Black Heart: Wild On (32 page)

            "Not going to happen," a strange man said.

            He was short. Maybe five feet three, max. A handsome little fellow, but not a nice one. He was a witch, with a ruby ring on his right middle finger.

            "Get her, Charlie Joe!" Ben cried. "Hurry."

            Charlie Joe pressed his ring to my forehead, and spoke a short spell. All strength was washed from my body as hellish cold consumed me.

            "There you go. One sexy little vamp on ice," Charlie Joe said.

            I was totally limp. I stopped breathing. My eyes stopped blinking. I just lay there in the cold, damp grass wide-eyed, staring straight up. I couldn’t even control my eyes.

            "Don’t touch her," Charlie Joe warned. Ben was about to kick me in the head. "The spell is a precarious one. Any pain will break it."

            "Can I stake her?"

            "Sure, just make it fast," he said.

            "Make what fast?" Valerie said. She just appeared, morphing from bat. She was, now, naked. "Oh, my, is that Sable? Helpless?"

            "Enchanted," Charlie Joe said. "She is wide awake, can hear and understand us perfectly, but cannot move a single muscle."

            "Sweet," Ben said.

            "Very sweet indeed," Valerie said. "What can I do to her? What are my limits?"

            "Make a circle around us," Charlie Joe commanded. The zombies moved to obey. "There, you can do anything you want to her now. Just no intense sensations."

            "Pleasure or pain?" Valerie said. She was walking around me, looking quite pleased.

            "Any intense physical sensation will break the spell," Charlie Joe said.

            "I’ve waited a long time for this moment, Sable," Valerie said. She knelt beside my head, leaned over and pressed her lips to mine, for a long, lingering kiss. "Thank you. By killing me, you made my fondest dream come true. Jeff Changed me. I’m a vampire." She looked up. "Hold her."

            Ben grabbed both arms and held them over my head. Charlie Joe, grumbling, pressed my legs together and sat on my knees. Valerie reached down between my boobs and unbuckled the fastener. Freeing my breasts, she paused to fondle them a moment. Then she smiled down at me.

            "I have never feasted as a vampire," she said. She licked my neck. "You’re my first taste of blood."

            Valerie’s fangs sank deep into my throat. She missed both the jugular and the carotid. So she bit me again, and again. It took her five tries to find my jugular, and then she sucked greedily. All the while Charlie Joe pressed his ring into my belly, just below the navel, and repeated his spell over and over. That kept my strength sucked dry.

            "Hmmm," I groaned, despite myself. It felt good. Real good. To a vampire, being bitten in the neck is the most erotic feeling imaginable. The feel of my blood flowing into Valerie’s sucking mouth was almost as erotic, and I felt my body changing. Moisture between my legs preceded the heady tingling that announced my arousal so well.

            "Oh, my," Valerie breathed. She shuddered. "That was better than I ever imagined. Blood is delicious!"

            Valerie kissed me, thrusting her tongue into my mouth. I tasted my own blood on her tongue. It was good. I wanted more. She kissed me long and hard, moaning and groaning. When she returned to my throat, to feast some more, Ben claimed my lips.

            I don’t know how long it lasted, but Valerie and Ben swapped out between lips and neck three times. All three of us were pumping out pheromones like crazy, driving each other wild with lust. Ben was just reaching to unfasten my pants when Jeff showed up and broke up the party.

            "Good, you have Sable right where I want her," Jeff said, leaning over to glare daggers into my eyes. Jeff showed me another stake. How many did he have? "Remember this? I’m fixin to drive this through your black heart, then cut off your head. I bet seeing their leader’s head on a stake will knock the fight out of your family and friends."

            I tried to move, but nothing happened. Jeff stepped over me, so that he was straddling my waist, and then he sat on my belly. I tried to morph into a bat. Nothing. He started fondling my breasts. I tried to morph into a wolf. Nothing. He placed the sharp tip of the stake between my boobs, right over my heart.

            "Are you panicking yet, Black Heart?" Jeff said, leering down at me. All four of them had looks of wicked glee on their faces. "I hope so. Because now...," he leaned onto the stake, smiling cruelly as the tip penetrated the skin and pain lanced into me, "You are going to die."

            I felt the magic holding me evaporate the instant the stake penetrated. Morphing into a wolf or bat wouldn’t stop the stake from driving into my heart. The pain was incredible, as if my body understood it was a mortal wound being delivered. So I willed myself to sink into the earth.

            "No! You bitch!" Jeff cried.

            I went down, and willed myself right back up. They weren’t expecting that. I exploded out of the earth, reached around to the base of my spine, and pulled the wooden stake. Lashing out, I backhanded Charlie Joe, pounded a roundhouse kick into Ben’s face, and found myself facing Jeff. He screamed and thrust the stake at my heart.

            My left arm swung around, blocking the stake aside with my forearm. My stake was in my right hand and I thrust it straight at Jeff’s heart. I expected him to block it. I was wrong.

            "Jeff!" Valerie cried. "Benny, she staked Jeff!"

            I still had one pistol. I pulled it and started shooting. I hit Ben a couple times, then popped Valerie once. Once was enough to put her on the ground. Talk about being surprised.

            Charlie Joe began a spell. He pointed the fist with the ruby ring at me. I swung the trusty Glock around, and pulled the trigger. First shot shattered that hand. Second shoot shattered his heart. Witches die nice and prompt when you shoot them, and you don't need silver.

            A great grunt went up all around me. Zombies started tumbling over. They stiffened up, and fell over. I didn’t realize killing the animator would kill the zombies.

            "Oh," Jeff cried.

            Whirling around, I discovered that Ben had pulled out the stake. Jeff was reanimated. I shot them each once in the head, and started for Jeff.

            Valerie plowed into me. She took me down, and I rolled her over so that I was on top. I still had the pistol and swung it around to shoot Jeff again.

            "Dammit all!" I cried. Jeff and Ben were gone. Then Valerie barked a laugh, and morphed into a bat. My father and Dane were running towards me as I looked around, feeling foolish. "That worked out well."

            Sirens filled the night as both police and fire arrived. Why did the police always arrive after the vampires left? Glancing south, I spotted the three bats that were Jeff, Ben, and Valerie, winging it away hard. Were they wary of the police, or afraid of me?

            "Oh no, you aren’t escaping my wrath, boy," I snarled at them.

            Seeing my father approaching, I reached down and refastened my top. Topless around Daddy wasn’t cool. It would embarrass him.

            I spotted Henri still atop that nearby building. The other vampires departed once the battle was decided. Henri nodded in acknowledgement of my victory, smiling. Then he and his son morphed into bats and were gone.

            They left us in a nightmarish scene. The bodies of zombies and dead followers were everywhere. I couldn’t sort them out just with a glance. There was no way to count our dead. Worse, the church was fully engulfed in flames.

            "We have to go," Dane said, pulling on my arm

            "Get," Daddy said. "Hurry. The police are coming."

            "But what about you?" I cried.

            "We’ll be fine," Daddy said. "They police warned us the vampires would try to kill us. They were expecting it."

            Heidi pulled up in my car. Gabe was sitting in the passenger seat looking half excited and half nervous. Dane jumped into the back seat.

            "Come on, Sable!" Dane called.

            "Go," I said, and my wings sprouted. People gasped and scrambled away. Even Daddy backed up, staring open-mouthed. "I’m going after Jeff. He’s going to pay, and pay dearly."

            I quickly gathered up my dropped weapons. Once I had both Glocks snuggled securely in the holsters riding my hips, I strapped the katana across my back, between the wings.

            "I said leave!"

            Heidi floored it and they were gone. The police didn’t even bother giving chase. There were over a dozen other cars getting the hell out of Dodge as well.

            "I’m sorry, Sable," Daddy said. "This is all our fault."

            I glanced at all the bodies, then at the church. Families were shattered, destroyed. In some cases, both husbands and wives were dead. There were a lot more orphans and widows in Plano. The church was a totally loss.

            "I’m sorry, too," I said. "But now it’s time to put an end to the monster that did this."

            Without further ado, I leaped high and started flapping hard. I circled the church, rising higher and higher. Once I was a good two hundred feet up, I turned south and started flying with all I had. Jeff would not escape me. Not this time.

Chapter 19

            One thing I’d learned. Bigger wings meant faster flying. At least for vampires. I flew a helluva lot faster like this than by morphing into a bat. Even so, Jeff and company had a pretty good head start.

            Within minutes of taking off in pursuit, I realized Heidi, Dane, and Gabe were pacing me on the street below. Heidi’s link with me allowed her to know my exact location. I wouldn’t be able to shake her. So I didn’t try.

            "Welcome to the party," I muttered.

            No one said vampires were the brightest monkeys in the tree. Jeff, Ben, and Valerie flew straight down Preston Road. I caught up close enough to spot them just before Belt Line, north of Loop 635. As bats, I couldn't tell them apart. They were just three bats, with really big and evil auras. Okay, truth was, I could pick out Valerie.

            Valerie was trailing behind about fifty feet. Her aura was the weakest, and I could distinguish male and female. Jeff and Ben were impossible to tell apart as bats. Their auras were of a similar strength.

            They were hugging the earth, flying just over the tops of the traffic and street lights. I moved past them unnoticed about two hundred feet up. At least none of them acted as if they noticed me above them.

            I was directly over them when they crossed over Loop 635, Valley View Mall to our right. I pulled my sword at that time, slowly to avoid any noise. With it in my right hand, I filled my left with a Glock 31. Silver bullets, baby. Big ouch for vamps. I wanted to hurt them bad.

            By the time they reached Forest Road, I was far enough ahead. I twisted in midair, looped around, and powered dived. About fifty feet from them, I pointed the pistol and started shooting.

            Talk about surprising them. All three squawked and tried to brake. I grazed one of the leading bats, and may have actually put a bullet clean through Valerie’s tiny bat body. Valerie morphed back to human a good twenty feet off the ground, and did a belly flop on the street below. Sanctified silver bullets did that to the best vamps when they were shot in bat or wolf form.

            She did jump right back up, but then Heidi rammed her at about forty miles an hour. I winced at the crunching sound. I wasn’t concerned with Valerie, but my beloved Mustang. Why did everyone that drove it feel compelled to use it as a battering ram?

            As Dane, Gabe, and Heidi piled out of the car, gunfire erupted and I forgot Valerie. She had her hands full. New-made vamps had little resistance to blessed silver, though it wouldn't kill them. I had a bigger problem. Jeff and Ben split up, and I still didn’t know which was which.

            Since they were heading in different directions, I had to choose one. I banked left and went for the lighter brown bat. He squeaked and dropped lower. I had greater speed and power with my huge wings, but the bats were more maneuverable and could fly lower to the ground. They could also fly though trees and weave through obstacles that I had to avoid.

            Morphing to a bat crossed my mind, and I was sorely tempted. I had some experience fighting as a bat. Not much, but did any vampire really have that much? How often did the opportunity present itself? But by doing so I would lose everything I carried. I didn't want to lose my pistol, sword, and clothes.

            It was easy enough to track the bat as he flew through the trees of the residential area. To pass he had to navigate with a series of squeaks for his sonar, and I could hear them perfectly. I might be twenty feet above the treetops, but I could hear his heart beating. He, of course, could hear mine.

            "You are one noisy little bloodsucker," I called down. "Come on out and fight like a man."

            He flew from the protective branches of one tree to another. I scowled down at him.

            "Pussy," I called. "Coward."

            He squawked and turned up. I braked with my wings, trying to hover as the little monster streaked up at me. I prepared to skewer him on the sword, then shoot his head off with the pistol. That would kill a vampire.

            I waited. Waited. And he quickly grew closer and closer, looking totally enraged. I had to skewer him and shoot him in the head in a matter of one or two seconds. The silver casing on my blade was etched with crosses and was blessed by a priest. When the katana penetrated his body the sanctified silver would force him to morph back to human form. I wanted to blow his head off before that happened.

            "Which one are you?" I cried and lunged at him.