Undead - One Foot In The Grave Part 24

"Light a candle," Suki added.

Get me outta here, I thought.

We drove to the abandoned warehouse on the riverfront. Smirl followed in a long black limousine.

He sat in the back where silhouettes suggested at least one additional pa.s.senger. I only caught a glimpse of the driver: it was enough to convince me that I didn't want a closer look.

Smirl's "people" had already tossed the premises so we weren't expecting any additional clues, save one.

"All right, ye great s...o...b..rin' beastie," the general was prodding the cu sith down the rear steps of the bus, "it's time fur ye to earn yur not so inconsiderable keep."

The cu sith yawned, displaying teeth that might have coerced A. Conan Doyle to rename his story "The Chihuahua of the Baskervilles." Mooncloud produced a sc.r.a.p of black fabric that had been left behind in Luis Garou's grasp.

The redcap held it to the green dog's snout. "Here now, Luath: get the scent, now. Have ye got it, lad?" Luath sneezed and wagged his ropelike tail, causing us all to scatter. "Right, now!" the old haunt shouted. "Hunt, laddie! Bring it to ground!"

The Faerie beast raised its emerald jaws to the sky and made a great baying sound that put city-wide disaster sirens to shame. He followed that with a second that was even louder than the first. I had my hands over my ears before the third bay sounded, but could distinguish no lessening of the volume. I took my hands away from my ears as he lowered his muzzle and could hear the tinkle of broken gla.s.s coming from all over the neighborhood.

Then Luath leapt forward, unfolding into a run. He vanished into the darkness of the night.

Suki appeared in the doorway of the bus as we heard the tattoo of ma.s.sive paws whisper away into the distance. "All aboard or we're gonna lose him!" We all piled into our vehicles. As the bus pulled out again, the limo turned on its lights and followed behind us.

Suki drove, keeping one eye on the CRT display that tracked the homing device in the cu sith's collar. Lupe and the general opened one of the locked closets and were checking out a veritable storehouse of weapons. There were regular crossbows and crossbows with double and triple bow/barrel compositions. There were firearms of more recent design-until you studied them closely and noted deviations in the standard configurations. Some weapons appeared to be the latest in state-of-the-art, while others looked like they'd been ancient before Angle met Saxon.

"The head," the general said, hefting a broad-bladed battle-ax, "a stake through its heart and removing its head from its shoulders shuid do the trick."

"We've never had to do that before," Lupe said. "A stake through the heart has always been sufficient."

Mooncloud stared out the window at an unpleasant memory. "I could've sworn I nailed this thing's heart. When it got up, I a.s.sumed I'd missed. But if I didn't. . ."

"We could be in a whole lot of trouble," Lupe mused.

"There are myths and stories that suggested other means of disposal," I said.

Mooncloud nodded. "Too bad we can't go back to Seattle and spend a few days in the Doman'slibrary researching this."

"Maybe we don't need to." I got up and retrieved my laptop computer. "I've scanned a number of books and reference articles onto the hard disk. Unfortunately, I've had little time to organize it much less do any actual cross-referencing. It may take awhile to come up with something pertinent."

"Then you'd better get started," Lupe said.

Even with a week's head start, our quarry probably hadn't gone far.

Judging from the trail that the cu sith was following, they had spent at least three more days in the Kansas City environs before heading south on Highway 69. Luath circled three different motels between the river and the intersection of 435 and 69 South, indicating our targets had spent time there. Whether they spent more than one day/night cycle in any or all of those places was anyone's guess.

There didn't seem to be much point in spending more time in checking them out: they were already gone and, as Suki had already said, we were wasting moonlight. We left K.C. behind, following the cu sith's collar tracer, and hit pay dirt shortly thereafter.

"Gonna see daylight in a little less than two hours," Suki called from the front of the bus.

I had volunteered to spell someone on the driving ch.o.r.es but was told that my top priority lay with the computer texts and researching alternate dispatching techniques.

Mooncloud laid a hand on my shoulder. "If you've come across anything helpful so far, now would be the time to share it with us."

I scowled at the screen. "The deeper I go, the more complicated it gets. So far, I've identified over thirty different vampire legends from more than a dozen different countries, most requiring different rituals of protection and warding and separate means of extermination."

"Can you isolate any common threads? The next time we run into that thing we need a better plan than the ones we've used in the past."

I opened another file on the computer's display. "See for yourself."

She scanned my short list. "Stake through heart or navel-must be driven with a single blow.

Decapitation-consecrated ax or gravedigger's shovel. Complete immolation. Bury face downwards. . ."

She shook her head. "The rest are just techniques for warding, delaying, or discouraging vampires."

"You asked for the common antidotes. I'm still compiling data on the more unusual vampire legends."

The general leaned over my shoulder. "Make yur lists, laddie, but I'm bettin' on number two, here."

He thumbed the edge of a nasty-looking halberd that seemed to materialize in his hands like magic. "This beastie may not have a heart where we'd expect it, but there's verra little guesswork when it coomes to taking a head from atop its shoulders. It'll no be gettin' oop again once't Axel-Annie, here, has barbered it proper."

"I'm sure you're right, Angus-" Mooncloud stared out the windows at the rus.h.i.+ng dark "-but, just the same, I think I'll break out one of the flame-throwers. For luck."

"He's slowing down," Suki called from the front of the bus.

The rest of us crowded forward to watch the blip on the monitor.

Mooncloud frowned at the darkness beyond the reach of the headlights. "What's the map say?"

"We're in Miami County," I said. "Should be Louisburg up ahead."

"What's it like?"

I shrugged. "Don't really know. Small town, maybe a couple thousand residents. I've never spent any time there. Drove through it once."

We turned off on State Route 68 and slowed down as we headed east into Louisburg.

The general leaned toward the screen. "He's stopped."

"About two miles ahead," Lupe said, studying the readouts. "Maybe less.""Want in a little closer?" Suki asked.

Lupe shook her head and began unb.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt. "Give me a minute and then stop the bus." She walked to the back of the bus and behind the curtain, loosening her clothing as she went. A moment later a great grey and black wolf emerged from the sleeping area and trotted up the aisle.

"Be careful," Suki said, pulling the vehicle over to the side of the road. She opened the doors and the wolf leapt to the ground before we had reached a complete stop.

"Get in position, but wait fur us, la.s.s," the general called as she bounded away in the darkness.

"I don't like this," Suki muttered as the bus started back onto the road. "We're cutting this a bit close to sunrise."

"Mayhap. . ." the redcap's hands gripped the back of the driver's seat, "but I'd rather tackle these beasties noo than try to restrain our Lupe fur another eighteen hours."

An unearthly sound suddenly shattered the silence: Luath had found his prey.

"Ah," I said, "de children of de night! Hear how dey are singing?"

The general snapped out an oath. "Sa much fur the element o' surprise!"

Suki said nothing, pressing her lips together and pressing her foot to the floor. We roared down the road until she reached over and flipped a pair of toggle switches: the engine noise dropped to near imperceptibility. Before I could ask about the m.u.f.fler system, we were swinging off the road and into the parking lot of a small motel on the outskirts of Louisburg.

The general handed me a machete and then pressed a crossbow into my hands. "Here ye go, laddie; look sharp and don't let the big 'un get away!" He was out the door before Suki had the bus at a full stop.

I followed, trying to tuck the machete under my arm while juggling the crossbow and a handful of wooden quarrels. Our driver was right behind me while the engine was still dieseling the last of the carburetor fumes.

Luath was nowhere to be seen, but his foot-wide paw prints were clearly evident where they crossed the dust and gravel parking lot and led right up to the door of one of the units. The door of that particular room was slightly ajar, dim light spilling a wedge out across the weedy doorstep.

"No point in sneaking up noo," the general said, brandis.h.i.+ng a wicked-looking halberd. And with that, he charged the partially opened door. Suki and I were hard-pressed to keep up: the redcap was a couple of strides from the door and a good ten feet ahead of us when we heard Lupe call out: "No, General! Don't come in! It's a trap!"

It was too late, of course. Even if he'd had time to break off his charge I doubt that he'd have chosen to do so. The door slammed open as he burst across the threshold and then the entryway lit up as if a roomful of paparazzi had chosen that very same instant to take flash pictures. The strobe of light was followed by a clap of thunder and smoke hazed the doorway as we came up more cautiously to peer inside.

It looked like any other motel room and, except for the swirl of dissipating smoke, it was cleaner than most. The opposite wall was covered with mirrored tile to create an illusion of depth. When you walked through the door, the first thing you would see (a.s.suming you weren't a vampire) was yourself. The next thing you'd see was scripture-if you walked into this particular room, that is. A message was painted on the mirror in red brush strokes large enough to read from the doorway. It said: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

-Daniel 12:2 "They were already gone when I got here," Lupe said. She was sitting on the foot of the bed with the cover pulled loose and wrapped about her nakedness."When I heard Luath bay I figured the jig was up and came charging in. I only beat you by a minute, at best, and didn't notice the sign until I had reverted and the general came rus.h.i.+ng through the door."

Suki sniffed delicately. "They used blood."

Lupe nodded. "They knew that blood would get the general's attention even if the positioning of the message didn't."

"So what happened?" I wanted to know.

"Scripture," Smirl announced from the doorway. "You want to banish a redcap? You read a pa.s.sage from the Bible to them." He looked at the painted mirror and shook his head in admiration. "Diabolical: tricking a redcap into reading the pa.s.sage himself!"

I looked around. "So where did he go?"

"Ask Taj," Lupe snapped. "We've got to get out of here right now!"

"Clues?" Smirl asked, looking around the room.

"None. They were expecting us. But I checked, anyway." She began s.h.i.+fting back to wolf form.

"We'd best do as the lady says," Smirl said, backing toward the door. Suki was already outside.

"Company will be showing up any minute and we don't want to be here when they arrive." He went with the wolf right behind him. I was the last one out and, as I closed the door behind me, something on the ground caught my eye. I grabbed it and ran for the bus.

Suki already had the bus in motion as I jumped on board and back on the road out of town before I could find a seat. The black limo was nowhere in sight.

"Where?" Suki yelled as she steered a return course toward the highway.

Mooncloud was studying the road map. "If we head back down Highway 69," she said, "we won't hit another town until Pleasanton."

"Time?"

"At least a half hour," I said. "Stay on State 68, past the highway; go another six miles or so and look for an unpaved road going south."

"Where will that take us?"

Mooncloud looked up from the map. "Somerset?"

"Not so much a town as a wide place in the road," I said. "But it will give us a place to park and talk about what we do next."

Suki nodded decisively. "I am going to have to trade off, soon."

Mooncloud picked up the cellular phone and punched in a number. "Dennis? Taj. Where are you?"

She listened for a moment. "We're still pulling up our socks, here. Chris has recommended we stop over in a little place called Somerset. West on 68 then south on-d.a.m.n, the map doesn't even name the road!

Can you find it on your map? Good. After I get the kids tucked in, maybe we can find a restaurant and continue our search for the perfect cup of coffee and slice of pie."

As she hung up, Lupe emerged from the back, b.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt. "Brief me," Mooncloud demanded, s.h.i.+fting her leg to balance the end of the cast on the seat opposite her.

Lupe did and, true to its etymological roots, it was brief. "Nothing to show for it," she summarized, "and we've already had a casualty."

"Two casualties," I said, holding up Luath's collar with the electronic tracer still attached.

"Where did you get that?"

"On the ground, just outside the motel room."

"This is bad," Lupe said, folding up in her seat to rest her chin on her knees. "Now we have no easy way of tracking them."

"Worse than bad," Mooncloud said. "Bad enough that they'd be clever enough to set a trap for aredcap. But to neutralize a cu sith. . . ."

I hadn't planned on going to sleep so soon, but the sunrise had a more potent effect on me than I had expected. While it still seemed unlikely to dissolve my flesh and render my skeleton into a vague, chalky outline in ash, I was beset by irritated, itchy skin and a pounding headache. These were relieved as soon as I settled down into the dark, coffinlike compartment in one of the bus's fold-down seats and pulled the lid down to block out the offending solar radiation.

There hadn't been time to sort through all the questions in my mind, much less ask them before hopping into the box. I made a mental list as sleep encroached, planning to corner Mooncloud as soon as the sun went back down. She'd nearly convinced me that vampires could exist in the same physical reality as moonwalks, quantum physics and William F. Buckley. But dark elves and Faerie dogs and gangsters that belonged in a d.i.c.k Tracy comic strip?

There was comfort in the thought that maybe I hadn't emerged unscathed from the accident that killed my wife and daughter-that maybe I was still lying in a hospital bed, unconscious and plugged into a variety of tubes and wires and such. That this past year was nothing more than a trauma-induced, brain-damaged delirium.

That's right, Pam, last season was nothing more than a silly old dream; Bobby Ewing is back at Northfork and would you hand me the soap, please?

Sure.

Unfortunately the plots on Dallas were more likely than the events of my life these past few months. .

The last thing I thought about before drifting into a black, dreamless sleep was the scripture left behind on the motel room mirror.

Surprisingly, I knew the Old Testament pa.s.sage from my childhood. I had learned it in Sunday School and remembered it long afterward for the verse that followed: And they that be wise shall s.h.i.+ne as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.

It had once been a comforting thought, a scripture for the times when a young mind turned to thoughts of its own mortality and the endless darkness threatened by the grave. What comfort now for one who, by all religious and secular lore, was considered d.a.m.ned for all eternity?