Battle of Sulphur River

Dusty Meechum’s POV

Sulphur River Pack House

I stood in the security room of our Pack House, as my men watched the cameras and others patrolled the grounds and rooftops. The Vampire threat was real; their speed and viciousness was legendary. It was certain death to be bitten, and few survived their talons.

We needed numbers and cooperation to kill one; we had to slow it down, bite both the arms at the same time to hold it, then a third would go for the neck. Since they were so fast, two or three might be killed before we could succeed. Entire Packs had been wiped out by a handful of vampires, in less time than a commercial break on television. That is why almost everyone was in or near our safe room.

My phone range, I didn’t expect her call. “Erica?”

“Hi Dusty. Any activity there yet?”

“Quiet so far. We’ve got everyone except the warriors in the safe room for the night.”

“Good.” I talked to her about the defenses; we had explosives filled with silver in the tree line with tripwires, UV lights around the house, and more surprises in the lawn. “We’ll call you when we are a few minutes away, I don’t want your guys taking shots at us.”

“It will be good to have you here, Erica. Hopefully it’s for nothing.” We weren't that lucky. Alarms sounded in the security room, and cameras showed blurred figures streaking through the field of vision. “I have to go, they’re here. Our cameras just picked up vampires crossing the border line.” I hung up the phone. “How many?”

“Ten,” he said. “Two minutes out.” It was a good thing that our lands were extensive, we had some warning. I called my father. “Dad, we’re under attack, ten vampires.”

“Get everyone in the safe room NOW,” he said. “You cannot hold against that.”

“I can’t be Alpha and hide.”

“I love you, son.” He hung up, and I sent out the order. “Everyone to the safe room NOW. Bull, you take over the roof position and detonate explosives on sight,” I said over the Pack Bond. “You guys too,” I told the men in the room. “Close it up and protect my family.”

They followed orders, but they didn’t like it. I took up my weapon for this fight, a modified Saiga semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun. The barrel had been shortened to make it better suited for close-quarters combat, making it highly illegal. The barrel magazine held twenty rounds of handloaded ammunition, silver pellets of course. It was a veritable shitstorm of firepower in a small room.

I was in front of the entrance to the safe room in the basement of the house, gun at the ready. I heard the first explosion outside, quickly followed by several more as Bull set off additional charges we had set nearer the house. I could see the light from the fireball as the explosives set off containers of diesel fuel.

“Too many, sorry,” I heard from Bull before the sound of his gun firing was cut off by a scream of pain. I felt his bond ripped out.

The first vampire burst into the room a second later, and I opened up with the shotgun. He moved like a blur, but the shotgun’s second shot caught his neck. His head was blown clean off, killing him, but he was close enough to me his body kept going. I was knocked backwards, skidding into the wall. Pushing the dead weight off me, I reached for the shotgun that had fallen next to me. Instead, my right arm was crushed as a foot slammed down on it.

”I love you all,” I said to my Pack as I looked up. The vampire with his foot on me was dressed immaculately in a silver suit with a silk shirt and tie. Another vampire, this one dressed in black jeans and a shirt, sent his talon through my left shoulder and into the wall behind me. A third came up and wrapped my legs in silver.

I was helpless, unable to fight and unable to shift. The man in the suit was obviously the leader of the Coven, and four of his men joined us in the room. “Only one other puppy wanted to play, and he made a big mess on the porch,” a younger man said.

At least we got five. “You have to stall for time,” Kimberly sent. “Erica and the others are coming. If they didn’t want something, they’d have killed you already.”

“I’m sorry baby. I love you.” Our little conversation was cut short as a taloned hand reached down and wrapped around my neck. The talons in my shoulder were removed, but the arm hung useless by my side. I was lifted up, his hand slamming my body against the wall. The talons penetrated my neck just enough to make moving a painful idea. “I didn’t catch your name at the gate,” I said.

“Master Vampire John Parker Snow, mutt.” He sniffed my neck. “Where is the Alpha? Hiding behind the skirts of his women?”

I just laughed. “You don’t know.”

“You are his son.”

“I am the son of Brent Meechum, and I am also the Alpha of this Pack,” I said. “My father is now Chairman of the Alpha Council, and this is MY land.”

“That is too bad for you. My associates will have the honor of killing your father.” He moved until his face was inches from mine. “You are dead, Alpha. The only question left is how many of your Pack share your fate.”

“Fuck. You.”

“Sorry, I don’t swing that way. Your women, however, might be a pleasant diversion before they are killed too.” He turned to the men behind him. “Get gasoline or diesel fuel from the sheds and soak this place down.” Two men zipped out of the room.

“What do you want from me,” I asked.

“The abominations must die. Turn them over to me and I will spare your Pack.”

I just smirked as I shook my head. “You’re a little late. Randall is in New York City; he left this afternoon. Talia is up by Pittsburgh on Werewolf Council business, and Erica is in New Orleans.”

His talons moved deeper into my neck. “Erica and the others were not in New Orleans,” he said. “WHERE. ARE. THEY.”

“Up your ass and two blocks left.”

His left hand moved, punching me in the side and breaking several ribs. “Your loyalty and attitude are earning you a far more painful death than I had planned,” he said. His fangs extended and he bit into my shoulder, drinking deeply of my blood. I could feel the venom moving through my body. “I will give you one last chance to save your people, Alpha. You will tell me what I ask to save them. I know this to be true.”

“You know nothing, John Snow.”

I sensed the movement but was unable to follow it. One moment I was pressed back against the wall, then the arm that held me fell to the floor in a spray of blood. By the time I looked up, it was over. The two younger vampires were dead, their heads removed. The Master was pinned to the wall by a furious Erica, unable to fight back because Eduardo had sliced his other arm off above the elbow. They slammed him to the ground and Eduardo kept him from moving away.

That wouldn’t heal quickly, I thought. “He bit me,” I said.

“Stop the bleeding,” Erica said. She removed my belt and used it to stem the flow from his shoulder, while Eduardo used his on the left arm. Anastasia removed the silver chains from me and put them on their prisoner, leaving him helpless. “Tell them to come out, the other vampires are dead.”

I gave the order; the men had been watching what happened on the cameras and recognized Erica and Eduardo. The door opened, and Kimberly rushed into my arms while the Pack Doctor checked my injuries, her kit by her side.

“Doctor, remove as much blood as you can from this man and prepare for transfusion,” Erica said.

“Why?”

“Just do it.” She started digging around for the required equipment. “Dusty, I’ll give you a choice. If you take the same change your brother did, allowing this Master’s blood to join yours, you will live and become like Randall and Talia and I. Refuse, and we will sedate you and let you die.” Everyone knew that a vampire’s venom was death to a werewolf.

“Kimberly,” he said as he looked at her.

“She will need to take the change to be with you, since your bite will be lethal to werewolves when this is done. You know my story. The change is three days of unimaginable pain. I wished for death many times and was not given the release from this world I wanted.”

“You’re really selling this hard, Erica. You should do timeshares or something.” He looked at Kimberly. “I won’t do it without you.”

She leaned her forehead against him, he was already starting the fever from the venom. “I don’t want to lose you, my love. For you and our children I will endure anything.”

The doctor had inserted the needle and was drawing out his blood into the bag. “How much do you need?”

“A pint if you can get it.” Some warriors had moved out into the room, while the families remained back and out of sight. She attached a vacuum syringe to the line, pulling the blood out faster. With no heartbeat, drawing blood from a vampire wasn't easy.

Erica looked down at the Master Vampire and shook her head. “You are your Coven have defied the Vampire Council. We will not kill you; no, that would be a kindness. You will be delivered to Master Nikolai and be punished along with any others that survive this night. I imagine your end will be memorable, as all examples must be.”

“You BITCH,” he snarled.

“Such language. Lance, can you fetch me a hammer?”

“Sure, Erica,” the warrior said as he turned for the hallway. He returned with two, a normal claw hammer and a framing hammer with a waffle head. “I didn’t know exactly what you needed so I brought two.”

I hefted the framing hammer. “This will work.” Raising the twenty-two ounce head, I brought it down just below his nose on the right side. Blood and tooth fragments splattered his face as the teeth were crushed. Before he could react, I brought it down on the other side. The fangs were broken off at the gums along with most of the the teeth at the front of his mouth. “Can’t have you biting anyone,” I said.

He spit out a wad of blood mixed with teeth at me, his upper lip torn. “Afomuhnashun.”

“You have what you need, Doc?” She checked the bag and nodded, removing the needle. “Give it to the Alpha now." She looked back at me. "Last chance to say no.”

“I can’t continue to live this way, knowing that my little brother can beat me up,” I said. “Change me.”

The IV was started, and the Master’s blood started to flow into his body. “We need to move him, this isn’t going to be pleasant,” Anastasia said. “Get a stretcher and take him to his room.”

“What about me,” Kimberly asked.

“Take our children and be with them,” I said. “Our Pack needs you to be strong with our Beta gone.”

"I will ask Master Jarrod to change you when his change is complete, that way one of you is available," Erica said.

I laid back in the stretcher as I was carried upstairs, feeling like my body was burning me from the inside. Erica was wrong, the pain was much worse than she let on. When my brain shut off from the pain, I had my relief.