Behind him Beth had just
regained consciousness after Razor’s blow to the temple earlier in the day. She
wasn’t so chirpy now that she had a bruise the size of an egg, swelling above
her right eye. Razor was sitting next to her with his left arm stretched along
the back of the sofa behind her, ready to clip her around the ear if she
attempted to move without asking first.
Tex was still sitting in front
of the bank of monitors on the other side of the room, staring at them
intently, looking for any signs of an intruder on the premises. All of the
cameras around the grounds were beaming their signal into the control room.
Entry into the Casa De Ville undetected ought to be an impossibility.
Through the window Bull saw a
sliver of blue light filter through the clouds above. The moon was finally making
an appearance. This was a signal. Night was here. And in Santa Mondega, the
beginning of night usually meant the beginning of carnage.
The snow quickly eased and soon
stopped falling from the sky all together. As his view of the courtyard below
became clearer, he heard Tex called out from behind him. ‘I got somethin’ for
ya, boss.’
‘What is it?’
‘Message from Jessica.’ Bull
looked around to see Tex reading an email on one of the monitors. ‘She says the
Bourbon Kid is heading this way. One of her sources says he’s just come back
from the Devil’s Graveyard.’
‘Devil’s Graveyard?’
‘Yeah. Ever heard of it?’
‘Only in folklore. It’s s’posed
to be a place people go to make deals with the Devil. You know, sell their
souls for immortality and all that shit.’
‘You think that’s what he’s
done?’
Bull shrugged. ‘Won’t make a
blind bit of difference. We’ve got an army of immortals down there. Anything
else?’
‘There’s one other thing you
should know,’ said Tex.
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s stopped snowing.’
‘Yeah, I can see that.’
‘Well it’s made it a hell of a
lot easier to see what’s going on out there,’ said Tex. ‘What’s the view from
the window like?’
‘It could be better. But I can
just about make out the front gates.’
‘He won’t come in through the
front gates… will he?’
Bull continued to stare hard out
of the window at the courtyard below. ‘I’m
convinced that’s what he’s gonna do.’
‘That’s pretty dumb though,’
said Tex. ‘He’s cleverer than that, surely?’
‘He’s cunning all right,’ Bull
agreed. ‘But he’s also pig headed and a show off. Likes to face down an army
head on. You keep your eyes on those monitors. I’ll keep mine on the
courtyard.’
Tex stared at the monitor that
was showing the front gates. ‘There’s fuck all happening at the gates, boss,’
he said. ‘Just them two Pandas. One of ‘em’s smoking a cigarette.’
‘Smoking, huh? No wonder they’re
an endangered species,’ said Bull.
Tex didn’t laugh. Instead he
shouted out. ‘OH SHIT! Man down!’
Bull spun around. ‘What? Where?’
he snapped.
Tex was pointing at the monitor
showing the front gates. ‘We have a Panda down,’ he said. ‘No wait, hang on.’
He squinted hard at the screen, trying to piece together what he was seeing for
a few seconds before adding, ‘We now have
two
Pandas down. Both guards
on the gate are down.’
Bull peered out of the window at
the gates. It was hard to see clearly what was going on. ‘What the fuck has
happened to them?’ he asked, hoping for some guidance from Tex.
‘They’re down. Permanently.’
‘Dead?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘This is it then. He’s here.’
Tex squinted at the monitors in
front of him, hoping to get a better view of proceedings. ‘One guy’s head fell
off,’ he said. ‘Other guy kinda split in two down the middle.’
‘Split in what?’
‘Two. Down the middle. You know,
fell in half. Like sliced bread.’
‘Fuck!’
‘Yeah. That’s gotta hurt.’
Bull couldn’t validate any of
what Tex was telling him from his view at the window. He trusted Tex though and
he knew that a quick response was required. ‘Okay Tex, switch on the central
spotlights. Let me see what we’re lookin’ at!’
Tex reacted to the order
instantly. He flicked a switch on a panel beneath the bank of monitors and the
outside sky suddenly lit up as a spotlight shone down on the courtyard. Tex had
the controls for the spotlight at his fingertips. He guided the light over to
the gates, watching its progress on the monitors.
From the window Bull watched the
huge beam of light shine down twenty feet in diameter. It showed up the
silhouettes of some of the previously hidden vampires and werewolves as it
searched the grounds for the killer of the two guards at the gates.
Bull and Tex suddenly both
shouted out at the same time. ‘THERE HE IS!’
Tex had stopped the spotlight
directly on a man dressed all in black standing on the driveway. The man was
wearing a long dark coat with a hood pulled up over his head. Where Tex has
spotted him on a monitor, Bull had seen it at the same time as he stared out of
the window.
From behind them, Razor piped
up. ‘Is it the Bourbon Kid?’
Bull nodded. ‘Who else was it
gonna be?’
‘I dunno. Thought maybe he
wouldn’t show.’
‘You just keep a hold of that
little lady,’ Bull ordered. ‘She’s the reason he’s here.’
Down below in the courtyard the
Bourbon Kid was standing motionless in the centre of the spotlight. The gates
and the two dead Pandas were roughly twenty feet behind him. As Bull focussed
momentarily on the dead guards and the blood red snow around them, he spotted
something else moving, behind them. ‘He’s set the gates in motion,’ he mumbled
half to himself as he tried to make sense of it. Then realising he couldn’t
make sense of it he raised his voice and alerted the others. ‘The gates are
opening! What the hell is he doing?’
Tex looked baffled. ‘I don’t get
it. Why is he opening the gates when he’s already inside?’
Razor offered a suggestion.
‘Maybe he’s looking to escape, seeing as we’ve spotted him?’
Bull shook his head. ‘Not
without the girl. He won’t leave without her. What the fuck is he playing at?’
‘Shall I sound the siren?’ asked
Tex.
‘Yeah. As soon as the vampires
hear it, they’ll swarm on him.’ He turned to Beth. ‘I figure your boyfriend has
about ten seconds left to live. Wanna come and watch?’
Beth shook her head. ‘I can
watch it on the monitors from here, thanks,’ she said.
Tex pressed a button on his
control desk and a loud siren blared out in the courtyard outside. On the
monitors, Beth was able to see the hoards of vampires and werewolves react to
it. They began creeping out from their hiding places in the bushes and trees of
the courtyard. And there were lots of them. A hell of a lot. They began edging
towards the Bourbon Kid.
Bull snapped at Tex. ‘Okay, now
turn on all
the lights.’
Tex flicked a few switches on
and in an instant the whole courtyard lit up. Beth watched the situation unfold
on screen. Literally thousands of vampires and werewolves in the courtyard were
advancing on the Bourbon Kid, who no longer had a spotlight to himself. He
stood motionless facing down an entire army of the undead.
‘Get ready,’ said Bull. ‘Any second
now, he’s gonna do something.’
‘Like what?’ asked Razor.
‘I dunno, but be ready, because
when he does, they’ll rip him apart.’
The vampires and werewolves continued to
edge closer to the Kid. He had obviously seen them, but he had not reacted. The
vampires at the front of the crowd eventually stopped just a few yards away
from him. The whole undead army stood as one, stretching the length of the
courtyard, waiting either for the Kid to make his move, or for a signal of
sorts from Bull.
‘We got about three thousand
guys down there,’ Bull said, smirking. ‘It hardly seems like a fair fight.’
Beth stared at the monitors and
allowed herself a half smile. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘You’re gonna need way
more than three thousand for it to be a fair fight.’
Bull ignored her and continued
staring out of the window.
Although Beth wasn’t entirely
sure what they were seeing on screen, she heard a shout from Tex loud and
clear. ‘GRENADES!’ he shouted.
From one of the other monitors A
huge ball of smoke blew up from the ground around the Bourbon Kid, obscuring
him from view completely.
‘Shit!’ Bull yelled. ‘They’re
smoke bombs!’
Beth kept her eyes glued on the
screen, waiting to see what became of JD. The army of vampires and werewolves
began slowly forming a perimeter ring around the ball of smoke.
‘What’s he doing?’ Bull asked.
He sounded puzzled. ‘Why isn’t he shooting at them, or something? What the fuck
is he waiting for?’
‘Haven’t you figured it out
yet?’ said Beth, scornfully.
Bull spun around. Everyone else
was staring hard at the bank of monitors. Tex and Razor were looking at one of
the monitors on the left. It showed the huge ball of smoke, but there was still
no sign of the Kid coming out of it.
‘He’s still in that ball of
smoke, right?’ said Bull.
‘Yep,’ said Tex, still squinting
at the screen.
Beth cleared her throat to grab
their attention. ‘You’re looking at the wrong screen,’ she said.
Bull looked over at her, failing
to mask the annoyance on his face. ‘What?’ he snapped.
Beth pointed at a monitor on the
far right. ‘Look at that one,’ she said.
All three of her captors looked
over at the other monitor. It was showing live footage of the grounds just
outside the front gates, so it had been of little interest to them once the Kid
had showed up inside the grounds.
‘What the fuck is that?’ Tex
said aloud on behalf of them all. He had the best view of the screen from his
spot at the desk. Bull raced over to his side, and Razor jumped up from the
sofa to join him. On the monitors it was evident that something huge
was
moving outside the gates. In fact there was a vast amount of movement. It was
coming from the woodland on the other side of the road like a tidal wave
surging towards the gates of the Casa de Ville. All three men watched aghast at
what they saw on the monitor.
When what was happening began to
sink in, Bull spoke on behalf of everyone. ‘Oh sweet Jesus,’ he whispered. ‘God
have mercy on us all.’
Forty-Three
After fleeing from the Casa de
Ville’s reception area Sanchez had wandered into a large dining room. The place
was impressive, much nicer than his own dining room. It had probably been the
scene of many fine banquets over the years, or centuries. There was a long
varnished oak dining table in the centre of the room with posh high-backed chairs
lining the sides of it and a chair at either end. The walls on either side were
adorned with shelves of expensive looking ornaments, the likes of which would
be worth sneaking out with if he could make it out in one piece. Right now
though the best thing about this room (in Sanchez’s opinion) was the fact that
it was empty. The revelation that Jessica was a vampire and that she had an
undead army lurking outside in the courtyard had come as a real shock. And the
way she had spoken about him suggested she didn’t care for him in the
slightest, other than maybe as a potential snack. He needed help, big time. He
pulled his cell phone from his pocket and switched it on. He had two missed
calls. Both from Flake. She had also left him a message. He pressed for voicemail
and listened to it –
“Sanchez, it’s Flake. Don’t go
to the Casa De Ville. Your friend Jessica is a vampire. It says so in The Book
With No Name. I think she’ll kill you as soon as she has The Book of Death.
Call me as soon as you get this!”
Dammit!
Why hadn’t he listened to her
before? Flake was so smart. And he was so stupid—not the other way around
as he had foolishly believed earlier. Some kind of apology might be in order,
eventually. For now, Flake was most definitely the first port of call to get
him out of this mess. He had to call her back,
and quick
. He pressed
dial and put the phone to his ear. The dialling tone that followed went on for
what seemed like an eternity before the call was answered. Flake’s voice came
through loud and clear.
“Hi this is Flake. I’m not
available to take your call right now. Please leave a message after the tone.
Or beep. I’m not sure whether it’s a tone or a beep. Is a beep considered a
tone? Oh well, just leave a message anyway. After the tone.”
Okay, so maybe she was a
bit
stupid.
But Sanchez left a message for her anyway. He spoke in a hushed voice in case
anyone was within hearing distance outside of the room. ‘Hi Flake, it’s
Sanchez. I just got your message. You were totally right. I’m really sorry I doubted
you. Thing is, I’m stuck in a dining room at the Casa De Ville. There’s
vampires and werewolves everywhere. I still have The Book of Death with me, but
I can’t get out of here. See if you can get the cops to send everyone here.
There’s something big about to go down. So, if you get this message, give me a
call, or see if you can work out a way to get me out of here. Um,’ he realised
he was babbling and wasn’t exactly sure what he was trying to say, but he
wanted to make sure he got his message across clearly. ‘If you do come here
yourself, watch out for all the vampires and werewolves in the courtyard. I
think they’re after the Bourbon Kid. He’s around here somewhere too. If you see
him, steer clear. He’s dangerous and would kill you just for fun. I really hope
you get this message. Miss you. Bye.’