Dread Nemesis of Mine

I snatched Katie away from the golem. "Don't go near him."



The gray man stood and faced me. "I cannot harm you, Justin. You preserved my existence; therefore, I am bound to your service."



"Bound to my service? Like a slave?"



"I am required to follow your directives."



"What if I told you to jump off a cliff?"



The golem paused to regard me for a moment with its gray eyes. "How tall is this cliff?"



"I don't know." I shrugged. "Like a thousand feet tall."



"Would there be obstructions such as rocks or other debris at the bottom, or would there be deep water?"



"Jagged rocks."



Again, the gray man seemed to ponder the question. "The probability that such a jump would end this entity's—my—existence would likely result in declining such an order."



I couldn't help it. I burst into laughter.



"Are you expressing merriment or pain?" it asked.



I stifled another bout of laughter and took a deep breath. "I was laughing."



"You are amused at the proposition of my demise from a long fall?"



"No, no, no. It's how you refused that made me laugh." This thing was just too bizarre to destroy. It might be lying, but for now, I could put it to use. If we ran into any vampires, I might need a helping hand. "What happened to the other golems?"



"Such information is not inside me. I recall our group approaching this place and entering, but nothing more. Another entity—person—stood over me after an indeterminate period of blackout. It said, 'This one might work.' Another person replied with, 'It had better. It's the last one.'"



Judging from the pile of ten or more bodies, I guessed Maximus might have been trying to reprogram the golems for his own uses. Something odd occurred to me about the pile of inanimate bodies. Golems usually broke down into gray sludge when they died. Whether that was a normal thing or something their creator built in, I didn't know. These gray men had somehow remained whole, maybe because of Maximus's tampering.



Katie knelt again and looked inside the panel on one of the golem's heads. "Ooh, look at this."



I squatted beside her. A light flickered like a candle in a gentle breeze from within the cavity. I peered inside the door. The compartment was rounded and about the size of a tennis ball. A tiny globe of wavering light hovered within, equidistant from the sides. Tiny threads of energy sparked against the metallic surface inside.



"So that's what makes them tick," I said. "I guess it explains why they die if their heads are cut off."



"I have a light within me?" said a voice inches from my ear.



I jerked upright and backed away.



The gray man tilted his head at me. "I apologize if I startled you."



Taking a deep breath, I shook my head. "Guess it'll take some getting used to, having you around." I gestured at the spark. "If your comrade is any indication, yeah, you have one inside you too."



"And this is life?" he said.



Try as I might to think of this golem as an "it", I couldn't stop thinking of the thing as a "he" even though I doubted his creator had bestowed him anything between the legs. "Artificial life," I said. "Not real."



"So, I am not really alive."



"Uh, Justin, we don't have time for existential discussions." Katie pushed herself up and grabbed my hand. "We've got to meet Felicia and get out of here."



A flash of panic raced through me as I realized we'd been dawdling. "Crap, how long has it been?"



"We're going to be overdue if we don't hurry."



"How far?"



She shrugged. "I don't know, but pretty far. Like a couple hundred yards maybe."



I sighed. "Might be faster if you hitched a piggy-back ride."



Katie smiled and hopped on my proffered back. "Thought you'd never ask."



"Come with us and watch our backs," I told the golem, hoping it wasn't a mistake trusting the thing.



"I assume that is an idiom since I will have difficulty seeing your back through the person perched upon it." The golem's tone never wavered from a calm monotone.



"Uh, yeah." I resisted a face-palm. "It means protect us."



"I will."



We ran.



Not more than twenty feet later, we ran into trouble. Literally. Racing up the spiral staircase, I slammed into Amanda and sent her sprawling. She sprang to her feet in an instant, eyes wide, fangs extended at the sight of me.



"How the hell?" She bent her fingers like claws. Looked at Katie and smiled. "Oh. The little morsel helped you. I guess she fell prey to your incubus charms."



Katie slid off my back. I held my hands in what I hoped was a good fighting position. Self-defense remained one of those things I should probably have learned at some point, but the bad guys hadn't given me much breathing room.



Amanda grinned. "I'm going to make short work of you." She flashed forward.



I dodged back, but not before her sharp fingernails raked my hide, leaving bloody trails along my arm. I growled and lunged. Her body swayed left. She grabbed my arm. Twisted it, and used my momentum to drive me into the stone wall. Fireworks burst into my eyes.



"Leave him alone!" Katie yelled.



I looked up in time to see Amanda smack her against the wall like a doll.



A rough hand clawed into my hair and dragged me up. Amanda kneed me in the stomach and followed with a flurry of blows to my chest. Every breath of air exploded from my lungs. I sucked and heaved for oxygen. The vampire kicked my feet out from under me and pinned me to the floor.



"You didn't think Maximus chose me just because I can resist your incubus powers did you?" Her yellowed fangs glittered in the light. "I've studied martial arts for over a hundred years."



"Martial arts this, bitch," said Katie and dumped a flask of silver liquid on Amanda's head.



The vampire screamed as the substance burned the skin on her face. She flailed at Katie, but a gray hand caught the vampire's and held it.



"These martial arts are interesting," said the golem.



Amanda twisted away from the gray man and backed off, wiping the silver liquid from her face. It left angry red welts where it had been. "You think a little silver is going to kill me?" she screamed at Katie. "I'm going to drain you dry, you little tramp."



"I cannot allow such a thing," the gray man said, and stood between her and Katie.



I jumped to my feet and stood beside the golem. "Think you can take on two of us, Amanda?"



"Does a bear crap in the woods?" She lunged.



I let go of my body, and let instinct take control. Her fist flashed for my face. I dodged and felt the wind from its passing. The gray man grabbed her wrist. I grabbed her other arm as she overextended from the missed punch. Together, we drove our knees into her stomach and slammed her against the wall. She recovered faster than I thought possible. Kicked off the wall and flipped forward, twisting at the same time. Her arms slipped from our grasps. Amanda ran back up the stairs and vanished.



Katie stood up, rubbing her bottom, a pained look on her face. "Oh, crap."



"We're going to have company." I looked at the golem. "Where were you at the beginning of the fight?"



"I had returned to our prison room for a moment. I am sorry for the delay."



"Yeah, well keep close from here on out."



Katie clambered onto my back and wrapped her legs around my waist. "Let's go."



At the top of the spiral staircase, a long hall ran to the left and right, wide enough for four people to walk abreast. The stone construction looked old but sturdy. Doors lined the corridor to our right. To the left, the tunnel ended at a red metal door with skull and crossbones on it.



"What's in there?" I asked.



"No idea. They keep it locked all the time." Katie motioned to the right. "That way."



I jogged in down the corridor, and peered inside the first open door. It had obviously been a prison cell, converted into a room complete with a bunk bed and rug.



"This used to be a dungeon," Katie said as we raced down the hall. "This is where most of the vampires live, but thankfully, it's still dark topside, so they're probably all up there."



A young woman stepped from a doorway and yelped as we almost ran her over.



Katie motioned with her hand as we approached a junction. "Take a left at the fork."



I nearly plowed into a guy and girl who were making out hot and heavy just outside a doorway. Ahead, a group of people mingled, drinking, laughing, and talking. Loud music started up.



"Act casual," Katie said.



"With you on my back?"



"Yes."



All eyes settled on the gray man as our group pushed through the crowded hall. From what I could tell, they were all noms—normal humans.



"What's wrong with him?" asked a girl, the alcohol on her breath concentrated enough to start a fire. She grabbed at the golem's hand.



"Too much alcohol," Katie said, and then yelled, "Giddy up, horsey!"



I made a whinnying sound and the crowd burst into laughter as we galloped away. A moment later, we reached a set of stairs leading up to an open archway.



"We have to be careful here," Katie whispered in my ear. She climbed off my back. "It'll be better if we walk. At the top of the stairs is the courtyard. We'll need to take a right and go through a tunnel to reach the dumpsters."



I nodded and looked at the golem. Unless it was pitch black, he'd stand out like a sore thumb in his gray suit. I looked inside a couple of the rooms and found an open suitcase with clothes about his size. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap. "Put these on."



"They do not match, Justin."



"I don't care. Now hurry!"



He stripped down to a pair of gray boxers while Katie watched with uneasy fascination. His hairless body appeared lean and muscular, his skin the same bloodless gray as his face. He slid on the jeans and the orange soccer jersey, sliding the baseball cap over his slicked-down, silvery hair last. Katie stood on her tiptoes and spun the hat around backwards, then slid a pair of wraparound shades on the golem's face.