Blood and Bullets (22 page)
“Before dawn breaks, I will kill you all.”
I stood one leg in the car, rain falling cold against my skin, and I raised my middle finger to her.
“Right back at you, bitch. Right back at you.”
20
The ass end of the Comet slung around as the tires met asphalt. I stomped the accelerator and the car shot forward down the road. Vampires boiled out of the tall grass that hid the road from view. They had caught up with us about halfway down the dirt road from the church and had been hot on our trail ever since. Several times they had almost overtaken the car because I could only drive so fast on the twisted dirt road that had turned to slick mud in the rain. Now that we were on the asphalt, I put the hammer down.
A loud screech of talons on metal ripped through the roar of the engine as one of the vampires tried to claw his way onto the car. Another crazed vampire hit the driver's side door with a thud. Looking over, she was holding on the edge of the windshield, her mouth distended. Fangs clicked on the glass as she tried to chew her way in through the window on my door. Long, tangled hair streamed in the wind flow from the car. Spittle smeared the glass until I couldn't see anything but her shape.
I jerked the steering wheel back and forth, making the car swerve wildly across wet asphalt. Her scream sounded over the roar of the engine as she was slung off the car, ending with a thud into the asphalt behind us. In the rearview mirror I watched her roll to a stop and then get up, her arms broken and twisted into obscene wings. She still ran after us even though one of her legs was broken and made her lurch to one side as if she were drunk. Her fellow vampires caught up with her but were growing more distant every second. Even the flyers would never be fast enough to catch the Comet on the open road. I turned my eyes back to the road.
“We're leaving them behind. We can outrun them, but they will follow us.” I glanced over to Father Mulcahy, who was lighting a cigarette. He had put his shotgun between his knees in the floorboard. “Did Kat get Larson and his family back to the club?”
I pointed at the glove compartment and he opened it. Pulling out a bottle of ibuprofen, he popped the cap and poured three of the brown pills into my outstretched hand. My fingers twitched in a “keep 'em coming” motion and he spilled out four more. Bitterness stuck to my tongue as I swallowed them. I hate taking pills dry, but the aches and pains of my injuries through the last two nights were starting to pile up and I had work to do.
“They did, she called just before you came out of the church.” Blue smoke billowed across the roof of the Comet and around his head as he turned to look in the back. “And who might you two be?”
A thin, elegant hand extended over the seat. “My name is Charlotte.”
Father Mulcahy took her offered hand, blew out a stream of smoke, and lowered his lips to kiss the back. “Father Dominic Mulcahy.” A smile crossed Charlotte's face and the priest matched it with one of his own. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“My name is Longinus.” The Celt made no move to lean up, just waved his hand. Father Mulcahy did the guy nod of acknowledgment. The one where you just move your head up and down because you recognize the information as important but you have no idea why.
“He's THE Longinus from history, Padre.” I kept checking the mirrors for vamps as I drove. “Just so you know.” This should be interesting. Catholic priest meet someone who actually was a partaker in the Crucifixion of Christ. Father Mulcahy turned his body until his back was against the car door. He took a long drag from his cigarette and flicked the ash out the crack in the window behind him.
“St. Longinus? Longinus of the Long Spear? Bearer of the Holy Lance?” There was a hint of awe in his voice.
I nodded and Longinus frowned in the dim light of the back seat. “Don't think too highly of him, Padre, he's the reason we have the most powerful she-bitch vampire I have ever met hot on our trail.” I flicked the windshield wipers on high, swooshing the rain from left to right. “Hell, he's the reason we have vampires at all.”
“Trust Deacon's word. I am no saint to be revered, but rather the worst sinner to be despised.” Deep-sunk eyes cast down to the darkness of the floorboard.
Father Mulcahy's voice was thick with cigarette smoke. “That is a story I would like to hear. And I will make my own judgment, thank you very much.”
“Call Kat first and tell her we are coming and to be ready. Larson's family, Tiff, and Larson himself can go ahead and get the hell out of there. We'll figure out a way to take Appollonia and her vampires out when they show up.”
Nodding, he pulled out his cell phone and hit the button for Polecats. In short sentences he relayed what I said and hung up. I turned on some music, low so the others could talk, but enough to let me go off in my head and think. Robert Johnson began to moan about hellhounds on his trail. His voice ghosting out of the Comet's speakers, weary and full of hopelessness.
Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail ...
I knew exactly how he felt. I had to figure out what to do. Appollonia was coming, hard and fast on our asses like a rabid hellhound on a bloody steak. We would get to the club first, but we wouldn't have much time, maybe an hour before the Vampocalypse arrived.
Vampires were fast, not as fast as the Comet, but fast nonetheless. We could run, but then they would probably go on a killing spree. That would put too many humans in harm's way. Fuck running anyway. That was so not my style.
Dying without stopping the monsters wasn't my style either.
The only thing I could think of would be to hole up, gather as many weapons as possible, and lock the club down except for one entrance. Let them pour in to get me and lock them in. We'd see who made it until morning. It was a crap plan, but it was all I was going to have time for.
Father Mulcahy would insist on staying with me, but I could maneuver him into getting Kat to safety and making sure the vampires were secured inside with me. That would put him outside and out of danger. Longinus could come in and get his spear once the ashes settled. I would make him join me, but he was so weak he would be useless in a fight. Yep, it was a crap plan, but it was simple and it could work.
Yeah, right.
I tuned back in to the conversation between Longinus and Father Mulcahy at the end of Longinus's story. That was fine, I had already heard it before. Longinus fell silent when he had finished confessing his sins to the priest. We sat and listened to the rumble of the engine, the swish of the windshield wipers in the rain, and Robert Johnson moving on to the crossroads.
Father Mulcahy was the first to break the silence between us as he looked at Longinus and then turned back around to face forward. Bowing his head slightly, he settled into the leather seat. His fingers moved quickly, touching his head, his heart, and his shoulders making the sign of the cross. The cigarette dangling from his lip did not fall out when he spoke. “That is one hell of a story, son. One hell of a story indeed.”
I looked in the rearview mirror at the back seat. Being on the highway I could look in the back more and still stay on the road. It was a rainy night and just after midnight according to the clock on the stereo, so traffic was light, especially this far north. Longinus was looking out of the window at the darkness. Charlotte sat next to Longinus in the back seat, one hand on his arm, touching him for comfort. I didn't know if it was his comfort or hers, but I guess it didn't really matter.
Asking the question that had been bothering me since the confrontation outside the church brought Charlotte's eyes to meet mine in the mirror. “Longinus, what the hell happened with Appollonia when I shot her? Vampires do not stay standing with a bullet to the brain. Was that the Spear's doing?”
He didn't look up, just kept staring out into the dark. “I told you she is too close to the Curse for bullets to work on her. The speed of her healing was the Spear's influence, but your bullet would not have killed her.”
I've killed some old-ass vampires in my time. Everyone of them went down with a bullet to the brain. “Exactly how old is Appollonia?”
“The best that I could figure when I first hunted her was two generations from the Curse. She was turned a vampire by someone who was a vampire I made myself.” He shifted, now looking ahead over the seat. Sweat poured from his skin even though he was wearing the least amount of clothes of us all. “She is old, and that gains her power, but even if she were newly dead, her lineage would make her immune to bullets.”
“So what will kill the bitch?”
Muscles corded on his arms and shoulders as a convulsion of pain wracked his body. When he spoke, it was through clenched teeth. “When a vampire is close to the Curse, then they are bound more tightly to the conditions of the Curse. The Spear would kill her, but a wooden stake through the heart would do.”
Well, that explained the stake through the heart part of vampires. I had always wondered about that. I knew that a stake through the heart would kill a vampire, but never could figure out why it was something so random. Now I knew. Because Longinus, who started vampirism, was cursed to die only by the Spear of Destiny, then the trickle-down effect must be why a stake through the heart worked on vampires today. Apparently if the vampire was close to Longinus, then it could be killed only by wood through the heart. That made shit considerably more difficult. Somehow I didn't think Appollonia was going to lie down and let me shove a stick into her chest, no matter how attracted to me she was.
The sound of vomiting came rolling over the seat. Father Mulcahy turned to look and I glanced in the rearview mirror to see what was happening. Longinus was now leaning over, his head resting on the back of the seat. Arms wrapped tightly around his stomach, he was dry heaving and convulsing. Charlotte's hands fluttered on his back in soothing gestures. She looked up to my eyes in the mirror.
“His injuries are catching up to him. I think he needs blood to heal himself.”
“No!” Longinus threw himself against the corner of the car, as far from her as he could get in the confines of the back seat. The tendons in his neck stood out like steel cables. “I will heal, it will pass.”
“You have not been fed in weeks. I was one of your captors, I know how weak you are.” Her voice was soft, soothing. “You need to take blood so you can fight Appollonia and regain the Spear.”
His head lashed side to side, eyes wild and teeth clenched. “I do not drink from the vein anymore. My sins are great enough without that. I will wait for blood until I can get it somewhere else.” Sweat ran down his face and arms. The hoarseness of his voice did nothing to cut the venom as he spat. “I will
not
die.”
not
die.”
“You are needed tonight to fight Appollonia. You must have your strength.” She pulled her hair to the side, sweeping it off of her neck. Holding up her hand, one thin finger extended and morphed into a razor-sharp needle of talon. Delicately, she pushed the edge of the nail into the vein on her neck.
The blood was bright and crimson on her dark flesh as it welled up. The rich iron smell of it filled the inside of the car, mixing with the cigarette smoke. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she crawled into his lap. He didn't fight her as she placed her open vein beside his face. Teeth sank into his lower lip and his head shied away from her, pressing deeply into the leather of the seat behind him. Nostrils flaring, he began to tremble.
“Drink from me.” Her finger was normal again as she wiped blood from her neck. “You talk of sin. I was made to sin against you, let me atone for that now. Lycanthrope blood is powerful to vampires.” Even in the dim light of the Comet's interior, her fingers smeared scarlet across his lips. “Let my blood heal you.”
His tongue darted out, drawing some of the blood from his lips into his mouth. Eyes closed, he savored it for a moment. Tears streamed from down his cheeks as his mouth opened wide. Slowly his canines slid out into fangs. Charlotte's face was calm as she waited for him to drink. Tenderly, his arms wrapped around her, drawing her against him and pressing his mouth to her throat.
Father Mulcahy turned back to face the windshield, pulling another cigarette from the pack.
I turned up the music to cover the wet sounds of thirst from the back seat and drove on into the night.
21
The table before us was laden with weapons and explosives. Father Mulcahy was off finding clothes for Longinus, who was looking hale and hearty after his meal of Were-spider blood. The spider lady in question was a bit shaky, but she promised that would pass as she drank a steaming cup of coffee from the kitchen. Long fingers held the mug gracefully and her eyes closed with pleasure as she sipped the steaming drink. The fang marks on her throat were surrounded by a black-and-blue bruise that extended from her ear to her shoulder. Kat was watching Longinus unwind the webbing around his chest and stomach. The skin underneath was whole and smooth. Larson sat watching Kat and I was so angry I could spit nails.
The reason for my fury was sitting across the table from me looking adorable in a Sandman comic T-shirt.
“You are NOT staying. I'm throwing you out on your ass. I will NOT be responsible for you dying.” Guns clattered on the table as my fist pounded home my words.
Eyes flashing, Tiff leaned in, pointing her finger at me. “I
AM
staying and you are not âthrowing' my ass anywhere.” Standing to her feet, she leaned over the table. “I am in this and that is the way it is. I didn't ask for it, but I have made my choice and THAT is final.”
AM
staying and you are not âthrowing' my ass anywhere.” Standing to her feet, she leaned over the table. “I am in this and that is the way it is. I didn't ask for it, but I have made my choice and THAT is final.”
She was pissed at me, but fuck her, I was pissed at her right back. I liked her, but that did not make me any less angry. This girl was not a warrior. She needed to go away for her own safety and I didn't have time to argue with her about it.
Leaning in, my voice was very quiet. Not a whisper, but low. I don't yell much when I am angry. I yell to make a point because it is very effective. Raising my voice tends to make people listen. When you hear me begin to speak lower and lower, then take notice. That is the sound of the storm gathering.
“Listen to me very carefully, little girl. In about an hour,
hundreds
of vampires are going to come knocking on this door, led by the most powerful hell-bitch on earth. You have no idea the death and destruction that they will bring with them.” Both of us were leaning over the table staring eye-to-eye. Even pissed I noticed how blue they were, bright cerulean with ice pale streaks through the irises.
hundreds
of vampires are going to come knocking on this door, led by the most powerful hell-bitch on earth. You have no idea the death and destruction that they will bring with them.” Both of us were leaning over the table staring eye-to-eye. Even pissed I noticed how blue they were, bright cerulean with ice pale streaks through the irises.
Longinus was done unwrapping himself. Bundling the webbing up into a ball, he tossed it into a trash can. “Deacon, now is not the time. If the girl wants to fight perhapsâ”
I rounded on him. “Shut up, Longinus.” Anger boiled in my blood, primed to erupt, and Longinus had put himself directly in the line of fire. Three steps brought me face-to-face with him. Heat washed over my neck. I knew I was red as he gave me calm eyes.
My finger pounded into his sternum, hitting the hard breastbone, driving in my point. He backed up a step. “It's all fine and good for you to talk about letting people fight. You are fucking immortal. Nobody else here has that luxury, least of all her.” He took another step back and I pushed his chest again. Stepping forward, I stayed close to him.
“Everybody else dies. If she stays, not only will she die, but she will get someone else killed protecting her.” My finger swung out to point at Tiff. “She is NOT a fighter.” Leaning back, I threw my hands in the air. “Fuck it. I should lock you in here with Appollonia and her brood. This is your damn fight anyway. You started it all; you should finish it instead of any of my people getting hurt or dying.”
From the corner of my eye Kat stood up and held her hand out. “Deacon ...” Her voice was questioning, entreating.
My finger shot out in her direction, cutting off her voice before it could finish. “Sit down and be quiet, Kat. You were told to get her the hell out of here on the phone and you didn't get it done.” A small hand touched my shoulder. The skin was cool against the fever of my anger. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Tiff standing there. Big blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. The heat in my face and head drained away at the sight of her. I did not move when her hand slid around me and her cheek pressed into my back.
“I don't want to get anyone killed because of me, Deacon.” Turning, I lifted my arm over her head. Moving in front of me, she looked up at me with her arms still around my chest. “Just let me help you and I will leave when the time comes.” She pushed her face against my chest, snuggling into me. “I want to help you if I can. That's all. Even if you can't find something for me to do, then let me stay as long as I can and I will leave before trouble gets here. I promise.”
I was beaten and I knew it. My deep breath came out as a sigh. Gently tousling her blueâblack hair, I knew I was making a mistake. “You are a lousy liar, little girl.” She smiled and I felt it against my chest.
“Am not,” she said very softly.
Father Mulcahy came into the room holding a pile of clothes. His coffee cup was balanced on them along with his pack of Kools. Sitting the coffee on the table, he handed the clothes to Longinus and sat in a chair. A fresh cigarette flared to life from the tip of the one in his mouth. Switching them, he snubbed the old one out in the saucer under his cup.
Longinus stepped outside to change. I'm sure he would like a shower, but we didn't have the time. The priest's scarred eyebrow raised sardonically, he stared at me and Tiff. I had untangled our embrace when he entered the room, but we still stood close enough to touch.
“So what is the plan, son?” Cigarette smoke streamed from his nostrils. I stood in front of them all, studying them, weighing them in my mind.
Father Mulcahy smoked his cigarette, impassive. He was in the fight. That knowledge was an absolute certainty. The amount of times he had fought by my side had proven that. Reliable and not afraid to die, the truest thing about Father Mulcahy is that he would play clean up also. If I ask him to stand outside and burn the building to the ground with me in it, he would. He had no sentimentality when it came to fighting evil.
Blond hair hung over Kat's eyes. She was looking at her feet. I know she felt bad for not getting Tiff out like she was told, but she was a good soldier. Maybe not the strongest in direct confrontation, but a good soldier nonetheless. She was loyal as a pit bull and a good shot, but I hoped I could get her out of the line of fire.
Larson was a different man from the one I met just last night. The things he had faced and especially the rescue of his family had burned away some of the softness in him. He still had next to no combat experience, but I could see in the set of his shoulders and the glint in his eyes that he would stand with me. He had made his choice and he would lay down his life if I demanded it. Too bad for him it looked as if I was going to have to.
Charlotte sat daintily in her chair. The coffee was done and she had a nice color back in her face as she looked at me. Delicate in appearance, like your friend's mom who was nice to you, but she was a powerful lycanthrope. The strongest and fastest in the room, she was the only one who could match a vampire without an equalizer. She would be a hell of an ally as long as we could keep a cross around her neck to stop Appollonia from controlling her.
Longinus stepped back into the room, he was wearing a pair of my black BDU pants. Thinner than I am, but just as tall, they were a good choice because of their adjustable waistband. His shirt was one of Father Mulcahy's without the white tab in the roman collar. It was a tight fit, but he was dressed now. I did not recognize the shoes on his feet, so they were probably the priest's. Now that he was healed, thanks to Charlotte's blood, he would make a good soldier. Being immortal had its advantages. He was the only one here who had no choice tonight; he was going to fight.
That left Tiff. She would be nothing but a liability in the fight, and I did not want to see anything happen to her. I would get her out of the way before the vampires got here. Maybe I could convince Kat that she needed to get Tiff well away. I know, I know, call me a caveman all you want, but I feel the need to protect the women. If I didn't know just how powerful Charlotte was, I would've put her on the list to protect too. I can't help it, it is how I was raised.
But looking around the room, I knew we would not escape this unscathed. In fact, the only one who might live would be Longinus, and that was only because he was immortal. Death is not too high a price to pay to stop evil. Possessing the Spear of Destiny made Appollonia a real threat to humanity. Tonight, though, if we were willing to pay the price, we had a chance to put an end to her. If we failed and she gathered even more power and vampires enthralled to her, then there would be no stopping her.
“The plan is that we have to get as many of Appollonia's vampires and herself in the club here. Once they are in the trap, we lock them in and unleash hell on their asses. We hold the line here and kill them as they come.”
Larson raised his hand. “Will she come in here? Wouldn't she see the trap and back out?”
“Even if she sees the trap, she will come.” Charlotte stood and walked her cup over to the sink. “Her pride has been hurt by Deacon. He resisted her charms and he freed her captivesâ”
“Don't forget, I flipped her off too. That had to sting.”
Charlotte gave me a look for interrupting her; apparently she did not find that funny. I couldn't help myself, though. With a sigh, she continued, “She feels herself invincible, a goddess to be worshipped, not refused and mocked. Her arrogance will drive her to us, and she will believe that she will kill us no matter what we do to fight.”
It was good to have my thoughts confirmed. Father Mulcahy got up to refill his coffee and dump the ashes and butts from his saucer. As he was filling his cup, he asked, “So we are bringing them inside the club? This building will only hold about two hundred, three at the most. They won't all fit.”
“Maybe.” I had thought of this. “But it is the most secure building we have access to. We can lock them in with us and do what we have to with no worry about the neighbors catching stray bullets.”
The lighter in his hand flared against the end of his cigarette; his eyes did the same on the other side of the filter. “They won't all fit.” His voice was harsh, barking the words out. “If they do not all come inside and we do manage to kill the bitch holding their leashes, we will leave our neighbors to deal with many angry vampires who will be uncontrolled.”
“She does not feed them enough.” Charlotte looked at me with fear in her eyes. “If we free them from her control without killing them, they will massacre anyone in the area. They will be crazed with bloodthirst.”
I wasn't angry. Really I wasn't, but we did not have time to do anything else. Out of options and almost out of time, I put force behind my words. “Look, I understand the problem, but we have to do what we have to do. This is our only option, and Appollonia is the priority. We have zero time and no other building.”
Everybody was quiet. Father Mulcahy was the only one who looked at me instead of the floor. His eyes were hard as flint. From behind me a soft voice piped up.
“Um, actually, that isn't true.”
I turned to see Tiff with her hand raised slightly and her eyes turned down to the floor. I realized what she was saying. “You have the keys to Helletog?”
Tiff was really cute when she looked sheepish. Nodding, she fished in her purse. When her hand came out it was holding a set of keys on a skull key ring. “When you told me to leave I locked up and hung a C
LOSED FOR
R
EMODELING
sign on the main doors. If you killed Gregorios, then the building will be empty and unused.”
LOSED FOR
R
EMODELING
sign on the main doors. If you killed Gregorios, then the building will be empty and unused.”
“It is on that big open parking lot in the industrial part of the city. No one around for a few miles,” Larson added.
“How many exits does the place have?” I asked.
Her head tilted to the side, blueâblack hair sliding over her neck as she thought. “There's the main doors, the fire exit in the back of the main room, and the band load-in doors. But I have the key to them all, and they are all made of steel.”
Empty building on an asphalt lot, limited access with lockable steel doors, and a large open room to fight in. Plus, it was right off the highway, so if we led them there it would minimize any chance of them spilling into any residential areas. I glanced at my watch. It was 3:21
A.M.
We had about thirty minutes before the vampires got here, if not less. It was now or never.
A.M.
We had about thirty minutes before the vampires got here, if not less. It was now or never.
“Okay, that's the new plan. We have to hustle. Everybody grab the weapons you want. All silver bullets and tracer rounds. We'll go over the ins and outs of what we are doing on the ride over. Kat, you need to get an incendiary for the gas main. Father Mulcahy, once you are done, grab your holy gear, we are going to need it.” I looked at my watch. “Five minutes and we are gone.”
Everybody began to move, following orders, the new folks taking the lead of Kat and Father Mulcahy. I walked over to the door leading to the back of the club. “I'll be right back, I need to get something from the garage.”
Scar tissue masquerading as an eyebrow raised in question, Father Mulcahy looked at me. “Are you going for the flamethrower?”
“Not with us inside the building. We're not that desperate. Not yet.” A smile shot out in spite of our grim circumstances. “I'm going to get Gertrude.”
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