Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cody gripped Demmy’s hip, digging his fingers into flesh. He wasn’t going to let Demmy get ripped away from him. Not again.
“It’s the Critter Catchers.” Bastian’s voice was smooth, but Cody could hear the excitement, the bloodlust, in it.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Dave said to Cody from the corner of his mouth.
“This guy, David Bower,” the vampire said, “is Bastian.” He waved a hand toward Annie. “And my ingenue, Annie.”
“Ingenue!” Annie said.
They laughed together, the casual sound grating along Cody’s skin.
He checked the opening onto Main Street and saw Leo and Paul had moved closer.
They had nowhere to go. They would have to fight their way through.
He hefted the water rifle, pointing the barrel to the sky and resting it against his shoulder.
“How the fuck does he know who I am?” Dave said.
Cody ignored his brother and said, “Back to back,” as he turned to face Bastian, and Demmy pressed himself close behind him.
“Yes, yes,” Bastian practically cooed. “The better to see us.”
Cody pumped the water rifle.
“Oh, look at you, wearing your garlic necklaces and crosses and priming your scary water gun to spray us.” Bastian tipped his head to the side, looking around Cody, even as he and Annie continued to slowly advance.
“You got lucky in that woman’s corn field.
She caught us off guard and allowed you to escape. ”
“You mean you ran away like a little bitch?” Cody said.
A slight hesitation in Bastian’s step. “Charming. We’ve been working to build up our, shall we say, tolerance. But poor Paul, he’s brand new, and he hasn’t been able to yet. How did it feel, Paul?”
“Not so good. Kind of made me mad, Linebacker.”
“Maybe I didn’t like your last cuts of meat.” Cody heard the growl in his voice.
“That’s cute,” Paul said. “But I’m surprised you haven’t figured me out yet.
All the games I came to see. All the gentle ribbing I’ve given you over the years.
I’ve always had a thing for you, Linebacker.
And I’m looking forward to getting a taste of that Grade A prime, dark red, All-American blood. ”
Cody’s head swam for a second. He swallowed hard and adjusted his grip on the plastic. From the corner of his mouth, he said, “Demmy. I’m going to do a Summertime Rules countdown.”
He felt Demmy’s head turn slightly, could picture the initial confusion, followed by the understanding in his expression.
“Okay,” Demmy said.
“All right, everyone shoot on my count,” Cody said. “Ready? One—”
He and Demmy fired, and Cody laughed as his stream punched Bastian in the shoulder. Bastian staggered back a few steps, hissing in pain as he brought his hand up. From Demmy’s side, he heard one of the vampires grunt and snarl.
Despite the surprise attack and the hits, however, he hadn’t heard any cries of pain this time.
“You’re right, Paul,” Bastian said, starting forward again. “It doesn’t feel good.”
“Now!” Zenona shouted.
The rest of the group pulled their triggers, and Cody shot on reflex more than anything.
The vampires were caught off guard again, and this time got soaked.
All four howled in pain and fury. Annie took off, there one second and gone the next.
Bastian dropped to one knee, head bowed and hands pressed to the concrete.
“Paul’s gone,” Demmy said. “Watch out.”
“Nothing creepier than a creeper for a butcher,” Cody said, keeping his eyes on Bastian as he pumped his rifle again.
“Remind me to make inappropriate meat handling jokes at your expense later,” Dave said.
Cody grunted. Younger brothers could be such dicks.
Across the street, the fire crackled and popped, and another person screamed before suddenly going silent.
“You know the penalty for all of this,” Zenona said. She glared down at Bastian as she took a step out from the group, rifle held low by her hips. “It will mean the end of you and everyone who follows you.”
“Zenona…” Tracey whispered. “Stay back.”
Bastian launched himself up and forward from his kneeling position, grabbing Zenona and carrying her across the alley.
He thumped her against the brick wall, tore the garlic from around her neck with a hiss of pain before throwing it aside.
Holding her by the throat as she kicked and gasped, he turned to glare at Cody.
“Your ragtag team and homemade weapons are no match for me. This little lady’s been a thorn in my side for months now, so I’m going to enjoy turning her. You and the others take a vote and let me know who’s next.”
Rage burned through Cody. With a roar, he ran at Bastian, pumping the gun.
He’d only managed two steps, however, when someone tackled him from the side, cutting off his shout and driving him to the cement.
The breath left his lungs in a whoosh, and the concrete scraped up his elbows and the small of his back.
More pain bloomed across his chest where the freshly healed wounds pulled and burned.
Paul pinned him down and sat astride his hips.
His fingers found the cord at Cody's throat and yanked, hissing as it seared his palm.
He flung the bulbs into the dark and stared down at Cody, his eyes blazing and the orange firelight dancing across his features as he ground his ass against him.
“Cody!”
Around Paul’s thigh, Cody saw Demmy start for him.
But Annie swooped in and hauled Demmy away.
She flinched as she snapped the string of garlic from Demmy’s neck before slamming him against the wall on the other side of the cut-through from Bastian and Zenona.
Demmy’s head bounced off the bricks and his eyes fluttered.
“No! Demmy!”
He tried to shimmy out from under Paul, but the vampire was too big and wasn’t letting him go anywhere.
“They’ve told me you’ve been bitten twice before, and, you know…” Paul leaned down to press his face against Cody’s neck, drawing in a long, slow breath. His skin was cold and dry, and it sent a shudder through Cody. “I can smell it on you,” Paul whispered against his throat.
Cody heard a crunch and a wet pop, followed by the icy spray of something thick across his face. He clamped his lips and squeezed his eyes shut as Paul shuddered on top of him. Then, with a gurgling, bubbling sound, the man dissolved into thick, cold slime that soaked Cody head to toe.
“Fuck you, Paul,” he heard Jugs say.
Jugs gripped him behind the shoulders and lifted him to his feet.
Cody ran his hand down his face and blew out a breath to clear it from his mouth.
A bit of it clung to his lips, and a bitter taste coated his tongue.
The stench made him gag, and he dragged his hand across his lips as he swallowed on reflex.
The bitterness slid down his throat, the taste like burnt copper, and he squeezed one eye closed as he looked to his left.
Jugs watched him with a worried expression, dark blood still dripping from the stake he held in one hand.
“Thanks.”
“Anytime, Bonker.” He passed him a bandana. “Clean that shit off you.”
As Cody wiped his face and neck, the taste in his throat gathered in a warm ball low in his belly.
It spread from there, across his chest and spiraling along each limb.
The sounds of the fire intensified, and he heard the steady drip of water from a leaky downspout at the end of the cut through.
Small details became clearer to him even though the lighting hadn’t changed: the total on a crumpled receipt lying a few feet away by the waste can, the artist’s signature at the bottom of the mural near the Main Street opening.
The throbbing ache across his chest receded, as did the pain from his skinned elbows and small of his back.
He straightened up to his full height, his knees suddenly feeling more like they used to back in high school.
He threw the bandana to the ground, pulled his shoulders back, and lifted his chin as he pointed at Bastian, then at Annie.
“Don’t you fucking dare hurt either of them. I will hunt you down—”
“And murder us in our caskets, yes, yes, I’ve heard it all before at standoffs just like this. This is really nothing new, you know.” Bastian waved a hand. “None of this.”
The group let loose with their water rifles, half aimed at Bastian, and half at Annie. The two vampires snarled, and Cody’s blood froze as he watched Annie drop her fangs to Demmy’s throat.
Cody heard a gunshot from the Main Street side, the sound a sharp crack as it echoed through the alleyway.
He ducked and covered his ears, seeing the others around him do the same.
Annie screamed in pain and released Demmy, spinning away from him, her nails leaving bloody tracks across his arm.
She held a hand to her left shoulder as dark blood seeped through her fingers. With another pained wail, she ran off.
Demmy stumbled and Cody moved fast, stooping to catch him before he could hit the cement. He pulled him in close and turned them both to see who’d fired.
Lucia stood in a shooter’s stance at the mouth of the alley. The fire glowed behind her, and the waves of heat made loose strands of hair flutter around her face.
“Wait, bullets can hurt them?” Agatha said. “Why haven’t we just been shooting the motherfuckers all along?”
“They need to be silver,” Lucia said, her gun trained on Bastian. “Let her go.”
Bastian raised his eyebrows and took a half step back as if to comply. But then he ran off, Zenona’s scream trailing after as he carried her away.