Zombies Unleashed (The Vampire from Hell Part 6) (10 page)

The girl paused for a moment.  With the basic appearance of my werewolf self, I had probably scared the last fiber in her being.

“You’ve never seen the likes of me, have you?” I asked, my wolf sense bringing out the cocky attitude I possessed.

Her eyes widened.  She shook her head.

“I’m sorry to say it gets worse.”

She simply nodded.

“If this doesn’t work,” I said to her.  My eyes flashing werewolf gold.  My mouth full of the one inch razor sharp demon teeth I had inherited from my demonic grandfather who was the other member of my mom’s family who she refused to let me to meet.  “If this doesn’t work, we’re both dead,” I told the girl.

Telepathically I sent the signal to my dad.  He’d have to destroy us both.  My mom would never forgive me, but I had to know if the girl was like me.  She
had
to be like me.  I could not be one of a kind, a freak of nature because of a demonic blood virus.

When I sank my fangs into the girl’s neck, into her birthmark same as mine, she calmed down for a few moments.  The burning sensation in my neck subsided as well.  I worked feverishly sucking away the poison.  Its bitter taste was the first thing I felt sliding down my throat.  As I drank from her, spitting out the poison in between breaths, I hoped and prayed I’d eventually taste blood.  Then I’d know the virus had been cleaned out of her system.  She had to be worth saving.

***

“Zachary, we need to talk.”

When I opened my eyes, my vision registered everything upside down. 
This can’t be right,
I thought to myself. 
Did my cure not work?
  Quickly I realized my dad was standing in the middle of my room, and I was hanging from the ceiling upside down.  His tall, muscular frame commanded a presence that was all his own.  Seven feet tall.  There was no missing him in a crowd.  He wore a tightly fitted gray t-shirt and black nylon gym shorts which was his normal attire and complimented his dark looks.  Black hair.  Gold eyes.  Rugged features. 
I was my dad’s son through and through
, I thought.  Except for the scaring and tribal tattoos I had across the right side of my face, from the virus, I looked just like him.  My mom had told me that many times.

“The old man saved your ass again,” my dad said.

Dad was not old by any means.  When you’re immortal, how can you grow old?  He had been a pure werewolf for a very long time.

“Thanks,” I said, understanding that tone he took with me when I had fucked up.  “Can you let me down?”

Casually he strolled over to my corner of the room.  I hung upside down by a few sturdy ropes, one wrapped around each ankle.  He sighed loudly, blowing steam in my face.

Momentarily, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Son, explain to me one thing.  You go on a mission to kill zombies.  And you bring one home?  What is this girl doing here on
our
planet?”

I wiggled around in my constraints.  “That’s a great question, Dad,” I offered, hoping I could stall long enough to cut myself down.  Before I could move, he reached up and slashed the cords with his long claws.  There was no getting around my dad.  He’d see right through me in an instant.

I fell in a heap on the floor.  When I collected myself and stood up, I saw the girl.  She had been placed in a large steel cage on the other side of the room, probably for her own protection.  Instantly I was angry. 
Calm down, Zachary
, I told myself. 
Dad will not deal well with you if you freak out. 
I ran through my options in my head.

“Son?”

Fuck it,
I thought. 
I’ll just tell the old man the truth.  I’d tell him what had been buzzing around in my head since I had seen the girl.  My wolf sense could be way off, but I did not think so.

“Look at her neck,” I said.  “Do you see it?  I have the same mark, by birth, Dad.  How would she have that unless she was born with the virus too?  I had to save her.  At the least, I had to try.  I think I got all the poison out.  Can you tell?  I’m mean…”  I paused because I could tell he had suddenly become very alert, very calculating, yet unsure of the situation.  He was paying attention to my every word.

I heard the girl growl and then whimper.

I wanted to go to her, but I held my ground, hoping to appear stoic, regal like my dad was.  “No other werewolf has a mark like that.  It has to mean something.  “I can’t be the only one of my kind,” I said.

I heard the girl whimper again.

Throwing up his hands, he glanced over at the girl and then back at me.  “This is not me.  This is you.  Will you please?  She won’t quiet down for me.”

I did not understand what he meant until I saw her face and her liquid blue eyes.  She was upset.

Dad kicked his heels a time or two, making his way slowly to the cage where I stood.  “That’s why you saved her?”

“Yes,” I snapped.

He frowned at me, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

The girl growled several times at him, so my dad moved to the other side of the cage away from her and me.

“Why is she caged up?” I asked, tracing my hands along the steel rod, hoping she’d come closer to one of the sides, preferably my side.  Finally I stopped near the steel door, opposite her at the other end.  The cage covered much of one side of the large room.  I motioned for her to come to me, sticking my hand through the bars.

“I did not want her to get away.  What were you doing?” Dad asked as he finally placed his hands on his hips in frustration.

“I did not have a chance to finish my experiment.”

“Zachary, this isn’t something you need to get involved in.  Just let it go.  I’ll call Containment.  We’ll act like it did not happen.  We don’t need
this
kind of trouble.”

Instantly I reacted.  My body went rigid.  She wasn’t going to be put down.  I owed it to my werewolf heritage to try to save her.  I had heard my mom’s version of my mom and dad’s romance.  Dad had never gone into details, but I knew what he had done to save my mom because she had told me.  I wasn’t anybody’s fool.  I decided to use some of my mom’s logic on my dad.

“Did you leave Mom in Hell to rot when she was turned into a vampire?  Did you?  A daughter of Satan?  When she drank Satan’s blood, you were there.  She told me.  You were there to see her change into a vampire.  That was not by accident.  You knew then who she really was, and how important she was.  She wasn’t evil like everyone thought, and you knew that.  You never doubted her even when she did.  Her exact words.  Over the years, you’ve done everything you can to save her.  Every time she has needed saving.  Mom told me!”

“Your mother is a writer.  She exaggerates,” he replied, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.  “Who is this girl to you anyways, Zach?  You don’t even know her?”

“I get that.  I’m not an idiot.”  I tried to control my rage.  “I’m not sure, Dad.  But I felt it when I saw her in the coffee shop.  I don’t want to regret later that I could have done something, you know?  I don’t want to live alone, being the only freak of nature, a werewolf zombie even if it means I can walk among them undetected.  I don’t want that!  If I don’t try to save her, I won’t know.  Now will I?  What if she too was born with the new virus?  What if that makes her unique like me?”

“That would explain the mark.  Maybe she was born with the virus.  Who is her father or mother?  Your aunt?  This may be beyond your abilities, son.  I’m sorry.  We don’t save zombies.  We destroy them.  We have to stay on top of this situation before it gets worse among the vampires and werewolves.”

“It’s gotten worse, Dad.  It’s jumped species.  I know it.”

“Do you have proof,” he challenged.

I pointed to the girl in the cage.  “She’s a werewolf, Dad.  She told me so.”

Not believing me, he grunted.

Using his same logic, I rebelled.  He had to understand what he was saying.  Rules were meant to be bent sometimes, even broken.

“Before there were zombies,” I began.  “Werewolves used to kill vampires.  And yet, you did not kill Mom.  You were there to protect her.”  As best I could, I faced Dad head on.  I made a point to thrust my chin up and glare up at him like I had seen my mom doing on more than one occasion.  With his height, he had no problem looking down at me, but he had to know I wasn’t backing down.  I hadn’t backed down against Rex and the others, and I wasn’t backing down now.  As insane as it seemed, I wasn’t wrong about this.

Dad searched my face for many minutes.  The silence in the room thickened.  I could hear only the girl’s ragged breathing as she fought the poison.

Trying to remain calm, I refused to look away from my dad, glaring up at him.  I was ready to take on the world. 
My god,
I thought. 
What has happened to me? 
I turned my attention back to the girl.  She had slowly approached my side of the cage and stood near me, also glaring over my shoulder at my dad.  Her blonde hair was tousled amid her face, but I could see the distrust behind her eyes.  Even in her chaotic state, she looked adorable.

In typical parent fashion, my dad reached out his hand and rubbed his fingers through my black hair, somewhat shaking my entire body.  He was unbelievably strong.  He did that dismissal move on me when he wanted me to know that, for now, he was tabling the situation.  I knew it wasn’t over.

“We’ll have to address this if your experiment doesn’t work.  Okay?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

Finally he patted me on the shoulder.  “I forget how stubborn, like your mother, you are.”  He chuckled and walked to the door.

Realizing I had gotten my way and he was leaving me to my task, I watched as he lingered at the door.  “You know,” he said.  “You are the son of a vampire with healing blood.  Maybe that can help.”

Our eyes locked for a moment as my mind raced with new possibilities.  He had deliberately given me an idea.

“Are you fine with me sharing the details on this situation with your moth…”

I heard him pause, not finishing his sentence or word.

“If I don’t show up for dinner, yeah tell her...  Uh…”  I did not want to predict the outcome.

“Do you need my help?”

“No.  I’ve got this.”

Again he watched me for several minutes, not saying anything.  “Well if you reconsider, call me.”  He tapped his fingers to the side of his face along the temple area.  “I won’t be far away.”

I nodded.

Dad was a man of few words sometimes, but I knew he had my back.  He was my ‘Go to’ man if things got really crazy, and I did not take that lightly at all.  He returned a nod and closed the door.

***

Once the girl shifted a second time between werewolf and zombie, I knew I had to get into the cage with her before the zombie version stuck.  It wouldn’t do for me to simply watch her from outside the steel bars of her cage as her werewolf self merged permanently with the zombie monster.  And the version of zombie I was looking at was the same demonic creatures we had seen at the coffee shop.  With her werewolf ancestry, she looked like a demonic werewolf, crazed and uncontrollable.  It reminded me of myself when I was in full ‘Zombie Wolf’ mood.

Now as I watched the girl shift back and forth, I realized I hadn’t gotten all of the poisonous blood out of her system, so it was time for Plan B.

Unfortunately, performing Plan B meant I had to get up and close to her, essentially taking my life in my own hands.  Knowing you’re immune to the zombie virus is one thing; getting mauled by a crazed werewolf zombie in a cage is quite another.  My past fights with human zombies in their raging sickness amounted to a few cuts and scratches.  My claws did my work.  If I got blood on me, I simply washed it away.  Having the zombie virus in my blood just meant I could smell them out faster than everyone else.  That was one of my many secret with zombie killing.  Any injuries of mine healed, and they healed quickly.  Trying to reattach my arm before dinner was going to be hard to explain to my mom and dad.