“Draven, get me the two pouches, please.”
He zipped inside and was back outside in seconds. He carried two closed pouches and put them on the table.
“No, don’t tell me what I think is in there!” Ray remarked with a wicked grin.
“Yup, it’s the gray powder I used nearly three hundred years ago.”
He looked at the pouches. “Isn’t two pouches overkill?”
“Not in my eyes,” Maryl said sternly.
“And it will just target the A’s and B’s out there, right?” Ray asked with concern.
“Of course, Ray. However, I must warn you I’ve perfected the powder over the centuries. It has become so precise, it can target any blood type, whether it be A, B’s, or even O’s. And it won’t matter if the blood types are negative or positive because I have powder for them as well.”
Ray’s smile turned upside down. “How is it, Maryl, that you possess technology far more advanced than the other blood type vampires, even Clayton’s? What is your secret, because that fact worries me a great deal. I won’t have any warning should you attack my blood,” Ray cautioned. “Tell me you won’t attack my troops, Maryl.”
Maryl went to him. “I promise, on my life, I will not target your troops. We are blood family, Ray!”
“Okay,” Ray said with a smile. “But you still haven’t told me how you have so much technology at your disposal. Do you have an Einstein working for you?”
Maryl patted Ray’s hands and grinned warmly. “It’s my secret. If I told you, then I would have to force you to eat human food, then drain your blood, and lastly, throw you over the side of the steep hills that surround my estate.”
Ray started to laugh until he noticed she was serious.
Maryl turned around. “Alexa, Draven! Untie the pouches, and then load the pouches into the shoulder-fired missiles as I showed you earlier!” Maryl commanded.
“Do I get to shoot one of them?” Draven asked with childish delight.
“No. That honor goes to Ray.” She turned to him. “Would you like that, Ray?”
Ray quickly stood up. “Hell yeah!”
He took one of the loaded shoulder-fired missiles from Draven’s saddened face, went to the lattice guardrail, and knelt. He raised the gun high in the air, took careful aim, and fired. The bag flew directly overhead the prisoners and released the powder, and fell harmlessly to the ground.
“Hand me the other one,” Ray told Alexa.
He repeated the process.
The powder was so fine; it looked like a gray mist was raining down. The haze blanketed the helpless prisoners. Immediately, all of them were vomiting blood. In their weakened state, it did not take long for them to convulse and die.
The crowd was speechless at first; then, they erupted into a joyous chorus of cheers.
Maryl walked beside Ray, took his arm, and with her arm, raised both of them in solidarity.
The singing of praises was deafening.
Ray whispered so softly, not even the vampires in the vicinity could hear him. “You scare the hell out of me, Maryl Rosser.”
“As you should be,” she whispered back.
Maryl walked back to her chair and sat down. Ray followed.
“I have a troubling question for you, Maryl,” Ray said as he looked at his fingernails.
“Really? What is it?”
He looked up and stared at Maryl before speaking. “If you have the gray powder, why do you need my troops and me?”
“This is war, Ray! Clayton’s offensive scheme of converting everyone’s blood type to his and his cousin's tribe, has to be stopped using all means necessary. You and your army are invaluable to help prevent his illusion of greatness. Besides, while I have a great deal of the gray mist in stock, I don’t have enough to get rid of all of the treacherous A’s and B’s.”
“When do you want to leave?” Ray asked.
“Now would be a good time.”
“Alexa, bring me a whole bottle of your blood wine. I think I’m going to need it,” Ray said as he stood up.
Alexa came back in seconds and gave Ray a green bottle with a long neck.
“Don’t drink it too fast, Ray. You’re liable to get drunk,” Maryl warned him.
“The conflict we’re about to engage in, my goal is to get drunk.”
Maryl took the bottle from Ray before he was able to open it. “I will keep this to celebrate after we are victorious. I trust you have adequate provisions?”
“Aye, we have plenty of blood!”
“Then let’s go!”
Ray got up and faced Maryl. “Yes, let’s strike down our enemies!”
Both Maryl and Ray marched down the stairs and faced the enormous crowd.
“Prepare for battle!” Ray yelled as he raised his fist high in the air.
“One thing!” Maryl yelled to the enormous crowd. “They can smell just as good as we can! We want to take them by surprise, so keep all of your windows in your vehicles up!”
Ray looked at his group of blood types. “You heard the lady!”
Roars erupted as Ray’s soldiers ran back into their respective vehicles.
“Ray, I want you to ride with me. Alexa will drive, and Draven will take the front passenger seat. I want to talk to you in the backseat.” Maryl whistled a high piercing sound, and then yelled, “O negatives, get in your cars and follow me!”
A few miles from Maryl’s property, Maryl looked out the back window. She saw vehicles of every shape, year, and size that stretched for miles.
She turned around and watched Ray as he studied the paperwork she had given him.
“If I understand this correctly, Maryl, Octavus the Brooder, who is A negative, is hosting a small party? And we’re going to crash it?”
“That is correct.”
“How far out do we have to be for them not to smell us?”
“If you read my report, you would know we need to be at least four miles from them, depending on the direction of the wind.”
“Four miles it is then. I don’t want any surprises. Run through our game plan one more time?’
Maryl sighed. Ray was a brute, didn’t listen, and had clothes that smelled as if they had not been washed in
