Night Prayers (34 page)

Still dangerous.

Mica
… Allison called.
Get ready
.

His face was stark white — eyes bulging, jaw slack — but he nodded.

"Okay," she said out loud. "Two down, one dog to go."

Because that's what Gypsy looked like: A big, scruffy dog caught between two masters… whimpering and rocking back and forth as his eyes went from Allison to Luci and back again.

Pushing away from the table, Allison took a step forward and jerked her head.

Time to show the dog which MASTER'S in control.

"Back off," she commanded, side-stepping toward Mica. "I'm taking the Preacher-boy.
Move and I'll kill you
."

End of discussion.

Gypsy whimpered again and looked at Gina's moldering corpse. It took a minute before he moved… but in the wrong direction.

He was coming toward her.

"Gypsy! I told you to back
off
."

He won't listen to you, Alley-cat. He was never supposed to.

Luci suddenly stood right behind Mica — the bloodied, jagged piece of broken handle pressed to his throat.

It'd be a real waste
, Luci said as blood trickled from her unmoving lips,
but you d be surprised how well these work on Breathers
.

She jabbed one of the points just under his skin and gurgled.

It would be sort of poetic justice, wouldn't it? An eye for an eye?

"Let him go, Luci."

Mica's blood oozed around the sliver of wood. The inside of Allison's nose burned.

You gonna make me, bitch?

"If I have to."

The gurgling got louder. Luci was laughing.

You're already down to EIGHT lives, Alley-cat… and I promise I won't go down as easy as Gina did.

Luci pressed the wood in deeper… drawing more blood. Allison's mouth began to water.

Look at you
! Bloody foam gushed from Luci's mouth, as if she was trying to say the words out loud.
You're one of US, dammit. Why are you doing this
?

Why?

She had no idea.

Squinting so she wouldn't look directly at the cross on his forehead, Allison met Mica's eyes and nodded.

Are you ready?

Just tell me what to do.

Panic swept through her as the words froze in her mind. She couldn't say the words… couldn't make herself think them. A moment later she didn't have to.

Allison sneezed — long and loud and hard.

"Bless you," Mica shouted.

And so it began.

Allison's body hit the floor at the same time Luci's did — writhing and shuddering as if they'd been struck by lightning.

"What…?"

Again
. Allison's voice shouted.
You have to do it again
!

"What? What did I do?"

Allison rolled over to face him, clutching her stomach.

"B-bless us."

Mica was suddenly glad they could speak without moving their lips, because his jaw felt like it had become permanently detached.
Excuse me
?

She looked up at him and smiled.
Believe, Preacher-boy
.

Mica closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Okay, Lord, I know You move in mysterious ways and I wont argue with You about Your methods… but a VAMPIRE
?

Mica!

"Lord, this may be the strangest thing I've ever asked of You, but
Bless
them, Lord! Bless these vile creatures of Hell and let them feel the strength of Your Mercy."

He could hear their screams — both inside and
outside
his head. Allison's was so weak… so
hurtful
.

I'm sorry.

"Forgive them their evil ways, Lord and Bless them like You never Blessed anything before! They made a bad choice and fell into corruption! They were led astray…"

Mica opened one eye and looked at Allison. She was shivering — the flesh on her arms and legs literally crawling over her bones. He squeezed his eyes shut and dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands.
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry

"They were tempted by the dark pools of sin and fell away from the bright light of Truth and Love. Show them You Love them, Lord — Love Thy Enemies and Bless them, Lord! BLESS THEM!

"In the name of the Father…"

Mica felt their agony like a living thing — spinning around him like a cleansing Oklahoma tornado.

"… and of the Son…"

Luci. Miriam. Allison. Luci. Miriam. Allison. LuciMiriamAllison.

"… and of the HOLY SPIRIT, Bless them!"

Silence.

"Thank you, Lord," his voice sounded so loud it echoed off the inside of his skull. "Amen."

Panting, sweat dripping down the sides of his face, Mica took a deep breath and steeled himself for what would probably be the most gruesome sight he'd ever have to witness.

"Shit."

In every Vampire comic he'd ever read, the final panel always had the creature either bursting into flames or melting into a pool of decaying goo. Nothing
that
dramatic had happened.

Except for Gina, who was nothing more than a greasy smear on the carpet, the results of his blessings were disappointing to say the least.

They were just laying there. Silent.

Dead?

Allison?

She was curled into a ball not five feet in front of him — shredded carpet under her nails, her hair a dull red fan covering her face.
Oh, God
…

"Allison!"

"She's
dead
!" A voice shouted at him. "Just like the others, you mother-fucking son-of-a-whore!"

Mica turned his head just as something the overall size and shape of a runaway Peterbuilt body slammed him and the chair to the floor. The frame held less than a second before the chair shattered beneath their combined weights.

Gypsy.

"Nobody does that to
my
people and gets away with it!"

Lord? You still listening? HELP!

"G-Gyp! You're free of them, man… you're fre—"

Gypsy's hands wrapped themselves around his throat and squeezed.

"You fucked up my job, you Bible-humping, tight-assed turd! These were my
ladies
, man, and you fucking
killed
them! You fucking
—"

A loud buzzing drowned out the rest of Gypsy's tirade and Mica smiled as an Angel stepped into the pale blue light. It was a bright Angel with red hair… holding a raised sword…

… no, not a sword… a chair…

The Angel was holding a raised chair above Gypsy's head. And, lo, the chair descended and air filled his lungs. And it was Good.

A miracle.

"I don't think this would qualify even in a
New Age
Bible."

Dropping the remains of the broken chair, Allison reached under him and snapped the collars tying his wrists as easily as she had the handcuffs. Rhinestones flew through the air like frozen drops of rain.

"But please… keep the religious talk to a minimum for a while. I feel like I just ran the L.A. Marathon carrying an elephant."

Mica reached out to touch her when the blood returned to his finger — just a friendly touch — but she jerked away as if he'd been carrying a switch blade.

"No! Don't touch me, okay? Shit, I don't even know why I did any of this." Allison kept her back to him. "Put a hat on or something."

"Allison."

"No. Look, whatever just happened here doesn't change anything, Mica, and it never will. I'm still a
vampire
and you're a… a… Preacher-boy with your own personalized
cross
!"

She laughed softly and Mica watched her hair ripple down her back.

"Talk about strange bed fellows, huh?"

The statement immediately brought Mica's hands together over the gaping hole in the front of his jeans. Allison hadn't seen, but she laughed again.

"That's
not what
I meant."

"Oh, yeah, I know…"
It was only a little lie, Lord
. "It's okay. Wait a minute."

Keeping one hand tucked firmly in place, Mica leaned over and pulled the cap off Gypsy's crushed skull. The leather was sticky with blood and brain fluid… but Mica could feel his friend's forgiveness as he put the cap on and pulled it down low over his forehead.

Over the cross.

"There." He just finished pulling his tee shirt out of his pants and over himself as Allison turned around. "All decent."

She looked from the cap to the hem of his shirt. And pretended she didn't notice the sudden slight
lump
that momentarily appeared.

"I can tell." When her eyes finally got back to his face the laughter had died. "Are you ready to finish it?"

It?

Allison looked back over her shoulder — drawing Mica's attention to the naked, gasping
thing
laying on the floor. The comic books finally got something right. Bombarded by his impassioned sermon, Luci had transformed into her "unnatural" state.

At least Mica
thought
it was Luci.

All he was sure of was that it was female.

Sort of.

The sagging, wrinkle breasts quivered each time the creature moved. And it
was
moving. Very slowly, very painfully it was trying to pull itself across the floor to the storage room.

Getting to his feet, Mica took one step then another… and another until he was standing directly over it. Even in the blue spotlight, the vampire's flesh looked as yellowed and lined as old newspaper.

Patches of ash-white hair caught in the carpeting as it moved, tearing loose from the scab-crusted scalp like a dog with the mange. Mica watched one clump flutter away in the club's air-conditioned draft.

The sweet-rotten stench of carrion rose off her body as she turned and hissed up at him. Although sunken deep within the moldering skull, Luci's emerald green eyes were filled with hate.

"Gloating, Preacher-boy?" Luci's voice was thin and raspy… as dry as an Oklahoma summer. "Isn't
pride
one of the Seven Deadly Sins?"

The forced laughter that followed made Mica's skin crawl.

"You have to finish her, Mica," Allison said, tossing him the same piece of broom handle Luci had threatened him with… a brief
lifetime
ago. "If you don't she'll come after us."

That thought was enough to make his body act on its own behalf. Kneeling, Mica grabbed the makeshift stake with both hands and placed it against the narrow chest.

"It doesn't have to be like this," Luci wheezed. She sounded so pitiful… so weak… so
helpless
. "Get rid of that bitch and I'll turn you so easy you won't feel a thing."

Cold, skeletal fingers encircled his wrists as Luci's fangs pressed against her cracked bottom lip.

"Just think of it,
Mica
— preaching the Big G's name for all eternity? Saving souls? Creating a whole band of psalm-singing
—"

"VAMPIRES!"

Mica's scream was joined by Luci's howling wail as he fell forward onto the stake and pinned her to the floor like a bug — a very old and very
lethal
bug.

The echoes seemed to take forever to fade away.