Vampire Seeker (18 page)

Reaching down with my other hand, I tried to free one of Harry’s guns from around his waist.

“Now’s not the time,” he snapped back, knocking my hand away from his groin.

“I’m not reaching for your cock, you moron,” I yelled over the sound of the shrieking vampires who were
now within touching distance of us. “I need your gun!”

Slinging it from his holster, he handed it to me. I snatched it out of his hand. It was heavier and bigger than mine. I pulled
the trigger with lightning speed, aiming the gun at the vampires’ heads. Bullet after bullet thudded into the faces
of the vampires, but it took more than just one bullet to kill them. The vampires returned fire as they raced alongside us,
their horses looking unnaturally huge and powerful. They were black and sleek-looking, like the one Harry and I rode.

One of the vampires reached for me with a white hooked claw. Its yellow fingernails slashed through the leg of my denims,
cutting it into fine shreds. I lurched backwards and Harry placed one of his hands on my arse to steady me. I glanced at him.

“Don’t go getting any funny ideas, doll,” he snapped back at me.

Harry drove the horse harder. The vampire drew level with us and lunged for me again, its face just inches from mine. The
creature was so close I could see that just beneath its pale skin; there was a mass of blue and mauve veins, which seemed
to wriggle like worms hatching in its flesh. The vampire’s eyes were dead black, and I could see my own reflection in
them. But it was its mouth which was the most horrific thing about its features. It was so open and wide, that its jagged
lips seemed to ripple in the rushing wind. They made a flapping noise and the vampire’s breath smelt of decaying meat.
Its tongue was swollen and purple and the tip ran over a set of gums which wept black blood and white puss. This close up
to the creature’s teeth, they looked like knives, each one of them jagged and broken and razor-sharp.

With my guns dry and needing to keep hold of Harry, I rolled my free fist back, and punched the vampire straight in the face.
It looked at me with surprise, like that was the last thing it had expected me to do.

“That’s how girls where I come from deal with arseholes!” I shouted, then glanced at Harry.

The vampire’s skin felt spongy and some of it fell away, black and rotten-looking from around the spot where my fist
had connected with its face. Glancing back over Harry’s shoulder, I could see we were galloping alongside the Scorpion
Steam. Gunfire was being sprayed from the sky, and I looked up to see Louise charging along the roof of the train, her long
black hair and coattails flowing out behind her. Then I saw Zoe leap from the horse which she had been riding with the preacher.
She clung to the side of the speeding train, racing up a metal ladder which was attached to the side of the carriage. Placing
one hand over the other, she raced with speed up onto the roof, where she joined Louise in picking off the vampires with the
bullets they pumped from their revolvers.

I watched as one vampire after another flew back into the air, blood spraying from the holes in their necks where their hideous
heads had moments before been attached.

“Go! Go! Go!”
Harry suddenly roared at me as we drew level with the carriage. Holding him tight, I tried to climb out of the saddle. Again
I brushed against him. I reached for the side of the speeding train, then glanced back at Harry. He looked at me. A few remaining
vampires raced just behind him, and I could see they were preparing themselves to jump onto the train. Then dropping back
into the saddle and placing my cheek next to his, I whispered in his ear, “If we’re gonna die, I just want to
know one thing.”

“What’s that!” he whispered back, his breath warm against my face, and making the hairs at the base of my
neck prickle.

“Did we make love last night?” I breathed over the sound of gunfire and screaming vampires. I know I hadn’t
picked the best of times to ask, but I needed to know, just in case one of us didn’t make it.

“No,” he said his stubble rubbing against my cheek.

“You’re a liar,” I whispered, our lips just inches apart.

Then, staring into my eyes, Harry said, “We didn’t make love, we had sex. There is a difference, you know.”

“You are such an arrogant, self-conceited, chauvinistic, half-brained dickhead!” I spat at him, clambering out
of the saddle. I didn’t want him to touch me. Not ever.

“I don’t understand what half of that meant. But now’s not the time to become hysterical,” he shouted
back at me.

“I’m not
hysterical
!” I screeched at him, bullets whizzing overhead. “I just can’t believe I let someone like you sleep with
me!”

“You weren’t doing a lot of sleeping, as far as I can remember,” he yelled back. “Now if I were you,
I’d get on board that damn train before you get us both killed!”

“I’d quite like to see you killed,” I hissed under my breath and threw myself at the train.

“Nice!” he shouted back, just to let me know he had heard what I’d muttered.

Ignoring him, I scrambled up the ladder. The preacher was now standing alongside the others and all three of them were firing
down at the last of the vampires who chased after Harry. With a fluidity that I was unaware I had, I reloaded the gun with
the bullets from my pockets in seconds, and joined in firing at the vampires. I watched Harry stand up in the stirrups, and
letting go of the reins, he threw himself at the side of the train. At the same time, the last of the vampires flung itself
from its horse. But unlike Harry, it didn’t need a ladder; it used its long claws to scurry along the side of the carriage.
Harry saw it but was too late. The vampire gripped hold of Harry’s leg and threw its head back, as if to sink its teeth
into him.

Then, the vampire’s head was hanging open, its brains streaming out of its fractured skull as the train raced up the
mountainside.

“Great shot!” Louise said, twirling her guns in her hands and then sliding them into their holsters.

The preacher reached down and yanked Harry up onto the roof of the train, then suddenly he collapsed, they all did, except
Louise.

The preacher, Harry, and Zoe dropped to their knees and gripped their stomachs. Each one cried out, as if in agony.

“Stop the train!”
the preacher roared, his face white and streaming sweat.

“Stop the train?” I gasped, looking down into his tortured face. “But the vampires!”

“They’re dead,” Louise screeched, wrapping her arm around the preacher’s shoulders.

“But more might come,” I said, looking down at Harry who was now lying on his side and howling in pain.

“They hunt in packs,” Louise snapped at me, as if this was something I should have known. “They won’t
come back tonight; besides we’re far away from Silent Rest.”

I looked at Zoe, who was now convulsing on the roof of the train, her tongue lolling from the corner of her mouth.

“What’s wrong with them?” I gasped, not understanding what was happening.

“Stop the train!”
Louise yelled at me, her own eyes now brimming with fear. “We have to get them off the train or we’re all gonna
die!”

I stumbled backwards as I made my way along the roof of the train. I reached the end of the carriage and scrambled down the
ladder and into the carriage. I raced into the passageway, and seeing the emergency stop chain, I pulled on it with all my
strength. There was a deafening hissing sound as the brakes locked on and the train began to slow. The carriage lurched violently
and I stumbled onto the floor. I pulled myself up and ran back down the passageway. By the time I reached the ladder again,
the train had stopped. I climbed it and hoisted myself back onto the roof. With thick black smoke curling all around me from
the funnel, I covered my eyes with my arms and ran back to where the preacher and the others had collapsed. The smoke was
so thick that it was almost impossible to see anything. Then the clouds broke above me and milky-blue moonlight lit up the
roof. I looked front and back and couldn’t see my friends anywhere. It was like they had vanished.

“What’s going on?” I heard someone shout from below, their feet crunching over the ballast.

I looked over the edge of the train and could see the light from an oil lamp swinging in the dark.

“Who’s there?” I called out, my guns in my fists.

“It’s Doctor Dable,” the voice shouted. “Now what on Earth is going on?”

I holstered my guns and climbed back down the ladder attached to the side of the carriage. I landed trackside and peered into
the darkness. The doctor stepped from the gloom, his face like a Halloween mask in the orange glow from the lamp. His eyes
were black and did nothing to reflect the lamplight. His face was pale, gaunt, and tired-looking.

“They’ve gone,” I said, peering into the darkness, looking for any sign of my friends.

“Who has?” the doctor snapped. “What are you talking about, child?”

“The preacher and the others,” I told him.

“And their horses, too,” Drake said, stepping from the darkness and standing next to his doctor. He looked tired
too, but his eyes looked alive and excited somehow. His lips were a crimson line beneath his nose.

“What do you mean the horses have gone? That’s impossible!” I breathed, not knowing or understanding what
had happened to the others. The last time I had seen them was only moments ago, and apart from Louise, they had been rolling
around in agony.

“See for yourself,” Drake said, pointing down the length of the train. “The carriage door has been dropped
and the horses have gone.”

I hurried along the cess, which rang alongside the tracks. The ballast crunched under my boots, and the light from the doctor’s
lamp lit my way. I reached the carriage where the horses had been stabled and could see that all of them had been taken, except
for mine.

“They’ve gone, ratted out on us,” Drake said with a sneer. “Call themselves vampire hunters? The first
sign of trouble and they disappear.”

Wheeling around, I glared at Drake and said, “As far as I can remember, it was you who did the disappearing act. You
left without us. We could’ve been killed back there thanks to you!”

“I didn’t pay the preacher and his band of merry men and women for their company,” Drake said. “I
paid them to protect me and that’s what they were doing while I made good on my escape.”

“Aww, you’re such a hero,” I sneered at him.

Turning from me, he looked at his companion and said, “Doctor, speak to the driver and tell him to get this train rolling
again.”

“What!” I spat. “You can’t just leave without them.”

“They’ve already gone,” Drake hissed at me. “I’m not prepared to wait around here in the middle
of nowhere in the dead of night. It’s too dangerous.”

“They’ll be back,” I tried to convince him.

“Nonsense. They’ve gone, fled into the night. They’ve taken their horses. They won’t be back. Now
you can come with us, or take your chances out here in the wilderness.” Then, looking at the doctor again, he snapped,
“Why are you still standing here? Tell the driver to get this train going again.”

With my hand seizing my gun with frightening speed, I pointed it at the both of them and said, “We’re not going
anywhere. They went away before and came back. They’ll do the same again.”

Drake and the doctor eyed the barrel of my gun. Then moving slowly towards me with the aid of his walking stick, Drake placed
his hand over the end of my gun and slowly lowered it. “You say that the preacher and his gang disappeared before? When
was this, please tell me?”

“The night we stayed at the saloon in Black Water…”

Before I’d the chance to finish, Drake turned to the doctor and said, “Tell the driver to hold the train. I think
Miss Carter and I need to have a little chat.”

Glad to hear that the train wouldn’t be leaving until my friends returned, I looked at Drake and said, “So what
do you want to talk about?”

“The preacher, of course,” he smiled back at me, and then made his way back onto the train.

I followed him to the observation carriage, where he dropped into one of the comfortable-looking armchairs beneath the glass
roof. Drake crossed one leg over the next at the ankles and lit himself a cigarette. With smoke curling from the corner of
his mouth, he passed me the silver cigarette case and book of matches. I took one, lit it, and then sat in the chair opposite
him. The doctor joined us and stood just behind Drake and looked at me. I felt as if I was going to be interrogated somehow.
I’d never been arrested by the police and interviewed, but I wondered if it wouldn’t have felt very much like
this.

Without taking his eyes off me, Drake reached into the breast pocket of his dark grey suit, removed what looked like a small
black leather wallet, and threw it onto the table before us.

“What’s that?” I asked him.

“Take a look for yourself,” he smiled at me again, and took a long, slow puff on his cigarette.

I picked up the leather wallet and opened it. At first I thought I was imagining what I was seeing. On one side there was
a silver badge about the size of a large coin. On the other side there was a white business card which read,
Detective Sergeant Drake, Scotland Yard
.

“Get outta here,” I sighed in disbelief. “You’re no copper.”

What part of my unconscious mind had created this
? I wondered.

“I am indeed,” he said. Then motioning towards the doctor he said, “And my companion, the good doctor, is
a police surgeon. Both of us are employed by Scotland Yard.”

The doctor nodded at me, as if this was the first time we had officially been introduced.

I blew smoke from the corner of my mouth, and throwing the warrant card back onto the table, I said, “So if you really
are who you say you are, what are you doing so far from home?”

“We’re tracking a killer, Miss Carter,” and his eyes beamed with excitement.

“What killer?” I said, still trying to play catch-up.