Blood and Stone (15 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

“Oh, my God, you stink!” Laura Olson said in the darkness.

Mark Kenslir switched his tactical visor to night mode and the darkness was peeled away, replaced by the faint glow of augmented reality provided by small low-light CCD sensors mounted in the rim of the tactical goggles. Olson was still strapped into her seat, her back against the bulkhead separating the passenger module from the front of the crashed bomber.

Kenslir looked around and immediately located Josie. The young girl was sprawled across two seats, unmoving. The visor immediately highlighted her and an info box sprang up beside her, displaying her body temperature. She appeared to still be alive.

Kenslir picked himself up off the deck. He had been thrown onto the floor beside the single row of seats in the module. His right leg was broken, the broken end of a fibula sticking through his pant leg.

Kenslir ignored the pain in the leg and grabbed it behind the knee. With his left foot, he pressed down on his right, immobilizing it. With a quick upward pull, he straightened the leg, the broken tip of bone pulling back inside his pants.

It was painful, but he’d had far worse.

Rolling onto his knees, the Colonel began to scoot over toward Josie. He reached into a pocket on his tactical vest and pulled out several glowsticks. He quickly cracked the tubes and vigorously shook them, mixing the chemicals and bathing the module in green light.

The impact of the crash had been terrific. The aft end of the module, where the ramp had been, was crushed together, a mass of bent, twisted metal and loose wires. Kenslir could smell hydraulic fluid and jet fuel.

“You should check on blondie,” Olson said. she was still struggling with her seat belts.

Kenslir glanced over at Keegan. The agent was slumped over, a huge metal rod sticking through her chest. Blood was everywhere.

Kenslir turned back to Josie, gently exploring her body with his fingertips. He could feel no major breaks in her limbs or ribs. He rolled the girl onto her back, and slowly pulled her flight helmet off.

“Okay, I guess I’ll check on her,” Laura said. She finally had her harness free and was climbing out of her seat. She could see perfectly in the dim light provided by the glowsticks. She moved over to Keegan and felt at the agent’s neck.

“Hey! She’s got a pulse!”

Keegan suddenly came to and grabbed at Laura’s wrist. “Get off me!” the agent gasped, spitting up blood.

Kenslir was pulling back on Josie’s eyelid with a finger, checking her pupils. So far, the girl seemed to be just unconscious.

Laura pulled free of Keegan. “You’re a tough little thing.”

Keegan looked around, but her helmet had shifted and she couldn’t see much. She reached up to try and remove the helmet, but she didn’t have the strength. She felt tired. Very tired. And cold.

Laura helped the agent, unstrapping the helmet and pulling it off. Once it was free Keegan looked down at the half-inch thick rod sticking through her.

“Oh, crap,” Keegan gasped. The rod had speared her through her right breast, and her lung. She coughed up more blood.

“Mark!” Olson snapped. “Get over here!”

Kenslir laid Josie’s head gently down on the floor and stood. His leg had regenerated now, the compound break fully healed. He had to stoop to walk in the module, and made his way over to Dr. Olson and Agent Keegan.

“That bad, hunh?” Keegan said, looking up at Kenslir’s grim face. Her mouth was full of blood and she was wheezing now.

“Well, at least your implant,” Laura said, pointing to Keegan’s breast. Then she turned to Mark Kenslir.

“Pull it out,” Laura directed.

“Pull what out?” Mark didn’t know what she was talking about.

“The rod, numbskull.”

Mark looked at the rod sticking through Keegan’s chest. It was some kind of strut from the aft end of the plane. When they had impacted the ground, it had been flung forward, like a missile into the passenger module. It had punched through the seat Josie had been sitting in before the air drop, then into Keegan. If Josie had still been in her seat when they crashed, she’d be dead.

“I can save her,” Laura said. “But we have to pull that rod out first.”

Mark grabbed the rod with one hand while Laura placed her hands on Keegan’s shoulders, to hold her in place.

“This is going to hurt. A lot,” the vampire said.

Keegan just smiled, struggling to keep her head up and her eyes open. She could feel the life leaving her. Her body was growing cold.

Mark pulled the rod as straight as he could, easing it back out of Pam Keegan’s chest. Even weakened, and dying, the blonde managed to scream in pain before passing out. Blood poured out of the exposed wound, pulsing as her heart beat slowly.

“Now what?” Mark asked, pitching the rod aside.

Laura suddenly leaned in, grabbing the back of his head with her left hand, while putting her right hand on the open wound on Keegan’s chest that was gushing blood. Laura pressed her lips on Mark’s and began to passionately kiss him.

Blue-green light crackled around their lips as Laura began to drain Mark of his lifeforce. The Colonel was startled by the kiss, but then relaxed. The blue-green energy began to turn more blue.

Mark’s fingertips began to change color as well. The flesh tone faded from his skin, replaced by gray as his fingers began to turn to stone. The gray coloration rapidly spread across his hands, and up his sleeves. All his extremities were petrifying as Laura Olson drained his lifeforce. Before the petrification reached his heart, she broke off the kiss.

“Mmmm, always delicious,” the vampire smiled. She then turned her attention back to Keegan, lifting her hand off the blonde’s chest.

Where before there had been gushing blood, there was bright flesh. Laura unzipped Keegan’s flight suit and probed at the former site of the wound. “Looks all closed up.”

Laura lifted the blonde’s chin, then her eyelids, checking her pupils. “She’s still weak. Blood loss and dehydration.”

Laura gently shook the agent’s chin, awakening her.

“What-?” Keegan looked back and forth from Mark to Laura.

“The doc has patched you up,” Kenslir said. “Looks like-“

He was abruptly interrupted by Laura grabbed him and kissing him again. Mark broke off the kiss, pushing her back. When their lips parted, blue-green energy crackled and sparked in the air.

“Hey!” Laura said. “I need a little more to finish patching her up.”

Keegan frowned. “I am not kissing a woman.”

“Oh, relax, tiny,” Laura said. She put a hand up to the side of Keegan’s head, along her cheek. “You’re not my type either.”

Blue energy crackled between Laura’s palm and Keegan’s cheek as energy flowed from the vampire into the FBI agent. Keegan inhaled sharply as the lifeforce flowed into her. She felt invigorated, as though she’d been given a shot of adrenalin.

Mark Kenslir was frowning at Laura, eyes narrowed.

“What?” the vampire asked, finally pulling her hand away from Keegan’s cheek.

“You can do that with your hands.” It was a statement, not a question.

Olson blushed and looked over to Keegan. “Looks like my secret’s out...”

Pam Keegan sat up in her seat, then reached down and zipped up her torn, bloody flightsuit.

“I’ll need a little more, you know,” Laura said to Mark. She pursed her lips, as though waiting for a kiss.

Mark grabbed her left hand with his right. “Go ahead.”

Laura looked to Keegan. “Well. He’s no fun...”

Blue-green light crackled between their hands as Laura pulled more energy from the Colonel. As she did so, he could again feel his extremities petrifying—except for the arm he was using to hold Olson’s hand.

When his neck began to turn gray, the vampire stopped.

“How can she do that?” Keegan asked. “I thought you were resistant to that kind of thing?”

“He’s letting me,” Laura said. “I think he likes it.”

Mark pulled his hand free and turned away from the women. The gray was fading from his extremities as he turned back to flesh. He moved back to Josie and checked the girl’s pulse again.

“Josie’s next,” he told the vampire.

“No problem,” Laura said. “She probably just has a concussion. I’ll take care of it while you figure out how to get us out of this wreckage.”

***

He was the last stone soldier standing. Atlas, Hades, Janus—they had all been overwhelmed by the vampires. Only Colonel Phillips remained fighting. And then just barely.

The vampires were impossibly strong, despite their frail-looking human bodies. They held Phillips in place, holding each of his arms and legs immobile.

Despite his best efforts, the stone soldier could do nothing more than squirm in their undead grasp. Had there been one, and not four holding him down, he was sure he could have broken free.

But he could still unleash his electrical blasts, and had been doing so. Regrettably though, the vampires had managed to pin him face down in the dirt, his arms splayed out to the sides. Without being able to see where they were, Phillips could not aim any of his discharges.

After twenty minutes of hand-to-hand combat and dozens of high voltage knock outs, the fight finally seemed over. The stone soldiers had succumbed to superior numbers.

Phillips could hardly believe it. If the Colonel had been with them, there no doubt would have been a different turn of events. Mark Kenslir was a master of unarmed combat. Phillips had no doubt his commander’s prowess in combat would have evened the odds and he wouldn’t be eating dirt right now.

But where was Mark Kenslir? He was supposed to have jumped with the team. Phillips hadn’t seen his chute deploy or his beacon displayed on his tactical visor. The Colonel had stayed on the bomber. And that wasn’t according to plan at all.

Phillips heard the sound of great wings flapping like thunder. The shapeshifter. A loud boom sounded as the monster landed not too far from Phillips. He unleashed a bolt of electricity from one hand in the general direction of the landing sound—hoping he’d score a lucky hit.

Tezcahtlip watched with idle curiosity as the lightning-like discharge speared through the air some ten feet to his left. The crackling blue white discharge, four streams of electricity arcing out from the stone soldier’s hand danced in the air like whips, then vanished.

Very interesting.

Tezcahtlip altered the shape of his brain, forming the necessary cells he needed to wield telepathy once more. Immediately, blinding pain filled his mind, obscuring his vision and nearly making him pass out. Through sheer willpower, the giant resisted the urge to scream in agony.

Tezcahtlip quickly changed into his natural giant form. He waved his hand in the air, once more casting a spell to clothe himself in a fitted white business suit.

‘Their equipment,” the giant said to a nearby vampire.

The undead bowed, then raced over and pointed to a pile of weapons, harnesses and pouches, stripped from the stone soldiers following the long battle to restrain them.

Tezcahtlip made another gesture in the air, forming a fireball in his palm. It swelled to nearly six feet across, crackling and glowing orange. The giant threw the ball at the equipment, encompassing the pile in flames.

The fire burned for several long seconds, small pops sounding as ammunition was ignited by the fire. Tezcahtlip then closed his hand and the fire winked out, leaving a pile of smoldering debris.

Once more, the giant tried his telepathy. This time, no jammer filled his mind with pain. He had destroyed the devices the stone soldiers had carried, protecting themselves from his powers.

Tezcahtlip turned his attention back toward the lightning thrower. He reached out with his mind and seized control of the stone soldier. Phillips went limp, no longer resisting the vampires.

The giant rolled Phillips over and walked over to him. Phillips rose into the air, held limply above the ground, his face up, his mouth hanging open. Phillips rose up slowly, his head coming level with the giant’s.

Tezcahtlip leaned in close to the stone soldier and opened his mouth wide. Blue energy, much like Phillips’ electrical discharges poured from his mouth and into Tezcahtlip’s. The discharge lasted several long moments, then flickered out.

The stone soldier’s body dropped limply to the ground.

“Bind him,” Tezcahtlip told his vampires. Then he turned toward the remaining stone soldiers, held immobile by the vampires.

“Gentlemen,” the giant said, smiling broadly. “We meet again.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

Josie Winters felt warm and pleasant, snuggled under the blankets of her bed. Her mother was sitting on the bed beside her, gently rubbing her cheek.

“C’mon, Josie, it’s time for school,” her mother said softly. “You need to get up.”

“Just a few more minutes mom,” Josie said, closing her eyes.

“Josie! C’mon! You need to get up,” her mother insisted.

Josie opened her eyes to look at her mother once more. She was about to smile until she saw her mother.

Janie Winters’ brown hair was now red—swirling and moving around her head as though it were a living thing. Sharp fangs were in Janie’s mouth, dripping blood.

“Josie, get up!” Janie said, slapping Josie in the cheek.

Josie sat up suddenly. She was no longer in bed, back home in Chandler, Arizona. She was laying on the ground, in the jungle. Dr. Laura Olson sat next to her, watching her.

“Sorry,” Laura said. “But you just wouldn’t wake up.”

Josie rubbed her cheek where it felt warm and was stinging. “Did you slap me?”

“Here he comes,” Pam Keegan said. She was sitting on the other side of Josie.

Josie turned around.

Behind her, the bomber’s crash had made a great scar on the landscape. The large plane had crashed into the jungle, knocking down trees and tearing up soil for nearly a thousand feet. The plane was in several pieces now, the wings torn off, the tail broken and not even in sight. Small fires burned here and there, the result of fuel spilled from the plane.

The main body of the bomber, where the passenger module and bomb bay had been located was separated by a good hundred feet from the front of the plane, where the cockpit had been.

Colonel Kenslir was jogging back from the front of the crashed plane, carrying something. As he got closer, Josie could see it was a crewman. In their ejector seat.

“I think her back’s broken and she has a concussion,” Kenslir said, setting the ejector seat down on the ground near Josie. He had torn the seat from the plane and used it to carry the unconscious Major Karr as immobile as possible.

“Oh, my,” Josie said, holding a hand up to her nose. “What is that smell?”

“You threw up right before we crashed,” Keegan reminded her. “All over grampa.”

“Doctor, take care of the Major,” Kenslir said, ignoring the remark.

“I need a recharge,” Olson said, standing.

Mark again extended his hand toward her.

Laura looked at the hand and frown. “Friends shake hands.”

“C’mon, we haven’t got all night.”

Laura took Mark’s hand in both hers, rubbing the back of his hand gently. “You’re not still mad are you?”

As Josie watched, blue-green light flashed between their hands, as energy flowed from the Colonel into the vampire.

“I thought she had to kiss him,” Josie whispered to Keegan.

Keegan shook her head from side to side, signaling Josie to not bring it up.

When Laura was done, she crouched down and placed her hands gently on either side of Karr’s cheeks. Blue light flashed and the Major slowly regained consciousness.

“Oh, my God,” Josie said, looking over at Keegan. She pointed at the bloody hole in Keegan’s flight suit. “Are we.. vampires now?”

Laura laughed as she stood back up. “Afraid not, girly. Why, did you want to be?”

Major Karr looked around, disoriented then unbuckled herself. She stood slowly and stared at the broken, burning pieces of her bomber. “Well, crap. I guess I need a new plane.”

“Your crew are all dead,” Kenslir said somberly. “The two in back died on impact.”

Karr nodded, then began checking over her survival vest, ensuring everything was intact. Her pistol was missing.

“What about her co-pilot?” Josie asked.

“Turned to stone,” Karr answered. “That’s why we crashed. His hands were frozen in place on the stick.”

“Great, so now what?” Keegan asked.

Kenslir pointed north. “There’s a highway a little over a mile away. Head for that, and follow it east. Search and Rescue can pick you up in the morning.”

“What about Jimmy? And the team?” Josie asked.

“Their telemitters are giving their location as still at Chichen Itza,” Kenslir said, pointing west. “But their TTVs are offline—disconnected. I’m going to assume the worst.”

“So we just leave them?” Josie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“No, you leave. I’m going back to the pyramid.”

“Excuse me?” Laura said, shocked. “We survived a plane crash and you want us to just hike through the jungle and catch a ride back home?”

“That’s the general idea, yes.”

“I’m not leaving Jimmy behind.”

The Colonel was getting an angry look on his face. “Ms. Winters, you are not equipped for this.”

“And you are?” Josie pointed toward the crashed bomber. “
That
was your plan?”

The Colonel crossed his arms over his chest. “I need you to escort the Major to a safe distance and ensure she gets picked up.”

Keegan stepped around Josie and looked up at the Colonel with her hands on her hips. “Look, Colonel, you let us come on this mission because one of your psychics said we were going into Chichen Itza. So we’re going into Chichen Itza.”

Kenslir turned toward Laura. “I suppose you’re going to take their side?”

“I owe that giant some payback,” Laura said. “No way am I leaving now.”

“I see.”

The Colonel considered the women carefully, looking at each one. He then picked up his rifle from a pile of gear salvaged from the plane before Josie had been awakened.

“Sun up is a little more than an hour away. Since I’ve got the only working tactical visor at this point, myself and Doctor Olson are the only ones that can safely navigate the jungle in the dark.”

“I’ll just follow you,” Laura said. “I’m terrible with directions.”

“I know,” Kenslir said. Then he turned and sprinted away.

Moving much faster than a normal man, he was swallowed up by the darkness in seconds.

“Uh... what just happened?” Keegan asked.

“He left us,” Josie said, shocked.

“That clever bastard,” Laura said. She briefly considered chasing after Mark, but knew the women needed her.

Major Karr broke the silence by ripping open the velcro fasteners on a pocket on her survival flight vest. She pulled out a compass and glanced at it. “Well, ladies, looks like we have some walking to do.”

“No way,” Josie said, angry. She stormed over to the gear salvaged from the bomber. “It may take me awhile, but I’m heading back to Chichen Itza.”

“Here, then,” Karr said, pitching the compass to Josie. “Head due south, then follow the
other
 highway west. You’ll pass a couple of small towns and the international airport on your way.”

“Where are you going?” Laura asked.

“I have my orders, ma’am. I’m heading north, follow the highway then call for evac.”

“Good luck,” Keegan said.

“I think you three are the ones that are going to need some luck,” Karr responded.

***

Jimmy felt weak. This was a very unusual feeling to have, since in his petrified form he wasn’t used to feeling anything. But his limbs felt heavy, like the stone they were made of, and he could barely open his eyes.

He tried to move his arms, but something held them in place. Turning his head, which was a monumental task, he was able to make out thick chains and steel cables, wound around his arms, from armpit back toward his wrists, which were pulled behind his back.

His vision coming back, Jimmy soon learned he was on his knees, with his arms bound behind him, chains and cables wrapped all around his body. Even at full strength, he wondered if he would have been able to break free of the bonds.

To either side of Jimmy, he saw his companions. Victor was on his left, Captain Smith on his right, and Colonel Phillips past Smith. The men were all similarly shackled, heads slumped forward, unconscious.

They were in a large, rectangular room, the walls painted in red, with scenes of ancient people fighting, killing and even sacrificing their own.

“He awakens,” the Tezcahtlip announced.

Jimmy looked over and saw the creature sitting on a throne made of human corpses heaped one on top of the other. The giant was wearing a white business suit, stained red from the blood of the corpse throne and the sacrifices he had been eating.

Jimmy strained against his bonds. This was one of the creatures that had killed his parents.

“Not true, stone man,” Tezcahtlip said, standing. “The one called Antaean killed my brother. Ripped his heart out and discarded it.”

The giant was walking toward Jimmy. But try as he might, the stone soldier could not break free of his bonds.

“That heart was consumed by a coyote. It contained all the power of my brother, all his memories. The coyote became my brother—a pale imitation of him. It sought me out and awakened me into this modern era. After it killed your parents.”

“I’ll kill you!” Jimmy said, almost growling. He strained against the chains and steel cables, but his stone muscles could not break them.

“It is this Colonel Kenslir who is responsible for the death of your parents. Had he not thrown my brother’s heart away like it was garbage, the coyote would not have found it. Your parents would still be alive, I would still be buried in my tomb, and we would not be here, in what you modern humans have called Mexico.”

The giant knelt before Jimmy, putting a hand under his chin. “I would thank your Colonel, if he were not dead.”

“What?” Jimmy was shocked. It couldn’t be true.

“Yes, I’m so sorry to tell you, but the Colonel, the vampire, the little FBI agent, even your beloved Josie, are all dead. Killed when their airplane crashed into the jungle just a few miles from here.”

“No!” Jimmy yelled, jerking his chin away from the giant’s hand.

“Yes. It is very true, my unfortunate prisoner.”

The giant stood now, turned away from Jimmy and waved his hands around at the paintings on the walls.

“It’s all rather humorous. In my time great structures were built by my kind. They endured long after my brethren were dead. In fact, the capital of this land is built right next to the capital of my people. And this very structure was built to mimic the ancient structures my kind built.”

Tezcahtlip turned back to face Jimmy once more. “The humans who built this structure, they worshiped deities conjured from stories passed down from generation to generation. They waited centuries for their gods to come back to them.”

Tezcahtlip walked back to Jimmy, standing towering over him. “I have become that god for your pathetic, fellow men. I will rule over this land, and eventually all the lands of this modern world. All thanks to your Colonel Kenslir.”

“We’ll defeat you!” Jimmy said, still trying to break free of the chains and cables binding him.

“No,” Tezcahtlip said, kneeling once more. He put a hand on either side of Jimmy’s head and tilted it up to face his own. “You will feed me.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY

It was a little past daylight when Josie, Laura and Pam finally reached the road. Josie would never have called it a highway. It was a single, paved lane in each direction, stretching from east to west.

“My feet are killing me,” Pam Keegan said. Like Josie and even Laura, she was covered in sweat and grime from the long trip through the jungle. They had traveled only two miles from the crash site, but in the dense growth of the jungle it had taken them over an hour.

Each woman carried a backpack. Josie and Pam each had found submachine guns, .45 caliber H&K UMPs. The weapons were heavy, even with folding stocks.

“Maybe we can borrow some wheels,” Laura said, pointing west.

About a thousand feet down the road, the women saw a business sign on a pole.

“It’s a garage,” Josie said. At least she thought that’s what it said. Her Spanish wasn’t very good.

The women followed the road, cautiously approaching a small building with two garage bays. In front of the building, a beat up jeep was parked by a single set of gas pumps.

Pam Keegan held up her left hand and motioned for Laura and Josie to stop. She raised her UMP to her shoulder and crept toward the jeep, ready to shoot.

“There’s no one here,” Laura said to Josie.

“How do you know that?” Josie asked.

Pam was circling the jeep, looking around, aiming her submachine gun wherever she looked.

“Well, if they were vampires, I’d sense them. If they were people, I’d smell them.”

“Clear!” Pam yelled. She next turned her attention to the quiet building.