When she couldn’t, Poe sighed again.
“If you’re feeling injured about what you saw today,” she began, “I apologize. I was just saying adios.”
Sainvire glanced at her with irritation in his face.
“I didn’t see you lock tongues with Habib, Joseph, or Morales. Not even Ed got an adios.”
“Maclemar thinks he’s in love with me—”
“And you’re just trying to satisfy his fantasies?”
he said with sarcasm. He flew a hard left when a seagull who’d lost its flock headed blindly toward the two of them. Poe hugged Sainvire harder.
“Last kiss goodbye,” Poe said quietly. She knew the vampire with super-sensitive hearing would hear what she’d said anyway.
Sainvire tightened his arm about the petite girl with hair as dark as his. “You expect Maclemar to die, or is it yourself you’re talking about?”
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Poe captured Sainvire’s face with both hands and threw off the vampire’s balance. She didn’t utter a word until they were flying steady again, and Sainvire’s eyes bore into hers. “I understand jealousy, vampire. I felt it when I saw you and Jenna together at the farm.”
His gray eyes startlingly light in the dark, Sainvire cleared his throat. “We were both lonely.
Besides both being deep in the revolution, our relationship stopped at sex. I loved you, and she knew that.”
“Well Maclemar knows that, too,” she said with pain in her gut. She didn’t want to hurt the Welshman by choosing, but it was too late. She had chosen a long time ago, and Poe had wounded him. “The kiss you saw is the last between us. That is unless you say you don’t want me anymore. Then he’ll be my boy.”
She swallowed in bemusement at the last bit she’d said.
Sainvire’s jaw worked angrily, and the scar on his lips looked dangerous. “Are you cold? You’re only wearing a t-shirt and a vest.”
“No. Not really.”
“Maclemar’s a good man,” the vampire said. “I don’t want you anymore. He can be your ‘boy’.”
Poe’s mouth dropped open in shock. She did not expect such a reply from the man who claimed to love her. Before she could form a clear thought and express it out loud, Sainvire captured her lips with his generous mouth and kissed her so thoroughly that any memory of Maclemar or Trench’s kisses vanished from her mind. Because Poe needed to gulp a breath, the two parted lips.
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“I love you, Julia Poe, and I don’t want you sharing your mouth with other men,” Sainvire decreed. The hint of a smile tugged at the side of his lips. “It nearly killed me to hear you moan and groan in that miserable trailer with him.”
Poe crinkled her nose. “So you did try to sabotage our lovemaking back in Gilroy. I knew it! I was about to have an orga—”
“Don’t want to hear that, little one. The only one who’s going to make you squirm and shout from now on is me,” Sainvire said solemnly.
“Ditto then,” she said with delight. “I guess it’s official. We’re going steady.”
“I’m yours forever. You can count on that,” the vampire said softly as he toyed with Poe’s hair.
Poe sighed once more. “Forever? Hope you still feel that way when my teeth fall out and my boobs drop down to my belly.”
Explosions desecrating asphalt and palm trees rocked the streets of Venice. Ringing silence followed.
Morales, who had wired explosives in strategic sites around Dogtown, deemed thirty minutes of fireworks the perfect amount to set the bait. When the enemy helicopters came an hour later, fourteen souls were poised around Dogtown for the attack.
Joseph, the vampire with the keenest eyes, was in charge of blowing metallic birds from the sky with ancient bazookas. Though not a sure-shot like Poe in the very least, the vampire tried his best, and his best equaled extinguishing three helicopters after wasting a plethora of ammo.
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Fifty Downtown soldiers consisting of halfdead, vampires, and leeches emerged from helicopters and overran the ground Most of these sentinels of the old order were the dregs with no special powers to speak of. Trench and the other master vampires were low on A-grade soldiers, and only two shared Sainvire’s gift of flight.
The dark army of Downtown was in confusion, pointing their rifles and guns at the place called Dogtown. When Passionada tightened her rouged lips around a slim silver whistle and blew, a thousand dogs bore down on the enemy. The human leeches went down first, and the weaker dead who killed three dogs while screaming in horror were downed by ten.
Within the hour two more enemy choppers came to investigate to their detriment. . Morales’
homemade explosives volleyed from makeshift bazookas incinerated the vampire troops aboard.
Joseph, packing astonishing speed, eliminated with his bare hands the thugs left loitering on the grounds.
All fourteen revolutionaries expelled a sigh of relief at how easily they’d defeated the enemy. A roar of triumph filled the air when Michelle’s helicopter returned with dozens of janitors. The plan was working so far. Ed prayed that Poe and Sainvire were as successful.
Shaking the nervousness from holding an incendiary device in her hands, Poe impulsively entered Drip alone while Sainvire was barring the exits to the rear alley. She was supposed to toss the bowling ball-size 324
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bomb and shut the door behind her. She scanned the club in search of familiar faces that had made her stay Downtown a demoralizing hell. She recognized Robert Kirlegast, the bony vampire with a fetish for scraping his nails on her back and licking them like cookie batter. Kato Grange, the short and stocky undead who loved to squeeze her breasts so hard Poe had nearly fainted from pain, made her hands shake.
“Grange!” she hollered over the din of horrific
’80s music. Heads turned. In an instant fangers in the club had recognized the vampire killer.
“Poe!” Kirlegast shouted. He shot to on his feet.
“Hi, boys. The vampire executioner is back,” she declared cheerfully. Poe had always wanted to make a dramatic entrance. Before any of the sneering undead could lunge at her, Poe held up the spherical kiss of death wrapped in newspaper Morales had concocted and tossed it at Grange who caught the heavy ticking time bomb sphere by instinct. Poe bolted out the door and shut it behind amidst terror-filled screaming.
She screamed as Sainvire appeared in her line of sight, taking her by the waist and launching them away. Seconds later the club exploded to cinders.
“That was foolish of you, Poe!” shouted Sainvire from the air. “Going inside with only seconds left?
What the hell are you trying to do?”
“I just wanted to know who was in there,” she said, surly. “I have a kill list.”
Sainvire was visibly shaken. He didn’t know whether to hug Poe in relief or strangle her to death.
“You should’ve told me, dammit. I thought you were outside—”
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Not the slightest penitent, Poe cut him off.
“Sorry. I just needed to know. Kirlegast and Grange were in there. Two less people we have to hunt tonight.”
“I told you I’d take you to their homes,” he said.
The dead that had despoiled Poe’s body punched through his thoughts. “If you want a life together after tonight, don’t take any more risks. Now who do you want to visit?”
“Charles Lamb.”
“He lives at the Bradbury,” said Sainvire, easing his hold on Poe’s waist. Within minutes he landed them softly on the roof of one of the best regarded buildings in Los Angeles. “The glass roof used to be covered in tar during World War II in case Japanese planes invaded, but the restoration society cleaned it all up. The glass should afford you the perfect shot.”
; From the glass roof Poe watched a bevy of activity directed by Charles Lamb himself. He was attempting to post guards to his most valuable possessions – cattle. Slowly, without taking her eyes off the aristocratic brute who had whipped her unforgivingly harder than the others, Poe assembled her Shadow Sniper rifle. She tightly screwed on the sound suppressor.
Through the scope she saw Lamb looking as nervous as hell. She gulped a calming breath and shot the vampire in the forehead and nose. Lamb tipped over the famously crafted wrought iron banisters and landed ungracefully on the tiled floor three stories down. Before Poe could taste the triumph of revenge, she was lifted off the roof and airborne in no time.
Sainvire wasn’t taking any chances. He wanted to assuage Poe’s bloodlust for her torturers. The 326
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vampire didn’t want any ghosts haunting the woman he cared for, but he also didn’t want her to get injured or perish because her mind was fixed in one-track mode.
Silently Sainvire dropped her off upon the roof of the SB Loft building across the street from Juno Liman’s multi-floor home at the Spring Arcade building. The place was gilded with decorative Rococo windows that allowed prying eyes to be voyeurs. The girl spotted the goth vamp without a problem and shot him in the chest. She shot at the five vampires surrounding Liman to leave no stone unturned. The less vamps the better, she thought. Bad vamps, that is.
At their neighboring homes in the National Biscuit Company building, Samuel Clemens and Franco Sebastian were killed as quickly and efficiently as marking a checkbox. Poe’s blood boiled without relief. She wasn’t satisfied with the death of second-rate undead.
“Is that all, Poe? Should we move on to Trench?”
Poe clung to Sanvire’s neck. She kissed his cold lips. “I love you, Kaleb. Please don’t see me as a monster. I just want a clean slate. I don’t want to dream about these evil monsters and know I didn’t kill them when I had the chance.”
Sainvire kissed her intensely. When their lips parted Sainvire said in a low, nearly growling voice,
“I’ll fly you all night to kill these sons-of-bitches if it means therapy for you. Put your arms around my neck and hold on tight.”
“I feel sorry for the cattle,” Sainvire said after a time. “There will be a mass feeding after the 327
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important undead are gone, and these poor people will suffer.”
“There aren’t enough of us,” said Poe as she envisioned the low-rung vampires who lacked foresight to preserve their food source. “We can’t do anything now.
“Take the flyers from my pockets and scatter them, Poe,” he said. Ed’s idea was to reproduce leaflets with the formula for Plasmacore. “Perhaps when they deplete the food supply, Downtown residents will consider making their own batch to keep from starving.”
Poe released the white flyers into the darkness.
She thought it was one of the most beautiful sights she’d ever seen with the moon illuminating them like ghosts.
Before they could land on the parking garage across the street from the Disney Hall, sniper fire whizzed past Poe and Sainvire. The shots were coming from the metallic valleys of the Gehry building. Sainvire dropped her on the rooftop of the parking structure and held her close, their heads ducked low. “Shit!
You’ve been hit, Poe.”
“No, I haven’t,” insisted the girl. Her heart was palpitating. The snipers were good. They were professionals. Must be cops, she thought.
“Check yourself, love, I smell blood,” he said and turned her over. He touched her left cheek and kissed Poe’s forehead. “It’s only a scratch,” he said while wiping the blood on Poe’s cheek with the edge of his coat sleeve. “Don’t get shot, alright?”
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“I won’t if you won’t,” said Poe with a grin.
“I’m wearing Kevlar, and you?”
“I’m wearing Kevlar, too, mister. Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep my noggin safe,” she assured the gray-eyed vampire. She kneeled and laid her rifles down on the floor. She rested her head at the edge of a corner wall with tile protrusions that were perfect for cover. She raised an arm and a bevy of bullets zinged nearby. “They’re good, but not that good,” she said mostly to herself. “How many shooters?”
“About six,” said Sainvire as he assembled the other rifle nicknamed the Varmint.
“So where do you think they came from?” asked Poe. She relied mainly on the moon to see in the night. “How about I shoot, then you take a shot when you see a spark?”
“Sounds good to me.” Sainvire fired toward the second tier of the undulating building, and a dead shot back. Poe, avoiding the scopes since they limited her field of vision, relied on her eyes and instincts alone to return fire. To her surprise she heard a shout and a man in a dark suit fell to the ground. She spotted two more flashes and fired at them. Two more bodies fell on Grand Avenue.
“Three more, Poe, and we’re clear,” said Sainvire calmly, but his voice enthused pride.
Poe reloaded. For the first time she realized her purpose in life. She thanked whatever divine powers had given her the talent to shoot accurately and kill opportunistic vampires, and she was pleased she had avoided joining the cattle ranks. “Again, Kaleb,” she said, positioning her rifle.
Sainvire fired randomly, and Poe memorized the places where gunfire originated from.
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“That’s it,” she said. Shutting her left eye, Poe shot three times in succession at the dark. One by one, three bodies rolled down the undulating metallic walls of the Hall.
“Michelle said you’re a superhero. I believe it, beauty,” Sainvire said with pride. He pulled Poe toward him and kissed her. Poe kissed him back but quickly released. “There are no windows. We have to break inside Trench’s home to kill him. Let’s not celebrate so early.”
Sainvire flew Poe to MOCA. The art museum was a block away from the Hall. He set her down gently and whispered, “We didn’t really think this out, did we?”
Poe shook her head. “I guess I always thought we could infiltrate Trench’s home through the kitchen. But I’m realizing that just might be a death trap.”
“Same here,” he agreed. He looked up at the massive sculpture made out airplane of scraps hovering over the museum. “Let’s see. There’s the ticket counter, the gift shop. The few windows the building has have already been barricaded. Fuck!” he swore.
Poe couldn’t remember Sainvire ever swearing before. The past two years had altered him quite a bit.
Stubble grew on his strong jaw, and instead of Zen-like tranquility in his light gray eyes, Sainvire spat out fire and deep intensity that Poe hadn’t accepted yet. “There’s always the front door. They never changed the glass.”
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Sainvire shook his head. “We’ll be too exposed.
Shots will be fired from the escalators, the balconies.”
“We have no choice then,” said Poe, dreading the thought. “We gotta go through the kitchen out back. Of course they’ll be waiting for us there, but heck, it’s a smaller space. We’ll be able to see who we’re fighting.”
Sainvire looked up at the sculpture again and said to himself, “I think the artist was Nancy Rubin.”
He studied the hodge-podge propellers, airplane parts, and other junk. “It’s a pretty good piece, don’t you think, Poe?”
Poe quickly examined the artwork Sainvire was staring at. “Um, yeah. Sure.”
“I think I remember this artist being influenced by the Watts Towers. She liked creating art from discarded material.”
“Yeah. But what about our entryway?” prodded Poe. Art history be damned.
“We need our own Watts Towers, Poe. A symbol of hope,” he said. He flew to the sharp edge of the sculpture. With a grunt he pulled off a chunk the
size of a claw foot tub replete with propellers and airplane siding. “Sorry about that, Ms. Rubin,” he apologized.
He floated down in front of Poe. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
The vampire who’d been tired and angry for too long now hurled the heavy sculpture, sharp edge first, inside the dark kitchen of the Disney Hall. As predicted, a volley of bullets erupted in the dark, 331
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targeting the melded art. Poe flipped on the switch and ducked down. Steel-tipped bullets nearly clipped her. For the second time that night her mortality became the topic of conversation inside her brain. No Kevlar could stop steel. “Just keep moving, Poe.
Don’t do anything stupid.”
The bright kitchen lights exposed five vampires also wearing bulletproof vests. One crouched like a monkey on the spice racks, another hid behind the refrigerator, two took their positions in the pantry, and one with cojones put himself near the door.
Sainvire’s nails elongated and slashed at the head of the vampire who was foolish enough to cross his path. The master vampire decapitated him in three spots.
Bullets hurled their way. Poe slid under the stainless steel cutting table that took over half the kitchen while Sainvire dodged death with his supernatural speed, zigzagging in the blunt space.
Within seconds the table was ridden with holes.
“Fuck me,” she told herself as quietly as possible.
Her heart thudded unnervingly. She inhaled, exhaled, and rolled on the floor to avoid bullets trained at her.
Okay, Mom, Dad. Help me out here.
She gauged where the monkey boy on the spice racks was and shot him through one of the bullet holes in the table. To her relief, the vamp fell to the ground. “Sister Ann, help!” she cried and half-emerged from under the table. With the little courage summoned from her warrior shout, Poe raised both her hands. She fired a Glock from her left and a Beretta from the right. She hit one vamp in the eye and the other, the neck. Sainvire shot the latter behind the head to kill him forevermore.
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