Dead Reckoning

 

Luis and Antonio came in first. They were clearly wary. It was like watching a cop show on television; they came inside in a rush, immediately separating to flank the door. I almost smiled, and Immanuel actually grinned, which was not a good idea. Luckily, humans are the last creatures vampires will worry about when they're anticipating trouble. The two handsome vamps, clad in jeans and T-shirts instead of leather loincloths, quickly searched the club, checking out places other vampires could hide. It would have been a severe breach of etiquette to demand body searches, but you could tell they were eyeballing each local vampire for guns or stakes. Maxwell had to give up his gun, which he did without a second's protest. He'd expected it.

After a thorough scan of the premises and a bow to Eric, Luis stuck his head out to give the all-clear.

The rest of Victor's entourage entered in order of expendability: the married human couple he'd been with at Vampire's Kiss (Mark and Mindy), two young vampires whose names I never learned, Ana Lyudmila (who looked much better out of her fantasy bondage gear), and a vampire I'd never seen, an Asian guy with ivory skin and jetblack hair pulled up on his head in a complicated knot. He would have looked great in traditional clothes, but instead he wore jeans and a black vest, no shirt or shoes.

"Akiro," Heidi said in an awed whisper. She'd eased closer to me, and the tension had crept into her, too.

"You know him from Nevada?"

"Oh, yes," she said. "I didn't know Victor had called for him. He's finally replaced Bruno--and Corinna, too. That's how good Akiro's reputation is."

Since he was now officially second-in-command, it was okay for Akiro to be openly armed. He was carrying a sword, like one other Asian vampire I'd met. (Come to think of it, she'd been a bodyguard, too.) Akiro stood in the center of the room, conscious of all the eyes on him, his face cold and hard, and his eyes relentless.

And then Victor made his entrance, resplendent in a white threepiece suit.

"Good God almighty," I said blankly, not daring to meet anyone's eyes. Victor's dark curls were carefully arranged, and his pierced ear sported a big gold hoop earring. His shoes were beautifully black. Victor was a trip. It almost seemed a shame to try to destroy all that beauty, and I wished he weren't so determined to ruin our lives. I set my purse on the bar and unzipped it so I'd have quick access. Immanuel slid off his stool and moved away to the wall, his eyes fixed on the newcomers. Heidi took his place while Victor and his party moved farther into the club.

Though my eyes were fixed on Victor, I felt obliged to speak to Heidi, since I felt she'd perched beside me for a reason. "How's your son?" I asked, like you do, when you know someone had a loved one.

"Eric has offered to let me bring him here," Heidi said, carefully keeping her eyes on the visitors.

"That's very good news," I said, and I meant it. One more on our side.

In the meantime, the reception was moving slowly forward.

"Victor," Eric said. He moved front and center, a careful two yards away from the regent. He was smart enough not to give Victor a fulsome welcome, since that would be a huge tip that something bad was about to come down. "Welcome to Fangtasia. We're glad to have the chance to entertain you." Eric bowed. Akiro's face remained blank, as if Eric weren't there.

Still standing and flanked by Luis and Antonio, Victor inclined his curly head. "Sheriff, I present my new right hand, Akiro," he said with his flashing smile. "Akiro recently agreed to relocate from Nevada to Louisiana."

Eric said, "I welcome such a well-known vampire as Akiro to Louisiana. I'm sure you'll be a great addition to the regent's staff." Eric could give impassive as well as the next vampire.

Akiro had to acknowledge the greeting of a sheriff, who was higher on the food chain, but you could tell he didn't want to. His bow was a millimeter too shallow.

Vampires.

Great, I thought, very put out. Finally, Victor replaces his lieutenant and his best fighter. Just at this moment. "I guess this Akiro is a pretty good fighter, huh?" I whispered to Heidi.

"You could say that," Heidi said dryly, and she drifted forward to greet her regent. All Eric's vampires had to take turns offering obeisance. Jock, the newest member of Eric's staff, was last in line. You could tell he was ready to kiss Victor's ass if he got half a chance.

Mindy, with ill-timed lust, gave Jock a hopeful look. She was so dumb, but that didn't mean she ought to die. I wondered if I could get her to make a trip to the women's room before the time came. No. Unless it was her idea, such a maneuver would be a red flag. I looked at the newcomers and tried to brace myself for what was to come.

This was particularly horrible--this waiting, this planning, knowing I was about to do my best to kill the people in front of me. I was looking into their eyes and hoping they would die in the next hour. Was this how soldiers felt? I wasn't as wired as I thought I'd be; I was suspended in an eerie calm, perhaps because now that Victor had arrived, nothing could stop what was going to happen.

When Victor indicated he was satisfied with his greeting by taking the central chair, Eric told Jock to bring drinks all around. The out-of-town vamps all waited for Luis to drink from a glass he picked from the tray at random. After Luis survived for several minutes, all the newcomers selected glasses and one by one, they all took sips. The atmosphere grew much easier after that, because the drinks were absolutely kosher: warmed synthetic blood, a premium brand.

"You stick to the letter of the law here at Fangtasia," Victor observed. He smiled at Eric. Mindy was between them, and she was leaning on Victor's shoulder, her own Diet Coke with rum in front of her. Her husband, Mark, on Victor's left, didn't seem to feel well. His color was bad, and he seemed listless. When I saw the fang marks on his neck, I wondered if Victor had overindulged. Mindy didn't seem worried.

"Yes, Regent," Eric said. He smiled back, just as sincerely, and he didn't elaborate.

"Your beautiful wife?"

"Is present, of course," Eric said. "What would the evening be without her?" Eric waved me forward, and Victor raised his drink to me in appreciation of my appearance. I managed to look pleased. "Victor," I said, "we're so glad you could come tonight." I didn't try to summon more than "pleased." Victor wouldn't expect me to be as good at concealing my feelings as Eric was, and I wasn't going to give him cause to think any different.

Of course, Eric hadn't wanted me to be there. He'd made it plain that a frail human should not be around when vampires were fighting. In theory, I agreed. I would much rather have been at home--but I would have worried every second. The clincher in my argument was that Victor would definitely go on the alert if I were conspicuous by my absence, which would have been a clear signal that Eric was about to spring something. Eric couldn't deny that when I'd made the point at our meeting. Akiro positioned himself behind Victor's chair. Hmmm, awkward. I was trying to think what I could do about that. Pam was behind Eric's chair. When Eric beckoned to me, I smiled and went to join him, my purse over my shoulder.

Colton and Audrina were blending into the background by carrying trays of drinks around the club.

To my astonishment, Heidi went down on one knee by my chair, her posture indicating alert attention. Eric glanced at her but didn't comment. Heidi was taking a stance as though Eric had ordered her to protect me during what might be a touchy visit. I looked down at her, but she didn't meet my eyes. Yep, that was exactly what had happened. At least that was within the scope of "normal" and wouldn't necessarily make the visitors worried.

"Bill," Eric called. "We're ready!"

And Bill emerged from the back hallway, smiling--a totally uncharacteristic broad grin--to stand with his arm outflung toward the hall (tah-DAH!) to announce Bubba's entrance.

And what an entrance it was! It put Victor's in the shade.

"Ohmygosh," I murmured. Bubba was wearing a red jumpsuit that someone had taken a Bedazzler to; he had fake jewels and sequins everywhere, and his hair was styled in an amazing pompadour. He was wearing black boots and big rings. He was smiling that amazing lopsided smile that had made women swoon all over the globe, and he was waving as though there were thousands of us instead of a handful. Bill stood by the boom box Maxwell had set up, and when Bubba leaped onto the tiny stage and thanked us all very much, the lights went down. Bill started the music--"Kentucky Rain."

It was incredible. What can I say?

Victor was totally entranced, or as totally as someone who's perpetually wary can be. Victor leaned forward--Mindy and Mark forgotten, the other vampires forgotten--to absorb the experience. After all, he had Akiro to watch out for him. And Akiro was on the job, no doubt about it. His eyes never fixed on Bubba, but swept the room. Luis and Antonio had positioned themselves by the front door, guarding Akiro's back, and the bodyguard's eyes were doing a 180-degree scan of the rest of the club as he stood behind Victor.

As Bubba bowed to the applause, which was as thunderous as our small crowd could manage, Bill started the music again. This time we heard "In the Ghetto."

Red tears ran down Victor's face. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Luis and Antonio were rapt. The two nameless vampires were standing close to Bill, their hands folded in front of them, watching the show.

Ana Lyudmila was not a music lover, apparently. She was looking bored as she sat on the end of a bench at one of the booths close to the front door. I could see her over Mark's shoulder. Thalia, who was about half Ana Lyudmila's size, sidled up to her and silently offered a tray laden with more drinks. Ana Lyudmila nodded graciously, selected one, and took a big swallow. After a second in which her expression flashed absolute horror, she crumpled. Thalia caught the bottle as it fell from Ana Lyudmila's fingers. The lethal and ancient vampire silently shoved the limp body farther into the booth and turned to look at the stage, standing so as to block the sprawl of Ana Lyudmila's legs. The whole episode took less than thirty seconds. I had no idea what had been in the drink; some form of liquid silver? Was that possible? That little subplan had been contingent on one of the vamps being out of the line of sight of the others, and fortunately for us it had paid off.

One down. We wanted to take out as many as possible before the fighting even started.

Palomino, whose whitish hair and lovely golden skin made her a standout, worked her way close to Antonio by casual increments. She caught Antonio's eye and she smiled, but she was careful not to overdo it.

My purse was on the floor in the tiny space between my chair and Eric's. I dipped my hand down into its open mouth and withdrew a very sharp stake. I pressed it into Eric's waiting hand. After a second of leaning on his shoulder to cover the move, I eased upright to give him room.

Maxwell Lee, who'd been standing by the door back to the offices, took off his suit coat and folded it carefully. I appreciated his clothes care, but it was like a signal he was about to take action. He seemed to realize it, because he settled on the edge of a booth after that.

While Bubba stuck to ballad-type songs he was entrancing, but for his next number he'd picked "Jailhouse Rock," and somehow a tinge of sadness seemed to wash over the performance. Though the transition to vampirism had eased all of his infirmities, he'd still died in poor physical condition, and he still bore the marks of age. Now that he was singing a dancing number, the effect was slightly pathetic. I saw the little audience begin to lose their engrossment in the performance.

Switching the tone was a mistake, but one we couldn't have foreseen.

I could feel Eric's arm tense beside me, and then with the speed of a striking snake he leaned forward to clear Mindy Simpson to his left, his right arm rose up, and he swung in to stake Victor in the chest. As a sneak attack it was perfect. Eric would have hit the mark exactly if Akiro, with equally terrifying speed, hadn't whipped out his sword and brought it down as Eric moved.

Mindy Simpson was doomed to be in the wrong place at the wrong second. Akiro's sword struck her shoulder during its passage to Eric's arm and simply hewed through it, her bones and flesh slowing the lethal blade almost long enough for Eric to escape.

All hell broke loose.

Mindy screamed and died within seconds, and the amount of blood was simply incredible. While she died, a lot of things happened almost simultaneously. As Mark was still gaping, Victor was trying to shove aside Mindy's slumping and bleeding body, Akiro was trying to disentangle his sword, and Eric was ducking and moving forward to evade another slice of the sword. Eric's arm was bleeding, but thanks to Mindy's unintentional block, it was still operative. I stood and lunged backward to get out of the way, knocking my chair aside, and rammed right into Luis, who was launching himself forward to protect his master. I spoiled Luis's trajectory, and we ended up in a heap on the floor. Fortunately for me, he was too intent on the vampire part of the fight to consider me at all dangerous, and he simply used me as a springboard to push off.

Not that that felt exactly good, but it wasn't fatal.

I scrambled up to a crouch and tried to figure out what to do next. In the dimmed lights, it wasn't easy to decide what was happening. A fighting pair close to the club doors proved to be Palomino and Antonio, and a small figure flying through the air must have been Thalia. She meant to land on Akiro's back, but he turned at the last second--so incredibly fast--and instead she hit his chest, and he staggered. His sword was not a weapon for close fighting, not with Thalia doing her best to rip his throat out with her teeth.

Mark Simpson was staggering away from the body of his wife and the fighting vampires, and he was saying, "Oh my God, oh my God," over and over. But he did manage to take cover behind the bar, where he grabbed a bottle and began trying to find someone to hit. I felt I could handle Mark Simpson, and I pushed to my feet.

Colton took care of it before I could get there. He grabbed his own bottle and swung it at the back of Mark Simpson's head, and Mark staggered and went down.

While Thalia was keeping Akiro occupied, Eric and Pam went for Victor. There's no such thing as a fair bar brawl. They double-teamed him.

Maxwell Lee very precisely staked Antonio from the back while he was struggling with Palomino.

I could hear Bubba yelling in an agitated way. I got myself over to the stage and took Bubba's arm. "Hey, it's okay," I said. So many people were yelling and screaming that I wasn't sure he'd hear me, but after I repeated myself about twenty more times, he stopped the screaming (thank you, God) and said, "Miss Sookie, I want to get out of here."

"Sure," I said, trying to keep my own voice calm and level when I wanted to scream, too. "You see that door over there?" I pointed to the door that led back to the rest of the club, Eric's office and so on. "You go back there and wait. You did great, just great! Bill will be back there directly, I'm sure."

"Okay," he said forlornly, and I saw his silhouette moving against the faint light coming from the opened door. I finally located Bill, who was picking his way through the combatants with his eyes on the prize. He took Bubba by the arm to steer him to safety, which was Bill's designated job. I was proud to see that Bill had left one of the nameless vampires dead on the floor, already flaking away.

I was so intent on Bubba that I didn't see Audrina staggering toward me, her hands on her throat and blood pouring from a wound, until she actually collided with me, causing me to go down on my knees. I don't know what her goal was--maybe she was trying to go past me to the bar to get a towel to staunch the red flow, maybe she was just trying to get away from her attacker--but she never made it. She went down full-length on the floor a yard past me, and there was nothing I could do for her. I sensed movement behind me as I touched her wrist, and I threw myself away from the body just in time to dodge a blow from the bartender, Jock. He had excellent survival instincts, going after human women instead of vampires. Indira, her sari billowing around her, gripped Jock's heavy arm and swung him with enough force that he cannoned into a wall. A hole appeared in the wall, and Jock reeled back, unsteady on his feet. Indira threw herself down to the floor, reached between his legs, and gripped. Screaming, Jock stomped and kicked, but Indira emasculated him.

I had a new "most horrible thing I've ever seen."

Blood poured from Jock, thick and dark, and he looked down in shock while Indira shrieked in victory. With sudden determination, he swung his clenched fists and smacked her in the side of her head. Indira went flying, and it was her turn to collide with the wall. She lay still on the floor for a second, shaking her head as if there were flies buzzing around it. Jock went for her, but I caught hold of his shoulder long enough to slow him down a bit, and at the moment he reached her Indira revived enough to launch herself upward, throwing a fold of her sari over his face long enough to blind him while she caught the stake I tossed to her and drove it into his heart.

Jock, I hardly knew ye.

I tried to do a quick evaluation.

Jock down, Mark and Mindy Simpson down, Ana Lyudmila down, Antonio down, Unknown Enemy Vamp #1 down. Luis . . . Where'd he gone? I heard a shot outside and figured that answered my question. Sure enough, Luis ran back into the club with a wound in his left shoulder. Mustapha Khan was waiting with a very long knife. Luis put up a furious fight despite the bullet wound, and he had a concealed weapon, too. He drew out his own blade and scored a cut on Mustapha, but Immanuel kicked Luis's knee from the back and Luis crumpled. Rubio took advantage of the moment of weakness to drive in a stake. Though Mustapha said, "Oh, hell," with great disgust, he bowed to Rubio. Surprised, Rubio bowed back.

Palomino was having trouble with Unknown Enemy Vamp #2, who fought like a fiend. Maybe Palomino was not as skilled a fighter, or as old, but she was bloody and weakening. Parker, who was evidently not much of a brawler, kept to Two's back and repeatedly jabbed him with an ice pick, which was not too effective but obviously irritating. Two, a hefty vamp who'd been turned in his thirties, would heal up only to be punctured again. I'm sure it hurt like hell. Parker was apparently too scared to get in close enough to pierce Two's heart. Palomino was too slow from her many wounds to immobilize him. Mustapha, thwarted from the Luis kill, shoved Parker aside and beheaded Two with a dramatic sweep of his blade.

Now Akiro and Victor were the only enemies left standing.

They both knew they were fighting for their lives. Pam's mouth was bloody, but I couldn't tell if the blood was her own or Victor's. I felt the cluviel dor press into my waist and I thought of pulling it out, but the next instant Akiro managed to cut Thalia's arm off. Thalia grabbed it as it fell and hit Akiro with it, and Heidi jumped in behind him and stabbed him through the neck.

Akiro dropped his sword to pluck at his throat, and I nipped in to seize the weapon so he couldn't retrieve it. The sword was long, and not as heavy as I had anticipated. I stepped back to get it farther away from his groping hands, and just then Victor knocked Eric to the wall and pushed Pam down on her back, throwing himself on top of her right in front of me. He bit her neck, his hands locking her shoulders down.

She looked up at me, her face eerily calm. "Do it," she said.

"No." I might cut Pam.

"Do it." She was absolutely compelling. Her own hands flew up to grip Victor by his upper arms, locking him down.

Eric was staggering to his feet, blood dripping from his head, his wounded arm, and his side. He'd bitten Victor at least once, going by his reddened mouth. I looked down at Pam, who was holding on to our enemy with everything she had. She nodded, turned her head to the side. She closed her eyes. I wished I could do the same. I took a breath and swung the sword down.