Jack Kursed (16 page)

Despite his call, it took
ten minutes for the police to show up. It was only one squad car,
but it was a start.

"Look!" Tiffany said, pointing. "Miss
Simmons is finally gonna get in trouble."

"That she is. She'll have
a fun time explaining why she has cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy
scattered all over her house."

Tiffany giggled as she brought her
hands to her mouth. Jack laughed at her and held out his
hand.

"Give me five."

She slapped his palm and continued
giggling.

"Okay, let's get going. At
the least, this buys us a few days to get more paperwork in order.
What do you say we-"

Gunshots cut Jack off. He
turned his head in the direction of Simmons' house. There were two
more gunshots, followed by shouting, and then children’s screams. A
woman jogging on the sidewalk stopped and searched for the source
of the noise. A single car driving by slowed down before continuing
on its way.

"What the fuck?" Jack said.

He left his truck and
stood in the middle of the street. Tiffany joined him and stayed by
his side. A few neighbors left their houses and loitered on their
front lawns, talking and shouting at each other.

"Was that a gun?"

"Did you hear where it came
from?"

"Did it come from Andrea's
house?"

He looked down at Tiffany.

"Does Simmons have a
gun?"

The girl stuttered. "I...don't know. I
don't think so. Maybe she does. She always hides something in her
closet and locks it."

Jack thought it over for a
moment. He laughed as he heard police sirens in the distance. This
was turning out far better than he'd hoped.

"Let's go."

"What? Why?"

"This is beautiful. Don't you get it?
Simmons will never look for you again, not if she's in there
shooting the place up."

"Sara and Carrie are in
there!"

"I don't care. You told me
you didn't even like Carrie, that she was always pushing you
around."

"I don't want them to die. We have to
help them."

He clenched his fist in
anger. Dropping to one knee, he stared into Tiffany's innocent
eyes. He was quite sure she wouldn't understand what he was about
to tell her. Victoria never understood, and she was a
four-hundred-year-old vampire. But he had to try.

"Tiffany, listen. Everyone
dies. Sara and Carrie, they are going to die. Even if they don't
die today, they will die, and it won't affect our lives any.
Whether I help them or not, it doesn't matter."

"It matters."

He nearly raised his voice, but
somehow remained calm.

"Okay, explain to me how?
Do you really like Sara and Carrie? Are you related to them? Are
they your best friends? Do they enrich your life? Here's a good
one, if you needed their help, would they give it to
you?"

"Miss Simmons is mean, and she'll hurt
them."

He shook his head. There was no use in
debating with a young child.

Police cars pulled up as
more people left their houses. Small crowds gathered on the
street.

"Do you see this?" Jack asked, waving
his hands around. "The super cops are here. We're not needed. Let's
go."

Instead of turning around,
Tiffany made a move and sprinted around him. She aimed for the
house, but Jack scooped her under the arms before she could gain
any distance. She cried out in pain. He wasn’t rough with her, but
her shoulder was still bruised.

"Sorry, sorry," he said,
placing her in the back of his truck. "What the hell do you think
you’re doing?"

"I’ll help Sara and
Carrie. We did this."

"Would you keep your
voice down?
We
didn’t do this. I did this, and I think I’ll find a way to
live with the immense guilt."

"But you’re nice," she
said, wiping her eyes. "You bought me breakfast, and let me stay
with you. If you’re not gonna help them, then we have to stay and
make sure they’re okay."

Jack’s lip twitched as he
looked at the young girl. A few days ago he was happily listening
to The Beatles while he worked in his garden. Now he was trying to
rationalize with an eight-year-old, and losing.

He reached for his phone. Victoria
finally answered.

"Where have you been?" he
asked. "I tried to call earlier."

"I’ve been busy. I’m
working a case, believe it or not. Although the only thing in
danger right now is the prostitute’s boredom level."

"What?"

"Nevermind. You need me already? Wow,
it feels like old times."

"I could use some help,
yeah," he said, and then gave her the address.

"You didn’t kill anyone,
did you?"

"Nope, much to my regret."

"Okay, I’m on my
way."

He looked around as two more police
cars arrived, along with a few news vans.

"We’ll be here. Things are
getting interesting."

*****

Jack leaned against his
truck as he watched the circus around him. It was incredible how
fast the media worked in the twenty-first century. Reporters were
giving live reports on what had apparently turned into a hostage
situation. He listened to the speculation around him that
foster-mother Andrea Simmons had apparently shot at a police
officer before locking herself into a room with two young
children.

He saw a Porsche at the
end of the street, but there were too many cars blocking that end.
It disappeared down the block, and several minutes later Victoria
jogged up toward them. Even with everything happening around them,
the vampire turned heads. She had ditched the shorts and bikini-top
for a pair of jeans and a white tee shirt.

Tiffany cried as she
hugged Victoria around the neck. She returned the hug and stood by
Jack’s side.

"What’s going
on?"

"Seven squad cars,
thirteen cops, six reporters, one of whom is absolutely gorgeous.
We've also got your standard vulture mobs and a lot of shouting. I
heard a reporter say Simmons is inside with two girls and a gun.
It's like watching TV."

"Subtle, Jack. Real
subtle."

"Hey, this wasn't me. My
idea was perfect. Make everything with Tiffany legal, and give
Simmons more on her plate to worry about than an eight-year-old. I
had drugs scattered all over her house. Parkville PD came, but
apparently they have monkeys working for them and couldn't arrest a
middle-aged woman. And here we are."

Victoria sighed and looked at the mass
of people around them.

"And here we are. So, what do you want
to do? Save the kids?"

"Yup."

She looked at him
quizzically. "Why? I know it's been a while since we've hung out
before yesterday, but that's not your style."

"Are you serious? Children are the
future. They're so precious and all that shit."

She stared at him a moment
longer before he rolled his eyes and nodded his head at Tiffany.
The girl stood in between them, still in the truck, and flashed
Victoria a bright smile.

Victoria simply laughed at
Jack.

"What?" he said.

"Nothing. So...what to do, what to
do?"

Her head turned sharply to
the street corner not far away. The intersection still had a steady
flow of traffic, unlike the opposite end of the street. She
concentrated on cutting through all the distractions and focused
her hearing. She heard a bus, maybe a few blocks away.

"You owe me. You know
that, right?" she said, and gestured to Tiffany. "Make sure she
doesn't watch."

Jack opened his mouth to
speak, but Victoria turned and walked away. She cut across the
sidewalk and walked in the middle of the street toward the
intersection. He grabbed Tiffany and turned her away when he
realized Victoria didn't plan on stopping.

The bus struck her from
the side. It screeched to a halt as her body hit the ground and
rolled more times than Jack could count. Drivers slammed their
brakes as the crowds in front of Simmons' house gawked at the
accident.

Reporters and a few police made their
way to the scene. Cars stopped and crashed into each other to avoid
hitting Victoria's body in the street. Some people screamed and
ran, flailing their hands in the air.

It was the perfect
distraction.

He scooped Tiffany up and set her
behind the wheel of the truck. She stared at Jack, more confused
than afraid.

"What happened? Where did Victoria
go?"

"Listen to me. Do not
leave this truck, understand? You stay here until I get back. I'm
gonna lock the doors. Don't open them for anyone."

"But I want to go with
you."

"Not this time. Stay put."

"I don't want you to go," she cried.
"I don't want you to get hurt."

He nearly coughed at the
complete reversal. Ten minutes ago she wanted him to storm in the
house.

"I won't get hurt. Trust me on that,
that's a promise. Nothing can hurt me. Again, stay in this
truck."

He shut the door behind
her and walked toward Simmons' house. There were still news crews
running around, trying to figure what to shoot. Jack didn't
hesitate in strolling across the lawn and through the open front
door.

It took him only a few
seconds to assess what was in front of him. Six policemen, all
hiding in different positions in the living room. A hallway led
away from the living room, and another officer leaned out of what
might have been a bedroom. There was a closed door at the end of
the hall, obviously where Simmons was.

"You don't want to do this, Andrea,"
the office down the hall shouted. "You love those
girls."

Andrea's voice came from behind the
closed door.

"I'll shoot these two brats in the
head!"

Sara and Carrie were alive.

An officer near the couch turned and
saw Jack.

"Hey, you can't-"

Jack interrupted his
sentence by kicking him in the jaw. The officer shouted in pain and
fell to his side. Jack pounced on him and rammed his head into the
floor. Quick, efficient, perhaps a bit brutal, but
necessary.

He grabbed a can of pepper-spray from
his belt.

The rest of the officers turned, and
it only took them a second to raise their weapons. He wasn't sure
what the procedure was for a situation like this. Would they try to
subdue him? Reason with him, like they were attempting with
Andrea?

His questions were
answered when two of them opened fire.

Jack laughed aloud as
bullet after bullet struck him, and fell uselessly to the floor.
He'd been shot thousands of times over the years, and this time was
no different. There wasn't any pain, no penetration. But the
sensation was almost like tickling, and he couldn't help but laugh
and squirm as he made his way to closest man and unleashed
pepper-spray in his face.

Another officer ran at
him. Jack simply ducked and flipped the man over his back, sending
him over the couch and crashing onto the coffee table. He lunged
forward and pepper-sprayed another officer, sending him to the
floor in tears.

The last two officers
backed down the hall. One reloaded while the other continued to
fire. One shot struck Jack in the eye, which didn't hurt, but did
make him flinch.

"What the hell?" an officer
shouted.

Jack tackled one of them
against the wall. He elbowed him a few times in the face, breaking
his nose, before squirting pepper-spray once again. The last
officer standing wrapped an arm around Jack's throat, trying to
squeeze the life out of him. Jack rolled his eyes as he grabbed the
officer's arm and propped his legs against the wall. He pushed with
his feet with all his strength. The officer's body slammed into the
wall behind them and the wind rushed out of him. He held on for as
long as he could, but aside from not feeling pain, Jack also didn't
need to breathe. The officer gasped, and his grip loosened ever so
slightly.

They fell to the floor
together. Jack immediately grabbed the officer's uniform and
headbutted him until he stopped moving.

He climbed to his feet. A
few of the officers moaned in pain. People still shouted outside.
Jack smiled as he heard a footstep in the bedroom behind him,
followed by a squeaky floorboard.

"Uh, what's going on out there?"
Simmons asked.

Jack reared back and kicked the door
open.

Andrea Simmons flew back
and landed on the floor. The gun she was holding sailed across the
room and rested against the wall. She tried to crawl to it, but
Jack was much faster. He subdued the woman easily.

"Get off me!" she shouted.

"Shut your mouth!"