Thankfully, we hadn’t yet run into any more of those things, but I had a feeling that, much like the water, their presence in these tunnels would soon be impossible to avoid. Though most of the smell around us was the flood plucking shit off the walls and floor, their scent was still heavy in the air.
“Are you sure she came this way?”
“I’m not sure of anything other than the flight out of here had better have a fucking shower.”
“What about the...”
A scream echoed in the tunnels ahead. It was definitely Kara’s.
“Hold on to me,” I ordered and began pushing my way ahead. Every step brought us a little deeper. By the time we reached a curve in the tunnel, even I could barely keep my pace. Soon we’d have to swim, and that would be about as effective as waiting for shit to slide uphill. Fortunately, though, we vampires have a few tricks up our sleeves for just such an emergency.
Sidling close to the wall, I extended my claws and dug them into the concrete for purchase. “Ouch! Watch the hair.”
Christy held on for dear life as I slowly made my way forward, my feet at last losing contact with the ground. Drowning isn’t too much of a problem for those of us who are already dead, but the witch piggybacking on me might’ve taken issue with it. There was also the fact that I really didn’t want to be submerged under Las Vegas’s collective shit water.
“When we find her,” I called back, “I hope you don’t mind if I kick her ass for running.”
“Be my guest. I can always wipe her mind later.”
I smiled despite the unpleasantness of the situation. When this was all over, I might even consider hanging out with Christy more often...sans her boyfriend and his family, of course.
I continued to crawl forward, each handhold bringing me closer to the limits of my strength. I had nearly reached it when the tide finally began to slacken. I craned my neck. Maybe we were heading up an incline, but it was hard to see with my head just barely above water.
Kara’s cry for help came again, seemingly just up ahead...although it was difficult to tell. Christy and I kept quiet. There was no telling if she’d do something stupid if she found out we were the ones coming to her rescue.
I continued to claw my way ahead, easier now, when I realized too late why that was.
A cross current slammed into us from the T-intersection we reached and ripped my grip from the wall, catapulting us through the water at a ninety-degree angle. Christy’s hold on me slipped, and she let out a cry as she was swept away down the new tunnel.
I reached to try and grab her, but was slammed head-first into the opposite wall before being dragged under.
Chapter 32
I saw stars, or at least would have, had a glop of something unpleasant not been washed into my face. Oh yeah, I was definitely going to kick Kara’s ass when this was over and done with. Victim or not, the girl had earned it.
I dug my claws into the wall and began to climb, heading up on a diagonal so as to not get immediately swept away. Even so, it was a struggle against the current. I hoped Christy was okay, but pushed my worry for her to the side. She was a smart girl. No doubt she’d kept a little magic in reserve for a life or death emergency such as...oh, I don't know, being caught up in a biblical deluge of storm runoff and sewer sludge. If not, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
I finally surfaced, grasping a hold of the corner opposite of the one I’d been dragged from. Hopefully, like the previous tunnel, the current in this one would be less powerful. Dragging myself around the corner, I saw the tunnel rise ahead of me. There was perhaps a foot, no more than two, of space between the rushing water and the ceiling here, but up ahead, things were different.
The tunnel opened up further on, the top rising high above. Machinery hummed in the distance, but I couldn’t see its source. I must’ve been in a pumping station or something. A metal catwalk suspended from the ceiling ran into the distance, hanging just above the surface of the water.
Oh, and look at what the catwalk dragged in. Hanging by her fingers, the majority of her body in the water, was Kara. She held tight, but lacked the strength to pull herself up...wuss.
I ducked below the surface and began to claw my way to her...making headway now that the tide of the cross tunnel was behind me. It was a good thing, too. I had a feeling things were only going to get worse. The water level still seemed to be rising. It was only a matter of time before a tsunami of storm runoff came rushing through here. When that happened, it wouldn’t matter which tunnel we were in.
Sadly, the sediment - or at least I tried to convince myself it was sediment - made it impossible for even my enhanced vision to cut through the murky water. I had to rely on my best guestimate. Finally reaching what I thought to be a spot right behind her, I surfaced and, of course, found nothing. Goddamnit!
♦ ♦ ♦
Not one to look a gift catwalk in the mouth, I grabbed hold of the railing and hoisted myself out of the filthy water. God, what I wouldn’t have given for a bar of soap.
I coughed and took my first dry breath in what felt like hours. The scents it brought told me too late that I was not alone.
*BLAM*
The bullet slammed home into my shoulder and nearly sent me tumbling back into the flood. I should have let it - a second ball of hot lead caught me in the gut and drove me to my knees.
I looked up to see Barlow step out from a side tunnel I’d missed from my vantage point down below. He grinned like the shaved ape he was and held a smoking weapon.
Mark walked past him, one arm draped protectively around Kara. I had little doubt he’d planned it that way. It wasn’t hard to imagine him using her like bait until such time as he saw me coming, then swooping in to save the day. It’s exactly what I would have done.
“Hi, lover,” I gasped, spitting up blood.
“I won’t lie, Lucinda,” he replied, “you’ve looked better.” He took a sniff and wrinkled his brow. “Smelled better, too. I hate to say it, but I think I’m going to pass on our date.”
“At least you didn’t waste any money buying flowers.”
“Kill her, Mark!” Kara whined, burying her head in his shoulder. “She’s a monster.”
She was right about that, but too stupid to realize I wasn’t the only one.
“Tsk tsk.” He stroked her hair with one hand. “Let’s not be hasty.”
“You should cap her, boss,” Barlow suggested, “so we can get the fuck out of here. Marlene wouldn’t want us to stay down...”
Mark turned and grinned savagely. “Who gives a shit? Marlene’s dead. That means I’m in charge now. So I would kindly ask you to shut the fuck up while I’m speaking.”
“Not much of a coven left to rule.” I was trying to buy time for my body to heal up enough to do something, albeit I wasn’t sure what. Barlow still had his weapon trained on me and, no doubt, had plenty of ammunition left. My reflexes were superior, but the distance between us meant he could pepper me with lead before I closed in on him.
“The others are around somewhere,” Mark mused.
“You split up?”
“I needed someone to be a distraction for those things. Don’t worry. They’re all big boys. I’m sure they’re fine...and if not, I’ll just make more.”
“What do you mean, Mark?” Kara asked, lifting her head.
“You just don’t get it, you stupid little cooze, do you?”
She recoiled as if he’d slapped her in the face. I had to admit it was strange for me, too. It was hard to reconcile the man who stood before me with the one I had known all those years ago. He’d been kind, never one to let the seedy underbelly of the Strip get him down. Many a night we’d spent together doing little more than confiding our dreams and enjoying each other’s company.
The creature before me wore his face, but that was all. Even that illusion didn’t last. Mark pulled out a lighter and flicked it on, illuminating the dark space - no doubt for Kara’s benefit. His eyes darkened and his
fangs extended. “Lucinda’s not the only monster down here, girl. She’s not even the worst.”
I would have said something pithy at that, but Kara’s screams drowned out whatever comment I could make. The poor, dumb girl. It sucked to be the last one to get the memo.
He grabbed her by the hair before she could back away. It wasn’t much, but it was possibly my only chance. I sprang at both of them. The impact would probably shatter a few of her bones, but it was better than what he had planned for her.
Sadly, I’d momentarily forgotten about Barlow. Another shot rang out, echoing even above the roar of rushing water. I might have noticed it had grown noticeably louder had it not been for the sensation of my left kneecap being blown apart.
♦ ♦ ♦
Fuck me! As an experienced vamp, my pain threshold was pretty damn high, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel it. First gut shot, and now crippled. These assholes were going for maximum hurt.
That was bad for me, but maybe it wasn’t the smartest course of action for them. The fuckwits were making the same mistake Marlene had. If you have the chance, kill your enemy. Otherwise, your enemy is going to fucking shiv you the first chance she gets.
Assuming she gets a chance, that is.
For now, I settled for crashing down onto the metal grate that held us. I don’t weigh much - not bragging or anything, although I do work to keep my figure - but the catwalk noticeably shuddered as I landed with a splash, the water level seeping up over the bottom.
Mark smiled down at me as he pulled the still screaming Kara in. He pushed her head to the side and flashed his fangs at me. At the last second, though, he shifted and bit down onto her shoulder instead. The bone made an audible crunch.
The pitch of her cries increased to the point where wine glasses somewhere above us were surely shattering. It’s times like this that I rued the fact that earplugs weren’t part of my normal ensemble.
Mark pulled back and licked his lips. The wound on her shoulder was ugly, but not fatal. “Sorry, baby, but you’re just not worth turning. Sluts like you are a dime a dozen. Wouldn’t you agree, Lucinda?”
I glared up at him, mindful of Barlow's gun still trained upon me. Part of me was waiting for the perfect moment. The rest was in shock at how far Mark had fallen, how much he’d let the predator inside take over.
Had I ever been that bad? It was a stupid question. I knew the answer.
“I’m still gonna have some fun with you, though...” Before he could finish, the sound of rushing water became louder until it all but drowned him out.
A wave struck us. The surge was at least four feet higher than the top of the water had previously been. It hit Barlow and Mark from behind, dousing the lighter and staggering them, before completely covering me.
I tensed my good leg. There wasn’t going to be a better time.
The moment the surge passed, I launched myself. Barlow fired another shot, but this one went wide, thanks to the small tidal wave of filth. I slammed into Mark and drove him backward into his pet goon, ruining any shot he had unless he planned to shoot me through Mark - a dubious premise. It would have been a smart maneuver, one I’d have done in a second, but I doubted he had either the brains or the balls to empty a clip into his new master.
Mark lost his grip on Kara, who fell to her knees whimpering in the renewed darkness. Jeez, she just had a little nip taken out of her. I was the one missing a fucking kneecap.
Unfortunately for me, this served to free up both of Mark’s hands.
I managed to reach past him with my left, knocking the gun out of Barlow’s grasp and into the raging water below. I raked the nails of my right hand across Mark’s chest, drawing a furrow of blood. Unfortunately, he extended his own claws and brought them up into my abdomen, right into the spot where I’d been shot. Fuck! It had just started to close up, too. In a split second, he undid what little healing my body had managed and then dug even farther in.
The pain was incredible, and I screamed despite myself. Mark wrapped his free arm around me, drawing me in closer as if in an embrace. Barlow, showing he had a few working brain cells, grabbed the hand I’d used to disarm him and did the same, preventing my escape.
As I opened my mouth to cry out again, Mark pressed his lips into mine.
He then pulled back and flexed the fingers of the hand still inside of me. “I always wanted to make you scream, Lucinda. This is not quite how I imagined it happening, but I’ll take it. I hope it’s good for you, too.”
I felt woozy. Mark’s hand continued to tear at my innards. A few more inches and he’d be in prime condition to rip the very heart from my body.
A voice inside my head reminded me that I’d broken his heart once upon a time. Perhaps this was a fitting comeuppance.
I was in dire straits. A small part of me even hoped that Kara finally took the hint. This was the point in a sappy romantic drama where the jilted lover would grow a set and rise up to strike down her tormentor. Alas, that shit only happens in the movies. I was in a bad place, and the only way out was to rely on the one person I could - myself.
My head lolled back and my eyelids fluttered, only partially of my own volition. My insides dripped out in great globules from the wound in my stomach. There was no way I was going to be able to take much more.
“Hey now, baby,” Mark chided, “you’re not supposed to fall asleep until it’s all ov...ARGH!”
I drove my head forward and felt the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking.
Before either of us could do anything about it, we were both underwater again as another surge swept into us. It wouldn’t be long now before this tunnel was completely flooded.
It also wouldn’t be long now for me. The disgusting water filled with the scent of my blood. I could only imagine the unsanitary things filling my body's open cavity.
Fuck that! No way was I going out like this. The end of the world was coming and I, for one, wanted to be around to see it.
We continued to struggle in the deluge against both the current and one another. The murky water had one advantage - it left everything good and slippery. The wave subsided and I yanked back my left arm just as my head surfaced again. Barlow lost his grip, and I used my newly freed appendage to pull Mark’s arm from my body.
It was a good effort - it just wasn’t enough. Though we might’ve been on equal terms on any other given day, I was wounded badly. He pushed me back and my ruined leg gave way.
I went to one knee and was rewarded with an uppercut to the chin, sending me down to the floor of the catwalk, now inches below the rising waterline.
I rolled onto my back and looked up. Mark grinned down at me in the darkness with Barlow standing beside him. Off to one side, Kara sat motionless against the wall - coughing out water and being more or less useless.
I tried to think of my remaining options and came up empty.
Mark’s foot buried itself in my midsection and I let out a gasp of pain that found me choking on a combination of floodwater and my own blood.
So this was it? Not quite how I envisioned checking out.
I blinked sludge from my eyes, and saw Mark’s smile had grown even wider. He began to unbuckle his belt. He meant to have his pound of flesh, and there wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do about it. Oh well, at least I wouldn’t enjoy it. That would show him.
Just then, something caught my eye. I glanced past them, surprised. The orange light of the morning sun filtered in from far above through what must have been a manhole or grate.
Huh. I hadn’t realized so much time had passed, nor would I have guessed that the storm had ended, judging by the epic flood surrounding us.
“Any chance you want to share her with me, boss?” Barlow asked as more dim sunlight appeared above their heads.
“Why not?” Mark replied over his shoulder. “Consider it your first fringe benefit under my regime.”
Multiple dots of daylight blinked above them. Maybe there was a chance after all. If I could gr
ab them both with the last of my strength, maybe I could hold them long enough for a few stray rays to hit us down here. It was a long shot and wouldn’t end well for me, but at least we’d all go out in a blaze of...
Wait a second. That wasn’t sunlight up above.
Sunlight doesn’t blink.
I focused my gaze and saw the ceiling undulate as at least three of those rock creatures disengaged from it. One of them turned toward me and, for just a second, a mockery of flesh replaced the rocky skin of its face. It smiled an obsidian grin at me...the same face I’d seen in the casino the night before.
Mark must have noticed my look of shock, because he turned - albeit not before planting a boot in my chest to keep me put. Smart. Marlene had taught him well after all.
Smart, but sadly not fast enough. The creatures launched themselves at us. One landed on Barlow and immediately buried its granite-like teeth into his shoulder. It tore loose a mound of his flesh as they both tumbled over the catwalk railing and into the water below.
A familiar flash of light from beneath the surface momentarily lit up the room. The asshole had met his well-deserved fate.
Mark, however, was both smarter and tougher than his henchman. He sidestepped and shoved one of the creatures over into the torrent below. The third, my friend from the other night, had landed with the apparent intent of finishing me off, but turned instead toward the greater threat. Under different circumstances I might have been insulted, but decided to let it slide just this once.
Mark and the beast grappled while I summoned the last of my strength to roll out of the way. I backpedaled and found myself next to Kara. We were both a mess, just in different ways. At least I had the advantage of seeing what was going on.
A high-pitched keening sound escaped her lips as I brushed against her, her brain apparently having been pushed into overload. That was one advantage her brother had on her. He’d grown up on dorky shit. The sight before us would have probably just given him a hard-on.
Sunset Strip: from the Tome of Bill Series Page 16