“I think that counts as decapitation,” I said from the floor, and reached a hand up to Abby. I looked over at Sabrina, who had closed her eyes against the splatter of guts, but none of the pellets had so much as scratched her.
Abby helped me stand, and we looked around the room. Of the four vampires who had attacked when I shot the first guy, all but one was down. Greg had emptied a 9mm magazine in one guy’s face, King had ripped one vampire’s throat out with his bare hands, and a third poor bastard was standing there looking at us with a kitchen cleaver in his hand.
I took one step toward him, raised my AR-15 and said, “Did you touch her?”
He stared at me blankly.
I repeated myself. “The girl. Did. You. Touch. Her?”
He shook his head frantically. “N-no.”
“Then I don’t have to kill you.” He stood there, staring at the barrel of my gun. “You should run now.”
He apparently thought that was good advice because he dropped the cleaver and ran straight through the living room window. His legs never stopped moving, and I wondered idly if he’d learn how to fly before he hit the ground. I looked out at where he lay crumpled on the hood of a burgundy Jetta. Nope. Guess not.
Greg was already at Sabrina’s side, kneeling by her legs and untying her. She looked up at me, still bleeding a little from a bite on her neck and splattered with blood and vampire bits and said, “You’re late. The movie started at nine.”
Then she gave me a little grin, and I felt blood flow to places I barely remembered were places.
“Traffic was a bitch,” I said, kneeling beside her chair and cutting her bonds.
“Who’s the Wookie?” She nodded at King, who was still seven feet of hair and bloody claws.
“Remember that PI you met last night? This is his work uniform,” I said.
“Don’t you have any normal friends?”
“Do you count?”
“Not since I met you.”
“Then no.”
She looked around the room at the dead and writhing vampires, and then looked back at me.
“You made a mess of this place. The cops will probably be here soon.” She wiped her eyes, obviously trying to regain her composure.
“I doubt that sincerely, Ms. Law. As a matter of fact, they will not be responding to any calls in this part of town for the next several hours.”
Sabrina leapt to her feet and snatched the AR-15 from my hands. She checked the chamber and slammed the gun into her shoulder, ready to fire.
A tall, well-dressed vampire stood in the remains of the doorway. He exuded class and breeding, things I’d read about in books but never really seen much of. His long brown hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, and he picked his way through the debris as he came toward me, careful not to soil the cuffs of his suit pants. I hated him on sight.
“Professor Wideham, I presume?” I stepped forward, getting between him and Sabrina, and held out my hand. I wanted him dead, didn’t really care if I killed him or Sabrina did, but I needed information first. And once again, the bloodsucking fiend is thrust into playing the voice of reason. This keeps up, people are going to tell me I’m acting my age.
He shook my hand and nodded. “Precisely.”
I decided if he called me “my dear Watson,” I’d just rip his head off and skip the banter.
“To what do I owe the unique pleasure of your company this evening?” he asked.
“We’re here to retrieve our friend. Oh, and to cut off your head and crap down your neck. That’s all,” Greg said from beside me. He was pretty fast for a fat dude.
“I don’t think that will be necessary, Mr. Knightwood. After all, we have such mutual affection for one of my students. Come in, my dear. Say hello to your big brother.” He waved an arm and a pretty young girl, about the right age for a college senior, came into the room.
I heard a sharp intake of breath from beside me and decided as soon as the girl came into view that this guy was coming down with a bad case of dead. Tonight. I expected it to be terminal. And permanent.
Emily had been six when we were turned. She was the cutest little kid—smart, funny, sweet, and Greg had doted on her. She was the little sister I never had. Letting her believe we were dead had been the hardest thing Greg had to do since being turned, and now there she stood. She stopped beside the elder vamp, her eyes glazed.
“Let her go. She’s got nothing to do with this.” Greg’s voice was low and dangerous.
When I looked over at him, I saw a pain in his eyes I hadn’t seen since a cheerleader pranked him at our junior prom. I swore that night nobody was ever going to hurt my friends like that again. Now this asshole trots Emily out like a goddamn show pony? After burning down my house and kidnapping my girlfriend? Oh, it was on.
“Oh, but she has everything to do with this, Mr. Knightwood. After all, she’s missed you terribly. She talks about her dearly departed brother in all of our advising sessions. She’s really very bright, you know. It would be such a waste if anything were to happen to her.”
He put a hand on her shoulder, but all I saw was how close it was to her neck. There was no way any of us could get to her before the monster snapped it like a twig.
A heavy silence fell over the room. I almost heard us all thinking, trying to come up with a plan that didn’t end with Emily dead, or worse. After an eternity or two, I said, “What do you want?”
“Well, I seem to be in need of a new door, for starters,” Wideham said calmly.
“And we’re short a place to live. I think we’re probably even on that count, Teach.” I sat down on the remains of the sofa and put my feet up on the coffee table.
Sabrina lowered the rifle and moved over behind the sofa, putting the furniture between herself and the supernatural creatures. It seemed like he was more into talking than fighting at that moment, and anything I could do to ratchet the tension down a hair was probably a good move.
“Yes, well, that was unfortunate. But you did initiate the hostilities.” He flipped an armchair upright and sat in it. Emily knelt at his side like an obedient pet.
I caught Greg’s eye and gave him what I hoped he took for a “chill out, I have an idea” look. But for all I knew, it just looked like I had to sneeze. Either way, he backed up a step, and so did King.
“What are you talking about? We didn’t even know you existed until I caught your scent where Krysta killed Abby.” I leaned forward, really confused.
Oddly enough, that was a little comforting. When you spent as much time confused as I did, it became kind of your status quo. Without a clue what was going on, I felt a lot more normal.
“You mean, where Krysta left young Abigail as an offering to me. A gracious gift in exchange for passage through my territory.”
“Your territory? I didn’t realize this was your city?” I might not be the most socially-adept vampire in the world, but I was beginning to see the picture.
“It’s not my city, but I have an arrangement by which the University area is my domain.”
Suddenly, it made a lot more sense.
“I get it now. Krysta hunted on your turf, so she had to make it right. And the way to do that was to give you Abby.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sabrina’s gun start to inch up, ever so slowly. King started to ease off to the left to flank Wideham as he fell into the soliloquy trap. Everybody knows the way to beat a bad guy—give him a chance to talk about his plan. And Wideham was more than happy to play all leather-elbowed lecturer. All he needed was a pipe and a poncey accent to complete the image.
I leaned back again, waving at Abby to be quiet. Her twenty-something college student idealist feminist sensibilities had been offended, so I looked up at her. “It’s got nothing to do with you being a girl, sweetheart. It’s more about the fact that you were a meal. Krysta turned you, and the Prof here was supposed to find you and make you part of his little posse.”
“Exactly, Mr. Black. Perhaps you aren�
��t as much an idiot as you appear,” Wideham said, smiling as he played with Emily’s hair.
“I’m not enough of an idiot to keep putting my hands on Greg’s sister with both of us in the room, that’s for sure.”
His hand froze, and his eyes flicked over to Greg. Greg hadn’t moved, but that was all the distraction I needed.
I kicked the coffee table up into the air, and yelled, “Grab her!” to King.
The big werewolf was almost vamp-fast, and had been waiting for my signal. He snatched Emily up and bolted for the door. A young vampire came in from the hallway to intercept him and found himself suddenly with a face full of lead courtesy of Sabrina and her AR-15. The last thing he saw was a .223 round punching through his eyeball. King got Emily out of the room and didn’t stop moving as Greg, Abby and I encircled the older vamp.
“Very well played, children. But now it’s time for the grown-ups to be in charge again. So sleep.”
I felt the mojo in his words roll over me, and I watched Sabrina sag bonelessly to the floor. Abby fought it, but she was no match for the older vampire’s mind. The couple of Wideham’s minions that had managed to regain their feet went out as well, and Greg and I were left alone with the professor-turned-vampire.
Chapter 25
“Should we do this the easy way,” I asked Greg, “or the hard way?” “I vote the hard way,” my partner said, as he cracked his knuckles. I drew the faerie sword and passed it over to him. He had a lot more
Lord of the Rings fetish than I did. I just wanted to punch the bad guy’s heart out through his spine, but I figured Greg wanted to do things with a little more flair.
“Boys, do you really think you can match my power, my intellect, my experience?” Wideham was trying to maneuver us so we had our backs to the shattered window, but I didn’t budge. Greg didn’t either, and that was a lot of bulk to move.
“Nope,” I said. “But I think we’ve got you crushed on witty banter and dashing good looks.”
I launched myself at the vampire, but he dodged easily. Of course, when he did, he dodged right into Greg’s meaty fist. I heard a sound like a lot of bubblewrap popping all at once.
I winced. “And the good-looks gulf just gets wider. I’m pretty sure that’s the sound of a crushed nose.”
The Professor let out a snarl and dove for me, almost taking flight in his rage. I easily sidestepped, then caught one arm as he went past. It wasn’t exactly judo, more the product of watching a lot of Saturday afternoon Bruce Lee movies, but it was enough to toss him into a wall. More drywall dust filled the room, and Wideham pulled himself out of the shattered wall. He turned to us, holding up both hands in a placating gesture.
“Now, boys, why can’t we be friends? You can join my fraternity, live in our house with us. I hear you need a place to live. We could hunt together, pick up college girls together. Dine together.” I heard a creak of the ruined floor and dropped straight down, just barely avoiding the machete swinging at my throat from behind. Greg wasn’t as quick, but he didn’t have to be. The difference in our heights once again proved his salvation, as the blade whistled right over his head and buried itself into a wall.
I stood up and found myself face-to-face with maybe the single largest vampire I had ever seen. Six foot ten if he was an inch, the bearded blond behemoth looked every bit of a Thor stunt double, only with fangs and über-white skin. He looked down at me, something that almost never happened to me, and grinned.
That was twice in one week I’d been the short guy in a fight, and I didn’t like it one bit. I smiled a sickly smile, and mumbled, “Nice giant, don’t eat the skinny one.”
Thor punched me in the gut, and I folded like an origami swan. I heard a couple of floating ribs crack and dropped to one knee. Thor smiled and reared back to kick me in the face. That’s when Sabrina came up from behind the sofa with her rifle and put five rounds in the big vampire’s back. Thor howled in pain and whirled on my grinning girlfriend.
“How?” I croaked.
“I don’t mojo, remember?”
She emptied her clip into the big vampire, but he never stopped. Thor charged, and Sabrina swung the rifle like a bat. She connected with one forearm, but Thor backhanded her into Dreamland.
I came to my feet with a pistol in each hand and a lopsided grin on my face. “That was my girlfriend, asshole,” I said.
Thor just looked at me and laughed as he pulled a shotgun out of the back of his pants. Seriously, the dude had a sawed-off shotgun in the waistband of his pants as if it were a .38. He pointed it at my face, and said, “You’re right, dipshit. She was your girlfriend. Now she’s my next snack.” He flashed a vicious grin and pulled the trigger.
The shotgun boomed loud in the small apartment, and buckshot blew out even more glass, but I was out of the way long before Thor pulled the trigger. I was fast—crazy fast. I tapped the behemoth on the shoulder, and when he turned around, there was a 9mm pistol pressed against each cheekbone.
“Now put the gun down, and jump out the window, or I’m repainting this place in Giant Brain Gray.”
Thor did as I told him, and I heard a sickening crash from below as he landed on a vehicle and blew every piece of glass out of the frames.
I turned to where Wideham stood in the middle of the room. He hadn’t budged through my whole encounter with his bruiser, just stood there watching. Greg had a gun in his non-sword hand, but something told me he wasn’t going to have any more luck shooting the Professor than Thor had shooting me.
“Well played, gentlemen, well played,” Wideham said, stepping forward with a smile.
Greg pulled back the hammer on his pistol, but then the older vampire’s hand blurred, and the gun simply wasn’t there anymore. I heard another small crash outside, and then heard the gun go off down in the parking lot.
“I thought I was fast,” I said, looking at the master vamp with new respect.
“You are, for one so young. But I have been haunting institutions of higher learning since I entered Cambridge with little Francis Bacon. I have, as you say, learned a thing or two along the way. And one of those things is that gentlemen, true men of letters, never sully their hands in a confrontation with the lesser classes.”
With that, he bolted for the open door, only to find Greg standing there. I never even saw my partner move, he was just there. Wideham looked at Greg’s stony face, then at the golden sword and stepped backward into the room. He turned to make a dash for the open window, but I blocked his escape.
“I don’t want to fight you boys. It’s dreadfully uncivilized.” The Professor held up his hands as his eyes scanned the room for another way out.
Greg tested the edge of Milandra’s sword on his thumb, licking the thin line of blood that appeared. I never understood how that sword stayed so sharp. I only ever used it in sparring, but it never got dull. That might be a very good thing before the night was over.
“I think you’re right, Professor. Somebody’s going to get hurt.” Greg’s eyes were flat, a slight tremor in his hands the only hint at the rage he fought to hold back.
The old vampire looked over at me, pleading. “Mr. Black, please restrain your friend. There is no need for further violence, is there? I can leave town, never return. Find a new place to hunt, a new university in which to lecture. I give you my word I shall never return to Charlotte.”
“You’re right,” Greg said, “You won’t.” And in a blinding lunge, he thrust the sword through Wideham’s heart.
The sword wasn’t wood or silver, but it seemed to have the desired effect anyway. The blade slid out the back of the elder vampire’s chest, and then the whole thing started to glow with a bright purple light. The Professor’s body glowed in turn, and the same purple light came flooding out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. In a matter of seconds, his entire body was consumed with blinding lavender light, and then, quicker than a blink, the light was gone.
And so was Dr. Wideham. There was a small pile of clothing covered in pu
rple dust on the floor where he had stood, and the sword in Greg’s hand was just an ordinary, if very sharp and ridiculously magical, blade again.
I reached out carefully, took the sword from him and slid it back into the sheath on my hip. He looked at the pile of dust on the floor, raised a foot and kicked it all over the rug. “Nobody messes with my baby sister.”
Then he turned and walked slowly toward the door. I stood there like a moron watching him go, then shook myself and helped get Sabrina and Abby awake.
“Come on,” I said to Sabrina. “We should get out of here before the police show up.”
“The police are the least of your worries, Mr. Black,” a familiar voice said from the hallway.
The lack of a door was really starting to get on my nerves. I looked up to see the Master of the City standing in the doorway. Greg backed up a lot faster than he’d been walking forward, but at least he didn’t run away.
“People have got to quit calling me that. It makes me think my dad has shown up all of a sudden, and that would not be cool.” I tried to look a lot less terrified than I actually was. I took a step in front of Sabrina, and Greg motioned for Abby to get behind him.
“I apologize for any respect I may have granted you then, James. Now, what in the world are we to do about you? This makes twice in one evening where I have been forced to mesmerize an entire restaurant full of patrons. I simply cannot allow this type of behavior to continue.” He stepped into the room and surveyed the damage. “And where shall I send the bill for this cleaning? I understand you are between addresses at the moment.”
It wasn’t my finest moment. I should have kept my mouth shut in front of the vampire who’d already beaten me to a pulp once that week.
But I wasn’t known for my discretion. I crossed my arms and said, “We would have been done with this hours ago if you’d bothered to tell us that this douche-rocket was here in your building, instead of making us run all over town looking for him. Then we would only have inconvenienced you for one meal, not two.”
Tiram looked up at me, eyes wide. He obviously wasn’t accustomed to being called out, at least not by anything that wanted to keep living. We stood there, almost nose to chin for the longest few seconds in recent memory, then he did the last thing I expected.
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