The Book of Death (29 page)

She was stripped down
to her matching pink bra and panties and holding Dante’s attention pretty well
when Vanity suddenly burst into the room. He looked anxious, but the sight of a
half naked Kacy caused him to do a quick double-take and raise a quizzical
eyebrow behind his sunglasses. After staring for a little longer than was necessary
he revealed the reason for his intrusion.

‘Big news, kids,’ he
said. ‘It seems that Gaius has given the order for everyone to get out in the
open. The streets are already full of vampires. As of now we are at war with
the whole world. There’s vampires everywhere, killing any humans that aren’t
locked indoors. It’s fucking carnage out there. And everyone’s headed to the
Casa de Ville.’

Kacy grimaced. ‘That’s
where the Bourbon Kid is heading.’

Vanity nodded. ‘That’s
why they’re all heading there. Gaius knows that’s where he’ll go.’

‘You mean it’s a trap?’

‘Of course. And
probably the main reason Gaius’s is getting out of there and heading to the
museum is just in case it goes wrong.’

‘How could it go
wrong?’ Kacy asked.

Dante answered. ‘The
Kid might kill everyone. I suspect he’s capable.’

‘Of killing a whole
army of vampires?’

‘Wouldn’t put it past
him.’

Vanity smiled. ‘He’s
good, sure, but Gaius has covered all angles. There’ll be an army of werewolves
as well as vampires waiting for the Kid when he gets there.’

‘How do you know all
this?’ Kacy asked.

‘I got people on the
inside, remember? I’m well connected. That’s how I know that Gaius has already
left the Casa de Ville. He’s headed for the museum right now. This is our
chance.’

A loud screeching noise
from the streets outside punctuated the air.

‘What the hell was
that?’ Dante asked.

Vanity shrugged. ‘Like
I said, the vampires are taking over the streets. It’s murder out there.’

Dante jumped up from
the bed. ‘Fuck me. Let’s take a look.’

Kacy grabbed a pair of
jeans and began slipping them on while Vanity watched on with a wry smile on
his face. Dante brushed past him on his way out into the pool hall to get a
look out of the windows. He returned moments later as Kacy was slipping on a
black sweatshirt. His face revealed a look of great concern, which was unusual
for him.

‘Vanity’s right,’ he
said. ‘He’s fucking right. There’s vampires everywhere out there. I just saw a
gang of Sunflower Girls being chased through the streets. The vampires are
picking them off one by one. Fucking horrible!’

‘Sunflower Girls?’ Kacy
couldn’t hide how horrified she was at the mental image of a group of terrified
little girls being savaged by bloodthirsty vampires. ‘We should do something!’

She raced out into the
pool hall and looked out of one of the windows at the street below. Sure
enough, the streets were chaotic. There was a group of terrified girl scouts
racing down the street screaming. Vampires were grabbing civilians and dragging
them into shop doorways and alleyways to feast on their blood. The girls had
stayed together in a group, but they would be picked off soon enough. Kacy felt
sick at the sight of it and rushed back into the apartment to grab her
sneakers.

Dante recognised the
look in her eyes. ‘You want to try and stop them?’

She nodded. ‘We all
should. They’re just little girls.’

Vanity grabbed Dante by
the shoulder. ‘There’s nothing we can do for those girls. Gaius has left for
the museum already. We gotta go now, or we might miss our chance.’

Kacy looked at Dante
with pleading eyes. ‘We’ve gotta try and save those kids, surely?’

He nodded in agreement.
‘Yeah. Come on, let’s go.’

Kacy slipped on a pair
of sneakers and raced out into the pool hall after Dante. Vanity didn’t look so
keen. In fact he looked exasperated. He called out after them as they went.
‘You can’t save those kids. You’re vampires. All you’ll do is scare them. And
maybe get yourself killed.’

His words fell on deaf
ears as Dante and Kacy bounded through the pool hall and leapt over the
landing, jumping down three flights of stairs to the ground below.

Thirty-Five

Dan Harker had spent much of the
morning at his desk staring at his computer monitor, trawling through the
previously top secret files of the previous captain, Michael De La Cruz. Almost
every single one of them related to either the child killer or the Bourbon Kid.
The child murders had never been investigated. Every single one of them had
been filed under the list of Bourbon Kid victims. This wasn’t just lazy police work,
this was blatant corruption. It had been started by Archibald Somers and
continued by De La Cruz. But why had they been so keen to pin every murder on
the Bourbon Kid? Was it just because he was an easy target? Or was he an enemy
of theirs? An enemy to the undead?

After an hour of viewing
countless files containing almost identical details, Harker came across De La
Cruz’s file for the death of Archie Somers. And this one was interesting. It
was the only case with any evidence to prove that the Kid had murdered the
victim in question. It contained a link to some CCTV footage too. He brought it
up onto the screen and moved his face closer to the monitor to get a good look
at what was a rather grainy picture. The film footage showed the Bourbon Kid
turning up at the police station and gunning down all of the on duty police
officers. The only survivor initially was a receptionist named Amy Webster. The
camera was positioned behind the Kid and showed the look of terror on Miss
Webster’s face as she followed his instructions. Unfortunately there was no
audio, so Harker could only speculate on what was being discussed. It looked as
though the Kid was dictating to Amy what to say on the phone. Eventually, after
she replaced the phone on its handset, he issued one more instruction. Amy
closed her eyes and a second later he fired a bullet through the middle of her
face. Maybe it was this kind of behaviour that made Somers and De La Cruz
decide to pin every unsolved murder on the Kid? After all, he was clearly a merciless
killer.

Harker skipped forward through
twenty minutes of film where nothing happened. He resumed play again when
Archie Somers showed up at the station to confront the Kid. It proved to be
fascinating viewing. Harker had to rewind and watch it several times to make
sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. After a minute of heated discussion
between the two, Somers transformed into a vampire and flew at the Bourbon Kid,
grabbing him and plunging his teeth into his neck. The Kid embraced Somers and
held him tightly, but then came the strangest part. A puff of smoke appeared
from in between the two men. More words were exchanged and then Somers
staggered back. He had a large hardback book stuck to his chest. A small cloud
of smoke was emanating from beneath the book. Somers tugged at the book,
desperately trying to rip it from his chest. The damn thing wasn’t shifting
though. It stayed glued to him, smouldering for a while until suddenly Somers
literally exploded into a ball of flames, waving his arms wildly and screaming.
Moments later he disintegrated into a pile of smoking ash on the floor. So,
Somers the vampire had met a grisly end, but what was the deal with the Kid?
Was he some kind of vampire slayer? And if so, why did he also kill innocent
people, like Amy Webster?

As Harker pondered the answers
to a multitude of questions, he heard a knock on his office door. Stood at the
glass door wearing a long white coat was Bill Clay from the Forensics
department. Harker gestured to him to enter. Clay pushed at the door a few
times with no success before finally kicking it at the bottom and forcing it
open. He walked in and closed it behind him with another kick and then turned
to face the Captain.

‘Hey Cap, how you doin’?’

‘What can I do for you, Bill?’
Harker asked.

‘Switchboard is going nuts down
there. Flake can’t cope with all the calls.’

‘Get her buddy Sanchez to help
her.’

‘Don’t you think he’d just annoy
people?’

‘Yeah,’ said Harker shrugging.
‘Then they’ll hang up. He’s perfect for it.’

Clay smiled. ‘Well there’s one
small problem. Sanchez hasn’t showed up for work. In fact Flake’s only just
come in herself.’

‘Lazy assholes.’

‘Yeah, but there’s a reason for
their lateness.’

‘It
better
be good.’

‘It’s not bad. Flake says they
bumped into your child killer this morning.’

‘What?’

‘Apparently Sanchez just killed
him.’

‘Come again?’

‘Flake says Sanchez got into a
fight with a vampire dressed as Santa Claus at the library this morning. Apparently
Sanchez poured the guy’s green poison over him and set him on fire.’

‘Fucking hell. Where’s Sanchez
now?’

‘Up to his neck in shit, I
reckon.’

‘Huh?’

‘Flake said he’s found The Book
of Death. You know, that book that’s missing? He’s on his way to return it to
its owner.’

Harker scratched his head. ‘Wow.
I kinda thought Sanchez was an idiot. Sounds like he’s turned into Elliot
Ness.’

‘More like Frank Drebbin.’

‘Even so. Who’d have guessed he
had it in him?’

‘Not me.’

‘Me either. Still, this is turning
into a good news day.’

Clay grimaced. ‘Yeah, well
that’s the good news over.’

Harker sighed. ‘Oh God. What
now?’

‘The switchboard. It’s jammed
with calls reporting sightings of vampires attacking people all over the city.
The local radio station is already warning people to stay indoors. I think the
days of vampires attacking only by night and in back alleys are over. These
black clouds over the city aren’t just freak weather. It looks like this is all
part of a bigger plan. Vampires are roaming through the streets of the city as
we speak. And they’re all headed towards the Casa de Ville. Something big is
going down. This could be the start of the end of the world.’

‘Please tell me you’re
exaggerating for dramatic effect.’

‘I’m afraid not. Your plan to leak
the child killer case onto the news has backfired in a big way. It’s brought
them all out of the shadows.’

‘Thanks. I really needed to hear
that.’

‘Sorry Captain. But I think we
should evacuate the city. Get back on the news and tell everyone to get the
hell outta here.’

‘Seriously? Don’t you think
that’ll create a state of mass panic.’

Clay nodded at the window behind
Harker. ‘Take a look out the window. We’re already in a state of panic.’

Harker got up from his chair and
peered through the blinds on the window at the street below. At first it looked
like nothing much was going on. But as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark
outside he saw that Clay was right. On the opposite side of the road a young
man who worked on a fruit and vegetable stall was being ripped to pieces by
three vampires dressed all in black. He turned back to Clay.

‘Holy shit.’

Clay nodded. ‘It looks like
we’re all gonna die.’

‘Fuck that,’ said Harker
defiantly. ‘We’re paid to protect the people of this city. We’re gonna have to
get out there and deal with this problem head on.’

‘How the hell are we gonna fight
an entire army of vampires? There’s barely enough cops here to rescue a cat
stuck up a tree.’

‘That’s a job for the fire
department. Lazy bastards.’

‘Even so. If as you say we have
a responsibility to protect the people of this city then we should be advising
them to run for their lives. Flake took a call just now from a Sunflower Girl
Leader. She said her and her girls are sneaking through back alleys trying to
avoid being spotted by the vampires.’

‘Sunflower Girls?’ Harker put
his head in his hands. ‘Oh shit, they must be terrified.’

‘They’ve had a pretty bad day
already. The leader backed up Flake’s story about Sanchez setting fire to the
Santa.’

‘He set Santa on fire in front
of a bunch of Sunflower Girls?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Moron.’

‘Quite. As Flake was telling the
leader to head to the local church, the line went dead. So for all we know, the
vampires spotted them. Those girls could be dead already.’

Harker sat back down at his desk
and shuddered. ‘I sure hope they make it. If they can get into a church then
they’re probably pretty safe. They’ll have crosses and holy water and shit like
that to use as weapons. I don’t think a vampire is gonna set foot in a church.’

‘Shouldn’t we send someone over
there to see if they’re okay?’

‘Can we send Sanchez?’

‘The guy who just set fire to
Santa in front of them?’

Clay had a point. Sanchez was
probably the last person the traumatized girls would want to see. ‘Fuck. We’re
just gonna have to hope the church takes care of them. I’m gonna have to get
back over to the news station and advise everyone to lock themselves in or get
out of town.’