A man screamed somewhere in the distance, and the sound of a shotgun firing repeatedly came from another direction. Nyla took an educated guess and figured one of the task force members was a goner, and the other would be soon enough.
Bobby screamed and ran to his mother. Both of them huddled together, shaking from head to toe.
“Do you have a basement?”
“No,” Maybelline answered.
“You two need to hide some place where they can’t break in through a window or door.”
“There’s a crawlspace. We can get to it through that closet there.” Maybelline nodded toward a closet door standing between the living and kitchen area. A shotgun hung on the wall next to it.
“Is the closet the only way in or out?”
“Yes.”
Nyla grabbed the shotgun and handed it to Bobby. “You two need to get in there. It appears that Daddy just came home,” she said as several thuds hit the ground surrounding the house, “and from the sound of it, he’s brought some buddies with him.”
Chapter Eighteen
PEEWEE’S BODY HIT the door of the cell hard enough to break the lock and send the set of bars careening open. The vampire had unknowingly allowed Jake the access he needed to reach the monster and send him back to hell where he belonged.
“Thanks,” he growled, stepping through the door and over the crumpled body of his cousin. He couldn’t check Peewee’s vitals until he cleared the area, so he didn’t waste any time on the fallen man. His weapons had been taken from him, and he wasn’t about to try looking for them. There were more vampires. He knew this without the women screaming nearby. He could feel them. Three newly-turned, bloodthirsty freaks.
The vampire who’d attacked Peewee watched Jake’s movements as he circled him, readying his hands for a fight. Jake recognized the vampire from the missing persons’ bulletin board, although he couldn’t recall his name. It didn’t matter. He was going to kill him in a moment.
“Silly little man,” the blond, mustached vamp with a mullet haircut said, “I’m a vampire. You can’t do nothin’ to me.”
Jake smiled, not bothering to correct the two-inch-shorter vamp on his reference to size. “Oh, I know what you are. I probably know more about your kind than you do, newbie. After all, I’ve killed plenty of you.”
The vampire’s eyes widened for a second before narrowing into small, dark slits. “If you caught us in the day, that could happen, but you’re helpless now, boy.”
Jake shook his head, once again getting the feeling he was on the hillbilly version of The Twilight Zone. He’d seen vampires in all shapes, shades, and sizes, but he’d never seen one with a mullet and southern twang. He wished he could say this was the first vamp he’d ever seen with missing teeth, but they were all there, strong and pearly-white, and he remembered for a fact that this particular missing person hadn’t had many teeth left in his picture.
“So, suck-face, did you decide to sell your soul for immortality or the dental plan?”
The vampire didn’t answer, choosing to run his tongue over his new teeth instead, seeming to enjoy the feel of them. “I must kill you now.”
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you.”
Jake had barely gotten the words out before the vampire rushed him, most likely thinking Jake wouldn’t know what hit him. Most non-vampires wouldn’t expect the quick burst of speed vamps could use against them, but Jake was a seasoned pro. He stepped aside before the vamp could plow into him, and instead the monster slipped in the puddle of sour-smelling urine pooled beneath and around Peewee’s body. A combination of the speed and the slippery floor sent the vampire skidding the entire length of the hall, out into the main area of the sheriff’s department.
The women’s screams had stopped so Jake assumed their deaths could not be prevented. Any second he would be swamped by three vampires, and the one whom he’d already met was going to be very pissed off. He quickly checked Peewee, feeling a pulse in his neck. In addition to the pulse, he found a Ruger GP-100 seven shot .327 Federal holstered at his side. It wouldn’t contain UV bullets, but unlike most revolvers, which only had six shots instead of seven, it was better than nothing.
Straightening up, he cocked his head to the side, trying to determine the vampires’ positions. He still sensed them, and not one of them was more than a few weeks turned. What was going on in Hicksville that would suddenly turn it into Vamp Central?
Shoving the questions aside for when he would actually have time to think them over, he took a step forward, nearly slipping in urine himself. “Remind me to rib you about this later, pissy-pants,” he said to his unconscious cousin as he straightened himself again and pressed forward. As he walked the length of the cell-filled hallway slowly and cautiously, he swept his eyes from side-to-side in search of anything he could use as a weapon.
He heard a horrible screeching sound as he neared the end of the hallway and felt the presence of one of the vampires fading. As he stepped out of the hallway, he came to an abrupt halt, momentarily shocked to see a leggy blonde in a red crop top and cutoff jeans impaling one of the vamps with a chair leg. The girl couldn’t be any older than nineteen at best, and she showed no fear, just an overabundance of pissed-off determination.
“I’m not alone after all,” Jake said to himself, scanning the room. Desks and chairs had been upturned all over the room. Apparently his helper had given them one hell of a fight.
While he was looking to the right, he sensed an approaching vampire to his left. Young, new, thirsty and female. He kicked out without looking, catching the brunette by surprise and sending her flying across the room.
He watched her land and quickly turned toward the first vampire he’d fought, who was now rushing toward him in another burst of speed. He chuckled to himself despite the danger and, once again, simply moved aside as the vampire lunged for him, allowing the vamp to run headfirst into the wall, momentarily stupefying himself. If the idiot wasn’t careful, which was exactly what Jake was hoping for, he was going to wear himself out quickly. The newly-turned didn’t have the same stamina as the older vamps. Fortunately for him and the girl, these jackasses didn’t seem to know it, or were too stupid to consider it.
No sooner had he completed that thought than the brunette rushed toward him in the same manner the mustached vamp had. This time, instead of moving aside, he rammed his fist into her face as she closed in on him. The force of the blow, combined with the speed at which she was going when he struck her, sent her flying in an arc and crashing into the opposite wall.
“Damn. Nice punch,” the young blonde said, stepping back from the vamp she’d staked with the chair leg.
“Pull the chair leg out.”
“What? Won’t that defeat the purpose?” she asked with the same country twang everyone else in Hicksville used before looking back at the vamp’s body. “Ain’t he supposed to be smoking or something?”
“Those are movie vampires. These are real ones, and he’s not dead, but he’s getting there. Pull the stake out to allow him to bleed out faster. That’s what’s killing him, not the stake in the heart itself.”
The girl’s mouth rounded into an O, then she nodded and gripped the broken off chair leg with both hands, grunting as she pulled it out.
Jake sensed the brunette and the other remaining vampire rising to their feet and refocused his attention on them. He now had one twelve feet in front of him and one six feet to his left. Common sense said to take out the closest one before worrying about the second, but there was another person in the room to think about, and either of the vampires could head for her in the blink of an eye.
“You did a good job, kid, but I think you need to get out of here now,” Jake called to the girl across the room, steadily flicking his eyes back and forth between the two vampires, waiting for one or both of them to make a move.
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere until these freaks are dead, and the name is Marilee,” the girl said. “Call me kid again and you might wind up plucking this chair leg out your butt before the night is through.”
Jake had to laugh at the girl’s spunk. Hell, she was a better partner than any of Peewee’s task force would have been, he conceded. “All right, Marilee, but watch out. They’re fast, they’re hungry, they have unbelievable strength, and they’re unpredictable.”
“I know. That bitch killed Luanne.”
The vamp she referred to turned her head, a pretty face despite her evil disposition, and smiled maliciously before saying, “You’ll be next, Marilee. I’ll drain you just like your grandparents were drained.”
Marilee’s face paled, and Jake felt his heart thud, wondering how he was going to fight off two vampires without adequate weapons and defend the girl if she was unconscious and an easy target. Fortunately, she didn’t faint. She visibly banked down her anguish and glared at the brunette vamp. “Go to hell, Peggy Sue. I didn’t like you when you were alive, and I’ll have no problem seeing you die twice.”
Peggy Sue grinned malevolently for only a split second before rushing Marilee. Although she’d managed to stake one of the bloodsuckers, Jake knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything against a speeding vamp. They moved in a blur, too quick for most people to see. He shot the gun, blowing a hole through the vamp’s chest seconds before she reached Marilee. It wasn’t a killing blow, of course, but it knocked her backward, giving Marilee a chance she wouldn’t have had otherwise.
The other vampire took advantage of the fact Jake’s attention was on the female and jumped him from the side, knocking him to the floor. As the mullet-topped vamp opened his mouth wide, angling toward his throat, Jake raised a knee to his groin. Vampire or not, he still had balls, and getting kneed in the groin hurt like hell for any kind of man. Add to the fact vampires tended to feel pain greater than regular humans, Jake felt pretty smug about the move, especially when the vampire howled in pain and paused in his attack long enough for Jake to shove him off him. Jake jumped to his feet before the vampire could do the same and shot him in the heart.
The sound of laughter pulled his attention to the female vamp, who was holding Marilee by the throat. The girl had fought hard, but in the end she was just a spunky girl. Now she was in deep trouble.
“Put her down, and when I say down, I don’t mean throw her across the room.”
“What are you going to do? Shoot me again?” The vampire’s eyes gleamed. “Bullets won’t kill us.”
“Yeah, but they still hurt like a bitch, don’t they?” He backed up as the male vampire stood, giving himself enough room so the man couldn’t easily jump him.
Marilee tried to speak, her voice coming out in small garbles. Her face was turning blue, the result of not enough oxygen. The longer he stood there, deciding what to do, the closer she came to death.
He trained the gun on Peggy Sue’s face and pulled the trigger twice, taking out her left eye and then the right. The vampiress screamed, dropping Marilee as her hands flew to her bloody eye sockets.
He knew the male would rush him as soon as the bullets started flying, so he quickly turned in his direction, steadily pulling the trigger, but the bullets missed as the vampire streaked past him in a blur, disappearing down the hall.
He started to run after him, but Marilee screamed, catching his attention. Although he’d blinded her, Peggy Sue could still smell and hear. All of a vampire’s senses were far greater than any human’s. She’d caught Marilee again and was ready to sink her fangs into the young girl’s throat.
Jake pulled the trigger again, lodging a bullet in Peggy Sue’s throat. She screamed, but retained her tight hold around Marilee’s neck. Jake could see blood spilling from the girl’s throat, where Peggy Sue’s long nails had punctured her skin. Marilee looked at him, her eyes begging him to save her.
Rage crept into Jake’s body, strengthening a thirst inside him similar to the vampires’, but he didn’t want to drink gallons of blood. He wanted to watch it spill. He shot the vampiress again, this time in the chest, and boldly walked across the room to her.
She dropped Marilee in a crumpled heap, sensing his nearness. She turned toward him, waiting for him to come near her, and then when he reached her, she jumped, hovering over him in the air.
Jake grabbed her foot and, with a rough tug, brought her body slamming back to the floor, where he unleashed his rage, kicking her wherever his foot could find a place to land. He broke her nose, busted her lips, and cracked bones. And still, it wasn’t enough. He loved the screaming, the sounds of pain coming from her. He longed to see more blood spilling out of her. What was pouring from her face wasn’t nearly enough.
“Big, bad, tough guy,” the vampiress taunted him, pausing long enough between words to spit out blood. “You get off on hurting women.”
“I didn’t hurt a woman, bitch, I hurt you,” he responded, giving her another good kick to the ribcage. Anger boiled inside him, hot and suffocating, as he replayed the woman’s words over in his mind. He could hear Marilee whimpering . . . and knew she was whimpering because of what he was doing.
But he couldn’t stop. He had to kill the monster. He searched the desks around him, knowing Peggy Sue wasn’t going anywhere. Her body was broken. He didn’t know where his guns were so he had to find something else. The bitch would bleed out, but he didn’t want to wait on her to do that.
He found a lighter in one of the overturned desk drawers and flicked it, a perverse joy coursing through him when the flame formed.
He grabbed a handful of Peggy Sue’s hair and pulled her across the room toward the hall of cells. As he’d feared, Peewee’s body was no longer in the hall, and the mullet-topped vampire was gone, a man-sized hole in the wall the only evidence of his escape.
He took his rage out on the vampiress, dragging her into one of the cells. “Why did you come for my cousin?” he asked, hatred burning a hole through his chest. It grew as Peggy Sue lay crumpled on the floor of the cell, refusing to answer. Or maybe she couldn’t. He’d smashed her face in.
“Suit yourself,” he said. “I was going to keep you in here until I found my gun so I could kill you quick and fast with some UV, but now, you can fry, bitch.”
He flicked the lighter, watched the flame grow strong and tossed it into the cell. The fire found her body and she went up in flames, sounds of unbearable pain coming from her bloody mouth.
He sensed the presence of another vampire and drew the gun, pointing it before he turned. He barely managed to ease his finger off the trigger, realizing who the vampire was.
Seta looked toward the cell, her eyes widening and her upper lip curling in disgust, before turning her disapproving gaze on him, giving him a good once-over before saying, “So besides this, the dead woman lying under one of the desks, another dead vampire, and the girl with the crushed larynx, what else did I miss?”
“A vampire took off with my cousin.”
“Is that why you felt the need to destroy this one so viciously?”
“It got what it deserved,” he answered, allowing his hatred for the monsters to slip into his voice, not giving a damn about the disapproval in the vampire-witch’s eyes. She should be thankful he hadn’t blown a hole through her face, which was exactly what he felt like doing. She was a bloodsucker too, and despite their little truce, he couldn’t forget that.
Seta again looked him over, seeming to analyze him. She was probably doing that mind-reading thing witches were so good at. If he wasn’t so enraged, Jake would have cracked a smile at how she must feel seeing all the different things he was thinking of doing to her kind.
“I healed the teenager,” she finally said, her voice low and laced with a hard bitterness. “I couldn’t do anything for the other woman. Nyla is with the boy. Put the fire o
ut, and let’s go.” She gestured for Jake to precede her down the hall toward the fire extinguisher, and he knew she was making sure she didn’t turn her back on him.
Smart witch.
NYLA CLOSED THE closet door, instructing Bobby to shoot anyone who poked their head through, just in case any of the vamps managed to slip past her. She inhaled deeply and blew the breath out slowly on the wings of a prayer. Her heart threatened to burst through her chest despite the breathing exercise.
She’d fought vampires before, but fliers were harder to deal with, and judging by the thuds she’d heard outside, these bloodsuckers had flown in. And she was all alone with the lives of a mother and child to protect. Lovely.
She touched the knives sheathed on her arms for reassurance, then pulled free the sword she wore on her back, familiarizing herself with its weight. It was slightly heavier than the one she normally carried, but she could handle it. She would have to handle it. The only other option was letting the flying monsters get their claws on an innocent young boy, and that option simply didn’t work for her.
She heard the doorknobs jiggling, both the front and back, and instinctively grabbed for one of the guns strapped at her side. She’d brought two of Jake’s guns, both loaded with the specially crafted UV bullets he liked so much, and fortunately for her, she was ambidextrous when it came to firearms.
She stood in the living room with a sword in her right hand, a gun in her left, and waited for the first fanged face to come into view. “Come on, you evil sons of bitches,” she said under her breath, growing antsy. She really didn’t want to fight a horde of vampires all by herself, but the longer she waited, the quicker her heart raced. And if she was busy covering her own butt, she could worry less about Jake’s.
She heard glass breaking in the kitchen, and she quickly positioned herself between both rooms. She could see that the window over the kitchen sink had been broken, and a set of arms reached in, gripping the counter. She waited with bated breath until she got a clear view of the vampire’s head and shot a UV bullet into it, killing the first intruder.
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