The Tome of Bill Compendium Vol. 1 (Books 1-4) (136 page)

Okay, I needed to focus. The time to curl up in a little ball and whine about Gan would come later.

“Either way, we need to remember that neither of them are Remington’s main focus here. They’re just using Ed to draw Sheila out. The Icon is going to be their main target. Always keep that in mind and don’t let her out of your sight.”

Sheila raised a bemused eyebrow, and I could almost immediately feel pinpricks of sweat break out on my brow. Talk about unnecessary distractions.

“Any problem with that?” I asked, doing my best to feign a sense of authority.

“I can take care of myself, you know,” she said.

“I know, but we’re not taking any chances. Trust me - even the most straightforward dealings with vampires can turn into gigantic clusterfucks pretty damn easily.”

“What about you, Bill?”

“He’s used to clusterfucks,” Sally replied.

“No, I mean I got the impression they were after him too.”

“Not the same thing,” I said. “They’re going to want me alive as a trophy for the Draculas.”

“Draculas?” Sheila cocked her head to the side. Goddamn, she was cute.

“The First Coven...our ruling body.”

“For now,” Gan added, drawing a quizzical glance from Sally. *sigh*

“Any questions?” No one responded to my mostly rhetorical inquiry. Thank goodness - I had absolutely zero answers to anything they might ask. Hell, I was barely cognizant of what day it was.

Sheila, Gan, and Christy led the way out of the alley, weapons concealed as best they could. Despite it being
my
plan, I held back a few steps and motioned for Sally to do the same.

“Not bad, Bill.” She kept her voice low so that the others, save Gan, wouldn’t be able to overhear. “You almost had me convinced you were actually in charge of things.”

“Thanks, Sally. I need you to...”

“Keep an eye on your girlfriend? Yeah, I garnered that.”

“No,” I replied, much to even my own surprise. “I want you to watch out for Christy.”

“Really? That’s new. Wasn’t too long ago you wouldn’t have shed any tears tripping over her corpse.”

“Things change.”

“Who’d a thought you a softie for kids?”

I dropped my voice to a bare whisper. “I guess so...at least ones that don’t want to marry me.”

“I’m impressed Bill. I don’t say that often...nor am I planning to start, but I am. It probably doesn’t mean much, but just for the record, I hope things work out for your gal pal.”

So did I.

As we turned to follow, something cold and wet hit the back of my neck. The supernatural storm had started up again, but this time snow was falling. So intent had I been on the mission ahead, I hadn’t noticed that the temperature had dropped. Large white flakes fell all around us.

I took a look around. “Heh, kind of reminds me of Canada.”

“Me too,” Sally replied. “Unfortunately, we both know how that worked out.”

* * *

I led the way to the entrance of the building where the office was housed. It was an active business space, home to a few legit companies - non-vampire related, of course. Past sundown, however, we mostly had the place to ourselves. Thank goodness for the rush-hour exodus. Usually we tried to be courteous neighbors, regardless. After all, despite vampires having certain back-alley deals with the authorities - stuff that kept the eyes of the law mostly turned elsewhere - there was no need to call undue attention to ourselves.

I doubted that would be the case tonight. The office was well insulated against sound, to muffle any errant screams that rang out, but I had a feeling that things had potential to get a whole lot noisier. I felt bad for any workaholics who decided to stay late this evening.

I was certain there were eyes watching us from above as we entered through the front door. No doubt they were wondering what we were up to. Hell, so was I.

Once inside, we noticed the place was deathly still. There was no security guard stationed in the lobby, a status quo Sally made sure was maintained. She once told me that in the years since the coven had rented out their floors, there had been only one attempt at burglary - an attempt which had ended
very
badly for the would-be thieves. She considered it her token attempt at being a good neighbor to the other tenants.

Even so, there should have been some cleaning crews milling about at that hour. A sinking feeling hit my gut. I had a hunch that Remington and his crew hadn’t bothered to wait for the building to clear out at quitting time. That wasn’t good. Vampires have connections, but there’s simply only so much that can be covered up without questions being asked.

I pushed it out of my mind for now. If that had happened, anyone there was long past our helping. As for the rest, well, Sally could handle any real estate issues that arose.

Goddamn it! I paused for a moment and let this sink in. Had I really given almost no consideration to the potential lives lost in such a massacre? Was I that far gone already? Maybe Tom wasn’t so off base with his accusations. It was something to ponder once this was all over and done with.

We considered the stairs. It was probably the far more sensible choice, but I opted for the elevator primarily because of Christy...although I kept that to myself, as she would have probably protested. Well screw her. I had enough on my conscience as it was.

Speaking of Christy, though, I actually found myself damn glad she was with us. I’d tried to warn her off earlier, but now realized her presence was probably the only thing keeping us from being blasted apart where we stood - her sisters’ influence upon the situation no doubt. Considering what happened in Westchester, Remington no doubt knew he needed the witches’ help. That meant playing by their rules.

Thankfully, we had some rules of our own to spice up their little game.

The elevator dinged at our floor.

“Show time,” I said to my three companions, hefting Ed’s shotgun. Its weight was comforting. Perhaps it was time for me to get one...assuming I didn’t manage to shoot myself first.

Sheila drew her sword and Sally brandished her massive handgun, which she immediately pointed at Christy’s head.

“The safety’s on, isn’t it?” Christy chuckled nervously.

“Best not to ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”

The elevator opened and before us stood the hall leading up to the double doors of the office. It, too, was empty.

“Beginning to feel unloved here,” I commented.

“You shouldn’t,” a quiet voice whispered from the opposite side of Christy. The only person standing there happened to be the one holding a broadsword out in front of her.

“What was that?” I asked. There’s nothing wrong with my vampire ears, but I needed to make sure my imagination wasn’t playing tricks on me.

“Focus, Bill,” Sally hissed.

“But...”

“Eyes front, mind clear, mister!”

“Yes ma’am.” Goddamn it. We needed to get this shit over with and fast. It was high time Sheila and I had a good long talk with absolutely no bullshit between us...which of course was an easy thing to plan up until the point it actually happened.

Oh well, maybe I’d get lucky and not survive.

We walked up to the doors unhindered. I reached out to grasp the handle, but stopped as a little bit of inspiration hit me. Fuck it! If it was good enough for a John Woo film, it’s good enough for me.

Putting my vampiric strength to use, I raised my foot and kicked the doors. They flew inward with the sound of wood splintering. Thank goodness. How embarrassing would that have been had they not moved?

“Slick,” Sally commented before falling quiet again.

A phalanx of vampires stood awaiting us on either side of the doorway. I’m not the best at reading people, especially undead killers, but I could have sworn there were at least a few nervous glances amongst their number. I could dig that.

It wasn’t hard to imagine why. I, the Freewill - (supposedly) destined to lead our forces against our ancient enemies - stood on one side. Sheila, the equally legendary Icon - defender of the human race and prophesied destroyer of the Magi - guarded the other. Between us stood our prisoner, while Sally brought up the rear - her ridiculously large handgun making up for her non-legendary status. Talk about over-compensating.

All of the office-related furniture had been removed from the room. The space before us appeared to be set up as if in anticipation of a battle.

“Son of a bitch,” Sally grumbled. She had put a lot of work into the office, and no doubt this was more than enough to convince her that Remington needed an extreme amount of killing.

Speaking of the devil, he stood about ten paces in front of us. Three witches, obviously the same that had visited Christy, stood to his left. Tom brandished his own firearm on the right. I’m not a gun nut, but I could have sworn it was the same one Sally had used at Sheila’s workplace. Guess Remington had been going through her stuff. No sense of privacy with some people. The pistol didn’t make as big of a hole as Sally’s favorite piece, but it had the advantage of being quick - as well as not knocking someone on their ass the second they tried to fire it.

Either way, though, that didn’t really matter. Tom was armed against us, and from the look on his face, he wasn’t averse to using it. Goddamn it. If we got out of this alive, I was buying the fucking idiot a tinfoil hat to protect against this happening again.

Tom's eyes filled with worry at the sight of Christy, then met mine. It was all I could do not to look away. I had never seen such a look of pure unbridled hatred on my friend’s face. Not even that time when we were in fifth grade and I accidentally stepped on his
Lava Lord
action figure. It practically broke my heart. Even if he was out of his fucking mind right now, I nevertheless made a promise to myself to make things right with him.

Movement behind Remington revealed more vamps and someone else. I had little doubt who. We were there for a prisoner swap and without some prisoners the whole thing was a little pointless.

Remington took a step forward.

“That’s far enough,” I said. I gulped and took a deep breath. My next words were so
not me
, that I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to do it with a straight face. “Another step and the witch’s brains will be decorating the walls.”

In response to my threat, Sally pulled the slide back on her gun with a click. It was meant to send a message and it did...even to me. I had to remind myself that she was a cool character. She had to be. One false move and Christy would have nothing but a fine red mist where her head used to be

“You bastard!” Tom growled, raising his own weapon. I had never seen him pick up any ranged weapon more lethal than a paintball gun, so it was doubtful he’d be anywhere close to a dead shot with it. He probably had as much chance of hitting himself as he did me. Even so, I really didn’t care to test that theory.

“Please, Tom,” Christy whimpered so realistically that I couldn’t be entirely sure she was acting. Hopefully she wouldn’t decide to hedge her bets on the side with the number advantage. She had to know that wouldn’t end well for her or Tom. Once their mission was accomplished, I wouldn’t put it past Remington to take advantage of Decker’s weakened former coven and wipe them out. Vampires weren’t at war with the mages, but one less player on the battlefield wouldn’t exactly hurt our odds.

Remington held up a hand at him. “I can assure you, everything is well under control.”

Tom’s eyes nervously played between us, but he finally lowered the gun.

“There, that’s better now. There’s no reason for there to be bloodshed.”

Yeah right. That was such a load of bullshit I’d probably need to clean my shoes just from standing so near him.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said. “The witch for the human.”

“Nice try, Freewill,” Remington replied. “But the deal was the human for the witch
and
the Icon.”

“Maybe I’m altering the deal,” I said, dropping my voice a few octaves. “Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

I heard a sigh behind me...Sally. Jeez, she just couldn’t throw me a bone, could she?

Behind Remington, the barest of smiles appeared on Tom’s face before once more being buried in whatever alien thoughts were clouding his mind. He was still in there somewhere. I just hoped the others had seen it too. I really preferred he not get utterly annihilated during whatever was about to transpire. I had no idea how things would play out aside from one little detail: it would most likely be violent.

“The witch is meaningless to me,” Remington said, eliciting worried glances from the ones beside him, “although not to my allies. Still, the Icon is our main quarry. The deal is both for one. If the Icon steps forward quietly and unarmed, I might even be willing to let details of your treachery slip from my report.”

“You’re too kind.”

“No, I’m really not. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why you would choose to side with this creature,” he said, dismissing Sheila as little more than some animal. To say it pissed me off would be an understatement. “But then I was enlightened.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked, somewhat confused. The only one from his group who had known Sheila and what she meant to me was Decker, and he was currently pushing up daisies in upstate New York.

“All in good time. First things first, Freewill. Speaking of treachery, I’m curious. Where is that other one, the little vampire who came to your rescue up north?”

“She didn’t come to my rescue.” I muttered. “Well, not much anyway.”

“The details matter not. What does is that she is a traitor to the vampire race, even more so than you. I shall see her punished for more reasons than one.” His hand moved to his midsection, where Gan had none-so-gently eviscerated him. It was obviously healed by now - Remington wasn’t exactly a child by our standards - but most vamps didn’t exactly approach such matters with an attitude leaning toward forgiveness.

“She’s dead,” I said flatly, a small part of me enjoying the wishful thinking that accompanied the statement. “After you left, the surviving Templars rallied against her. They killed one another.”