Life With A Werewolf

Suicidal Power Play Part 5 - Finale

          Milton's hideout was Custor Manor, a large stately home in the tri-county area. It was known by legend and myth to every child and teenager who ever grew up in and around the county, as well as being the setting for numerous local childhood nightmares. Built decades ago by an eccentric millionaire, at a time when eccentric meant rich and insane, it was designed to house himself and his wife, and protect them against what he believed was magic attacks. Legend says that Old man Custor, sometime in the 19th century, was obsessed with magic and the mystical arts. He felt that the key to immortality was through the occult. It's here that the myths differ. One myth has him sacrificing his wife and accidentally summoning a demon that possessed and killed him. Another myth has him summoning a vampire who controlled both and destroyed them.
          So of course, it was the place that Milton was holed up in. The manor hid from the highway behind a grove of trees that just barely covered the lower roof line. A winding gravel path pushed through the trees, holding them at bay. Greasy, of course, didn't want to go any further than the trees themselves.
          "Alright," he muttered. "You're here. Now, let me go?"
          I motioned him out with my pistol. He sputtered. "W-what?! Come on, man! I lead you to him, don't do this to me, please..." The fear and anguish on his face almost got me to let him go. Almost. Then, I remembered Crash. Pale, lying on his bed, sweating profusely. Almost dying.
          I gritted my teeth and pressed the pistol into his back. "Walk." I didn't look at Elouise, but she didn't voice any complaint.
          He blubbered, stumbling over his own two feet. I held him upright with his collar as I marched him forward, Elouise walked behind me with her head on a swivel, covering our tracks.
          "We're going to have a conversation when we get back," she muttered.
          I suppressed a snarl. "Just bring the beer." All I could see in the grove to our left and right was an inky blackness that seemed to have an unlife of their own. There was no sounds, no music of crickets chirping out their song, or frogs croaking out a chorus. Just the dead silence before the battle. My nerves were on edge, my teeth gritted hard as we marched towards the fence.
          The gothic windows and tall roof lines didn't have any shooters in them. There was a movement in the window near the highest spire, like a curtain being moved to glance outside. Then there was nothing else. A dark German SUV sat near the front of the door. Memories flashed through my mind of the first time we faced off against The Nobility.
          The silver gate intercom lit up, shining in our faces. "I knew you'd be along eventually," a wheezing voice told me. It sounded like Milton, but a weakened version. As if something had drawn out the life blood of the vampire. A snarl pulled up on my face, but before I could say anything, Milton said "Come on in." Then the gate unlocked and opened for us.
          We pushed through, with Elouise at my side, Greasy walking in front of us with the stiff movements of the condemned. A blackened European SUV stood near the main door, their sweeping marble steps and columns leading us upwards into two large dark oak wooden doors. Strange animals and symbols were carved into it.
          We entered the doorway, and pushed into the mansion. Dark wood surrounded us, blood red carpeting was under our feet. Two men followed us at a distance, another two men started pacing beside them as we walked. Our own executioner line keeping pace with us and staying back ten paces.
          Wheezing laughter, and jokes echoed through the halls as we walked. Jokes about how my blood would taste, about eating rougarou tail like a gator. "Must be a delicacy on a ritz cracker," then more wheezing laughter. It grew louder and louder until we pushed through into a living room of sorts where we found Milton, staring off into another room.
          He was propped against the wall as if it was the only thing holding him up. The meth had destroyed most of his face by now. His arms were covered in scabs, which for a vampire, it's hard to do. They don't heal as fast as werewolves I'm told, but you have to scratch a lot to cause enough damage for them to scab over. He scratched at them almost constantly. He was rail thin. I could literally count every bone in his torso, collar, ribs, even back bones. "Heh, strike at the wolf, and how the sheep does scatter, hehe," he wheezed.
          "You look like shit, I'm happy to see," I snarled.
          "Well, you don't, I'm happy to see," he gasped, then stepped forward. "You're looking nice and healthy." Taking slow steps towards me, he withdrew a large knife, the kind of knife you could hear Paul Hogan praise. Then he beckoned Greasy forward. Greasy whimpered, like he was resisting. It was weird, I'd never seen anyone actively resist the call of a vampire before. Once you were enthralled, that was that. Yes, Sarah had done it. But you couldn't hear her whimper, see her push back against the mental programming. It was one moment, she's under control, the next, game time. But Greasy looked as if he could bolt at any moment. He stepped, held his ground, shaking.
          "Sh...." Milton said, in mock comfort. "I'm not going to eat your soul." He glared at me and grinned. "Someone else will whet my appetite." Milton pressed the blade inward, pushing it into his abdomen and out the back, slowly. Greasy screamed, long, low and loud. No matter what the bastard had done, what he had planned to do to me, I couldn't take it anymore. "Elouise," I said. Then I pulled my pistol.
          The first shot put Greasy out of his misery. I didn't pause to see Milton's expression. I spun as quick as I could. Elouise had snarled and dove on two the left, her jaws snapping around one and ending his struggles quick, while her thick tail knocked the legs out of another. The other two got one shot off apiece. Elouise growled and groaned in that low croaking nature. One went through her hip, the other into her gut.
          I shot the other two as quick as I could. The closest man stepped back, and buckled. The next cried out and spun, the bullet hitting his shoulder. Before I could do more, I felt a blade against my throat.
          "Well now, that was more fun than shining," Milton wheezed. "It's damn amazing watching you work, like hell's angels at play. You suppose I'll get some of that speed from you?" I felt the blade at my shoulder. My blood ran cold. He was so weak, but so was Elouise. She couldn't stand yet, her body still healing from the shots.
          "Why," I snarled. "Why are you back here, why do you keep fucking with us?!"
          He laughed and I felt the blade drop, his arm slack just a bit. I tried raising my pistol slightly to shoot at him but the blade tip pressed into my throat. "I may not be a hundred percent right now, but I can tell what you're doing. Keep it up, and I'll bleed you like the pig you are."
          The blade cut into a spot on my shoulder, causing me to wince. Elouise was up this time, but gasping, holding her gut. Every step she took was staggered. "Thank you, by the way, those men were going to betray me later," Milton wheezed. "I'm here on business. Your deaths was just extra slop for the pig."
          The blade sliced into my shoulder. I winced and he whispered in my ear, "I've been waiting for this." Elouise stumbled forward, and fell, her thick gator tail swaying from side to side. I felt his decaying mouth press against my shoulder. He began to suck, pulling blood from the wound, his disgusting moaning like a man dining on the finest steak dinner. With it, I felt something else drawing out of me. A new weakness had started to enter me. I gasped. "Sweet ambrosia. I'm gonna keep you around for a long time," he growled. Then laughed. "Oh, and you're feeling it ain't ya boy?"
          "Alright, you've had your fun," a voice called out. The voice held a latin tinge to it.
          I looked into the direction Milton had been talking in when we entered the room. A well dressed man stepped forward, with the appearance of someone who was bred on chaos and grew up in violence. He looked like a man who had grown up inside a cartel and excelled at their ways. "You said you could get us distribution in the area. You promised to move serious weight, my friend." The man opened a silver cigarette case, pulled out a single cigarette and lit it. "All you've seemed to do was get your own men killed. And now, you're getting my men killed."
          "Sometimes you gotta sacrifice a few pawns to strike the king." Milton said. I winced in disgust when he started sucking on my wound again, my strength pulling into him. I felt a headache coming on. "I may not have control of you, but you will be my food till you die."
          "You owe the family more than a hundred thousand dollars for the meth you've already wasted," the new man said. He pulled almost as quickly as I did. I didn't react. I thought I honestly thought was dead.
          Milton, however, screamed. He started jumped on a single foot twice, then fell down. "You shot my foot you bastard!"
          "You seem to think we're some kind of a bank. Well, you forget amigo, banks charge interest." The gun barked fire again. Milton screamed as the slug punched through his shoulder.
          "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..."
          The new man knelt over Milton and waved the pistol over his head, "Time to pay your interest you stupid mother..." he never got to finish.
          Milton may have been mostly dead, he may have had two bullets in him, but he was still a vampire. He grabbed the pistol from the man's hand in a blink, and began pulling the trigger. I didn't count the number of shots, but the He crawled over him, screaming. "You gonna shoot me, you slick suited bastard! Die!"
          The man fell off his heals and onto his back. He was dead before he hit the floor. "Fuck, I'm gonna need blood," Milton muttered. He waved the pistol at me. "Come here." I tried to go for mine, and he laughed. "No, no, meal plan. You don't get to try that. Throw your iron down. You did your bit, now it's my turn." He pointed his gun at Elouise. "Or, I'll blow off something she's gonna miss."
          I gritted my teeth in disgust and tossed the pistol away. "Now, come here..." he gasped.
          A low growl echoed through the hallways. Milton's eyes went wide. "Holy shit. You're dead. You're dead. You're supposed to be fucking dead!"
          Crash stumbled through the door in full werewolf form. His ears were folded down. He occasionally had to walk on all fours, before picking himself back up. He didn't say anything to me. Step by step, he stalked forward over to Milton, finally landing on the vampire. Milton brought the pistol up, but Crash casually knocked it away.
          He snarled over Milton, his teeth inches from his face. Crash's lips were still blue. "You attacked my pack. You nearly killed me. You killed innocent people. You sold meth." He gasped for a moment. Milton winced, as drool from Crash's mouth landed on his head. "You're sentence is death."
          Milton looked skyward, if he had any teeth left, he would have been grinding them. "You killed Leeroy you bastard! You all did! Except gator girl, she just came in with your mangy mutts."
          I limped over to Milton. I looked down at him. "Your mistake was making it personal."
          He hissed at me. "You did that first. You killed my brother."
          I pulled my pistol and pressed it into his eye socket and growled. "You took my wife."
          Crash looked at me. "Jason, I got this. Go with Elouise, and wait outside."
          I grabbed her, and somehow managed to pick her up. We were near the doors when Milton's screaming started. By the time we got down the steps, his screaming had stopped.