Vampire$

“Fooood!”

The collective hissing rose and broke happily upon his Young Master’s ears.

“Foooood…”

Felix was feeling pretty good just before it all caved in.

He had gotten what he wanted from Crow. Given Jack’s listlessness, that hadn’t been so hard, and he had felt some pangs about ramrodding everything past the mourning leader, but Felix figured none of that made a bit of difference if he could keep someone alive long enough to bitch about it later.

He had them up and off their butts and getting ready to move. The bishop and Adam had called Rome, had gotten transportation, had arranged all the passport difficulties. Getting back into America was going to be interesting, but that’s what voter-registration cards were for.

Frankly, Felix looked forward to seeing ’em try to keep Annabelle out.

All in all it was looking good. Better, even, than he had expected. For a change had come over the Team once it had dawned on them that it was over. A sense of grudging relief had come about, slowly at first, but after less than an hour, even Jack had given into it: Because, dammit, it was a relief to get down off your guard and know that rest was coming.

That vise-tight concentration, that desperate focus, was loosening up.

There were even some jokes as the men gathered together and organized their stack of weaponry and at one point Crow had looked around at the smiles on the faces and then turned to Felix and said, “Okay, Gunman. Okay.”

He hadn’t said any more than that. But everyone had known what he meant.

You’re quite a dude, Jack, Felix thought admiringly.

But he had been too hep to say anything out loud.

Looking good, thought Felix. And he glanced over to where She sat, talking quietly with Annabelle and the bishop. Just that was enough for Felix.

She would live.

Yeah. Looking good.

And that’s what they were doing, all fiddling and talking about the Common Room, with its wall of stained glass and beautiful furnishings and smiles, when Felix asked Cat about something that had intrigued him:

Carl’s wooden stake.

“We’ve all got one,” Cat told him. “We had this Belgian kid working with us a couple of years ago. Raised a carpenter. He carved them for everyone.”

“Everyone? You’ve got one, too?”

Cat eyed him carefully. “I do.”

Kirk, loading silver bullets beside him, grimaced.

Cat noticed and grinned. “You guys want one?”

“I think I’ll pass,” replied the deputy.

Felix was studying Cat. “Do they all say the same thing?”

“No. We all have something different. Mine’s even shaped different, it’s flat, like a paddle.”

“What does it say?”

“My name.”

“Is that all?”

“No. It says something else on the other side.”

“What?”

“I don’t think you’re ready for it.”

“Try me.”

Cat’s grin widened. “Okay. It’s the answer to the question: ‘How do you like your stake?’”

“Huh?” said Kirk.

“What does it say?” Felix wanted to know.

Cat’s eyes were devilish. “Medium Rare.”

They had begun to laugh when the first of the stained-glass windows just blew into the room whizzing glass like shrapnel into the furniture and the far walls and then that smell — that smell of decay — and Felix thought, Oh, my God, my God! They’re here!

And he got to his feet and spun toward the sound and dragged out the Browning and for just an instant all was calm and eerie and… and impossible, because they had just been sitting here, just sitting here laughing and talking and ready to go, to get out of this, out of all of it.

And they all were there, frozen with surprise and dawning fear, their mouths open and their eyes wide, frozen and unbelieving and so tired. And then the beast who had burst within them as if thrown through the window shook its shaggy head and reared up from its place on all fours in front of the window and those blood-red eyes shone on them and the black mouth opened those glistening fangs and it hissed…

Felix raised the gun to fire as the second window exploded and the glass flew again and there were screams and then another explosion and then another and the whole wall of stained glass collapsed into the room and the smell was there and the brutes were clambering through with their dead rotting skin through the broken glass and shattered window frames and the hissing, the hisssssing filled the house of God and their air and Felix felt spears of pain on the side of his neck and then the blood running down and he knew the glass, the fractured, flying glass, had got him and he fired at something through the crashes of debris just as the next screams began.

It was… who? One of the bishop’s men… Bryan? Was that his name? One of the monsters had crashed through on top of him and now was on all fours above him, like some slavering undead bear, and Bryan screamed and cried and tried to pull himself out from under and the brute held him there, fast, with one rotting hand on his chest and Bryan screamed again and again and scrambled desperately backward, flailing his hands and feet but he could get no traction on that beautiful thick carpet and the beast above him…

Did nothing.

None of them were moving! They seemed stunned and stunted and almost paralyzed and two or three of them were holding their heads with rancid hands. Hurting. Hurting.

But there were so many! So many of them!

“It’s this place,” cried the bishop. And he rose up and strode forward, the robes of his office swaying out around him, and he grasped the great cross about his neck and held it aloft.

“This place!” he shouted triumphantly. “They cannot bear the House of the Lord!”

“Get them back!” roared Jack Crow.

Felix turned to see what Jack was saying and saw them, saw the women, saw her! The women were here — she was here, My God My God!

“Get them back!” roared Crow again. “Cat! Adam! Move ’em back!”

“Where! Outside?”

“No!” shouted Felix. “Put them… put them in the entry hall and close it…

“Yes!” echoed Crow. “And lock the doors and… Cat! Get the Blazer! Move it!”

And that’s when Bryan lunged backward and the black nails at his throat tore the skin and the red blood welled out and the dead bear awoke and his gray lips spread wide and the fangs started down.

Felix and Kirk fired simultaneously and the monster flipped backward from the impact, howling and screeching those awful sounds and the others, the others! So many of them! They woke up too! They lunged toward them — And the bishop. The bishop roared back at them!

“Back! Back, you children of Satan! Back and be purged!”

And he walked toward them, holding the cross in front of him like a goddamned pistol or something and they shouted at him to stop, to come back with them, to fall back, but — The one that got him was so huge. It had long black hair and grimy coveralls and it came from the bishop’s side — he never saw it — and those huge dead arms fell like trees on the cleric and embraced him and squeezed him and…

And Felix couldn’t get a shot! The bishop was blocking the shot!