“We have to hurry,” Dolph said, breezing past Nick, headed toward the mall. He still had his gun on him, though Leonard appeared not to have noticed.
“Wait—hold it!” Nick said. Leonard picked up his pace. Nick certainly didn’t know if they could trust him, but it didn’t appear as if they had a choice about his participation.
“I guess you ought to put that away for now,” Nick said.
They caught up to him just as he crossed through some overgrown bushes and into the parking lot.
“You may have brought the rabisu the closest he’s been to mortal in thousands of years. Despite the lore, he used to be a man.”
“So he’s closer to being killable,” Dolph said. “That’s good, then.”
Leonard kept his pace, looking over his shoulder at him. “No. He’s probably more dangerous than ever. Every time he’s been captured it’s been because of hubris. Well, almost every time. A Roman captain bottled him once by outthinking him. It took almost an entire legion to do that, though. He doesn’t have that luxury this time. He’s been hurt and he has every reason to believe he can be hurt again, especially considering he doesn’t know who did it.”
“How did you hurt him?” Dolph asked Nick. “Maybe you can do it again.”
“That method of attack won’t work a second time,” Leonard said. “Think of it like poking a small hole in a big balloon. His connection to his minions hasn’t been cut, it’s just been irrevocably strained.”
“Strained how?” Nick asked.
“He can’t feed off them like he used to.”
“He’s supposed to feed off you,” Dolph said.
“No, he doesn’t feed off me. You read the lore too literally. I am simply the host, his receveur. If he fed off me I would have been dead long ago. He is attached to me and I more or less breathe for him. He must take sustenance from others.”
“Hmm,” Dolph said doubtfully.
They stopped at the front door.
“So how do we do this?” Nick asked. He’d shut off the chainsaw as they walked and wasn’t sure if he should rev it up now or wait until they were inside.
“I’m going to test the limits of our bond. I could see him after his intermedium was killed. I’m going to see if I can actually put my hands on him.”
“And what are you going to do if you can’t?”
“Probably die like the both of you were planning to do.”
“Okay, let’s say you can touch him,” Nick said. “What happens up until then?”
“You two do everything you can to survive. He has about fifteen with him.”
“Can you… can you tell…” Dolph was struggling with the words and Nick could almost hear the knot in his throat. “Are my babies still alive?”
“I can sense them. He’s particularly interested in the boy. He hasn’t done anything to him yet. He’ll probably have him watch as he kills the boy’s mother.”
“Wait,” Nick said, almost putting a hand on Leonard’s shoulder. “He has to sense some of this too. He has to know you’re here. Why doesn’t he just run?”
Leonard looked at him. “Because as vulnerable as he is, this may be his best chance to win. I knew from the moment I saw you he wanted you to be his new receveur.”
“Why me? I mean, that vamp we killed said I was special. That I was like him.”
“No. You are not like him. You are completely unique. Twenty years ago there was no such thing as a vamp as we define them, but the rabisu believes there was a creature such as you.”
He put his hands on the door handle and stopped. Noticed for the first time the few strands of black at his receded hairline. “Could you do what you did before again?” Leonard asked.
“I thought you said that wouldn’t work on him again?”
“It won’t. However, it would still have the same effect on whatever intermedium you used it on.”
“Oh, then no. I can’t do it anymore.”
He pushed the door open and they stepped into the vestibule.
It was dark and musty, about what Nick would have expected. This was the main entrance, he would have felt more comfortable had they come in the east or west entrances or at the rear. He felt more vulnerable here and when Dolph pulled the door closed it gave a staccatoed metallic shriek.
If Cain didn’t know they were here before, he knew now.
They proceeded toward the concierge’s desk, careful not to step on broken glass. The doors had been boarded; the high glass windows had been broken out and birds and other small animals that had flown or crawled in had taken up residence. Graffiti decorated every wall and the heavy stank of urine hung in the air.
A vamp sprang from around the corner and charged straight at them. Nick grabbed at his chainsaw, trying to start it. He tripped over his own feet and wound up on his butt. He caught sight of Dolph moving in, but was distracted by the blade of the chainsaw banging off his ankle.
Even though it wasn’t on, it hurt. He was certain he was cut, hoping it wasn’t too bad. He had to ignore it. One of those monsters was in the process of killing Dolph or Leonard, or maybe Dolph and Leonard. He didn’t want either of them to be killed, nor did he want to be in here with these creatures and Cain alone.
Nick pushed to his feet and was about to charge in their direction. The vamp had a taloned hand around Dolph’s throat, its chin down to the middle of its chest. Its head was turned almost completely around as it screamed in Leonard’s face. Leonard had his bare hand on its neck. The creature screamed in agony even though he didn’t appear to be squeezing. When the old man plucked its eyeballs out, it dropped Dolph and pushed Leonard aside, who, Nick noticed, looked about ten years younger and had about a half a head of jet black hair.
It ran straight for Nick and he realized he still didn’t have the chainsaw going. He didn’t have enough time to start it and instead crouched, holding the blade up in front of him. Nick reflexively closed his eyes and he felt its body snag on the chain. He held the saw tight and when it wasn’t yanked from his hands he looked above and behind him to see that the vamp had sprouted wings of some kind.
It didn’t get far. Instead of flapping its arms and lifting higher, it glid until it crashed into a pillar.
“You should probably start that now,” Dolph said. Nick nodded, standing and taking the cord in his hand. It didn’t start on the first pull and he felt a wave of panic, then yanked again and it choked to life.
Leonard had already begun walking around the concierge’s desk, not bothering to check if there were other vamps hiding behind it. Dolph quickly caught up to him, aiming his gun this way and that, checking around corners and up to the ceiling. All it would have taken was a tuck and roll for him to be the reincarnation of Captain Kirk.
Then he did tuck and roll when he saw a vamp just as it slashed at his head. Nick took a step forward. Dolph rolled up to one knee, aimed, and shot.
Nick would have guessed bullets wouldn’t have done anything. When the wranglers had fired a single round they had either missed or had tickled whichever vamp they’d shot. The cops outside had fired several times and neither vamp had gone down. This vamp’s head exploded.
It clawed at the air as if trying to grab the bits of skull and brain that had been atomized and then it slumped to the ground.
Something above and behind them let out a tremendous screech and Nick whirled, ready to slice. Leonard walked around the elevators headed for the exposed space. Somerset had been a three-tiered mall in life and out in the open like that he was a sitting duck.
Cain may or may not have been able to touch him, but just because they were vamps didn’t mean one of them couldn’t have a gun.
“Wait!” Dolph whisper-shouted. Leonard paid him no mind, stepping around a concrete globe sitting in a structure taller than him. Nick remembered water had made it rotate at one point.
There was another screech followed by the cry of a child. Both he and Dolph lunged after Leonard like fish being reeled in on a line. That was
Randy. Nick had never heard him make that noise before. The boy never cried and hardly ever spoke. Nick had always had a sense he’d had the ability to be a lot more conversational and had chosen not to. Now he was choosing to. He wanted anyone within earshot to know he was in danger. Nick knew he had to do something about it now.
Above them, on the promenade, Cain held Randy up high above his head. To say the Leonard façade had deteriorated was an understatement. From a distance of at least sixty feet away, Nick could see he still had the upper face and hairline of young Leonard, but below that was a ragged hole filled with—well, not teeth, it was something like shards of bone lining several concentric circles in its cavernous black mouth. He still had on the uniform, though the skin had sloughed off one hand entirely, exposing shiny red musculature underneath. Nick guessed it probably continued up the arm as well.
He appeared as though he were dying.
“If I hit him from here,” Dolph was saying, “Randy could fall.” His voice was surprisingly calm, icy, which helped Nick not run charging up the dead escalator. Cain could have tossed over three dozen Randys in the time it would take him to reach the third tier. The fact he was holding the boy aloft and not eating him or tearing him apart left hope there was a mind left in that deteriorated body capable of being dealt with. “If there’s anything that either of you can do, do it now.”
Leonard seemed to be unaware Dolph had spoken or what was going on above him. He kept heading in the direction of the west escalator. Nick saw a vamp crouched underneath it, ready to pounce. He couldn’t do anything about that now. They were already on the verge of death at any second and he had to do something about Randy.
“Where is the one!” Cain shouted. Nick wouldn’t have thought that ragged of a mouth would have been capable of speech. He knew who he was talking about, though. He was asking about Kim. Even now, Nick wasn’t going to give her up. Two shots came from his left and Nick turned to see Dolph aiming at a vamp he’d put two gigantic holes into. He had no clue what kind of bullets those were, they were still hard-pressed to put one of these creatures down. The thing twitched and clawed at the ground, trying to push itself off the floor despite holes in it Nick could have put his fist in with room to spare. Dolph shot it in the face and the top portion of its head evaporated.
“Look out!” Dolph shouted too late; Nick’s foot was yanked from underneath him and he hit the floor hard. The vamp that had choked Dolph before Leonard had grabbed it climbed over Nick. It had the deep grooves of Leonard’s acidic grasp in its shoulder and its skin was a brilliant red, like it was overheating. Its yellow eyes were filmy like it was half-blind and its mouth hung open to the middle of its torso, inch-long scythe-like teeth ready to tear the flesh off Nick’s bones.
He had the chainsaw wedged between them, but that was more dangerous for Nick than the creature. It was painfully thin and Nick couldn’t push the heavy blade away from himself. It didn’t seem to be aware of the idling weapon between them. Dolph took a shot, missed, and a huge chunk of wall crumpled from the explosive round.
“He’s too close! I can’t hit him!”
He wished Dolph would come closer and shoot; he was going to have to save himself this time. The creature leaned closer to snap at him, its taloned foot on the chainsaw, pushing the blade closer to his face. Even idling, the chainsaw would do a lot of damage to his face.
Then something changed. Nick saw something on the creature pulsing. An intricate layer of dark red lines appeared everywhere he saw exposed skin. Its pungent smell grew rich in his nose and he felt something in his own mouth change.
He was now able to hold the chainsaw with one hand without it coming closer to him. He let go with the other, reached out, and grabbed the mutant vamp by the throat before it was able to bite at him again. Nick pulled it closer, the blade cutting into its flesh, blood raining down on him. It screamed and yanked away from him; he held tight, letting blood fall into his open mouth.
The hidden thing within him surged forth and he was crushing the vamp’s throat as easily as balling up a sheet of paper. It bucked and scratched at him, and Nick could feel the wounds closing as quickly as they opened. He was on his feet, holding the creature in one hand, the chainsaw in the other. Its eyes rolled in its head as it began reverting back to a more human form. Nick jerked it close, plunging teeth that felt much larger and sharper into its neck and somehow drinking as fast as taking a deep breath. He instinctively understood he was not only consuming it by drinking, his teeth were somehow siphoning the life’s blood of the monster in his grasp.
In seconds it was done. He tossed aside the desiccated thing, which had curled around itself like a fried shrimp. It broke when it hit against a wall. He felt powerful and wanted to crush something else.
“Nick,” Dolph said. He turned and saw the look of absolute shock on the man’s face. He pointed his gun at Nick. “What are you?”
“You!” Cain said above him. They both looked up. Nick saw the look of familiarity in Cain’s yellow eyes. He could feel the other vamps pulling closer, afraid, still prepared to strike on their master’s behalf. Nick put the chainsaw on the floor and slid it across to Dolph. He didn’t need it anymore. Cain stepped back, unsure of himself. He threw Randy, the boy’s arms and legs pin wheeling as he arched overhead.
“Randy!”
Nick saw him hurtling overhead. He was going too far out for Dolph to run and catch him. Even if he could, the boy would probably have a broken neck from the impact. Nick felt his feet leave the floor and he caught up to Randy, catching him by the shirt collar with one hand. He alighted on the floor and spotted Cain lifting the too-still form of Phoebe and retreating.
Leonard had disappeared. Nick didn’t see the old man or the vamp that had been stalking him beneath the escalator. He knelt to check on Randy. The boy seemed shaken, but okay.
“Pop-Pop!” he said, lunging in Dolph’s direction. Nick held him back instinctively, then saw the old man was holding his own against two vamps, lopping off pieces of them each time they reached for him. Nick tucked Randy under one arm and charged, except his feet weren’t touching the floor. Nick didn’t have time to question how he was flying or levitating or whatever it was he was doing.
He grabbed the vamp to Dolph’s right under the armpit and hurtled it upward. Nick had an unbelievable amount of strength coursing through him and the creature smacked face-first into the marble wall of a store on the second tier. Dolph deftly stepped aside from a swipe from a single-fingered talon and thrust the chainsaw into its chest. The creature leapt backward, the chain not scoring deep, and it turned and fled on all fours before he could take another swing.
Nick could feel them around them. He put Randy down, and he immediately latched onto his great-grandfather’s leg. Dolph looked down at him and his eyes bugged as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He turned his eyes up at Nick and a look exchanged between them. Dolph had never struck him as a man given to overt sentimentality and everything that could have possibly been said was in his eyes.
A single tear raced down the man’s cheek.
“Who…” he began.
“No time.” Nick’s voice felt too heavy, thick in a way he’d never heard it. He put a hand on Dolph’s shoulder to hustle him toward the door. He had to get the two of them out of here. “They’re still close and they’re desperate.”
“But you—and Phoebe.”
“I’ll get her. I can’t protect you while I’m doing it. And you have to protect him.”
A vamp jumped on Nick’s back, tearing at him. He could feel the wounds healing slower than before and shoved Dolph away, spinning left and right, trying to grab a part of the creature.
Dolph calmly stepped forward, aiming. Nick turned his back to him and held as still as possible while the creature tore at him until the gun thundered in his ears. The vamp fell off Nick and he turned to see it in the final seconds of its death throes. It quickly reverted to a human form and he knew he should feed from it. He
couldn’t stomach the idea. Something in him hungered and knew the vamp’s blood—any living creature’s blood—would mend his wounds faster. Still, Nick restrained himself. Whatever was happening to him had not yet surpassed his humanity and he couldn’t willingly feed off something that was still part human. He’d already done it, but that had been a matter of self-defense.
They stayed tight to each other as they crept toward the door. Nick remained in a low crouch, letting his senses feel out the room ahead. They weren’t approaching, almost as if they were hanging back for something.
Or perhaps standing guard.
“He’s getting away,” Nick said. He turned and grabbed Dolph, propelling them through the air toward the entry doors. Nick pushed through and set the two of them down. It wasn’t safe out here and infinitely more dangerous inside. Nick knew he could draw the vamps to him as they would continue to protect their master.
He spotted a head in the distance on the other side of Big Beaver. There was a cautious clench in his gut and he felt Dolph tense as well. The old man had one arm underneath Randy, holding the chainsaw by the handle at the top with the other. It looked oddly domestic. Dolph didn’t seem to have noticed that the boy had soiled himself.
“Who is that?” he asked, though Nick wasn’t entirely sure he was looking for an answer.
“I don’t know,” Nick said. He hadn’t considered the possibility of more vamps waiting outside. The ones they’d encountered had seemed ravenous and afraid. Slightly more so than the ones in here, and they had seemed untethered from Cain’s control, as if operating of their own accord, though that sounded a lot more intentional than Nick believed it had been. These creatures that had once been vamps like him had been transformed into something else with fear and hunger as twin engines driving their maddened brains.
A head popped up from behind rubble and Nick saw it was Pearlanne. Clip and a couple of others followed closely behind. He and Dolph both breathed mutual sighs of relief.
“Mama! Mama! Mama!” Randy was shouting, reaching back in the direction they’d come.
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