by Mark Taylor
“Just like the old times, eh?”
“Quite.” Excalibur waited a few moments, her eyes in the rear view mirror, and not the empty road in front. Eventually she said, “There.”
Mary looked back. “Ah.” She watched the thing flutter in the sky like a blowing leaf, twisting on the wind. “How far back is it?”
“Too far. I don’t think it’s following us as much as scouting. There are probably hundreds of them going in all directions. I expect He’s pissed.”
“For sure.”
Excalibur pushed her foot down on the pedal causing the engine to start to whine in the heat of the desert. “Best find out now you’re awake.”
“You could have just woken me up when you first saw it.”
“You looked restful.”
Mary frowned at her before looking at what speed they were actually doing. “One hundred and ten? I don’t think you’ll get much more out of it.”
“Shouldn’t need too.” She motioned with her head back into the mirror.
The monger was getting further away. “So. Trailing, but not spotted.”
“Not yet. I think in another couple of hours we’ll be able to stop for food.”
“If you don’t burn the radiator dry before then.”
Excalibur tried to stifle a laugh, but failed. “Stop pretending you know anything about cars, Tink.”
***
“So how many times have you been here?” Mary watched the stock-looking little houses of the city of Artesia pass by. “It doesn’t seem like the sort of place you’d chill.”
“Good chicken place.”
“Right.” Mary nodded without taking her eyes from the roadside. She read the signs as they went past, taking in the places of interest. “Huh,” she said finally. “UFO Museum?” She looked around at Excalibur who seemed intent on getting to her destination now.
“What? We are close to Roswell, you know.”
“I suppose.” Mary watched the roadside again, before turning back to Excalibur. “Do you think – ”
“No there isn’t. Not in Roswell, anyway. I checked.”
Mary smiled cheekily. “I knew it.”
“You never thought to look yourself?” Excalibur asked as she yanked the wheel around, crossing the oncoming traffic and pulling into a parking lot.
“I can’t poof, can I?”
“True.” Excalibur drove to a stop and turned the engine of the car off. “We’re here.”
Mary looked out of the window at the sign over the shop. “Nought but Meat plus Three?”
“Yep. Take a deep breath.” Excalibur opened the car door and got out.
Mary opened her door and the heat hit her. “Damn.” She looked over at Excalibur trotting towards the door of the restaurant, her leather coat flowing behind her. Mary jumped out of the car, slamming the door closed behind her, and took off after Excalibur. When she reached the door of the restaurant, Excalibur had already entered and the door had swung closed. Mary pulled it open and the cool air-conditioned vibe met her.
The inside of the joint was more raggedy than she expected and had a certain boho charm to it. What surprised her most was seeing Excalibur with an older gentleman’s arms wrapped around her. She stood, a little uncomfortably for a moment, and then coughed lightly.
Excalibur and the man parted. She looked a little embarrassed at Mary and then gestured to the man. “This is Manny.”
Mary shook his hand, giving Excalibur a little quizzical look.
“Can we have two of the specials, please?” Excalibur asked Manny.
“Of course. It is good to see you again. I’ll get the order started and then we must catch up.”
“We can’t stay long.”
Manny laughed. “In trouble again?” He looked at Mary. “It’s probably a boy, right?” He laughed harder, and without waiting for a response, he headed back towards the kitchen and out of sight, before calling out that Cali had come home.
Mary raised her eyebrows further, but didn’t speak.
“Come on.” Excalibur led her to a table and the two of them sat. “Manny is my cousin. Well, sort of. In a distant sort of way. On my mother’s side, obviously.”
“Is he…”
“Yeah. The restaurant is protected too. The mongers won’t see us here with any ease. But that doesn’t mean we can stay forever. They’ll sense us when they’re close enough – that or He’ll turn up, and I can’t have that. Not here.”
Mary nodded. “I didn’t know you had family,” she said quietly.
“Manny, his wife, and their children. There are a couple of others that I don’t see so often. I try to drop by to see these rogues whenever I can though.”
“Every hundred years.” Manny’s voice echoed from the rear of the restaurant.
Excalibur looked around, a little embarrassed. “I try.”
“Are you worried about Dina?” Mary asked.
“I am. She’s like – ” Excalibur stopped herself. “She’s close to me.”
“Like a mother?” Mary knew that trying too hard to get information from Excalibur was going to push her away, but she felt closer to her now than ever before.
Excalibur nodded. “My mother died many years ago. Once, we were happy. My mother, me, and Sebastian. We were forever together. Mom used to say she of coven, he of night, and one baby of eternal light. The vampyr were strong in those days, hunted, sure, but not to the point of extinction, and my father…my father was their leader. King of all the Vampyr. Then one day the Devil appeared.
“Neither me, nor Mom, thought much of it. Dad was a monster of darkness. So was the Devil. But he wanted something, something that caused him and Dad to fight. As it turns out he was jealous and wanted dominion over the souls of the vampyr when they passed. He wanted control, and Dad wasn’t about to let him have it.”
Excalibur stopped speaking as Manny returned to the restaurant and placed two plates on the table.
“I’ll give you time to eat, relax a little,” he said. “And then we talk.” He turned back and returned to the kitchen.
Mary picked up one of the three pieces of chicken from her plate, and nibbled the steaming hot food. “Oh my God. This is amazing.”
“Old family recipe,” Excalibur said. She scooped up some greens with a fork. “Best in town.”
Mary blew on the chicken and then took a larger bite. “So what happened?”
“He’s an evil son of a bitch is what happened. He makes work for idle hands. He waited in the wings, hidden from us until the disagreement was all but forgotten. We moved on. It was years, I think.
“One day Mom and Dad got into an argument. It was worse than usual. I mean Dad had a temper, right? But Mom. No one argued with my Mom. She would whip your ass.”
“Like mother, like daughter.”
Excalibur snorted. “Quite. Anyway, worse than usual. Neither of them saw him playing the puppet master in the background, guiding the argument to a fight. I wasn’t there when it started.
“I got home as they were going at it. I couldn’t even work out what it was about and neither of them would listen to me trying to calm them. They shouted, and threw things, and eventually my father seemed to snap. He’d never raised a hand to Mom before.
“But the Devil was on his shoulder that night.
“He struck her and she fell. There was so much blood. And she was to die. I saw it in his eyes before she hit the floor. They were empty when he did it. There was no love, not even hate. Nothing. But it all came flooding back the instant it was done. That’s when I knew the Devil was there.
“Mom lashed out. She was strong. Stronger than I could ever be. She struck him down, knocking the undead clean out of him before I could even speak. And then she died in my arms.
“Dad was going to Hell for all he’d done anyway, but the Devil needed him dead, and my Mom could do it. So the King goes to Hell and the Devil gets dominion over the vampyr, and as they slowly fell to man, he had an army of the undead to do with a
s he pleased.”
“And your Mom? What happened to her?”
“She’ll have gone up. Never hurt a fly, my mom.”
“Even as a witch?”
“The eyes of God don’t judge like the eyes of man, Tink.”
Mary looked at the chicken which she hadn’t bitten again. “I see why you hate him so much.”
“He does tend to get in everywhere.” Excalibur nodded. “After that I sort of went off the rails for few years. That’s when Dina took me in. Made me well. Made me feel again. And I can never forget that.”
The two of them ate in silence for a few minutes.
“This chicken is the best. I’m coming back when this is all done.”
“Sounds good. Speaking of which, I better…” She gestured to the kitchens. “We need to hit the road before He comes a’ knocking.”
Mary nodded, and continued to eat, watching Excalibur retreat across the restaurant.
***
“I haven’t seen it for hours,” Excalibur said, checking the rear view mirror. “I say we keep up this speed and get a motel in Phoenix. We could both use some hours out of the car.”
Mary agreed. They had only stopped in Artesia for a couple of hours, understandably.
“Besides, I need to catch up with Dina. Hopefully by tomorrow she will have formulated some sort of plan to begin undoing all of this mess.”
“You’ll go see her?”
“Nah. I’ll commune. You should join us. Practice makes, yes?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Conference call it is.”
***
Mary lay on one of the beds. It smelled funky. “Couldn’t we have stopped somewhere nice. Nicer?”
“It doesn’t matter, does it? It’s just a break for a few hours.” Excalibur sipped from the bottle of water she had purchased from the reception. “Take a nap. Stretch out. Forget all about it.”
“How can I forget this smell?”
“Do you want this bed?” Excalibur snapped.
Mary turned over and faced the wall. “Sorry. No.”
Excalibur got up and went over and sat on the bed behind Mary. She rested her hand on Mary’s shoulder. “We’ll commune in a few hours after we have rested. Then we’ll take off again. Hopefully Dina will have some answers.”
Mary rolled onto her back. “Why can’t we commune now?”
“I’m too tired.”
Mary nodded. “Come on. Hunker down.”
Excalibur scooted down the bed and ended laying next to Mary, both of them on a single mattress. “Snug,” she said.
“Go to sleep,” Mary replied. “And no funny stuff.”
“You wish.” Excalibur laughed.
In seconds Mary could hear Excalibur’s breathing slow as she drifted into sleep. She had been driving almost constantly since they left Texas. She swung her legs from the bed and walked silently to the window, pulling the curtain back just enough for her to be able to see out into the night.
She watched the sky.
***
“Wake up.”
Excalibur rocked from side to side as Mary shook her.
“How can you sleep this damned heavy when you’re sober?”
Excalibur wriggled from her grasp. “Get off,” she said. “What’s up?”
“I saw something.”
Excalibur sat without word, her feet slipped from the bed to the floor and she was by the window in a single motion, looking out to the parking lot. It was still dark. “How long did you let me sleep? What did you see? What time is it?”
Mary joined her by the window. “It’s only just after midnight – you’ve only been asleep for two hours. I think it was a monger. In the skies over there.” She pointed back to the interstate they had come in on. Back toward the desert.
“You think? Or you saw?”
“I think I saw a monger.”
“Damn.” Excalibur grabbed her leather jacket and twirled it around herself, slipping her arms into it. “We’re leaving.”
Mary grabbed the door handle. “Ready?”
“Let’s go.”
The two of them ran across the sidewalk and into the parking lot to the car. Mary opened the passenger door as Excalibur got behind the wheel. Mary had barely sat before Excalibur roared the engine to life. The wheels spun as the car reversed into the center of the lot and slid around to face the exit. Excalibur looked out of the windshield at the sky. “All clear,” she said quietly.
The wheels spun again as the car rocked into motion, out of the lot and into the empty street. “We’ll head straight through the city – that should give us cover – instead of taking the I.”
“Good idea.” Mary kept her eyes peeled on the sky.
Excalibur skidded the car around a corner – onto Fifth, Mary noted. “Do you know the best way across the city?” she asked.
“Nope. Just navigating by the moon. We’re going west. We’ll hit the edge of the city eventually.”
Excalibur jumped a red light at nearly a hundred.
“There, look.” Mary pointed out of the window.
Excalibur slammed her foot on the brake, dropping the car to a safer speed immediately, and nearly rearranging Mary’s face on the windshield, before leaning forward over the wheel and looking up.
“Watch the road,” Mary said, sitting back.
“I see it. You’re right.” She turned the headlamps off, stopped the car in the middle of the street, and slammed it into reverse. She swung the car backwards into an alley way, and dropped it to a stop.
“I thought they could sense us,” Mary whispered.
“They can, but they’re not blind either. We’re the only car on the street.” She leaned out of the side window, watching what little sky she could see between the tops of the buildings.
Mary tapped on Excalibur’s shoulder. “Excalibur,” she said.
“What?”
She tapped again. “Sister.”
Excalibur brought her head back into the car and looked at Mary. “What?”
Mary pointed out of the front windshield to the mouth of the alley.
Excalibur followed her finger to the man standing in the center of the mouth. A short man, but one with presence. Behind him stood two much taller figures, Vampyr for sure.
“Hello, Excalibur. Hello, Mary. I see you are alone in there. You certainly had me fooled. I thought the four of you were together. Well, fool me once.” He laughed that southern jackal howl. “You are slippery ones.”
Excalibur looked in the rear view mirror. “There’s no way out back there.”
“Fly,” Mary said. “Get out, and fly.”
Excalibur looked at her. “Don’t be a fool…sister.”
“So what was it we agreed?” The Devil continued. “I think at the last count it was Mary and the returners were to be with me, and the three of your coven were to be free. Obviously I have changed my mind.”
Even in the darkness, Excalibur could see his grin. “What do you want now?” she shouted through the open window, trying to buy time.
“I’m going to kill you all.”
Excalibur looked at Mary. “Well, that’s not good.”
“Plan?” Mary asked.
“None. Still thinking.”
“How’s he going to do it?”
Excalibur shrugged. “How are you going to kill us?” she shouted down the alley. She smiled weakly at Mary when there was no reply. “I don’t think he’s decided, but I expect he’ll want it to hurt,” she whispered.
“Seriously?” Mary frowned.
“Very. I don’t know why there are only two vamps with him. There must be more – he’s luring us into a false sense of security.”
“It’s not working.” Mary looked around the car for something. Anything. “I’m freaking out.”
“Good. Freak out. We might need the extra adrenaline.” Excalibur flicked on the headlamps, lighting up the alley and surrounding buildings. “Oh,” she said.
Mary loo
ked out of the window of the car. At the mouth of the alley the Devil stood, a dark gray suit and cane, flanked by two vampyr cloaked in black. On the fire escape that crawled up the side of the building to the left of the car sat a hundred or more mongers. On the building on the right they hung from anything they could grip.
Mary let out a slight whimper.
“Let it out, girl. This might be your last chance. Ready?”
Mary nodded.
Excalibur turned the ignition key, blazing the car into life, before dropping it into drive and sliding the gas down firmly, and steadily. The car cranked up speed with no wheel spin, hurtling toward the mouth of the alley.
A chorus of screams rose deafeningly from the mongers.
“Hold on,” Excalibur said.
Before the car was at the mouth, she turned the wheel hard, dragging it into a slide before it was back into the street.
The two vamps took to the air and flew, and before the car hit him, the Devil was gone.
Poof.
The car crashed out in the street sideways, Excalibur fighting the wheel for control. As they hurtled down the street a black cloud of mongers came from the alley, following them.
“We can out run them, right?” Mary asked.
“We can, if there’re no tricks from Him, the vamps leave us alone, and we don’t have to corner too many times.” Excalibur dragged the car around another bend. “I’m doing my best.”
Mary looked out the back window. “They’re still a distance.”
Poof.
He was in front of them, standing in the street.
Instinctively Excalibur yanked the wheel to avoid him, rolling the cars wheels over the curb and onto the sidewalk, losing a front wing mirror to a brick wall.
But the car kept moving.
She crashed back onto the street. “Sorry. You okay?”
Mary swallowed back her last meal. “Fine.”
Excalibur took the car diagonally over the street and into an alley – this time, one with an exit. Sparks rose from the passenger side door as the car passed too close to a shutter.
“Plan?”
“Run. We need to ditch the car though. Get a swap.”
“You know how to hot wire?”