All that I understood in the instant of drawing and thrusting with the knife, my movement too fast to stop. The vampire screamed and leaped back from me, blood pouring from his side.
The knife had...hurt it. I allowed myself only that one fleeting thought. I thrust the knife up, past my head. A meaty thunk and another scream rewarded me.
The vampire on my right arm gathered himself to lunge at me, fangs first. I swept down with the knife and caught him along the face with the edge. The vampire fell back, clutching at the blood pouring from his face. He retained a grip on my arm with one hand.
It was my turn to scream as I felt the elbow of my right arm dislocate. The stake dropped from my now useless hand and rolled across the floor.
Another pain spiked in the inside of my left thigh as the fourth vampire bit and tore. Ignoring the pain in my right arm, I pushed myself up to a sitting position and drove the knife into the skull of the vampire chewing on my leg. Blood was spreading. A lot of blood. My blood.
I heard somebody shouting, but I could not identify the voice.
I left the knife in the vampire's head and pressed hard against the wound in my leg. Bleeding. A lot. I had minutes and few of those. That was a lot of blood and even if the one vampire was dead, I still had three wounded vampires to deal with.
My right arm was useless. I let go of my wound to fumble for the pistol left handed. Awkward, but I managed to draw it. I lifted, pointing at the nearest moving vampire.
The gun fell from fingers that could not seem to manage the weight.
Hands, not my own, picked up the gun, pointed it.
"H-head shots," I managed to say. "Keeps...keeps them...down...longer."
The gun roared.
With enormous effort, I dragged my knife from the head of the vampire across my legs. Somehow I managed to roll to my stomach. The vampire that had held my head was writhing on the floor, screaming.
"Dani?" I heard a voice. Liz?
"If they move, shoot them again. If you can get a stake into them..." I dragged myself forward.
"Dani, you need an ambulance."
I pulled myself still closer to the screaming vampire. "No time."
"Dani!"
"Keep them down. Shoot them." I reached the vampire. I had one chance.
With a molasses-slow motion I drew the edge of the knife across the vampire's wrist. I fastened my lips on the wound. Vampire blood poured into my mouth. Pain exploded through me and I lost all other sensation.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The first thing I noticed when I regained my senses was screaming.
"What are you doing!"
"That's what you have to do with vampires." I recognized the voice as belonging to Liz. "Does Grandma have any garlic?"
I opened my eyes and sat up. The vampires, all four of them, lay on their backs, their necks severed. Blood covered the floor of the hallway. Liz sat next to one of the bodies. Liz's clothes were positively soaked with blood. She held my dagger in her hand.
Belinda stood in the doorway of her apartment at the edge of the pool of blood. She lifted her foot forward as though to take a step onto the blood, but she pulled her foot back.
"You get back in here, young lady."
"Garlic, Mom, and a sewing kit." Liz poked at one of the bodies with the knife. "We have to make sure these things don't come back."
"Where did you learn that?"
"Probably from watching me," I said.
Belinda whirled at the sound of my voice. "You! You...monster! I saw you. You're one of them. You do not have permission to enter."
"No, I'm not a vampire. And if I were, the bit about 'needing permission to enter' is pure fiction. I'm dhampyre. It's different."
"How is it different!" Belinda threw her hands up in the air. "You drank that thing's blood!"
For all her shrillness, Belinda was the least of my problems. I saw at least one door down the hall cracked open. As I watched, it slammed closed.
I got to my feet. Still a little wobbly but I knew that would pass soon.
"We need to get out of here. This place is not safe, not anymore."
"I'm not going anywhere. You tell James that..."
"I don't have time for this." I looked her in the eyes and Pushed. Even fresh off vampire blood, the Push took a lot out of me. I'd pay for it later with the mother and father of headaches. "We...need...to...leave."
She nodded.
Liz stood. "What about Grandma?"
I shook my head, to clear it rather than negation. "Your grandmother?"
"She'll be back soon." Liz waved down at the bodies. "She's gonna freak out."
I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead and rubbed. "Right. Okay, we'll wait at the bottom of the stairs. Snag her when she gets back." I looked over my shoulder at Liz's mother, standing docilely in the doorway. "We'll leave your mother in the car."
"What did you do? Is she all right?"
"Think of it like a very strong tranquilizer. She'll be fine."
I stooped to pick up Ware's gun from where Liz had dropped it. I popped the magazine and glanced down at it. Between five and ten rounds left. I tucked the magazine in the pouch on the shoulder rig and replaced it with a full one, then holstered the gun. I held out a hand to Liz and she passed back my knife.
I took a moment to look at it. Steel. Good quality steel, true, but steel nevertheless. How could it harm vampires, not just harm them but to do so more effectively than silver? I looked down at the vampires. Pale, newly turned, but even newly turned vampires could ignore steel.
I shrugged and returned the knife to its sheath. Time to worry about the "whys" later.
More "whys" came to mind and I pulled out my phone and dialed.
"Detective Sergeant James Ware."
"James, it's Dani. Your family is safe."
"Thank God. Any problems?"
"I got the vampires before they could do any damage, but...it's a mess. I'm pretty sure local police are on the way. And James? This had to be for a reason, to draw me away from Indianapolis."
"I agree. You need to get back here as fast as you can."
"Will do. I'll be bringing your daughter, your ex, and her mother with me."
"Uh..."
"Not a lot of choice. This place is compromised and since I can't be in both places, unless you can get other people here prepared to deal with vampires..."
"Jan and Don are both tied up with the earlier find. They'll be doing paperwork until late in the evening. I've got the conference with the mayor and..."
"Wait a minute, a conference tonight?" While Ware had mentioned it earlier the timing jumped out at me now. "And I'm up here?"
"Shit, do you think...?"
"They left that vampire for me to find for a reason. They may not have told him the reason but they had one." I shook my head.
"Maybe we shouldn't have..."
"Don't say that, James. Don't even think it. There were four vampires here. You think they would have left your family alone if I hadn't come? We didn't have a choice. Best I can do is get back there as fast as I can."
"All right. All right. You sure they're okay?"
I looked at Liz who gave me a thumbs up. "Better than all right in your daughter's case. Look, I'm hearing sirens, so I've got to get out of here."
"All right. Take care."
"You too." I hesitated, a thought occurring to me. "And James? You might want to take Mary with you."
"Mary?"
"Yeah. As freely as these things have been using Push, well, for whatever reason, she seems to be immune. That might come in handy."
"All right. I'll have Tommy bring her by."
"Good. Talk to you later." I hung up the phone.
I looked at Belinda. "We have to go."
"What? Oh, yes, go. Okay."
"Come on," I said to Liz and started for the stairs.
I swore softly as I ran down the stairs, wondering what I would do if I ran into any local police. I'd already ha
ve to pay for the amount of Push I'd used. If there were more than a couple of officers, I wouldn't have enough left to stop them from arresting us, not covered in blood as we were.
I reached the ground floor without incident and peeked out the doorway while waiting for Liz and Belinda to catch up. No sign of activity and none of the blue and red flashing lights that would indicate police cruisers out front. I thanked God for slow police response times.
Liz reached me first. I held her back with one hand while waiting for Belinda. When Belinda had reached us, her formerly immaculate shoes stained with red from tromping through the pool of blood, I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
As I was attempting to go out the front door, I almost collided with a woman coming in. I managed to stop before knocking her off her feet. She stopped as well, her eyes flicking down to note my appearance, then her hand rose to her mouth as she drew in a breath to scream.
I took in her appearance in an instant. A couple inches shorter than me. Trim frame with graying hair. A well-preserved late fifties was my guess. She wore a dress in a dark blue-gray that hung nearly to her ankles. A lighter blue shawl wrapped her shoulders.
I could only imagine what she made of my appearance, covered as I was in blood—both my own and that of the vampires.
"Grandma!" Liz's voice came from behind me.
The woman jerked, her scream cut off before it could form. "What?"
"We gotta go, Grandma," Liz said. "Vampires!"
"Child what are you...where did all the...you're covered in..."
"Vampires!" Liz said urgently. "We...have...to...go."
I bit my lip and spoke, putting as little Push behind my words as I dared. "She's telling the truth. Vampires are real, and they've targeted your family. We have to leave. It's not safe here."
"Vampires? My word. Who would have thought?"
"Please." I pointed an open hand. "My car's over here."
"That's dad's car," Liz said.
"He let me use it." I started down the steps. "Now let's go."
The three people followed me. I wasn't sure that they would, at least, not the grandmother. I had not put much Push behind my words.
"Get in." I circled round to the driver's side.
Liz got in the front passenger seat. Belinda and her mother got in the back. Once everybody had their seat belts fastened in, I pulled out and drove away at a nice, sedate, legal speed. Now if nobody noticed the blood on my shirt or in my hair as we drove away, we would be fine.
We reached the interstate without incident. Once past the immediate danger I had some time to think. One thing bothered me. As remarkable a young lady as Liz was, she had seemed remarkably calm and effective in dealing with four wounded vampires. I had hoped that she would be able to use the silver-tipped bullets to keep them out of action until I recovered from the healing process. Instead, she had taken their heads and was demanding the materials needed to finish killing the vampires.
That was far more than I would expect out of a girl her age, not one with no previous experience, or even training, in dealing with vampires.
Before I could follow up the thought my phone rang. I saw Ware's number on the screen.
"Dani. What's up, James?"
"Dani, it's Mary." Her voice was a whisper.
"Mary? What happened to James."
"They're here. Oh, God, I'm so scared. They're here. Not just the ones at the party, but a mess of 'em."
"All right, Mary. All right. What happened to James?"
At my side, Liz was looking at me intently.
"One o' them looked at him and he just froze."
"Damn," I said softly, then louder. "Where are you? Are you safe?"
"I's in a closet. Alla them things, they's out in the theater place. Tommy, oh, Lordy. Tommy..."
"Tommy what?"
"When we got here, he opened the side door and he let 'em in. Those things, they got him, didn't they?"
I swore again. "Looks like it."
Tommy, I thought. The computer guy from the department. That would explain so much. Why he suddenly started believing in vampires. Why he was able to find the office park. Where Ware's family holed up. The whole thing was a setup to get me out of town with new-made vampires left as sacrifices for no other purpose than to lure me away. They couldn't even just rely on numbers to overpower me. Was I that much of a threat to them?
"Okay, Mary, you stay put. I'm on my way."
"Judy says...Judy says if we stay real quiet they might not notice us, not when they're busy with...the others."
"Judy's right." I pushed my foot to the floor. The Crown Victoria picked up speed. The top number on the speedometer was one fifty. I was going to see if the car could do it. "You hang in there. I'll get you out of this.
"Not goin' nowheres."
"Okay. Hang up the phone. No noise."
"Buh...buh...bye."
I hung up before seeing if she did.
I noticed Liz staring at me, her expression intent.
No.
"Liz, can you switch on the radio?" I put a slight push behind my words.
The push bounced off.
Liz's head snapped around to stare at me. Her hand darted for her waist.
I am stronger than a woman my size, faster than any human, but a moment's indecision almost did me in. Liz drew one of the silver-treated knives free and stabbed me in the side. The blade had sunk in an inch before I was able to grab her wrist and wrench it away from me. She twisted her hand in my grip, laying another cut on my forearm.
I hit the brakes, hard. The tires shrieked. The car fishtailed. Liz's head snapped forward as her body slammed against the seatbelt. The impact knocked the wind out of her for a moment and I used that moment to pry the knife out of her hands and drop it in the footwell.
I moved my foot back to the gas while reaching across and grabbing Liz by the collar and twisting.
"What are you doing!" Liz's grandma shouted. "Help! Anybody!"
"Pipe down!" I said, with as much Push as I could muster. My head was already starting to throb. My side and my arm burned.
I twisted harder at Liz's collar. I did not want to hurt her, but I couldn't have her attacking me while I was trying to drive the car. A blood strangle was the gentlest way I had to deal with her. She grabbed at my arm, tugging at it. Over the next few seconds her struggles weakened, then ceased. I held my grip for just a bit longer, to make sure she was out, then released it. A quick check by feel told me that she was still breathing, her pulse still strong.
She would not be out long, not from a short strangle like that, but perhaps long enough for me to find a spot to pull over and bind her so she'd stay out of the way.
Once I got the car pulled over, I popped the trunk thinking that since Ware was a cop he might carry some useful gear. As luck would have it, he had several pairs of plastic zip-cuffs.
I secured Liz in her seat, hands and feet bound so she could not interfere with my driving. I didn't want to hurt her and just hoped she'd forgive me once she was no longer under vampiric influence.
Back on the road I considered my options. The car had several extra controls on the dash, including a two-way radio that I did not touch. One switch looked promising. I flipped it.
Blue and white lights flashed out from behind the grill in the front and out the back of the car.
I hit the gas again as cars started moving out of my way on the highway. I had no idea how other police would react when I encountered them but decided to worry about that if it happened.
The needle crept upward stopping at about 120 MPH. I gritted my teeth. It would still take over an hour to get back to the City Center and James.
Would anybody still be alive?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Strangely, the entire run down I69, I did not encounter a single police officer. When I slowed to make the turnoff to Four Sixty-Five I encountered the first other police car, also running lights, heading the same way I was, although
not as fast. I left him behind as I continued my run to Sixty-Five and then slowing to leave the interstate and head downtown.
"D...Dani?"
I spared a quick glance to Liz, then turned my attention back to my driving.
Liz tugged at her arms. "Why am I...?"
"What do you remember?" I turned down Pennsylvania Street.
"I...don't." She paused. "Oh. Dani, I am so sorry. I couldn't stop myself."
I nodded while weaving to avoid a car that thought police lights didn't apply to him. "I call it 'Push'. Vampire mind control. Sorry about leaving you tied up, but it might still be lingering in there."
"Oh, God. Does that mean I'll always...?"
I slowed. We were near the city center and I could see the roadblock up ahead. I spared a second to flash Liz a smile. As we neared the downtown area I could feel the presence of vampires. As if there were any doubt.
"It wears off with time. Sufficiently strong emotion can break it. Or..."
"Or?" Her voice was pleading.
"Or it will break when I kill the bastard that applied it."
She managed a weak smile. "Stake one for me."
I reached across the car and gave her bound hands a small squeeze. "Count on it."
I stopped short of the barricades. Several news trucks were parked outside the cordoned off area with newsmen facing into cameras, with the bustle of police activity providing a backdrop to their reporting.
This was where it was going to be tricky. I'd driven up in a police car. Unmarked, perhaps, but with lights blazing it could be nothing else. I wasn't a cop. They were going to have questions and I did not have much Push left, enough for light influence on one, maybe two people. Not enough to get past that horde of police.
I cast a quick look into the back seat. Both Belinda and her mother would remain docile for some time yet. I could safely leave them there.
I shut off the lights, then the engine. Nothing for it but to face the music. I stepped out and walked toward the barricade.
As I neared the obstacle, the uniformed police officer standing behind it held up a hand. "Step back, ma'am."
"I'm Dani Herzeg, working with Sergeant James Ware on this case."
The Unmasking (Dhampyre the Hunter Book 1) Page 20
