The Traveling Vampire Show

The woman shook her head. “Why don’t you both return to your seats and enjoy the show?”

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET THE CONTEST BEGIN!”

Another harsh flash of lightning.

“You can’t do this!” Lee shouted.

“Hell we can’t. Sit down or we’ll have you removed from the premises.”

The crowd roared.

So did the thunder.

The fight had started. We didn’t stand much chance of stopping it, now. I wanted to watch. And so did a dozen or so people whose views we were blocking.

Apparently, so did Lee. “Okay, okay,” she said.

Though there were empty spaces down low, Lee raced halfway up the stairs before moving toward the center, squeezing past half a dozen spectators and taking a seat. If she couldn’t stop the fight, at least she wanted a good vantage point for watching it. Breathless, I sat beside her.

The black-shirted crew watched us for a few more seconds, then spread out and seemed to vanish.

From the look of things in the cage, we hadn’t missed much. Rusty and Valeria were both hunched over, arms out, circling each other slowly.

Which seemed to be the standard way to begin such contests.

I felt scared for Rusty. But I also envied him. There he was, face to face with Valeria, probably one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the earth—three or four feet away from that amazing face and those incredible, naked breasts.

It seemed like madness.

Glorious madness.

This must’ve been like a dream come true for Rusty.

He was sure to pay dearly for it, but it might be worth the payment.

Valeria seemed in no hurry to attack. Neither did Rusty—not with the kind of view he had. But I knew him. What he really wanted, now, was to reach out and feel those breasts.

He had to get his hands on them.

Even in front of an audience brimming with people who knew him and his parents?

You bet, I thought. He won’t let a little thing like that stop him.

I could just see him grin and hear him say, Hey, man, by the time someone tells on me, it’ll be over. What’re my folks gonna do, ground me? They can’t make it not’ve happened,

know what I mean? And he would be showing me his hands as if they were trophies.

He went for her.

Rushed forward, ducking and reaching out with both hands. I thought he was going for her breasts, but then he dived and grabbed the sides of her leather skirt. His weight tore the skirt from her hips.

As Rusty fell, Valeria stumbled backward until the skirt tripped her. She landed on her back. The impact jolted her entire body, bounced her head off the dirt floor and jarred her breasts.

The audience exploded with delight.

The night exploded with lightning.

On his knees, Rusty snatched Valeria’s skirt off her boots. The spurs seemed to give him trouble for a moment. Then the skirt pulled free and he flung it out of reach.

Thunder pounded through the air.

Valeria was now naked except for the crimson boots that reached almost to her knees.

She just lay there, sprawled out and limp, staring at the sky ... either knocked into a stupor by the blow to her head or faking it.

I figured she had to be faking. Vampire or not, she’d out-matched much tougher men than Rusty tonight.

“Get away from her!” I shouted.

He probably couldn’t hear me through the tumult of the crowd.

Lee joined my shouts. In unison, we yelled, “Get away from her, Rusty!”

If Valeria really was stunned or unconscious, Rusty actually stood a chance of winning the contest. Five hundred bucks was a ton of money for a guy who forever spent his allowance the day he got it. But he needed to keep his distance....

Instead of getting away from her, he scooted forward on his knees, sliding his hands up her bare legs.

The audience cheered him on.

“Rusty!” I yelled. “No!”