Vampire$

 

He sat there on the tailgate of the Blazer and watched them take care of last minute details and he hated everything he saw.

But he did not speak.

He hated the job, of course, and he hated the place and he hated the Plan and he hated the sight of his pair of Brownings lying there beside him waiting to be strapped on and he hated the... earnestness... with which the rest of the Team went about it all.

But mostly he hated the sight of Jack Crow stalking about giving orders and inspiration and knowing this guy in charge was clogged tight with that suicidal half-wit philosophy about... about what? "Everybody's-got-to-go-sometime-so-how's-about-right-now?" or some such obscenity.

But he did not speak.

He just hated and smoked and boiled.

He also feared, but he was too angry at Crow to realize that, too furious and disgusted with that crap Crow had spouted at him by the locomotive. Bad enough having to do this shit and probably die doing it, but to have the goddamn boss start jamming this juvenile Code of Half-Ass Karma at him...

As far as Felix could tell, Crow's philosophical foundations consisted of: "Oh, well, what the Hell!"

But still, the gunman did not speak.

What was the point... The job was on. The war was moments away and they were all going to fight in it, himself included, and nothing Felix could say now was going to stop it or save a fucking soul.

And then he heard it: "Rock and roll!"

And they were going inside.

Past the great glass double doors taped black against the sunlight with even that tiny notch they'd cut for the cable covered with black cardboard flaps and the rest of the inside also dark and cool and dry from the air conditioning - he hadn't realized how hot it had been outside - but in here it was like a soft, dark tomb with every window taped up to be sure they came out of the elevator and Felix understood why Jack had decided to forget those damn gas masks and that gas because it was already tough enough to see in here even with the spotlights set up at every angle they could think of and all of them, Jack and Cat and Father Adam and Deputy Thompson and even Carl Joplin, gathered in front of the surveillance monitors Carl had set up at a little coffee table in the lobby so that Jack could see them while he worked the elevator and...

And it got very quiet and still with them just standing there for an instant, breathing in that air-conditioned air and watching those dark monitors.

"Hit the lights," said Jack calmly, "and let's see what we can see."

And the lights downstairs in the cells came on - Felix had no idea who flipped the switch, had no idea of the source of any other movements but his own and Jack's and whoever was standing dead inside of that tiny tunnel which had become his vision - and the cameras swept slowly back and forth showing the rows of bunked cells.

And no one was in them. They were empty.

For just an instant, Felix felt an exquisite thrill of relief until Carl Joplin lifted a chubby finger to one of the screens and pointed to an unmade bunk in the corner.

"There, I think," he whispered. He moved his finger to another bed beside it, also unmade. "And there."

Felix stared at the screens, unbelieving, and then back at the others' faces, glowing in the lights from the screens, and then be looked back at the screens themselves, back at the two unmade bunks, and then he saw those outlines in the mattresses and knew the beds were unmade because someone - or something, goddammit - was still lying in them.

And his fear rose and swirled up his spine.

"I don't get it," whispered Kirk. "I mean, I understand it's vampires and all that. Can't see 'em in mirrors and stuff. But what about their clothes? We oughta be able to see their clothes! I mean, it's a scientific fact that...

"Deputy," said Father Adam, from just off his right shoulder, and Kirk turned around and looked at the priest.

"Deputy," Adam repeated softly. "'science' can be helpful." He gestured to the screens. "And we use it all that we can. But," he whispered firmly, looking into the other man's face, "this isn't really about 'science.'"

And the deputy eyed him a beat or two before nodding and looking back to the screens and Felix felt another chill rise and twist within his guts because he hated, absolutely goddamn hated when the priest sounded so sure because he was always, always, right and about then Jack leaned over and around the screens for one last look, at the aquarium, sitting blood-filled and ready inside the elevator.

Then he flipped a switch and the elevator doors closed and they all heard the groaning clunking as the elevator started down. It seemed so loud! It seemed loud enough to wake the -

"There!" cried Carl Joplin, and his stubby finger thumped the screen again and moved away and Felix saw. Streaks, outlines, ephemeral... drifting... but with a purpose, with a pattern and direction and Felix could see them sometimes, really see them when they would move and then pause and for just a brief half second he could see them, see their outlines, see their expressions!

And they were smiling.

"I guess," offered Cat with a very dry throat, "they smell the blood."

And just then all turned to the last monitor, the one that showed the inside of the elevator cage, empty save for the bright-red aquarium and just then the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened and the streaks - there were three of them, clearly three, one man and two women - moved down the row of bunks toward the elevator and...

There! In the elevator screen they saw one of them appear and they could all tell, somehow - out of the corners of their eyes, sort of - that it was one of the women.

"Carl!" whispered Jack Crow harshly. "Get outside and get ready."

"Right," Carl whispered hard in return and he was gone.

Jack looked at the others.

"Get in position."

And they all moved back from the screens to somewhere - Felix was too numb to really tell or remember where - the others were somewhere over there to the right of the elevator door somewhere and he and Jack were supposed to stay here on the left.

He thought. He wasn't sure. He couldn't remember. He couldn't...

"How many do you want, bwana?" Cat asked.

Crow looked up at him and his face was hard. "Get to your spot, Cherry."

Cat hesitated, looked at the screens, looked back at Crow. "It's just that... you think we can handle more than one?"

Jack eyed him a moment. "Whoever comes up with it. Get moving."

Cat hesitated again, then nodded and left, the glare of the spotlights glinting brightly off the polished shaft of his pike.

And then, from a desk on the other side of the booking counter, just visible through the huge black grille that rose from the top of the counter to the ceiling, a phone began to ring.

At first they just jumped. Then they turned and looked at it. Then they realized just which phone it was and then...

One of the downstairs screens, the one showing the guard's station just beyond the wide-open barred gate leading to the elevator, showed a wall phone. The receiver was off the hook and banging in the air and sometimes Felix could see the outlines and sometimes he could not but he knew who it was, knew it was the man.

The vampire was calling them.

"Suspicious sonuvabitch," muttered Crow but Felix didn't really hear him. Felix was staring at the other screen, the one showing the open elevator and the aquarium full of blood that appeared to be all but boiling.

"God!" he whispered almost silently.

But Crow heard it and looked and the two of them sat there in silence as the outline-image of her came and went, came and went, as she threw her open mouth at the blood, sloshing it against the glass, and even as a ghost they could see her frenzy, her hunger, her thirst.

Twice, Felix felt sure he could see the fangs.

Jack Crow leaned forward abruptly and closed the elevator door and started it up and growled, "Here we go, troops! Rock and roll."

But everyone knew, everyone heard the elevator. Everyone knew what was coming up to see them.

And the phone stopped ringing and the screens showed empty quiet cells and within seconds the shrieks of pain and anger began to echo from inside the elevator cage. The poison, the drugs, were getting to her.

"Enjoy, bitch," muttered Crow and he stood up away from the screens carrying his crossbow.

And that was it, then. That got Felix going at last, that sight of Jack Crow's muscled hand gripping that crossbow and moving into position and then Felix was moving also, alongside Crow's left flank and as he did so he noticed Cat up there, climbing atop the elevator cage holding his sack of gasoline-filled balloons and Felix remembered standing there earlier amidst the acetylene sparks when Carl had cut that hole in the top of the elevator car itself so that Cat could... could what?

And Felix's mind swirled with the remembered thought that Cat was supposed to throw his little water-gas balloons down into that bloody elevator along with a flare! to drive the vampires out into their killing area and that was insane, that was madness and Felix's thoughts screamed, I've got to get away from these people!

But all he did then was draw one of the Brownings and that's when they began to hear the reverberations from the elevator shaft, the din of pounding and screeching and banging and Felix thought, My God! She's going to tear that elevator apart!

Then suddenly, quiet. No banging. No horrible echoing screams, just the rumble of the car as it rose the last few feet and stopped.

The elevator door did not open.

And it still didn't open.

And then it tried, old circuits buzzing audibly and the metal groaning and it wouldn't open..

And Felix and Jack found themselves over in front of the screens without thinking but there was nothing on them except shattered glass and blood everywhere, on the floors and the walls and they barely glanced at each other before moving back into position, weapons held high, and Crow called out, "Careful, people. Looks like she jammed it shut!"

And then he reached down for his little remote device Joplin had fashioned for him - it was on the floor about fifteen feet from the elevator - and that's where they were. Felix and Crow standing together, when the elevators doors just blew off their moorings and crashed into them.

The door got Crow first, hitting him flat and flush on his right side and then spinning over his head like a flipping card and smacking Felix a glancing blow on the side of his head and as he went down he saw her streaking out of the elevator through the darkness and the room suddenly filled with dust and then he was flat on his back staring blankly at the glare of an overturned spotlight on the ceiling tiles past the edge of the crumpled elevator doors on top of him.

Then movement in the lights and sounds of shuffling feet and someone called out something to someone else and he lifted himself up, shoving the door off to one side with his gun hand and -

- and she was looking at him.

She was there, standing just in front of the elevator heaving for breath and glaring at him, and he saw her eyes arc and her lips spread back and he heard the hiss and the fangs came out and he knew he was dead, knew it, knew it, but it was so distant, somehow, like happening on a movie screen to someone else.

Should shoot her... Knew he should shoot her and he had the gun in his hand still but he couldn't remember how to shoot but he raised the pistol anyway and she saw it and came at him, at him, at him.

And Father Adam's crossbow went off and the huge bolt crunched through her back from just under her left shoulder and punched out through her right breast and she shrieked and leapt high into the air, spinning and shrieking... shrieking...

And then she was gone.

Where? Somewhere. Somewhere to the left maybe? She had moved so fast.

And he felt himself being jerked to his feet and he almost screamed thinking it was her but it was only Jack, standing there with blood on his cheek and looking at him.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

And Felix nodded and looked past him to Father Adam, who stood frozen and pale beside the deputy, holding an empty crossbow and staring at the vampire as she thumped toward him - My God! she could hardly move, she was skewered by that thing and it flopped as she tripped toward him and that clear, thick bile was pumping out around the shaft and the deputy lifted the sharp pike he carried but that wasn't going to be enough and Felix shouldered Jack to the side and fired, a wild, frightened shot and hit her in the foot of all places, right in the instep of her left foot and she howled and leapt and turned back toward him and he fired again and the bullet seemed to take a chunk off the top of her left shoulder and more of that stuff bubbled out through the fabric of her...

Of her blouse? Of her Mexican peasant blouse, white with beautiful embroidery, and he looked at her at last, saw her as she really was with her deep rich eyes and plaintive whisper of pain...

Don't you want me? Don't you desire me and love me and want to take care of me?

And he did! He felt the molten pumping lust and wanted her alive and healthy and soft and tender in his arms...

And he dropped the gun to his side as she came toward him again and he was holding his arms out to receive her when the crossbow bolt jammed through her ribcage caught and she winced and he saw the fangs appear suddenly and he shot her three times through the chest.

And she howled and spat as the silver slugs slammed through her and she went straight down on her back, writhing and howling and spitting as the crossbow bolt twisted and torqued under her weight but then she was up immediately, up and moving, streaking, blurring white as she passed across in front of the elevator and the booking counter was in her way and she had to collide with it and when she did a chunk of formica topping the size of a chessboard all but exploded off of it but didn't slow her down at all. She bounced off and disappeared down the hallway into the back of the jail by the offices and they heard the slamming and wailing and crashing as she searched for a way out and then there came a tremendous thundering concussion and the lights began to flicker.

"All right," barked Jack when he saw the light. "Everybody out. Let's go."

The sound of his voice, habitually cool and authoritative, brought all of them around somewhat and they started for the door, except Felix who simply stood there and rocketed inside with that sweet exquisite memory of her soft eyes and yearning, tender...

"Felix," barked Crow, "move your ass!"

Felix looked at him, at his hard face and hated his choices but knew he must obey and...

"Jack!" screamed Father Adam and there she was again, coming at them with the crossbow flopping gruesomely and the fangs out and glittering and Felix shot her again.

And again and again and again, hitting her dead square each time and she slammed back onto the floor with the first concussion but he just kept shooting at her, the bitch, walking right up to her and firing and firing into her and her body warped and arched with each slug and be enjoyed the revenge he was having on the filthy rotten - The automatic clicked empty in his hand and he automatically ejected the clip and reached for another and suddenly realized how goddamned close he'd walked up to her and again their eyes met and she was... hatred and horror and the things she was going to do to him!

And he started running back as she lurched up toward him and the second bolt, the one in Jack's crossbow, the one with the cable on it, slammed dead center through her chest and saved Felix's life and even over her wailing Felix could hear Jack barking at Joplin through the radio.

"Carl! Hit it!"

And Carl did, the cable went immediately taut and she was flung past them toward the door but the angle was wrong, she was being jerked around a pillar and as she went past it her suddenly taloned hands reached out and her fingers sunk two inches into the plaster and she just stopped herself.

Which meant she must have stopped the goddamn Blazer, too! And there was this high-pitched ping and distant grinding of metal and the cable went slack and she smiled this ghastly smile at them and then she let got of the pillar and ran past them toward the booking counter and she leapt into the air like a missile and went right fucking through the iron grille above it with an ear-splitting shriek of tearing metal and then there was this hole in the grille and it was all torn loose from its bolts to the counter and there was more dust in the flickering light from where the ceiling had given way too and...

And Felix grabbed Jack Crow by the upper arm and spun him around and screamed, "You didn't tell me they could do that!"

And Jack jerked angrily free and shouted back just as loud, "I didn't know!"

And Felix believed him. "Let's get out of here, then!"

Jack nodded. "Cat! Where are you?"

"Here, bwana," came the shaky reply from the top of the elevator.

"C'mon, dammit!" ordered Jack, moving toward him. "While she's out of range!"

Cat nodded, poised briefly at the top of the elevator, then dropped softly, like his namesake, to the floor.

"Everybody all right?" asked Crow to the others, who had gathered around Cat.

Each nodded, but Felix paid no attention. He was still moving toward the front door, toward the sunshine, toward safety, dammit! We'll count our wounds outside, how 'bout?

But the others still stood there. Not for long - just a few seconds, really. And then the cable that stretched between them, from the front door to the busted grille, began to twitch.

"How much slack," whispered the deputy, "does she really have?"

When she came bursting back through the grille toward them they all fell backward out of their huddle and Jack went in between Felix and the target and for just an instant the gunman almost fired anyway but he didn't.

And that gave her the time to lunge at Cat.

Cat fell back on the floor holding the pike out in front of him but it happened too fast - he couldn't get the sharpened end around toward her in time - and she got him.

Grabbed him around the waist and lifted him high in the air, one of the shafts that bisected her knocking loudly into his face - And Cat was dead and they all knew it.

Dead in front of them.

Dead in between them.

And the cable warped and zinged along the jailhouse floor and went taut and jerked her off her feet through the wooden stake in her chest and she hissed as she flew toward the sunlight, hissed and spat and dropped Cat to reach out and grab the wall along the edge of the wide front door and she did it, she stopped herself again, but her feet flew out from their own momentum and smacked into the blackened glass and the door swung wide, wide open and the sunlight bathed them and exploded her body into deafening, howling, flames.

But she would not let go!

Felix did shoot her. He shot her again and again, but she wouldn't let go and except for the obvious concussion when a slug struck her body he wouldn't have believed he was hitting her and outside they could hear the strain of a motor and see her talons flexed into the wall and they knew she could do it again, wreck the cable or another Blazer or something, knew she could get free again.

Knew she was strong enough.

Cat clambered to his feet, planted his left foot, and drove his pike into her flaming back with every ounce of strength and fear he had left and the SCREAMING as it plunged into her, the SCREAMING... and for a half a second they all saw her claws lose their grip and by the time she had held fast again Deputy Thompson had stepped forward and thrown his pike and he was younger and stronger than Cat and when it hit it drove through the back of her flaming head and she SCREAMED that SCREAM again and her hands flew open and she was out the doorway and into the full sunlight and imploding with the flame, dead and gone at last, before the door had a chance to swing shut and cut off their view.

"One down," muttered Jack.

Felix eyed him a moment, then walked out the door and into the sunshine.