“The man?”
“The man. And I don’t think he came up because he was thirstier than she was, Carl. I think he came up to kill us and take Jack here and make him a vampire.”
Then they told Carl about the exploding elevator.
And about the crossbow.
Carl looked pale. “He actually
Jack nodded.
“At what range?”
“Twelve feet.”
Carl stared. “Lord!” he whispered.
“‘Gods’ is the way he put it,” said the previously silent Father Adam. The priest’s voice was hard. “He said they were gods and he said we were fools with wooden stakes. He said Jack was the pope’s altar boy.”
Carl blinked. “Anything else?”
From Cat: “He doesn’t like white crosses — but they can’t kill him. He’s not afraid of… what was it? Garlic? He said he’d break Felix’s back or something if he even pointed a gun at him.”
“What did Felix do?”
“Shot him anyway.”
“Way to go, Felix!” gushed Carl.
And Felix, from his seat on the curb, turned and gave him a dead look.
And then nobody wanted to talk about it anymore.
“Enough of this,” cried Cat suddenly. “What about the sheriff?”
“Yeah,” said Jack, “we better get moving.”
And everyone, save Cat, seemed to move at once.
Cat stared at them. “You seem pretty sure.”
Carl grinned, shrugged. “He
Cat frowned. “He’s only one guy.”
Carl grinned some more. “He’s a Texas sheriff.”
“And he has Kirk with him,” added Jack, his own grin faint but still there.
“Great,” drawled Cat dryly. “That makes two of ’em. What are they gonna do? Arrest them?”
Carl stopped what he was doing, said, “Probably.”
“The mayor? The chief of police? All his cops?”
“If he has to. Cat. He’s a Texas sher—”
“I know. I know. You keep saying that. So, he can handle it. Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
And for the most part, that’s just what happened. Team Crow never did get the details. All Kirk would say was some mumbling about the sheriff walking up to the barricades and telling ’em to break it up.
Twenty minutes later the Team had fire trucks and firemen and ambulances and police protection and demolition advisers the chief had brought in originally to stop them and all sorts of experts on local buildings like the jail. They even had structural plans and advice on how to blow it, and Carl and Cat did, in fact, move three of the charges a couple of yards.
Hattoy showed up in time to press the detonator personally, saying, “All my life I’ve wanted to kaboom one of these things.” This was just smoke, of course, to hide his adding another layer of his personal authority on the event in case of future hassle.
They blew it once, twice, three times, in layers. Then they blew the rubble. Then they blew it some more before the female emerged, rocketing upward in a hail of bricks and screeching. She popped on Adam’s side and the priest came through once more, taking only two quick steps on the uneven surface before delivering a clean bisecting shot.
He didn’t appear until a half hour before dusk, a fullthroated scarlet fountain of hatred and fury. His screams were ear-splitting. His flames were supernaturally bright.
But in daylight it didn’t matter. Jack had seen it all before. He did get close enough to recognize the monster who knew his name before punching the crossbow through the burning chest. But there was nothing special about the shot. Or the end.
“When you’re a vampire, Crow…” it had said.
Jack watched the ashes burn all the way down, then whispered, “Not today, little god.”
He stood there awhile, lit and smoked a cigarette before moving. When he finally turned away, toward the Team now milling with the sheriff and his people, the realization struck deep.
My God, that was close.
And then: Why did I try to go inside? I almost killed everyone! What was I trying to do?
Today was three years, three months, and some-odd days of this madness.
Shit.
“Thank God Felix can shoot…”
Chapter 20
Davette wore a khaki blouse and a khaki skirt and a light blue scarf Annabelle had found for her somewhere that highlighted her blond hair and rich golden skin. Felix was, quite simply, unable to look at her.
He was afraid of what he might say to her.
He was afraid of what he might do to her.
He was mostly afraid of the vampires, though, and it didn’t matter if she had just lately come on board and it didn’t matter that she was, technically, still a reporter doing a story — all that had long been forgotten. She was part of Team Crow now, sure-as hell. Team Crow was home.
He was afraid of what he might do for her.
So now, nine hours into a most un-Team-like victory party, he sat in the lone chair in the far corner of what passed for a suite in the cheap motel the ladies had found and did his drinking and chain-smoking alone.
Because Jack Crow was wrong.
This deal would
Not with me.
Fuck ’em.
Everyone noticed, of course. They could hardly help it.
When their gunman was planted so hard in that one chair. When he smoked so incessantly, drank so ferociously. When he would brood so hard he seemed to strobe…
Sometimes it seemed that chair of his, that whole corner of the room, really, seemed to corridor away into the distance.
Sooner or later, it was going to get ugly. It had been heading for it since the last pile of ashes.
Felix rode with Cat in the motorhome on the way to the rendezvous with the women. He rode in silence, ignoring what little Cat had to say, until Cat finally turned in the driver’s seat and looked at him.
Is he relieved? Cat wondered. Stunned? Maybe he’s in shock or…
No! he realized suddenly. That’s anger! He’s furious.
And just then Felix had turned and looked at him and those dead eyes had bored deeply for just a moment. Then the gunman climbed out of his seat and disappeared into the back until they reached the motel.
Even for Annabelle, who was used to the endless waiting, this had been a tough one. Her tears of joy were a little brighter this time, her hugs of welcome a little tighter, her voice a little more strident. Davette, on the other hand, seemed possessed by a surreal glow of happiness at their survival. She took turns with Annabelle hugging everyone and blushing furiously when Cat, with a wicked grin, hauled off and gave her a long, wet, sloppy one.
All save Felix. He stood at the edge of it all, nodding curtly to the women and asking for his room key and
