The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (24 page)

“
Based on the information I
have, I think I have one more good fight left in me. I take that as
you are asking me to join in the fray then?”

“
Yes sir, it would be an
honor to see you in action.”

Granted I had only met the
man a few days ago, but I’d never seen him so happy. “Ha! And
Alicia thought I’d brought Hrunting along for nothing!”

I looked at everyone and no
one seemed to know what he was talking about, except Liz. She was
rolling her eyes at him. “You shipped one of the most dangerous
artifacts in the world here?”

“
Calm down Elizabeth, you
are not my mother. It seems it was a good thing I did
too.”

“
Excuse me, for the rest of
us here, just what is this Hrunting you are talking about?” The two
of them seemed to forget the rest of us while they were
bickering.

Cristof looked at all of us
in shock. “None of you know what Hrunting is?” We all kind of just
looked at him. “My word! Ladies and gentlemen it is the sword of
the great hero Beowulf!”

The name sounded familiar
to me, but I couldn’t place it. Dr. Tello, on the other hand seemed
to place it right away as she gasped. “The hero of lore from the
old Germanic tales?”

“
The one and the same, good
doctor. Right before he engaged the dragon and died, he gave his
sword to his son. I still have it to this day.”

Again, Dr. Tello was the
only one to seem to know the significance of this. “Beowulf was
said to live in the late fifth century. And from what I know, he
did not have any sons of repute.”

“
Not that anyone would know
I was his son, but yes when Beowulf went to slay the Grendel,
history keeps out the dark parts. He became enchanted with the
witch and I am the result of that union.”

“
So when were you turned
into a vampire?” I hope I didn’t offend him, I had just assumed he
was.

“
A few years later,
somewhere in the middle of my thirty-forth year. I was chosen to be
a consort to a great and powerful lady vampire.” Like any great
story teller, he paused for dramatic purposes.

We were all hanging on his
every word now. For some reason the tawdry history of vampires was
rather fun to listen to. “Who turned you then? Don’t keep us
hanging here.”

“
I guess to give you a
clue; you could say I am Elizabeth’s older brother.” We all quickly
turned out heads to her.

“
Wait, I thought Jonathan
was your only ‘brother?’”

She sighed, “No Cristof
here is part of my dysfunctional family too. My mother turned him
so she could have another boy toy.”

“
Oh for crying out loud! I
had better never hear you complain about werewolf packs ever
again!” 

It was very quiet in the
house. Dad, Argent, and Cristof had put together a base plan and
had given tasks out to everyone. Pastor Browne asked for a few
minutes of my time as the meeting came to an end.

“
This is all still a lot
for me to handle Victor, but I will do anything you need of me.
Warren was my friend, but this is not the same man I considered a
confidant.”

The pain in his face was
heartbreaking. “I’m sorry you were dragged into this. It was never
my intention to crush your world.”

“
It is okay my son, God
does not put obstacles in front of us we cannot handle. I will be
fine and do my part.” He gave me a pat on the back and left with
Billy.

With jobs in hand, everyone
followed suit and bailed on me. That left me alone with a currently
irritated Liz. Granted, before said plan was put together, everyone
had heckled her pretty good about everything. I mean seriously,
it’s not my fault vampires are a bag of crazy.

I tried to break the ice,
“Come now, just how long are you going to stay mad at
me?”

“
Considering I can live
forever if I watch myself carefully, I can be mad for a very long
time.” You could almost feel little daggers on every
word.

“
Hey now, I thought we were
a team and everything?”

“
I am not sure how one has
managed to make it this far in life by being so
clueless.”

I gave her my best smile,
“It’s a skill I guess. Besides, everyone was piling on you too. You
should be mad at them.”

“
If everyone else jumped
off a skyscraper, would you go too?”

“
Probably, I would assume
they had a good reason to do so.”

She just stared at me in
disbelief. You would think by now I would keep my mouth shut, but I
can’t help it. It’s a condition.

“
Great, I hired a lemming.
Go run over the edge with the rest of them.”

“
Hey now!”

Before any more insults
could be lobbed, I heard a knock on the door. I hadn’t picked up
any sounds or smells before this, so I took it as a sign this was
Gregory. Liz went over to the door and slowly opened it. Sure
enough, I heard a squeal and into the living room came what
appeared to be a nineteen or twenty year old kid with a head full
of shaggy hair and his clothing looked like it had seen better
days. My first thought was Kurt Cobain had walked into my
home.

He walked right up to me
and stuck his hand out. “You must be Vic! Hey there, I’m Gregory!
It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

His enthusiasm only added
the impression I was dealing with someone younger than me. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you too, Gregory.”

“
Man, am I glad to be back
on solid ground. Flying isn’t my thing really, but anything to help
a friend.”

Liz came back over and soon
we were all sitting around the living room. They spent a few
minutes talking about different things that had happened since the
last time they saw each other. I acted interested, but it was all
the boring gossipy type stuff. It also didn’t help I had no idea
who or what they were talking about.

I’m pretty sure I was
spacing out when Liz started calling my name. “Vic, are you paying
attention over there?”

“
Huh, what? Oh, you’re
talking to me?”

“
I was trying to, you were
not listening. Now I was just explaining to Gregory everything we
know about our friend Warren Tucker, the infamous Cactus
Killer.”

“
Oh and where did we leave
off?”

Gregory was chuckling at
our interactions together. I guess most people were amused at how
Liz and I operated. “I asked you to kindly explain to him about
Austin and what you observed right after he passed
away.”

Immediately at the mention
of Tucker’s son, all funny business left the room. “It was weird,
man. Liz did what she had to do and it couldn’t have been seconds
later I’m getting a call from Tucker himself.”

Gregory inched up to the
edge of the chair he was sitting in. “What did he say to
you?”

“
It’s like he knew right
away we had just killed him. He told me to enjoy the small victory,
that his was right around the corner. After he hung up on me,
that’s when I heard the popping sound.”

“
What do you mean popping
sound?”

“
You know the sound when
you shake a soda up and all the little bubbles start forming and
popping?” He shook his head yes. “Well, it started like that and
quickly progressed louder and louder until the body blew
up.”

“
He blew his own son
up?”

It was still so hard to
comprehend, “Yes, he did. Said mixing the blood at the right levels
can cause it to become unstable once the person dies. He sent his
own son to his death, like a suicide bomber.”

“
I don’t even know what to
say. We aren’t dealing with someone in their right mind, are
we?”

“
No we are not,Gregory. As
Vic and I found out very early, this is a man who is willing to do
anything to reach his goals. This is why I think whoever the
mysterious Hammer of Jehovah is, this is why he chose this man. He
would kill us or die trying.”

I’m not sure how much Liz
had told him over the phone, but by his reaction, I’m guessing she
left out quite a bit. “And to top it all off, we know of at least
one unknown elder who is actually working for him?”

“
It’s this samurai guy
named Fortuna. I think, at least more recently anyway, that he is
the one who commits the murders on Tucker’s behalf. He is nothing
like I’ve ever seen. He put a hurting on the two of us.”

“
He is strong enough that
we have enlisted Cristof to face him when the time comes.
Apparently, he had been hoping for some action when he came down
here and had his wife put Hrunting in a delivery box.”

I guess Cristof’s
reputation was the same no matter the territory based on Gregory’s
amused expression. “Well, I hope this time an entire region isn’t
burnt to the ground. This guy must be serious business if you are
letting him get out there again.”

“
Trust me, if I had any
other choice, I would have used it. Fortuna is old and strong. I
think Cristof is the only one who can match him.”

Again, I found myself in
the dark. “Guys, can someone please tell me why it is dangerous to
let Cristof have a go at this guy? The man can’t be that
bad.”

Liz and Gregory looked at
each other and came to an unspoken agreement. Gregory took the lead
on this one. “Cristof’s father was the legendary
Beowulf.”

“
I know this, we already
went over his whole family history and how he ended up joining the
funny farm.”

Liz got that look in her
eyes and Gregory took that as a sign to move on quickly. “Well, I
do not know how much you know about Beowulf, but he was a legendary
warrior with the ability to go berserk on command.”

“
English please for the
werewolf in the room.”

“
The ability to go berserk
is a skill not many possess. The warrior’s strength, speed, and
agility all increase to levels that surpass even a
vampire’s.”

“
And your point here
is?”

“
Vic, think about it, if a
human who can use that can go beyond what a vampire does, think
about what a vampire can do if he or she can use that
skill.”

Oh, it hit me. “Well that
sounds like a good thing to me. That should give us good odds
against Fortuna then.”

Before they even said
anything I felt my bubble about to be burst. “There is a downside
to that much power. One loses their mind in the rage. There are no
friends or foes. There is only devastation.”

“
So you’re telling me if he
goes berserk, he could attack any of us?”

They both shook their heads
yes. “That is how the wild fire started all those years ago Vic.
Cristof went berserk and attacked me. As a last resort, I was able
to start a fire in the forest to separate the two of us, but it was
a dry year and it went crazy.”

My head hurt. “Don’t you
people ever come with good news? Why in the world do you always
have to complicate things?”

“
Well is it not better to
know now than in the course of the confrontation?”

Liz had a point I guess.
But how could we let him fight then? “I guess it will be up to me
to figure out a way to use this in our favor, huh?”

“
If anyone can, it will be
you.”

“
Thanks for the vote of
confidence boss lady. Now, Gregory, are you old enough to drink? I
know a great bar that is still open. I could use a cold
one.”

Liz started laughing, but
Gregory looked so depressed. “I just turned one thousand two years
ago!” Poor guy, we both were laughing now. “I told you I looked
older with a beard Elizabeth!” 

“
You vampires give new
meaning to the term emo. Don’t you guys believe in good news from
time to time?” The three of us were at a bar called the Tooth and
Nail. Not a bad little dive on my side of town and because most
wolves prefer the newer bars on the north side, we pretty much had
the place to ourselves.

Gregory and Liz tried their
hardest to think of a comeback, but silence was all they could
muster. Hey, I was just telling the truth here. Even on the best of
days, their good news always came with a but. Of course, I had no
one to really blame but myself, as I signed up to work for the
loony tunes.

“
Alright, I can see you two
are pouting now. I’ll stop ragging on you, but think positive from
now on. Leave the negativity to the movie screen
vampires.”

“
Do not compare us to those
horrid Hollywood imitations! We are much more interesting and fun
to be around than those pathetic excuses! Plus, we do not sparkle.”
It was always fun to rile Liz up. If you knew where to stop that
is.

“
Okay, okay, you’re not
that bad. But can you promise me that Gregory isn’t part of your
extended family either?”

He picked up on my
reference, “No, I was a born vampire. My young looks are just
genetics I guess. And before you ask, my parents died when an angry
mob of humans stormed our villa. I was not there at the time or
else I’d be charred remains too.”