The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (26 page)

“
I’m glad Pastor, I really
am. I also have a question for you.”

“
Of course, and please
refer to me as Michael. We are outside the church and I consider
you a friend.”

“
Well Michael, after all of
this is over, I will be moving to Arizona to start a job with Liz
there. Number one, if you want to stay here in Full Moon, I offer
you this house as a place to stay.”

He seemed taken aback by my
offer. “That is most generous, but I do not know what my plans are
after this.”

“
That is where the second
part comes in. I’d like to offer you a job. I have a feeling that I
will be in over my head a lot and a man of your faith and wisdom
would always be a welcome sight. I’d like to hire you as a
consultant of sorts.”

“
Oh my, and just what would
that entail?”

“
Research mostly, but also
an ear for me to use when my faith is shaken.”

“
I will consider that. I
appreciate the offer Victor, and your confidence in me. It would
certainly be a change from what I’ve done before, but maybe a
change is what I need.”

We shook hands and he got
back up and joined everyone in the Yahtzee game. Sitting back, it
was funny to see that all three werewolf clans, vampires, and even
a human could be in the same space and not want to kill each
other.

Except, maybe Cristof. I
noticed him off in the corner looking rather somber. I debated
whether I wanted to deal with anymore vampire nonsense, but it was
my nature to want to help people. Regretting every step I took, I
made my way over to him.

“
Boss, you seem to be a bit
down and out. Tucker doesn’t have you bugged out, does
he?”

He looked up at me, “Warren
is what should have me most concerned, but this Fortuna is actually
what has me not looking quite in the mood to socialize.”

“
Did you remember something
to help us?”

“
That is the problem; it is
right there on the tip of my brain but it continues to elude me.
Try as I might, I cannot sort through the mass of memories and pick
that one particular one out.”

“
I guess when you have
fifteen hundred years of memories that could be a problem,
huh?”

He gave me a forced smile.
“You have no idea. But it is a curse I bear willingly. I will just
feel better once Tucker is dead and we know who the one leading him
on is.”

We drifted into silence.
Both of us laughed when Liz yelled, ‘Yahtzee!’ and ended up
knocking beer all over Chaz. As the next game was starting up, my
phone rang. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at
me.

I took my phone out and it
was a restricted number. Nodding to everyone, I hit the connect
button, “Hello.”

“
Victor, I saw your message
in the paper. That seemed to be rather flamboyant of you, but it
got my attention.”

“
Here is the deal Tucker,
we don’t like each other but we respect each other. I offer a way
to end that I think we both can get behind.”

He didn’t say anything for
a second and I didn’t offer anything else up. “I’m
listening.”

“
Tomorrow evening, say at
midnight. You bring yours and I will bring mine.”

“
Where are you proposing
that we do this at, Victor?”

He was hooked now, time to
reel him in. “The Devil’s Hollow, outside Truth or Consequences. Do
you know the place?”

He started laughing; the
man really was crazy. “How fitting a place where I take out my
greatest nemesis! Yes Victor, bring as many of your daemons as you
can muster. The more lambs you bring to slaughter, the less work I
have to do afterwards.”

“
I figured by now Tucker
you would’ve learned not to underestimate me.”

“
Enjoy your last night and
day on this Earth for tomorrow, I shall send you home with divine
justice.”

Figuring he wanted to get
the last word in, I said nothing else and within moments, the call
was disconnected. Everyone was still staring at me.

“
Congratulations dad, your
plan worked. Tomorrow at midnight, we all have a date with Warren
Tucker and the monster squad.” 

The sun rose just like it
did every other day, but today it seemed to have an ominous feel to
it. Today was the day that we had all been working towards. At the
beginning, it was just a nameless, faceless serial killer we had
given the name of Cactus Killer. Weeks later now, we knew we
weren’t dealing with just any run of the mill serial killer. Warren
Tucker was dead serious with his ambitions and if we didn’t stop
him, there is no telling what he would do.

Liz was still asleep in the
bed. I had given all the vampires a stern talking to that they
needed all the rest they could muster. The only one to protest was,
of course, Liz, who finally relented. It would do no one any good
if one of us was not at one hundred percent. I quietly left the
bedroom and headed downstairs.

I fiddled around for awhile
cleaning Roscoe, sharpening the edges on the tantos, and writing
everything I knew down. His three ‘trusted agents’ would be the
wild card. I assumed he did to them what he had done to his son,
but that was just speculation. I was also banking on the fact that
Cristof and the two wolves who would join him in the fight against
Fortuna would be enough. I would find out for sure just how many of
us would be coming.

Joshua Greenfoot was a huge
help in all of this. Before he and his second, Maska Darkcloud,
were able to get in touch with four of their pack members on short
notice. All four would be here by mid-afternoon and ready to fight.
My dad, Callum, and Joshua had hit it off so well that I was sure
even after all of this, the two Red packs would continue their
relationship. Dad, Bernard, and I rounded out the Reds.

My phone went off and I saw
that Argent had texted me. He and three of his most senior Silvers
would be fighting this evening. I was hoping for a few more, but
the four Silvers would definitely be a handful. Besides being the
oldest pack of werewolves, Silvers tended to be more violent in
battle. Tonight we would need that.

I hadn’t heard from Chaz
yet, but that was not out of the ordinary. Chances were, he was
whipping the Blacks into a frenzy and picking the best ones suited
for the job. Of the three Alphas, I stood by my assertion he was
the largest and most powerful. Sure enough, about a half hour after
I had heard from Argent, Chaz called and said he had ten, including
Billy, of his pack ready. Most days, he was a calm and cool guy,
but today you could almost hear the excitement in his
voice.

All total, we would have
twenty-three wolves heading out tonight. Add in five vampires and I
didn’t know how we could improve our odds. If Tucker was able to
win this confrontation, then the whole supernatural world was in a
lot of trouble.

I was loading my gun when I
heard a knock on the door. I had been lost in thought, but a quick
sniff told me this was Billy the Kid. I walked over and let him
in.

“
Hey man, what brings you
by?”

He shrugged his shoulders.
“I figured it made sense to hang out one last time just the two of
us.”

I slapped him upside the
head. “Don’t you talk like that; we will hang out plenty after
this.”

“
Look at what happened to
Talia. There is no reason to think that tonight we aren’t all going
to make it out of this. He’s a dangerous guy, Vic with a lot of
dangerous friends.”

Even though he was right, I
still didn’t like it. “Try not to think like that. We will all do
our best tonight and make sure we all come out alive. Even though
you’re a Black and I am a Red, I consider you my brother,
man.”

“
Me too Vic, me too. You’ll
have to come back to visit often you know?”

“
Ha, if I don’t, my mother
will skin me alive. I’ll be back as often as I can. Besides, I
offered Pastor Browne a job with me to remotely work from my house.
I hope he takes the job.”

We flipped the TV on and
found a boxing match on tape delay. As the afternoon progressed,
vampires began to wake up and wolves began to assemble. As before,
everyone made themselves at home. By eight o’clock, when Reno made
his way downstairs, it was confirmed that everyone who was coming
was here.

I got one of my kitchen
table chairs and stood on it. “Hey everyone, can I have your
attention?” They all stopped talking and looked my way. “It means a
lot that you are all here tonight. Before we start, I’d like to
take a moment of silence for all those who we have lost to this
man.”

I closed my eyes and took a
moment to silently assure Talia I would avenge her tonight. I
opened my eyes and saw a few people still having their moment.
After a few seconds, all eyes were back on me.

“
We all know what we are up
against tonight. To start with, I need two wolves to follow Cristof
tonight and assist him with the one known as Fortuna.” I saw a lot
of eyes light up, but this wasn’t a job for just anyone. “Before
you volunteer, Fortuna is most likely an elder vampire, even older
than Cristof and Liz. Should you go with Cristof, I can’t guarantee
you will survive.”

“
I will assist the vampire
leader.” Everyone turned and it was Joshua Greenfoot’s second
Maska.

“
I also offer my services.”
I didn’t even need to look; I recognized that voice as Archibald
Argent.

“
Archie, are you crazy? I
don’t even think you should be going with us personally and now you
want to go fight with an elder vampire?” Chaz was in an
uproar.

“
Charles, thank you for
your concern, but you know personally that I am the strongest wolf
in New Mexico.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but Chaz
backed down a little. He was still mumbling, but it was more to
himself.

“
Maska, Mayor, are you two
sure this is what you want to do?”

In unison,
“Yes.”

“
Cristof, do you have any
thoughts?”

“
Those two look like
fighters to me. I will happily fight beside such accomplished
warriors.”

With that settled, it was
time to move on. “Now there are twenty-five of us remaining. By my
thinking here, we should have one vampire and three wolves per
special case agent he has. Phil, Reno, and Liz will lead the charge
against them. Finally, the rest will follow Gregory into battle
with the Frankenstein-like monsters. Any questions?”

No one said anything and
with that, we started dividing up into our groups. The three
Silvers went with Reno, Billy, Chaz, and one of the other Blacks
went with Phil and Bernard; dad and I went with Liz. The El Paso
Reds and the remaining Blacks joined up with Gregory. Once the
shuffling was done, everyone turned back to me.

“
Most of you haven’t run
across any of these things yet, so I will do my best to describe
what I can.” I looked over at Gregory’s group. “The Frankensteins
are big, strong, and angry. Most of what they do is attack straight
forward. They have some thinking abilities which they use to figure
out patterns. Because of their injections with our blood, they are
weak against silver.”

No one spoke up, just
everyone nodding in understanding. Next, I looked at the ones
grouped with Reno, Phil and Liz. “Austin, Tucker’s son, was
especially dangerous. He took bullets to the head and a full blown
Alpha attack and shrugged it all off. The only failsafe way to
probably put these guys out of their misery is by cutting off their
heads. But be cautious, because in death their blood becomes
unstable and they will blow up.”

“
What do you suggest we
do?”

I wasn’t sure who asked the
question, but I addressed everyone. “Work together and use each
other’s strengths. I know for a fact these creatures will not work
together, as they believe they are strong enough individually to
beat us. It is up to us to show them just how wrong they
are.”

When I finished, one among
us started to howl. Soon, all of us were joining in, even the
vampires. As our howls rang out through the desert night, I didn’t
know if Tucker could hear them. But if he did, he would know the
packs were issuing their challenge and tonight was a good night to
fight. 

You know that moment in the
movies when the heroes are all walking towards the final background
and the music starts ramping up? Everyone in the audience can feel
the moment approaching and gets all tense. Well, that is exactly
the moment I was experiencing right now. All we needed was the
awesome music.

Cristof walked up to me.
The first thing I noticed was his highly polished leather shoes.
“What are you doing wearing those city slicker shoes out
here?”

“
Even as I face the
possibility of dying, I want to go out in style. These beauties
came from Italy and after my wife, the best thing I have ever
found.”

“
I will take your word for
it, but don’t hate me when they get ruined.”

His eyes flashed red. “No
one touches my shoes.”