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Blood Ties
#7: full Circle
Family Ties Conclusion!
cover: A completely black cover with the words "Family Ties: Conclusion" at the bottom of the cover in blood red letters of the same font as the logo.
Mike
"I may need you to kill your sister again."
The words hit home, just as I'd expected. Brill fell onto his knees, sobbing. I reached over, and gripped his shoulder.
"Listen to me," I told him. "Hell, listen to yourself. The girl your sister was is dead. She's a monster, a killing machine. You took her down once, you can do it again."
"I can't," he stated. "I can't kill my sister again."
"Even if she wants to kill you?" This took me completely by surprise. I turned to face the newcomer.
"Hello, Sara," I told her. "I thought I smelled your stench nearby."
"And hello back, Mikey." Ow! She knows I don't like that name."Don't worry about me, boys. Worry about our sisters."
"'Our' sisters?" Brill asked.
"She's the head bitch's sis," I told him. I then gave him the brief explanation as to how we know each other.
"I pity you," is all he said. He looked at us briefly. "Where and when?"
"Tonight, now. It's the only time."
"No time like the present," he muttered. "I just need to make a phone call."
A half hour later, Brill introduced us to Janice Deerfoot. What struck me was not her name, but rather the steel tomohawk she wore at her hip.
"You sure she's up to it?" I asked him.
"Yeah. Jan's been around." Brill replied.
Janice just gave me a look that could have curdled new milk.
"If looks could kill..." Sara muttered. Before any of us could react, Brill's friend had Sara on the ground with that tomahawk's edge at Sara's throat. If I didn't know she were human, I'd have sworn Janice was one of us.
"I'll thank you to keep your mouth shut, or I may decide you don't need your face."
Brill, you're friends are almost as bad as mine.
Janice
I don't know what Brill was doing hanging around with these creeps, but so help me if one of them tried for my neck they'd need it intact to replace theirs. I let the witch up and put my tomahawk away. I think she got the point.
"So what's our plan? Or do we do this on the fly?"
Mike took onto that like it was his next meal, you could see this was something he'd been planning for a long time. He must really have it in for this Keili person. Still, what would he do once we'd gotten rid of his rival? Brill, you'd better know what you're doing.
As Mike explained to us what he intended, I kept my eye on Sara. She was a slick one, it was obvious from the way she reacted to everything Mike said. The boys were nuts to trust her. That's alright. I've got a 'hawk with her name on it just in case.
"Before we head out to the steel plant, I'll have to pick up a few... things," Brill said. "There's something I'm going to need if I have to face my sist... Miranda again."
Say that like you're at your own funeral why don't you, Brill.
The drive out to the Bethlehem Steel plants didn't take very long. Brill and I took the Hummer on steroids that he and Pete had been working on for the past few years. Frank caught us on the way out and decided he'd have to tag along. All things considered, I'm glad he did.
Mike was driving a Harley, and had the witch with him. We stopped a good ways away from the plant itself and walked the rest of the way. Brill was sporting a pack of spears as well as his bow and quiver of arrows. Frank was actually packing this time out, too. I never knew he owned a cannon like that. Normally, a .44 caliber is overkill in most situations, but for this one, there wasn't a gun large enough to make me feel safe.
Brill
I'm glad Frank caught us on the way out. Me and Pete are tight, but Frank and I know each other from farther back than that. It's a good thing Pete, Gabby, Ted, and Donna are out at the movies tonight. I'd really hate for any them to get... I'd better stop thinking about it.
Mike sent Sara ahead to the plant. Apparently he trusts her enough to act as a diversion, otherwise we're all gonna end up as a midnight snack. Damn! I have really got to stop thinking about this.
Sara wasn't long in waving us in, but ducked back into the building before we reached the door. I had an arrow nocked, just in case it was a trap, and Frank had his slugchucker out. Looking around, Janice was nowhere to be seen. How does she disappear like that? I swear she's gotta be a teleporter!
It wasn't a trap. The place looked like a hurricane had hit it, there were bodies strewn all over the place. Or rather, there were the remains of bodies strewn all over the place. I spotted Sara searching through them for something, and looked at Frank and Mike for their reactions.
"Looks like your sister got loose, Brill." Mike commented. "It looks like she's still as savage as she was a few years ago."
"Keili's not here." Sara said, rejoining us moments later. "She must have managed to strike a bargain with the brat or escaped before... where's the battleaxe?"
"Right behind you."
Jan, you are a freak. What would we do with out you?
Sara must have jumped several feet in surprise. She obviously wasn't used to people being able to come up behind her like that. Janice had her tomahawk in her right hand, and a piece of Schedule 30 pipe in her left.
"I checked the far end of this place. There isn't a living thing here besides us."
Mike
Janice was right, I couldn't smell or hear a single thing in the area besides the five of us.
"We'd better get back into town." Frank said. "If your sister's looking for you, Brill, shell head for the most obvious place. And your apartment's right over the garage."
"Crap! And Pete usually heads straight back there after a movie!"
Frank went into his jacket and pulled out a cell-phone. Dialing fast, he waited for the other end to pick up.
"Brill." He handed the phone to his friend.
"Yes?" Brill asked into it nervously.
"You aren't home, big brother. No warm welcome for your little sissy?"
I could hear the little monster's hiss from where I stood. She was determined to enjoy tormenting Brill before killing him. Brill cut the connection and ran for the vehicles, with the rest of us not far behind.
The apartment was empty. There were no indications, other than the phone call, to show that Miranda had been here. The situation wasn't looking good. Miranda and Keili were at large, and had an unknown number of other vampires with them. Worse, we were in a heavily populated area. This could very easily degenerate into a vampire population explosion.
"Mike, any ideas where Keili might hit first if she were looking to expand her follower base?" Frank asked.
"She's always been partial to the college crowd," I told him. "But if she's being hunted by Miranda she'd be on the run."
"Then they could be anywhere," Janice threw in. "Best bet's probably to canvas the area and hope we find them before they can do much damage."
As luck would have it, or maybe there really is a God who takes pity on tortured souls like mine and Brill's, Frank's police scanner chimed in.
"Mount Pleasant University, Sigma Pi fraternity! Code red, repeat, code red! We need SWAT backup! Repeat, we need -- AAARRRGH!"
Right where it all started. Without a second thought, we ran for the vehicles.
Fortunately, we got there before the SWAT team could. Unfortunately, we were too late to help the campus rent-a-cops who had called in.
Apart from the normal wear and tear of countless frat parties, the place had changed little.
The stench was overpowering. Blood, gore, and guts littered the yard.
"Brill, Jan, you two head over to the right. Sara, head around to the left. Frank, you're with me."
As the others spread out, Frank and I headed through the front door. The sight that caught our eyes repulsed us. Miranda -- at least, I assumed the young vampire sucking the blood out of a fresh corpse was Miranda -- had her back turned. Keili, on the other hand, was staked through the heart, hands, and feet to a wall.
"MICHAEL!" she screamed. "HELP ME!"
This was not the Keili I'd been relentlessly hunting. This was the Keili I lost ten years ago. And were those tears streaming down her face? And were they tears of pain, regret, remorse, or, - dare I think it - joy at seeing me?
However, I only had moments to reflect, as her scream caught Miranda's attention.
"Fresh meat," she muttered, lunging at us. Frank fired off an entire clip of bullets into her chest, and she fell to the floor, only to rise a second later as I was drawing my machete.
Once again, she lunged at us, knocking me over. I felt her fangs start to sink into my neck. She had me pinned, I was powerless to stop her. Reacting on instinct, I misted.
"Come back here and get your clothes on!!" Miranda yelled. One of the drawbacks of misting... indecent exposure charges. I drifted into another room, and slipped into the clothes of one of her victims that looked to be about my size. However, the misting also left me weaponless.
As I re-entered the main hallway, I saw that Miranda nearly had Frank pinned, and was about to bite him.
"Hey sis!" Right on cue, Brill. Miranda's head jerked up, seconds before an arrow flew into her heart, followed by a tomahawk in the center of her chest.
Brill
This was it, the moment I'd dreaded since that fateful day five years ago in Fresno. Miranda, alive -- well, undead -- and even more of a monster than before. Silently, I grabbed the tomahawk Jan offered me, and stepped down the stairs to deal with her.
"Brillo!" she called out. "Is this your warm welcome for your sister's homecoming?"
"My sister died five years ago," I told this creature in front of me. Closing my eyes, I brought the tomahawk down on the top of her skull, embedding the blade in her head.
Exhausted, I fell to the ground.
"It's over," I muttered. "Rest in peace, sis."
Mike
While Brill was taking care of his sister, I turned to Keili.
"Full circle," I told her. "Give me one reason not to kill you, while you're helpless."
"You still love," she whispered. "I can see it in your eyes, Mike."
"I love the woman you used to be," I told her. "Not the monster I helped create."
"So that's what all this is about?" she chuckled. "The creation's more vampiric than the creator? The years have made you soft, Mikey. But you always were."
"And they've driven you crazy." I grabbed my machete from where I'd dropped it when I misted.
"At least let me have one last kiss," she moaned. "Then make it quick."
As we kissed, I recalled all the good times we'd had, back before the whole mess started.
I dropped the machete. "I can't kill you," I told her. "Dammit!"
"Then I will," I heard Sara say. I turned my back, as I heard Keili's head being torn off her shoulders.
When I turned to look back, Sara was already gone.
We gave Miranda and Keili proper funerals. It seemed only fitting to place Keili next to her parents and brother. Brill seemed quite somber as they lowered Miranda into her grave, even moreso than when he finally killed her.
"I'm finally alone," I heard Brill mutter to himself.
"Brill," Frank told him, "so long as you have us, you're never alone."I wish I could say the same. I glimpsed a movement at the far end of the cemetary, but it stopped as soon as I looked up. Probably Sara.
Epilogue:
It's been three months since Keili died, and still no sign of Sara since the funeral. As it is, I've started backtracking the hunt, tying up loose ends. I guess that's what I'm doing in the hallway outside this apartment in Ithaca. I haven't seen Donna in months; I wonder how she's taking Amber's death.1
Donna answers the door... but I can tell right away that she's been changed.
"Mike! Why don't you come in for a little snack. Amber and I were just finishing up."
Entering the apartment, I see two men laying on the couch, drained of their blood. Amber leans over one of the men, still drinking.
"No thanks," I tell her, "I just ate. I'm just in town making sure you were alright. Nice seeing you. Bye." I turn to leave, pulling a small metallic cylinder from my jacket and twisting a knob on it. Without Donna noticing, I place it on the bookcase as I leave.
From the street, I watch the windows of the apartment blow outwards as the plasma grenade goes off. The hunt may be over, but there are still vampires that need to be killed.
fin