A man tried to climb past the wreckage of the car to circle me, and without pause I threw a knife into his skull. Something about the sudden scream and then silence let me know I’d just killed a human. Vampires didn’t go down that easy. Curiously I felt not the slightest twinge of guilt. If they were after me then they were evil, heartbeat or no heartbeat.
Sirens blared in the distance, coming closer. Obviously Mansfield had gotten the message. Through the crumbling wall of the home’s exterior I saw the flash of red and blue lights, many of them. A small army was descending. The vampires left standing saw them also and began to scatter. This was what we’d hoped for. They were so much more convenient to kill when they faced away from us. More silver found flesh when they sprang through the remnants of the house.
Unholy exultation filled me, and a howl of victorious slaughter erupted from my throat. It shook the remains of the glass in the windows as I prowled swiftly through the bodies to find another one to destroy. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bones, grinning evilly and tearing apart a vamp unlucky enough to be in front of him. An arm sailed across the carnage to land in the pile of body parts, followed by a head.
“Police! Drop your…!”
The voice on the bullhorn abruptly choked off when their spotlight lit upon the scene. Only about six vampires remained and three of them were pierced with multiple blades. Shots began to ring out from the officers’ guns as they fired wildly at everything that moved, not knowing what in the world they were shooting at. This caused the surviving vamps to turn on the police. I stayed down, bullets being much more harmful to me. From this low vantage point I saw Hennessey and Switch, those slime bags, crawling around the ruins of the car. They were almost at the opening in the wall, and from there they could run for the nearby woods.
A seething hatred burst inside me, and I had only one distinct, crystallized thought. Over my dead body. They weren’t going anywhere unless I was cold on the ground.
“Hennessey!” I snarled. “I’m coming for you!”
Hennessey turned his head with a look of disbelief. Switch didn’t. He started to crawl faster. His throat had healed from my earlier run-in with him, and from the way he hustled, he didn’t want a rematch.
I only had one knife left, but it was a big one. My hand closed around it with the grip of the damned. I crouched, channeling all my energy, and sprang at them with complete disregard for the raining bullets. Switch was smaller and he used that to his advantage, ducking under the twisted frame of the car. Hennessey was a large man. A perfect target, and I landed on him with all my rage propelling me. Both of us slammed into the side of the house.
More plaster came down. Hennessey went for my neck, but I shoved him back at the same time. His teeth landed in my collarbone instead. Pain sliced into me at his fangs tearing my flesh. Because we were wedged between the car and the crumbling wall, I couldn’t throw him off. Hennessey shook his head like a shark, opening the wound wider, while one arm was uselessly trapped underneath me. I kicked him brutally, but he didn’t let go. This was the worst position for me to be in with a vampire, which was why I’d trained so hard with my knives to kill at a distance. Oddly enough, Spade’s words rang in my head. That beating pulse in your neck is your greatest weakness… Hennessey and I both knew that all he had to do was hang on and I’d be finished. Each shake of his mouth brought him closer to my throat.
In a split second, I made my decision. I might go down, but I’m taking you with me. My free arm I’d been holding him back with I used to wrap around him instead. Hennessey lifted his head enough to grin, blood dripping from his jaws, and then he brought his mouth to my unprotected neck.
Even as his fangs pushed against my skin, I rammed the silver knife through his back. His whole body stiffened, but I didn’t pause to see if it was enough. I kept twisting and digging the blade deeper into him, feeling him jerk spasmodically with each plunge, until he stopped moving altogether. The mouth at my throat lost its menace, became slack, and when I pushed him off, he was literally and figuratively dead weight.
There was no time to celebrate. Gunfire concentrated away from the house caused me to whip my head up just in time to see Switch disappearing into the trees. He’d gotten through the police line and was running for his freedom.
I jumped up to chase him, but a bullet whizzing too close for comfort made me duck back down again.
“Bones!” I shrieked. “Switch is getting away! He’s going for the trees!”
Bones punched through the neck of the vampire closest to him, his hand proceeding out the other side. Four bullets landed on him in quick succession, but he barely glanced at the wounds. His face contorted with indecision. If he went for Switch he’d have to leave me behind, because the goal had been to exit before the full cavalry arrived. We hadn’t anticipated the numbers inside. Failing that, Bones would’ve used his body as a shield as we ran. Neither of these options would work now, however. Not if he intended to catch Switch.
All I could think of was my grandmother staring in silent accusation and my grandfather slumped on the kitchen floor.
“Get him now, come back for me later. Get him!”
This last was a roar of unbridled vehemence. I wanted that creature dead. Truly, painfully dead. All else could wait.
Decision made, Bones dashed through the room at speeds a car couldn’t manage. Bullets were too slow to land on him. In a blink he was gone.
One of the remaining vampires took the initiative and hurled one of my knives at me. The silver was buried high into my thigh, missing the artery by inches. Ignoring the pain, I yanked it from my leg and sent it unerringly into his heart, rewarded with a cut-off squeal of agony.
Suddenly a blast sounded in my ears and I was thrown sideways. When I’d sat up to aim my knife, someone else had aimed at me. Hot searing metal tore into my shoulder as the bullet struck home. Gasping, I felt around for the wound and heard voices nearly on top of me.
“Don’t move! Don’t move! Hands in the motherfuckin’ air!”
A trembling cop stood over me flanked by three others, and their scared eyes swept the bloodbath that was the living room. Slowly I raised my hands, wincing at the shards of pain seizing my shoulder.
“You’re under arrest,” a panicked officer wheezed, the whites of his eyes rolling in his head. The stench of his fear overwhelmed me.
“Thank God,” I replied. All things considered, it was a better ending than I’d expected.
TWENTY-FOUR
T HEY READ ME MY RIGHTS, SOMETHING I didn’t pay much attention to, because I didn’t need the Miranda warning to know that shutting the hell up was in my best interest. Then, after half an hour of refusing to answer any questions while I was handcuffed to a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, a tall, skinny cop muscled his way through the crowd.
“I’m taking her in with me, Kirkland.”
The officer who’d read me my rights, presumably Kirkland, balked. “Lieutenant Isaac? But-”
“Soon this place will be crawling with media helicopters and we need some answers, don’t ‘Lieutenant’ me!” the man snapped.
“Hey, I’m shot here, guys. You know, bleeding and all that,” I pointed out.
“Shut up,” Isaac said curtly, and uncuffed me from the stretcher. The medical attendants gazed at him in disbelief. Isaac then yanked me by my cuffed hands to follow after him, sending fresh pain through my shoulder. Kirkland gaped, but he didn’t say anything. He looked like he couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Lieutenant Kirkland shoved me none too gently into the back of an unmarked police car. The only thing official about it was the red flashing light on the dashboard. I glanced around, surprised. Was this usual procedure?
“I’m injured, and you clowns have already been at me for thirty minutes. Aren’t I supposed to be taken to a hospital?” I asked as Isaac hit the gas.
“Shut up,” he said again, weaving through the maze of police cars around the demolished property.
“Because any good lawyer would totally call this a violation of my rights,” I went on, ignoring that.
He glared at me in the rearview mirror. “Shut the fuck up,” he replied, drawing out each word.
This didn’t feel normal. Of course, this was my first time being arrested, but still. I sniffed the air questioningly.
