by Jon F. Merz
I took a bead on her chest and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
Shit.
I dropped the magazine but in that moment, La Calavera’s eyes snapped open and she moved so quickly that Silvia didn’t have time to even shout a warning.
She was across the desk and driving into my body so fast that it took the wind right out of my lungs. We fell backwards, collapsing against the ground.
She went immediately for my throat, with her nails trying to tear it out, raking across my skin as I deflected the limbs and drove an elbow into her temple. She grunted and then started chanting again. It felt like I was covered in molasses and couldn’t move properly.
I saw Silvia dive into her, trying to get her off of me so I could get room to shoot. But Silvia wasn’t a vampire and even as skilled as she was, her strength was no match for La Calavera. They rolled free of me and then La Calavera came up astride Silvia’s chest, rearing back and plunging her hands straight down at Silvia’s heart.
Silvia used both of her arms to knock La Calavera’s attack aside and then swung back up a double fist to the side of La Calavera’s head.
I moved quick, shoving a fresh mag into the pistol and racked the slide, bringing it up and aiming in one breath.
La Calavera held up one hand and my gun flew free from my grasp, sailing across the room and behind the desk.
I didn’t wait, I dove right ahead and knocked her free of Silvia’s body. We rolled and I came up driving elbows and knees into La Calavera’s midsection. She grunted and tried chanting something. I wasn’t going to let that happen again so I dropped an elbow into her throat and she gurgled and choked on her breath and spit.
But she bucked her hips and I felt my position unbalancing. I grabbed on to her and our faces were inches away.
She hissed at me. “I’ll kill you, Fixer.”
“Not today,” I said. Drove another knee into her midsection and then dropped my forearm into her throat again.
The door opened and I heard Silvia shout again.
“Lawson!”
I rolled free as the gun shot broke the air. Silvia fired a pistol and took the guard that had come into the room in the chest, dropping him. Then she threw the gun to me.
I caught it coming up and pivoted seeing La Calavera starting rise as if some unseen force was causing her to levitate. In my periphery, I saw the spirits come rushing through the doors and sweep into the room with an inferno of heat.
“You’re too late,” hissed La Calavera. She spread her arms as the spirits rushed toward me, their mouths open, heaving, hungry for my immortal soul.
“I’m not,” I said.
And squeezed the trigger twice. The rounds punched into her chest and blood shot out of her heart.
She screeched the likes of which I’d never heard before, clutching at her chest. Her incisors lengthened and then she slumped back, dying as she did so.
The spirits instantly evaporated in the air, taking with them the extreme heat.
Everything fell silent.
I was soaked in sweat. Gasping.
I looked at Silvia. “You all right?”
She lifted up her left leg and I saw the streak of blood on the inside of her thigh.
“Shit.”
She smiled. “It only grazed me. I’m good. I’ll wrap it quick and then we can get out of here. The cops’ll be here before too long.”
I grabbed my pistol from behind the desk and made sure I had enough rounds ready to fire. I handed Silvia back her weapon and she took it calmly.
“You ready?”
She tore a strip off her dress and wrapped it around the wound. She was lucky she didn’t have to worry about the wood killing her. I helped her to her feet and she put an arm around my shoulders.
“Get us out of here,” she said.
17
We made it out of the club without much trouble. By the time we came out of the back office, it was apparent that the spirits unleashed by La Calavera had decimated our opposition. And a few club goers to boot. Bodies that had been turned into shrunken corpses littered the floor and the steps. The music had died and the lights had burned out.
We grabbed our keys from the valet stand and I tucked Silvia back into the Jaguar, roaring free of the club just shy of the police units that came screaming in with their lights and sirens blaring. I triple-backed on us to make sure no one was on our tail before returning to Juarez’s house.
I parked in the car port and eased Silvia out of the passenger side, carrying her into the house. She rested her head against my shoulder, breathing softly. I smelled her sweat mixed with the gin and her perfume. The combination sent my head into a spin.
Inside Juarez’s house, I lay her down on the couch and she turned to me.
“Hey.”
I smiled. “Hey yourself.”
“We did pretty good back there.”
I nodded. “Thanks to you. That was nice shooting and thanks for tossing the gun to me.”
“I figured you wanted the kill.”
“Yeah, better it came from me.”
Silvia stretched her arms overhead. “I’m exhausted now.”
“Yeah.”
“Lawson.”
“Yeah?”
She eyed me. Curious. “Will you sleep with me?”
I looked at her. I knew what she was feeling. Post-op is a crazy mix of emotions and feelings. It’s insane going through what we just went through, being so incredibly happy to have come through it alive, that sex is exactly what you think you need to celebrate. She was horny. I was horny. And she looked good in that way that only real women look when they’re confident in their own sexuality. When a woman knows what she wants and is unafraid of what anyone else might think...there’s something incredibly alluring about it. That confidence, that primality of sheer lust...it’s just...well, it’s pretty awesome.
“I’d like that,” I said. “I’d like that a lot.”
Silvia swung herself up. “But you won’t. Will you?”
I smiled. “Not tonight. No.”
Silvia nodded. “You’re a good man, Lawson.”
“I am a good man,” I said. “It’s unfortunate that so many people don’t realize it until I’m out of their lives.”
“Are you leaving my life?”
I looked at her. There was no way I was going to shoot her. There was also no way I was going to tell the Council anything other than that Juarez was dead. It was a risk. A big one. But while I hadn’t trusted Silvia before, I did now.
And this wouldn’t be the only secret I’d kept from the Council.
I knelt and examined the wound on her thigh. She’d only been grazed by the bullet and the bleeding was already done. Silvia would be fine.
She reached down and took my head in her hands. “Are you leaving me, Lawson?”
She had beautiful, intense eyes. And I definitely liked looking into them. “Something tells me that we’ll see each other again.”
“I saved your life,” said Silvia.
“You did. Twice. Maybe more.” I smirked. “I owe you.”
“I’ll settle for this for right now,” said Silvia.
Then she kissed me on the lips for almost a minute. When we broke apart, she stayed close and peered into my eyes. “Whoever she is, she’s damned lucky.”
I kissed her again and then stood up. “She’s a lot like you.”
“Like me?”
“The dangerous type,” I said with a smile.
Then I walked out of Juarez’s house and back into the Mexican night.
Also by Jon F. Merz
The Fixer: A Lawson Vampire Novel
The Invoker: A Lawson Vampire Novel
The Destructor: A Lawson Vampire Novel
The Syndicate: A Lawson Vampire Novel
The Price of a Good Drink: A Lawson Vampire Story
The Courier: A Lawson Vampire Mission
The Kensei: A Lawson Vampire Novel
Enemy Mine: A Lawson
Vampire Story
The Ripper: A Lawson Vampire Novel
The Crucible: A Lawson Vampire Novel
Incident at Palmyra: A Lawson Vampire Mission
The Shepherd: A Lawson Vampire Mission
Mission: Malta: A Lawson Vampire Mission
The Enchanter: A Lawson Vampire Novel
A Fog Of Fury: A Lawson Vampire Mission
The Infiltrator: A Lawson Vampire Mission