“Like making zombies!” Bryan had found something cool in the conversation to glom onto.
“Right, but it also includes things like healing dying tissue, killing living tissue, and other stuff. But there are other types of necromancy.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever—but you can make zombies, right?”
“I could create a zombie, I suppose. I could infuse a corpse with fresh blood and control it through that. Or, if the body was fresh enough, I could use the existing stuff.” I could see her start to turn it over in her mind. “It would be kind of like a puppet, I think…”
“Cool!” I had a feeling that my brother was not going to be a positive influence on her, either. For Bryan, things like Cool and Awesome often overrode stuff like Illegal, Dangerous and Wrong.
“I know, huh? But necromancy isn’t just blood magic; there are other types, like voodoo.”
“Voodoo? Man, I thought that was all sticking pins into dolls and stuff.”
“Well, yeah, that too, but voodoo practitioners can create zombies as well. They just do it differently. And there are other types of magic that dabble in necromancy. But, anyway, I can only do a little bit of the blood magic.”
“Dude, we have to make a zombie. Does it have to be human? I mean, like, what if we find some road kill on the way home, like a squirrel or armadillo or something? We could make it fight the frog demon!”
I sighed and turned up the radio.
Chapter 22
We had stopped on the way back to pick up some groceries, so we didn’t pull into the garage until after four. We entered the kitchen, and Lacey and I began putting things away as Bryan went to change into some of the new clothes we had picked up at the mall that morning. I took the urn out of my backpack and put it in its customary place on the kitchen table.
I stopped shelving groceries to look at it for a moment. It looked innocent. Just a brass vase with a lid and some intricate carvings. Add some flowers and it wouldn’t even look half bad.
Megan came in from the hall as we were putting the last things away. Her hair was wet, but, as always, she was overdressed, and her makeup was in perfect order.
“So how did it go?” she asked, showing me the place under the sink where they kept the empty bags.
“Pretty good. Rodriguez decided to help us out.”
“They’re going to let Father Allen perform the exorcism?”
“Yup! Only cost me ten grand.”
“Rodriguez is doing it for money?”
“Nah, he’s doing it because he doesn’t like Jonathan Powers. I think the money was just his way of giving himself a bonus.”
She shrugged. “Either way, that’s good for us.” Megan looked at Lacey and frowned. “What?”
“Nothing,” said Lacey, trying to cover her unease, which even I could spot. At first I thought it was because the coven had turned her down. Then I remembered what had happened in front of the restaurant with Toni, and I wasn’t so sure. “So, Bryan came up with a good idea,” she said.
“Who’s Bryan?”
“Chance’s brother. He kind of showed up on our doorstep this morning.”
“Oh, right—I seem to vaguely remember some guy in our kitchen earlier. What’s he doing here?”
“Like Lacey said, he just sort of showed up. I’m going to try and get rid of him soon; hopefully tonight. Maybe I can bribe him.” I considered it. I had over nine grand left, and if a few grand of it could get Bryan safe, then it was worth it. “Don’t worry—if he won’t leave tonight, the two of us can get ourselves a hotel room.”
“Nope. You can’t. We’re not splitting up any more. It’s bad enough you lot take off every day; I’m not having you do it at night. Not being able to go out in the daylight is really pissing me off! Anyway, he can use the couch and you can sleep in my room.”
“In her room, huh?” said Bryan, coming into the kitchen in time to catch the last few words of Megan’s sentence. “Damn, bro, two in one day?”
Megan looked quickly from Chance to Lacey to me, then back to Lacey, who had gone from uneasy to downright sick-looking.
Remarkably, Bryan must have sensed that his attempt at humor had fallen a little flat, because he said, “Relax, it was just a kiss. He didn’t sleep with her.” Strangely, Megan didn’t relax. “And she’s the one that did it. He just kind of stood there frozen as she landed it on him. Seriously, he needs to take some pointers from his little brother.”
I don’t remember exactly just standing there frozen when she kissed me, but I sure wasn’t going to correct him. Lacey didn’t look like she was about to either.
Megan’s gaze fell on Bryan. I could see the whites of her eyes had turned a light pink. I think Bryan noticed, too, because he actually took a half step back.
“And who planted this kiss?” she said, taking a half step toward him.
“It wasn’t me!” he said. “It was some chick named Toni.” Megan now looked like she had two cases of full-on pinkeye. Her head slowly started to turn toward me. Lacey had begun fidgeting, her back to the kitchen counter; one hand looked like it was thinking about creeping over to the butcher block.
Bryan said, “Man, you got nothing to worry about. He’s all into you. Trust me, I know my brother, and I can tell you that he doesn’t look at her the way he does at you. Besides, you don’t keep a picture like the one he has of you on your phone if you want to hook up with other ladies. It makes it kind of awkward, you know?”
She paused, taking in what he’d said. She started to look calmer. Then she frowned, fully digesting his comment. “A picture like what?”
“Like the one he has of you on his phone. Any time you ring he goes ding, you know what I’m saying?” He made a suggestive gesture with one finger and smiled. “Man, I crack myself up.”
I looked for an escape route, finding none. She was way too fast, anyway. All I could do was glare over at Lacey as Megan was suddenly in front of me, fishing the phone out of my pocket. Lacey, apparently realizing my brother was safe and that I could fend for myself, turned around and started rubbing down the counters with a sponge, but not before I caught her grin.
Megan had my phone in her hand and had pulled up her entry in my address book. She stared down at the picture for a full five seconds. “Lacey?” she said in a calm voice.
“Huh?”
“I can tell when this was taken.”
“Hmmm.” Lacey was still scrubbing counters.
“It was at least a year ago. I haven’t had those sheets since then. It was before I knew Chance.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So how did it end up on his phone?”
“I thought you must have given it to him.”
“That would have been difficult, considering I wasn’t aware it existed.”
She put my phone back in my pocket and looked up at me. I noted she hadn’t deleted the picture. The whites of her eyes were almost back to normal.
“You moved pretty fast,” said Bryan, finally processing what he had just seen. Megan nodded, still staring up at me. She finally backed away, but her eyes promised me that we would be continuing this sometime soon.
“Yeah, we can do that.” She turned toward Bryan. “I’m Megan.”
“Yeah, I figured. I’m Bryan. Nice to meet you. It looks like my brother has finally found himself a girlfriend worth having.” I winced a little at the dig; Bryan never really did like Kristi, or any of my other girlfriends, really. Of course, the feeling was mostly mutual.
“Thanks.”
Bryan just shrugged. “Nothing to thank me for; I’m just glad to see my brother happy. When he called to tell me about you, I was like, I have to meet this chick.” I don’t know if he remembered that I had just come into some money, or that I could and would kick his ass, but either way, he had gone awfully nice and un-Bryan-like all of a sudden. “You did not disappoint.” He was laying it on a bit thick, but Megan didn’t seem to mind. At least he was being polite. For Bryan, anyway.
&nb
sp; “So you’re a vampire, huh? Can I see your fangs?” Oh, well. I knew it couldn’t last.
Chapter 23
I missed Megan’s answer to Bryan’s last comment because my phone buzzed, and when I pulled it out, I saw whose name was showing up on the caller ID.
“Hello?” I said.
“Chance, it’s Jonathan Powers. How are you?” He asked like he didn’t really care about the answer.
“Fine, I guess. You?”
“Great, just great. Look, I hope you’ve had ample time to consider my offer?”
“Well, I could use a little more. Maybe another day?”
“Chance, I’m not going to wait another day for the vessel. I’m giving you an opportunity to do the right thing here. Give it to me, and collect a quarter of a million dollars. It’s really not a hard decision. Take the money and you can go back to Texas and start killing vampires again.” He had obviously been doing some research. “Or stay here with the one you’re living with. I don’t really care.” His voice was tensing up. “What I do care about is getting my urn back.”
“Yeah, about that…”
“Chance, I am going to get my urn back. And you’re going to give it to me. Now.”
“Sorry; afraid I can’t do that.”
“Me too, Chance. I really am sorry. I did like you.” The phone went dead. Then it hit me.
“Ah, shit—he knows where we are.”
“What?” said Lacey.
“How?” asked Megan.
“I don’t know. He knows I’ve been hanging out with you. When someone has that many resources at their disposal, is it really that hard to find out where someone lives? We need to get out of here! Now!” I was panicked. The last thing I wanted was for him to come and do to the girls’ home what he’d done to mine.
Bryan had a similar thought. He had already seen one home burned to the ground this week, and I guess he didn’t want to be inside another. He ran into the living room, grabbed his tool bag, and went to the door. He started to open it, then slammed it shut, locked the deadbolt and put the bag in front of the door.
“Some dudes across the street are heading this way; one of them is a big fucker.”
I looked at Megan in horror. She must have understood, because she said, “Don’t worry about me.”
I ran for the duffel, throwing it on the kitchen table. I unzipped it and pulled out one of the AKs, slapping in a magazine and chambering a round. I threw the urn inside the bag, hoping the lid didn’t do something bad like come off.
“Are they blocking the driveway?” I asked.
“Doesn’t look like it,” said Bryan. He had gone to the window and was peering out between the blinds. “It looks like they’re parked across the street. One big black SUV and what looks like an unmarked cop car.”
“Cop car? Crap. I wonder if it’s that Detective Vargas. Who’s coming to the door?”
Bryan turned toward me. “A big guy in a suit and trench coat, a couple of slightly less big guys in suits and sunglasses, a small guy dressed like a rodeo reject, and a plainclothes cop.” He looked back out the window. “Wait, I don’t see the big guy any more.” He dropped the blind, went over to the duffel bag on the kitchen table, and grabbed Katy’s axe.
I grabbed the bag, then opened the door leading into the garage, intending to throw the duffel bag in the trunk of the Jeep.
“Put it in the Mustang, in the back seat,” said Megan, leaning into the garage from the kitchen and throwing me a set of keys. And then it dawned on me. We would be needing the trunk for something else. The Jeep Liberty had tinted windows in the back, but there wasn’t a trunk, so to speak, and no area was completely immune to sunlight.
I opened the door of the Mustang and threw the bag in the back as I heard pounding on the front door. Then I struggled to put down the convertible’s top. I heard voices. Lacey had answered the door and was talking to someone. I couldn’t make out everything they were saying.
I finally got the top down, and went ahead and popped the trunk. It was small, but so was she. At least she didn’t have to breathe.
I went into the kitchen and listened. The detective was saying that he had a warrant to come in and search the place for stolen property. Lacey was asking to see it. It was still daylight, and this was a quiet residential neighborhood. I was pretty sure they weren’t going to start shooting. I was, of course, mistaken.
“You don’t even have jurisdiction!” I heard Lacey say as I crept closer, flipping the safety off on the AK. My hands were sweating, and felt slippery on the wood grips. “You’re in the wrong city!”
I peeked around the corner. I could see Lacey standing at the open front door; she was talking to a heavyset Hispanic man who was standing on the porch. He was wearing jeans, a button-up, and a blazer, and pretty much looked like an undercover cop. Standing a bit behind him, I saw the cowboy shaman that we had run into before. It was obvious that he and Lacey had seen each other, so why they were still bothering with this farce, I didn’t know.
Apparently, neither did they, because as Detective Vargas seemed to reach the limits of his ability to improvise, Isaac said, “Just kill ‘em already and take the vase.”
The detective hesitated, and then reached for something under his jacket. Lacey tried to slam the door in his face, but he was quicker than he looked and stopped it with his shoulder before it closed.
Megan stood in the shadows of the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Bryan had his back to the wall just to the side of the front doorway, and was holding Katy’s fire axe. Bryan wasn’t a killer, but his mouth had gotten him in more than his share of fights, and he wasn’t above kicking someone’s ass, even if it was a cop. He didn’t always think through the repercussions of his actions.
The detective was a lot stronger than Lacey and shoved the door back, sending her sprawling backwards. He burst through the door, taking a step inside and leveling his gun at her chest, not noticing Bryan to his side, who slammed the top of the axe head into the back of the detective’s skull with a meaty thump. The detective pitched forward, his gun discharging.
At that moment, two things happened: one of the suit-clad, sunglasses-wearing minions came into the doorway and aimed his gun at Bryan, and the back door burst open, the troll charging through it and into the shades and curtains. He managed to rip the shades off the wall, and they clung to the front of him.
I whirled as the troll crashed through the door a few feet from me. I brought the AK up and let him have it. Brass ricocheted off the threshold and wall to my right. Bits of plastic flew from the shades as 7.62-millimeter holes erupted from them and into the lumbering form beneath. Light came streaming in from the opening, but then faded as the curtains fell back to cover the doorway.
I saw Lacey on the floor. In a panic, she ran her knife up the length of her arm. A small stream of blood sprang at the man in the doorway, then changed in midair to several smaller tendrils, like an octopus with red fishing line for tentacles. The man’s gun went from Bryan to the things hurtling at him. His gun discharged as the cords wrapped around his face and neck and squeezed, cutting into his face and throat.
Another guy ran in, pushing aside his screaming friend. Bryan realized what was happening and tried to slam the door shut in case any more were coming, but the fallen detective’s legs were in the way.
The troll tore the blinds off himself just as Megan leapt on him from behind. She must have figured stopping him was almost impossible, so she tried a different tactic—she went for his eyes.
I turned as the second shooter pushed aside the first and leveled his gun, firing at Lacey, who was trying to scramble out of the way. Without thinking, I fired a burst at him. If he was wearing a vest, it wasn’t enough to stop the assault rifle rounds at this range. The man staggered back as he was hit, wavering for a second before the blade of Bryan’s axe took him in the stomach. He doubled over and fell to the floor.
I turned back at the sound of crashing. Blood was streaming down the troll�
��s face, and one of its eyes was in ruins. Megan’s claws had destroyed it and raked the side of its face so that one cheek hung down in a bloody flap of meat. Megan had been hurled halfway through the kitchen wall and was trying to pull herself from the sheetrock and broken two-by-fours. One of her legs had a compound fracture. It was bent at an unnatural angle at the ankle, and I thought I could see a bone protruding slightly through the skin.
I screamed and emptied the last of the thirty-round clip into the troll’s chest. It hesitated, but then came for me. The bullets didn’t stop it.
Bryan had run up and took a swing at it, burying the ax deep in its side—which, unfortunately for my brother, attracted its attention. It swung sideways at Bryan, sending him crashing down. The axe spun away on the floor. Then the troll decided to cheat, and reached into its coat to pull out what I assumed would be a gun.
In the meantime, Lacey had risen. She was wild-eyed, chanting something over the corpse of the guy I had shot as she dripped blood from her arm onto his wounds. His body was twitching and jerking, and then he slowly started to rise, getting jerkily to his feet. She stepped back, and I could see thin tendrils of red running from her to him, like she was some kind of twisted puppet master. The man-puppet pointed his gun at the troll and fired. Its aim was lousy and most of the shots missed, but it did get the troll’s attention. The troll pulled out a handgun, swung it around and fired. Bullets tore into it with no effect.
I turned. Megan had reached down, and cried out once as she reset her leg. It was a vision I could have happily gone the rest of my life without seeing. She tried putting her weight on it once, but nearly fell. I rushed forward and put my arm around her, supporting her as we rushed for the garage. Bryan was already headed that way, and Lacey was trying use her puppet like a bullet shield.
I helped Megan into the trunk. We looked at each other for an instant before she nodded and I closed the lid. I jumped in the driver’s seat and started the car as Bryan vaulted into the back. Lacey backed into the garage and hit the door switch on the wall. Then she turned and ran, getting into the passenger seat.
Chance in Hell Page 17