Alien Wolves 3 by Tom Kropp

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read part one and part two of this series at FreedomFiction.com by following the below links.
Alien Wolves by Tom Kropp (part one) – click here
Alien Wolves part 2 by Tom Kropp (part two) – click here

Alien Wolves 3 by Tom Kropp

Scot Lancer leapt out of the hovercar and dropped like a rock down towards the apartment building roof a hundred yards below him. Simultaneously a silencer equipped rifle released a round from a window two hundred yards away from the apartment building.  The speeding bullet tacked its target boxing the brains out of the armed sentry on the roof.  The man’s brain was maimed and his head was sledged and shredded sideways. He fell, floundering.

   The jet pack on Scot’s back stopped his drop twenty feet above the roof and lowered him gently.  He shucked the pack and ran to the dead man, picking his pockets to purloin a pair of keys with a key card.  He darted to the door of the roof shed.

   Only Scot could see the golden shimmering soul that ghosted right through the solid door.  The female ghost was beautiful with long blond hair and blue eyes.  She had a very shapely figure with a busty bosom, wasp waist, and tone legs.  The silvery jumpsuit she wore only emphasized her attributes.

   “Top hall and stairway clear Scot,” She told him.

   Sot nodded.  Her voice across dimensions was soft in Scot’s head.  He used the stolen keycard to swipe the lock and the heavy metal door opened for him.  He moved into the stairwell and with a quick eye vaulted into space to drop four stories downstairs elegant as an angel and land lightly on the bottom floor.  His leap kept him from passing through stair sensors and the cameras. Sharon ghosted through the door there and back.

   “Hall is clear.”  She told Scot.

   Scot swiped the card in the lock and he entered the hall.  He stopped by the first apartment door on his right.  He pulled out a plasma pistol with a bulbous silencer attached.

   “Let me aim it.  “Sharon ordered pointing at the wall where she wanted the pistol placed.  Scot obeyed.  The apartment had a security scrambler that blocked any x-ray or other scans from seeing in the apartment.  Sharon was able to see the big man inside that was sitting there watching a porn movie on his H.P. Sharon aimed through the pistol scope while telling Scot which way to move the pistol.

   “Dead on.”  Sharon told him.

   Scot used his left hand to click a tiny commlink in his hand.  The signal alerted the C.I.A. team outside and a car alarm blared down the street.  The noise helped cover the soft crackle and hum the pistol emitted, along with the wicked whine of the blazing bolt as it smote, whaling through the wall to race across the room to the char the chest of the seated man.  The gleaming beam basted the man backwards overturning the chair.  He fell with a thump and lay slumped on the floor with a smoking hole tunneled through his torso.  The bolt chewed through the chair and went through the wall.

   “He’s down and out.”  Sharon said.

   Scot quickly pocketed the pistol and pulled his plasma torch.  The foot long tool resembled a flashlight.  He ignited the yard long sizzling blade and inserted it through the lock opening the door with some spraying sparks and smoke.  Sharon zoomed through other occupied rooms before returning to Scot.

   “No one alerted yet.”  She reported

   Scot was already in the room.  He glanced at the body as he passed, then without warning the supposedly dead man fluidly flipped to his feet and snatched Scot’s throat and right wrist.  The man was superhumanly strong lifting Scot off his feet to pin him against the wall while twisting his wrist.

  Scot’s strong neck muscles sank under those cold fingers.  The torch fell as well.

Scot’s robotic left fist flung a punch that crunched, chopping the chin of the tall man.  That jackhammer jolt to the jaw jilted the tall man backwards, but he kept his twin grip on Scot.  The tall man snarled revealing impossibly long canine fangs.  Scot’s kneed his nuts and chucked a punch that thrust in the throat of his foe, gagging him.  Scot snap kicked his foe, belting his bread basket, staggering him back.  Scot ducked to pluck his plasma torch up.  The plasma blade flashed and slashed hacking the head in half.  The man fell.  Scot kept the blade buried in the brain about thirty seconds to kill the Levian alien parasite still attached to the brain.

  “Sorry Scot, that shot should have killed anyone.”  Sharon apologized.

  “See if anyone heard.”  Scot ordered.

 Sharon flew through the wall.  She returned in a blur.  “No one heard.”  She passed through the floor and returned.  “Guy below doesn’t know.  Cut through here.”  Sharon pointed at the floor.

  Still shaken by the dead man’s impressive atavistic attack, Scot used his torch to cut through the wood floor.  He pulled out the hatch he’d cut and then dropped through the opening to land on the basement floor below.  He was in a dim lit large storage bin area. In the bins, numerous attractive women were stuck in restraints with tape over their mouths.  They were nude and hard used with bruises and cuts.  All of their necks had puncture marks.  A few were awake and gaped at him.

   “Here.”  Sharon waved to him by the doorway to the adjacent room.

   Scot moved to her and carefully peered around the corner where she pointed.  There were more women in the next room.  One of them whimpered as a man sucked on her neck. Scot aimed against the door frame and coughed.  The man heard that and released the girl to rise and spin Scot’s way.  Scot’s first shot plugged the thug’s gut and shoved him back.  Scot raised his aim to topple his target with a bolt near the nose.  The beam zipped out the back of the man’s head.  The trounced target tumbled.

  Although Scot only took his eyes off his fallen for a moment, the man somehow flung himself up, pulling his pistol. Scot’s hasty shot drubbed the thug’s shoulder, so the pistol fell from his fingers to clatter on concrete.  Incredibly, the man launched himself across the room in a blur with a crane kick.  Scot’s pistol spat a blast that lambasted the lung of the flying figure.  Scot barely sidestepped in time as the kick nicked his neck and concussed on concrete, cracking it.  The fast man grabbed Scot’s gun hand and stripped it from his grip.  Scot’s plasma lance lashed to lop his foe’s forearm off at the elbow.  Scot followed up with a crosscut that amputated the other arm by the bicep.

   Amazingly the armless opponent threw a thrust kick Scot narrowly slipped aside of.  Scot made a diagonal swing so his torch licked the leg in twain near the knee. The man fell while smoking from his three missing limbs, smoldering stomach, and fried face.  But the damage was done, other alien vampires were pouring towards the basement.

  That’s when Shannon made her move. Shannon was a very pretty brunette lady with a fine figure and alluring emerald eyes. She had been a non-violent successful woman living in the country where she had her own pet shelter and lived a good life quietly. Then an alien wolf that had passed between worlds had bitten her and infected her with its dark matter and dark energy symbiont. The symbiont turned Shannon into a huge wolf by night that was bigger than a Kodiak brown bear and much stronger and faster and more deadly than any entity on Earth. She also possessed a nearly impervious frame and was incredibly quick to heal from injuries. The alien vampires had killed her lover and burnt her beloved pet sanctuary to the ground. Since then, she’d been hunting the alien vampires. She could smell them out.

  She was currently wearing a hologram-emitter that made her look like a big mutant dog on the loose. The pair of towering vampires guarding the front lobby had the double doors locked and were armed with high power blasters and explosives. Shannon squatted on their front stoop and proceeded to poop a huge Grizzly bear sized turd on their doorstep and also pissed on the front carpeting. The angry vampires watching her on the surveillance cameras opened the heavy duty security doors to yell at her and wave weapons trying to scare her off.

  Shannon’s celerity and strength were supernatural. In a blur of fur and fangs she batted the blaster barrels aside and swiped a right hook with seven inch long claws that were deft and cleft through the forearm of one foe while nabbing his neck in a gargantuan gulp of her hippo-sized mouth full of tremendous teeth that gnashed his neck nearly in twain in one bite strike with a clamp like a bear trap. The vampire’s neck stretched and bent as it was rent to ragged ribbons of flesh left.

   The second vampire was phenomenally fast in the clash as he bashed Shannon back with a  kick that rammed her ribs while he forgot about his rifle that she’d ripped from his grip with a whip of her huge clawed paws and he pulled his pistol with superhuman speed. The blaster pistol flared and blared in a screech as a beam streamed and steamed frying Shannon’s fur and nicking her neck as she bobbed from the barrel and spun and swung. Her claws flayed his fingers into fleshy fragments and the pistol flew through the air. The vampire tried to fight with a strike, but Shannon’s maws and claws were like chainsaws decapitating him in a hurried fury.

  Shannon bolted in the building. Her run carried her up behind two armed vampires that were about to go down the basement stairs after Scot. They never heard her coming as she crashed into their backs with brutal efficiency. Her colossal kisser seemed to nip the nape of one’s neck and his head fell from his shoulders to dangle on some strips of ragged skin. Next her claws were like butcher knifes nailing another’s neck and trimming it in twain, so the head bobbed downstairs like a macabre ball.

  Then the CIA team was through the doors and charging downstairs to back up Scot.

& & &

  Several hours later found Scot in the C.I.A. black site lab looking through a one way mirror at the guy he’d shot and cut to pieces.  The guy was chained down on a table.  Interrogators were getting him to talk by offering him sips of blood from a bag.  The other guys in the apartment building were dead from having their brains blown out.

   32 girls were rescued from the basement.  Their alien humanoid males were raping and feeding on them intending them to become hosts when the Levian eggs hatched.

   “How did you come to our world?”  The C.I.A. man demanded once again.

   “A wormhole opened and pulled us here from our world.”  The strange being answered again.

   “How many of you came here?”  The interrogator asked.

   “A few hundred.”  It answered.

   “Where are the others?”  Interrogator Atkins questioned.

   “I don’t know.  We split up into teams.  We separated.”

   “What were your plans?”  Atkins pressed.

   “To make more of our kind and create hosts for the Levians.”

   “How do you make more of your kind?”  Atkins wondered.

   “We force feed a human our blood numerous times.  Gradually they change.”

   “Why are you allied with the Levians?”

   “We had no choice.  They invaded our minds.”  It snarled.  “I need more blood.”

Atkins allowed it a sip of blood from a bag.

   “It’s sticking to all the same answers.” Agent Marie Tate commented to Scot.  She was a tall and lean rather ravishing brunette.

   “Vampires from another world.”  Scot grimly replied.  “Wonderful.”

   Atkins continued running through questions he’d previously asked the alien vampire to check for lies.

   Scot knew enough now.  The alien vampire’s name was Vex.  His world remained in darkness most of the time and was filled with large predators that preyed on vampires.  The vampires could endure sunlight but it made them weaker, slower, causing headaches and vision problems.  They rarely bred successfully and could live several centuries before dying from age.  They healed with superhuman celerity and could even regrow lost limbs or damaged organs.  They had two hearts and were incredibly strong and fast.  Only by destroying the brain or beheading them could they be killed quickly.

  Vex and his hundreds of neighbors were scooped right out of their jungle village by the sudden wormhole. When they appeared on Earth on a vast Illinois field, the Levians were waiting for them. The Levians entered the vampires’ brains and took control.  They almost instantly taught the vamps English and what they needed to know and do to fulfill the Levians mission.  The vamps fit in with humans looking similar, except for their teeth, very pale skin, and slightly pointed ear tips. They all had dark hair and eyes and were quit tall with even the females well over six feet tall.  They all were built long and lean with inner tissues around their skeletons much like shark cartilage.  They were great puppets for the Levians.

   The Levians were made of the same astral energy as human souls.  No human technology could detect them but Scot could see them.  They were small and squid-like. On their world they were incredibly advanced and inhabited genetically engineered bodies.  The Levians on Earth were considered violent criminals that had been exiled from their home into a barren part of space without life.  When the alien Greys explored that sector several hundred Levians also jumped through the saucer’s wormhole to reach Earth.

   The Levians were using humans as hosts.  They fed on violent and fearful emotions, so they liked to rape, torture, and kill people.  The vampires were better avatars. The Levians only had a few females capable of breeding and it took time for the eggs to mature and hatch.

The Levians had managed to build a wormhole converter.  But it was unstable opening into random dimensions of space.  It fit into moving trailer and they kept moving it after each wormhole event.

   Sharon had found the Chicago apartment building the vampires had purchased.  She discovered the captive females and the huge clutch of Levian eggs about to hatch.  The C.I.A. followed Scot in on the mission.

   “Let’s go look at the woman that changed.  “Scot decided.

   “Sure.”  Tate agreed and led the way through the maze of halls.

   “Any ideas where the remaining one wet yet?”  Tate asked him.

   “Sharon is still out looking.”  Scot answered.

   Tate covertly studied Scot.  They’d worked one previous, successful assignment together.  But she was aware of his bizarre impressive history and many confirmed successful assignments with the F.B.I., C.I.A. Homeland Security, the military and numerous state agencies.  Despite his many successes he was an oddity, the way he received accurate Intel from ghosts that no one else could see or hear.

   In addition, his DNA was mutated far more advanced than modern technology could manage.  Even the military’s top genetically engineered super soldiers couldn’t meet his strength, speed, agility, or healing abilities.  The Slypher bite he’d received on another world changed his DNA.

At the same time he looked like a poor person.  Modern science could make anyone tall, well built, and attractive, provided the person could pay for it.  Tate knew Scot was rather wealthy.  But he chose to remain short at only five feet seven.  He also chose to keep the battle scars on both sides of his face and head.  Tate thought he was a decent looking guy with his blond hair and blue eyes, but the scars made him look rough.  His very muscular build had come from weightlifting rather than supplements or genetic engineering.

   Tate knew his poor, criminal childhood in Chicago.  He was an orphan that fled the foster system to live on the streets as a child drug runner and car thief.  At age fourteen, he was busted and put on probation in a group home.  He’d become a devoted weightlifter and MMA student for over two years at a local gym.  Then he was shot in the face and woke up able to see and hear human souls that chose to remain on Earth after death.  He’d chosen to help innocent murdered victims get justice against their killers and to stop the violent serial killers and terrorists.  His main partner ghost was named Sharon and she’d been a FBI agent murdered on the job by a serial killer.

   “Here we are.”  Tate pointed.

   They were admitted into another room where they could look through a one way mirror.  A beautiful brunette was chained to a table, looking very disgruntled at her interrogators.  Her long, newly grown fangs were visible sometimes when she spoke.

   “She said she grew the fangs after about a week of the vampires feeding on her and sharing their blood with her.  She’s also become seriously strong.  It took seven men to strip her down.”  Tate reported.

   “She doesn’t have a Levian in her brain at least.”  Scot frowned.

   “I wonder what she’ll be like now.  Or if she can be changed back to normal.”  Tate mused.

   “I doubt there’s any normal left for her.   Or our world.”  Scot commented ominously.  “New monsters dwell here now.”

& & &

   Scot met up with another team and Shannon for the next raid.

  A couple hours after getting the factory cleared and the covert surveillance in place some vampires returned.  They were in a work van.  Shannon had positioned herself downwind of the driveway in the shadow of a truck parked on the road.  The lady vampire driver had to get out to manually unlock the gate because there wasn’t a security guard in the shack after second shift.

Shannon smelled that lady vamp clearly on the wind.  She could also smell the vamp in the passenger seat.  There was also the stink of terror from sweaty women unseen in the van.  Shannon made her move, supernaturally swiftly bolting across the short distance instantaneously. 

   The lady vamp spun while pulling her gun spotting Shannon’s run.  Shannon’s leap was led by her front talons trouncing the vamp’s torso while Shannon’s mouth engulfed her neck to chew through her throat.  The vamp looked amazed at her own sudden death by the furry flurry of flashing fangs and cleaving claws.  The vamp’s back smacked the van as Shannon wildly whipped her head shredding flesh.

   The vamp in the passenger seat looked too cute to be so vicious.  With inhuman celerity, she jumped from the van while pulling a short over and under combination assault rifle and grenade launcher.  She was moving so quickly the C.I.A. sniper’s shot only nicked the vamp’s noggin.  The vamp spotted that muzzle fire as she continued running and launched a grenade in the sniper’s direction with a hip shot.

   The grenade hit the garage next to the sniper spot.  The explosion ballooned in a conflagrant cloud, sending flaming shrapnel spinning all over the street.  Other agents tried to track and tack the running target, but she was just too quick to hit as she split the shooting scene.  As she fled, she fired wielding the rifle one handed easily with her freaky vamp strength.  Her gun chugged slugs hosing a hail of lead in the general direction of the muzzle flares spitting at her. 

   Out of the bedlam of bullets strafing the street after her she was belted in the body by three bullets.  The scourging didn’t even slow her.  She zipped down an alley and would have escaped if it wasn’t for an agent positioned on that street that aimed and unleashed a spurt of shots at her flicker of movement erupting out the alley.  The ring of rounds struck low to peg her legs.  Her lacerated legs were almost amputated by the bullets.

   The vamp fell on the street and tried to rise while she wreaked havoc with a hurricane of lead directed at the agent who crippled her.  The agent’s vest protected his chest from the volley.  But the slugs drummed upwards, shattering and splattering the agent’s skull to pieces.

  More agents closed in, yelling and shooting.  The vamp was peppered like a pincushion nailed full of needles.  The enraged vamp pumped her grenade launcher and lobbed another bomb that billowed its concussion and conflagration close to another agent sending him sailing scorched and shredded by shrapnel.

   The remaining agents’ salvoes were a slaughter of ammo that ripped her to ribbons.  They kept their cannonade up until she was smeared on the street. Back at the van, agents found two kidnapped girls restrained and gagged inside.  They’d been abducted from a local night club.  They were going to be added to the other girls in the factory’s basement bunker.  Scot used his torch to kill the Levian in the vamp’s head by the van.  The other Levian was able to escape.

   Shannon hadn’t bothered to chase the second vamp because she didn’t want to run into the typhoon of lead and beams zinging after the vamp.  The fire department had to come because two buildings were on fire from the grenades.  Now the police showed up.  Shannon doubted anymore of the vamps would be coming back now.

  “It’ll be dawn soon, Shannon. When you change back to human form, can I buy you breakfast?” Scot asked with a yawn.

   Shannon just nodded in eerie human fashion.

   & & &

   That morning in the café, Shannon confessed, “I didn’t like killing the human women vampires.” 

   “Neither did I.”  Scot admitted.  “But they’re predators and people are their prey.   The C.S.I. team at the factory has discovered the remains of countless victims.  The vamps were cremating their unwanted victims in the huge forge.  They also found the bodies of many men drained of blood in abandoned buildings nearby.”

   “What about the restrained victims we saved that were made vampires against their will?  Couldn’t they be convinced not to feed on people?”  Shannon pressed.

   “I asked the same question.”  Scot sighed.  “They don’t have any Levians in their heads.  They’re all being held and monitored in a C.I.A. detention center.  Top doctors and scientists are trying to work with them.  But the bad news is I helped free some other victims in Chicago not long ago.  Some of them were vampires already.  They played cunning games with the doctors and scientists only to eventually kill or try to kill and feed on the humans working with them.  They displayed a cruel desire to kill and feed on people.  And they’re so fast and powerful.  The smallest female vamps displayed their strength in tests able to lift over eight hundred pounds over their heads and punch holes in heavy bags.  Their movements are so much faster than even our top made super soldiers.  They’re incredibly dangerous and look at us like food.”

   “It’d be better if we could turn them to our side.”  Shannon insisted.

   “Of course, it would.  They’d be great agents, soldiers, or cops.  But if they decided to turn against us, they can make more of their kind.  They could create an army of vampires.  It’s a real scary threat.  We don’t know what to do yet with them.  The final decision isn’t mine.”

   “What about the ones that haven’t become vampires yet?”  Shannon wondered.

   “They’re going to be monitored as well.  It’s a wait and see deal.”

   Shannon frowned.  “How are your wounds?”

   “Pretty well healed.  How about yours?”  Scot inquired.

   “Fine.”  She answered shortly.

   “I know you were shot at close range several times.  Don’t you worry that you could be hurt or killed?”

   “Of course.  I’m not sure of my full capabilities or weaknesses.  Not eager to find out either.”  She wasn’t about to trust him or anyone with the weakness to silver.  Tod hadn’t told Sharon either.  She switched subjects.  “I’ll know the Sleeper DNA gave you physical advantages.  How do you compare to the vampires physically?”

   “The full blood males are stronger than me.  At least the ones I fought.  We’re close in speed, agility, dexterity.  They can withstand a lot more damage than me.  Hell, I took one alive in Chicago by cutting off his arms and legs and he’s growing new limbs now.  I heal fast from most wounds.  Like I’m already fine after the shrapnel wounds last night.  But if I got shot in my heart or head I don’t know if I could recover from that.  I do know before the Slypher bite I was always real strong and athletic.  After the bite I figured my strength and speed tripled at least.  But the male vamps were stronger when we fought.  I’m not sure how I’d do against the female vamps.”

Shannon order came and she dug in hungrily while Scot gave the waitress his order.  Scot smiled watching Shannon eat.  She had sausage, ham, steak and eggs.

   “Do you normally feed on game while in wolf form?”  Scot questioned.

   Shannon had to swallow first.  “Yes.  In wolf form I like to eat deer or rabbit.  Tastes delicious.  But couldn’t eat raw meat in human form.  And before you ask, no I wouldn’t feed on humans.”

   “What about feeding on vampires?”

   “No.  Their flesh and blood tastes terrible.  Bitter.  Acidic.”  She made a face.

   Scot considered that.  He didn’t know what to make of her yet.

   “Any leads on finding the wormhole converter machine?”  Shannon queried.

   “No.  We suspect they keep using it and moving it randomly seeing what kind of life forms they can bring from other worlds hoping to find powerful species the Levians can control.”

   “Can’t scientists create some kind of detection device to see the Levians?”  Shannon wondered.

   “No.  None of our modern technology can even detect our own soul energy.  The Levians are a mix of soul energy and other energy that’s undetectable.  You know earlier this century before I left for sixty years scientists couldn’t even detect dark matter or dark energy like they can now.”

   “So, it’s just you and Sharon finding the Levians?”  Shannon clarified.

   “Yes.  Now we have vampires too.  And who knows what else they might bring here through the wormholes.  Do you regret being made into a shape shifter?”

   Shannon finished chewing.  “If I hadn’t been changed by that alien wolf then when the vampires came for me, I would have been helpless turned into a vampire.  So, it was a blessing in disguise.  But I wish Tod didn’t have to die.  I would have taken his place.  I miss him so much.  I haven’t even told his mom yet what happened to him because I don’t know how to go about it.  I don’t want to lie to her.  I’ll likely have to change in front of her to prove what I say.  She deserves to know the truth.”  Shannon eyes brimmed with tears thinking of it.

  “Try not to let it make you self-destructive.  I’ve been down that path before repeatedly.  I know you’re pretty invulnerable, but you said you got lucky hitting that wolf in the eye that night it attacked you and Tod.  So, you know your eyes are vulnerable.” Scot advised.

   Shannon nodded.  Both Tod and she had agreed on the story that they killed the first wolf with a lucky shot through the eye rather than using silver bullets.  It was bad enough people might know the old stories of silver and werewolves.

   “Have you seen how you react to silver yet?”  Scot seemed to read her mind.

   “No.  My silver jewelry didn’t bother me.”  She lied.  “How does your family deal with what you do?”

   “You mean my daughter and grandchildren?  They worry, but they understand.  It’s still bizarre that when I went to the Grey’s world only about a year passed for me there but sixty years passed here.  I came back to find I have a daughter, granddaughter and a great grandson.”

   “I imagine.  I’ve watched many of your interviews from before and after you left.  Read your book.  How come you haven’t had a new hand flash cloned?”  She indicated his robotic left hand.

   “It works just fine.”  Scot worked his robotic fingers.  The hand had a layer of synthetic flesh that didn’t quite match the color of his tan skin.  It also had lack of detail.  “It’s also a weapon like a club and has saved me repeatedly against stronger foes.” Scot’s order showed up and for a while they were silent eating.

   “What more do you need of me here in Milwaukee?”  She asked.

   “Are you eager to go home?”

   “One of my workers is taking care of the few animals I have left, including Tod’s horse.  But I don’t like this neighborhood.  Or the hotel.”

   “Understandable.  It’s a dirty dangerous ghetto.”  Scot nodded.  “I just went to that hotel because it’s close to the factory.  I wouldn’t recommend any woman walk alone around here.

Tate is at the factory while it’s searched.  I’ll call her and see how much longer we need you.”

   “Were the male vampires trying to get the female vampires pregnant or just raping them for fun?”  Shannon had to ask.

   “We don’t know.  So far, we’ve only been able to keep one male vamp alive and he no longer has the Levian in his head.  He did say on his world his kind did breed like we do and the males have strong sexual desires.  They used the kidnapped women to feed, have sex, and turn into vampires.  He’s not sure if they can breed with humans made vampires or not.”

   “Why wouldn’t the victims that are made vampires want to help the same males that were raping and feeding on them?”  Shannon was confused.

   “Good question.  I don’t know if their brains just change to where they become loyal to the vamps that made them or what.”

   “Is there any difference in the vampires the pureblood males make and the ones the human vamps make?”  Shannon finished her meal.

   “We don’t know yet.”

   “Why aren’t they trying to make more male vampires?”

   “They probably don’t want the male competition.  They’d rather have females.  And females are less threatening to other females.  That made it easier for the female vamps to go kidnap more females around the area.  They were abducting them from local bars, nightclubs, drug houses.  They were smart doing it in high crime areas with less oversight by overworked cops here.”

   “What do you think the vampires’ master plan is?”  She wondered.

   “I guess to keep building up their species.  Have more of their kind and gain more power.”  Scot shrugged.

   “And the Levians?”

   “They were outcasts on their own world for being violent criminals.  Here on Earth, they have bodies to control again that they can use to hurt, rape and kill others.  They feed off cruelty.”

Scot holophone rang.  He answered it using audio only.  He was quick in ending it.

   “That was Tate.  One of the female vampires wants to speak with me.  Maybe I’ll have more answers soon.”  Scot informed her.

   “Good luck.”  Shannon offered.

  Shannon was in the hotel’s parking lot when she became aware of the danger.  She looked back and found herself flanked by three young black men.  They all had menacing presences and loomed over her.  Her heart sped up as adrenaline pumped.  She could see and sense the threat they presented.  She tried to keep them in her peripheral vision while increasing her walking speed.  The tallest one suddenly rushed in front of her to block her path.

   “Hey pretty lady.”  The man in her path grabbed both her arms and leaned in close.

   Feeling restrained and claustrophobic, Shannon suddenly shoved forward pumping both palms into the guy’s gut.  She was backed by some of the werewolf strength that remained while she was in human form.  The powerful push propelled him backwards to land on his ass.  He looked incredulous.  His buddies laughed.

   “Bitch!”  He barked, jumping up and lunging her way.

   Shannon leaped lightly launching a flying bicycle kick.  With her werewolf strength, speed and agility she soared high freakishly fast.  He boot stamped the snoot of one foe, squashing his nose with a hearty crunch.  The force flung him flat on his back, so his head smacked on pavement.  He was out cold.

   One of the thugs behind Shannon swung an overhand punch that struck near her ear. The unexpected blow almost rolled her.  She collided with a car and the guy jumped to thump her again knocking her noggin from behind. He pulled a pistol and plugged slugs in her back. Shannon flicked a low kick that split his shin. He screamed and folded over in agony.

   The third guy ran from the fight in disbelief and terror.

   She wasn’t feeling much pain or handicap from the wounds.  It felt kind of numb with brief spasms of discomfort.  She was able to walk across the lot and into her room.  She went in the bathroom and slid off her coat and shirt so she was down to her black bra.  She could see her back in the mirror.  Shockingly, she was barely bleeding.  The bullet holes didn’t look too deep or bad despite squarely sinking in her back shoulder and lower.  The bullets hadn’t lanced her lungs because she was breathing fine.  It seemed unbelievable that she could be shot twice and not be incapacitated by it.  She hesitated to call 911 because she didn’t want local doctors noticing her unique alien DNA.  She called Scot.  She knew there were C.I.A. medics.

   “Hi, Shannon.  What’s up?”  He answered. 

   “Scot, I’ve been shot in the back by some guys.  I’m in my hotel room.  Can you send the C.I.A. medics?”

   Scot didn’t waste any time on dumb questions.  “Absolutely, I’m sending them over now Shannon.  Hold on.” He hung up on her. 

   Shannon made sure the door was ajar before she lay face down on the bed to wait.  She wasn’t as scared as she should be.  Although she’d studied Tai Kwon Do for several years as a teen and became a red belt, which was one belt below black, she’d never used those skills in a fight.  It really shocked her how easily she’d handled the pack of predators preying on her.

   The C.I.A. medics entered her room less than ten minutes after Scot’s call.  They were quick and capable examining her while jabbering to each other and asking her a few questions.  They couldn’t get a needle in her tough flesh.

   “Shannon, your flesh is pushing the bullets out and healing you right now.”  The doctor sounded incredulous.  He used his clamp to finish pulling the bullets out.  He watched her flesh heal real fast.

   “9mm caliber bullets.”  The doctor guesstimated. “Barely made a dent in you.”

   “Good to know,” Shannon admitted.

 & & &

Scot and Tate said little during the short flight.  They were both tired from the long night’s work.  Tate landed in the lot and they passed through the extensive security measures in the building going numerous stories underground to reach the detention levels.  Scot wondered if anyone that worked there had been born without genetic engineering or at least some upgrades because all the women and men working there were tall, attractive and well built. 

   In modern society he was a dwarf.  Although he’d never had a short man’s complex many of his fights in life had occurred due to taller men underestimating him.  He knew he was something of a legend there, but they still looked down on him.  He wasn’t that impressive looking in a world full of perfect people, where only the poor folks had to be short and carry scars.

  He was escorted to a desk with a bank of monitors showing prisoners.  Tate pointed out one screen showing a prisoner alone in the weight room.  The prisoner was a pretty brunette woman with perfect curves and daunting height.  Her hazel eyes changed from blue to green in shifting light.  She was wearing a tight orange jumpsuit while working out. Scot was a very experienced weight lifter.  He quickly counted the weights on the bar.  It was 820 pounds and she was doing squats with it rather easily.

  “What do you know about her?”  Scot asked the tall, dark and handsome male supervisor name Jones.

   Jones tapped his tablet and a holochart appeared in the air.  Jones’s read off the highlights.  “Name is Sherri Mares.  Age 24.  No prior criminal record.  College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.  She worked at the Hummel and Walters Chicago based business the past year with all excellent work reviews.  She lived close to her work, but had a valid driver’s license and owned a Chevy truck.  Single, no children. No other known family members.  She was pretty wild and crazy her first week here.  Had to keep her sedated and restrained.  She gradually calmed down, but refused to answer many questions.  She can’t stomach food, only blood.  We do allow her to watch some H.P. she saw you on the news and recognized you.  She said she has information about our enemies the vampires, but she’ll only speak to you.”

   Scot nodded.  He remembered her from the Chicago apartment building basement.  As he watched, she stopped doing squats to pick up a pair of 80 pound dumbbells that she started doing curls with.

   “Powerful girl.”  Scot was impressed.

   “She bench-presses over 600 pounds.  And can punch and kick holes in heavy bags.”  Jones added.

   “How do you want to handle it?”  Tate asked Scot.

   “Like we discussed.”  Scot decided.

   “Let’s see how well she can control herself.  I’ll meet her with a cut on my neck and bloody bandage.  Have her put in cuffs with hands behind her back.   Don’t bother with leg restraints.  I want her to have some freedom of movement.  Instead of an interrogation room put her and me alone in the library.”

   “Why not just be safe and have she in full restraints in an integration room?”  Jones objected.

   “Because then she might not be as forthcoming.  I want to establish some trust.  But I also want to see if she can restrain herself from feeding on me if she smells blood.”  Scot answered grimly.

   “At lease have some armed guards in the room.”  Jones argued.

   “No.  We do it my way.  “Scot firmly insisted.

   “It’s your funeral.  “Jones grumbled cut on his neck, but he bled so little and healed so fast they had to just dip some gauze in blood and tape it to his neck. 

   When he went in the library he found Sherri casually walking around looking at books on shelves with her wrist cuffed behind her back. She turned when she heard him enter the small library.

   “See anything you want to read?”  Scot asked her.

   “Well if our talk goes well I can let you take a few books to your cell.  I can arrange other privileges if your info is helpful.”  Scot offered.

   “Any chance of me being released” She wondered. 

   “Sherri, you’re been changed into a vampire by vampires from another world.  We need to know if you can be trusted to live around other people without feeding on innocent people or turning others into vampires.”  Scot explained. As he came closer he could see Sherri’s interest focus on the bloody gauze on his neck.  She licked her lips and he spotted her fierce fangs.

   “What do you want to know?”  She asked him shakily.

   “Can you stop yourself from feeding on humans?”  He questioned

   “Yes.”

   “Would the cow’s blood that you’re been fed here be good enough to live on?”

   “Yes.”

   “Then why do the vampires take the risk of feeding on humans?”

   “Animal blood doesn’t provide the same taste or feeling that human blood does.”

   “Explain that?”  Scot requested.

   “Well, animal blood is like a human eating day old bread and water compared to eating steak, cake and wine.  Bread and water might keep you alive, but steak, cake and wine are delicious and will make you feel better, stronger.  Human blood also provides a brief high, a rush, which animal blood doesn’t do.  Another vampire’s blood is also quite good.”

   Scot nodded.  “Why do the human made female vampires choose to help abduct and make more female vampires for the males, once freed from restraints?  I mean, why endure the males kidnapping, raping, and feeding on you for weeks, then stay with them to victimize others once you’re freed?”

   Sherri frowned, her gaze on his bloody neck.  “I wasn’t freed yet when the male that made me was killed.  When he was killed it ended the mental hold he was starting to have over me.”

   “What kind of hold?”  Scot asked.

   “It was more intense than being in love.”  She admitted.  “The combination of intense love with blind devotion, like being brainwashed into a cult.  I found myself wanting to stay and do whatever he wanted.  It also created a sense of family with the other female vampires he sired.  We could even hear some of each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s feelings.  It’s intense.”

   Scot considered that.  “So by killing the male that made you it ended your brainwashed devotions?”

   “Yes.”  She agreed.

   “Can you think of anything we can do that would help find other vampires easier?”

   “Look for bodies and missing women in areas.”  She answered with a shrug.

   “What was the main goal that you felt you should do?”

   “To please the males and make more female vampires, so we would have greater numbers.  It felt like it was us against a world of enemies that wanted to kill us.  I felt like we needed more of us in order for us to survive.”

   “Were the males trying to get you pregnant?  Or just raping you for pleasure?”

   “They said they were trying to impregnate us.”  She admitted.

   “When you happen to be close to another vampire, can you tell it’s another vampire without seeing its teeth?”  He wondered.

   “Yes, we can sense each other.”

   “Sherri, we could use vampires like you to help us hunt down other vampires.  But we don’t think we can trust you.”  Scot was blunt.  “Convince me to try trusting you.”

   “Give me a chance to prove myself.”   Sherri requested.  “I don’t know where there are other vampires, but I can sense them up close.”

   Scot noticed she had trouble not looking at his bloody bandaged neck.  She had a very hungry look as she licked her lips repeatedly, flashing fangs and averting her eyes, fighting her blood lust.

   “I am confused why you would feel so devoted to the male vampires.  Was the one that mad you named Steg or Real?”  Scot inquired.

   “Steg made me.”  She admitted.

   Scot laughed.  “Steg made you?  Well, I killed him personally.  I’m surprised that he could make you brainwashed.  He was the weakest and most cowardly of the males.  I cut his legs off with my plasma torch and he started crying and begging me not to kill him.  I cut off his arm next and he started telling me everything he could about his kind.  Then I cut off his manhood and he bawled like a baby.  I had fun carving him up before I beheaded him.  He was pathetic.”

   As Scot lied about Steg, he could see Sherri glaring daggers at him.  She was getting enraged at his disparaging comments.  Like a woman madly in love hearing the killer of her lover brag.  She was incensed.

   “He said Earth women were stupid and easy to manipulate.”  Scot added.

   There was a sudden crack and pop as Sherri deliberately broke her own thumb so she could slip her cuff over her left hand.

   Scot heard the soft sound of her thumb breaking.  Then she flew at him, right hand snatching his shirt near the shoulder and left arm lashing around his back.  Her mouth opened incredibly wide while diving down at his neck.

   Scot bolted backwards as his shirt tore and he fell down backwards with her atop him.  He jammed his robotic hand in her mouth, so her teeth bit it instead of his neck.  Her right hand’s fingers nabbed his neck while her left arm hugged him hard.  She tried to bite him.  Scot’s right-hand thumb hooked into her eyeball.  She screamed and wiggled wildly, frantic to break his grip and nip him while protecting her injured arm. 

   Scot used her windmilling limbs to his advantage as he caught her in a sideways triangle choke that he then turned into a guillotine choke.  He had it locked in good under her chin on her throat, pinching the carotid artery and crushing her throat, so she couldn’t breathe and the blood flow was cut off from her brain.  Most opponents would have tapped out or gone unconscious in that deadly hold.

   Unfortunately, Sherri was a vampire and she didn’t breathe much or need a lot of blood to her brain.  She displayed daunting strength getting up on all fours and then on her feet.  Despite Scot’s stranglehold she lifted him up with her and rammed his back into a high bookshelf with enough power to knock the stand over and they fell atop it.  She desperately tried to grab and bit while he maintained his hold.

   Two guards suddenly reached the room after going through the double gates.  Unfortunately one of the guards wasn’t too smart because he pulled his stun pistol and fired a pair of bolts that zapped Sherri’s back.  Since Scot was still holding her, he absorbed a big brunt of the blasts.  His hold weakened and Sherri broke free from him.

   Sherri pounced like a puma at the pair of guards.  Two more stun rays tapped her torso.  She launched and landed a leg larrup that speared the stomach of one guard.  The kick catapulted the huge man across the room.  She decked the other dude fustigating his forehead with her fist while her good hand plucked his stun pistol away.

   Scot crashed into her back, so she fell face down.  He clubbed the back of her head with a hammer fist and locked a rear naked choke on her.  She’d lost the gun when she flopped on the floor. Scot tried to garrote the girl, but her ability to not need to breathe or have brain blood flow compromised the hold’s normal effectiveness.  She got on all fours and quickly crawled towards the gun with Scot riding on her back.

   Scot relinquished his hold and dealt a hammer fist blow with his robotic hand to the base of her brain stem.  Backed by his strength his robotic hand worked like a truncheon bludgeoning her.  That hit from his metal mitt split her scalp wide open and flopped her on her face.

Amazingly she tried to rise, and he bunged the back of her head again.  That buffet flattened her and this time she was stunned.  He pinned her wrists behind her back and her resistance was feeble.  More guards reached the room and rushed over with guns, clubs and cuffs.  They cuffed both her ankles this time.

   “Watch her hands.  She must have broken her thumb to slip out of her other cuffs.”  Scot warned them.

   “Back off!  Let us do our jobs!”  A huge guard barked while shoving Scot aside.

   Scot was annoyed by the shove, but he moved out of the way to give the mob of men room to move.  Unfortunately, they didn’t pay attention to Scot’s warning about Sherri’s trick.  They rebuffed her wrists behind her back after her ankles were cuffed.  They were carrying her towards the double doors when she recovered from Scot’s strikes.

   Sherri ripped her wrist right out of the cuffs, scraping of the skin in the process.  She whiplashed her whole body and limbs like a huge snake.  Her legs lapidated two guards so hard they flew into a bookshelf and bowled it over as their bodies busted it up.  The bookshelf bounced into the next one like dominoes and three in a row rolled over with loud sounds.

Sherri’s free hands grabbed one man with a yank before she sank and drank with her fangs in his arm, biting into his wrist veins.  The guy screamed, unable to break her grip on him.

   The other two guards stepped back, producing their pistols to pepper her with stun bolts and the volts’ jolts jounced her jaw down to her waist.  The barrage of stun bolts battered her senseless.

   Scot watched the wild flurry from a safe distance.  Even more guards flooded the floor to restrain Sherri while medics worked on the guard’s she’d injured.  Scot had to wait until things settled before he could get out of the room and rejoin Tate and Rogers in the security office.

   “Wow.  She really went psycho when you badmouthed her boyfriend.”  Tate commented.  Rogers and she had heard the whole conversation over Tod’s commlink.  “How’d you know to say that?”  

   “I wanted to see how brainwashed she really was.”  Scot shrugged.  “People in cults often can’t stand anyone bad mouthing their leaders. Guys in love often get violent if you start insulting their woman.  We needed to know if she was conning me about helping us find other vampires.  Clearly her obsession with the male vamp that sired her continues after death.”

   “You could have done that in an interrogation room with her in full restraints so no one got hurt!”  Rogers blurted upset.

   “No, I couldn’t have.”  Scot frowned at him.  “We’re talking about letting a vampire out to help us hunt other vampires.  We needed to know how deep her loyalties are to her own kind.  If she was all chained up in an interrogation room, she likely would have kept her cool because there wasn’t much she could do.  I needed it to just be her and me alone with her having a chance to hurt me.  Between her seeing and smelling my blood and rubbing it in her fact that I torture and killed her boyfriend, she snapped.”

   “How’d you know she could break her thumb and slip the cuffs?”  Tate had to ask looking amused.

   “I got out of cuffs once by breaking my thumb and slipping the cuff off.”  He admitted.  “It’s painful and tough to do.  I wasn’t sure she could do it or know how to do it.  I followed a hunch.”

   “Your hunch got several guards hurt.”  Rogers blustered, still upset.

   “No one died.  We needed to know.  It was very effective.” Tate shut the guard up.

   “She told us a lot.”  Scot agreed.  “Now we’re even surer that when these kidnapped women become vampires their minds change.  They don’t hate the males that abducted, raped, and fed on them.  They love them and become loyal to them and other vampires from their blood made family.  They develop a mindset of them against normal humans.  Plus, they clearly want to feed on us.  The whole time talking to me she couldn’t keep her eyes off my bloody neck bandage.  She was drooling to feed on me.  You heard her.  Cow’s blood is stale bread to them.  Human blood is like a stake, cake, wine and cocaine.”

   “Our blood is a great drug to them.”  Tate sighed.  “The vamps are addicts.”

End???? Not even close.

* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Tom Kropp 2026

Image Source: Dey from Fictom.com