I pulled on every single bit of blood in my body and used it to power my time powers. The resulting effect was full-on Chow Yun Fat bullet time.
Time slowed down to a crawl around me with the sight of the Hollowed standing outside of the recording studio. There were three federal agents dressed like typical Men in Black with black suits, sunglasses, shoes, the works. They had their pistols drawn and one of them managed to fire but the bullet moved so slow, I was able to step out of the path of it then aimed at his head before firing.
My bullet moved quickly until it was about three feet from me then slowed down. Still, it went through the front of the BOSS agent’s head, creating a beautiful crimson spray. His friends managed to fire another two shots that I ducked under before getting close to them and firing directly into the bottom of their heads.
“Lobby scene from The Matrix, Smith!” I shouted.
Okay, that sounded lame even to me.
I wanted to grab one of the agents and drink their blood dry. Whenever I had the opportunity to kill someone, I did my best to drink their blood. I didn’t want to believe I was killing people for their blood but just being efficient. However, knowing how much I wanted to drink up the viscera flying around me—I felt ashamed.
Thoth and Yuki followed behind me, slower than I was moving but faster than any normal human would under the circumstances. Yuki had her katana drawn while Thoth had a sword made of blood in his hands. A miasma of red mist surrounded Thoth and Yuki both, which I assumed was some of his blood sorcery and a protection spell. I should have waited for him to cast some around me. I didn’t see Sam during this but suspected she was going to be hanging back and doing enchantments from a distance.
Wizards.
That was when a seven-foot-tall bat-eared deformed werewolf came around the corner of the hallway, opening its mouth and breathing out a column of green flame. The thing was, in the wolfman form of his kind and moving at a slow pace but not nearly slow enough to not be dangerous. I managed to duck under the fire, only for it to hit Thoth and Yuki’s protection spell, splattering against it like a wall.
“WTF!” I said, lifting my pistol and firing a half-dozen shots into the creature. I might as well have been using a squirt gun since they pounded into the creature’s chest, only for it to cross the distance between us and grab me by the shoulders. I could smell the hairy thing’s fetid breath against my face, and the guy could use a Tic-Tac. It was like rotted meat mixed with brimstone and almost as bad as the fact it looked ready to bite my face off.
“Duuuuucck,” Thoth said behind me, his speech slurred.
I ducked, pulling myself out of the werewolves’ grip and tearing my shirt. The creature was then impaled by two shards of blood that stabbed through its shoulders. It howled in pain as time sped back up to its original speed. Yuki charged upwards and sliced its head clean off with a single strike.
We were talking a clean Kill Bill-esque strike.
“Goddamn, you are like the Japanese Uma Thurman,” I muttered. “Olivia Munn needs to play you in a movie.”
I didn’t get a chance to say more because two more of the BOSS agents came around, wearing Kevlar vests and carrying M4s. Both of them immediately levitated upwards, dropping their guns before their bodies started to expand before exploding like water balloons full of blood. I looked back at Thoth before looking back at the walls now showered in viscera. The splatter was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
“Thoth, blood magic is just fucked up,” I said, looking back at him.
“It’s not blood magic,” Thoth said. “Just magic involving blood.”
“Uh-huh.”
I didn’t pay attention to him and picked up one of the bloody M4s off the ground before charging out into the lobby of the radio station. I was fully expecting to engage in a bloody fight, only to find a half-dozen other BOSS agent bodies with the police standing there, motionless, their eyes glazed over. In the middle of the corpses next to a traumatized-looking Mina Murry was David, who had two severed arms in his hand.
David’s eyes were yellow, his face had taken on a terrifying countenance, and there was something decayed about him. He’d become something similar but distinct from a vampire. Thoth had somehow combined the ritual necromancy of Haiti with vampire blood to create something more and less than a regular zombie.
“Hey Peter,” David said, looking like he was finally the zombie from the movies. “That was a lot easier than I expected.”
There was so much blood. The smell of it was everywhere. I’d been barely able to hold it together around it, and Thoth had left the room to go to the sound stage to avoid it. Faced with so much, I couldn’t help myself.
“Fuck it,” I said, throwing myself on the ground and starting to suck it from wounds, lapping it up like a dog.
I even chewed on an arm like David and knelt in viscera, ignoring the fact it was the grossest, most awesome, thing in my life.
Jesus.
Then it was gone. Thoth stood over me and waved his hand, causing all the bodies to crumble to dust. The arm in my mouth becoming ashes. Even the stuff staining my clothes just became a fine powder.
“No!” I said, before regaining control of myself. “Okay, that was fucked up. I went a little blood crazy there.’
“Honestly, you comported yourself better than most vampires would in your situation,” Thoth said. “I had to wear nose plugs in World War 1 or I would have been rolling around like a bat in batnip.”
“You mean a cat in catnip?” Yukie asked.
“I know what I said,” Thoth said. “I turn into a bat and a wolf when I want to shapeshift.”
“Wow,” Yuki said. “How traditional.”
“That was awesome!” David said, looking. “I mean, I was held down by the Boss agents, and I was like...you know, let’s kill these bitches.”
“That is a ridiculous thing to say,” Yuki said. “Did we get all of them?”
Yuki waved her hand in front of one of the police officers. “What’s happened to them?”
“Actual blood magic,” Thoth said, causing his blood sword to disappear. It transformed back into his staff. “Which means there’s still a wizard among the group. Alive somewhere. We’ll have to check the building floor by floor.”
“And there was a fucking werewolf among them too,” I said, angry as hell. “BOSS agents forbid vampires from joining but are letting in the mutts? That is bullshit.”
I mean, I expected the government to be racist, but I at least expected them to be consistent about it. If they were letting shifters and mages in among them now, that was just coming down on vampires specifically.
“They also sold their soul to the devil,” Yukie said. “Keep some perspective, Peter.”
Oh, yeah, right.
“You okay, Mina?”
Mina continued staring forward. “I feel like I just witnessed your dorky friend rip apart a bunch of people and shower me with gore. Now I’m dusty like an old book. I’m fine.”
“Do you want me to remove the memory?” Thoth asked.
“Yes,” Mina said, nodding.
Thoth waved his hand again.
Mina bolted up and looked around. “Okay, I am awesome. What the hell is going on?”
Thoth smiled.
“Hey Thoth, if you could remove all of these bodies with just a wave of your hand, why is every vampire paying for the Cleaners to clean up the aftermath of their murders?” I asked, turning to Thoth.
“Peter, who do you think owns the Cleaners?” Thoth said. “If you’re going to succeed in business you need to chase down opportunities. I learned that from Dracula.”
Mina muttered something about her asshole grandfather.
Before I could ask what that was about, I heard the voice from the intercom. “Filthy animals. You’re a scourge on the world. An abomination against all the gods of the universe and the spirits of my ancestors.”
I turned around to see a pasty white BOSS agent holding a gun to the head of Sam as he held his arm around her neck. He was radiating a kind of soft energy that I didn’t fully understand. It was the same energy I’d often felt from Thoth but much weaker. Better than the idiot I’d killed in the bathroom but not by much. Sam’s hands were tied behind her in handcuffs, and I sensed power inside them too, bound with some kind of unholy energy.
Sam looked frightened but not panicked. “Hey, guys, I’m sorry. He got the drop on me. On the plus side, I stopped him from summoning his master.”
The BOSS agent put his gun to her back. “I have no master. Me and the other Special Agents made a deal to protect this world from the supernatural.”
“You sold your souls to the Devil so you could fight the supernatural more effectively,” I said, looking at this guy. “Man, you got gypped.”
“Hey, that’s a slur,” Mina said.
“It is?” I asked.
“It’s from the word gypsy,” Mina said. “Which is a slur against the Romani.”
“Huh,” I said, blinking. “I did not know that.”
“Shut up!” the BOSS agent shouted. “Gog is a monster but he can be dealt with. Our deal is very specific, and we’re going to get our souls back after we destroy the vampire race. Once your evil kind are annihilated, we’ll have done our duty. You’re a corruption of America, a parasite race that is dragging down all true patriotic citizens. You infect us with our disease—”
“Take our women, leach off the government teat,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve heard all of this before I was alive. It was B.S. then, too.”
I didn’t even like vampires. I was a self-hating undead, to an extent. However, that didn’t mean the people who were trying to destroy us were any better. The people who hated the undead most tended to be not the people they preyed upon but the rich who felt they suddenly had competition. There was no one so dedicated to stopping predators than other predators. Either that or I just hated Feds.
The BOSS agent narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to step aside and let me depart in the elevator. I’m also going to be taking this foul witch with me.”
“You’re a wizard too,” Sam snapped. “A Black Witch too. I can feel the human sacrifices you’ve committed to increase your power.”
“And I’ll kill as many more as needed,” the BOSS agent said. “You have three seconds to comply.”
I tried to freeze time again, but it didn’t work. Whether it was because I was out of juice or because the guy had protection against my mojo, I couldn’t say. It made me wish I hadn’t left my M4 on the ground, though, because I really could have used it right then. Vampires were scary good at shooting straight. Blame it on the enhanced senses, and the fact recoil might as well be nonexistent.
That’s when David did something stupid.
“Arghhhh!” David shouted, charging at the BOSS agent.
“No!” I started to shout.
The BOSS agent shot Sam in the back, blood pouring from the wound. He then lifted his gun and fired multiple times into David’s chest, and one shot went into his head. That shot was the last mistake the man ever made since I was suddenly beside him and tore his throat out. I gnawed into his neck and let the blood fly out like a gusher into my mouth. I was so angry, I barely felt the blood as it poured out until his heart stopped. Barely tasted the sweet, sweet ecstasy of taking a life with my fangs. Then I ripped the BOSS agent’s head clean off and threw it to one side.
“Oh geez, wow,” Mina said, behind me.
“Apparently, I was wrong,” Thoth said, walking over to Sam’s side. “You could have killed Rebecca Plum.”
I licked my lips, tasted the messy lifeblood that was covering my mouth before looking down to see Sam bleeding out on the ground. David was also on the ground. Having to choose which to check on first, I rushed to David’s side. He had a bullet lodged into his head, and I grabbed his cold, dead hand.
“I’m sorry, man.” I closed my eyes. “I should have got him.”
“Ow,” David said.
My eyes flew open. “What? But you’re a zombie. Headshot—”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Thoth said. “His soul is bound to his body. The brain is just another useless organ.”
“How does he die then?” I asked, torn between checking on Sam now and staying with David.
“I can see sounds,” David said, licking the air. “Wow, that’s what words taste like.”
“We should probably get a pen and pry out the bullet,” Thoth said, walking to Sam’s side. “Otherwise, that’s going to be a common thing from now on.”
“Man, a rave with a bullet in my brain would be awesome!” David said, waving his hands in the air like he just didn’t care.
All around us, the cops started coming out of their fugue. They screamed, shouted, and pulled out guns thanks to the dead BOSS agent on the ground. Corrupt or not, they aimed their weapons at us, and their fingers slid up on triggers.
“Shut up and put your guns down!” I shouted, growling.
All the cops dropped their guns, got on their knees, and covered the back of their heads with their hands.
I blinked. “Did I do that?”
Yukie looked at him. “Apparently, you’ve discovered a new power.”
“Actually, all the cops here have standing mesmerism orders to obey the orders of vampires,” Thoth said.
“Oh,” I said, looking over at Thoth. Man, I’d wish I’d known that earlier. I would have been doing all sorts of crap to the NDPD. “Is she going to be alright?”
“No,” Thoth said, holding her hand. “She’s dying.”