The Book of Death

by AnonYMous

  ‘So, did you get what you were after in the end?’ Gaius asked.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘The combination to Bertram Cromwell’s safe, of course. That must have been one of the reasons you killed him. Keeps a lot of cash in there, doesn’t he?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know about that.’

  ‘Elijah, my dear friend, if you want to stay alive and run this museum for me, you’re going to have to start being a little more honest with me. Cromwell’s job was never guaranteed to be yours permanently was it? But if you could get your hands on the cash in the safe, it wouldn’t matter, would it?’

  Simmonds smiled. Gaius had obviously done his homework. ‘That safe is impossible to break into,’ he said. ‘Cromwell took the security combination to the grave with him.’

  Gaius laughed heartily. ‘My dear Elijah, let me show you what I’m capable of. While my friends are down here preparing the tomb, why don’t you and I go upstairs and I’ll show you how to crack open a safe?’

  Forty-Two

  From the control room up in the East tower of the Casa De Ville, Bull continued to stare out of the long narrow window down at the courtyard below. The snow had begun to ease up, but the moisture on the outside of the window was still slightly obscuring his view. Even though it was difficult to make much out in the dark due to the added hindrance of the falling snow, he had to admit he was impressed at how well the vampires and werewolves had concealed themselves in the bushes and trees. These creatures were like chameleons once they stood up against anything in the dark. Occasionally he thought he caught sight of one moving, but as he stared at what he thought was a member of the undead the movement would instantly cease, as if they could tell he was watching them. But as Bull knew only too well, the Bourbon Kid could move in and out of the shadows with great skill too. He could blend into his surroundings as well as any creature of the night.

  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 sugge
stion. ‘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.’

  Sanchez considered what he’d just said. Not only had he apologised for doubting Flake, he’d also warned her to steer clear of the courtyard, and then told her he missed her. That last part was particularly alarming. Probably because it was genuinely true. He really did miss hanging out with Flake when she wasn’t around. Who knew how that had come to happen? All the time he’d been obsessing about Jessica, Flake had been like a rock for him. Hell, the woman had saved his ass when Ulrika Price tried to kill him, then she’d come to his rescue when the Sunflower Girls had been chasing him, baying for blood. And most important of all, she knew how he liked his sau
sage cooked. Right now, given the choice of hanging out with Jessica or Flake, he’d pick Flake any day of the week. Of course, there was no guarantee that she would want to hang out with him right now. He’d been a bit of a shit to her of late, what with blaming her for the mess The Book of Death was in after she’d hit it with the car. He promised himself if Flake could get him out of this latest scrape, he’d even stop tipping her with fake one dollar bills when she waited on him in the Ole Au Lait.

  He slipped his phone back into the hip pocket on his pants and considered his options. He needed to find somewhere to hide.

  But where?

  There was nowhere suitable within the dining room, other than maybe under the table. At the far end of the room was a large black door with a shiny brass doorknob on it. Hopefully it would lead to an exit of some kind, or at least a bathroom with a lock on the door. If he could find a bathroom he might be able to lock himself in it and wait for Flake to call back.

  He quickstepped over to the large black door and turned the brass knob. It opened inwards and behind it he saw a long narrow corridor. Thankfully an empty one. There were doors on either side of the corridor every ten yards or so. Bedrooms? Bathrooms? Only one way to find out. He scurried over to the first door on the right and opened it. He peered inside. There was a double bed in the middle of the room with a bedside table and not much else, other than a set of walk in wardrobes and a small door in the corner. He checked both ways down the corridor to make sure no one saw him, then he slipped inside the room and closed the door behind him. He headed over to the door in the corner. This had to be an en suite bathroom, right? He poked his head around the door and was pleased to see that he was correct, for once. There was a long royal blue bath against the far wall and a matching toilet and washbasin on his left. A light blue shower curtain hung down from a rail above the bath. He stepped inside and bolted the door shut behind him.

  He thought about the phone conversation he had overheard between Panda Girl and Jessica. Jessica had indicated that he would be of no further use to her once she had her hands on the book. What a bitch. After all he had done for her. That book was the only thing keeping him alive. The minute he gave it up he would become food for the immortals.