The Traveling Vampire Show

Lee and I both started to turn.

“Don’t look.” She sounded a little strange, her voice tight like someone talking through pain. “They’re in the bus. Probably watching you. Fiddle with the door or something.”

We turned again to the cage door.

“Locked in?” Slim asked.

“Looks that way,” I said.

“It’s a combination padlock,” Lee explained.

Slim didn’t say anything.

“You still there?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe you’d better go get help,” Lee called.

“Nice outfit, Lee.”

“Thanks.”

“Red becomes you.”

“You’d better get going,” Lee said. “Try to get the police out here....”

“Not a good idea. I need to keep you covered.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Okay enough. Took care of Valeria, anyway.”

“You sure did. That was great shooting. But what’s wrong?”

“I’m a little beat up, that’s all.”

At first, I thought she meant her earlier injuries... those from the dog and falling down.

“I got worked over a little,” she said.

“What?”

“Bitsy. She jumped me from behind.”

“Bitsy?”

“Yeah. Clobbered me with something. Then she beat the crap out of me. Turned out my lights.”

Through my rage, I felt confusion. “When did she do it?”

“A few minutes after we left you guys. Guess she wanted to ‘go with.’ ”

“That creepy little ...!”

“She adores you, pal.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, suddenly glad that Bitsy had gotten herself pounded by Rusty. If I’d known what she’d done to Slim, things would’ve gone a lot worse for her.

“Seen her around?” Slim asked.

“Yeah. She said you got mad and told her to F off.”

“Real nice.”

“Anyway, we sorta ditched her in the woods. Haven’t seen her since.”

“So where’s Rusty?” Slim asked.

“We don’t know. They took him away after Valeria bit him.”

“She bit him?”

“After he made it with her.”

“Huh? Rusty made it with Valeria?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean sex?”

“Yeah. Right in the cage here. In front of everyone.”

“Holy jeez.”

“Then she tore into him. Next thing you know, they were taking him away on a gurney. We don’t know where he is now.”

“Maybe in their bus or something,” Lee said.

“They were gonna give him back to us,” I explained, “if Lee went five minutes with Valeria. That’s how we ended up like this.”

“Looked like she was about to take a piece out of your neck.”