34—Need You
Outside, more vampires had arrived, looking like dozens of stunt doubles from an old James Dean movie. They shuffled like zombies, some of them showing their pointy little fangs.
“Seriously, why do they all look the same?” Bonhi shouted, as she followed her mate.
“Don’t know,” Dallas said, pitching forward into his jaguar with a snarl.
Dakota was near the far edge of the meadow with a short spear in her hand. She crouched like a wrestler, her eyes on a crowd of vampires. Nearby, two carcasses lay on the ground, decomposing.
Gross. Bonhi gagged. Dallas pressed close to her, and she threaded her fingers in his fur, feeling better.
“Hey bro, hey Bonhi,” Dakota said, not looking their way.
A vampire lunged for her, and she jumped back but an eagle dropped out of the sky, hooking the vampire by its shoulders and yanking it to Dakota. She stabbed it. Red light flashed and the vampire fell to the ground.
The other vampires milled and muttered uncertainly.
Dakota tossed her spear from hand to hand and slowly stalked forward. “What’s a group of vampires called? A suck? A gross? A leech?” She flipped her hair. “Who cares? Soon you’ll be dead.”
Bonhi went for them, too, a deep disgust filling her that oddities like this lived.
Where did they even come from? A few of the vampires had knives and others had pipes and that gave her pause.
She stopped, then lifted her hands to yank at all the stones in the ground.
They flew up and pelted nearby vampires in their faces and hands.
The vampires hissed and ran, and one of them dropped his knife.
He stopped to try to get it. Bonhi put on a burst of speed and sank her knife into his back with her jaw clenched against the squelch.
The knife went in like he was made of butter.
Red light erupted from the hole, and he fell to the ground with a strange, gasping cry.
Blue light filled her vision, and she saw her own glow for an instant. Purpose and righteousness filled her, pouring strength into her muscles.
Dallas grabbed another vampire by the hip and spun him around toward Bonhi. The vampire had a knife, which he swung at Dallas.
“No!” Bonhi shouted, catching the vampire in the neck with her knife.
He collapsed to the ground in a rotting, smelly heap.
The vampires kept coming, and Bonhi and Dallas kept slicing through them.
A vampire got a hold of her arm, and Dallas chewed him up.
A vampire grabbed Dakota's hair, and Aven went for his eyes.
More vampires streamed down the hill, overwhelming them, making Bonhi falter.
“Whoop!” someone shouted from the forest. A petite blonde rode an enormous grizzly bear directly into the vampires.
The bear had a hairless scar crossing its neck.
Bonhi recognized the woman, Goldilocks, from the image Warrior Woman had displayed in the cabin, and that bear had to be Flint.
Goldilocks brandished a skinny silver carving knife and laughed as she held onto her bear with one hand and took out vampires with the other, slicing and dicing like they were serving vampires for Thanksgiving dinner.
But still, it wouldn’t be enough. Vampires were flooding all around them and Bonhi caught a glimpse of more arriving near the tree line.
Something sliced Bonhi’s forearm and she cried out, grabbing her arm and feeling blood there.
Anger narrowed her vision and she focused on the wound.
Blue light swarmed from her fingers and sealed the wound into a dark scar.
“Dallas!” she cried, having lost sight of him. He ran to her side quickly, chuffing and snuffling at her with the top of his head, angling his dripping jaws away from her.
Magenta light fell over the clearing, and Warrior Woman exited the cabin, her lips moving.
Bonhi heard rushing river and pounding waterfall, but no words.
Warrior Woman splayed her hand out, and a beam of magenta flew across the clearing, knocking over every vampire it touched.
They dropped with grunts and groans, peppering the landscape with red death lights, like a rash of embers in the dark.
At the top of the hill, the two vampires that Bonhi had tried to kill with rocks earlier, stood, surveying the carnage.
One flicked a hand and the magenta energy winked out.
Warrior Woman shrieked and pointed, seeming to urge them all to attack.
Dallas and the bear took off that way and Bonhi and Dakota, too. The eagle dive-bombed from above—
The vampires simply disappeared. Dallas reached the spot first, his sleek black jaguar glowing blue at the eyes. He skidded to a stop, looking all around. The bear with the blonde on his back arrived next, and Bonhi realized if she concentrated, she could see a green glow around the two of them.
Dakota stopped and looked around, then shouted, “There!”
The vampires had reappeared on the other side of the cabin, and they’d brought several more James Dean-looking vampires with them.
One of them raised his hand pointing out Dallas to the others.
Warrior Woman shrieked and sent out her magenta light, but the strong vampires were able to disperse it before it reached any of them.
Atop the other hillside, Bonhi saw two more people watching but she couldn’t tell who it was, until she concentrated on the slight green light glowing all around them.
It brightened, revealing Jameson and an unwell-looking Cora.
Cora leaned against Jameson, her hair draped over his protective, encircling arm.
Jameson’s expression was troubled and he made no move to help them fight.
Bonhi moved in for the kill. The two Count Chocula motherfuckers disappeared, leaving six other vampires huddling in an open circle, all with knives in their hands. They faced outwards as a group.
“Slutty coven whore,” one sneered at Bonhi.
Bonhi’s mouth fell open. Astonishment turned to anger and she wound up, then whipped her knife at the foul being.
It sailed right over his head and he laughed.
Bonhi splayed magic from her hand, not sure how she was doing it, especially in her anger, but blue light sailed past the vampire and grabbed the knife, sticking it in the back of his neck.
He fell forward and face-planted. She wanted her knife back but didn’t dare run into the group of vampires to get it.
Dakota ran by then skidded to a stop, looking for an opening. Her spear telescoped and she taunted a couple vampires with it, snapping it out at their guts. Overhead, the eagle cried out fiercely.
Bonhi grabbed Dakota by the wrist, asking, “Can we work together?”
“Yeah, what’s your plan?”
“Combine our magic, bring rocks out of the ground.”
Dakota’s face shone. “Fun! How?”
Bonhi took her hand. “Can’t you feel them down there? There’s some big ones.”
Dakota’s eyebrows came together, then she nodded in awe. “Yeah, I can feel them.”
They faced the vampires, holding hands, mentally focusing and waving their hands to channel their magic into the ground, then up and out.
“Come out, come out,” Bonhi chanted.
“Squash these fuckers,” Dakota finished.
A rock the size of a Volkswagen Beetle ripped out of the ground onto its end, next to the group of vampires.
Most of them ran into the forest, but one tripped over the body of his compatriot that Bonhi had already dropped.
The rock tipped onto its broad side, falling, breaking into big pieces, and smashing the vampire flat.
The impact made the ground shake and dust fly.
Bonhi twisted her face away, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment.
“My knife!” she cried, hoping it wasn’t buried under the rubble.
Dallas rushed in and chuffed around, yanking the body of the first vampire away from the rock by its ankle. Using his mouth, he pulled Bonhi’s knife from the vampires flesh and brought it to her. She knelt and took it, placing it on the ground and hugging Dallas around his silky neck.
Goldilocks yelled from the trees. “They’re here! We’re chasing them back to you!”
Bonhi grabbed up her knife, moving with her jaguar.
Dakota fell into step next to them. Aven dropped to the ground and walked near Dakota on sharp talons, twice as large as a normal golden eagle.
Two vampires saw them and ran away. Dakota and Aven peeled off after them.
Two more vampires swarmed Dallas with knives and Bonhi wrapped them up in blue magic, stabbing them, but two more went for Dallas’ prosthesis and tore it off him!
Dallas twisted and caught one in his jaws, chewing him up while the vampire screamed.
Bonhi put him out of his misery, then turned to the one that held Dallas’ prosthesis.
“Drop it and I’ll kill you quick,” Bonhi snarled.
The vampire bared his fangs at her and hissed, then threw the prosthesis on the ground and jumped on it.
Bonhi whipped her knife right at him, using her magic from the moment it left her hand. It hit him between the eyes, and he fell backwards, red light and dust puffing from his corpse as he hit the ground.
Bonhi went to get her knife, breathing heavily. She pulled it out of the collapsing skull, gagging while she wiped it on the grass. Dallas limped over to his prosthesis and nosed the carcass.
“Is that it?” Dakota asked, looking around, her spear held at the ready. “There’s gotta be more.”
Dallas shifted into a man, sprawling on his back on the ground, arms out, his shirt on the ground near him.
He stuck his hand in his pocket, checking for the bottle, then twisted and grabbed his prosthesis, examining it, breathing heavily.
Sweat dripped down his skin, and his hair was soaked with it.
“Bonbon, I need you,” he panted.
Bonhi ran to her mate.