One thing.
Vampires.
Theyd come to his hometown and nearly annihilated the population, his people. Theyd massacred almost everyone in Hollow Tree, too. But, thanks to the arrival of Cody Fox, theyd gotten things under control. So, improbably, now here he was, a Texas sheriff, called into the hallowed halls of a beleaguered nation, to help solve a plague again. A Texan, a Rebel, fighting monsters in the heart of the Union.
The key word in his strange situation was actually Texas. Out in the frontier of far west Texas, there were still folks who didnt even know that a war was taking place. They were too busy trying to feed cattle and sheep or grow subsistence from a lot of dry and rocky land. Most such hardy folk got along with their neighbors, including the Indians, but it was also an area where the different Apache or Comanche clans might go on the warpath. Civil war was something happening far, far away, to someone else.
Cole himself had wanted no part of it. Hard to say who was right and who was wrong when the abolitionist John Brown had flat out murdered slave owners in Kansas, and when the guerilla retaliation had been flat out murder, as well. John Brown had hanged at Harpers Ferry, and Robert E. Lee, sent out to apprehend the man, was now head of the Confederate Army. It was a mess of tangled loyalties all around, and among men who used to be brothers.
It was death. The death of the youth of one country, torn asunder; and it was mothers crying over the loss of their sons, little more than babes, because war always killed the fit, just as it killed the beauty of youth. Confederates were ripping it up as amazing cavalrymen and sharpshooters, naturally, because they mostly lived off the land, while their Northern brethren were simply whopping down hard on the South because they had numbersnumbers of men, numbers of weapons, numbers of financiers, numbers all the damned way around.
So many dead now.
The war was over States Rights, and the main right that many of the states wanted had to do with slavery, while half the boys fighting on the Southern side couldnt afford a good horse, much less a slave. They werent really fighting for themselves but someone richer. Always someone richer.
It was a mess to begin with. It was horrible; it was ugly, it was heartbreaking.
Death, horror and bloodshed.
Then throw in a few vampires.
But, then, you could go on forever and not even know about the vampires. Most didnt. The creatures had to slake a bloodlust, but they worked around the whole killing and draining human being thing by feasting on cattlejust like man himself feasted on beef. Then again, Cole knew a few folks who didnt eat much meat at allthey lived on the land, consuming mass quantities of vegetables and beans and the like.
There were no vegetarian vampires, he thought wryly. Not that he knew about, anyway, but some were better than others, some had to be.
Cody, for instance. Well, half of Cody.
Cole, five oclock! Cody Fox whispered to him.
He turned; the shadow was just slipping up behind them. He saw it, and quickly assessed his supply of weapons. He wanted to keep it quietdidnt want the creature screaming and alerting others.
A stake.
Quick and hard, straight through the hearthis aim needed to be good
The shadow pounced, becoming substance, the flesh and blood of something that had once been human. It started to snarl, gnashing its teeth, but Cole moved swiftly, his stake honed, his aim true. He rammed the creature through the heart, pinning it to the wooden door marked Warden. Unless it was the leader, an old vampire, it wouldnt turn to ash. No, this one wouldnt. It was wearing the tattered remnants of a uniform, butternut and graya recent soldier. The fellow had been a prisoner here. Already beaten and bested at war, he was now dying in truth, pinned by the stake. The things eyes widened and seemed to dampen with sorrow; its jaw continued to work. Ithelooked at Cole with a split second of humanity, and there seemed to be gratitude in the eyes.
Cole felt his heart squeeze. The thing twitched and went still.
Brendan stepped forward, a bowie knife in hand. A second later, the head fell to the floor. Brendan jerked the stake from the creature, returning it to Cole with a nod.
Once the rush began, there wouldnt be time for such thoroughness, neither in the killing nor in the covering up of their deeds. Brendan, a Unionist to the core, could manage the Union authorities and make their actions disappear if need be.
After all, it was Brendan who had gotten them here tonight. Cody Fox, who had come to Victory in a time of need and become a damned good friend. He had been military with Brendan, but Brendan had been in the service his whole liferight up to and into this War of Northern Aggression, as Texans called it. Not that that stopped him from coaxing Cody Fox out to Victory, Texas, to stop the infestation that had killed so many Southerners out there. Nonprejudicial infestationthe damned vampires didnt care much if you were free, slave, white, black, red, yellow, old, young, man or woman.
The bastards and their plague could certainly get aroundhere they were now, in D.C.
Hell. Ah, hell.
Maybe a Texas sheriff shouldnt be in Washington, D.C.
Maybe he was even a traitor, in a way. There was a sad irony to this. Here he was, a Texas sheriff, with a ragtag band in a Federal POW camp, having to put down not just the Union guards, but his Southern brethren, as well.
But Cole knew himself, when hed heard about the madness, it wasnt going to matter to him any if the new bloodshed was occurring in the North, the South or Timbuktu, he was in on stopping it. Humans were humans, and that was that. Hed seen what the vampires could do, and hed fight them with his fellow man, no matter what label anybody wanted to put on anyone.
God knew where theyd really come from, the whole damned war was so crazy, brothers choosing different sides, Lincolns wifes family all in the South, fathers finding their own sons dead on the battlefield.
And nowthis. No matter who was what and what uniform went on what man, there was no going around this.
Theyre going to be coming en masse any second now, Cody said quietly. He looked at the others; they nodded to one another and stepped forward.
Best we can, lets pick them off before the numbers flood in, Cole said.
Oh, yes, yessir. As quiet as can be until Brendan said.
They all knew what he meant.
It started slowly. A few of them sensingor smellingfresh blood. They came slinking out along the walls, unorganized, instinct and bloodlust guiding them. Cole picked off another two, and Cody caught a couple while Brendan kept his keen eyes out, giving the warnings.
Then Brendan shouted, Theyre coming in force!
And they did. Confederate and Union soldier, prisoner and guard, old and young. They arrived without further warning.
The first wave were all young vampires, or so it seemed. They werent turning to mist, werent moving at the speed of lightning. They were awkward, untutored. They hadnt been diseased slowly, properly; they had been taken in a frenzy and, in turn, they were more like a sad and ragtag pack of stumbling, hungry corpses than creatures of wit and malice and true evil.
Vampires thrived in times of war and chaos. They could gorge themselves, and no one would really know what was going onnobody could distinguish what was part of the war and what was part of an evil hunger. Vampires could be very clever, naturally keeping their numbers down by disposing of their food properly. Unless they were attacking an isolated people and had some luxury of timesuch as with Hollow Tree or Victorymost vampires refrained from turning others. Mostly because they couldnt always control them, and they didnt like the competition. They could be restrained and clever, sliding right into society.
The first wave were all young vampires, or so it seemed. They werent turning to mist, werent moving at the speed of lightning. They were awkward, untutored. They hadnt been diseased slowly, properly; they had been taken in a frenzy and, in turn, they were more like a sad and ragtag pack of stumbling, hungry corpses than creatures of wit and malice and true evil.
Vampires thrived in times of war and chaos. They could gorge themselves, and no one would really know what was going onnobody could distinguish what was part of the war and what was part of an evil hunger. Vampires could be very clever, naturally keeping their numbers down by disposing of their food properly. Unless they were attacking an isolated people and had some luxury of timesuch as with Hollow Tree or Victorymost vampires refrained from turning others. Mostly because they couldnt always control them, and they didnt like the competition. They could be restrained and clever, sliding right into society.
But vampires could also be like rabbits. Throw in a reckless, vicious few who didnt seem to care about competition, and suddenly theyd be coming out of the woodworkand wild. The feeding here had been a careless one like that.
A Union guard staggered toward Cole, his head cast to the side. His face was gray, his throat a raw and bleeding mass where something had ripped it away. The three men were at a set distance from one another; they had learned how to watch one anothers backs. Cole moved straight forward, Brendan and Cody flanking him.
The creature went down easily with a single strong slash of Coles sword.
A boy came next. A drummer boy, perhaps. He couldnt have been more than thirteen or fourteen.
Some distant mothers child, not dead by canon fire, or the enemys intent, but dead when he should have lived to go home one day, and tell his children and grandchildren tales of the great conflagration, and how it had ended in time, when people became reasonable again. What would come, he would never know.
There was no choice: the boy suddenly hurled himself at Brendan, fangs dripping, an eerie cry tearing from his throat.
Cole pinned him but inches from his companions face. Brendan shuddered and quickly flashed Cole a nod of acknowledgment and gratitude.
More.
Older soldiers.
Even younger soldiers.
Emaciated, but no longer needing the bandages that had covered their wounds, the splints that held together shattered bones.
They came.
And they went down.
At one point Cole grew particularly tense: at least ten of the maniacal beings flooded into the fray at once. There was so little room in the corridors and offices of the prison, and with this battle different from standard warfare in that the enemy must always be kept at arms length, at times he doubted theyd make it out alive.
In a fury of motion and intent, the three fought together, closing their circle at times, stepping out when it was necessary to repel the attacks before the creatures came too close. Cody could best withstand a slash of the fangs, but it was critical that even he be constantly aware of an assault from any direction.
It had been worse than this, though, Cole thought, back in Victory, Texas. His thoughts always returned to his decimated hometown. There, the vampires had risen and sheltered, had gained strength and learned how best to survive their new existence. They could be shadow and wings against the umber light of the moon, and they could suddenly be behind a man and everywhere around him with no warning.
And in Victory there had been those infected who could still be saved. Sometimes vampires retained a certain amount of humanitycall it a soulthat bred a desperate, choking kind of hope when one fought them.
This prison had beenthis had been a massacre. A changing with no guidance. A certainty that all infected would become monsters.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cole saw a flash of darknessa shadow, a form. Instantly, he knew that this being was older. Cleverbent on survival.
There was always a head, king or leader in a pack of vampires. Once he was taken down, the rest fell far more easily. An idiot in life was an idiot as a vampire. Pure and simple. Murdering idiots were easy to kill in life, and they were easy to kill off again in death.
Thing was, sometimes, once a leader was killed, another picked up the reins. Or those who survived an out-and-out fight with human counterparts moved on and subtly started up again until they had power once more. Power in numbers. The right numbers.
It was a slippery slope for a would-be king. You needed enough followers to perform all your dangerous dirty work, but not so many that people began to realize that a real plague had been unleashed.
He spun around, certain that the creature was coming to lunge upon his back and sink his fangs into Coles neck.
No. There was nothing there.
He spun around again, moving swiftly and with maximum speed.
Cole!
Cody shouted the warning. There was one to the front of him, one to the right. Think quick, double time on movement. Holy water to the left, his sword to the front with a massive slash.
Again, he felt it. Somethingsomething at his rear. He could feel the hair rising at his nape.
Still there was that thingbehind himno things! Two
He spun as Brendan shouted a warning. There were two. They seemed to be in concentrated battle with each other. Cole snapped open a vial of the holy water and tossed it, then drew back with his sword, ready to strike.
The first of the creatures burst into dust, ash and a clattering of bones. The second turnedat his mercy.
He heard a shriek, a cry. There was a blur before his eyes and he spun againit was in front of him.
No!
He slashed the air, and the form pitted downward, rolling to make an escape.
It registered in his mind that the voice was feminine.
Well, they held women prisoners here sometimes. Women they suspected of spying. The Union had always threatened that women would be executed for spying right along with their male counterparts, though that had yet to happen.
But this one
Yes, she appeared to be a shadow form because she was wearing mens black breeches and a black cotton shirt. She had blond hair that glistened in the light of the moon and the few torches that still burned in the yard.
He saw her face.
Aquiline, sculpted, the face of an angel. Huge eyes, which glittered like gold, stared up at him. In contrast, her skin was as delicate and pale as porcelain.
He couldnt hesitate!
He strode forward, intending to finish her off. Straddling over her form, he raised his stake high in the air.
Damn you, what are you, an idiot cowboy? she demanded, scuttling a little away from him.
She was whole; she didnt seem maddened, diseased, in any way.
He had to hesitate; she might be among the living. Untainted.
Who the hell are you, and why the hell shouldnt I kill you? he demanded.
Strike Cole, strike! Its deception, its always deception! Brendan cried.
He lifted his stake again.
Please, for the love of God! I dont want to hurt you! she cried. She glanced toward the others, then back at him.