Heralds of the Storm

The Year of the Scarab Trilogy, Book I

by Andrew Bates

Excerpt from Chapter One [©2001 White Wolf Publishing; ISBN 1-56504-857-1]

The hunters took turns sprinting the few yards from the tree line to the shadows under the camera mounted by the patio door. It was luck more than skill that enabled them to avoid the cameras arrayed around the estate. Thea Ghandour knew their luck couldn't hold. They had to find the security room before they bothered with the main purpose for their night time jaunt -- namely, tracking down Augustus Klein, the man who owned the place.

Except that he wasn't truly a man, but one of the walking dead, an immortal creature of darkness. A vampire.

Hence their sneaking around the fucker's house during the ass-end of night, armed with enough firepower to take over a middling-size third world nation.

Thea expected the fingers-down-the-blackboard sensation that told her of immediate danger, but nothing happened. Call it a supernatural radar or sixth sense, she'd had the strange talent ever since the first time she'd encountered the walking dead ten months before. The ability wasn't faultless, but since they weren't currently under attack it seemed to be working.

After Parker's team met them, Romeo tried the door. It was unlocked; seconds later they were in a kitchen. What a vampire needed with a kitchen this huge Thea couldn't imagine. A dining room opened off the kitchen in the other direction and flowed into a sunken living room beyond. Aside from furniture, both were empty. The hallway ran past a foyer that led to the front door (nobody there either). The hall continued on another five yards before taking a left. A closed door stood opposite the foyer and Thea saw another just before the turn in the hall. After waving Parker to watch the hall and Jake to keep an eye on the front, Romeo stepped up to the first door. Thea came up next to him. She was supposed to sense for trouble before he opened the door. This routine didn't always work but it was better than just charging right in.

Romeo leaned cautiously against the door to listen then jerked his head away, a tight smile creasing his features. Metal, he mouthed. That meant fire-resistant, probably armored. Thea wondered if every door in the place was the same way or if they'd hit the jackpot first time 'round. She supposed they'd find out soon enough.

She gave him a nod. Romeo crouched and took a deep breath. Then a turn of the knob and he was inside the room. Thea did a fake around the doorjamb, just like in the movies. When trouble didn't leap out at her, she followed Romeo inside. Jackpot, all right. They were in a small security room. A dozen monitors lined the far wall, with a computer, two phones, a fax machine, and other electronic appliances here and there. A gun rack holding six bullpup shotguns hung next to the door. Two uncomfortable looking swivel chairs comprised the only furniture. One was empty; the other held a guard who faced them.

Romeo stood with his silenced Browning pointed at the man's head. The guard was middle-aged but quite fit. He was dressed in paramilitary fashion and slouched in the chair, legs sprawled and arms dangling awkwardly over the sides. His head lolled to one side with bulging eyes and slack jaw. The guard looked faintly surprised, but not from their sudden entrance. It was pretty clear why no alert had been sounded: The guy was dead.

She shot a questioning glance at Romeo. He shrugged. All the hunters but Carl had weird tricks like Thea's sixth sense. One of Romeo's was the ability to see the true nature of the supernatural. Every hunter could see through the disguise of normalcy a rotting corpse could wrap around itself, but quite a few undead -- most vampires and the better-preserved zombies -- looked unremarkable even when a hunter used the second sight. Pale and often with spooky stares, but you get that with everyone from fashion models to heroin addicts. Romeo, though; he had the knack of picking up on the little things, the tells as gamblers would say, that revealed the undead for what they were. Thea took Romeo's shrug to mean the guard wasn't a monster playing possum, that he really was dead. Good, old-fashioned, lie-there-and-decompose dead.

Even so, Romeo wasn't the type to take any chances. Stepping closer to the body, he pulled down his lip mic. "This is Romeo. We are off radio silence, but speak only when necessary." He removed a glove, then trained the pistol on the guard's temple while he felt for a pulse. "The guard in the security room is dead. Jake, join us. The rest of you get under cover."

Thea moved to one side to give Jake some space in the cramped room. What, did this used to be the hall closet or something? She bumped a small table and set the mug of steaming coffee to sloshing. "Romeo," she said, "this guy hasn't been dead very long."

He motioned for Jake to shut and lock the door. "I know; the body is still warm."

"So's his coffee."

Romeo put his glove back on and looked down at the guard. "I am more interested in knowing how he died than when."

"Yeah, it is a little convenient," Jake said. He gave the room a once over, then focused on the body. "Doesn't look like he's been shot or drained of blood, right?"

"Correct," Romeo replied, his accent giving an exotic delivery to his words. "No sign of a struggle, his color is good -- for a dead man. A heart attack, perhaps."

Thea left this to Holmes and Watson and looked at the screens. The cameras covered the grounds thoroughly but didn't monitor inside the house. They were well-positioned; in fact, she saw their teams would have been visible on screen as soon as they came over the wall. It took them, what? Ten minutes to get all the way in here? She imagined a body wouldn't cool much in such a short time, but what about the coffee? She'd drunk enough in her day to know it wouldn't still be steaming after this long.

Romeo made a command decision before she could voice her concern. "We do not have time for this. We are here without raising an alarm; that is what matters. It is almost sunrise. We must be ready for the vampire."

Jake nodded slowly. Thea saw he was as disturbed by this convenience as she was. Romeo was right, though. Wasting time on... what the hell? "What's that in the pool?"

They looked at the screen she indicated. The view showed the pool and a portion of a hot tub to one side. It looked like there was a rectangle inscribed on the bottom of the pool.

"That's weird." Jake adjusted his glasses and leaned over the guard's body for a closer look. "Hard to tell with the scale and the water and everything. That the panel for chlorine or whatever?"

"Doesn't make any sense that it'd be in the deepest part of the pool, though. And it's pretty big." Thea frowned. "Those things are usually at the water line, right? Or outside the pool entirely."

Jake smiled. "Don't ask me. We never had one, and I didn't get down to the municipal pool much when I was little." He noticed what he was leaning over and straightened up with a slight shudder. "What do you think, Romeo?"

Romeo frowned. "That camera is positioned to monitor any approaches to the panel. These others are also. Here, here, and here."

Thea felt her intuition kick in the same time her brain puzzled it out. "That's Klein's lair! It probably has a watertight seal and I'll bet it's not the main entrance -- it'd fill with water every time you opened it and you'd have to have pumps or whatever to clear that out. Plus imagine how strong you'd have to be to close it up again."

Her eyes were afire with the epiphany. "It's an escape hatch, maybe. He goes in through, what? A ladder in the pump room? But if there's trouble, he can pop that panel and get out while whomever's after him is stuck below!"

Jake smacked his lips as he considered. "Maybe. Seems a little complicated, but if you're immortal I suppose you might take some extreme steps." He rubbed one thigh distractedly.

"I don't know how he gets in and out, but I'm sure the pool's the hot spot. That's where we need to be." Thea looked at Romeo and Jake, daring them to dispute her claim.

Romeo shot a glance to the guard, the monitors, then Thea. He nodded. "Carl and Lilly take positions here. The rest to the pool house. I will check the area. Quickly." Romeo grabbed the guard's navy pea coat and stocking cap from the back door hook as they left. Thea figured he hoped to pass as just another guard if anyone spotted him as he checked the back yard. They moved into position, Thea and Jake going into the pool house while Parker and Dean took spots in the shadows outside. Romeo slipped like a shadow around the back yard.

Thea didn't trust how easy it had been to get this far unopposed. She was pretty sure her sixth sense would've buzzed a warning if they were walking into a trap, but that didn't help her relax any. There was definitely something strange going on. She only hoped she wasn't misreading the whole situation.

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"What the hell?" Jake muttered to Thea as they checked the pump room, the stone building attached to the pool house. He'd been certain there was a secret passage from there to the chamber under the pool, but they'd found nothing aside from pool cleaning gear including necessary pump and filtering equipment, some pool toys, and a backup generator. The last item looked like it could power the whole estate for a week, considering its size and the plastic fuel cans stacked in an alcove next to it.

"Maybe he dives right into the water and swims through the panel." Jake said, wandering over to the pool. "Not a bad idea, actually. If the lair's already flooded, there wouldn't be as much pressure when he opened and closed the panel. And it's not like he has to breathe. He'd get soggy, but he'd be almost impossible to light up while he was in there. Not to mention hard to reach." He grinned. "Yeah, damn clever."

"You may be right," Romeo said as he entered the enclosure. He carried a crowbar he'd grabbed from the garage in case they needed to force a secret panel. He gestured with the tool for Jake to follow him into the small stone building where Thea heard them rummaging around. They emerged carrying gas cans, the contents of which they upended into the pool. A rainbow hued slick soon covered the pool's surface.

Thea kept a weather eye out. It was getting damn close to sunrise and still no sign of the vampire. She was sure the thing was somewhere in the house. She was starting to doubt they'd found the lair, though. He might have gone to ground inside already. The pool might be a red herring. Too late to do anything about it, though. It was best to wait till sunrise. If the bloodsucker didn't come out, they'd search the house. Which would probably get very messy, since Thea was sure they couldn't continue to avoid guards and whatever traps were set around the place.

"Hey, guys?" Carl's voice whispered over the headsets suddenly. "This guard was dead when you found him, right?"

"Yep," Thea replied.

There was a pause. "And you would've told us if you'd noticed that someone shoved something sharp through the back of his skull?"

"What?!"

"Lilly and I were checking him out, trying to figure out how he might've died. There's a small hole at the base of his skull. That's not normally how vampires do it, is it? Looks more like someone stuck him with an icepick."

Thea wondered how Carl would know what that'd look like. "Just one hole?" She asked. "You sure it's--"

Then Dean's voice cut in with a panicked whisper. "He's coming!"

An instant later, the patio door slid open. From her spot behind a pair of deck chairs Thea saw Dean in the shadows by the side kitchen window; Parker was around the other side by the garage. Romeo was in the pump room, but Jake was in plain sight, preparing to empty the last gas can into the pool!

Augustus Klein strode toward the pool house, the security lights catching him in sharp relief as he emerged from the house's shadow. He wore only a tattered pair of canvas shorts, the rest of his sinewy form covered with a surprising amount of hair. His lower jaw jutted forward belligerently and he walked hunched forward with a fluid gait. The vampire's feral attitude was accentuated when he paused halfway across the frozen ground between the house from the pool. He shifted his gaze about suspiciously, then lowered even further into a crouch. His eyes took on a reddish gleam and his nose sniffed the still predawn air. Before, the thing might've just been some hairy guy heading for a morning swim. Now, though, the creature looked every part the monster in human form.

Thea almost attacked, sure he was about to come after Jake. Then she realized that although Klein sensed something was amiss, he hadn't sensed anything. Jake had the knack of being able to remain unnoticed by monsters, even when he was in plain sight -- he simply stood still and acted like he wasn't there. And although the mix of chlorine and gasoline burned her nose, she'd noticed coming in that the pool house door had a tight seal. Even if the vampire had a superior sense of smell, he probably couldn't pick up anything outside.

Registering the reek of gas, Thea realized what a dumb idea it had been to pour the gas out before Klein showed up. Sure, they didn't want him using the pool as an escape — for all they knew, that hatch led to extensive underground tunnels. But he'd have to be a moron not to cut and run soon as he opened the pool house door and smelled the gasoline. She grimaced. Just have to hope they could catch him in a crossfire in the doorway.

If he even came in the pool house, that is. The vampire was rooted to the same spot, trying to nail down what was bothering him.

Come on, Thea thought. Everything's fine, just get in here. The vampire didn't agree, though. Thea wondered if he was picking up on the gasoline or if it was just a more general sense of unease. Klein glanced above the tree line where pale hints of dawn grew ever stronger. Then he took a hesitant step backward and shot a look at the house, toward where the security room was located. Shit. That's all they needed, the hairy bastard going back inside and checking with security. Which was now Carl and Lilly, who were sure as hell not going to open the door for this thing. Which meant the vampire would cut and run or try to get through. Either way, things would get very messy very quickly.

Thea wished Romeo would give the signal. If they struck now, they could catch Klein in the open. Far from perfect, but better than chasing him down hallways. Let's go, Romeo, she urged silently.

Then Romeo stepped casually out of the pump house, his back to Klein. He paused to look back inside as if in puzzlement. His MP-5 hung neglected from its shoulder strap and he held the crowbar by his leg, hidden from the vampire's view. Romeo had the stocking cap pulled low on his head and had the pea coat's collar pulled up. Facing away from the front of the pool house as he was, Romeo could've been almost anybody including, say, the guard who used to own the cap and coat.

Klein noticed Romeo immediately and took two tremendous strides that brought him a foot from the pool house door. The vampire stared intently, but his unnerving crimson gaze and his sniffing nose seemed to give him no more information than before. Thea was close enough to see the fiercely focused eyes trained directly on Romeo's back. Still alert but focused on Romeo, Klein raised his hand to the door latch. For his part, Romeo acted like he hadn't noticed Klein and took a step back into the pump room as if he'd forgotten something inside.

The vampire opened the pool house door, his features twisted in irritation. "Stanson!" he growled, his voice choked with a bestial energy, "what are--" Then, paused halfway through the doorway, the vampire sniffed the air. Thea's heart sank. Just as she'd suspected, he'd caught scent of the gas blanketing the pool. Thea was close enough to see the monster's expression shift abruptly to surprise, then to mounting rage and a hint of something else. Fear?

Thea took a breath to call for the attack, assuming Klein would retreat to the house. Before she could make a sound, a rumbling snarl of fury erupted from the vampire. Apparently Klein's outrage at facing an intruder in his lair outweighed the fear of the potential danger the gas posed. His face warped into something completely inhuman as he lunged toward Romeo, fangs distending with hideous exaggeration from his mouth, eyes blazing like twin pits of hell. Wicked claws sprouted from the monster's hands and feet, his every step gouging the tile surrounding the pool.

Thea had dealt with the undead before, but Klein's transformation was so fast and monstrous that she was taken aback. The rest of the team didn't hesitate but the results were mixed. Parker and Dean charged the front of the pool house, blazing away in hopes of nailing the bloodsucker before it got to Jake and Romeo. Rounds slammed into the clear panels, spider web cracks multiplying by the score in seconds, but the glass didn't shatter. "Fuckin' A!" Parker yelled in frustration. "Bullet-proof!"

Jake, still unnoticed, remained a statue until Klein was almost on top of him. Then the kid threw the gas can at the thing's head. The quick, aggressive action brought Jake into the monster's view, but the gamble paid off. The vampire literally jerked with surprise and skittered away, slashing reflexively at the gas can. Its claws tore into the molded plastic and deflected the twisted remains into the pool, but not before dousing the creature's arm with the last of its contents.

Romeo leapt from the pool house at the same moment. He channeled another of his bizarre powers as he lunged, transforming the crowbar into a white-hot brand through sheer force of will. Like every other talent hunters shared, Thea had no idea how Romeo did it, but she was impressed and disturbed every time she saw it. The crowbar spat and crackled with barely contained energy, but Romeo wasn't bothered by it in the least. Grinning savagely at the vampire, who was trying to decide which of his two targets to disembowel first, Romeo plunged the crowbar into the pool.

A deep whoosh filled the pool house as the gas ignited, the water's surface becoming an inferno. Thea felt the air sucked from her lungs and the temperature skyrocketed in a matter of seconds. The vampire's eyes almost bugged out of his head at sight of the flames. His mouth impossibly opened even further and unleashed an ear-splitting shriek. Thea figured this was as good a time as any to make her move. She rose from behind the deck chairs and let loose at the monster with a burst from the MP-5.

Thea hit the bastard from behind, spinning him around with the impact. Blood flowing freely from a half dozen ugly wounds on his right side, Klein faced back toward her and the door through which Dean was entering.

Thea saw from Klein's eyes that whatever humanity he might have had was gone. Augustus Klein was an it now, a beast of pure rage and death given physical form. It was violent instinct and destruction with but one goal: survival at all costs. Thea suddenly knew she had to be outside. It wasn't fear she felt. The calm of the battle was upon her. She understood with perfect clarity that the vampire would escape unless she could be outside the pool house.

She and the creature moved at the same time, both heading for the door. Although Thea had a good five yards on the vampire, she didn't possess the preternatural reflexes of the undead. The thing took a single leap that halved its distance to the door, then grabbed one of the support beams that crisscrossed the roof. It swung around on the beam, crouching to brace its feet on the metal before pushing off. The vampire's lunge sent it straight for the doorway where Dean stood. The thickset hunter had a wild grin on his face as he raised his MP-5 to fire.

Thea was still three paces from the door with Jake and Romeo some distance behind her when the vampire hit. Dean Sankowski was a huge man who worked as a nurse. He was the team's rock, neither a leader nor a follower but the calm center that held everything together. The vampire tore into him like an axe through a pinata.

Dean slammed into the ground at the force of the vampire's impact, his head cracking against the ceramic tile. The vampire shredded the dazed man's camouflage jacket and flak vest while its feet ripped into his unprotected thighs. It grabbed Dean by the shoulders as if to tear him in two. Then Thea saw the monster's head dart downward...

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