The Book of Death (18 page)

Fuck.

As the toilet made a loud
flushing noise, Sanchez turned around slowly. Stood behind him, pointing the
gun at his face was a man he recognised. The man wore casual clothes, just a
pair of jeans and a white T-shirt under a black leather jacket. Not his usual
attire, but even so, Sanchez recognised him straight away. It was the Bourbon
Kid.

He raised his arms in surrender.
The Kid never looked anything other than murderous, so Sanchez hoped his lucky
streak of surviving unscathed every time the pair of them met would continue.
The Kid’s face showed some genuine anger. Maybe he lived here? If so, Sanchez
hoped that he wouldn’t notice a small patch of piss on the floor where he’d
missed the toilet at one point. All it would take was one squeeze of the
trigger on the gun, (which was inconveniently pointed at his face) and
Sanchez’s time would be at an end.

The Kid spoke first. ‘Where’s
Beth? What the fuck has happened here?’ He looked Sanchez up and down, then
added. ‘And why the fuck are you wearing a gay cop outfit?’

Sanchez was somewhat baffled by
the questions. Clearly the Kid must know more about what had happened in this
apartment than him? After all, he must have done the killing
,
right?

‘Why are you asking me?’ he
asked. ‘I mean, I’m guessing you killed all of those people out there? And
Jessica too? What have you done with her?’

The Kid looked confused. ‘What?’

‘Jessica. Where is she? She came
up here before me, but when I got here she was gone and there were all those
dead people on the floor. What have you done with her? And why do you keep
trying to kill her?’

The Kid lowered his gun.
‘Jessica was here?’ he said.

‘Well, yeah. Didn’t you see
her?’

‘I killed her during the eclipse
last year. She’s dead.’

‘No,’ Sanchez protested. ‘I
nursed her back to health after you shot her. She’s okay now. Or, at least, she
was. Can’t find her now though. She must be here somewhere.’

The Kid raised his gun again,
pointing it at the end of Sanchez’s nose. ‘Where the fuck is Beth?’

‘Mental Beth?’

‘What?’

‘Beth Lansbury.’

‘Yeah, Beth Lansbury. Where is
she?’

Sanchez shrugged. ‘I dunno. She
wasn’t here when I got here.’

The Kid lowered the gun again
and walked back out of the bathroom. He headed for the bedroom at the end of
the hall.

‘There’s nothing in there,’
Sanchez called out. ‘I just checked.’

He heard the Kid open the
bedroom door to take a look for himself. Sanchez lowered his arms and walked to
the door. He peered around it to see what the Kid was doing. A second later the
Kid reappeared from inside the bedroom and came storming back down the corridor
towards him. Sanchez retreated back into the bathroom. The Kid rushed past the
door and back into the living room area. Fortunately it looked as if killing
Sanchez wasn’t high on his list of priorities. And it also seemed as though the
Kid had no idea about what had happened to Jessica. Sanchez could only guess
that she had seen the Kid and escaped through the open window.

Watching his step, he crept back
into the living room, making sure he made no sudden movements. The Bourbon Kid
was at the window, peering out into the snow-covered streets below. He turned
around and looked at Sanchez.

‘Did you open this window?’ he
asked.

‘No,’ Sanchez replied, raising
his hands in surrender again. ‘It was already open when I got up here. Anything
out there?’

‘Just some footprints in the
snow.’

‘I guess Jessica got away from
you again.’

The Kid shook his head. ‘And
she’s got Beth with her.’

‘They both escaped, huh?’

The Kid pointed at the bodies
strewn across the floor. ‘Who d’ya think killed all these fuckers?’ he asked.

Sanchez wondered if it was a
trick question. ‘I’m guessing you did?’ he ventured.

‘How fuckin’ dumb are you?
Jessica will have killed them all.’

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘No it ain’t.’

‘Okay.’

The Kid peered out of the window
again at the streets below and reached into a pocket on his jeans. He pulled
out a cell phone and dialled a number. This was just the opportunity Sanchez
needed. There was still a second dead cop on the floor, one who might have a
gun somewhere about his person. With the Kid distracted and staring out of the
window, Sanchez crept over to the body and reached down to see if he could pick
the guy’s gun out of his holster without drawing attention to himself. An
almighty loud clap of thunder from outside startled him. It was followed by a
flash of lightning and the sound of hailstones landing on the metal stairs
outside the window. The Kid remained unfazed by it as he stared out of the
window with his phone pressed against his ear.

Sanchez reached down to the
pistol in the cop’s holster. It came out smoothly. This was his chance. He
could feel his heart beating fast and his hands trembling. Was he really about
to do this? To shoot the Bourbon Kid in the back? And save Jessica from his
wrath once and for all? He took a deep breath and raised the gun, pointing it
at the back of the Kid’s neck. Before he had a chance to squeeze the trigger he
heard a beeping noise behind him. Someone’s cell phone had gone off.

The Kid spun around to see where
the beeping sound had come from. He ignored Sanchez and walked briskly past
him. On the floor by the sofa was a cell phone. The Kid picked it up. He still
didn’t seem to have realised Sanchez had a gun. The tubby
bartender-cum-replacement cop once again pointed it at the back of his neck and
readied himself to fire. The Kid was reading a text message on the phone.
Whatever it said, it riled him up. He threw the phone across the room and it
smashed against a wall. Without looking at Sanchez he spoke.

‘Put the gun down, you fat
bastard.’

Sanchez lowered the gun, but
didn’t drop it. ‘Whose phone is that?’ he asked the Kid.

‘Beth’s. She’s gone. She’s
fucking gone.’ He turned to face Sanchez, his face revealing a look of
desperation. ‘Next time you decide to nurse someone back to health, try
checking to see if they’re a vampire first, you dumb fuck.’

‘Huh?’

‘Give me the gun.’

Sanchez held out the gun and the
Kid snatched it from him and checked to see if it was loaded. Something Sanchez
hadn’t done. After checking the barrel and noting that it was indeed loaded he
looked back up at Sanchez. ‘Where does Jessica live?’ he asked.

Sanchez shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’

The Kid pointed the pistol at
his head.

‘She lives in Cinnamon Street.’

‘Last chance.’

‘Casa de Ville. She said she was
staying at the Casa de Ville.’

The Kid lowered the gun and
shoved Sanchez hard in the chest, knocking him back against the wall. He headed
for the window and began to climb through it.

‘Where are you going?’ Sanchez
called after him.

‘Where d’ya think?’

The Kid vanished through the
window and out into the snowy streets below. Sanchez breathed a sigh of relief
as he looked around at the dead bodies in the apartment. There was no way
Jessica could have killed these people. Nor could she possibly be a vampire as
the Kid had intimated. It had already been reported that a man had killed
Silvinho, so the only logical explanation was that he had killed the others
too. And now he was going to kill Jessica.

Sanchez would have to warn her.
And get The Book of Death back to her.

Twenty-One

When the flashing blue lights on
the ambulance outside Remington Tower came into view up ahead, Dante steered the
stolen police car off the main road and down a back alley. He parked up next to
some industrial sized wheelie bins and turned off the engine.

‘Why are we parking here?’ Kacy
asked.

‘Discretion.’

Kacy gasped loudly and grabbed
his hand. ‘Oh my God. You’re like Skynet!’

‘What?’

‘You’ve become self aware.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You’ve learned to be discreet.
You couldn’t possibly believe how proud of you I am right now.’

‘You’re taking the piss aren’t
you?’

‘A little bit.’

He pulled his hand away from
hers and climbed out of the car. By the time Kacy had jumped out of the car
too, he was at the end of the alley staring around the corner into the street.
Kacy caught up with him and peered over his shoulder.
 

There was a crowd of people
loitering around by the ambulance outside Remington Tower, although there was
no sign of any actual ambulance crew.

‘What d’ya think?’ Kacy asked.
‘Is it worth a look?’

Dante didn’t answer. He was
staring across the street at something. Kacy looked at where he was staring but
could see nothing unusual.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

Dante stepped out of the shadows
provided by the alleyway and pointed at a car across the street. ‘That’s the
Bourbon Kid’s car,’ he said. ‘He’s here somewhere.’

‘That would explain the
ambulance then,’ said Kacy. ‘He’s probably killed someone.’

‘I hope so. If he’s back to his
old self and killing innocent people again then he might be a really useful
ally to have. Let’s go check out his car. I’ll see if I can break in to it.’

Kacy was unsure of the benefits
of breaking into the car, but she knew Dante just loved doing it. He headed
over to the black car and grabbed the door handle on the driver’s side. Kacy
followed on behind, checking to see if anyone had noticed them, knowing full
well that Dante would have the door open in a matter of seconds. Sure enough he
did. He climbed in and reached over to the passenger door, unlocking it. Kacy
opened it and climbed in to find he was already in the process of hot-wiring
the car.

‘Why are you starting the car?’
she asked.

‘If we can hide his car from him
he can’t jump in and drive off without us.’

‘Would he do that?’

‘Let’s just say his track record
ain’t good.’

‘What if he comes back and
catches you?’

‘He’ll be okay about it. I
think.’

Kacy pulled the car door shut.
The snow outside was still falling hard. Had she not been a vampire she
suspected she would be feeling the cold. ‘Hurry up will you?’ she urged. ‘I
don’t wanna get caught.’

A second later the car’s engine
burst into life. ‘Listen to that,’ said Dante. ‘This is a fuckin’ beautiful
car.’

A figure appeared at Dante’s
window. The driver side door swung open.

Kacy screamed. ‘LOOK OUT!’

Dante turned to see who had
opened the door. Before he could speak, a large hand grabbed him by the hair
and dragged him out of the car. Kacy opened her door again and jumped back out
into the street. She raced around the car and found Dante on his backside on
the sidewalk, at the feet of the man who had dragged him out of the car.

Dante looked up at her. ‘Kace,
this is the Bourbon Kid.’

The Kid ignored Kacy and instead
grabbed Dante’s hand. ‘What the fuck are you doin’ tryin’ to steal my ride?’ he
asked, hauling him up from the sidewalk.

‘We been kinda looking for you,
man,’ said Dante dusting himself off.

‘Why? What do you want?’ The Kid
took a step back and took a long hard look at both Dante and Kacy. ‘And when in
the fuck did you become a vampire?’ he asked.

‘Last night,’ Dante replied.
‘Right after you ditched me and drove off.’

‘What happened?’

‘I got bit by a fuckin’ vampire.
You were supposed to come with me to rescue Kacy from the fuckin’ Secret
Service guys, remember?’

The Kid shrugged. ‘Sorry, man. I
had other places to be.’

‘Yeah, well we’re both stuck as
fucking vampires now. Unless we can get the Eye of the Moon back from this
Rameses Gaius guy.’

‘Rameses Gaius?’

‘Yeah, some kinda mummy. He’s
running the show around here now. He’s planning to take over the city, then the
world. He’s amassing a huge undead army.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘We were summoned to the Casa de
Ville this morning. That’s where he’s staging all this from.’

‘The Casa de Ville?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Fuck. And there’s a whole army
of vampires there?’

‘Yeah. And they’re getting the
werewolves in on it too.’

The Kid looked rattled. ‘Didn’t
I kill all the fucking vampires yesterday?’

‘Evidently not. You got most of
the Shades, Pigs and Dreads, but there’s fucking loads of these Pandas and
Black Plague dudes around.’