The Book of Death (43 page)

‘What am I supposed to do with
this?’ Kacy asked.

Vanity swallowed hard once more.
His time was coming to an end. He took in a short sharp intake of breath and
muttered two words. ‘Use it...’

‘Use it for what?’

He took another short breath. As
he exhaled he coughed up a few more words. ‘Use it to…’

‘To what? Use it to what?’

‘Use it to…’ He couldn’t muster
up the rest of the sentence. Instead he exhaled one last time and then his head
slid to one side. Kacy squeezed his cheeks and turned his head to face her.

‘Use it to what?’ she pleaded.
‘What’s it for?’

Vanity didn’t respond.

‘What’s it for?’ she repeated.
‘Vanity! Vanity! Use it for what?’

It was no use. Vanity was no
longer breathing. He was dead. Who or what had killed him she wasn’t entirely
sure, but she had neither the time nor the patience to stop and worry about it.
Instead she climbed to her feet and hurried over to the stairs that led down to
the lower floor and the Egyptian Mummy’s Tomb.

As she made her way down the
stairs, she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and
checked the display.

NEW TEXT MESSAGE

She opened the message. It was
from the Bourbon Kid. It was only four words long, but it was exactly what Kacy
needed to hear.

I’m on my way.

She breathed a sigh of relief.
The feeling of respite, however, lasted only momentarily. When she reached the
bottom of the stairs she saw Rameses Gaius. He was stood with his back to her
in the middle of the giant hall. In front of him were four vampires from the
Black Plague clan, dressed from head to toe in black ninja style outfits. On
the floor in the middle of them was Dante. It was clear that he was either
unconscious or dead. The ninjas had managed to wrap him in bandages from his
feet up to his waist. His clothes had been stripped off and thrown to the floor
by the tomb entrance. Vanity had been right, they were preparing to bury him
alive, all bandaged up like a mummy.

None of them had seen her arrive
and she quickly concealed herself behind a large statue of Napoleon Bonaparte.
She had to decide what to do quickly. Was there time to wait for the Bourbon
Kid? What could she do on her own? As she was mulling over her options she
heard the voice of Rameses Gaius. He hadn’t even looked around, but he’d become
aware of her presence.

‘Miss Fellangi, how good of you
to join us!’ he called out to her.

She pretended not to hear him
and stayed concealed behind the statue. The four ninja vampires looked around.
None of them spotted Kacy spying on them from her spot behind the statue.

Gaius called out again. ‘Please
come out from behind Napoleon.’

The game was clearly up. Kacy stepped
out from her hiding place behind the statue. Her only option was to try and
stall Gaius long enough for the Bourbon Kid to arrive and hopefully fix things.

‘Is Dante alive?’ she asked.

Gaius turned around slowly and
faced her. He took off his dark sunglasses and tucked them into the breast
pocket on his silver suit jacket. Kacy got a good look at his right eye. In its
socket was the Eye of the Moon. So much for taking it out to have it polished.
While she stared at his eye, Gaius raised his right arm. The palm on his hand
was glowing a bright blue colour and it was aimed at her. She sensed something
bad was coming her way and darted back behind the statue.

A blue laser bolt from Gaius’s
palm blasted into the floor right where she had been standing. After striking
the ground, it ricocheted up and disappeared out of sight up the staircase
behind her. His face showed signs of irritation. He redirected his aim,
pointing his hand at the statue of Napoleon. Another laser bolt flew from his
palm and crashed into the head of the statue. The sheer force of the bolt
knocked it off its concrete stand. The statue tumbled down onto Kacy. She tried
to dive out of the way but Napoleon’s hat butted her on the side of the head,
knocking her to the floor.

As she lay dazed and
disorientated underneath Napoleon, she heard Gaius speak out again. He wasn’t
talking to her this time. He was addressing the four vampires he had brought
with him.

‘Go get her,’ he ordered. ‘Wrap
her up and throw her in the tomb with her idiot boyfriend.’

‘Yes sir,’ one of the vampires
replied.

She felt a pair of cold hands
haul her up from the floor. Her cell phone fell from her pocket and clattered
onto the floor. She was still seeing stars so she had no idea where it landed.
As she was dragged across the floor by one of the ninjas, she heard one of the
others speak out.

‘Hey Gaius, according to this
bitch’s phone, the Bourbon Kid is on his way here.’

Fifty-Five

Sanchez opened the front door of
the Casa de Ville and peered out into the courtyard. Just as he feared, there
were still vampires, zombies and werewolves tearing each other apart and
spraying blood and guts all over the snow on the ground. Worryingly, there were
also quite a few of them scrapping in the space between him and the police
squad car Flake had parked near the bottom of the concrete steps below him.
Getting to the car was going to be difficult and dangerous.

He turned back to see where the
others were. At the back of the reception area Flake was holding open a door so
that the Bourbon Kid could carry Beth through it. He had her in his arms,
resting her head against his left bicep to stop it from drooping back and
causing her any discomfort. The woman’s time on earth was limited, that much
was evident to Sanchez. She was barely conscious and seemed oblivious to all
that was going on. Lucky bitch.

Flake let go of the door and
rushed past them towards him. ‘What’s it like out there?’ she asked.

‘Not too bad,’ he replied.
‘Here, why I don’t hold this door open for the others while you go start the
car.’

‘Okay,’ said Flake. ‘Good
thinking.’

Sanchez held the door open for
her and ushered her out into the courtyard. She had The Book With No Name
tucked under one arm, so he figured she was probably pretty safe. As she
charged down the steps to the car, she held it up in front of her in case
anything lunged at her.

Sanchez turned back to see the
Bourbon Kid approaching with Beth. ‘Flake’s just starting the car,’ he said.
‘It’s right out front. You head on through. I’ll cover your back.’

The Kid peered around the door
at the carnage outside. Then he looked back at Sanchez. ‘You sure you don’t
want me to carry you out too?’ he asked.

It was a tempting offer, but
Sanchez sensed he was just being sarcastic. ‘I’ll be okay. Come on, let’s go.’

The Kid stepped through the
door, taking great care not to bang Beth’s head against the door’s frame.
Sanchez drew his nightstick from his belt and followed him out.

Flake had already started the
engine on the car and was reversing it back up against the steps to ensure
their journey from the front door to the car was as short as possible. She
flicked on the headlight too which drew the attention of a few of the nearby
undead creatures. Sanchez shoved the Bourbon Kid in the back to hurry him along
in case any of the vampires or werewolves decided to lunge at him. The Kid
strode quickly down the steps towards the car. Most of the undead knew full
well who he was and steered clear of him. Sanchez took advantage of the
situation and was able to follow along behind in the Kid’s slipstream, pausing
only to thump a legless zombie over the head with his nightstick.

They made it to the car
untouched. Sanchez rushed around the Kid to open the back door, hoping to dive
in before any vampires swooped. As he pulled the door open, he lost his footing
on the icy driveway and fell back on to his ass. The Kid sidled up and
carefully placed Beth onto the back seat of the car. He climbed in after her
and pulled the door shut behind him.

Sanchez staggered to his feet
and saw a huge werewolf bounding across the driveway toward him. It was a big
hairy beast that had taken on the shape of a giant wolfhound. It was probably a
pure breed, born a werewolf under a full moon. The worst kind. It had great big
fangs and bloodthirsty eyes that were focussed on him. There was no sense in
hanging around waiting for the bastard to get any closer. But as Sanchez
lumbered forward to the car the beast leapt up in the air, swooping towards
him, fangs wide open, ready to take a bite out of his face.

Luckily, Flake had seen the
werewolf approach. She reached over from the driver’s seat and flung the
passenger side door open. It hit the wolf in the face, making a sickening
crunching sound. It knocked the beast back down the driveway, eliciting an
agonised yelp.

Sanchez needed no second
invitation and dived into the front passenger seat, slamming the door shut
behind him. He looked over at Flake. ‘Get us the fuck out of here!’ he
screamed.

Flake didn’t really need to be
told. She pressed her foot down hard on the accelerator and the car zipped off
down the driveway. Vampires, zombies and werewolves bounced up onto the hood of
the car as it screeched along the icy path towards the front gates.

‘Are you trying to hit them
all?’ Sanchez asked as a Panda’s face splatted against the windscreen directly
in front of him.

‘It’s kinda hard to avoid them,’
said Flake, fighting with the steering wheel.

Sanchez looked over his shoulder
to the back seat. The Bourbon Kid had Beth draped across his lap. He was
brushing her hair away from her face and wrapping a white rag around her neck
to stem the flow of blood from the wound Jessica had inflicted upon her.

‘How’s it look, man?’ Sanchez
asked.

‘Not good. We need to be at the
museum in a matter of minutes if we’re gonna have any chance of saving her.’

‘It’s eleven thirty already!’
Flake shouted back.

‘Then I’ve only got half an
hour,’ said the Kid. ‘Put your foot on it, Flake.’

‘You got it.’

Sanchez shuffled back around in
his seat and watched Flake steer the car through the front gates and turn left
onto the road. ‘Jesus Flake, Stevie Wonder drives better than you!’ he yelled.

‘And he plays the piano better
than you, so shut up,’ came the reply.

Sanchez ignored the insult. He
was just relieved to see that the road into town was free from undead monsters.
He hadn’t exactly approved of Flake’s driving on previous occasions when he’d
been in a car with her. She had a habit of hitting something every thirty
seconds, whether it be a vampire, werewolf, zombie or simply a book. At least
when Sanchez hit something like a snowman, it was intentional. With Flake at
the wheel he had to take up his default position, gripping the dashboard
tightly with both hands and hoping for the best. By some small miracle, Flake
didn’t crash into anything else for the rest of the journey to the museum, in
spite of the icy roads and her high speed driving.

After a ten-minute rollercoaster
ride across town, she parked up right outside the front of the museum.

‘We’re here,’ she yelled back to
the Kid.

He was already opening the back
door and climbing out. He slammed it behind him and stepped onto the pavement.
Instead of racing straight into the museum he tapped on Sanchez’s window.
Sanchez wound it down a few inches.

‘Whassup?’ he asked.

The Kid leaned as far into the
space at the top of the window as he could. ‘Flake, take care of Beth for me.
I’ll be back as quick as I can.’

‘Sure thing,’ said Flake. ‘Good
luck!’

The Kid dashed off up the stairs
to the museum. Sanchez wound his window back up and peered over his shoulder at
the back seat. Beth was laid out in a state of unconsciousness, her head rested
against the seat. She was barely breathing. It was entirely possible that she
might either die or transform into a vampire at any minute. ‘We best stay up
front,’ he suggested.

Flake scowled at him. ‘She’s
dying,
for goodness’ sake. I’m gonna go sit in the back with her to make sure she’s
okay.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Sanchez. He
reached down and picked up The Book With No Name, which Flake had thrown onto
the floor by his feet when she got into the car. ‘I’ll keep hold of this book
in case she transforms and we have to kill her.’

Flake had just opened the
driver’s side door to climb out. She hesitated and looked back at The Book With
No Name in Sanchez’s hands. ‘Oh shit!’ she said, wide eyed. ‘The Kid’s gone
into the museum without the book! You’d better take it and run in after him!’

‘What?’

‘I promised I’d stay here with
Beth. You’d better run on in after the Kid and give him the book. He’ll never
get the Eye of the Moon back without it!’

Sanchez looked out of his
window. The front door of the museum was open. The Kid had already gone through
it. If Sanchez wanted to catch up with him before he confronted Rameses Gaius
he was going to have to get a move on. He tucked The Book With No Name under
his arm and opened the car door. As he climbed out, Flake raced around from the
other side of the car. She opened the back door so that she could climb in and attend
to Beth. Before she climbed in she hesitated. Then she reached out and grabbed
a hold of Sanchez’s arm. She pulled him over to her.