Vampire Korps of the Gestapo Ch. 03

Koch said, "Hurry up, let's get inside. What are you doing?"

"I want Monika Fuchsmach's panties for a souvenir."

Koch smirked. "You trot those out in the officers mess and everybody will accuse you of wearing them. Anyway we've got photographs as a souvenir, Siegfried, I took some great shots. Nobody will be able to deny that's the real Monika Fuchsmach naked."

"And acting like a real whore. You were absolutely right, she was worth the wait."

"I'm always right. I'll bet there's lots more fun and games yet, it's not even midnight." He produced Hex's .45 from his jacket pocket to show his friend. "Now here's a souvenir, Siegfried, a chrome-plated Colt automatic from the United States." He asked Hex, "By the way, Erika gave you quite a going over. How was she?"

He'd endured worse sacrifices for his cause. Hex grunted, "Nice."

"It was nice of her to zip your trousers back since your hands are tied, neither one of us could have helped you there." Koch gestured at him with the .45 and chuckled, "If you can still walk now's the time to do it."

As they neared the porch shouting and screams came from inside the lodge. Trommler hurried ahead of them and entered. Hex walked quickly too when he heard Monika's cries of pain.

The colonel was the one doing the shouting. "You best keep still, you tramp! Erika, hold her hands down."

Through the open door a sharp crack sounded, like a small caliber pistol.

"Ow!" Monika screamed, "Stop!"

"What the hell?" said Koch, jabbing Hex in the back with the gun to rush him along.

Hex needed no urging. When he got to the entrance he saw a big front room with a staircase, antlers mounted on the paneling, furnished with mahogany tables along the walls and several easy chairs and a couch arranged in front of the fireplace. Von Schitt had a struggling Monika bent over the arm of a chair lashing her bottom with a riding crop. Two or three welts crisscrossed her squirming cheeks. With her strength Erika had no problem keeping her hands from interfering with the whipping. Monika's legs kicked and threshed so frantically however von Schitt couldn't control them and wield the switch at the same time, supernaturally strong or not.

Trommler went over to assist when the colonel beckoned with an angry jerk of her head.

"You want me to hold her ankles?" he asked.

"If you please," she said as if addressing a child.

Koch pushed Hex into an easy chair, but instead of standing behind him with the .45 to the back of his head, he stood beside him. In the excitement Koch postponed or forgot about retying Hex's feet together. Von Schitt was too involved with Monika to notice Hex had walked into the room under his own power.

Trommler got on his knees and managed to get a hand on each of Monika's ankles. He effortlessly held her legs still but found his head in the path of the riding crop. Von Schitt got in another lash or two but Monika still fought.

"This is too damned awkward," the colonel bitched, "Get out of the way, Trommler. Find something to tie the girl's ankles with!"

Koch didn't leave Hex's side but watched the proceedings with interest. He occasionally gave Hex a sideways glance, the .45 still in his hand. Trommler located a spool of twine on top of a nearby table. He rushed back to the colonel, held out the spool.

She didn't take it. "What am I supposed to do, bite pieces of it off?"

"I have a knife, colonel."

"Good," she said, "then start cutting some lengths."

Erika said, "I think this would work out better if we put her face down over the back of the chair instead of the arm. We can tie her hands and feet to each leg of the chair."

"Good idea. Cut two pieces for me, Siegfried, then hold the little slut's hands still while Erika and I fasten her feet down."

When Trommler finished cutting the twine von Schitt took the two lengths from him, gave one to Erika. They knelt out of Hex's sight behind the chair. "I'm not going to tell you to hold still again," he heard the baroness say to Monika. She ceased thrashing about.

"Sieg, toss me the twine" Koch said.

He pitched the spool underhanded across to Koch and asked, "You need the knife?"

"No, I have the Inspekteur's switchblade."

Koch set the twine on the arm of the chair in which Hex sat, put his hand in his pocket for his knife. He flicked open the blade and absent-mindedly set the .45 on the arm of the chair where he'd placed the spool. He cut a length and dropped the spool on the floor, bent over Hex's feet.

He said, "Be so kind as to cross your ankles."

When he started to cut a length of twine was the moment Hex finished cutting through the stocking with the straight razor. No one had their eyes on him temporarily, all their attention focused elsewhere. Hex reached for the pistol with plenty of time. With one finger he spun it around on the arm of the chair in order to grasp the gun butt. It would have to be a left-handed shot but at point blank range that made no difference.

Koch had murdered Hoffner and abused Monika before his eyes so Hex had no compunction shooting him in cold blood. Had that not been the case he still would have killed the man to escape the clutches of von Schitt and her crew.

Koch said, "Would you keep your damn feet together."

They were to be the young major's last words. He glanced at Hex and saw the .45 pointed at him. His face went white and Hex could see the fear written in his eyes before he fired a shot through the man's forehead. The large bore bullet knocked him violently backward. Koch lay on his back with his forelegs under his body, the back of his head sprayed all over the floor.

Hex had his every next move planned out mentally beforehand. He shifted the pistol to his right hand as he leapt to his feet. The roar of the gun froze everybody in the room. Trommler twisted his head around and saw him armed and free. His jaw dropped and his hand darted toward his holstered Luger.

Von Schitt yelled from behind the chair, "What the hell are you doing, Koch?"

Monika saw Hex standing over the grisly corpse. She let out a bloodcurdling scream. Without hesitation Hex punctuated Monika's shriek with a second shot that struck Trommler in the chest. He pitched to the floor, hands pawing impotently at his wound. Erika jumped up before von Schitt because she'd been the first of them to start securing Monika's ankles. Hex already had the pistol up, readying his next shot. Erika should have gone flat on the floor, but maybe like von Schitt she concluded Koch was the one doing all the shooting. She had no reason to think the captive slipped his bonds and got loose.

Foolishly she exposed her position and now stood in a line of fire.

Since he and she were separated by a distance of four meters Erika knew she didn't have time to reach him. She had no choice except trying to shoot him. Before she could draw her pistol Hex's spoke a third time. A red dot appeared between her breasts and Hex knew he'd gotten her through the heart. Her vampire strength precluded her being knocked down. Discharging a .45 indoors produces a racket akin to an explosion. Before the echoing wave of noise dispersed the goon girl had time to gaze down in disbelief at her chest and look back at her killer. Erika took a couple of faltering steps before slumping lifeless behind the chair, the silver round having done its work.

Baroness Ingrid von Schitt, commanding colonel of the Vampire Korps, witnessed one of her own goon girls slain on the field of battle.

Desperately she shouted to Hex, "I've got the barrel of my gun stuck up this bitch's arse. She's dead meat if you don't drop your weapon. I better hear it hit the ground now, you motherfucker!"

Her words bordered on hysteria.

The stench of cordite and the coppery smell of viscera hung in the air of the room. Monika wept pitifully. Hex's bare feet made no sound on the hardwood floor as he used the various pieces of furniture scattered near the fireplace as cover. He edged around until he could see von Schitt.

Indeed she had her Luger where she'd claimed.

She saw his gun confidently, unflinchingly aimed at her head. The baroness knew the man doing the shooting to be a crack shot to drop three trained, armed Nazi soldiers with as many rounds, knew that pistol held silver loads capable of killing vampires, knew a .45 clip held seven cartridges, eight if he had one jacked in the pipe.

And the son of a bitch had at least four more chances to put her down.

Her hysterical voice fell to a whisper, "I'll kill her, I mean it."

"I know you mean it," he said calmly.

"Then drop that gun."

"The way it works is if you shoot the girl, I shoot you."

"Are you telling me she doesn't mean anything to you?"

"I'm not saying that, von Schitt. What I'm saying is you're placing an awfully high value on a woman I barely know," he lied.

Monika wailed.

Hex warned, "Monika, don't make a sound if you don't want her to pull the trigger accidentally."

Von Schitt said, "He's right, you sniveling bitch, shut up."

Monika choked back one last sob and became very quiet and still. Hex thought maybe she'd fainted.

"So the girl means nothing to you?" asked von Schitt.

"I won't let you use her as a bargaining chip. But I am willing to make a deal."

Von Schitt asked suspiciously, "What kind of deal?"

"I'll let you walk away, all you have to do is leave the girl out of it. Let her live, let it be between you and me."

"Right, the second I make a move to let her out of harm's way you'll shoot me like a pig in a slaughterhouse."

"You have my word, I will point my gun at the floor when you make your move to spare Monika. Her ass alive means more to me than your ass dead." Hex recalled saying something similar to Odell Yell a few hours ago.

"How can I take your word for anything? You just shot three people dead. You probably killed my other two girls with your bow and arrow."

"I have news for you, all four of your Vampire Korps goon girls at the Oktoberfest tonight are dead. And I only killed one of them, just now."

The colonel knew the truth when she heard it. "Who killed the other three?"

"A very brave man from south Africa by the name of Odell Yell. He gave his life killing the third one."

"Odell Yell is one of Monika's lovers," the colonel said.

"That's not what he told me. Do you believe everything you read?"

"How did you get loose anyway?"

"You shouldn't leave straight razors lying around, baroness."

Von Schitt swore. "Who are you, mein herr?"

"My name is Ryan. I'm sure a vampire like you knows the existence of the Raven Cadre."

She gasped, "Gott in Himmel! You're Ryan Hex?"

"And you're Ingrid von Schmitt, widower of Baron Rudolph von Schmitt of Dresden and by my reckoning you're a seventy year old vampire who doesn't look a day over thirty."

"Your facts are almost correct, actually I'm only sixty four---"

"Enough talk!" Hex shouted. He tempered his voice and stated quietly, evenly, "My arm's getting tired and when my arm gets tired my trigger finger has tendency to tighten. Now if you want to live to be sixty-five then you'd best make that deal."

"When I move my gun, you point yours at the floor?

"That's what I said."

"What if I shoot you?"

"You take your chances and I'll take mine. Don't forget I told I'd let you walk away."

"And I said I can't take your goddamn word for it."

"I gave my word to Vladimir Tarasov. I know you know him because I saw the two of you together in Prague last December. Surely he told you he once made an arrangement with Ryan Hex. After I had him in the sights of this same pistol."

"But you staked Count Arcos in Romania afterwards."

"That was our deal. He showed me where Arcos kept the coffin he slept in."

"Then that's why I can't hypnotize you even though I'm looking you in the eye."

"Vlad divulged that particular vampire secret to me, how a mere mortal can prevent having his mind overtaken. Now I said enough chat, I'm done talking. Make your deal."

The muscles in her throat moved as she swallowed nervously. "First point your gun at the ground."

"If you kill her I will have time to aim again and then you're one dead bitch. Don't forget and do something unintelligent."

"I'm going to keep my Luger aimed at her until I'm out the front door. You shoot me and I swear I'll have to time to kill her. She's not a moving target, she's tied up."

Hex lowered his gun. "Get your rancid ass out of here."

Maintaining eye contact with him the vampire colonel removed the barrel of her pistol hesitatingly from Monika with the greatest of care, slowly, deliberately, all the while keeping it trained in the direction of her body. The baroness stood up with infinite care and stepped backward toward the front of the lodge, her eyes on Hex every centimeter of the way.

But before von Schitt reached the door she vanished in thin air, her empty uniform falling in folds to the floor. It lay there like a heap of dirty laundry. Her Luger also fell, bouncing once on the polished wood, fortunately not discharging.

A bat flitted about briefly about the room close to the ceiling before soaring out the door.

Hex ran onto the porch and in the light cast outside from the room saw the bat winging its way into the pines. The .45 fired. The bat swooped and was lost in the night. He raced to Monika bent over the chair, picked Hoffner's knife off the floor to sever the twine binding. She had swooned while von Schitt and he negotiated. He carried her to the couch and set her down, pinching one of her earlobes until she regained consciousness. She cried out, jerking and fighting till she saw his face.

"Ryan!" she cried, "What happened?"

"No time for that now, Monika, we need to be on our way."

She sat up, unashamed of her nakedness, eyes searching the room. "Where's Ingrid?"

"She left like a bat out of hell."

"Did you kill her?"

Hex shook his head, took her by the hand and dragged her over to the pile of clothes on the floor.

"What is this?"

"That's what's left of Ingrid von Schitt. I want you to put them on, boots and all."

"That's her uniform."

He said emphatically, "We'll talk once we're in the car, start dressing right now."

Monika reached for the blouse of the uniform. Hex closed the front door and locked it after casting glances around from the porch, scouting the forest for signs of trouble. Not a soul in sight, but the vampire colonel might return at any second. He stalked across the big room to Koch's body. Working methodically, Hex retrieved his extra ammunition from Koch's jacket and his knife where it had fallen under the easy chair. He took possession of the dead man's firearm. Then he turned the deceased's pockets inside out, hunting a Mercedes key. When he didn't find one he wheeled to search Trommler's corpse and glimpsed the straight razor on the chair cushion in his peripheral vision. He tucked it away in his trenchcoat with the switchblade and .45 clips.

"I am not wearing her underclothes," Monika stated flatly, still in shock.

Hex doubted she'd ever seen anybody shot to death before, he wished she hadn't been put under circumstances where she did. In Trommler's jacket he found Monika's panties, wrapped them in the man's Luger and slid them across the floor to her.

"You don't have to, there's yours. Hang onto to that gun, we may need all the firepower we can get."

When von Schitt got to a telephone she'd have Nazis swarming through the woods and all the roads leading away from them.

Hex went through Trommler's pockets, finding nothing of value. He hoped like hell the key was still in the Mercedes' ignition. A cursory look at Monika revealed her going through the motions of dressing, like an automaton but making progress. He wrestled the jackboots from Trommler's feet and put them on. A trifle large but later he might need to tramp through some rocky ground and would regret doing it barefooted.

Finally he bent over to the body of the woman Erika who had raped him only ten minutes before he slew her. He just wanted her gun and didn't bother going through her pockets. After stowing her pistol in his trenchcoat he hustled over to Monika.

"Are you ready to move?"

"I think so," she mumbled. "Why do I have to dress like this? My clothes are in the car."

"We need to appear to be Nazis. Now here's the plan. I'm going out the door first, you stay here till I honk the car horn. When you hear it run for the car. Get in the front seat with me. Keep a gun in your hand and point it at anything that moves. You clear on the plan?"

"I think so," she repeated.

Before Hex got to the door he remembered the camera case, glanced around the room, saw it on a tabletop. As much as he hated wasting any more time he ripped the film out of every roll he found, exposing it to the light. He opened the camera and pried the metal roll from it, slung the destroyed film away from him and went to the door with his .45 back in his fist. On the porch nothing lurked to the right or left. He hurried to the Mercedes and yanked open the driver's door. When the light came on he saw the key, hopped in the seat and tapped the horn. Monika came running as he started the car and she jumped in.

Hex regretted not having time to ransack the hunting lodge. Had he found coffins there he'd know that was von Schitt's place to sleep. A small matter, he'd be back soon with a squad of his Raven Cadre to do what was necessary. He knew where to find the place.

Monika scrambled across the seat to be as close to him as she could. Still quaking with fear she wrapped her arms around his waist tightly and tried to press her body into his as if she could meld into him and become one. Poor kid!

Hex rammed the stickshift into gear, whipped the car smartly, tires throwing up dirt, rocks and pine cones in their wake. Then he started back down the trail.

TO BE CONTINUED...