Time Traveler HOVA Meets the Vampire Nicholai Cage: Tides of War

Time Traveler HOVA: Tides of War - III

I used to hang for Tyrell at the Nostrand Lot.  It was an empty patch of grass behind Mercy.  A quick hop over the fence and you can chill without too much harassment.  As soon as the weather turned remotely nice, the police had issue with anyone in the parks that wasn't under three feet.  At Nostrand, they flew by and wouldn't see you, as long as you laid low next to the brick building.  The grass would get high enough and no one could see you 'transacting'.  Things would be chill for the most part.

Tyrell and I are tight.  He is not a brother by blood, but we acted as if he were.  He is my silent partner.  Shit, he so silent, most don't even know that we acquaintances.  But whatever I need, Tyrell is there.  I trust him more than some that invoke blood relation.

"Shawn?"

"Yeah."

I heard him coming up the grass.  It was cold tonight.  The wind over the city was high enough where you couldn't feel it, but it would dampen the noise, and you sure as hell felt it.  The skies were clear as a response.  The only sounds were occasional pans clanging around on the other side of the brick wall.  A Chinese joint was the first store on the strip behind me.

"Shit it is cold."  I grunted affirmatively.  I kept my back to the wall and kept my arms crossed.  It was the only way to stay warm.  "What you up to tonight?" he said as he sadled up next to me against the wall.

I told him I was taking a break from the album.  In reality, I was still working on simultaneous statements for Physics 420.  One was based on elementary particles, another on Monte-Carlo simulation, and the last was theoretical, a study of Novikov self-consistency principles.  It wasn't like I couldn't tell Tyrell: I trusted the man with my life.  He just wouldn't understand my singular passion.

I knew time travel was going to happen for me since I learned to walk.  Somehow I've always known the possibilities.  It was only about harnessing the power that surrounded us that I could achieve it.  "What about you, Tyrell?"

He had pulled out some cigarettes.  I welcomed one only because of the chill.  "Went down to visit a cousin out in the Bronx.  See my auntie,"  he chuckled.  "Hung out with a old guy, my mom's uncle's cousin or some shit: on the Spanish side.  This guy was tripping.  Talking all about some crazy demons he used to have to deal with when he lived on the islands.  They would come out of the trees on some nights.  It took all the men to deal with them.  But, like, I didn't understand this part, like the demons were shadows or some shit like that.  It was a trip."

"Anyone ever die from them?"

Tyrell laughed out loud, "You don't believe him do you?"

I took a long drag on the cigarette.  "Just because we can't see shit everyday doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  Demons?  I don't know.  Men do some evil shit in this world.  I keep an eye out on those [men] then I care to see...what he say?  Shadows."

I can feel Tyrell smiling at me, "Shawn, you crazy."

"Not as crazy as your damn mom's uncle's fiancee's dog, what you'd say?"  We both laughed.  Tyrell looked up at the sky.  I thought he said to himself stars.  I looked at them too.  But I saw them and tried to piece together Hubble's equation.  I'm pretty sure I'd get tested on that one this year.  We shined off another cig and called it a night.

...

I sat with my back to the castle's large brick base, my leather jacket felt impossibly thin tonight.  The stench of rot drifted up to me once or twice, but the cold would dampen it again.  It was night now.  The moon was full, but only dappled light found its way through the trees.  I was still in the trap.  My anger had died away hours ago.

I didn't curse the situation too long: why do that?  I put my trust in Czage, but, one mistake I made was not reading the note he gave to himself.  Who the fuck knows what he said?  They were plotting something up there in that keep.  Vampires seem to take a lot of time doing just that.

During the last light of day, I counted to get a good sense of the mass before me (and to pass the time, I admit): I came closer to a count of at least four hundred and eighty.  There were old ladies, children, animals, all in this pile.  Why would Nikolai send me here?  The obvious was to ensnare me: it gives him time to think.

The keep was behind me, and a sheer cliff to my front.  I could go the same way I came in, but, with the improved sight of the vampires that surely surrounded me, I'd be dead quickly.  I did understand the spot from a strategic point: the steep side of the keep from here wouldn't allow a passive check of this area.  I assume that this spot, where they dump their prey, would be rarely checked at all.  That's what I first thought until the day went on with no sign of Nikolai.

A growl broke my thoughts.  Slowly and as silently as I could, I crawled over into a dark patch of shadow to my right, keeping the wall close behind me.  I got on my feet, better to die like a man.  More growls: wolves, I imagine.  They sounded about as large as dogs, rustling in the brush like they were.  They were picking and fighting over the human offal in the large pit.

My recourse is to be quiet and hope they fill up on the dead.  I did take out a few weapons - but there's not much, realistically speaking, to do if a pack of anything attacks in the dark.

There was a sound, as if the wind was focused in certain parts of the woods.  The wolves spooked, their footfalls on alert.  A group of them yelped and I could hear the noise of them die away into the distance.  Now what?

Out of the darkness, out of the trees, shadows of men came out of the woods and surrounded me.  I could see four, but I would be stupid to think there were not more.  My voice was only shaky because of the hours spent without warmth or water, "Where's Nikolai?".

The answer was a surprisingly warm voice, "We do not answer to Nikolai.  We answer to Stephan Uros, King of Serbia.  Your situation is very grave, Nubian slave."  He stepped into the moonlight and I could see his fanged teeth.  I slipped my weapons away, but punched the man as hard as I could.

"I am slave to no man."  The shadows attacked en masse, and the world flipped.  I felt claws and teeth all over.  I made peace with the sky right before the world went dark.

...