The Book of Death (42 page)

It suddenly became glaringly
obvious to Sanchez that Jessica was an evil vampire bitch. He couldn’t fathom
how he’d never spotted it before. Maybe he’d been blinded by his infatuation
with her. Either way, he didn’t feel like hanging out with her any more. ‘It’s
okay. I’ve got places to be,’ he said, attempting to turn back towards the
door. Flake shoved him hard in the back again pushing him even further into the
hall.

Jessica walked through the
middle of the hall towards them, looking all around her, no doubt waiting for
the reappearance of the Kid. Behind her, Razor and his hostage Beth followed on
tentatively.

 
Flake shoved Sanchez once more, a little
harder than was necessary. Then she called out to Jessica again. ‘He wasn’t
planning on giving you the book at all,’ she said. ‘He found out you’re a
vampire and had a change of heart. When I found him he was cowering in a
bathroom and trying to hide the book.’

‘That sounds like typical
Sanchez all right,’ said Jessica scornfully. ‘We’ll deal with him later. For
now I think it’s maybe time to call out our mystery guest.’ She stared all
around the hall, looking once more for sign of the Kid, then she called out
loud. ‘Very well then, Razor, kill the girl.’

“What a bitch,”
Sanchez thought
inconsequentially.

‘WAIT!’ It was the Bourbon Kid.
Sanchez recognised the gravelly tone immediately. He spotted the mass murderer
step out from the shadows behind the large staircase.

For the next twenty seconds or
so, the Kid exchanged insults with Jessica and Razor and tried to persuade them
to give up Beth. Sanchez prodded Flake in the arm and nodded at The Book With
No Name which she had tucked under her arm.

‘You gonna do it now?’ he
whispered.

Flake grimaced. ‘Not sure. I’m
waiting for some kind of signal.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. The Kid said I’d
know when the time came.’

Sanchez’s eyes opened wide as he
saw some action up ahead. ‘SHIIIIT!’ he yelled instinctively. ‘He just shot
that guy in the dick!’

The Bourbon Kid had fired a
silver dart from a miniature crossbow and it had hit Razor right in the
privates, doubling him over and taking him out of the equation completely.

In the confusion, Beth made a
break for it. It was a futile attempt because Jessica grabbed hold of her
before she’d taken barely two steps. The Vampire Queen wrapped one of her long
bony hands around Beth’s neck. Her fingernails had lengthened into rather
unpleasant looking claws, razor sharp ones.

‘Do you think that was the
signal?’ Flake whispered.

‘It could be. You’re gonna have
to do something pretty quick, or she’s gonna kill Mental Beth.’

Up ahead, Jessica and the Kid
continued to trade insults. Jessica seemed to be calling all the shots though
because the Kid dropped a crossbow from the sleeve of his coat. It clattered
onto the floor. Maybe he was surrendering?

‘Got any other weapons?’ Jessica
asked. ‘Because now’s the time to drop them.’

The Kid opened his coat.
Underneath it he wore a simple black T-shirt and black combat trousers. ‘I have
nothing else. Now let her go.’

‘Take off your coat and get on
your knees,’ Jessica ordered.

‘You’ll let Beth go?’

‘Get on your knees.’

The Kid took off his coat and
tossed it onto the floor. But instead of dropping to his knees he made a swift
movement with his right arm. He reached behind him and whipped out a gun that
had been strapped across his back. He pointed it at Jessica’s head, its red
laser sighter aimed at the centre of her face. Jessica was lightning quick
though. As the Kid was about to squeeze the trigger she yanked Beth’s head into
the line of fire. For several seconds the Kid continued to re-aim the gun at
Jessica. Each time he did she moved a part of Beth into the line of the red
sighter.

In the middle of all this the
guy on the floor with the silver dart in his nut sack let out a gentle groan.
It distracted the Kid who took his eye off Jessica for a second and took aim at
the stricken soldier on the floor.

BANG
!

The guy’s head exploded as a
bullet flew through his forehead. Blood and brains splattered out onto the
marble floor behind him. It created an almighty mess. “
That’ll stain if it
doesn’t get cleaned up soon,”
Sanchez thought, remembering a similar
incident that had taken place in the Tapioca once.

The Kid turned his attentions
back to Jessica and tried once more to line up a clean shot at her. He had no
success. Jessica was just too damned quick. But all the while he had Jessica
distracted it allowed Flake to edge ever closer to her, brandishing The Book
With No Name. As Flake tiptoed almost to within touching distance, the Kid
lowered his gun and addressed Jessica once more.

‘You’ve got no intention of
letting her go, have you?’ he said.

Jessica smiled. ‘I want you to
watch this,’ she said. ‘I’m going to make your darling Beth into a vampire.
She’s going to be my new bitch. And you can be her first victim, unless you
choose to kill her of course. You know, like you did with your mother?’

‘And like I did with Archie
Somers. Shoulda heard him scream. What a bitch.’

Jessica tightened her grip on
Beth’s neck. The claws on the end of her fingers were on the verge of drawing
blood. ‘I’m going to enjoy this,’ she hissed.

The Kid seemed unfazed. ‘I knew
it would come to this. Quit stalling and
do it now. What are you waiting
for?’

Flake stopped creeping towards
Jessica and literally charged at her.

Sanchez watched on in horror as
Jessica, the woman he had been infatuated with for the best part of six years,
opened her mouth wide, revealing a set of huge vampire fangs, thirsty for blood.
She plunged them deep into Beth’s neck, right at the moment Flake ploughed The
Book With No Name into her back.

Jessica and Beth both screamed
out in pain at the same time. It was hard to tell how far Jessica had managed
to dig her fangs into Beth’s neck, but as soon as Flake hit her with the book,
the Vampire Queen reeled back. Flames erupted all around her back where Flake
was pressing the book up against her. These were big fucking flames too.
Sanchez could feel the burning heat from them back where
he
was. In a
matter of seconds Jessica had erupted into one giant fireball. Flake too was
caught up in it.

Sanchez felt his blood run cold
when he heard Flake join in the screaming. He rushed forward and grabbed her,
wrapping his hands around her waist. He tugged hard at her and succeeded in
pulling her free from the flames and the book, which had glued itself to
Jessica’s back. Pulling Flake free hadn’t been easy and the recoil caused
Sanchez to fall back, dragging her onto the floor on top of him.

The Bourbon Kid dragged Beth
clear of the flames, although unlike Sanchez he didn’t lose his footing. He
laid Beth down on the marble floor and then once again took aim with his gun.
This time he had a clean shot. Jessica had nothing to shield herself with. He
fired off a succession of shots. They rang out so quick that Sanchez couldn’t
be sure exactly how many times he fired. But every shot seemed to plough right
into Jessica’s chest as she writhed around in agony within the ball of flames.
The final bullet flew into her face. Her screaming stopped and her body seemed
to implode. The flesh all but disappeared from her body in one quick flash of
light. The Kid stepped back away from the flames and Sanchez watched in awe as
what remained of Jessica slowly crumpled to the floor, her bones crumbling away
into ash as she fell.

And then she was gone. Forever
,
this time
.

The flames where she had once
stood flickered lightly on the floor before extinguishing themselves completely,
leaving nothing more than a pile of grey ash. Behind the dissipating smoke
Sanchez could see the Bourbon Kid. He was crouching over Beth who was slumped
in a heap on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Blood was dribbling from a
large bite-mark in her neck.

Flake freed herself from
Sanchez’s vice like grip and stood up, racing over to the Kid’s side. Sanchez
slowly climbed to his feet.

‘How’s Beth?’ Flake asked. ‘Was
I too late?’

Sanchez couldn’t get a good look
at Beth to see what kind of state she was in. The Kid summed it up for him.

‘She’s either about to die, or
turn into a vampire,’ he said.

‘Oh God,’ said Flake. ‘Is there
anything we can do?’

The Kid leaned down and picked
Beth up in his arms. He had one arm under her knees and another beneath her
shoulders. Her head hung back limply over his arm. Sanchez could see that she
was either unconscious or dead.

The Kid looked down at Beth, his
face showing some genuine concern. ‘We’ve got to get her to the museum,’ he
said.

‘What’s at the museum?’ Flake
asked.

‘Not much,’ said Sanchez. ‘I
went once. It’s mostly paintings and old statues. Crap really.’

The Kid ignored Sanchez and
headed towards the double doors at the end of the hall, carrying Beth in his
arms. ‘The Eye of the Moon is at the museum,’ he said. ‘I’m gonna need your
driving skills, Flake. You coming?’

Flake picked up The Book With No
Name from the floor, brushing some of the remains of Jessica from its cover.
‘You bet,’ she said, hurrying after him.

‘Me too!’ Sanchez called out, making
sure they hadn’t forgotten about him.

He took one last look at the
pile of ash that had once been Jessica. How had it come to this? Jessica was
dead and now he was heading off to a museum with the Bourbon Kid.

Fifty-Four

It took Kacy less than twenty
minutes to race across town to the museum. By the time she arrived she was in a
state of panic. Dante still hadn’t replied to her text. She’d even tried
calling him as she raced through the deserted streets, but his phone was
switched off. In desperation she had also called the Bourbon Kid’s cell phone.
He hadn’t answered either, so she had left him message, a rather garbled,
stupid and incomprehensible message by all accounts, but she hoped the general
gist of it had gotten through. She needed him to get his ass to the museum as
soon as possible.

When she reached the museum she
scoped the area outside for any sign of the Kid’s car. It was nowhere to be
seen, and there was no trail of bodies leading up to the museum entrance, which
was a likely indicator that he hadn’t arrived yet. She was on her own.

Her legs felt weak with nerves
as she raced up the steps to the front entrance. The double doors were open.
She peered through them into the reception area and saw that it was empty. At
least, it looked empty from the outside, but as she stepped inside she saw a
body lying flat on its back at the far side of the reception hall. She
recognised it immediately. It was Vanity.

After first checking both ways
for any lurking enemies, she hurried over to him. Someone had worked him over
real good. His face was bloodied and bruised, his once handsome looks gone
forever. His eyes were closed and very badly swollen. In a strange kind of way
Kacy hoped that Dante had inflicted this beating on the leader of the Shades clan.
But somehow she doubted it. Her gut instincts were telling her that regardless
of what had happened to Vanity, Dante was in trouble. If he was still alive.

She reached down and prodded
Vanity in the chest to see if he was conscious. As her fingertips touched his
chest she felt sure she saw him breathe in, ever so slightly.

‘Vanity,’ she whispered
tentatively. ‘Are you alive?’

He didn’t respond so she nudged
him in the chest again, a little harder this time. His eyes snapped open and
his left hand reached up and grabbed hers, grasping it tightly. It startled her
momentarily, but once the shock of it had subsided she reminded herself that he
was practically dead and in no condition to be a threat to her.

‘What happened here?’ she asked.
‘Where’s Dante?’

Vanity’s mouth opened slightly.
His teeth were covered in blood, mostly his own by the looks of it. A great
deal more blood was stuck in his chin beard, drying rapidly. He stared up at
her, his eyes almost lifeless.

‘Kacy?’ he croaked.

‘Yes. Where’s Dante?’

Vanity coughed up a little blood
and it dribbled out onto his chin. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Gaius has him.’

‘Where? Where did they go?’

‘Downstairs.’ He swallowed a
mouthful of blood, before spluttering out a few more barely audible words.
‘They’re burying him in a tomb.’

Kacy started to stand up, ready
to rush downstairs to find Dante, but Vanity (with every last ounce of strength
he had) kept a grip on her hand and pulled her back down.

‘Wait,’ he croaked. ‘There’s too
many of them. You’ll need this.’ He pressed a small solid object into Kacy’s
hand. Then he released his grip on her and let both his arms fall to his side.