Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) (13 page)

“Oh, well, why are you appearing like this to me now?” Penny asked.

“To make you feel more comfortable,” Morrigan said. She patted Penny on the hand.

“Please don’t do things just to make me feel comfortable,” Penny said. She took a couple sips of the
thin broth from the skin flask. It was not the most delicious meal she had ever eaten, but it was still food.

Morrigan got up and walked toward the door. “You are the bravest human that I have ever met.” She smiled at Penny and then turned into her hag self again. “Rest up, dear. Tonight we go over our battle plans.” Morrigan became more covered in black feathers until she looked like a raven and then she flew away into the sky.

Charles looked at his watch, and then placed the earplugs in. When Lorelei
and her people started their
singing
,
he didn’t want to be caught in the trance. He had also smuggled earplugs to Herschel last night. When Lorelei and her kind sang, Charles’s first job was to spring Herschel from his cell.

Charles had spent the last day poking holes in the Brotherhood defenses. Most of the things he did he had no idea why he was doing the
m
. Some he could make a guess. While he was not left alone, he was able to roam pretty feeling with an escort. Most of the things that Charles had to do, looked pretty innocuous, especially to the green agent assigned to watch
him
.

In almost every corridor and room, Charles had put water. He didn’t leave obvious glasses of water lying about on every table. He pretended he was watering the plastic plants. The agent thought that Charles was just a little loopy.

He cut small holes in the stain
ed
glass. That job was a little harder. He did it at night while the agents slept. It wasn’t hard to evade people in the mystery house. There were so many trap doors, holes, and quirky turns that it was easy to disappear.
But, h
e had no idea why he was cutting the holes.

He could guess why he was supposed to leave a silver trail on the wall. Werewolves were ultra-sensitive to silver. If they had a trail to follow they could lead the rest of the warriors into the heart of the sanctuary.

Charles also sabotaged several alarms and the elevator. He opened every curtain wherever he went. He made sure to leave doors just cracked open and carved strange symbols into the shrubberies outside and arranged house plants in a certain way. He had also installed a couple computer worms that the goblins had given Thomas. Charles looked at his watch again. Sixty-three seconds until Thomas initiated the attack.

Charles looked over to the young agent assigned to him. He already had so much hate built up in him for the supernatural races. He had no idea that most of them had never done anything to harm humans and many of them even had helped humans.

Thirty seconds left. Charles made sure that his earplugs were snug. He then proceeded toward Herschel’s holding cell. He walked through a wall and then looked at his watch again.

“Expecting someone?’ The agent pointed to Charles’s watch.

“Yeah, my mermaid girlfriend is supposed to be calling in a seconds,” Charles said with a broad, wicked smile on his face. Five seconds.

The agents started to speak, but then stopped mid-sentence. Lorelei and the
Nixen
had struck the Sanctuary.

Charles reached over and snapped the neck of his guard. He quickly moved into the ne
x
t corridor where the Brotherhood kept their prisoners, which were generally few. They preferred to kill instead of capturing.
Charles knew that they would kill Herschel after another day when they felt they had gotten all relevant information.

Herschel sat in the cell patiently. Charles took the keys off a sleeping guard and tossed them to the vampire. He decided that he would leave the two guards in the holding room for Herschel’s lunch.

Herschel burst through bars and tore into the throats of the two guards. Charles smiled. Normally vampires eating made him a little woozy. But this time, he felt a thrill and a sense of release. Perhaps t
h
ey actually had a chance at winning this war.
Maybe he could actually have a little peace. Maybe he could have a family with Lorelei. Maybe he could stay in one place for longer than a week. Maybe his life could be normal again. At least as normal as life could be with Poseidon as a father-in-law and vampires for siblings.

Herschel and Charles bolted back into the hallway. They were joined by another crew of vampires being led by the werewolves. The head vampire, a young looking woman, threw them a pair of special ear buds.

“Charles,” Thomas’s voice came through the head phones. “Good to see that everything is going
well
at that you are alive. Have you had eyes on Penny’s grandmother?”

The female vampire handed him a walkie-talkie. “Yeah,” Charles said into the radio, “but she is heavily guarded in the Grand Ballroom.”

“I’ll handle Penny’s grandmother. You’ve got the lead,” Thomas said and the vampires and werewolves all looked to Charles for their next move.

“Alright, we have about two minutes left in the
Nixen
trance. Take out as many as you can before then,” Charles said into radio and then all of the creatures dispersed, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.

Charles grabbed a gun
and a short sword
off of a dead agent and went after a specific agent.
His old friend George.
While George may have seen like a quirky old man, really he was a cold blooded killer. Penny had shared a wall with him when she was in the Brotherhood. The curtain to Georges shower was in Penny’s room, which was just one of the quirky features of the Winchester Mystery House that protected it against supernatural creatures.

Charles knew that he couldn’t get to George before the siren song expired, but he could get there before George was able to fully be ready for him. George’s skills rivaled Charles, but Charles
hoped that years of dealing with vampires, werewolves and the like had made him weak to humans. Wooden weapons weren’t quite as effective as against humans. But a bullet was still a bullet. Plus George was getting older. Charles was still a young man in his twenties, but George had just celebrated his seventieth birthday. Although perhaps the extra years just gave George more time to perfect his skills. Charles would find out in just a few seconds. He rounded the corner to George’s room just as the trance wore off. He heard the clash of Brotherhood agents against his clan.

“Trance has worn off,” Thomas said crackling through the ear piece. “Second round coming through.”

Charles felt the djinn wreaking havoc as the whole ho
use shook. Then the whole sanctuary
went black. The goblin worms had been successful and any technology on the Brotherhoods part was useless. Charles
stopped outside of
the room with George.

****

Penny sat on the edge of the Irish coast with Morrigan waiting for their signal.

“Are you ready dear?
”
Morrigan asked, putting her long, crooked fingers on Penny’s shoulder. The rest of the banshees, most of whom were hag or ghost like creatures except for the few that preferred the look of insanely beautiful women, were all ready for battle. Mostly the banshees were going to be teleporting in and out caring for the wounded. Their seconda
ry goal was to spread confusion and panic. There was nothing like screaming banshees and the rancid smell of rotting flesh to knock you off you’re
A
game.

Banshees could teleport anywhere as long as there was a clear path as wide as the head of a nail. With all of the winding passages and false walls in the Winchester, no clear path existed. Thomas gave instruction to Charles to put small, inconspicuous holes in the sanctuary’s many ornate stained glass windows. If Charles positioned them correctly, there should be a path for the banshees to enter.

“Alright,” Penny said as the order came in from Thomas. “It’s time to go.” Penny had been briefed that the teleport would not be the most comfortable experience for her. At least it wouldn’t last longer than a couple of seconds. “Thomas says to go str
aight for the Grand Ballroom.”

“We’re going to drop you off on the outskirts of the
Brotherhood’s
sanctuary first,” Morrigan said as she held onto Penny’s hand. “You will be responsible for setting up a triage for the wounded.”

Penny wanted to argue, but she knew that Thomas had probably given specific instructions to the banshees. Thomas was impossible to argue with and she was pretty sure that it was just as difficult to argue
a
5,000 year old banshee.

Penny held her breathe as the collective power of the banshees teleported her from the Irish coast to the street outside of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Penny gasped for breath. She felt like there was ice water running through veins. And then suddenly it was warm again and she was standing on a street next to Lorelei.

Penny looked over at the Siren. She looked tired, but happy.

“How is it going?
” Penny asked.

“Not too bad right now,” Lorelei said. “W
e’ve got some wounded coming in, but
the Brotherhood was able to get a call out for reinforcements before we turned off their technology.”

Penny knew that was part of the plan. They wanted as many of the Brotherhood there for the massacre as possible. They were holding back the
Rakshashai
until all of the agents were there.
The
Ni
xen
were scheduled for another round after the Brotherhood reinforcements arrived. That would give the creature allies a chance to wipe out even more. Even if they were unsuccessful at wiping out the whole Brotherhood, they
wanted
the rest of the world to see what would happen if you would band together.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Penny said. She felt a little woozy and leaned back on the gate.

“Why don’t you take a brief break,” Lorelei said, sitting Penny down in some bushes. “Let you collect your wits after traveling from Europe to California in ten seconds.”

Penny sat on the ground and breathed heavily while a banshee helped a wounded werewolf into the triage area. Penny felt good knowing Thomas was rescuing her grandmother. No one was a better fighter than Thomas. Not even Charles.

***

Thomas stood on the roof of the Brotherhood sanctuary. His plan was being executed with precision. Perhaps now his family would be safe.

Thomas didn’t trust the removal of Penny’s grandmother to anyone but himself. With everyone handling their own orders, Thomas set about to get into the Grand Ballroom, which was the most enchanted and heavily guarded room the entire sanctuary.

Tho
mas was not the best fighter. He
was able to hold his own against a lot, but as far as vampires go, Thomas thought that he was the runt of the litter. What he lacked in brute strength or speed, he made up for with his intelligence
though
. And he had a dozy of a plan worked out for getting Penny’s grandmother out of the ballroom.

Thomas had anticipated that the Brotherhood would keep Penny’s grandmother in the Grand Ballroom. His whole plan for getting her out unscathed hinged on that. Of course the Brotherhood obliged Thomas’s plans.

Way t
o go to be unpredictable, guys,
Thomas thought. His sarcasm only continued to wind up before f
ights. It was his best defense.

Thomas hoped that Charles was able to clear a path like he had asked to the Grand Ballroom. He had given Charles a series of odd tasks. Some were to allow different races access and some were to clear a path to Penny’s grandmother.

Thomas j
umped in through the stained glass window. Charles had removed the first obstacle. He could smell the fight, which meant the second obstacle, a hindrance to vampire senses, had been removed.
He also caught the scent of banshees. He wanted to stop breathing, but he needed his sense of smell for his rescue mission.
Thomas never was able to get over how he felt about blood now. Even though it made him hungry, it still made him a little woozy. He felt dirty for liking it so much.

The house shook violently. The
djinn was
causing an earthquake. Thomas cursed the foul djinn as a couple windows collapsed and carefully lain plans shattered to the ground. Thomas would have to fight his way to Penny’s grandmother now.

Thomas gritted and bared his teeth.  He ran full force through a wall and grabbed two of the humans on the other side and slammed them back through the wall. Without waiting for even a second, Thomas tore on to the other humans in the room. In about ten seconds, fifteen humans lay dead. Thomas clim
b
ed up the stairs in the middle of the room
leading up to the ceiling
. At least he could still smell and hear. He could smell blood that was similar to Penny’s. He assume
d that it was her grandmother and s
he wasn’t far away.