Microsoft Word - The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.doc (64 page)

Luci wiped her tears from her face with the tail of her shirt.  Her jacket lay on the floor, wadded up as if she’d used it for a pillow. “I don’t know. He put you in here and said if I didn’t go

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in the room with you, he’d k-kill you. Then he closed the door. I

tried to open it, but it’s locked.

Of course it was locked. If he would  lock the shutters, he’d

lock the door. But I checked anyways, just in case.

The door wasn’t just locked; it was bolted. I could probably have broken a flimsy twist-lock, but I could do nothing against the deadbolt.

I inspected the window next. The shutters were steel, as were the hinges. And the padlock. We weren’t going anywhere until someone let us out.

Unfortunately, having seen the news recently, I was pretty

sure I knew what would happen then.

I bit my tongue to keep from frightening Luci with a display of my anger and fear. Then I sat against the wall and she curled up with her head on my lap. I covered her with her coat and stared at the door, willing it to open.

I needed a plan.

But even worse than that, I needed a weapon.

The next couple  of hours passed very slowly. I heard nothing from outside our prison room and, as far as I knew, whatever house we were in was completely empty besides us.

But even worse than the silence, broken only by Luci’s gentle sleep-breathing, was the steady lightening I could see between the halves of the shutter. At first I thought I was imagining it. But as the minutes continued to slip through my

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fingers, I knew it was real. Time had not stopped, and dawn

would come.

And I was pretty sure we’d have a fantastic  view.

Around 6.45 a.m. (based on the colour of that murky splinter  of light) something creaked outside our room. A door opening, or maybe closing. Either way, we were no longer alone.

“Luce, wake up,” I whispered, but she only turned over. I  shook her shoulder, and she groaned, her eyelids fluttering.  “Wake up, Luci. Someone’s here.”

She blinked up at me. “Kez? What . . . ?” Comprehension surfaced behind her eyes and she sat up so fast her forehead hit my chin, snapping my teeth together. Her hand clenched around mine in terror, and she started to shake. I don’t know how much she’d heard about the dead children the police had found  –  four so far within a fifty-mile radius of the city  –  but she knew we were in danger, even if she didn’t know precisely how  much.

“It’s OK,” I stroked her hair as I’d seen our mother do.  Then I set her on her feet and stood between her and the door.  “Just stay behind me.” I had no idea what I was going to do, but  if we were going to die, I would do my best to take that  kidnapping, child-murdering bastard with us.

Floorboards creaked beyond our room as footsteps grew closer. Then metal scraped wood as the deadbolt was pulled back slowly. The doorknob turned, and Luci’s teeth began to chatter behind me. Her hands gripped the tail of my shirt pulling it taut around me. I reached back with one hand and patted her, comforting her as best as I could with that brief contact.

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The door swung open. The Mangler stood in the doorway, framed by what little I could see of the room beyond.  He wore jeans and a dark sweatshirt. And he held a gun.

The gasp at my back said Luci had peeked.

“I’m sorry for the pistol.” The man waved the gun at me. “It  seems so impersonal, I know, but you were a bit of a surprise,  and I wasn’t sure how much trouble you’d be.”

I remained silent, unwilling to converse with our captor.

“I started to simply get rid of you  –  after all, your vintage is  a bit aged for my average customer  –  but then I realized I might  have a use for you after all.” His eyes wandered south of my  neck, and I shuddered in revulsion.

“Not gonna happen.”

“Oh?” The man smiled, again showing me his stained teeth.  I couldn’t suppress a chill at the knowledge that the latest discolourations had probably come from Phoebe  Hayes’ veins.  “Then I guess I can skip the pleasantries and just shoot you right  here. In front of your sister.”

Luci sobbed behind me, clinging even tighter to my shirt.  “No,” I said, at least as much for her as for me. I did not want my death to be the last thing she saw.

The man stepped to one side and motioned towards the

larger room behind him. “After you.”

I turned and knelt beside Luci, tilting her chin up until her eyes met mine. “It’ll be OK,” I said, desperately hoping I wasn’t lying to her. “Just stay here until I get back. Ok?”

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She nodded, tears trailing down her face, and I hated that bastard all the more for scaring her. If I got a chance, he was going to pay.

“Come on.” The man grabbed my arm and hauled me  backwards, away from Luci, who cried harder. He shoved  me  out of the door into what should have been a family room, but  came closer to resembling a torture chamber. “See that?” He  tossed his head towards the centre of the room where an odd

metal table took up most of the floor space. I recognized it from  a special on the forensics channel. It was a fucking
 
autopsy
 
table.

What kind of sick freak has an autopsy table in his living

room?

“That’s where we drain the little morsel and bottle the  contents to be shipped all over the world. They go for quite a  pretty  penny online. But I get to sample the product first.  Quality control, you know.” His eyes gleamed with excitement  and my stomach roiled.

“You psychotic bastard!” My fist slammed into his head  before I’d even realized it was in motion. My vision blurred  with fury and unspent tears, and I could think of nothing but  beating him senseless, grabbing Luci and running for our lives.

I hit him again, but I’d lost the element of surprise, and this time my fist only glanced his left cheek. Dimly, through the glaze  of my wrath, I saw him raise the gun.

But then something else streaked across my vision: a small

pastel-coloured blur, moving fast and furious.

Luci.

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A primal shriek tore free from her pink flower of a mouth,

and she ran with her arms outstretched.

“Luci, no!” I thought she’d go for a direct hit  –  like tackling  Oscar when they wrestled  –  and she stood no chance of  knocking over a grown man. But she grabbed his wrist instead,  mere inches above the hand holding the gun.

Her small hand wrapped around his  arm, her grip white with tension. Her head dipped. Her mouth flew open, tiny fangs bared. Her expression was vicious, and her teeth were all business.

She clamped her mouth onto his wrist and bit down so hard

that the delicate muscles in her jaw bulged with the strain.

The Mangler screamed. He let go of me and shoved at  Luci’s head, his other hand still somehow clenching the gun by its grip. “Let go, you little demon!” he shouted.

She tossed her head, her mouth still clamped onto his wrist, and finally the gun thumped to the carpet. I wanted to grab it, but it had fallen behind them and I couldn’t get past. So instead I jumped onto his back and wrapped both arms around his neck, letting my weight choke him.

He stumbled backwards with the pressure on his  windpipe and tore his arm from Luci’s grasp. Blood poured everywhere, arching from his ruined wrist onto the floor until he clamped his free hand over the wound.

And still he screamed.

The Mangler stepped back again, swinging around wildly, trying to dislodge me without letting go of his other arm. He couldn’t do it. But he didn’t have to. The first time he slammed

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me back into the wall, pain shot through my spine. The second

time I nearly passed out.

The third time, he brought both arms up and used his  free hand to prise my arms from his neck. We were both slick with his blood by then, and I could barely hold on to him.

With my grip broken, I slid to the floor. He spun and kicked me in the ribs. I crumpled to the carpet in the fetal position.  When my eyes opened, I saw my sister standing in the bedroom doorway staring at me, her face streaked with tears and blood, both trailing to her ruined shirt.

“Run Luci!” I shouted. Only it came out more like a

whisper, because he’d kicked most of the air from my lungs.

But she heard me.

Luci nodded once, then took off across the living room, on the opposite side if the autopsy table. The Mangler started to lunge after her, but I grabbed his foot. He went down hard, smacking his wounded arm on the edge of the metal table. I could tell at a glance that it was broken.

Luci twisted the deadbolt and threw open the front door, then screamed and recoiled in horror. I didn’t have to look up to see the problem. Light had poured in the moment she’d opened the door.

The sun was up, and we had nowhere to run. We were stuck inside some psychotic gingerbread house with a wicked witch who just happened to have a bad case of five a.m. shadow.

“Hide!” I shouted, with what little breath I’d regained. But

Luci didn’t move. She cowered behind an armchair, the only

normal piece of living-room furniture I’d seen so far. It was the  only thing between Luci and a deadly dose of morning sunshine.

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The rays shone in through the glass storm door, over and around the chair, passing a scant three inches above her hair. If we didn’t close the door before the sun got much higher, her curls would start to smoke.

At her age, even indirect UV light stung and a direct hit

would blacken her skin in seconds.

I could take a little more, but not much.

On the floor the man moaned and shoved himself to his feet with his good arm. That got me moving. I tiptoed around the edge of the room, sticking to the shadows. I was almost to Luci when a hand tangled in my hair from behind and jerked me back. I staggered, but he held me up.

“OK, bitch, let’s see how well you tan.”

He shoved me forwards, towards the front door. Light fell across my feet, and I was more grateful than ever for my boots, even if they didn’t give me much purchase on the carpet.

Another shove and the light slanted up my jeans. I had to throw my arms into the air to keep them above the rising line of light. One more push and I’d be extra crispy.

“Kez!” Luci shouted from behind us. That was all the  motivation I needed. I was
 
not
 
going to let my sister see me  fried alive.

I threw my arm back, hissing when heat raced across my exposed hands. My elbow connected with the Mangler’s ribs and he grunted, caught by surprise. I swung myself around and pulled him with me, shoving him between myself and the glass door.

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He screamed, and smoke rose from the back of his neck. His good hand scrambled for a grip on my arm, but we were both slick with the blood Luci had drawn from him.

I threw my leg up and kicked him in the chest as hard as I could. He flew backwards and crashed through the glass door onto the porch. When he tried to get up, smoking all over by now, he tripped and fell down the steps into a viciously sunny patch of light.

My hands still burning, I swung the wooden door closed and slid the  bolt into place. I watched through the keyhole as the  Mangler burst into flames. Only then could I look away. Only once I was sure he wasn’t getting back up.

That’s when I let myself slide to the floor, my back against the solid wood standing between me  and an agonizing death.  “Come here Luce,” I whispered, and she looked up hesitantly.  “It’s OK. Come here.”

Luci crawled to me and climbed into my lap. She put her head on my shoulder and looked up into my face, now just as tear-streaked as hers. “Is he .  . . gone?”

“Gone for good hon.” I hugged her as tight as I could, only  relaxing my grip when she yelped. “Now we just have to find a  phone  –” I had a feeling mine was gone for good “  –and wait for  the police.” But we wouldn’t have to wait long; the first  sirens  were already wailing in the distance, probably summoned by  one of the horrified neighbours who would later tell reporters  that the Mangler had seemed so
 
normal
.

Outside, a car door slammed. The sirens weren’t close

enough yet. My pulse jumped, and  I clutched Luci harder.

“Kez! Are you in there?” a familiar voice shouted. I gasped

and my heart beat in excitement and disbelief now.

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I stood and pulled Luci with me as I peered out of the peephole, squinting against the cruel daylight. A figure stood on the sidewalk between the Mangler’s charred corpse and Titus’ beat-up compact, parked on the street. He was covered from head to foot  in a purple cape with a deep hood and huge dark glasses covering his face.

“Step back,” I said, guiding Luci behind the  door as I

opened it and stepped aside with her. “Titus?”

He stepped over the body and raced up the walk, pulling open the busted glass door. The first cop car arrived, followed immediately by several more and an ambulance, as Titus stepped inside and swung the door almost closed. He pulled his hood and glasses off in the safety of the shadowed interior, and his eyes relaxed the moment they met mine. “I thought that bastard had killed you.”