Page 18 of Slayer Mom
A black figure in a rippling coat dropped down from above me, landing in a fancy crouch to my left. She raised her head and then gave me a smile that showed her fangs. Her dark hair was slicked back, and her all-black shiny outfit was like cyber vampire.
I screamed and stumbled away from her, then lurched back from zombie grasping hands. “No. There are no vampires, just zombies. Vampires don’t exist. There is no way my luck would be that bad.”
“You smell like you’ve been marked. They won’t ever stop hunting you now that you’ve gotten their attention. Don’t worry. I’ll put you out of your misery once I clear some space for us.” The vampire chick slashed me across my face with her claws, almost faster than I could see, before she drew a long, terrifying sword and walked into the crowd of monsters. The witch had cut me! She’d said that she’d put me out of my misery. Was there any way that I couldsneak behind her and kill her? How did you kill vampires? Garlic? Holy water? I was wearing the tacky bejeweled cross. I could throw it at the back of her head.
I watched her take out three zombies, trying to weigh my options, as though I had some of those, until a zombie was close enough to me that I could do what she did, stab right through the front lobe and then rip up with a twist so the head kind of exploded in the direction opposite me. It toppled over, but kept jerking around. Why didn’t they stop moving? Another monster came at me from the right, but the others seemed aimed at vampire chick, like they were fighting over the delicious prey. That was me. Prey. I slashed off the zombie’s hand and then kicked him back into the still twitching one. At least the prey could bite back.
I yelled and slashed at another one, ripping through its body in a completely useless maneuver. It leapt at me and I fell back against the door. I grabbed the handle, using the leverage to kick it away from me, and felt the latch give in my hand. The door was open!
I yanked it open and fell inside, kicking the door closed before a loud thump hit it, probably the vampire considering its speed and velocity. Another thud hit the door and then BOOM.
The explosion rocked the building I was sprawled in, sending bits of plaster down on me. I coughed while heat shimmered in the air. He’d said that we’d start small, hadn’t he?
“Come on, Lucy. We’ll relax later,” Tom said, lifting me up by the armpits then pushing me ahead of him down a long creepy hall that rocked again as another explosion went off.
I veered towards the wall, but he was there to grab my arm and keep me going. I breathed through mymouth, half in shock, half in shock. I guess that was all in shock. I was all, one hundred percent, in shock.
“Vampire,” I gasped, gripping his sleeve.
“Good work getting her in the trap. I’ve been avoiding her for almost a decade. Actually, she’s one of the reasons I’ve curtailed slaying so much. With her out of the way, things will be much simpler.”
A crack and a thud brought a beam down in front of us, along with a large cloud of dust. He turned right at that corner, moving a little faster, but not like we were in any real danger.
“You didn’t tell me that there were vampires!”
“No? Well, they don’t mingle with zombies, so it wasn’t relevant until now. I don’t suppose her disappearance will go unnoticed.” He jerked me to a stop as another piece of the roof came down in front of me, then we went through a door to what may have been a cafeteria at one point. Or a mental hospital. I wanted to go to a nice, safe, happy mental hospital. It would be so great if all of this was insanity instead of my life. Bring on the padded walls and the straight jackets.
Somehow, we made it through the falling-down building and out into the overgrown drive where he’d parked his van. He took the time to walk me around and push me into the back where I could curl up in a ball and not breathe, before he got in on his side and pulled out. He drove crazy, sending me rolling from side to side until he pulled out of the winding narrow roads in the old industrial district and onto the freeway. He drove fast while I had a meltdown or two.
He turned on the radio to foreign ballad stuff I’d never heard before. It was great elevator music, calming, cool vibe like we were going to chill at a campfire.
I sat up and yelled at him. “What were you thinking? Start small! You said start small! And vampires! Don’t you think you should have mentioned thevampires? I mean, I had no idea how to even think about defeating her! And you didn’t mention multiple explosions! You said fire! Also, there were so many zombies! You said start small.” I whimpered that last bit and curled up in a ball while I sniffed.
“I admit that things did not go according to plan. It’s a good thing I had the secondary explosives put into place in case things went south. The vamp, I caught sight of her in the building, so I stayed low until she went out. Otherwise, we’d both be dead.” He chuckled like wouldn’t that make a good story?
“You’re insane.”
“No, it’s just that it’s been so long since I had anyone to talk to about any of this. It’s quite enjoyable. It reminds me of my youth, riding with my sister into the fray.”
“Your sister? What happened to her?”
“She got married, put the slaying behind her. She never had children and died of cancer.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” since I’d been expecting dying young of decapitation.
“Cancer is terrible.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Right. Sorry. You said that you know this vampire, that she’s been keeping you from slaying, but you didn’t expect her to be there?”
“Oh, no. She should have been across the city. There shouldn’t have been that many zombies, either. It’s your marking, I guess. I never knew anyone that was marked. I heard of a few people, but they usually turned or died before very long. It’s amazing how many zombies came out of the woodwork for you. She must have been following them. She’s supposed to keep the deteriorating undead under control, so they don’t cause problems with society in general, but she hasn’t been doing anything but letting them get fat and happy on her watch. Thus the high numbers.Maybe the grand master won’t care that she’s dead since she did such a bad job.”
“The grand master?” This sounded slightly ominous.
“I don’t know everything about the vampire social structure, but there is a grand master who keeps the peace. He’s located in our city, has been for the last two decades. It’s a great honor, at least to the monsters.”
“Keeps the peace? How can a vampire keep the peace?”
“He controls everyone else so they don’t panic all the humans. It helps keep feeding easy. Vampires don’t usually kill their blood banks, not unless they’re feral.”
