The Chaos Order (Fanghunters Book Three) (20 page)

“They do the same thing to all of us in different ways,” Trixie countered. “Have you seen the effects of these drugs that the cartels import to the States? That’s what
we
have to deal with. You have to put up with the cartels manufacturing and distributing, we have to put up with the addicts and gangs and the crime
they
create. And at the end of it all, the same entities control all sides. We’re all victims, which is why we all have to fight.”

“One day this world will be free,” Alicia said and kissed her crucifix.

“Our time will come,” Trixie said with a steely determination. She stared down at her bandaged hands. “It might be painful, but we’ll get there.”

She glanced at Dom, who gave her a warm smile.

She returned the smile as best she could.

They left the grim bridge behind; Dom watched it all the way, his stare not leaving those dangling bodies as they attracted flies. These cartel people were brutal, vicious thugs, worse than anything he’d seen in Chicago.

The bodies were left behind to rot while they continued on their march.

“
W
e’re entering Los Verdugos territory,” Alicia said as they approached another small town.

Dom looked around; the squat buildings were run down. One or two of them were peppered with bullet holes. Barricades made of sandbags had been set up in the road, which they had to swerve around. Dom guessed there must have already been a battle or two here between the
autodefensa
and the cartel. Now, it was literally a ghost town, with only their Humvees on the road.

A woman sweeping her porch noticed them heading her way and immediately stood upright and vanished into her house, slamming the door shut behind her.

“The people here are scared,” Alicia stated. “They don’t know who to trust. Los Verdugos have got control of their farms, their livelihoods.”

As they passed by, scared eyes peered at them through the corners of windows. Frightened residents grabbed their children and scurried into their houses. Dom felt bad for them. They were terrified of ending up like those back at the bridge. They couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad, caught in a constant state of fear. It made him even more determined to put things right.

They moved past the village into a vast arid area circled by mountains. Up high on the hill was a huge white building, surrounded by walls. It was imposing, dominant, glaring down at the neighboring towns like a tyrant.

“That’s Castillo Serpiente,” Alicia stated, her face pinched with hate. “We’ll stop here and go by foot the rest of the way. It’ll be quieter.”

She patted her open palm down on the hood of the Humvee and it came to a stop. Rafa threw up his palms and the tailing vehicles all stopped. Alicia curled her arm inward, indicating for everyone to disembark, before she herself dismounted the Humvee. The throng all got out of their respective vehicles and gathered at the foot of the hill. They split into three groups; Dom and Trixie staying with Alicia and Rafa. The plan was to take differing paths up to the villa and attack it from three angles; the idea was to keep everyone already up there penned in so Víbora couldn’t make an escape.

With the instructions set, each group went their separate ways. Alicia, Dom, Trixie, and Rafa were to head there from the front. They set off, the blazing sun relentless, the heat of the dirt road burning Dom’s feet through his sneakers. He soldiered on, drinking water like a fish, the buzzing of grasshoppers and the odd hiss of snakes hot in his ears.

The dirt path veered upward in a steeper climb. As they made their way up, they passed some kind of shrine. Alicia and Rafa moved past it like it wasn’t there, their focus on Castillo Serpiente
,
but Trixie stopped and stared. Dom went and stood next to her. It was a stone statue of what looked like a woman. Fangs protruded from her parted lips, her eyes two carved swirls like whirlpools. Her hair was wild, jagged thorns. Wrapped around her waist was a skirt made of severed arms. Clutched in each hand were writhing snakes, attacking one another high above her head. It was a depiction of a demon.

At its base was a bowl of rotting meat and fruit, swarming with flies, a foul smell emanating from it.

“What in the hell’s this?” Trixie asked.

Alicia stopped, turned back and laid eyes on the statue. Her top lip curled up. “The cartels make these shrines for her.”

“Magdalena,” Dom said with a nod.

“I don’t know,” Alicia said. “I suppose so. They worship her. She is like their god.”

Dom stared at the statue in disgust. “What’s all that rotten stuff in the bowl?”

“They give her offerings of flesh,” Alicia answered.

“
Oh-kay
,
” Dom replied, raising his eyebrows.

“What’s that around her neck?” Trixie asked, noting the stringed items wrapped around it.

Dom squinted as he scrutinized the statue closer. “Looks like fangs,” he said.

Dom glanced at Trixie.

“The Fangs of Moroz,” Dom said with a nod.

Alicia shrugged. “I don’t know what they are. All the statues have that on them. Big fangs on a chain around her neck. Maybe it means something. Who cares? This thing makes me feel sick.” She spat in the direction of the statue. It landed in the bowl of rotten slop, sending flies darting left and right.

Dom stared hard at the statue. Magdalena’s eyes suddenly appeared to whirl and move as if alive; the fangs around her neck seemed to glow. The Fangs of Moroz. He nodded. That’s what they were after, why Vincent sent them down here.
She wears them around her neck?

A shiver crawled up Dom’s spine.

“Come on, let’s go,” Alicia said before turning away from the shrine, Rafa following her.

Dom and Trixie stayed for a second or two longer, staring at the depiction of an ancient vampire. Magdalena.

“She looks like a whole loada fun, huh?” Dom said.

“A stunner!” Trixie retorted.

Dom gulped. “I think maybe you should be the one to face her.”

Trixie stared at him agape. “Me? Hey, I faced off the last one, remember?”

“Yeah, but—”

“But what?”

“I was stuck in a room with him for hours. Man, you didn’t see what he did.”

“I can imagine. Which is why I took him out.”

Dom sighed. “Okay, okay, we’ll face her together,” he conceded. He glanced back at the statue, at the hatred that had been encapsulated on her face. His eyes then fell upon the severed arms hanging off her waist. “We gotta
find
her first though.”

“We’ll find her,” Trixie said with a nod. “And we’ll put
her
out of her misery too.”

“Are you two coming?” Alicia shouted at them over her shoulder. “Or you making an offering?”

Trixie’s lip turned up in revulsion.

“Yeah, we’re coming, Alicia,” Dom replied. He grabbed Trixie by the upper arm. “Come on,” he said in a soft voice. “Let’s leave Miss World alone.”

Trixie chortled as Dom led her away.

As they went, Dom swore he could feel those carved swirls for eyes burning into his back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

T
hey reached the outer wall of the villa grounds.

The other two parties radioed in to say they’d nearly made it to their respective sides of the wall. As Dom, Trixie, Alicia, and Rafa were attacking from the front, they made sure to avoid the main gates, where guards would be stationed. They stuck to the trees and bushes outside the wall for cover. Dom pressed himself up against the wall, looking left and right. Apart from the grasshoppers and other wildlife, the place was silent. From where they were, the surrounding towns were in sight; this was the castle up on the hill from where the vampire terrorized the neighboring villages. Just like those old movies, except this was in the searing heat and not cold old Europe.

“Rafa!” Alicia called in a hoarse whisper.

Rafa turned her way.

“Lift me up.”

Rafa nodded and placed his guns on the ground. He went to the wall, bent down and interlocked his fingers, making his hands into a stirrup. Alicia used it to hoist herself up to the summit of the wall. She peered over. “They got guys out in front,” she said after a few seconds. “They don’t look alert.”

“How many?” Trixie asked.

“Maybe ten. I can’t see anyone else. We’ll catch them by surprise and then deal with whoever else is in there.” She got on her radio and conversed with the other parties “
Atacar!
” she then said to them all, short and sharp.

This was it. The plan was go. Dom watched Rafa boost Alicia up higher. She climbed up onto the wall and ducked down. After a quick scan left and right, she eased herself down the other side.

“Now you!” Rafa said, holding out his hands.

Trixie glanced at Dom before she went and allowed Rafa to hoist her up over the wall. Dom then followed, grabbing Rafa’s guns first. He made it up on the wall where he had a quick survey of the scene ahead. A fat villa was sitting in the near distance up a set of stone steps; armed guards loitered on the patio outside, some patrolling languidly, others lying on their asses, snoozing in the sun. Between both parties was a whole lot of cut, sun-dried lawn.

It was almost picture-perfect, and that was how he hoped it stayed.

He lowered the guns down to the girls who’d hidden behind the thicket of bushes surrounding the perimeter of the inner wall. He then turned back and reached down to give Rafa a helping hand up.

The moment Rafa took his hand, a loud voice cut through the air. By the time the cry registered in Dom’s mind, gunfire rang out. The wall just below him ruptured. The vibrations made him duck on instinct; he released Rafa’s hand, who fell back down to the ground with a grunt. Dom, now squatting on the wall, spun to face the villa with wide eyes.

He watched agape as the guys who had previously been lazing around on the patio were scrambling to their feet and taking menacing positions. One of them was ready and aiming his assault rifle. It exploded into fire. Dom screamed, covering his head. The wall beneath him soaked up a line of bullets. He gazed down at the peppered wall in numb disbelief; it looked like something from a Dick Tracy comic book.

I’m a sitting duck,
he realized in horror. He spun his head the other way; Rafa was back on his feet. He was patting the air ahead of him with force, his teeth clenched. He was telling Dom to get the hell off the wall. Dom dropped off the wall like a lead balloon, just as the gunfire rang out once more. The bullets shot through the space above the wall he’d just been occupying, hitting trees instead of his head.

He hopped to his feet and stayed low behind a bush, scanning the area ahead of him with hot eyes. He was expecting more bullets to head his way, but the coast looked clear; the cartel guys had vanished from view.

What’s going on?
Dom asked himself.

He was answered by a loud boom shattering the air. It was swiftly followed up by a hollow crash to Dom’s left. He whipped his head that way. There was now a big hole in the wall, hot dust and smoke billowing from it. Dom stared at it in bewilderment. Another intense bang punctured the atmosphere. Dom snapped his head toward the villa; the ground around ten feet away erupted, soil splattering all over the lawn. He stared at the smoking crater in the ground, perplexed.

“Cannons!” Alicia screamed.

Cannons?
Dom echoed in his mind, hardly able to believe what he just heard.

That unceremonious boom bludgeoned the locale once more and another cannonball went whistling through the air. Dom’s eyes widened in terror. He ducked, covering his head. A whoosh of air above him whipped his hair back as the cannonball whistled over him. A crash behind him made him spin. The wall had been smashed open again in an astringent cloud of dust and smoke.

“Cannons!” Dom said in a loud, scared voice, suddenly a true believer.

“Get cover!” Alicia shouted.