The Traveling Vampire Show

Lee’s jaw was clenched. She had a strange, tight look on her face. A tightness that trembled. She was wet and shiny all over, so there was no way of knowing if she had tears running down her face.

But I knew she was crying.

When I see a girl cry, something happens to me.

Especially if it’s a girl I love. Like Slim or Lee.

Shouting, “Leave her alone!” I leaped up and drove the point of my elbow into the face of the big man on my right. He grunted and grabbed his nose. Vivian grabbed my other hand, but I didn’t let her stop me. Pulled by my weight, she rose off the bench. I tried to fling her and we both tumbled down the bleachers.

When we came to a stop on top of a wet board near the bottom, Vivian was sprawled under me. She raised her head. I slugged her in the nose. Her nose crunched. The back of her head struck the wood with a sound like knuckles on a door.

I scurried off her.

The big guy was coming for me, leaping down the slippery face of the bleachers.

I jumped off the bottom row and ran for the cage.

I still had to get through Stryker.

But he wasn’t even looking at me. He stood with both hands on the cage door.

Racing toward him, I looked into the cage. Lee no longer hung from the ceiling bar. She had Valeria backed up against the rear of the cage. Head down, she was slamming punches into Valeria’s belly.

Yes!

Maybe she didn’t need my help, after all, but it was too late to back out.

“Open the door!” I shouted as I ran toward Stryker.

I hardly thought he would do it.

But he stepped backward swinging it open, grinning at me through a space between its bars. “The more the merrier,” he said.

I rushed into the cage.

He swung its door shut. Clang!

Valeria was still on the bars. Lee kept landing punches to her belly. They were strong punches. Her fists sounded like mallets smacking wet meat. Each blow shook Valeria and made her breasts lurch. With each blow, she grunted.

“Good going, Lee!” I called out.

“Very good going,” Valeria said, smiling at me. She spoke with a fluid, languid drawl. “For a girl,” she added. Though Lee was still pounding her, she wasn’t reacting. Just calmly talking to me. “Do you suppose you can do better, Mister Thompson?”

Okay, so she knew my last name. I wasn’t going to let that bother me. Much. It bothered me a lot more that Valeria didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the punches.

“Lee’s doing just fine,” I said.

“Is she?” Valeria grabbed the front edges of Lee’s shirt, swung her around and slammed her against the bars. Lee’s whole body jerked with the impact. She started to sag.

A hand to Lee’s throat, Valeria pinned her to the bars. With her other hand, she dragged the shirt off Lee’s right shoulder, baring her upper arm and breast.

Then she stepped back, keeping Lee pinned to the bars. “Lee is doing just fine, isn’t she?”

“Let go of her!”

“Oh, I don’t suppose so.” Reaching out, she slipped a hand beneath Lee’s right breast. “Lovely, isn’t it?” She squeezed it, but Lee didn’t react.

Out cold?

Maybe that’s good, I thought.

“How do you suppose it tastes, Mister Thompson?”

“Leave her alone.”

Valeria licked her lips, then spread her mouth open wide. “NO!” I yelled.

As I plowed into her, she stumbled away and let go of Lee. In the comer of my eye, I glimpsed Lee sliding to the floor.

Arms clamped around Valeria, forehead pressed between her breasts, I chugged with my feet and drove her across the cage. I had a vague notion of slamming her against the far wall and going at her with my fists the same as Lee had done.

But Lee’s punches hadn’t hurt Valeria, so why should mine? Anyway, we didn’t make it to the far wall. Valeria fell flat on her back and I landed on top of her.

Aren’t the five minutes up yet? I wondered.

Maybe they’ve stopped counting.