A mighty grunt ripped from Cassius’s throat as he poured all his vampiric strength behind the swing he delivered toward Luke’s head and shoulder. Luke ducked, leaned to the left, and raised his manica covered arm to protect his head. Cassius had fully committed to his swing, leaving no room to change his angles. The curved bill of the falx clanged against the steel of Luke’s manica, skittering and screeching over the overlapping plates and shooting down off his elbow. Luke pulled the poniard from his wrist sheath, rotated on his knees, and delivered a pinpoint stab through the tech vest into the vampire’s kidney.
Cassius’s scream, an inhuman blend of rage, pain, and fear, blasted out of his mouth as his body convulsed, and with superhuman strength, he flung both his falx and scutum away from his body as he curled backwards around the knife in his back. Luke rotated around to avoid his falling foe. Cassius landed on his back, driving the poniard further through his kidney until it protruded out his stomach and tented the front of his tech vest. Luke stole a dagger from its sheath on Cassius’s belt and crawled on top of Cassius, but Cassius had recovered enough to pull his knees to his chest. As Luke crouched over Cassius, dagger poised over the vampire’s heart, Cassius kicked his legs out, launching Luke backwards.
Luke landed on his back with a clatter and slid, armor against pavement sending up a brutal din. Once Luke stopped, he rotated his legs and flipped back on his feet. Cassius, cursing and unsteady, rose to his feet and hobbled to his falx.
“Luke! Catch!” Samantha shouted from behind him.
Luke turned his head to see a katana still in its scabbard flying toward him. He reached up, snagging it out of the air by the scabbard with his left hand. Placing his right hand just below the hilt guard, he pulled the blade out and stashed the scabbard under the bandolier belt. He strode forward a few steps and settled into a ko gasumi stance, his body bladed with his left side facing Cassius. His weight shifted to his back leg, and the blade settled parallel to the ground at eye level with his arms crossing as his right hand held the hilt just below the guard, and the left holding the end of the hilt. Every muscle in his body was taut and ready to spring into action.
The tip of Cassius’s falx scraped along the pavement as he stumbled toward Luke. Cassius chuckled and coughed.
“You watch ‘Kill Bill’ a couple times and think you’re a Samurai?” He chuckled again before coughing and hacking up a bit of blood he spat to the side.
He took a deep breath and seemed to gather and prepare himself before summoning a last reserve of vampiric strength, letting out a harsh battle cry and sprinting toward Luke, falx poised and cocked above and behind his head. Luke stood statue still, eagle eyes squinted and taking in everything as his ancient friend charged toward him. Just as Cassius uncoiled his arm, preparing to loose a death blow, Luke’s tightly coiled body sprung into motion.
The gleaming steel of the katana arced back, down, and around in deadly a windmill ripping up into Cassius’s side above the left hip and continued through his rib cage, exiting just through his right armpit, slicing into his arm slightly. Making choking, gasping sounds, Cassius dropped his falx and fell to his knees before tumbling to the pavement and landing on his face.
Luke flicked his wrist and whipped the oozing vampire sludge off the blade. He shoved his foot under the side of the twitching body on the pavement and flipped him onto his back. Cassius’s face twitched as bloody air rasped in his throat. An air bubble of blood formed, expanded, and popped as his eyes moved around in an unfocused, animalistic panic.
“That and soldiering up and down Honshu as a Ronin for fifty or sixty years. But go ahead and crack wise, I’m not the one with a gaping torso,” Luke said in near perfect 17th-century Japanese. Cassius gave no indication that he heard or understood Luke as his legs weakly kicked and dragged over the road, and his fists clenched and unclenched. “Also, don’t buy shit body armor next time.”
Switching back to English, Luke said, “You never could control your strength or swings. I’m sorry it had to end this way, my friend. And you were my friend…” Luke’s sadness was evident in both his voice and the pitying expression on his face. He reached over his shoulder to grab the rudis, which would permanently end the existence of the vampire that had once been his friend.
“Halt, Centurio!”
Luke’s head whipped around to his left and saw a shadow emerging from the flood of headlights coming from the vampire-occupied end of the St. Johns Bridge.
The solidifying shadow continued in Dacian-accented Latin, “Even though this waste of space has so thoroughly failed in his mission, I still have need of him.”
Two more shadows split off from behind him to flank him on either side.
Luke left his rudis undrawn and brought the Katana to readiness. “By right of conquest, this cadaver is my plunder. Turn around and walk away.”
Despite the bravado of the words, Luke didn’t back them with the confidence of his conviction as a note of uncertainty crept into his voice. He was too distracted by the Dacian-accented Latin speaker walking toward him. Two more silhouettes split off from the shadows flanking the voice, forming a wedge stalking toward him. The voice began to solidify into visibility. He wore a cassock. His long, wispy hair blew in the wind. A silvery beard contrasted with the dark fabric of the robe. With five to one odds, Luke reluctantly backed away from Cassius's still twitching body. Despite the damage Luke had done to Cassius, it wasn’t enough to kill the vampire, not without a stake to the heart or a fuck ton of gasoline and a match.
“Stand down, Centurio. This is a fight you shan’t win with naught but a pack of gutter dogs at your heel.”
Luke heard the approach of footsteps behind him. Taking a moment, he peeked over his right and then his left shoulder. Werewolves in bipedal hybrid form, one wielding a naginata sword-bladed spear, sidled up along his right and left sides. He briefly made eye contact with the wolf he recognized as Pablo and nodded in acknowledgment before returning his attention to the blast from the past stalking toward him. One more set of shadows split from the last pair to increase the oncoming wedge to seven predatory figures.
Once the wedge drew up to Cassius's body, the robed beard made a couple gestures, and the darkly dressed vamps to his immediate left and right took Cassius by his feet and armpits, lifted him, and carried him back toward their lines. The vamp in the cassock turned and followed them. One more set of shadows split off from the end of the wedge while the two vampires at the front closed the formation, blocking Cassius, beardo, and the pallbearers. The vampire wedge advanced to meet Luke and his werewolf contubernium, which grew as more quietly padding feet joined him and the first wave of werewolves.
Luke closed his eyes briefly, centered himself, then set his body and sword into a versatile stance designed to handle both offense and defense. He heard growls and rumbles as his lupine allies readied themselves to plunge over the precipice into supernatural-on-supernatural violence.
“Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more…” Luke muttered a few levels above a whisper.
Luke wasn’t sure who made the first move. The two lines stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a handful of seconds until the tension broke and they surged toward each other, the vampires hissing as they moved with supernatural speed while werewolves growled and sprinted toward their enemies. Claws ripped into each other as a wolf grasped a vampire’s head and wrenched it off before chucking it violently at another vampire, knocking it off balance.
Luke took advantage of the cranial ballistic and brought the katana down, removing the vampire’s right arm before bringing the blade around for another pass that sent its head tumbling one way as its body fell the other. He punted the head away to ensure it didn’t make its way back to the vampire’s neck before turning toward another target. The battle raged around him, but no vampire was within easy reach, so he took a moment to survey the scene.
The werewolf with the naginata was engaging two vampires, the big spear making precise slices as she slowly dismembered the over matched vampires with trained, lethal precision. The other wolves seemed to be taking some injuries, but were giving better than they got, at least for now. However, another couple groups of vampires sneaked along the edges of the bridge, hoping to take Luke and the werewolves by surprise.
One of the lead vampires screeched as a crossbow bolt sprouted from its chest. Joining Luke and the wolves, Delilah had grabbed the shiny, new high-tech crossbow Luke had gotten to experiment with and was putting it to good use, breaking up the momentum of the vampires trying to join the fight. While she held the right line, Luke dashed off to the left to engage the other group. Just as he was about to make contact, a large beast in full wolf form flew over his head and landed on the lead vampire, shoving it to the ground before ripping its throat out. Using the distraction provided by the violent wolf attack, Luke swept in and took a head off before following through and catching another vampire at the elbow, lopping off part of its left arm.
A few other wolves joined the swirling chaos to dart in and hamstring vamps then dart away, avoid slashing claws and violent fangs. Luke followed and dismembered the fallen vampires, taking their heads to leave them near dead or their limbs if he couldn’t get to their head easily to render them impotent.
A pained yelp pulled Luke’s attention to one of the bipedal werewolves who’d been dragged down by a couple vampires. He rushed over to help, lopping off the head of one vamp while raking the katana’s blade across the ass of a second vampire, trying to get to the wolf’s neck. The sudden deep-cutting swipe caused the vampire to arch its back and present its head for a near perfect executioner’s decapitation. The headless body flopped back down on the werewolf, black ichor sluicing out of the neck onto the wolf.
Luke kicked the body off the werewolf and offered a hand to help him up. The wolf accepted and pushed his way up awkwardly. He rose unsteadily with a right leg that looked badly bloodied.
“Get back to the bus with the civilians. Relieve one of the guards and send them up. I’ll cover your retreat.” The wolf looked like he was about to disagree and head back into combat, but instead nodded once before limping toward the back of the line.
He caught sight of Delilah. She’d abandoned the crossbow and was darting about, hacking at vampires with her sizable machete. She was playing it smart, keeping the bigger and faster werewolves between her and the vampires, darting out when the fangers were distracted to lop off a hand or arm or sweep her blade across legs. Each swipe rendered the vampires less efficient and easier for the werewolves to finish.
Catching a slight movement out of the corner of his eye, Luke spotted an unattended vampire sneaking toward Delilah. She hadn’t notice it; her focus was on the main melee. The vampire’s attention seemed entirely on Delilah, so Luke jogged toward it, building up speed while trying to keep his footfalls silent. Finally in a full sprint, he ripped his katana through the back of the vampire just as it was raising a blade to plunge into Delilah. Realizing her danger, she spun around and brought her machete through the neck of the would-be assassin, turning it into a gory Pez dispenser. Luke halted his momentum, spun around, and finished the decapitation. As the body fell, he noticed the blade the vampire was about to stab Delilah with was his missing gladius.
“There you are, buddy!” he said as he reached down to pick it up off the pavement. He nodded at Delilah before heading off to see where he was needed.
With a katana in one hand and his gladius in the other, he darted about, assisting the werewolves by lopping off whatever he could get his blades on or, when possible, stabbing the vamps through the hearts with his gladius, sending them to their final rest. The fight appeared to be largely heading in favor of the werewolves when he heard a sound he hadn’t heard in ages—the blowing of an oxen horn. Looking toward the line of headlights blocking the west side of the St. Johns Bridge, he waited to see what new trap the vamps were sending their way. Then he heard another horn from far behind their own lines.
Before he could prepare for another onslaught, the vampires began to disengage. Those who were able went into full vampiric fast sprints, fleeing the wrath of the werewolves. Any stragglers were quickly swarmed over and destroyed. Some werewolves appeared to be about to launch a pursuit. Luke put his fingers between his lips and whistled shrilly to get their attention.
“Wolves! HALT! Return to your lines,” he bellowed, using his battlefield command voice. One of the wolves punctuated his command with a loud howl. The wolves stopped their advance and backed toward their initial line. Luke joined them. He met up with a heavily breathing Delilah.
“Shit, I need to do some more running or something if it’s going to be pitched battles in the streets all the time.”
“Yeah, battlefield conditioning is something else entirely,” Luke replied, trying to mask the fact that he was winded himself. “Got enough energy to jog back to the line and see what’s happening?”
“Yeah. Sure.” She took off at a steady jog. He turned around and saw one of the bipedal wolves shifting back to human form. Once he saw it was a woman, he turned his head, allowing the wolf some privacy.
“You can turn around,” came Holly’s slightly ragged voice. “Wolves are used to casual nudity.”
“So are legionnaires, but I always like to defer to the mores of the times.”
Luke turned as Holly pulled on the T-shirt she’d been wearing earlier. Her lean muscles rippled under her pale skin.
“You’ve been fighting vampires for a long time. Are they going to keep attacking?”
“I haven’t fought vampires in these numbers in a while. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.”
Their questions were quickly answered as the line of headlights and the vehicles attached to them began to back away and drive off.
Luke squinted, watching the lights move. “Well, looks like they’ve given up for now. Hopefully.”
They turned as the sound of someone jogging toward them caught their attention. Delilah, huffing and puffing, halted before them, placing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.
“I’ve really got to start jogging more often. Shit.” After a few moments, her breathing calmed, and she stood up to face Luke and Holly. “Looks like the vampires back there have withdrawn as well. The wolves are ready though if they come back.”
Hearing the news, Luke offered the handle of the katana to Delilah, pulled a cloth out of his pocket, and wiped the gladius clean before resheathing it. He took back the katana, repeating the cleaning, before turning his back to Delilah.
“Can you hand me the scabbard, please?” Delilah pulled the wooden saya out from under Luke’s bandolier and handed it to Luke.
“Was anyone hurt badly?” Holly asked.
“A few cuts. There were a couple wolves who were sent back to the bus with more severe injuries. I don’t know much about werewolves, though, so I don’t know how bad the injuries really are,” Delilah replied.
“If they’re still moving or haven’t made the final shift, they’ll heal.” Holly’s relief was evident. “We’d better get this caravan moving again before the police show up. Everyone shift back.”
As if on cue, the sound of sirens off in the distance deep in St. Johns punctuated the need to hurry. Peering off into the distance, trying to see if he could catch a flash of red and blue lights, he noticed a red glow and thick cloud forming near where Wapato was located. The bomb they’d set off in the vamp nursery had kept burning and had engulfed the jail. The authorities would have something far more pressing to worry about than what they didn’t know was happening on the St. Johns Bridge.
“That’ll keep them distracted for a while,” Luke said, pointing to the growing inferno in the distance.
The wolf with the naginata walked over to Luke and handed him the sword-bladed spear before she began her shift. When she was done, Samantha stood naked before him.
“Mind holding that for a few more moments while I put my clothes on?” She winked at him before turning to walk toward the pile of clothes that belonged to her. When she returned, she said, “You’re pretty good with that katana, although your Japanese is a bit rusty. It’s also quite archaic.”
“Thanks, it’s been a long time since I’ve used my Japanese and even longer since I learned it. You’re pretty handy with that naginata.” He handed her back the katana first. She slid it under the belt she was using to hold up her jeans. He returned the naginata to her. “Holly, I need to check on the vamp bodies they left behind and ensure they’re properly staked. Mind if I borrow Sam to watch my back? Also, I probably should be last in line of the caravan. I can sense the vampires and should be able to see if anyone is following us. I’ll want to drift back quite a bit.”
“Right, good thinking. Sam, go with Luke. You can help guide him to the farm if you get too far behind.”
“I’ll collect Gwen and help get everything ready to go,” Delilah said. She bent over and picked up Luke’s crossbow before walking back to the line of cars.
Sam fell in with Luke as he headed back out to the center of the bridge. Luke reached over his shoulder and pulled out his rudis and began working his way through the various bodies, staking them through the heart and leaving piles of dissolving and disintegrating bodies.
“Why do some turn into goo and others puff out into dust?” Sam asked.
“Freshness. The gooey ones are vampires that have been turned more recently. The dust bunnies are older vamps. I’m surprised there are as many old vamps here as I’m seeing. I must have taken a good chunk of their young ones out recently. Typically, the old ones use the young ones as expendable foot soldiers. They can be replaced easily.” He continued his work. After a few more bodies, he looked up at Sam.
“Onna-bugeisha?”
“Yup.” Sam smiled at him and nodded.
“I thought so. Your forms are more classic and practiced. More true war forms.” Luke walked up to a vampire that had been hamstrung on both legs and was missing an arm. She was trying to crawl back toward her now vacant lines with only one arm. “Not so fast.”
Luke placed one knee on her back, halting a half-assed attempt to escape before he shoved the rudis between her ribs and into her heart. He placed his forehead on the pommel and mumbled the formulaic incantation that activated the true power of his rudis. The fine silver filigree glowed, starting at the sword’s pommel and running down its body and into the fanger, before it slithered its way up, ending at the small silver nub at the end of the pommel before disappearing into Luke’s forehead.
“What’s that? Why did you only do that on this vampire?” Sam asked.
“It’s a secret,” Luke replied as he stood up and walked toward another headless vampire.
“Bullshit.” Her eyes widened as a realization dawned on her. “That’s how you get your power, isn’t it? You’re like some kind of, I don’t know, vampire vampire…”
Luke looked at her before returning his attention to a partial body in need of a staking. He nodded lightly before saying, “I’d prefer if you’d keep that fact to yourself.”
“I can’t keep it from Holly, nor would I want to. She’s my wife and my packleader.”
Luke pulled his rudis out of the dissolving body and faced Samantha.
“Nor would I expect you to. You and Holly seem like a wonderful couple. I wouldn’t want to interject one of my secrets between you two. Besides, I expect that Pablo has already informed her. Then again, he might have kept it to himself since it didn’t affect the pack. I just ask that you keep it between you and Holly. I think this is the last one. I need to collect my shield so we can get the hell out of here.”
Together, they walked over to the site of Luke’s duel with his former friend. Once he got there, he took out the cleaning rag, wiped down the rudis and stowed it safely in its back scabbard. He picked up Cassius's falx and handed it to Samantha. “Mind carrying this for me?”
Sam leaned her naginata against her shoulder, freeing up one hand to take the falx. Luke bent over and picked up his shield before walking over to pick up Cassius's.
“What kind of weapon is this, anyway?” Sam rotated the weapon to look at it from various angles.
“It’s a falx. The Dacians liked them.”
“Those guys you were telling us about at Pablo’s house?”
“Yeah. It kind of works like a sickle. The curve allows for maximum force to be applied to a broad area. With a two-handed swing, it could punch armor or helmets. It could rip a shield apart or easily lop off a hand or arm. That’s why I’m wearing all this gear,” he said, roughly gesturing at himself. “This helmet has reinforced steel crossbars on it. The armor sleeve—it’s called a manica—is designed to take the blow of the falx and direct the blade down to the elbow where the plate is thicker.”
“Cool!”
They walked back to the caravan. Everyone was in a vehicle, and all the engines were running. Luke chucked both scutums into the back of his Volvo wagon, removed and stowed his helmet, and took off his swords and the bandolier that held them.
“Just throw the falx into the back with the shields. We need to get on the road.” He unlaced the leather thong that held his armor closed and turned toward Sam, who was unscrewing the shaft of her Naginata.
“It’ll fit in the back better this way,” she commented, catching where Luke’s gaze had landed. “Need some help with the armor?”
“Sure. It’s always awkward to get off.” Luke shimmied out of the armor, then took it from her and put it inside its storage tub. He shoved the whole box back into the wagon, then pulled down the hatch door. “Let’s go.”
Luke walked up front. Delilah was already in the driver’s seat, so he climbed into the passenger side, and Sam got in behind Delilah. Gwen was already strapped in the back right seat.
“Gwen, you remember Samantha?”
“Hi, Gwen. You can call me Sam.” She offered her hand to the skittish girl sitting next to her.
Gwen gave her a wary look and a tiny wave, avoiding shaking Sam’s hand as the caravan finally started moving again.
“Delilah, once we get off the bridge. I need you to fall behind the rest of the caravan. Sam will guide us to our destination. I need to make sure we’re not being followed by any toothy tails.”