"I'm fine."
He nodded. "Yes, you are."
Larry moved up beside me. He was standing too close. If Wallace came back at me, I would need more room to maneuver. I knew that Larry meant it as a show of support. After we got Larry's shooting up to speed, we'd have to work on some basic hand-to-hand techniques.
Why was I training him to shoot before I taught him to fight? Because you don't arm wrestle vampires. You shoot them. He would live through a beating from Officer Wallace. He wouldn't live through a vampire attack. Not if he couldn't shoot.
"Were you with him when he got that scar?" I asked.
Granger shook his head. "His first partner didn't make it."
"Vampire got him?"
He nodded.
Wallace stood up sort of slow. He arched his back just a bit, as if working the kinks out. "Nice shot," he said.
I shrugged. "It was my knee, not my fist."
"Still a good shot. I don't have any excuses good enough for what I just did."
"No," I said, "you don't."
He just looked down at the ground, then up. "I don't know what made me do it."
"Let's take a little walk." I started off into the dark without looking back, as if I had no doubt he'd follow me. This technique works more often than you think it would.
He followed me. He had stopped to pick up his flashlight, but bravely turned it off.
I stopped just short of the woods and stared off into the trees, letting my eyes adjust to the dark. I didn't look at anything in particular. I let my eyes just sort of see everything. I was looking for movement. Any movement. The tree limbs moved fitfully in the spring wind, but it was a general movement like ocean waves. The trees weren't what worried me.
Wallace tapped the darkened flashlight against his thigh. A soft whap, whap. I wanted to tell him to stop but didn't. If it comforted him, I could live with it.
I let the silence stretch between us. The wind picked up, filling the night with a rushing, hurrying sound. You could smell the rain on the wind.
He gripped the flashlight in both hands. I could hear his intake of breath above the wind. "What was that?"
"The wind," I said.
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty much."
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Is this the first vamp you've gone after since your partner's death?"
He looked at me. "Granger told you?"
"Yeah, but I saw your neck. I was pretty sure what had done it."
I wanted to tell him it was okay to be scared. Hell, I was scared, but he was a cop and a man, and I didn't know him well enough to know how he'd take a pep talk from me. But I had to know if he'd follow me into those woods. I had to know if I could depend on him. If he stayed this scared, I couldn't.
"What happened?" I asked. Maybe talking about it right now was the wrong thing to do, but ignoring it wasn't working very well.
He shook his head. "Headquarters says you're in charge, Ms. Blake. Fine, I'll do what I'm told. But I don't have to answer personal questions."
It was too much trouble to shrug out of the overall, and I really didn't want my arms trapped. I undid one button on my blouse and spread the cloth.
"What are you doing?"
"How good's your night vision?"
"Why?"
"Can you see the scar?"
"What are you talking about?" He sounded suspicious. Suspicious that I was crazy, maybe.
My night vision would have picked it up, but most people don't have my eyes. "Give me your hand."
"Why?"
"I am about to give you a once-in-a-lifetime offer. Just give me your damn hand."
He did, sort of hesitatingly, glancing back at the waiting men.
His hand was cold to the touch. He was one scared puppy. I traced his large, blunt fingers along my collarbone. The moment he touched the scar tissue, his hand jerked like he'd had an electric shock. I pulled my hand away, and he traced the scar again on his own.
He took his hand back, slowly, rubbing his fingers together like he was remembering the feel of my skin. "What did that?"
"Same thing that did your neck. A vampire that wasn't neat with its food."
"Jesus," he said.
"Yeah," I said. I rebuttoned my blouse. "Tell me what happened, Wallace. Please."
He looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded. "Harry, my partner, and me, we got a call that someone had found a body with its throat torn out." He made the words very bland, ordinary, but I knew he was seeing it in his head. Watching it all happen again behind his eyeballs.
"It was a construction site. Just us in the middle of the place with our flashlights. There was a sound like wind whistling, and something hit Harry. He went down with a man on top of him. He screamed, and I had my gun out. I fired into the man's back. I hit him solid three, four times. He turned on me and his face was bloody. I didn't have time to wonder why, 'cause he jumped me. I emptied my gun into him before I hit the ground."
He took a deep breath, big hands twisting back and forth on the flashlight. He was looking off into the trees, too, but not for vampires, or at least not for this one.
"He ripped my jacket and shirt like they were paper. I tried to fight him, but..." He shook his head. "He caught me with his eyes. He caught me with his eyes, and when he tore into my neck, I wanted him to do it, wanted it worse than I've ever wanted anything in my life."
He turned a little away from me, as if not meeting my eyes wasn't enough. "When I woke up, he was just gone. Harry was dead. The girl was dead. I was alive."
He turned to me finally, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Why didn't he kill me, Ms. Blake?"
I looked into his earnest eyes and didn't have a good answer. "I don't know, Wallace. He wanted to make you one of them, maybe. I don't know why you and not Harry. You ever catch him?"
"The local master sent his head in a box to the station. The note apologized for his uncivilized behavior. That's what the note said, 'uncivilized behavior.' "
"It's hard to look at it as murder when you feed off humans yourself."
"Do they all do that? Feed off people?"
"I've never met one that didn't."
"Can't they eat animals?"
"Theoretically, yes. In practice it seems to lack certain nutrients." Truth was, feeding was too close to sex for most vamps. They weren't into bestiality, so they didn't feed off animals. I didn't think the sex analogy would go over well with Officer Wallace.
"Can you do this, Wallace?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can you go out into the dark and hunt vampires?"
"It's my job."
"I didn't ask if it was your job. I asked if you can go out into that darkness and hunt vampires."
"You think there's more than one?"
"Always best to assume so," I said.
He nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Scared?" I asked.
"Are you?"
I looked off into the windswept night. The trees tossed and moaned in the wind. There was movement everywhere. Soon there would be rain, and what light the stars gave would be gone.
"Yeah, I'm scared."
"But you're a vampire hunter," he said. "How can you do this night after night if it scares you?"
"Doesn't it scare you to know that every time you pull over some yahoo for a traffic violation that he could be armed? You walk up on that car and never know."
"It's my job."
"And this is my job."
"But you're scared?"
"Down to my toes."
Larry called, "The sheriff's back. He's got the warrant."
Wallace and I looked at each other. "You got silver bullets?" I asked.
"Yes."
I smiled. "Then let's go. You'll be fine," I said. I believed it. Wallace would do his job. I would do my job. We would all do our jobs. And come morning, some of us would be alive and some of us wouldn't. Of course, maybe there was just the one newly dead vampi
re to deal with. If so, we might all see the sunrise.
But I hadn't lived this long assuming the best. Assuming the worst was always safer. And usually truer.
15
I'd gotten used to the sawed-off shotgun that I had at home. Yeah, it is illegal, but it's easy to carry and makes mincemeat out of vampires. What more could a modern vampire hunter want? The Ithaca pump action 12 gauge was close.
"Why don't I get a shotgun?" Larry asked.
I just looked at him. He looked serious. I shook my head. "When you can handle the nine, we'll talk about shotguns."
"Great."
Oh, for the enthusiasm of youth. Larry was only four years younger than I was. Sometimes it seemed like a million.
"He's not going to shoot us in the back by accident, is he?" Deputy Coltrain asked.
I smiled, not sweetly. "He promised not to."
Coltrain looked at me like he wasn't sure I was kidding.
Sheriff St. John joined us at the edge of the woods. He had a shotgun, too. I had to trust that he knew how to use it. Wallace had the shotgun from their unit. His partner Granger had a wicked-looking rifle like something a sniper would carry. It looked like the wrong tool for tonight's job, and I had said so. Granger had just looked at me. I'd shrugged and let it go. It was his neck and his gun.
I looked around at them. They looked at me. Waiting for me to give the word.
"Everybody got their holy water?" I asked.
Larry patted his coverall pocket. Everyone else nodded, or mumbled yes.
"Remember the three rules of vampire hunting. One: Never, ever look them in the eyes. Two: Never, ever give up your cross. Three: Aim for the head and heart. Even with silver ammo, it won't be a killing blow anywhere else." I felt like a kindergarten teacher sending her kiddies off to a hostile playground. "Don't panic if you get bitten. The bite can be cleansed. As long as they don't mesmerize you with their eyes, you can still fight."
I looked at them, all silent, all taller than me, even Larry by an inch or two. They could all arm wrestle me and win. So why did I want to order them all into the house where'd they'd be safe? Heck, we could all go inside. Have a nice cup of hot cocoa. Tell the Quinlans their little girl would be fine. I mean, liquid diets are in with teens. Right?
I took a deep breath and let it out slow. "Let's do it, boys. We're wasting starlight." Either nobody got my John Wayne reference, or nobody thought it was funny. Hard to tell which.
I had to let St. John lead the way into the black trees. I didn't know the area. He did. But I didn't like him taking point. I didn't like it at all. I wanted to bring him back to his wife. His high school sweetheart. Five years married and still in love. Jesus, I didn't want to get him killed.
The trees closed around us. St. John threaded his way through them like he knew what he was doing. There was very little undergrowth this time of year. It made it easier, but there is still an art to going through thick woods, especially in the dark. You can't really see even with a flashlight. You have to sort of give yourself over to the trees the way you give yourself to water when you swim. You don't really concentrate on the water, or even on your own body. You concentrate on the rhythm of your body cutting, sliding through the cool liquid. For the forest you find a rhythm, too. You concentrate on sliding your body through the natural openings. Finding the place where the forest itself will let you through. If you fight it, it will fight you back. And, just like water, it can kill you. Anyone who doesn't believe that the forest is a deadly place has never been lost in one.
St. John knew how to move, and so did I. I was pretty pleased at that, actually. I'd been a city girl for a long time. Larry stumbled into me. I had to brace, or we'd have both gone down.
"Sorry," he said, pushing himself away from me.
"How ya doing up there, vampire hunter?" Coltrain called. He was bringing up the rear. I had to go second to back up St. John, and I wouldn't let Larry take rear. Coltrain had wanted it. Said he and the sheriff would guard our ass. Fine with me.
"Yell a little louder," Wallace said. "I don't think the vampire heard you."
"I don't need no statie telling me how to do my job."
"It knows we're here," I said.
That stopped them. They both looked at me. Granger, who was just ahead of Wallace, looked at me, too. I had everyone's attention.
"Even if the vampire is only a few weeks old, its hearing is incredibly acute. It knows we're here. It knows we're coming. It doesn't matter if we're quiet or have a brass band. It's all the same. We won't surprise it in the dark." It would probably surprise us, but I didn't add that part aloud. We were all thinking it anyway.
"We are wasting time here, Deputy," St. John said.
Coltrain didn't apologize or even look sorry. Wallace did. "I'm sorry, Sheriff. It won't happen again."
St. John nodded and turned without another word and led us farther into the woods.
Coltrain made a small humphing sound but let it go. Whatever he said, I didn't think Wallace would rise to bait again. At least I hoped not. I didn't care if he was scared; we had enough problems without fighting among ourselves.
The trees rustled and swayed around us. Last year's dead leaves crunched underfoot. Someone cursed softly behind me. The wind blew in a wild gust, streaming my hair back from my face. Up ahead the quality of darkness was different. We were approaching the clearing.
St. John stopped just short of the tree line. He glanced back at me. "How do you want to do this?"
I could taste the rain on the wind coming closer. If possible, I wanted us out of here before it came. Visibility sucked as it was.
"We kill it, and we get the hell back to the house. It's not a hard plan."
He nodded, as if I'd said something profound.
Wish I had.
A figure stepped in front of us. One minute nothing, the next there he was. Darkness and shadows, magic. He grabbed St. John as he went for his gun and threw him out into the clearing in a high looping arch.
I shot the vampire in the chest at almost point-blank range. He collapsed to his knees. I caught a glimpse of the whites of his eyes, like he couldn't believe it. I had to pump the shotgun to jack another shell in place.
Granger's rifle exploded behind me like a cannon. Someone screamed. I shot the vampire between the eyes. His head splattered into the leaves. I turned with the shotgun to my shoulder before the body hit the ground.
Larry was on the ground with a vamp on top of him. I had a glimpse of long brown hair before his cross flared to life in a brilliant flash of blue-white fire. She flung herself backwards with a scream, scrambling into the dark. Gone.
A vamp with long blonde hair held Granger in her slender arms, head pressed to his neck. I couldn't use the shotgun. They were pressed too close together. At this range I'd kill them both.
I dropped the shotgun into Larry's surprised lap. He was still lying on the ground, blinking. I drew the Browning and fired into the vampire's broad chest. She jerked but didn't let go of Granger. The vampire looked at me, the man still clasped to her chest. She hissed at me. I fired a round into her gaping mouth. It blew the back of her head out.
The vamp shuddered. I fired a second round into her head. She let go of Granger and fell to the leaves in convulsions. Granger just lay there. In the dark I couldn't see his face or neck. Dead or alive, I'd done all I could.
Larry was on his feet, shotgun awkward in his hands.
There was a scream, low and pain-filled. Wallace was on the ground with a slender-bodied vamp on top of him. Fangs sunk in his arm. The bone broke with a loud, brittle snap. He screamed again.
I had a glimpse of Coltrain standing, frozen, just beyond. There was movement behind him. I stared straight at it, waiting for the vampire to take shape from the shadows, but something gleamed. A dull silver blade flashed into sight. I stared straight at it, but I lost a second somehow. The next thing I knew the blade tip exploded from Coltrain's throat. I lost another second, blinking at shadows, a
nd the vampire tore the blade from his throat and was gone. It scuttled through the trees like nothing human, unbelievably fast, like a nightmare seen from the corner of your eye.
Larry raised the shotgun to his shoulder, aimed in Wallace's direction. I grabbed it from him, and something smashed into my back and rode me into the leaves. A hand pressed my face into the dry, crackling leaves. A second hand ripped the back of my coverall so violently it wrenched one shoulder. There was an explosion just behind my head, and the vampire was gone. I rolled over, ears ringing.
Larry was standing over me with his arm extended, gun out. Whatever he'd shot was gone out in the dark.
My left shoulder was hurt, but not as badly as it might be if I didn't get up. I struggled to my feet. The vampires were gone.
Wallace was sitting up, cradling his arm. Coltrain lay on the ground without moving. A sound behind us. I turned, Browning pointed. Larry was turning too, but too slow. I sighted down the barrel, and it was St. John.
"Don't shoot. It's me."
Larry held his gun two-handed pointed at the ground. "Sweet Jesus," he said.
Amen. "What happened to you?"
"The fall knocked me out. I followed the sound of shots," St. John said.
A gust of wind slapped against us. It smelled so strongly of rain I almost felt it on my skin.
"Check Granger's pulse, Larry," I said.
"What?" Larry looked shell-shocked.
"See if he's alive." It was a messy job, and I'd have done it myself, but I trusted me more than Larry to keep the vampires away. He'd saved me once tonight, but I still trusted me more.
St. John walked past us. He touched Wallace, who nodded. "My arm's broke, but I'll live." St. John went to Coltrain's still form.
Larry knelt by Granger. He switched his gun to his left hand, not the best thing to do, but I understood. Hard to check for a pulse in the dark on a throat warm with blood; better to use your dominant hand.
"I've got a pulse." He looked up, his broad smile a dim whiteness in the dark.
"Coltrain's dead," St. John said. "God help me, he's dead." He raised a hand and the skin glistened with blood, black in the dim light. "He's nearly decapitated. What did this?"
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