THREADED MOON

Part III: Blood Brothers

By Hunter Lambright

The Minorus’ Magic Vault

There was something eerie about standing around in the Minoru family’s magic vault. The room was filled with stasis tubes in which several magic-based villains bobbed up and down in a sleeplike state, and objects deemed too dangerous to be put out in the open were sealed up tight. It was like being in a morgue, where Alex Wilder and Molly Hayes were surrounded by bodies but were the only ones breathing.

Alex recognized the people in the stasis tubes. One was Master Pandemonium, who had been put there after he had disobeyed orders and attacked Nico when he had been hired by their parents. Another was the woman who became the Dream Weaver. Alex could only assume that she had been reawakened to that personality after Doctor Strange wiped it from her mind. Alex was also disturbed to see the young magician known as Jinx in a stasis tube. So far as he knew, the boy had done nothing but combat dark magic. Then again, that may have been what made him one of the Minorus’ enemies.

One other tube held a body in it, and that was the one that held Alex and Molly’s attention. Baron Blood, the being within, was undead, and so did not need to breathe or have basic life functions to actually move and speak. He was connected to the vampire activity in the city. Alex knew it, but he didn’t know how he could take the age-old vampire’s word.

“So, what have you got for me?” Alex repeated. “I can’t trust you until you tell me that much.”

Baron Blood managed to stay calm for just a moment. “Let me out of here, and I will take down that cretin like the mixed magic blood-scum that he is! I’ll do it myself, even. Just let me go! Hellish whore-spawn! Usurper!”

Alex thought about this. “How do you know about this, Mr… uh, Blood?”

“I can feel it. Vampires can feel everyone in their lines of blood. Topher is part of an offshoot. We are, in terms you can understand, vampire cousssins.” The last word came out in a hiss. “I want to own my bloodline. He is young and inexperienced. He will cause more problems for my people than he will bring in cures. He must be eradicated.”

“Good,” said Alex. “We agree on something. We’re enemies of the same enemy, right?”

“Unfortunately, it seems as though I am the one with the means to best complete this task,” said Baron Blood, with a look that told Alex that Blood knew he held all the cards. “It looks like we’re going to have to strike up a deal.”

Alex looked sideways at Molly, then back to Baron Blood. He sighed, imagining the chaos that was still taking place outside. “Well? Name your terms.”

“After I finish the job, I walk free to carry out my vengeance elsewhere,” Blood said, licking his lips. “That is all I ask. Now let me out.”

“Wait,” said Alex. “I have terms, too. You get out of here, you get rid of Topher, you end this threat, and then you get out of town. You leave Los Angeles and you never come back, or I will hunt you down and kill you myself.”

Baron Blood suddenly became very still. “And what, child, makes you think that you can kill me if you can’t kill the vampire who is causing this mayhem now?”

“What made you think you could get away with operating in this town the last time, before the Pride shoved you down here?” Alex shot back. “I’m not screwing around with you. So do we have a deal or not?”

“We have a deal,” Baron Blood said grudgingly. “Now let me out so I can kill that mud-child, magic filth…!”

“Right,” Alex said. “I’ll get on that, but we have a few things to take care of first. Be right back.” He motioned for Molly to follow him up the stairs into the Minorus’ library. She followed, turning her head back to follow Baron Blood’s vile, smiling leer.

“You’re really gonna let Batman out?” Molly asked once they were up the stairs. “Or did you just bamboozle him?”

Alex sighed. “No, Molly, I’m really letting him out. He’s the only one who even knows where we can find the source of these vampires. It’s the only way we can make sure hundreds of people don’t end up dead.”

Molly’s lips shifted to one side. “Oh.”

“Yeah, I know it sucks. Sorry, but it’s the only plan I’ve got. But don’t worry. I have a backup plan,” Alex said. “You see those other guys in the tubes that weren’t screaming?”

“Yeah, that lady looked really pretty, ‘cept purple hair only looked good on Gert,” Molly said, frowning at the thought of their traitorous teammate.

“Well, at least two of them are good guys,” Alex said. “And I know how to get Master Pandemonium to work with us. We’ll all keep an eye on Baron Blood together. With my speed, your brawn, and their magic, I think we’ll be okay.”

Molly absorbed this. “And if we aren’t good enough?”

Alex shrugged. “Then we hope there’s somebody else better than us fighting vampires in the city tonight.”

“So yeah, that’s all the place you’re looking for is: a mansion that’s sunk into the ground that we used to hide out in,” said Chase Stein, standing in front of the menacing black man infamously known as Blade. “If you look where I just told you, we shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.”

“Heh,” Blade said, walking back over to his motorcycle and starting it. He got the engine revving and the motor roared to life.

“Dude, I just told you where the big bad guy who’s stopped the sun from coming up lives, and all you can do is give me a ‘heh?’ Where’s the justice, man?” Chase asked. The blond teenager held out his gauntlet-covered hands in disbelief. “Are we going or not?”

Blade stopped getting ready to go and lowered his sunglasses to look at Chase. “There is no ‘we.’ I work alone. Fewer people get hurt that way.”

“But I have the stuff that gives me the light powers, man! I can help you! One zap with Dagger’s powers, and these vampire freaks are done for. Kaput!” Chase smacked his hands together to dramatize the effect. The metal gauntlets clashed with the screeching metal sound of a fender bender.

Blade continued to stare at Chase from over the sunglasses. “You want to know the truth, kid? That’s the only reason I don’t feel bad doing this. You can take care of yourself. Get home, get inside, and stay there till the sun comes up.”

“Wait—!” Chase started, as Blade jumped aboard his motorcycle, his coat swinging around his body like a cape. Before Chase could do anything, Blade was gone, tearing off into the night toward the Hostel. “Dammit!”

It wasn’t until he was all alone that Chase realized just how dismal the silence of the night was. The city was dead, because only the creatures of the night could move around without fearing for their lives. It was only for that silence that Chase stayed alive. If the city had been as noisy as it was normally, he would never have heard them coming. If Blade was right about one thing, it was that Chase probably drew them to his location by firing off his Lightning Rod boom-stick earlier.

He barely heard the sound of the rush of the air against the vampires’ clothes in time. Turning around and upward, Chase fired off a blast of flame from his Fistigons with one hand. The other hand shot into his jacket pocket and grabbed a glob of the Pusher Man’s drug that would give him similar powers to Dagger. He would be able to fight the vampires with light.

There had to have been a dozen vampires there. Chase took out the lead one with his initial blast of fire, but there were plenty more to fill the gap. He thinned out the crowd with his Lightning Rod, and by the time he had done that, he felt something deep within him begin to change. There was a sensation running through his body, like someone was tickling his veins and laughing gas was penetrating his bone marrow. He could feel the drug doing the tango with his system, and wondered if the Pusher Man had neglected to mention the high that came with it on purpose. Chase Stein felt invincible, and may god help the vampires who stood in his way.

The light converged to a point on Chase’s chest, burning through the front of his shirt in the shape of a sword. The vampires nearest Chase screamed as their skin boiled from exposure to the light. The others, those who were behind Chase or only caught glancing burns, bailed immediately, their all-too-human shrieks fading into the night.

“Holy shit,” Chase muttered, too confounded by the light burning through his chest to notice the darkness that billowed from underneath his jacket. He pointed a finger at a tree and concentrated on the sensation in his bones. He drew that energy up through his arteries to the tip of his finger. Then, when he felt there was enough, he let it go at once. The laser of white light sliced into the trees, cutting a horizontal line against the lowest branches. “Ka-pow!” Chase said, holding his finger up to his lips and blowing across the tip.

“You hear that, you vampire shits? Chase Stein is fucking invincible! You can’t touch me, and guess what? I know where you little master is, and I’m coming to show him the light! Hell yes!” Chase shouted up into the night.

All it would take for him to get to the Hostel, Chase knew, was a car. Chase Stein would normally think twice about stealing a car, but not tonight. This wasn’t normal Chase Stein. This was fucking invincible Chase Stein. This Chase Stein would steal whatever damn car he could find, thank you very much.

It was funny. Before the vampires, you couldn’t have found an unlocked car in Los Angeles unless you got luckier than Peewee Herman would have to be to get laid on his worst night. Because of the eternal night, things were different. People had come out to their cars all over the city if they were late and hadn’t had a chance to turn on a TV, or only watched ESPN before work. Quite a few of them had probably been eaten or turned. Luckily for Chase, one of them had gotten as far as putting the key in the ignition before he wised up or got eaten. Unluckily for Chase, that person drove a 1987 Ford Bronco II.

The Bronco was divided horizontally in color. The top half was dark blue and the bottom half was gray. It looked like a toaster on wheels and probably earned its owner more than his fair share of O.J. Simpson comments. That’s what Chase would have thought any other night. Tonight, though, the Bronco was the frigging Pimpmobile.

For the first time in Chase’s life, the streets of Los Angeles were empty, and he had a free ride. Tonight, Chase was going to light the streets of L.A. on fire, and with the Fistigons at his disposal, he meant that quite literally.

Look out, Blade, thought Chase. Here I come.

Normally, Alex would have preferred traipsing across the rooftops for the quickest passage around the city. Unfortunately, considering the hunters of the night all had the ability of flight, that was no longer an option.

Before they left the Minorus’ household, Alex had set up the plan of attack. Dream Weaver, Jinx, and Master Pandemonium had all quickly agreed to his plan in exchange for their freedom. Alex didn’t trust them as far as he could throw them, but he knew they would play along as long as there was something in it for them.

He set himself out in the lead, knowing he was fast enough if Baron Blood tried to make a break for it. Dream Weaver, potentially the most powerful of them all, was in the back, followed by Molly, and Alex had made it clear that Molly’s protection was Dream Weaver’s number one goal. The redheaded magic user had simply nodded, and Alex got the vibe that she thought he was no better than the Minorus for using her this way. Jinx and Master Pandemonium flanked Baron Blood. Alex knew that Jinx, as the youngest of the four prisoners, was one to watch out for, because he was probably the only one of them who possessed enough courage to break away. If any of them did, there was nothing Alex could do about it. He had no magic of his own to fight back with.

As they trekked across the city in the alleyways, they took the passages that Alex hoped the vampires wouldn’t search because of the lack of people normally traversing them. It was as they traveled that Alex began to realize that something was different about Baron Blood compared to the others. His body did not move beneath his costume. It was like it was sculpted underneath, and the man under it was someone else entirely.

“Are you ready?” Alex heard Jinx ask from behind him.

Alex turned around. “For what?” He was tackled to the ground by a demon that poured out of Master Pandemonium’s cloak. “Molly!”

“We’re not touching her,” Dream Weaver assured him, and he saw Molly being quietly yet peacefully restrained by Jinx’s magic. “But we aren’t your lapdogs either. Sorry, love.”

Alex struggled under the weight of the demon, but it was futile. He saw that Baron Blood looked confused and unsure of what he should do. “You’re sure you can do this?” Master Pandemonium asked Dream Weaver.

“If I can dream it, it will happen,” Dream Weaver said. “Grab my hands.”

Jinx responded immediately. Master Pandemonium first made certain that he had a hand instead of a demon coming from the sleeve that was not holding Alex to the ground before he did the same. Dream Weaver closed her eyes, her orange hair falling down across her green-covered torso. “Take care,” she said to Alex, although her eyes remained closed. The light grew around the three, and then it fizzled, cracked, and smoked, taking the three with it. The smell of burning cinders struck Alex as odd.

“They tried to leave the city,” Baron Blood said. “Stupid people. The magic went awry. It couldn’t get out of the bonds that Topher put on the city. Get up, Alex, Molly. Let’s move.”

“Stop,” Alex said, getting to his feet. He helped Molly up. “Your voice sounds different. You’re not playacting anymore. You’re not the real Baron Blood.”

Blood sighed. He lowered his head and pulled off the mask to reveal the freckled, youthful face of another boy who had not aged since 1943. “My name is Jack Weiss, and Topher Minoru, the vampire we’re searching for, used to be my best friend before we were both turned in the middle of World War II. Baron Blood was a symbol back then, and I chose to use it twenty-five years ago when I began to search for my friend.”

“Oh my gosh, it’s a mascot!” Molly said, as she began to understand the padding of his costume as well.

“Quiet, Molly,” Alex said, piecing together the information. “You said Topher Minoru. Was he the one who trapped you down there?”

“No,” said Jack. “It was his brother’s kid and his wife, newlywed rookies at the beginning of their careers. I was trapped down there for twenty years, and he knew I was there, but he never came to release me. He’s no friend of mine.” Jack’s head sank. “You had e made the instant we left the house, I could tell. I’ve had a long life. I’m not afraid of you ending it now.”

“Would you shut up for a second?” Alex said. He couldn’t believe his ears. “You aren’t the threat here, if you didn’t notice. The offer stands. You help us get rid of Topher, and you walk out of Los Angeles scot-free, never to come back here again in my lifetime. You got it?”

“The deal stands, then,” Jack said, nodding. He put back on the mask of Baron Blood.

“Good,” Alex said. “Now, since we’ve lost our magical protection and direction, where do we find Topher?”

Jack pointed up into the sky, watching the vampires as they flitted in one direction in the sky. “They’re converging for a new ritual, or else they’re being called. I can tell because we’re blood brothers, you see. He’s over there, where they’re gathering. He has to be.”

“Good,” Molly said, putting on her best Alex impression. “I brought holy water, let’s go!”

From the alleyway behind them, Blade sheathed his crossbow bolts and began the art of tracking Alex, Molly, and Jack as they made their way toward Topher’s location. He had been halfway to the Hostel when he saw the vampires changing direction. He’d been attracted to Alex’s location by the magical misfire of Dream Weaver’s attempt at teleportation.

Killing a young Baron Blood, a symbol for new generations of vampires, was the only thing on his mind, and Blade was lucky he had waited just long enough to hear what was going on. If he followed them, he would be able to nail them all in one fell swoop. Sure, it would be a vampire clusterfuck, but then, Blade always liked a challenge…

“You’re delusional. How the hell am I your grandniece? You’re my age!” Nico Minoru protested, holding her Staff of One out as a ward against her vampire attacker. She could feel a pull on the magic in the area, the ambient source that flowed around her, unseen to those without ties to the source.

Topher, the pale vampire forever stuck in the body of a teenager, flashed his fangs in a grin that would have made a death row inmate gulp. “You don’t think I was turned yesterday, do you, Nico? Graham must be so proud of his family.”

“Who’s Graham?” asked Nico, slowly backing away, keeping her eyes focused on Topher. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know the name of your own grandfather?” Topher asked. “Tsk, tsk. I’d have thought better of your parents. Knowing your blood is so very important.” He chuckled at his joke. “I wouldn’t move back any further, if I were you, by the way. Who knows what could happen to you friend if you try to make a break for it?”

“Why are you doing this to the city, then, great-uncle?” Nico said, spitting the word out like it put a bad taste in her mouth. Inwardly, she was trying to hold back questions about her family, trying to prevent herself from grabbing Topher by the hand and begging to know more about the grandparents her father never mentioned. “Get tired of sucking blood?”

“I took something that was my right,” said Topher, his lips twisting into a snarl. “We are tied by our bloodline into dark, ancient Japanese magic that even I know very little about. I was meant to inherit it, to tap in when I turned eighteen, but thanks to the vampire women that turned me and my friend Jack, my body never quite got there. It took a thousand kills for me to make the pact that darkened these skies, but once I managed that spell, the rest of the magic flowed into me.”

He licked his lips. “You can’t imagine what it was like, to feel warmth in my veins for the first time in sixty-five years, Nico. I felt for the first time tonight the way you felt when you jumped your age and picked up the Staff of One. You have no idea how much it burns me up that you assumed your birthright early, but I’ll forgive you for being a misguided little child for now.”

“What are you planning on doing when the sun finally comes back up?” Nico asked. “The rest of the world is watching. They’ll send more heroes in for us. They’re on their way even as we speak. I bet Doctor Strange is reversing your spell right now.”

“Isn’t that the thing?” asked Topher. “He’s not. It’s a temporary spell. They’re much harder to reverse than ones that are supposed to last forever, because the magic is tightly focused for a short period of time, and the magic knows it is meant to go away soon. It sticks that much tighter because it doesn’t want to leave early. Imagine that.”

“Then what the hell are you waiting on?” Nico asked, her anger bursting out in an outraged shout. “All you’re doing is talking in circles, you sick freak!”

“I’ll tell you what he’s waiting on, Nico,” said a new voice from the side. The darkness obscured the figure as his footsteps grew louder and louder. As he finally stepped into the light, Nico could see that it was an old man, his skin wrinkled at the corners of his eyes and on his forehead. He carried a quiet strength about him, like the soldier who finally got the chance to finish his own personal war. His hair was white, and he smiled at Nico.

“Graham!” shouted Topher, turning away from Nico to meet his older brother. “It took you long enough. The threaded moon rose hours ago.”

“I’ve been waiting to do something that seems all that much more awkward now that the moment is finally here, Topher,” said Graham softly. “I’ve been waiting to meet my granddaughter. Pity. You’ve ruined the moment.”

“I’ll send a Hallmark card,” Topher said snidely. “Do you know what happens next?”

“You’ll probably want to try to kill me,” said Graham. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” He lifted up his cane to show that it was honed to a fine point. “See this? It’s made of wood that was soaked in the River Jordan before being used for thirty years as part of a pew in the Vatican. I’m not above killing you, although that it not my desire at all.”

“Then why did you even bother to show up?” asked Topher. His petulance reminded Nico that his mind had never fully matured past that of a sixteen-year-old either. She used the distraction to slowly inch closer to Karolina’s prone form.

“Because, Topher, there’s something you haven’t even bothered trying now that you have your magic back,” Graham said, smiling sadly. “We can try to help you.”

“You’re lying,” Topher said flat-out.

Graham shook his head. “I am not. The only reason I had not brought this option up to you sooner was because I never wanted you to have to kill a thousand people to make this possibility even viable.”

Topher paused for a moment and considered, then bit his tongue. He looked up at Graham with venom in his eyes. “Screw you, Graham. You never tried before. I don’t believe you now.” He lifted his arms and began to mutter an incantation in Latin. Graham held his hands up in the same fashion and started hissing a counter-curse. Nico felt the magic seeping out of the air, being used by two members of her bloodlines against each other. The result was an instant mental drain.

She could see one side losing, and that side belonged to her grandfather. His aged form, even with his experience, was little match for the brute strength of his youthful brother. Topher was going to win, and he was going to kill the grandfather she had never met first, and then turn his killing attention onto her and Karolina. After all that they had gone through with their parents, she was going to be killed by her great-uncle instead. The irony didn’t escape her.

Topher raised up his hands, pooling a ball of purple, crackling magic together over his head. He prepared to hurl it into Graham’s furiously whispering form when a 1987 Ford Bronco II arced over the dividing wall and into his body, sending it flying into and through the windows of the bank on the street.

Nico and the Bronco’s brakes screamed in tandem as Chase brought the truck to a halt just a few feet from where she crouched over Karolina. “Throw her in the back!” Chase shouted. “Get the old guy, let’s move, Nico! The Fricking-Awesome-Mobile don’t wait for nobody when there are magic vampires around!” He jumped out of the driver’s side door and scooped Karolina off the ground, then wrenched open the back door and clumsily shoved her into the back. “C’mon! The hell are you waiting for?”

Nico stood there, staring up at the shattered window where Topher had disappeared. Chase followed her gaze and saw what had frozen her in her tracks. Standing there on the edge was Topher. His hands tore at the glass in his body, knocking the deadly shrapnel to the street below. Where he pulled out the glass, a golden energy glowed instead of a scab, a side effect of the magic that he now controlled. Nico and Chase could see it all over his body, through the remnants of his clothing as the glass continued to fall to the street.

“God damn it, that hurt, you prick!” shouted Topher, staring down at Chase. If there had been venom in his eyes before, it was blood in them now. He dove from the second story window. “Die!”

“Don’t worry! I got it covered!” Chase shouted, pointing his finger up at Topher. “Ka-pow!”

Nothing happened. Chase stared dumbly at his finger for a moment before he realized that all that had come out was a strand of Darkforce energy. The black power encircled Topher, a creature of blackness, and wisped into the air. That was when Chase realized that something had gone wrong in his combination of the drugs. Topher advanced with the ferocity of a charging bull. “Oh, damn.”

“PINBALL!” shouted Nico, raising the Staff of One. Topher hit Chase with his arms outstretched and bounced off, slamming into the bumper of the Bronco before bouncing off again, this time into a doorway halfway down the street. Glowing neon lights came on over the Staff of One reading “500 PTS.”

“Now can we leave?” Chase asked, pulling open the driver’s side door of the Bronco.

Nico nodded and made a move for the passenger side. “Grandpa?” she asked, looking toward Graham.

“I’m sorry, Nico, but running appears to no longer be an option,” Graham said, pointing upward. The sky had darkened, as even the light of the moon was covered by the shapes that flitted like bats in the sky. Topher had called in his brethren, and, looking around, Nico realized that she, her friends, and the man she knew as her last remaining family member were on the menu.

“Dude, the only thing we’re missing is little rubber bands around our fingers,” Chase said grimly, staring up into the sky. “We’re like lobsters under the glass, and these hungry bastards are trying to figure out which one of us is worth boiling first…”

NEXT ISSUE: Blade finally steps up as the stakes are raised! He must now kill not only Topher, but also the new Baron Blood! Plus, Primo Falcone rejoins the fight in the skies, and Karolina Dean wakes up with a mad-on for the vampire that knocked her out of the fight! Find out what happens when Threaded Moon concludes with part four, “Unsheathed Blade!”

RUNNING LOG

I used to drive a 1987 Ford Bronco II. The thing was literally a toaster on wheels with a roof that leaked and windows that never went up or down the same way. I’ve wanted to write this issue since I planned it during the time I drove the Bronco two years ago. That’s how long this has been in the works.

Want to know what happened to Jinx, Dream Weaver, and Master Pandemonium? Fear not, there is a story coming soon that will explain what happens when you attempt to breach a barrier that does not yield. Other than that, I’m out of notes.

See you next issue for the conclusion.

Hunter Lambright