Blood and Bullets Read online

  I knew it would happen. It had to. But I still didn’t see it coming when it did.

  Nyteblade cursed as he stumbled on something and fell against the wall, just ten feet shy of the alley’s opening. He cursed again as the brick tore open the skin on his palm. I couldn’t smell the blood from the scrape, but the vampires reacted like they had been plugged into a live wire.

  Their hissing became a cacophony, high and shrill. Thunder from the barrel of my gun rolled across the alley’s walls as I shot into the mass of vampires. My ears closed and everything became muffled. Recoil ran up my arm and into my shoulder as I pulled the trigger. Ten bullets spit out in as many seconds. Cordite swirled the air in front of me as I popped the clip and let it fall to the ground. There was not time to catch it as I slammed a new one home.

  Pushing Nyteblade with my shoulder, I kept firing into the vampires who were scrambling down the alley. The ones on the roof let out a chorus of screams. Most of them began crawling down the wall like lizards and a few launched themselves into the air, swooping up as the wind caught them. I hate flyers. They are the hardest to kill and they are fast as hell. They became my focus as I pushed against Nyteblade. He was dragging ass, fumbling inside his coat.

  Bullets flew from the end of my gun as fast as I could get a bead and pull the trigger. This is why I use laser pointers on my pistols; they make a huge difference when you have to find your target fast. I’m a better-than-average shot winging many of my targets, making them spiral out of control to slam into the garbage on the alley floor. Another two clips down and I spared a glance to both Nyteblade and the end of the alley.

  He had hauled that huge silver crucifix out from under that coat and was holding it above his head. It was easily two feet long and probably weighed at least twenty pounds. Holy light shone out from it in a halo that covered Nyteblade like a spotlight. On the other side of him was a gang of vampires who had crawled down the wall to block our exit. They were a snarling mass of undead bodies, held at bay by the glow of the cross.

  Vampires hate crosses and religious symbols. It doesn’t matter the faith of the person holding the cross either, it is the symbol itself that hurts them. Vamps make holy objects glow in their presence, and the light will cause immense pain and damage to them.

  Now, this doesn’t mean that you can just grab two sticks and hold them up in the shape of a cross. That does not work. But if you take a few moments and lash or nail those sticks together, then they have power against vampires. It’s the intent to make a cross that gives the shape its power. And the cross can be made of anything: Wood, steel, silver, plastic, frozen holy water, even chocolate all work. Trust me on that last one, I don’t have time to get into that story.

  My last clip slipped into the Desert Eagle like a lover and I began eyeing up the vampires left behind us in the alley. They were advancing slowly, shuffling like zombies. A quick count was twelve vampires still in the alley with us. I had nine bullets for the Desert Eagle and five in the Taurus, enough for each of them, but then I would be completely out of ammunition.

  I really didn’t want to be out of bullets if I didn’t have to.

  The twelve vampires were injured by my shooting, but their bodies were healing and they were moving faster with each step. Taking a second, I put the healthiest one in my sights. Sighting down my arm to the barrel of my gun, the laser’s dot danced on his face. I matched the rhythm of my breathing with the rhythm of his shuffling.

  Once we were in sync, I squeezed the trigger. The bullet took him in his cheekbone, just under his eye. A blink later and the vampire behind him was splashed with watery brain mush. He didn’t react at all as the one I had shot fell at his feet. A squeeze of the trigger and I took him out with a head shot next. Seven bullets later and I had thinned the advancing vampires down to the three most injured ones.

  The Desert Eagle was hot through the leather holster as I slid it under my arm.

  Nyteblade was still waving his giant cross at the mass of vampires on his side of the alley. He was wearing down, though. His arms were visibly shaking, even through his duster. Every so often, the cross would dip down some and a snarling vampire would try to dart over the glow, only to be driven back to the group as Nyteblade swung the cross in their direction. My hand touched his shoulder.

  “Hold them off just a few more minutes.” My mouth was right next to his ear because I knew the concussive noise of the gunfire had probably made him almost deaf. Holding him steady with my left hand, I used my right to pull two of his wooden stakes from the bandolier around his chest.

  They were good, solid pieces of wood. About three feet long, smooth and sharply pointed, their weight told me they were made of hardwood. My guess would be hawthorn. That was the traditional wood for stakes. The backs of both were carved into a notched handle so that the best grip possible could be maintained, polished on the pointy end so they would slide in as friction free as possible, and unpolished on the handle to help you keep it in your hand.

  This was important for two reasons. One, it is next to impossible to shove a piece of wood into someone’s chest, so you want the tip to be sharp and slick. Two, if you do get the stake in, it is a bloody process and makes you prone to losing your grip, so you want the handle to be rough and absorbant.

  Now, I have no idea why a wooden stake through a vampire’s heart will kill them, I just know it works. Silly as it sounds, a piece of wood in the heart will turn a vampire to dust quicker than anything. And any piece of wood will work. One day I will tell you the toothpick story, but for now, just trust me, wood plus heart equals dead-ass vampire.

  I spun the stakes in a circle to loosen up my wrists and forearms. The last three vampires on my side were still closing the gap. They were in rough shape. I’ve seen zombies move faster. Watching them, I noticed that they were moving weird even for being shot up.

  All three were drawn and stretched thin. Thinner even than the girl vamp from earlier tonight. Like her, they reminded me of pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners from World War Two. I had never heard of anorexic vampires, but there was a first time for everything. The most important part of the description was the vampire part. Coupled with the rabid mass of vampires Nyteblade was holding at the end of the alley and all I was worried about was making them dust.

  Shuffling to the right three steps helped me cut the first one from the group. He was short and dark, still wearing a dirty chef’s apron and smock. His face was gaunt, all fangs and hollow eyes. As I drew near, he lunged out to grab me. The stake in my left hand flashed as it crashed into his cheekbone. Black blood flew out of his mouth as his head turned sharply away and splattered down his filthy formerly white smock and apron. Hooking upward with my right hand, I drove the stake under his ribcage and through the rubbery diaphragm.

  I must have hit the heart on the first thrust because his eyes got wide and he froze in mid-attack. The transition to a pile of dust took seconds.

  When staking a vamp by hand, you have to go under the ribs to hit the heart. You cannot just drive the stake through the sternum. Nobody can without a hammer. The sternum is thick, very tough, and made of a flexible, fibrous cartilage. It is like Kevlar over your heart. If the stake you are using is thin enough, you can slip it between the ribs, but then you have to travel through the lungs, and most bloodsuckers will not stand still for that.

  The next vampire scrambled toward me. She was a young one when she was turned and apparently a hippie. She looked about twenty, with long brown hair that hung to her butt. Tiny, round, purple glasses rested on a perky nose above thin, colorless lips. She was even wearing a tie-dye shirt with bell-bottom jeans and no shoes. Her hair was clumped with garbage and stuck to her shirt in several places by some unidentifiable substance. She swiped a thin arm at me that had talons extended. They rasped as they scraped along the leather of my coat. My left arm knocked hers away and my right drove the stake into her side. Wet fluid shot over my hand and the smell in the alley actually got worse. I had hit an
intestine in a dead body.

  Gross.

  The shriek that tore from her mouth was shrill and ear piercing. A twist of her body yanked the stake from my hand. Spinning, she launched herself at me like a homicidal rag doll and whirlwinded into me. Even though she was small, her weight knocked me down, driving me across the alley floor. Scrambling like an insect, she skittered on top of me before I could catch my breath.

  I landed on my right side with my arm trapped under me. My left hand still held the stake, but the arm was between me and the vampire. She was trying to get to my throat and open a vein. My arm was the only thing keeping her back. Fangs latched on to my arm through my jacket. She didn’t have a good grip with her mouth, but the puncture wounds her teeth caused burned like acid. If I hadn’t had the leather coat on, her fangs would have scraped on bone.

  The butt of the other stake scraped her eye socket as I jammed it in her face. Shrieks were muffled behind the thin hands covering her eye. It was the opening I needed.

  My hand closed on the stake still jutting from her side. Pushing down to change the angle, I shoved it up and into her body cavity. The wooden stake slid in and up like silk, hitting her heart and exploding her into dust. I closed my eyes and held my breath as it rained down on me.

  Relief flooded in and a shudder ran through my body. Adrenaline painted my nervous system. I got to my feet a little unsteadily, using the alley wall to help me up. Blood was making my arm stick to the inside of the jacket from the bite. It throbbed with every step over to the last vampire on this side.

  This one was a caricature of a vampire. The once-expensive three-piece suit hung on him like a joke because he was so thin he looked like a skeleton. His walk was the shuffle of a zombie, not the predator glide of a vampire. Putting my hand on his head to hold him back, I put the stake under his ribcage.

  Dead eyes looked at me, glazed over in a sickly yellow cast. His jaw worked mechanically, the teeth chomping up and down slowly. He wasn’t really trying to get to me, just going through the motions. There was a bit of wiggling the stake to hit his heart, but he just stood there until I dusted him. It was actually pretty pathetic.

  The vampires on the other side of Nyteblade were in a frenzy. They leaped and crawled over each other like a mound of rats. Still howling, hissing, and spitting, they boiled in a knot of undead fury. I knew they were frustrated by being held off by the cross. I knew they could smell the blood under my jacket. I knew they were pissed off that so many of their kind had been killed tonight.

  I knew I didn’t care about any of that.

  The blessed crucifix from my pocket wrapped around my right hand. It sparked into white light in the presence of the vampires. Next out were the shooter tubes full of holy water. There were five of them, and they held about an ounce each.

  That may not sound like much, but holy water acts like acid on the undead, and for some reason, it even works through the clothes they wear. A few drops would repel a vampire, no problem. The tubes were hard plastic and the lids were rubber corks sealed with a ring of wax. You could pop the top on them with one hand. Sliding back behind Nyteblade, I put my mouth by his ear again. He smelled sour, fear pouring through his sweat, pulling all the acidity out of his skin. He jumped when I spoke.

  “Keep that cross held high, but you follow me. You have to keep up. If they separate us, you will die.”

  I snapped my fingers to make sure Nyteblade heard me. He nodded, dripping sweat into his eyes in spite of the cool night air. His arms were visibly shaking from holding the cross up for so long. That cross had to weigh at least twice as much as my gun, so I knew he was nearing the end of his stamina.

  I hoped he was up to running after me, because if he fell behind he would be dead before I could turn around. We just had to make it past these vampires and around the corner; then it was only a short run to the Comet. If I could just get him to the Comet, I could get his ass out of here. Then I could start making headway on what was going on tonight.

  One of the holy waters went between my teeth, then two in each hand. I had the tubes separated by a finger so that a quick open-and-close motion with my hand would drop one; then I could flip the cap from the second one. Moving in front of Nyteblade, I used my thumbs to snap off the caps on the first two tubes.

  The vampires were all frothing like dogs at the end of a chain, held back only by the edge of holy light from the cross Nyteblade had and the crucifix in my right fist. Teeth clenched on the holy water, I screamed to let Nyteblade know I was ready. My legs were tensed in a sprinter’s stance when I raised my hands and brought them down in an X, crossing across my body, and then throwing them back up and out to the sides of my chest. Moonlight glittered on the holy water as it flew from the tubes and out onto the mass of vampires.

  The effect was instantaneous.

  What little hearing I had recovered from the gunfire was stolen in a dash of undead screams. The mass parted like the Red Sea as vampires flung themselves from the path of the holy water. Bloodsuckers convulsed and jerked as it began to eat into them. They were so tightly packed when I flung the holy water that, in their flailing, the ones I hit rubbed it onto the ones I didn’t. Smoke rose from the vampires and there were small flashes of flame where some got an especially strong shot of it. They roiled back against the brick walls and spilled out of the alley end. Some ran off, but most fell to the ground.

  Opening and closing my hands, I dropped the two empty vials to the ground. My thumbs flipped the caps on the other two tubes in my hands and I flung more holy water onto them. Now every vampire left had smoke coming from their bodies, and they were clawing at themselves and screaming. My thighs clenched and I began to sprint.

  Running, I threw the last of the holy water in my hands as I passed vampires. Those tubes dropped and I snatched the one from my teeth. Looking over my shoulder as I cleared the corner, I saw Nyteblade was right behind me but dropping a step or two as we went.

  Some of the vampires that had not gotten good doses of the holy water were rising up and shaking off the effects. They would be hot on our trail shortly. We still had to get down the side of the building and across the lot to the Comet. Reaching back, I grabbed a handful of Nyteblade’s duster and hauled him in front of me. Holding on to his coat, I ran as if our lives depended on it. Mostly because they did. I still had the last vial of holy water and my Taurus with five bullets. It wouldn’t be enough to save us if we were overtaken, but it might be enough to get us to the car.

  Legs pumping and my shoving got Nyteblade to the end of the building. My lungs were working like bellows. I’m built for power, not speed. I can run, faster than you would think for a man my size, but I am not a marathon man. At least not when it comes to running I’m not.

  Nine vampires had overcome the holy water enough to begin chasing after us. Over my shoulder I saw them charging down the side of the building. With a shove to keep Nyteblade running, I popped the cap on the last vial of holy water in my left hand and slid to a stop.

  “Keep going to the black car! I’ll be there in a second.” My right hand dug for my keys as I flung the holy water in the direction of the vampires. They fell back immediately. I didn’t hit any of them, but they had learned their lesson. It was almost like a comedy act as they tripped over each other not to get splashed. My left hand went behind my back and came out with the Taurus .44 Bulldog. It’s a small gun. Not much bigger than my fist.

  I began to run again as I punched the electric key fob I held. The engine of the Comet roared to life and the driver’s side door popped open. The doors on a Mercury Comet from the sixties are heavy suckers. If they are unlocked, they swing out on their own. I had put in the electric engine start and the door opener for situations just like this, where I need to get in the car on the run. The ’66 model Comet I have is the two-door version and had the largest door opening of any car in that year. It yawned forth, waiting to swallow me. I am a big guy and I need as much space as I can get to jump in and out of a car.
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  Nyteblade was at the car when I got there, vampires still a handful of steps behind me. He had the cross held up like he had in the alleyway. Grabbing his coat, I shoved him into the open door of the Comet. He sprawled across the bench seat in the front. My boot went on his ass as I kicked him across the leather and dumped him into the floorboard.

  One leg in and one leg out, I leaned on the door of the car and fired at the leading vampires. The phosphorus in the bullets left streaks of light in the dark. One of them exploded into dust as I nailed its heart and head. Two more fell from catching bullets, the phosphorus blazing to flame where it struck them. Bending my knees, I slid into the car, pulling the door closed behind me. I dropped the Comet into Drive, stomped the gas, and took off leaving a trail of smoke behind like the car’s namesake. In the rearview mirror, vampires were screaming at the night in frustration as we got away.

  Fuck ’em.

  4

  The Comet was like a shark gliding through oily water as I pulled up to Polecats. The parking lot was packed like it usually was and cars of all kinds lined the lot. Some customers were going into the club and one guy was leaving. Nothing looked suspicious as we cruised slowly through.

  Nyteblade had crawled out of the floor boards and was pressed against the passenger door with his coat pulled around him like a shroud. His eyes were unblinking, staring at me like he had been the entire drive over. Once I got behind the club I spun the car around and backed into the alley behind the building so that the nose pointed out. The alley was narrow and provided cover for the car. I turned the ignition off but left the car in Neutral in case I had to crank it up and get the hell out of there quick.

  Flipping open the glove box gave me a box of ammo. Practice let me reload the Desert Eagle without looking, so I used the time to check my surroundings through the windshield. There were no vampires that I could see. The area looked clear. Nyteblade made a noise as if to speak and I quickly cut him off with a slash of my hand. I needed silence to think and to listen. He stilled immediately, probably because of the gun in my hand. I had been trying to figure out what the hell was happening on the way to the club.