99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale

as easy as possible. If there was any real damage to her throat, then running around and chasing vampires would probably just make it worse.

Besides, the vampire was already gone. Once again he’d escaped her. Once again she’d failed.

Harold disappeared for a while, but finally came back with a paper cone full of cold water. It felt very good going down and she thanked him, even managing to squeak out her appreciation in words that only felt like butter knives as they came out of her. “I’m,” she said, and paused for a second. “I’m Trooper Laura Cax—”

“Oh, yeah, I know who you are,” he said, a big goofy smile on his face. He was a short guy, maybe fifty years old with curly scraps of pale hair sticking out of the bottom of a navy blue baseball cap. He wore gray overalls and yellow Timberland boots.

“Did Ark—” she stopped. Trying to pronounce hard k sounds made her feel as if a nail was lodged in her esophagus. “Did the other officer tell you I was here?” she finally managed to ask. She glanced down at the paper cone in her hand. A single drop of water remained lodged in the fold at its bottom. She licked it out eagerly and wished she had more.

“What, Jameson? Aw, no. He didn’t tell me about you. I just recognized you, is all. From that movie Teeth . That was awesome.”

She wanted to roll her eyes. Instead she said, “Thanks.” Then she grimaced. Another hard k .

“That one scene, where Clara kisses you for the first time? That was so fucking hot. I must’ve watched that like a hundred times.”

Caxton rolled her eyes. That scene always embarrassed her when she watched it. Had she really been that easy? “I have to see something,” she said. Slowly she rose to her feet, bracing herself against the wall behind her. When she was relatively certain she wouldn’t fall over again, she made her way down the stairs at the end of the hall. At the bottom a fire door stood half open, cool air from outside billowing in.

She pushed it open and stepped outside, the night feeling good on her face for once. She breathed in a deep lungful that soothed her throat, then looked around. She stood on the edge of the parking lot. The Buick stood just where she’d left it. She saw the Dumpsters as well, one of which held the dead body of Professor Geistdoerfer. “Harold,” she called back over her shoulder, “I need your help.”

It was not easy getting the corpse out of the Dumpster. It took real work to lift Geistdoerfer over the lip of the container. Harold took the weight from her so she didn’t have to just dump the dead man on the asphalt. Once that was done they carried him inside the Mutter building, Harold holding his feet, Caxton carrying him with her hands laced under his armpits. Geistdoerfer’s wounded hand dragged on the ground, but it didn’t leave a trail of blood. Every drop had been drained from his body and none of it had gone to waste.

Caxton knew that the body was a possible threat. The vampire had killed him and by so doing had established a magical link between the two of them. It was within the vampire’s power to call Geistdoerfer back from death, to literally raise him as a servant who could not fail to do the vampire’s bidding. It could happen at any time, over enormous distances, so they had to watch the corpse every second. She needed a place to keep it while she decided what to do next.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia was mostly a meeting place for doctors and researchers, with lecture halls and conference rooms taking up most of its space. In the basement, however, there was a suite of rooms used for preparing specimens for the museum. It looked remarkably similar to the facilities in the Civil War Era Studies department at Gettysburg College, though the equipment was much older and less shiny. They laid out Geistdoerfer on an autopsy table there. Caxton folded his arms across his chest to try to give him some dignity, then wondered what to do next. They would need an ambulance or a hearse to take him to a funeral home. She would have to try to locate his family to let them know where they could pick him up. Then she would also have to convince them to cremate him.

First, though, she needed to start coordinating with the Philadelphia police, let them know there was a vampire loose in their streets. Her cell phone didn’t get any reception in the basement, so she left Harold in charge of watching the body while she went upstairs. Halfway there she ran into Arkeley coming down.

“He got away,” she said.

“Of course he did.” The scars that crisscrossed Arkeley’s face didn’t constrain him from throwing her a look of utter contempt. If anything, they made his sneer look worse. “You couldn’t wait ten more seconds?”

She tried to ignore him. “I need to call the loc-c-cal c-, the c-, the authorities,” she gargled, holding up her phone. She tried to push past him, but he stopped her.

“Don’t bother. I contacted them when I got your text message. I had already warned them something like this might happen.”

Of course he had. Arkeley had always been ready for bad things to happen. It was how he lived his life.

It was his most basic philosophy. She let her shoulders sag and put her phone away.

“They’ll have units all over this part of town by now. Cops flashing their lights down every alley and back lot, helicopters up and scanning the rooftops. Of course it won’t come to anything.”

No, she supposed it wouldn’t. Vampires were smarter and faster than garden-variety criminals. They knew instinctively how to blend into the shadows, how to use the night to their advantage. The regular police had little chance of finding him.

Caxton glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even midnight. This late in the year the vampire would have plenty of darkness to work with, maybe seven more hours. How far could he get in that time? Or perhaps he would stay nearby, find a good hiding place where he could sleep through the day. Then he could come back the next night to try to rescue Malvern again.

“You damned fool. I expect you to screw things up from time to time. But it looks like even I underestimated your ability to ruin a perfectly good plan.”

Exhaustion pushed down on her shoulders, but anger lifted her up: sudden, hot anger. Indignation. “Shut up,” she said, wishing she had thought of some better words. Like maybe, How dare you?

“I’m doing my best. You threw me into this shitty situation and I’m doing everything I c-can.” The hard k sounds didn’t hurt so much when she was pissed off, she realized. “I’m the one chasing this bloodsucker, not you. I think I deserve a little respect.”

“Oh?” he asked.

“Yes. If I hadn’t taken action he could have revived Malvern. He could have carried her out of here while you just watched.”

Arkeley’s deep-set eyes twinkled a little, even the one under his paralyzed eyelid. “Interesting,” he said.

“Fucking fascinating,” she replied, though she had no idea what he was talking about.

“You seem to be under the false impression that our pale friend came here to rescue her.” Arkeley’s mouth moved in a way that might have conveyed some kind of emotion on a normal face. On his features it just looked like a worm crawling from one cheek to the other. “Come with me.”

42.

TIME it was that proved our undoing. We were in danger of our lives all that day. We dared not do anything to alleviate our fears, or to improve our situation. We periodically checked on Simonon & his men, but they did not stir or make any sign of decamping. I think we all guessed what they waited for. For night, & the return of the vampire, from wherever he had gone. We knew he was not in the house, for we had seen his coffin, & it was empty. If he did not return, would we be trapped for the next day as well, & the next? Simonon looked a patient man, for all the tales of his butchery Storrow could relate.

The day passed as they do. Soldiers know how to wait; it is what they learn best. We passed our time as we might. I longed to return to the door down the hall & speak again with Bill, but I did not.

As orange light tinctured the sky above the trees I think we all held our breath, uncertain whether to feel relieved, or affeared. There was some excitement in the Reb camp as well, of a not wholly different character, I think. The tension grew, & mounted, but it did not last long. We Yanks, German Pete, Storrow, Nudd, & me, crowded the window, & didn’t worry who might see our faces there.