The Book of Death (3 page)

In one swift move she jumped up
from the bed, wrapping herself in the duvet as she did so. Her bedroom suddenly
seemed cold and empty where it had felt warm and full of life only moments
earlier. She scurried around the bed and opened the bedroom door. Peering out
into the poky living room in her one bedroom apartment she saw no sign of anyone.
Just as she was beginning to panic, dreading the thought that she might be all
alone again, the door to the apartment opened. In walked JD.
 
He was wearing the same jeans, black
T-shirt and black leather jacket as he had when he’d turned up near the pier
the night before. He saw the worried look on her face and calmed her instantly
with a gentle smile.

‘Sorry, did I wake you?’ he asked.

Beth breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I
thought you’d gone.’

‘Just went outside for some fresh
air. I couldn’t sleep.’

He took off his jacket and threw
it on to the back of her green two-seater sofa, then plonked himself down on
one side of it, facing the TV. He picked up the remote and flicked the TV on. A
late night action movie came on.

Beth shuffled over to the sofa, holding
the duvet close to keep herself warm. She sat down next to him and kissed him
on the cheek. ‘I thought for a horrible minute that I’d dreamt last night.’

‘Maybe you did. Maybe you’re still
dreaming.’

‘Well then I hope I don’t wake up.
Ever.’

He kissed her back. ‘It’s no
dream, I promise you,’ he said. ‘I’m back. And I’m back for good.’

‘I can’t begin to tell you how
great it is to hear you say that. I had this horrible feeling for a minute
there that you might have just come back for the one night. Like maybe you had
a girl in every town.’

‘I do have a girl in every town. I
travel around on an eighteen-year circuit. You’re my girl in Santa Mondega.’

Beth gave him a playful shove. ‘In
your dreams!’

‘I promise you, if I’m going
anywhere, you’re coming with me.’

‘For now, how about just coming
back to bed with me? It’s cold in there without you.’

‘Sure. I was just gonna watch the
news for a bit.’ He changed the channel over to the local news station. A
reporter in the news studio was reading out the latest news with a grave
expression. Even his voice sounded grave. Beth looked at the TV screen and
frowned. ‘Wait a sec,’ she said. ‘What’s that about?’

A scrolling yellow bar at the
bottom of the screen read –

‘Oh my God,’ she gasped. ‘I hope
no one I know has been killed.’

As if to confirm her worst fears
the reporter reading out the news announced that one of the Bourbon Kid’s
victims had been her boss at the museum, Bertram Cromwell.

Beth was horrified. Cromwell was
one of the only people in the city who she could genuinely call a friend. She
put her hand over her mouth. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she said, ‘Cromwell was the
nicest man in town. He’s the only reason I have a job. And now the Bourbon Kid
has murdered him. His wife will be devastated. This is awful.’

JD rubbed her back to comfort her.
‘Maybe this is a sign that you should quit the museum,’ he said. ‘In fact, how
about quitting this shithole town altogether?’

Beth barely heard what he said.
Her thoughts were only of Bertram Cromwell and his family. ‘I hope they catch
the Kid and give him the electric chair.’

JD squeezed her in close. ‘I think
the Kid was killing off all the local vampires. I doubt he had anything to do
with Cromwell’s murder.’

‘Vampires?’ said Beth, snapping
out of her maudlin thoughts. ‘Like that thing that attacked us that time on the
pier?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Was that really a vampire though?
I mean, I’ve never come across a vampire since then. I was beginning to wonder
if I’d imagined it.’

‘The city was rife with them. Bet
they’re all dead now.’

‘Yes but the Bourbon Kid is still
at large. He’s a bigger menace than the vampires, I think.’

The scrolling yellow bar on the
news program suggested otherwise.

BREAKING
NEWS – BOURBON KID APPREHENDED AND KILLED BY SPECIAL FORCES

JD
pulled her in towards him and kissed her again, this time firmer than before.
‘See, you’re safe. The Bourbon Kid is dead, gone forever. And so are all the
vampires. There’s nothing to be afraid of.’

Beth forced a smile. Her thoughts
suddenly returned to the piece of cloth with the heart sewn into it. She had it
in her hand.
 
‘You left this on your
pillow,’ she said, holding it up.

‘That’s for you,’ said JD.

‘What is it exactly?’

He paused. ‘What do you think it
is?’

‘A piece of cloth with your
initials on.’

‘Then that’s what it is.’

‘There’s more to it than that,’
she said, shoving him playfully. ‘This was a sign to let me know you were
coming back, right?’

He smiled. ‘Yeah. Keep hold of that.
I’ll always come back for it. And you won’t have to wait eighteen years again,
I promise.’

‘So I can keep it?’

‘It’s all yours.’

Beth looked down at the heart sewn
into the cloth. She now had something of his that carried some meaning. Just
holding it in her hand made her feel safe. As long as she had it, JD’s heart
belonged to her.

Three

Vanity’s club The Swamp was far
more impressive than its title made it sound. Kacy was expecting a real dive
bar in a back alley somewhere. In fact it was a five-storey building on the
South side of the city, situated on a street corner. As they approached the
front entrance, something landed gently on the ground in front of them.

‘Is that snow?’ Kacy asked.

‘Can’t be,’ said Dante,
dismissively. ‘It’s never snowed in Santa Mondega.’

‘What the hell is it then?’

‘I don’t know, but let’s hurry
up and get inside.’ He pushed at the black door at the front of the place. The
door opened easily. ‘There’s all kinds of creepy fuckers around this place
usually, so stay close to me,’ he added.

‘Great.’

He led the way up several flights
of stairs. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Not one single creepy looking person.
Not even a Depeche Mode fan. It was as empty as the streets outside.

‘This place is dead,’ Kacy
whispered.

‘Weird,’ said Dante. ‘Last time I
came here there were vampires hanging around on the stairs doing all kinds of
shit. I wonder where they’ve all gone?’

A voice from above answered him.
‘They’ve gone to the Casa de Ville.’

They both stopped and looked
upwards. A vampire with shoulder length dark hair, wearing wraparound shades
and sporting a neatly trimmed goatee beard was staring down at them from the
landing a few floors up. Dante recognised him straight away.

‘Hey Vanity, how you doing?’ he
said, waving.

Kacy recognised the outfit Vanity
was wearing. He had on the same black leather jacket that Dante had been given
when he had infiltrated the Shades clan of vampires a few days previously.
Underneath it he wore a plain black T-shirt, his outfit topped off with a pair
of black jeans and matching ankle boots.

‘Come on up!’ Vanity called down
to them. ‘I’ll get you some clean clothes. And you can tell me what the fuck
you’ve been doing all night.’

Kacy grabbed hold of Dante’s hand
and followed him up to the landing where Vanity had been. By the time they
reached it he had moved into a large hall. It was a pool hall with numerous
tables scattered around and a long bar against one wall.

‘Through here,’ said Dante. ‘I’ve
been in here before. Had a fight with some clowns the other day.’

‘Why does that not surprise me?’

Inside the pool hall Vanity stood
beside one of the pool tables in the centre of the room. He had tossed a couple
of black leather jackets on the table. The words “The Shades” were sewn into the
back in gold lettering.
Tacky as hell,
Kacy thought, but she kept her
opinion to herself out of politeness.

Vanity took off his sunglasses.
His eyes were unlike anything Kacy had ever seen. They flickered between three
different colours. Like a rotating disco ball they flickered from gold to black
and then silver to black before repeating the routine. The image was
practically hypnotic. He stared at her for a moment before turning to Dante.

‘So who’s the girl?’ he asked.

‘She’s a babe I just picked up,’
Dante replied. Kacy let go of his hand and allowed him to walk up to Vanity and
slap hands with him. ‘She’s kinda cool. You’ll like her.’

Vanity pursed his lips and
looked Kacy up and down. ‘What’s your name, honey?’ he asked.

‘Kacy.’

‘Kacy. Nice name,’ he said
looking her up and down again. ‘Fit too. She’ll go down well in the initiation
orgy. All the guys will love fucking her.’

Kacy felt her blood run even
colder than when she had become a vampire hours earlier. ‘What?’ she
spluttered.

Vanity grinned. ‘I’m kidding.’

Kacy breathed a huge sigh of
relief. She saw Dante wipe a bead of sweat from his brow. He had obviously
fallen for Vanity’s dubious wisecrack too.

‘Here,’ said Vanity tossing a
leather jacket to Kacy. ‘Put this on. The three of us gotta haul ass. All
vampires have been summoned to the Casa de Ville by Rameses Gaius.’

‘What for?’ Dante asked.

‘You heard about all the shit
that’s gone down tonight, right?’ said Vanity.

‘Heard the Bourbon Kid killed a
lot of people,’ Kacy chimed in, saving Dante from having to reveal where he was
when it had all kicked off.

‘Yeah,’ said Vanity nodding.
‘Turns out Déjà Vu was the Bourbon Kid. Did you know that, Dante?’

Dante was putting on one of the
leather jackets from the pool table. He pretended not to have heard Vanity’s
question for a few moments, dusting off the jacket as he considered his answer.
At this point it was hard to know whether or not Vanity knew that he knew this
information already and was testing him. Kacy jumped in and provided the answer
for him. ‘We heard the word on the street,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s talking about
it.’

‘No shit,’ said Vanity. ‘Did you
hear that they caught him though?’

Dante answered immediately this
time. ‘Seriously? They caught the Bourbon Kid?’

‘Yeah. Some military guys that
Gaius hired caught up with him and cut his fucking head off.’

‘Shit,’ Dante couldn’t hide how
shocked he was at the news.

Kacy wasn’t nearly as concerned
as Dante. She was far more interested in how her new leather jacket was going
to look on her. She slipped her arms into the sleeves and discovered to her
delight that it fitted perfectly. Vanity then tossed her a pair of sunglasses.

‘The fact they caught him and
killed him has probably saved our necks,’ Vanity said. ‘I doubt the powers that
be are too impressed with us right now.’

‘Maybe we should stay here for a
while then?’ Kacy suggested, looking at the sunglasses in her hand and
wondering how she would be able to see with them on.

‘We’re in enough trouble
already,’ said Vanity. ‘But the fact that the Bourbon Kid killed hundreds of
vampires earlier tonight means that Gaius is low on numbers at the moment. He’s
assembling an undead army to take over the city. The lack of other experienced
vampires should be enough to keep us alive for now.’

‘Is it safe to go out at the
moment?’ Kacy asked. ‘I mean, won’t the sun come up soon?’

Vanity shook his head. ‘Gaius
says not. He’s found some way to keep dark clouds over the city. So for a while
we’re all daywalkers.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. Archie Somers tried in vain
for years to turn the skies dark permanently. Gaius did it in no time.’

Kacy perked up. ‘Who was Archie
Somers?’ she asked.

‘The old boss. Chief
bloodsucker, one of the original daywalkers.’

Dante blurted out what was on
Kacy’s mind. ‘We just drank some of his blood.’

‘What?’

‘We were scoping out the police
station earlier for any potential victims and we found a bag of blood with the
name Archie Somers on it.’

‘
Archie Somers?
Where is
it now?’

‘We drank it all.’

Vanity eyed them suspiciously.
‘Are you bullshitting me?’

‘No,’ said Dante. ‘It was
fucking good stuff.’

Vanity sighed. ‘You know, if I
was you, I’d keep quiet about stuff like that,’ he said. ‘Don’t let Jessica or
Gaius hear you say shit like that. Gaius will fire fucking laser bolts from his
fingertips at you. And Jessica, well, she’ll just rip your fucking insides
out!’