The Law of Three

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Honey

 -- Bay Ridge --

He watched. He existed to watch and if necessary to protect and die, but mostly he existed to watch.

He had become a master of watching.

Now he watched as they planned the next ambush. He knew how the group operated, where its financing came from, and why this Other was so important. He’d been in the room when they had set to work on the unlucky one who gave up the information that had brought them to the shores of the New World. As he listened to the current plan develop, he realized it would be like most of the others before.

Roland had learned from bitter experience there existed only two ways to successfully kill these creatures. The first and easiest was to discover a lair, enter during the daylight hours and slaughter everything in sight. The second held more danger. The second required setting an ambush after sundown knowing the creatures ruled the night. A successful ambush required bait, human bait. Sometimes the bait knew its purpose. Sometimes it did not.

Sarkey knew she was to be the bait in the trap.

Others never did.

That was why he watched and waited.

 --

“You saw him. The Cuman Union never leaves witnesses and that’s why it will come again. For you.”

“That’s bullshit,” Jamie said.

Roland leaned back in his chair.

“That’s the way it is, Agent Farks.”

Sarkey sat in her chair, arms folded, elbows resting on her knees. She was exhausted. Her sleep was fitful and full of murderous red eyes. Even now, with her eyes shut she saw red eyes floating in the distance. Sarkey opened her eyes and sat up.

“We hit him with everything we had. We didn’t even slow him down.”

“You didn’t use our weapons,” Irina responded. “You didn’t have our knowledge.”

“What do you do? Armor yourselves in garlic and hit it with holy water?” Jamie asked, a doubtful edge to his voice.

“Garlic is like tear gas. It might irritate them but they will fight through it and the last thing you want to do is irritate one of the bastards,” Irina explained. “Holy water does nothing.”

“How do you know?” Irina asked.

“Because we lost people under that stupid assumption,” Roland replied. “Everything we know friends of ours died to find out.”

“Then what does work?” Jamie asked.

“Silver slows them down. They are scared to death of large bodies of water.”

“Why?” Sarkey took notice.

“Hell if we know, but that is the first lesson I learned.”

“How?”

Roland let the vault slip open a crack. Screams, gunshots, grenade flashes, blood, so much blood and then he fell in the river and waited for them to come, but they never did. They tracked him from the riverbed, hissing at him as he floated downstream. He’d stayed in the water until first light when they’d vanished. Then he exchanged one nightmare for another.

“I’ll save that story for another time.”

“You said silver,” Sarkey stated. “Like a cross of silver?”

“Another misconception,” Roland continued. “Silver is...was a precious metal. Therefore it was saved for holy relics like chalices and crosses. That’s where all that nonsense started. Wives tales. The cross will banish them. Bullshit. It was never the cross as a symbol but what the symbol was made from. Silver, plain old silver.”

“Like holy water.”

“Yes. Somehow being frightened of large bodies of water transformed into water blessed by a priest. More wives tales made up by people trying to explain something that couldn’t be explained.”

“Some of their kind even believe in God and angels,” Irina offered.

“You’re kidding me,” Jamie exclaimed, disbelieving. “How would you know that?”

“Some of them paint. Some of them even write,” Irina exclaimed. “We find some strange shit when we take down a lair.”

Irina’s explanation stunned Sarkey and Jamie into silence. Roland gave them a moment to compose themselves. He leaned forward in his chair and looked at Sarkey.

“They can be killed. None of us would be here if that weren’t true.”

“How?”

Roland pulled out his pistol and dropped the clip into his hand. He thumbed out a bullet and held it up for her to see.

“Silver. We slow them down with silver and fire. Then we put a wooden stake in their black fucking hearts.”

Sarkey noticed that Roland’s people all had wooden stakes lashed to their combat vests. She took the bullet and looked at the silver slug. She tossed it to Jamie who held it up to the light.

“I’ll be damned,” he said.

“So I have to trust you and your crazy band of warriors.”

“We’re not warriors, Agent Sarkey. We’re survivors banded together by the blood of loved ones we couldn’t save and we are your only hope.”

Sarkey thought for a moment then glanced up at Jamie.

“I saw the tape, boss. You think you and I can kill that thing on our own?”

“What are my chances, Roland?”

“You’re dead without us. Even with us you might not survive. However, if we can capture it then we can get its knowledge and knowledge in this war is the only thing that will help us win.”

“Then we kill him,” Sarkey stated, leaving no way out.

“Then we kill it,” Roland lied.

Sarkey thought for another moment.

“One condition. I kill him. For what he did to my team.”

Roland held out his hand. Sarkey looked him in the eye and shook it. Roland started to withdraw his hand but Sarkey tightened her grip and pulled him close.

“I kill him.”

Roland smiled and nodded his head.

 --

He watched and learned. He listened to the lie. The waiting was almost over.