The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (17 page)

His eyes were glaring at
dad and Chaz. Taking advantage of his short attention span and his
superiority complex, I pulled Roscoe out and put a slug right into
his head. He dropped like a bag of potatoes right in the middle of
the church.

“
Victor! What are you
doing, son? He challenged us to combat and you shot
him!”

I just shrugged my
shoulders and grinned at dad. I looked over at the others. Reno and
Billy were laughing, Liz was shaking her head, and Chaz had a
stupid smile on his face.

“
Gentlemen and lady, I hate
to break up the victory party, but Austin is getting
up.”

Sure enough, following the
pointed finger of Pastor Browne, the kid was indeed getting up to
his feet.

“
I guess we are going to
have to do this the hard way after all. I hope you’re happy,
dad.”

The howling behind me told
me he was. 

“
Pastor, I think it would
be best if you waited outside. Billy, would you escort
him?”

“
Of course, Vic. Come with
me, Pastor Browne.” I felt better without him having to witness
this. I turned my attention to the kid getting off the floor. The
bullet hole had already closed up.

“
Again, you disappoint me,
Inspector Inglewood. My father spoke highly of your character, no
matter how misguided it was. First, you throw a knife at me, and
then you shoot me.”

“
Sorry if the opinions of
mad men don’t bother me. Maybe if your dad didn’t fill you full of
the blood of my people, I wouldn’t feel the need to shoot
you.”

As he stood there glaring
at me, his eyes turned red again. I looked at his hands and they
also were changing, his nails elongated into claws. “Now you see
what you are up against. I have both the strength of a werewolf and
speed of a vampire. Where others have failed, I will
succeed.”

Even with three fully
formed werewolves, two vampires, and myself, I got the impression
we might be outgunned. A large Red werewolf with a white streak on
his chest walked forward and gave a hair rising howl. He was soon
followed by a smaller Red and an even larger Black wolf. The pack
had spoken.

“
A challenge then? I
accept.” Austin’s evil grin spread across his face, this is exactly
what he wanted.

“
Reno, Liz, this is a pack
challenge. I need you guys to stay out of this. To interfere would
be an insult to our way of life.” I walked up and stood beside dad.
I should have been worried, but I wasn’t. The adrenaline felt
good.

“
Vic, you cannot! You are
not able to transform!”

I turned back and looked at
Liz. “Don’t you worry; I’ve gotten out of tougher scrapes.” When
our eyes met, something made her back down. Instead of retorting
back, she just took a deep breath and nodded.

I pulled out my grandpa’s
tanto and took my stance. I thought about pushing the issue and
extending my claws, but the tanto in my hand filled me with
confidence.

The four of us spread out
and encircled him. I figured he would target an attack at me since
I was the weak link. I was wrong; he went for Chaz, the biggest and
strongest of all of us. Bernard and I were beside him and we closed
the gap, but he got to Chaz before we did. His speed was impressive
and he eluded all of Chaz’s attacks and elbowed him in the head.
The blow was vicious and knocked him down.

Austin’s biggest weakness
seemed to be that he could be distracted easily. While he focused
on attacking Chaz, he completely neglected Bernard and me. Right
after the elbow to Chaz’s head was delivered, Bernard snapped into
the back of his calf and I put the tanto right through his
shoulder. He collapsed under the double team attack and when we
jumped out of the way, dad landed on him and ripped into his
back.

Unfortunately for all of
us, none of this really mattered. In the middle of dad’s attack,
Austin started to stand up and shoulder tossed dad right off of him
onto Chaz.

“
Is this the best your
pathetic species has to offer? I hope when I finish with you guys,
the vampires have something better to offer.”

He looked over and winked
at Liz. That sent me over the edge. Faster than I ever drew a gun
before, I put two more bullets into him. The impact from the
bullets put him back on the ground, face down. I looked over at dad
and Chaz and they were getting back to their feet. Bernard was
doing okay too.

“
Seems to me, Austin, that
this isn’t as easy as you thought it would be. Maybe if you weren’t
such a putz you would have a better chance.”

He was getting up again,
but a bit slower this time. Both bullets had gone into his heart,
so maybe he did have a weakness. Not one to slow down, I put
another one right into his calf. He wasn’t expecting it and dropped
back down.

“
You better learn to be
prepared for every attack. Your dad might have pumped you full of
Holy Water, but he certainly didn’t teach you how to
fight.”

He looked up at me with
contempt building in his eyes. “Don’t you dare insult my father! I
will bring your heads back to him as a trophy worthy of his
place!”

It sickened me just how
much Tucker has twisted his own son. Chaz, Bernard, and dad were
grouped behind me. He was staring us down so intently that he never
saw Liz’s attack coming. She came in fast with the tanto and like
she had with the monster at the old hospital, took his head off
cleanly. It happened so fast that he still had the look of contempt
in his eyes from his conversation with me. I wasn’t proud of our
deception, but it had to be done.

“
Whatever cocktail they
mixed up, I’m pretty sure only cutting off the head or severe
damage to the heart is the only way to put them down for good.” He
had survived four gunshots, numerous bites from a werewolf, and
being stabbed.

“
Let’s take this body back
to Dr. Tello for examination. Maybe she can tell us exactly what
Tucker did to his own kid.” Chaz was already back in is human
form.

“
That is a good idea. Maybe
this time we can…” My phone started ringing. I looked at it and I
knew exactly who this was. “Well Warren, I didn’t think it was
possible to sink any lower, but you managed.”

“
Do not talk to me daemon
about sinking low. Look at who you consort with. But that is not
the reason for my call this time. I just wanted to congratulate you
for surviving. I hope you enjoy your moral victory.”

“
We just had to kill your
son, you psycho! How could you do that to him?”

“
Austin was just a tool and
even in death he serves a purpose. You see he was never meant to
survive.”

This guy was just getting
sicker and sicker. “You sent him here to die?”

“
An interesting thing
happens when you mix mercury, vampire’s blood, and werewolf’s
blood. When the host dies, it gets rather unstable to say the
least. Like I said, I hope you enjoyed the moral victory, as mine
is fast approaching.” The phone clicked, Tucker had hung up on me
again.

“
What did he say,
Vic?”

“
Something about how he
hopes we enjoy our victory as he sent his son here to die.” I
looked down at the headless corpse of Austin Tucker and my ears
picked up the sounds of popping. It was barely audible to start,
but it was becoming increasingly loud. “Everyone, out of the church
now!”

They all looked at me like
I was mad, but I pushed Liz and soon they were all following me. We
were about half way out the door when Austin’s body blew up like a
bomb. We all dove out of the front, much to the surprise of Billy
and Pastor Browne. Fire erupted out of the entrance of the church
and soon the entire place was ablaze. It was just like the guy in
the mines all over again.

“
It was a kamikaze mission
from the start! They knew if we killed him that his body would blow
up and take us with it!” That idiot Tucker had unintentionally
tipped us off with his own arrogance. If he hadn’t call, we’d all
be crispy critters.

Pastor Browne was staring
at the church, tears coming from his eyes. I think he now knew just
how serious the situation was. “Victor, what happened in
there?”

I gave him the cliff notes
version and his shock turned to disgust when I relayed the message
Tucker had given me. “He sent his own son to die in the hopes that
he would kill us.”

“
May God have mercy on
Austin’s soul for his father’s delusions. I do not know what help I
can be to you, but I would like to join the good fight.”

“
Welcome aboard, Pastor
Browne, always a pleasure to have someone like you on the team. You
are a good man; this is all Tucker’s fault, no one
else’s.”

“
As it is my right, I
hereby strip Rev. Warren Tucker of his position in the church and
ex-communicate him. In his foolish quest, he has transformed into a
monster.”

Billy came up and put a
hand on Pastor Browne’s shoulder. I couldn’t imagine the stress he
was going through, Tucker had been his friend. I walked over to the
car and dad and Liz followed me.

“
You did well in there,
son. I know it bothers you that he forced you to use so much lethal
force, but as you told the good Pastor, it is his fault, not
yours.”

“
Yes Vic, you have once
again shown why you are the one who will bring him in. We have a
location now and even more information. Have faith, just like you
told me to.”

I smiled at both of them.
“Thanks guys. If some of you want to head back to Full Moon, I’ll
stay here with Pastor Browne until the locals show up.”

“
It’s okay boy, Bernard and
I can handle this. It’s your turn to take the rest of the evening
off.”

“
How will we get
home?”

Dad tossed me the keys to
his Armada. “Take Chaz and Reno with you. We will bring Billy and
Pastor Browne back in his Navigator.”

Soon the four of us were on
the road back to Full Moon. The night had been tough, but we got
what we came for. Warren Tucker was in the Sacramentos and it was
time we found him. 

“
This is nice, but I am
trying to figure out what I did to deserve the royal
treatment.”

After we had dropped Chaz
off, I mentioned that I was hungry. Liz told me to wait until we
got home, that she would take care of it. Once we got home and Reno
took his usual post for the night out front, I was instructed to go
take a shower. Now I was back down here, all clean, to find a steak
dinner prepared for me. The meat was even cooked perfectly, medium
rare. Baked potatoes and a cold beer topped off this perfect
looking meal.

“
Just because you do not
see it does not mean the rest of us do not. You handled the
situation at the church befitting a man who leads people not
follows. I might be the ambassador of the region, but we are lucky
to have you as our chief inspector.”

“
I can drink to that. To
us, let’s hope this is the first of many successful cases we work
together.”

I was getting ready to take
a drink when I noticed Liz still had her cup in the air. “To us,
Vic may this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship together,
not just professional but personal as well.”

“
You sure this is what you
want? You have a long life ahead of you and eventually I am going
to get old and useless.”

“
Well, you already are
useless in many ways outside of your investigative skills.” I had
to chuckle; she puts things into perspective. “We do not know what
the future holds, but the present we can act upon. Here and now I
know you are the best thing to come into my life in many lifetimes.
I am ready to hold on and fight for that, if you are.”

Who am I to say no to such
a pretty lady? “To the here and now then. I’ll fight tooth and nail
to protect us and all of our friends.”

The rest of dinner was a
quiet and peaceful time. Cristof had dropped off a new supply of
blood for Liz, so she drank her idea of a Bloody Mary while I
polished off just about everything on the table.

“
Have you ever met any of
the wolves coming tomorrow, Vic?”

“
No, the other Alphas never
pop into town too often and when they do, they only deal with the
others. Seeing as I was the Omega for the longest time, even as
sheriff, I wasn’t allowed to attend any meetings.”

“
I will never understand
the pack hierarchy. It seems very old fashioned, and that is saying
a lot coming from me.”

“
If it’s not broke, we
don’t fix it, right? Besides, it is all we know. If you took away
how we lived, what would we have? A bunch of wolves running around
all pretending to be the Alpha. At least the way it is keeps
order.”

“
How convicted you are to
your causes is one of your most charming personality
traits.”

“
I feel the same way about
you. I know you had some bumps in the past and I may have judged
you too harshly at first, but look at who you are now. You’re
certainly not broken, so there is no need for me to fix
you.”