Bishop, on the other hand, was not ready for the point of my elbow slamming into the crown of his skull like a hammer. I nailed him once, twice, three times before he pulled back off me, shaking his head to clear his vision. I still hadn’t recovered the mobility to stand and fight, but it didn’t matter, because a couple hundred pounds of pudgy fury tagged in and bowled the giant vampire right over.
Greg hit the big guy from the side and straightened up on impact, flinging Bishop back and down.
“We got this guy, Abs. Make sure Jang-Mi doesn’t get out of here,” I gasped. The blond bombshell moved through the crowd of milling vampires to make sure the ringleader of the Eastland Mall vamps hadn’t hopped off her makeshift pulpit and fled. I had a few questions for her.
Greg stalked toward Bishop again, a snarl on his face like I’d never seen before. “You hurt my sister, asshole. Nobody gets to hurt my family and walk away.”
“Ian’s going to eat you alive, fatty,” Bishop growled as he got to his feet. “Not that there’s going to be much left.”
I got up on one knee, drew my Glock, and shot the big vampire in his lower leg. He screamed, everybody in the tunnels turned to stare at me, and I struggled to my feet. “That’s a silver-tipped hollowpoint nine-millimeter round, Bishop. It split apart into six petals when it hit you, and those petals are buried somewhere in your leg. It hurts now, and it’s going to hurt until somebody digs them out of you. We don’t heal from silver, so no matter how much blood you drink, you’re gonna be in excruciating pain until I decide to let you stop hurting. Now, do you want to fight some more? I brought a lot of bullets.”
Bishop, who was still standing in an amazing display of pain tolerance, just shook his head. I approved. “Good. Because you know things, and I need you to tell me those things. But first, we seem to have a leadership question to address.”
“There’s no question, Mister Black,” Jang-Mi said from where she stood atop a conference table in the clearing. “I am now the leader of the Morlocks, and you can treat with me just as you did with Rabbit and Alexis before him.”
There was some grumbling at that, mostly by the vampires I recognized as Morlocks. “There seems to be some question as to whether or not you are the leader of the Morlocks, Jang-Mi,” I said.
“We were just in the middle of a discussion about that very thing,” she said, perfectly calm. She hadn’t moved from her perch during the scrap with Bishop, and now seemed not at all interested in escape.
She kept talking. “As there are no other suitable candidates for leadership, I will assume control of the Morlocks, integrating them with my own people, and we will all move into the tunnels under the mall. You’ve been there, you can assure these people that it is much preferable to living in this squalor.”
“It does smell better,” I said. I looked around at the Morlocks. Most of them just looked confused, like they really wanted somebody to tell them what to do. A few looked pleased at the idea of going with Jang-Mi, but a good number of them looked furious about something. “Jang-Mi has a good setup over there. Power, gas to cook with, and everything looked nice and clean. But nobody is going to make you move. We’ll take a vote. If you want Jang-Mi to lead the Morlocks, go stand over there.”
I gestured over to the left of the table. About a dozen of the Morlocks shuffled over in that direction, along with all of the clean and well-dressed vamps Jang-Mi brought from Eastland. “You guys don’t get to vote. Yeah, you,” I said, when some of the mall vamps looked at me. “If you never thought of yourself as a Morlock before this morning, then you don’t get a vote.”
They looked grumpy, but moved back over to stand behind their leader. “Okay,” I said. “All of you who do not want Jang-Mi to lead the Morlocks, go over there.” I pointed off to the right side of the tunnel. The remaining two dozen or so vampires walked over there, outnumbering Team Jang-Mi two to one.
“The nays have it. Sorry, lady, you aren’t in charge,” I said.
“I will take over by force if necessary. You don’t have a better candidate to lead these people. Admit it, you have no idea who will keep the Morlocks safe. Because you obviously can’t.”
She had a point. Alexis and Rabbit were both killed on my watch. Alexis right in front of me. I opened my mouth to speak, but the voice I heard wasn’t mine.
“I can.” I turned to see Greg standing beside me. “I can lead the Morlocks, and I can keep them safe.”
“Are you nuts?” I asked. “You aren’t leading the Morlocks. You’re my partner!”
“Maybe I can be both. Maybe this is a better deal for me. Maybe this is what I need to really be doing. But I know one thing. I am not letting this woman come in here and take over. They don’t want it, and I don’t trust her.” Greg looked me straight in the eye, and there was no give in his stare. I knew that look. His mind was made up, and nothing I said would ever change it. It was like when we argued over who was the better Joker, Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson. The man just would never see reason once he set his head to something.
I held up my hands. “All right, whatever. You want to run the Morlocks and hang out in the sewers, that’s fine with me.”
“I think that place at Eastland was pretty nice, and the idea of merging these groups seems smart. There are barely enough in either camp to keep themselves safe, but with everybody working together, we could defend a larger facility.” He looked over at the bleeding Bishop. “I’m going to need a new Sergeant-at-Arms, though. Once we’re done asking this one some questions, I pretty much have to kill him.”
“Neither of those things is going to happen,” Jang-Mi said from the table. We both looked over to her, and she hopped down off the table and walked over to Greg. They were of similar height, but otherwise near perfect opposites. The chunky white guy trapped in his twenties standing in front of the elegant Asian woman in her fifties, the contrast was obvious in every aspect. There was one thing far more important than any physical difference to me: I trusted Greg. I knew he would put the safety of every one of those people before his own, and I knew he would have my back if I needed him, no matter what.
That’s all I needed. I raised my voice. “Okay, kids! New vote. Jang-Mi, stand over here.” I pointed to my right. “Greg, stand here.” I pointed to my left. “Morlocks, line up in front of the person you want to be your leader.”
Almost every single Morlock walked over to where Greg stood. I turned to Jang-Mi. “Here’s the deal. You can bring your people into the Morlocks, and be Greg’s second, or you can negotiate some other deal. But Greg is the leader of the Morlocks as of right now, and he answers only to me. Got it?”
“No.”
I shook my head a little in surprise, like a dog that finally caught the car. “What?”
“No. I do not accept him as leader of the Morlocks, nor do I accept you as Master of the City. This is my challenge to you both.” With that, she stepped back and drew two long knives from somewhere behind her back.
I looked at Greg. “Do we have to do this again? I mean, damn. I just killed Alexander, now she wants to go?”
“No.” His face was a mask. I had no idea what was going on behind his eyes.
“What is this? Is it Disagree with Jimmy Day?”
“No, we do not have to do this again. I have to do this. This is my challenge, Jimmy. She doesn’t want to be Master of the City. She wants to lead below the city, not up top.” He stripped off his Kevlar vest and tossed it to one side, then dropped his pistol on top of it.
He stepped up to Jang-Mi. “You choose knives?”
“I choose any weapon you want. I’ll kill you barehanded if I have to.”
I turned to Abby. “It would be really bad form for me to shoot her in the head right now, wouldn’t it?”
“Exceptionally,” she replied. “If you want the Morlocks, and more, the mall vamps to accept G
reg as a leader, he’s going to have to kill her.”
“Whatever happened to playing tiddlywinks? Or rock, paper, scissors?” I asked.
“Well, you know. Kids these days,” Abby said.
“Don’t let any of her people interfere,” I said. “Hell, for that matter, don’t let any of the Morlocks interfere. I don’t know who here is one of Ian’s, except for Bishop.”
I raised my voice to be heard by everyone. “Jang-Mi has challenged Greg’s place as leader of the Morlocks. They have agreed to settle their disagreement by single combat. That means friggin’ single combat. If any of you so much as look like you’re going to stick a fang into this mess, I will gut you and strangle you with your intestines, then put you back together and do it all over again. Are we clear?”
Everybody nodded and stepped back to give a clear twenty-foot space for the pair to fight. I looked at the combatants. “Okay, you two. Get to killing.”
Chapter 38
I DON’T KNOW what Greg expected from Jang-Mi, but I don’t think the boxer’s stance she dropped into was it. He approached her slowly, tentatively, but she was definitely the more trained and skilled fighter. He stepped in, and she zipped a quick kick out to slam into his front leg. He stepped back, then tried again, with the same result. One more step, this time he reached down and caught her leg, but Jang-Mi pushed off from the ground with her other foot and slammed a kick into the side of my buddy’s head, dropping him to the dirt.
She was on him in a flash, all fists and knees. Greg turtled up for several seconds, protecting his head while the small woman beat the hell out of his back and sides. Fortunately for Greg, the extra padding he carried protected his ribs a little and allowed him time to think without getting his bones turned to powder.
Jang-Mi shifted her weight a little, moving up his body to direct the force of her blows at his head, and Greg rolled her. He slapped his left hand on the ground and shoved, flipping his body and taking Jang-Mi with him. Greg switched his hips to keep the roll going and wriggled around until he was on top. Even though he now pressed Jang-Mi down, she had her legs around his chest and neck in a triangle. That would have worked a lot better had Greg needed air. As it was, the compression was painful, but she wasn’t choking him out. Greg got his feet under himself and stood, picking Jang-Mi up by her own hold and one hand on her jaw.
Holding the slight woman up in front of him, Greg charged at the tunnel wall. He slammed Jang-Mi into the wall back-first, and her legs came loose from around his neck and shoulder. He bounced her off the wall a couple more times, then spun around and planted her in the dirt. She lay flat on her back, arms and legs splayed out ready to make a snow angel.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Greg said, rolling his head from side to side and poking at a couple of ribs, probably pushing them back into place.
“I am more suited to lead these people than you.” Jang-Mi grunted, pushing herself up onto one elbow, then onto her knees. She struggled to her feet, then put up her hands. “Finish this.”
“We don’t have to. You’re beat. We can stop.”
“Challenges are to the death. If you are worthy, then you must kill me.” She staggered toward him, but Greg punched her in the jaw, and she dropped to her knees again.
“They don’t have to be to the death,” he said. Greg extended a hand to help her up. She just stared at it, then at him. “Take my hand. Stand beside me. Help me lead these people. I might not be the leader they need, but I’m the leader they have. Help me be a good one.”
“Your friend would not do this.” She pointed at me.
“I’m not trying to lead a whole city, just a little part of it. I don’t have the same things to worry about. Now do you want to work with me, or do you want to go out like Alexander?” His face went stony at the last, and I knew from years of experience that my buddy was done playing around. He knew how dangerous this woman was, but he also understood that making her an ally would bring all the Eastland vamps into our fold really quickly and go a long way toward erasing the distrust I created when I killed their old leader.
She struggled to her feet again, dusted herself off, and took Greg’s outstretched hand. “I accept your offer of mercy, and your leadership. I will work with you to make this a better community for all our people.” A collective sigh of relief went up from everyone around, except for Bishop.
I looked where he knelt beside me, Abby’s pistol pressed against the back of his skull. “Don’t worry, big guy. I didn’t forget you. Now that we’ve got the Morlock boss fight settled, it’s time for you to answer some questions.”
“I’m not saying shit to you, chump,” the big vampire said. I caught the barest flick of his eyes over to where Greg and Jang-Mi were, but it was enough. I turned, and Greg was one step in front of the woman as they started walking back over to us.
“Greg, drop!” I shouted, and he dove to the floor. Jang-Mi’s fist punched through empty air right about where my pal’s heart had been half a second before, and I sprang at her.
For once, I was too slow. Greg knew something was up, because before I covered the ten yards between me and the Asian woman, he was already up and on her. Their earlier fight had been quick and brutal, but nothing like this. That appeared to be a fight of two people who respected the other but were trapped in a duel by circumstance. This was completely different.
The calm, collected Jang-Mi was gone, replaced by a black-eyed vampire with fangs out and fists flying. She wasn’t fighting for honor or leadership, she was just straight up trying to kill my best friend. Greg, for his part, showed none of the tentativeness that slowed his movements earlier. Any doubts he had about punching a woman were long gone, and he threw kicks and haymakers like he was scrapping for the last PlayStation on Black Friday.
I couldn’t get in for fear of screwing up Greg’s timing, and I couldn’t get a clear shot at Jang-Mi because she and Greg ducked in and out of my line of fire too fast. They flicked punches and kicks at each other like a Sunday afternoon kung-fu movie on fast forward, and I knew that it was just going to take one slip for the fight to be over. That slip came quickly, as Jang-Mi stepped forward to plant a kick and put her foot in a puddle. Her heel slipped just a fraction of an inch, but that slip threw her kick off enough for Greg to catch her foot as it hurtled toward his head. He punched her in the knee, and the crack echoed through the cave.
Jang-Mi let out a scream, and Greg’s next punch went right into the center of her chest. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed backward onto the tunnel floor. Greg followed her to the ground, letting go of her foot. He drew back for another punch, then drove his hand, palm-first, into her chest.
“Sword,” he called, standing up and turning to me. I drew Excalibur and pitched it to him, hilt-first. He looked to the dead vampire at his feet and said, “I meant it, you know. You would have been a good second. Too bad you’d already sold your loyalty.” Then he swung the sword down and sliced her head from her shoulders. Greg stood for a moment, looking at the broken and decapitated body of Jang-Mi, then knelt down, wiped Excalibur on her shirt, and carried the sword over to me.
I took the sword from my best friend, then looked him in the eye. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”
His sad eyes met mine. “Me too. But it wasn’t the first time, probably won’t be the last.”
“I know. Still sorry.”
“I appreciate it.”
“You gonna be okay?” Greg was the guy who let spiders loose outside when they crawled into his room. I knew that he mourned every life he had to take. Me, I’ve never been that nice. Some people just need killing.
“Yeah, I will be. I’ll get a lot closer to okay once we find out what this asshole knows.” He looked past me to where Bishop still knelt.
“I’m not telling you idiots anything.” He turned to spit on the floor. Abby rewarded him
with a sharp rap to the back of the head with her gun. Abby favored a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver, which didn’t carry as many bullets as my Glock, but was a lot better for bludgeoning people.
“Let’s discuss this in Greg’s new office,” I said, then turned to the vamplets. “This would be a good time for you guys to introduce yourself around. I think you’re probably going to be spending some time with these folks over the next few months.”
“Em, hold up,” Greg said. His sister walked over to him. “Are you good to help me with this?”
“Help you with what?” she asked.
“All of this.” He waved a hand at the collected vamplets, Morlocks, and Eastland vamps. “There are a bunch of people here, and I don’t really know any of them. I could really use somebody I know and trust to help me out.”
She looked at her brother, her dark eyes serious. “Greg, I’ll help, but let’s be real. You don’t know me. I’ve spent my whole life thinking you were dead, and we basically just met a couple days ago. You’re my brother, and that counts for something, and you seem to be a decent guy, which counts for more, but I can’t promise to be your right-hand man. I just don’t know you well enough for that.”
He nodded, looking thoughtful. “That’s fair. I know it was wrong for me to just abandon you like that, but . . .”
Emily held up a hand. “No, I get it. But don’t rush into thinking that I’m going to be on Team Greg just because I’m your sister. If you’re being an idiot about something, I’m going to call you on it.”
“That right there is a full-time job,” I said. They both glared at me, and I held up my hands in surrender. I turned to Abby. “Bring along Chuckles and let’s start the torture. William, did you bring the rusty pliers?”
“In my jacket pocket,” the dapper vampire replied. He and Abby each took one of Bishop’s arms and started leading him to the shack that served as the Morlock Mayor’s Office, for lack of a better term. The last two occupants of the building were dead, and I really hoped Greg could hold the chair for a lot longer.
All Knight Long Page 25