99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale

was the first place they would come to look.

Of course, she’d be dead by then. A wave of horror rippled down her back, hitting every muscle in turn as it went. She wanted to run away. She wanted to start screaming.

She kept control of herself, somehow.

He gestured with the gun again. Clearly he’d never held one before. She would have been a lot more nervous if the safety had been off, but even in the gloom she could see otherwise. She might have been prompted to try some heroic gesture like grabbing the gun away from him. If it hadn’t been for the vampire behind her.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

He only smiled at her, a gruesome parody of a human smile. His teeth looked very sharp in the dim light.

“Were you a soldier?” she asked. When he didn’t answer, she turned to look at Geistdoerfer. “Was he a soldier in the Battle?”

Geistdoerfer lowered his head for a second but didn’t answer her question. Apparently between the two of them they were smart enough to remember she was a cop, and that when she asked questions, she was digging for clues. They weren’t about to give her anything.

The gun moved again and this time she moved, heading down the corridor to a stairwell. Orange light came in through the windows, cast by the sodium vapor lamps outside. The light passed through the leaves of a tree being torn at by the wind, and long daggerlike shadows glided across the steps as she went down. At the bottom she pushed open a door and cold night air billowed in. Beyond lay a parking lot. There were no students out there —maybe they’d been smart enough to take her warning and lock themselves away for the night.

Geistdoerfer’s car was a burgundy-colored Buick Electra, a big old machine with hints of tail fins. He unlocked the driver’s-side door and gestured for her to get in. “I’m driving?” she asked.

For once she was answered. “It doesn’t have power steering, I’m afraid. It makes it frightfully difficult with one hand. Also, you’re the only one who knows where we’re going.”

“I am?” she asked, a little stunned. She had thought the two of them merely intended to get out of town, away from the manhunt she had ordered. Then she felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her. They didn’t want her to take them home with her, did they? Clara was there—

The vampire answered in his grunting, roaring voice. “You must know, I think, where she’s been taken. I could sense her before at something of a closeness, but now she’s gone. Somewhere to the east.”

“I don’t know—” Caxton stammered, but Geistdoerfer cut her off.

“Spare us the declarations of innocence. You must know where she is. I’ve seen your movie, Trooper. I know how closely your fate and hers are wound together. Now where, pray tell, has she gone?”

Caxton’s body froze convulsively with fear. They would hurt Clara—they would kill her. Would they do worse? She knew they could. “Please. Please don’t.”

The vampire grabbed her shoulders. Not hard enough to do any real damage. “Where is Miss Malvern?

I will not be stayed or halted, not after all this time!”

He didn’t want Clara. Her blood started running again in her veins. He wanted Malvern. It made sense.

Vampires held only one thing sacred. The young ones, the active ones, cared for their elders. It was how Malvern had stayed alive for three centuries, by preying on that reverence. Clearly this vampire wanted to take care of her in his turn. As old as he was, he was still a youth compared to Malvern. Caxton wondered what she should do. Would she actually let him get to Malvern? If he brought her blood, if he brought her back to some kind of active life, that would only make things doubly worse. She would have two vampires on her hands instead of one.

It wasn’t like she had much choice, though.

Geistdoerfer pointed the Beretta at her. “I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing, but I think I grasp the finer points. We’re going to sit in the back. I’ll hold the gun, my colleague will sit there and be quietly menacing. You, my dear, will drive us to…to…?”

She could lie. She could drive them somewhere random, she could drive them to the state police headquarters in Harrisburg. The vampire would know, though. He could sense Malvern even at this distance. If she didn’t drive him where he wanted to go, he would just kill her. If she didn’t behave herself, he would have no reason to keep her alive. She wasn’t ready to sacrifice herself just to slow him down. “The Mutter Museum,” she finally admitted, sagging back into the leather of the driver’s seat.

“That’s in Philadelphia, isn’t it? Very good. You’ll take us there now, at a reasonable rate of speed, and you’ll do nothing to make us conspicuous, yes? If you drive off the side of the road or into traffic, I’ll be very upset with you. I’ve spent a lot of time keeping this car in good condition. I’ll also remind you that such dramatics might very well kill me, and your delightful self, but a crash would prove little more than an inconvenience to the boss here. So drive carefully. Okay?”

He raised the gun in his hand and pointed it directly at her forehead.

“Okay?” he asked again.

“Yes,” she said.

“Take the Turnpike,” Geistdoerfer said. “It’ll be the fastest this time of day.” He handed her the keys across the back of her seat and she started up the car.

When they got to Philadelphia, she wondered, how long would the vampire let her live? But at least for the moment she was still in one piece. For the moment she could still think, and try to form a plan.

Not a single idea whatsoever presented itself to her.

What choice did she have? She threw the car into gear and drove out of the lot.

34.

“Obediah?” someone called. It was the ranger Simonon! I looked out through the doorway & saw mounted men gathered in the clearing before the house. The Rebs had returned. “Obediah?”

he hallooed. “Is something amiss in there? I swear I heard gunfire just now.”

We were as rats, stuck inside a trap, & our time was limited. It seemed hopeless.

The Reb cavalry made camp outside the door & settled in as if prepared to wait for days if need be, lighting fires, tying up their horses to the trees, & breaking out what rations they had. We inside could do little but curse our luck; albeit quietly. We made no more noise than four church mice, I think.

The Ranger Simonon did not come in, nor send any man to so much as glance inside the door.

Neither Storrow nor I was foolish enough to think of trying to fight our way out. We possessed amongst us some small number of firearms, but in our desperate state we would have marched through that door only to be slaughtered instantly. We stayed well back from the doorway & tried not to be seen.

—THE STATEMENT OFALVAGRIEST

35.

Outside, through the windows, she watched rural Pennsylvania go by. Houses lit up yellow and orange from shaded lamps, or a flickering blue where the televisions were on. Cars sat in the driveways, or tucked away in garages. Normal people were sitting down to dinner, or they had already finished and were washing up. Good people, and the bad ones too. Normal people. The people she’d pledged her life to protect. “There are a lot of cops in Philadelphia. A lot more than we have out here. I don’t know what you expect to do when you find Malvern,” she said, though she was afraid she did know, “but you’ll have to deal with them eventually. You’ll want blood. Either for her or for you, so you’ll have to feed. You can hide for a while, but—”

The muzzle of the Beretta touched the back of her head. Geistdoerfer snarled at her when he spoke.

“You’re in mortal danger, Trooper. Right now. It’s going to get worse. I can hear the panic in your voice.

Would you like me to put you out of your misery?”

“No,” she said, through gritted teeth.

“You’re not ready to die, then? You’d like to try to live awhile longer?”

She didn’t want to give him even that much. “Yes,” she said anyway.

“Then please don’t talk about what’s inevitable. It’s going to ruin my digestion.”