Reece digested the information. New partner, hey; well done, Hunter Felicity. Out with the old, in with the new. 'With all due respect, Strigoi, I like my plan better.'
'That's what I like about you, Reece - you aren't afraid to speak your mind. And you know who's boss.' She thumbed Felicity's number and, for the first time, he noticed a fifth blood band around her left wrist. Mira's dance card was getting mighty full. 'Now drive. This time, there will be no escape.'
FIFTY-FOUR
They pulled the Sandman up only minutes from the gorge, taking advantage of a low crest to survey the road ahead. Stars filled the cloudless sky; the moon hung bright and round and low in the west like a mighty fluorescent bulb, bathing the landscape in washed-out grey. It reminded Kevin of nights spent spotlighting pigs and roos, back when they'd been pests, before the drought had culled them out. Tonight wasn't so different, he supposed - hunting vermin in the bush.
'You were right about the bloodhag comin' this way.' Taipan jumped down from the roof of the van and handed Kevin the rifle. 'Good scope, that.'
'What've we got?' Kevin asked.
'That old bitch's Jag and what, I'm guessin', is a VS-issue Toorak tractor.'
'Guards?'
'Nope. That mob's playin' this one close to their chest. Or maybe Mira's sent a goon squad up to the northern road there, tryin' to beat the bushes to flush Mother to her.' He snorted in amusement. 'Them bastards'll get a shock if they find the Rover.'
'How's that?'
'Mother's got them bloodhounds of hers mindin' the fort. Give them Gespenstenfucks a run for their money.'
'I don't get it.'
'Byely and Cherny are bloodhounds,' Kala explained. 'Hellhounds-'
'Doggy myxos,' Taipan said.
'Fed on Mother's blood,' Kala continued.
'Better than that tinned shit,' Taipan said. 'How else you think them mutts put up with the likes of us, eh? Rather tear ya head off otherwise.'
'Mother's milk,' Kevin joked. He hadn't thought anything of the dogs cleaning out the cups at the powwow. Dogs being dogs. Just when he thought he was getting a handle on things. 'So we drive up and then what?'
Taipan dug out his tobacco, swore, rolled a final cigarette and tucked it away behind his ear before scrunching up the packet and dropping it.
'Don't litter,' Kala said.
'Piss off.'
She picked up the packet and threw it in the Sandman. 'It's country. Have some respect.'
He seemed to be actually chastened. 'Fair 'nuff.'
'Well?' Kevin asked.
'Mother's got no chance against Mira and Jasmine together, even if they ain't got none of them jackals with 'em. We'll split up: you two head for the caves, and I'll work across the top and see if I can't track them bitches.'
'Is that a good idea, splitting us up?' Kala asked.
'You wanna come with me, Kala? Do some rock hoppin'?'
'I'll go with Kevvie.'
'Thought so.'
'Whatever,' Kevin said. 'Let's just do it before we all get roasted.'
He drove up, expecting an ambush, but nothing happened when they reached the two vehicles parked unattended near the lip of the gorge. There was an information board that might as well have said Abandon Hope, because it was a list of hopelessness - no roads, no power, no phones, no phone coverage, no water. The smelly septic toilet was the last chance to take a dump inside four walls.
'Take that path there,' Taipan said, pointing to a depression in the cliff edge where the slope arced away toward the floor, hundreds of metres below. The gorge was narrow here, a long rifle shot across, but it widened to the north, the cliffs glowing like bone in the moonlight.
'I'll work me way 'round to the north and meet you on the other side. With a bit'a luck, one'a us will find Mother.' There was a pause, the sense that someone should say something other than good luck, which seemed insufficient. 'Keep the rifle,' Taipan said. 'It'll only slow me down.' He ran off into the dark.
Kevin and Kala watched him go. The gorge was thick with trees along its floor and lower slopes, cliffs rising from overgrown scree. In the natural light, it looked tangled and foreboding.
'This is pointless,' Kevin said. 'It's too big. Danica could be anywhere.'
'We'll start with the caves,' Kala said. 'On the other side, near the waterholes. If nothing else, they'll be good places to hole up if we don't get back in time.'
'In time?'
'Before dawn.'
'Gimme a minute.' And when she looked at him quizzically, he explained, 'Just in case.' He wrenched the aerials from the four-wheel-drive and threw them into the gorge. The vehicle's alarm splintered the silence; its flashing lights strobed the scene in amber, wrecking his night vision.
'What a racket,' he said, wincing, and pulled out the knife he'd taken from Nigel. He squirmed underneath the Jag and then the four-wheel-drive. Vandalism suited him, he decided, at least in the mood he was in. He had to exert all his strength to get past the metal underbellies to perform his brutal surgery.
Nigel's knife was ruined by the time he was done, but neither vehicle was going to do anyone much good.
'What'd you do?' Kala asked when he re-emerged, and then gave him an exasperated, 'Kevvie' as he hurled the useless knife way out over the edge of the cliff. 'There's a bin, eh.'
'Yeah, well. They'll get a few kays before they're left with nothin' but shanks's pony. Not much cloud, either. Should be a nice day for a long walk.'
He lifted the bonnet of the Sandman. 'Here, you know what a distributor is?'
'Is the Pope Catholic?'
He took it off the motor and held it up to her, showing her where it connected anyway, before hiding it amongst the rocks piled around the base of the park's sign. 'Now I'm ready for this wild goose chase.'
'We probably should've told Taipan about that.'
'He doesn't need to worry about the sun.'
'Mother might.'
'She's got her own wheels, up that northern end somewhere.'
She nodded. 'You know, Mother has been in both our bloodstreams lately. She'll probably find us.'
'Shit. If she can, than Mira probably can, too.' He moved to touch his pendant, but was brought up short by the memory that Mira had taken it. 'Almost definitely, in fact.'
He picked up the rifle as he surveyed the area, feeling very vulnerable indeed. He tried to detect Mira with his senses, his mind, but he felt nothing but cool air, heard nothing but the stillness of the bush waiting for the day. No leaves whispering, no birds calling, no thump thump thump of a retreating kangaroo. Just stars and earth and his beating heart and the presence of the woman at his side.
'Let's get going before that alarm gives me a migraine,' he said, and started walking.
'Or brings them jackals runnin'.'
'That, too. But I guess we never had much chance of taking them by surprise, eh?'
'You never know,' she said.
'I wish we had more guns.'
'A flame thrower - that'd be handy.'
'A tank would be handy.'
'You've got me,' she said, slipping down the slope a pace or two behind.
'Next best thing.'
They followed a rough trail, stumbling past boulders and the slender trunks of gum trees, brown grass swishing past their knees. To Kevin's ears, they sounded like a column of elephants clumping down the slope. So still, so deeply quiet, the last hour before dawn. The setting moon was hidden behind the rim of the cliff, leaving them in dark and misleading shadow. The world was greys and olives and blacks, and a hundred shades of brown.
He stopped often, ears scanning for signs of ambush or pursuit, but he heard nothing other than the distant klaxon of the car alarm. A sense of futility rose with the scent of dirt, hopelessness arcing over him like that remote starry sky. They walked around the base of a slab of granite, its rough face mottled with fungi and moulds. A clump of grass sticks congregated nearby, like a little tribe of campers seeking shelter. There was the sound of so
mething scraping against stone, a foot or a boot scuffing.
He turned to Kala.
A shape landed behind her.
She had no chance: her mouth an O of surprise, eyes intensely bright and wide.
An arm gripped her across the chest, pinning one of her arms against her side. Her free hand flew to loosen that grip, then stopped as a blade bit into her throat. Blood trickled, as dark as tar. Her eyes found Kevin, her expression desperate.
Willa looked determined. She would kill Kala; of that he had no doubt. She was dressed as she had been back at the homestead, but had lost her shoes.
He lowered the rifle from where it had found instant, reflexive perch against his shoulder. He didn't trust himself, this close, hampered by the telescopic sight ranged for targets much farther away. Willa was a vampire, quick and tough. Kala could not trust her red-eye nature to save her from a bullet to the head or a blade to the vertebrae. Willa's knife was wide-bladed and curved; a butchering knife. It'd cut deep.
'Where is he?' Willa asked.
'Not here,' Kevin said, holding the rifle in one hand, away from his body, the other hand up as though he could somehow make Willa not jerk that blade.
'Tell him to go. Just go.'
'I told you: I don't know where he is.'
'You're his spawn. Tell him to leave me alone. To leave us alone.'
'Anyone would think you cared, Willa.'
'Why won't he just leave me alone?' Tears glistened in her eyes. Her grip on Kala loosened slightly, and then, realising he'd noticed, she tightened it again.
'Because I love you,' Taipan said.
Kevin started. He hadn't heard Taipan approaching through the grass sticks behind him.
Willa shook her head slowly. 'You don't know what love is, Chris.'
'I'm your brother, Willa.'
'Don't call me that! You are not my brother!'
'I'm the only blood you can call your own. Now let that girl go. Let's talk, eh?'
'Just run, Chris. Far away from here. Don't you get it? There's nothing for you here but death.'
Taipan shrugged. He was level with Kevin now, but his gaze was fixed on his sister. 'Some things - some people - are worth dyin' for. But not killin' for. Let her go.'
'I warned you. And I'm not that stupid. Like you said: blood relative. I know all your tricks.' She twisted Kala around in a clumsy dual stumble, but maintained her grip.
Kala cried out at the sudden movement. The doppelganger vanished and Kevin realised the biker was flanking Willa, had been the whole time. Still using Kevin as bait. But Willa was turned away from Kevin now. He could-
Willa's right hand jerked. Something tore. Willa pushed Kala at Taipan.
Taipan caught the woman in mid-flight. Willa flung the knife to the ground and jumped away, leaping metres. She stuck to the granite with hands and bare feet, scrambled up it as though it was a ladder.
Kevin tracked her but was too slow, too surprised. She vanished over the top before he could get a clear shot.
'Help me,' Taipan shouted.
He was crouching, Kala propped up in his arms. She faced Kevin, terror filling her eyes. Blood spilled from her throat. He could hear Kala choking. Drowning. Suffocating.
'Quick, fuck ya!'
Kevin dropped the rifle, knelt.
'Ya blood, idiot. Quick!'
Kevin snatched up the blade Willa had dropped. Dirt crusted to its sticky blade. He slashed it across his wrist, crying out with the sudden pain.
'Make it bleed,' Taipan urged, and Kevin did, willed it with all his heart, and the blood flowed out in a torrent. He held it over Kala's throat and mouth. Her red-eye body was trying to repair the wound but it was vicious and she was losing. They sat there, the three of them, a bloodstained sculpture. Kala's eyelids flickered. Her hands pawed at the air.
'No,' Kevin whispered, and heard Taipan's echo. He swayed, giddy from blood loss. His hunger stirred, a slithering thing coiling and uncoiling in his gut, in his veins.
The wound in Kala's throat began to knit. She gasped for air, chest heaving. Taipan lowered her to the ground, rolled her on her side while she coughed and spluttered.
'Stay with her.'
'Why?' There was panic in his voice, panic at being left here alone with her, alone with her and his hunger and the danger waiting out there in the dark. 'You're not leaving?'
'Got a family reunion to see to,' he said, looking in the direction Willa had gone.
'What about Mira? About Danica?'
'You get to that woman. Keep her safe. It'll be dawn soon; that bloodhag won't be up to much durin' the daytime. Give you a chance to get Mother away.'
'Wait,' Kevin said, but Taipan was on his feet and wiping his hands on his trousers. He took Willa's knife and stuck it in his belt.
'A lotta gecko in that girl,' he mused. 'Me, I always took after the snake.' He ran up the slope beside the boulder and scrabbled up its side, neither as fleet nor as sure as his sister had been.
'Kevvie, am I alive?' Kala asked, her voice husky and weak and trembling.
'Yeah,' he said, and caressed her forehead. He helped her sit up - she coughed as he leaned her up against a nearby gum tree. 'Are you okay?'
She felt her throat, testing the new skin. 'Thirsty.'
'Me too.'
'Tai?'
'I reckon he's plenty hungry, too.' He paused, listening. Definitely another footfall. Taipan coming back? Too soon. And the smell - no, not Taipan. Different cigarettes, but a stench he'd smelled before. 'Stay here,' he whispered. 'Trust me.'
He ran to the rock Taipan had scaled, and traced the handholds, hauling himself up with surprising ease, boots scratching at the rock. He crouched on top of the boulder, watching over Kala's still form. Shit, he should've brought the rifle. Could've slung it and climbed, but it was too late now, the stalking footfalls on soil and in leaf and twig too close, coming up the slope, cautious.
One distraction, coming up.
Kevin concentrated. His blood burned; his head ached. His thirst scraped at him as if he'd swallowed sand. He struggled with double vision as his doppelganger materialised below. He was watching the scene from his high view as well as from where he - it - crouched over Kala. She reached out to his cheek and he pulled back, realised he had mirrored the shadow walker's action and cursed silently. Not a sound, he told himself. He didn't have enough blood to save her a second time.
FIFTY-FIVE
Reece's family used to go camping. One thing about Brissie, there was no shortage of forest to get lost in. The tent was always too hot or too cold. There was dirt and twigs in the billy. The smoke stung his eyes, you had to shit in a hole, there was nothing to do other than shit in the hole and get sunburnt. It just wasn't natural. The worst thing was the noises, especially at night. Irrational, he knew; there was nothing in the Australian bush other than, heh, taipans and other snakes, some spiders maybe, to hurt him, and yet, when the dark came down, you never knew what was out there, scratching and screeching. He hated the bush then and he hated it even more now. Traipsing through the shitty pre-dawn forest on one more search and destroy mission. He supposed it always was going to come to this, from the moment he pulled into that servo, from the moment he'd pulled up at Turner's and collected Taipan, from the moment he'd faced Mira in West End and said yes. He sounded like a dozer pushing through the bracken. He climbed up the western side, the uncertain light making every stump and half-concealed log look like a biker with a gun aimed at his heart.
He and Mira had been crouched on the far side of the gorge, at the base of a spur that rose up along the cliff. There was a Swiss cheese cluster of caves up there. In one of them, after more than an hour of creeping around through the midnight scrub, they had spotted movement. 'Red-eye,' Mira said. 'I can smell her from here. Mother won't be far.'
Before he could comment, she'd said, 'The boy's here,' and then the car alarm had gone off, echoing down the gorge.
'Deal with the grease monkey,' Mira said. 'I'll take
care of the bloodbitch and her pet.'
He'd wondered then, and he wondered yet, if Matheson was even here. True, he'd heard motors, and the alarm made it likely that someone was here, but for Mira to send him away on this fool's errand when she was hunting a vampire even older than herself? No, that was on the nose. That stank to high heaven. Would the four-wheel-drive be intact or had some opportunistic bastard just stolen the wheels? If he climbed up the slope would he find it there, ready to take him right the fuck away from this?
Away to where?
He stopped in his stride. Hardly dared to breathe.
Voices.
A slab of granite projected out from the cliff - he could just make it out through the trees. The path they'd come down, the one he was more or less following now in his less than stealthy attempt at being clever, led right past it. He crouched, thumbed off the Steyr's safety and crept forward. He'd come in around the rock, use it to protect his flank. Sweat trickled down his back. He pushed through the trees and saw the girl, Kala, propped up facing him against a tree at the far end of a clearing big enough to park a car in. She looked distinctly worse for wear. Looked like her throat had been cut. Now who had done that?
And then he saw Kevin Matheson, bending over her. Where had he come from? Behind a tree, a bush? In this light, he could've been there the whole time. He crept forward, wincing at every footfall, and then he was standing over a hunting rifle lying discarded on the ground and pointing his Steyr at the lad's back.
'She said I'd find you hereabouts.' Should probably have gunned them both without a word, but he couldn't do that. Not from behind. Not the kid. But the kid wasn't a kid anymore, was he? No, he was a bloodsucker, and his sire was one of the most vicious there was. Like father, like son? And where was Taipan? He couldn't see anyone. Just the kid, on his knees, facing him, all impassive, and the girl, scared out of her wits beside him.
'Don't make me do anything I'll regret,' Reece said.
'Where's Mira?' Matheson asked, his voice thick and low, almost a whisper.
'Family business,' Hunter told him. 'Doesn't involve you or me.'
'We've got our own family business, don't we? My family's business.'
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