’t know what to say,
I looked over at Liz and I knew she had heard everything as well.
Her face was full of shame.

“
So you see sheriff,
daemons cannot be allowed to live. That unfortunately includes you.
Werewolves are just as big of a blight as the vampires. Please know
that you will all die this evening. May God have mercy on your
souls.”

He hung up on me. Reno and
Phil didn’t make eye contact with me, but I didn’t need to talk to
them. “Is what he said true?”

Liz finally looked up, her
eyes bloodshot from the tears coming out of them. “Yes, he did not
lie to you.”

“
What about all that crap
you don’t go hunting humans for fun? Was that just a story to keep
the dumb local sheriff on your good side?”

“
No that was not a story,
Vic.” She was really starting to cry now. “I promise you everything
that has happened is who I really am. Times were different back
then and I did much I regret. Please Vic…” She reached out to touch
my shoulder but I jerked away.

“
No.” I shot her a look and
I immediately regretted how harsh I came off. Now was not the time
to let emotions win out; I still had a job to do. “The three of you
stay here; I will go in by myself.”

“
Vic, you cannot! He is
planning on…”

“
I said I am going in by
myself. If anyone follows, I will shoot you.”

They all looked at me. Phil
and Reno were getting ready to protest when Liz put her hand up to
silence them. The hurt look in her eyes pierced me good, but I
turned around and went in. I felt betrayed; she should have been
the one to tell me about her past, not hear it from the lunatic
Tucker. And then he had the audacity to lump me in with them. If he
wanted me to be a monster, I would give him one.

I stormed in and not
completely paying attention to anything. My temper had gotten the
best of me and when I started to calm down, it was too late. I
completely ignored the scent that was getting stronger and stronger
until it was right on top of me. The inhuman roar came and followed
up by the giant swing of a green hand connecting to the side of my
head. I went crashing through the wall and landed in what looked
like the emergency room lobby.

My left eye was swelling up
fast, so I didn’t even see the second attack. I took a kick to the
side and landed on the old lobby desk. The rotten wood gave out
under my weight and I crashed into the floor. I coughed and blood
was coming up, this was not good. I was having a hard time keep
myself awake when the monster came up to finish the job. I was so
stupid to go in by myself and this was my punishment. Big, green,
and ugly was lifting his fist to finish the job when he stopped.
His head slid right off his body and as he fell over I saw Liz
standing there with my grandfather’s tanto.

I tried to talk,
“Li…”

More blood was coming up, I
couldn’t move either.

“
Do not talk, Vic. Reno has
called your father and help is on the way. You are in bad
shape.”

In barely a whisper, “I’m
so sorry…” 

When I woke up, I felt
awful. Felix was sitting beside me in my room, which was odd
because I was at home. He was playing his portable video game when
he looked up and shouted.

“
Everyone! Vic’s
awake!”

“
Do you need to scream that
loud?”

Laughing, he ran out of the
room and no time later, mom, dad, and Liz filed in. Judging by the
looks on their faces, they hadn’t slept much.

“
Son, did I raise you to be
an idiot? For all rights, you should be dead!”

Dad was upset and for good
reason. Both mom and Liz looked like they had been crying recently.
“I’m sorry guys, though I doubt that will be enough.”

“
Liz told us what happened.
I know your personal experiences have made it seem like we aren’t
much different than humans, but we are. You’re beloved grandfather
even made mistakes.”

“
What’re you talking about,
dad?”

“
When he first became
Alpha, your grandpa waged a war with the Native Americans. He
wanted this land for himself and so he wiped out a good number of
them until they decided to leave. As he got older, he came to
regret doing that.”

Great, more of my world was
shattered. “Does anyone have any unicorns that need killing while
we are at this?”

“
Victor, it is time to see
the world for what it really is. Did you consider your grandfather
a bad person? Or Elizabeth here?”

“
Well no I
didn’t…”

“
Their past has made them
who they are. Before you judge a person, you should walk in their
shoes. Your grandfather did what he had to as to ensure the Reds
would have an unmolested placed to call home. And maybe if you
weren’t such a gom, you would have a listen to Elizabeth’s story
before you go judging her!”

When dad got this hot his
Irish side showed through. “Yes sir.”

“
Don’t you yes sir me! She
saved your life, you should be thanking her!”

“
Callum, I think maybe we
should go downstairs for a bit. Let’s give them some time to talk.”
Mom got up and put her arm through dad’s and pulled him out. Even
in the hallway I could hear my dad make snarky remarks about my
abilities to think, well, lack thereof.

“
Thank you for coming back
for me. I didn’t deserve that from you.”

She looked at me, her eyes
still red. “Reno told me to tell you that you’re an ass. But you
are our ass and no one gets to kill you but one of us.”

I didn’t know if she was
joking or not, but I nervously laughed anyway. “Why am I at home
and not in the hospital? I’m sure I was in pretty bad
shape.”

“
You were, in fact you
would never have survived the trip back to the
hospital.”

“
I don’t
understand?”

“
You were dying, Victor!
You were bleeding out and I am pretty sure you punctured your lung
with a broken rib.” She started crying again. “I had your dad on
the phone; we decided it was for the best.”

“
What did you guys
do?”

“
Reno found some syringes
in an unused medical closet. I injected some of my blood into you.
For a few hours it was touch and go, but finally you stabilized. We
brought you here and your parents and I have watched over you ever
since.”

“
Can I turn into a bat
now?”

The moping finally broke
and she laughed at my stupidity. “No, but you might want to invest
in some SPF fifty. I doubt you will keep your golden
tan.”

I couldn’t help but laugh
too. Even after I had been a total jerk she never gave up on me.
The least I could do is give her the chance to explain herself. “If
you still want, I’m willing to listen to you now.”

“
Thank you, that is all I
wanted. Let me take you back, the year was 1611…”

**Elizabeth**

“
My lady, we have found
another villager who is willing to give for
compensation.”

I was honestly quite
surprised how well received the blood for gold coins idea went over
with the villagers. Instead of fearing me, now they all wanted to
donate for the chance of getting some coin in their pocket. Many of
my fellows looked down on this, saying we were apex predators and
the hunt was half the fun. When I first came to this little
village, I tried to enjoy a little gamesmanship amongst the people,
but it ended with the loss of two lives. I had gotten carried away
with myself.

Harmon brought in the young
man to my audience chamber and this one was quite different than
the rest. He was easily the tallest man I had yet see and also was
completely bald. There was anger in his eyes. Maybe his family put
him up to this, but alas, those who donated were
compensated.

“
Have you come of your own
free will?”

He just grumbled and
grunted for a moment, I took that as a no.

“
Are you hungry? Would you
care to eat first?”

His voice was low, a deep
rumble. “No monster, get this over with so I may support my
family.”

“
Monster? Why would you
address me in such a crude manor?”

“
You killed my father and
brother many years ago. Others may forgive you for your coin, but I
will not. How irony smiles on me that now I must let you feed off
of me so I may be able to feed my mother and sister.”

This was unexpected, family
of the men I killed in my hastiness. “Are you here to avenge them
or are you truly here for payment?”

“
I know you cannot be slain
daemon. But know this, I have chronicled everything that has
occurred and sent it to the Holy Catholic Church. Now feed off of
me and pay me so I may leave.”

I became furious at his
insolence. “How dare you, peasant! Get out of my sight before I do
something we both regret.”

He laughed at me. “Enjoy
your freedom, monster. Soon the knights of the church will be here
to burn you to the ground. May they ever be successful!” He spat on
the ground in front of me.

I lost control and
attacked. Before I could stop myself I had nearly drained him. I
felt sick; I had let my emotions get the better of me! I really was
a monster. I released myself from his neck and looked into his
eyes.

“
When I die, you will have
proven my point.” He coughed and he was turning ice cold. “You have
no redeemable qualities.”

He was right. I had urges
and let his words upset me to the point that I took another life.
No, I could not let that happen. There was still a chance to save
this man. I decided to do what I had to do; I would prove them all
wrong.

**Vic**

“
What did you do to
him?”

“
I do not know how much you
know about our ways, but there are only two ways to join our
ranks.”

I had no idea how that
happened. I knew for werewolves the only way was by birth. Being
bitten hurt like hell but it didn’t turn anyone into one of us.
“Can’t say that I know how that process works.”

“
Some, like me were born
vampires. It does not happen often and only those born can
reproduce. My parents were both very old pureborns when they had
me. They lost their lives in the Crusades.”

My first instinct was to
ask what year she was born in, but I stopped and went with another
question instead. “I’m guessing vampires can be made
too?”

“
Yes, we can create them.
The process is much more difficult than most people expect. If you
drain too much blood or add too much of the donor blood, death is
instant. But if done correctly, a vampire can sire another. I
turned him into one of us.”

“
I take it this guy wasn’t
happy about being sired?”

“
Oh no, in fact we feuded
for years. He led the knights from Rome to my castle and stormed
the gate. To this day, everyone believes Elizabeth Bathory died on
that day in 1614.”

“
Obviously, you are still
alive. Is he also among the living?”

“
Oh yes, he survived as
well. In fact at some point in the 1800’s we finally called a truce
and forgave each other.”

Well there goes my next
question. “So he isn’t the guy behind all of this?”

“
No, he is not the one we
seek. Though I have a bad feeling that his original documents he
sent to the Vatican have found their way to Warren
Tucker.”

“
So who is this guy? What
was his name?”

“
Oh I never mentioned it
did I? His name is Phillip von Ruud. Though I think you can still
just call him Phil.”

My head started hurting
again. “I don’t even want to know how that happened do
I?”

“
Save yourself an
unnecessary headache. But the moral of the story is yes I made
mistakes, but it was never my intent to kill anyone. I had tried my
best to live in peace with the village. Phil has forgiven me and I
hope you can too.”