Chapter 19
“We need to find Zwick,” Sonya said. “He has to be around here somewhere. He has to be aware of what’s been going on.”
“Do you think he might be in his office at this time of night?” Dr. Ang said.
“We’ll go and find out.”
Sonya led the way to Zwick’s office. With soft steps they walked through the hall, an acrid smell reaching them as they closed in on the producer’s office. They reached his door, looked at one another and silently nodded. They stormed in.
“Oh, my Goodness,” Sonya let out.
“Well, I’ll be,” Dr. Ang said.
“Plot twist,” April muttered.
Zwick sat in his office chair, but he wasn’t alone. He also wasn’t alive.
Connie had said that no vampire wanted his blood, but apparently one vampire was willing to give it a try. The large bat standing over him seemed to lack the disdain the other vampires had.
“Game over, Bat,” Sonya called out as she approached the large creature.
He was big, even bigger than she’d thought. Up close, just feet away from him, she suddenly felt so small and frail.
“Careful, Sonya,” Dr. Ang said as the Bat turned to her, its fangs bloodied and ready for another victim.
He left Zwick and straightened to his full height. His bat ears almost touched the ceiling. He towered over Sonya, the breadth of his shoulders and chest hinting at the power within.
She was no longer confident that they could take him down, even three against one. “You’ve just killed your cash cow,” Sonya said as April inched her way around to his left. “Zwick owns this studio. Why would you get rid of him?”
The Bat looked at her, confused. She hoped to keep him distracted long enough for Dr. Ang to circle around to his right. The Bat remained focused on Sonya, barely aware of the other two.
April held her sword out, ready.
“There’s no point going on with this charade, with this mask that you wear,” Sonya said. “We know who you are. There’s no place left to hide. It’s all in the report that Baker filed.”
The creature, its stained fangs visible as it looked at Sonya, cocked its head to one side as it tried to understand the words she spoke.
“The FBI agent, Rhonda Baker. You thought you’d killed her, right? Well, you didn’t. She’s alive and she’s written a detailed report about you. Your time is up.”
“No,” the Bat said. “She’s dead. I drained her of every last drop. When I left her, she was drier than Death Valley in July.”
“You are mistaken. You misjudged.”
The Bat took a step back. Its leathery skin shriveled up and peeled away, leaving human skin. He took on a human form. Nearly nude, he stood there, a man. A man with little defenses.
“I don’t believe you,” he growled. “I never misjudge.”
Sonya smiled. Without the added protection of its leathery armor, he would be an easy kill.
“What are you talking about?” the Bat shouted, desperate for answers.
The near human changed and morphed. He was monstrous one moment and stylishly attractive the next. He finally ended his transformation, resuming his true identity; a man Sonya knew.
“Eddie?” It hit Sonya in the gut, so hard she almost fell back. “Eddie? How? But, I saw you... in Marion’s chair... completely... you were dead, drained.”
He winked at her. “Your turn to misjudge.”
Her breath caught in her throat. How could she have gotten it so wrong?
But clarity struck her. Of course, he was empty of blood and dead.
He was a vampire after all. He’d killed and disposed of Marion.
That part was easy. But this also explained the empty coffin.
She’d stashed his body away, but it would have been all too easy for him to simply crawl out.
“All this time... it was you.”
He roared with laughter that filled the air, leaving an acrid smell in its wake. Suddenly he jumped, turned to Dr. Ang and grabbed his sword with one hand and the doctor’s throat with the other. Letting out a victorious shout, he leaned in to bite him.
April jumped up on Zwick’s desk and came up behind Eddie, driving her sword through his chest.
Eddie looked down at the protruding sword with little more than mild annoyance. He looked back at April and grinned. “Nice try, little girl. But I’m of the ancient world. A world where little tricks like that don’t work. Nothing can kill me.”
“Nothing?” April said. “I beg to differ.”
“Oh,” he said with a gritty snarl as he released his hold of Dr. Ang. “Silver. Ah, yes. That ever elusive silver. Silver that cannot be found here, dear.”
“But can be found where, pray tell?”
“You think yourself smart, little girl. But unless the silver stems from the Emperor’s personal collection... China’s Emperor, there is nothing you can do to get rid of me.”
April pulled the sword out of his belly and raised it high above her head.
Eddie turned to her and laughed, an ugly and malefic laugh. “Silly girl.”
He reached out to grab her, but she stepped back. “Tell me this, Mr. Bat, do you feel weak yet? Can your flesh resist this sword forged of the silver jewelry once own by the Empress herself.”
Eddie frowned and looked down at the still bloodied wound in his belly, a wound that should have instantly closed up.
“That’s right,” April went on. “Empress Wanrong, generous soul that she was, donated her own personal jewelry so that she might help the people who’d lost their homes following the Yangtze River floods.”
Sonya gaped at her daughter. How had she known that? Where had she learned of this special silver that only she, as Empress, once had ownership of.
“Nice story, child,” Eddie said. But his eyes showed the concern that he refused to admit. “But story time is over.” He marched toward her, his hands reaching out to her.
“Why did you kill Zwick?” April said as Sonya closed in on Eddie.
“Why do you people care why I killed him?” he shouted in a fit of rage.
“No one liked him. No one cares. The idiot was no longer of use to me. He’d blown his cover, and all because he couldn’t keep his pants on.
The minute a good-looking woman came his way, he had to have her.
He was more trouble than he was worth. I had to keep cleaning up after him; Detective Baker, Marion.
..” He stared blankly in front of him for a moment.
“Somehow Yolanda got away, but that’s another issue. ”
As he continued with his rant, Sonya inched closer.
He focused once again on April. “In exchange for all that, I barely got any useful information out of him. The man was a mess and I had to...”
Eddie’s eyes widened. He hadn’t seen her coming. Hadn’t seen Sonya reach for April’s sword. He’d been so absorbed with Zwick and the waste of time he’d turned out to be, that he hadn’t seen Sonya fly into the air, ready to come down on him with the silver sword.
She split him straight down the middle, leaving the two halves to fall on either side. April quickly pulled out her vial of Holy water and sprinkled both halves of him. His body was immediately engulfed in flames.
“It’s time to get out of here,” Dr. Ang said.
They left the burning office and as they ran through the cafeteria, they sprinkled as many vampires as they could along the way. They, in turn, ignited, adding to the flames that were already consuming the large building.
“This way,” Sonya called out as she led them through an emergency exit.
They ran outside, free from the flames, free from the Bat and his coven...a Hollywood film studio, of all things. Free to breathe more easily.
The three stood there, looking at the devastation, knowing that this was a new start.