wall of intense heat, setting the floor afire, and shattering several of the antique mirrors under the assault. I grabbed Ray by the collar and pulled him away as burning fuel splashed in every direction.
Trip appeared on the balcony above. 'Run, Z!' he shouted as he leveled the grenade launcher at the inferno. He at least waited long enough for me to be out of the blast radius before launching a high explosive round into the floor at the monster's feet. The concussion was horrendous. The priceless chandelier fell from its mounting and crashed to earth, flying into millions of separate shards.
Susan's burning body was flung against the far wall, shattering the glass doors to the veranda. Julie kept up a constant spray of napalm. Even the mightiest queen of the undead could not regenerate under that onslaught. The vampire smashed through the glass. I picked up Abomination and fired a grenade after her. My aim was off, but it was close enough to shred the burning flesh from her bones.
I heard Trip shouting. 'Backblast! Backblast!' I looked up in time to see Holly steadying her RPG over her shoulder. Firing that with her back against a wall would probably be immediately fatal.
'Oh yeah,' she said, 'damn it!' She threw the rocket-propelled grenade aside and retrieved her rifle. And she had been so looking forward to blasting something with it.
Julie followed her mother, keeping up the onslaught of fire and burning fuel. The ballroom was burning now, and it was spreading up the walls and toward the ceiling. The house was going up. She finally stopped, and the flamethrower's stream died off to a small flame.
Her mother was on the burning veranda, a charred and curled skeleton, flesh turned to ash. The creature crumbled as it tried to move, revealing blackened and twisted bones. She slowly stood, ash falling away, new flesh and tissues already pulsing underneath.
'Won't you just die already?' Julie screamed. She was crying. My heart went out to her. Her home was burning down, and her undead mother was intent on drinking her blood. It was a really crappy evening by any standard.
Then something strange happened. One second the room was burning, fire licking around us, scalding us with intense heat, and the next second it just stopped. The flames were extinguished, leaving only smoking embers. The temperature dropped at least seventy degrees almost instantly, as if we had just stepped into a walk-in freezer. My breath came out in a cloud of ice vapor. The remaining mirrors fogged up and cracked.
'What the hell is happening?' Holly asked quietly, her voice trembling.
I did not know. But I took the opportunity to reload a fresh grenade into Abomination's underslung launcher. My fingers fumbled clumsily, suddenly nerve-deadened by the cold. I shivered, and my teeth began to clatter together. A horrible feeling of dread traveled down my spine.
'Who's that?' Trip asked. His tone betrayed his fear.
I looked up in time to see a second figure appear on the veranda. This one was a gaunt man, with greasily slicked back hair, and a narrow hatchet face. He was wearing a full-length trench coat. His bearing was ramrod straight, his movements were unnaturally sharp and crisp. The tall man paused beside the scorched vampire. He stood at parade rest. It was the lead vampire from my dream. Lord Machado's lieutenant. Susan's blackened form bowed before him. He placed one gloved hand on her head.
'You have failed me, Susan. I am most displeased.' His voice was deep and had a precise German or Austrian accent.
I could still feel the Old Man's presence in the ballroom. The ghost surged with anger toward the new intruder.
'Forgive me, Jaeger,' she rasped. Her vocal cords had been burned seconds before, and she could barely speak. 'I didn't kill them. But I have learned of the Place. My husband told me.'
'Excellent.' He patted Susan on the head, scattering ashes from her skull. Then he turned his attention on us. 'You are in luck that I do not have an invitation. Be warned. Do not trifle in our affairs. Or it will be your death.' The Master vampire looked upwards as he heard something. The perimeter alarm sounded. Helicopter blades beat in the distance. Company was on the way.
He glared at me in particular. 'If it isn't Byreika and his oafish friend.' I could feel the hate emanating from the Old Man toward the vampire. It was almost a physical thing. 'You are out of your league, Juden. I am surprised at your resourcefulness. None of the others that have been used have been able to come back to this world. You ever surprise me, but in the end, you are nothing.'
We will see, Nazi bastard son of bitch.
The hatchet-faced vampire smiled, showing us his razor teeth. 'You amuse me, Old Man. Your kind always has… Come, Susan. We have much work to do.' He faded into the darkness and was gone. The temperature slowly began to climb to normal levels.
Susan Shackleford was whole once again. She brushed back her hair, knocking the remaining ashes free. The beautiful vampire was savagely angry.
'You will be mine again, honey. Just you wait.'
'Don't call me honey. You're not really my mom.'
'Whatever you have to tell yourself to keep the nightmares away, honey. I love you.' She slowly backed into the shadows, fading away until only her eyes were visible. She blinked and they too were gone into the night.
Chapter 20
I knelt at Ray Shackleford's side. He had been savagely bitten and torn open. I pressed my hands against his neck to try to staunch the flow of blood, but it just kept pouring out.
'I'm sorry,' he rasped.
'Just relax. You're going to be okay,' I lied. His pulse was very weak. 'Gretchen!' I screamed.
'Susan. She took it from my mind. I couldn't stop her.' He groaned in pain.
'Dad.' Julie fell to her knees, the super-hot flamethrower clattering to the floor next to her.
'Oh, honey, I'm so sorry.' He coughed, and blood bubbled from his lips. 'I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just loved her so much. I couldn't let her go.'
'It's okay, Dad,' she gasped, grabbing his hands. Tears cut a path down her soot-blackened face.
'I didn't know… vampire… that's why the spell failed.' He was growing weaker. 'Forgive me.'
'I forgive you,' she cried. 'I forgive you. Just hang on.'
Gretchen appeared. She pushed me aside and pressed a cloth against Ray's savaged throat. She wiped away enough blood to get a good look and then she immediately went to work with a small kit of primitive tools. I backed away, so as not to disturb the healer in her work. Trip and Holly were standing back, watching the veranda, weapons at the ready. The helicopters were louder now.
'We have company,' Holly said. 'Feds.'
'Listen… the Place… Natchy Bottom.'
'Mississippi?' I asked. Milo had warned us briefly about it during our trip to visit the Elves.
'Yes… Deep down… Hidden… Talk to the Wendigo.' He closed his eyes. Gretchen looked up at Julie and shook her head slowly. 'Julie… I love you.' His voice was barely audible. 'I'm so sorry.'
'I love you too, Dad,' she whispered. Only minutes before, she had been prepared to kill him, but now at the moment of his incipient death, she had to confront her feelings for her father. My heart ached for her.
The helicopters were overhead. Searchlights stabbed down onto the property as federal agents fast-roped onto the grounds. A loudspeaker boomed as directions were shouted at us. 'Drop your weapons. Do not move.' An Apache hovered low, beating the air, causing the broken remains of the veranda doors to rock closed. The 30mm chain gun was aimed directly at us.
We had no choice but to comply. I removed Abomination and pushed it away, then unbuckled the pistol belt and set it aside as well. Trip and Holly did as they were told. Julie was still holding her father's hand.
'Julie. Toss your gun.' I did not know if the Feds would just blast the whole house, but I didn't want to provoke them. 'Hey. Julie. Listen to me.' She snapped out of it and angrily slid her pistol away. Black-clad troopers were approaching rapidly, guns leveled at us, flashlights pointing into our eyes.
'What do we do?' Trip asked. Julie did not answer. She just looked sullenly down at her dying father. I did not know what was going through her mind.
