"Oh, God," I whispered.
"Beth." St. John was on his feet running before I could say anything.
I grabbed Wallace's shoulder, pulling on his jacket. He looked up.
"What's happening?"
"They're in the house," I said. "Can you walk?"
He nodded. I helped him to his feet.
Another scream came. It wasn't the same scream. A man this time, or a boy.
"Stay with him, Larry. Get to the house as soon as you can."
"What if they're trying to split us up?" Larry asked.
"Then it's going to work," I said. "Shoot anything that moves." I touched his arm, as if that would make him more real, keep him safe. It wouldn't, but it was all I had. I had to go for the house. Larry had signed up to be a monster slayer. The Quinlans and Beth St. John hadn't.
I holstered the Browning, kept a two-handed grip on the shotgun, and threw myself into the trees. I ran, not trying to see where I was going. Rushing through openings in the trees that I wasn't sure were there, but they were. I jumped over a log and nearly fell but caught myself and kept running. A branch slashed my face, bringing tears to my eye. The forest that had seemed passable before was now a maze of roots and branches that grabbed and tripped. I was running blind. It was not a good way to stay alive with vampires in the dark. I spilled out onto the Quinlans' lawn on my knees, shotgun tightly gripped.
The front door was open. Light spilled in a warm rectangle. Shots sounded from inside the house. I got to my feet and ran for the light.
The poodle lay broken by the door, crumpled like someone had tried to force it into a ball.
The doors to the living room were open. A second shot sounded. I went in to the left of the door, wall at my back, shotgun ready.
Mr. and Mrs. Quinlan were huddled in the far corner with their crosses held out before them. The metal glowed with a white-hot light like burning magnesium.
The thing in front of them didn't look much like a vampire. It looked like a skeleton with muscle and flesh stretched over a bone frame. It was stretched impossibly thin and tall. A sword rode its back, gleaming and wide as a scimitar. Coltrain's killer?
St. John was firing into the brown-haired vamp from the woods. She had long brown hair parted in the middle, straight and lovely, framing a face that was blood-smeared and stretched wide over fangs.
I had a glimpse of Beth St. John on the floor behind her. She wasn't moving.
St. John kept firing into the vampire's body. She just kept coming. Blood blossomed on the front of her jean jacket. His gun clicked, empty. The vampire staggered, then fell to her knees. She fell forward on all fours, and you could see that her back was so much raw meat. She lay gasping on the floor while St. John reloaded.
I got to my feet, trying to keep an eye on the door just in case this wasn't all. I walked towards the Quinlans and the thing that stood in front of them. I needed a better angle before I used the shotgun. Didn't want to catch them in the shot pattern.
The thing turned on me. I had a glimpse of a face that was neither human nor animal, but stretched thin and alien with fangs and blind, glowing eyes. It shrank, and skin flowed over the bare flesh, covered the nearly na**d bone. I'd never seen anything like it. When I aimed the shotgun, I was looking into what could have passed for a human face. Long white hair framed a fine-boned face, and it ran--if running was the word for that blur of motion. It ran like some of them flew, almost like it was doing something else altogether, but I had no better word for it. Some of them flew; this one ran. It was gone before I could pull the trigger.
I was left staring at the open door where the barrel had followed its movement. Could I have fired? Had I hesitated? I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. It was like in the woods when Coltrain died, like I'd missed a few seconds. The vampire had to be our killer, but the only thing I'd seen clearly in the woods had been the sword.
St. John shot into the fallen vampire. He fired until his gun clicked empty again. The gun went click, click, click.
I walked over to him. The vampire's head was bloody meat and heavier, wetter things. There was no face left. "It's dead, St. John. You killed it."
He just stared at it, down the barrel of his empty gun. He was shaking. He collapsed to his knees suddenly, as if he just couldn't stand any longer. He crawled over to his wife, gun left behind him on the carpet. He cradled her in his arms, half-lifting, rocking her. She was soaked with blood. Her throat was so much raw meat on one side.
St. John was making a high, keening sound deep in his throat.
The Quinlans's crosses had stopped glowing. They stood still clinging to each other, blinking as if blinded by the light.
"Jeff--he took Jeff," Mrs. Quinlan said.
I looked at her. Her eyes were too wide. "He took Jeff."
"Who took Jeff?" I asked.
"The big one," Mr. Quinlan said. "That thing, that thing told Jeff to take his cross off, and Jeff did it." He looked at me with startled eyes. "Why did he do that? Why did he take it off?"
"The vampire caught him with his eyes," I said. "He couldn't help himself."
"If his faith had been stronger, he wouldn't have given in," Quinlan said.
"It wasn't your son's fault."
Quinlan shook his head. "He wasn't strong enough."
I turned away from him. Which put me staring at St. John. He had folded as much of his wife's body into his lap and arms as he could. He rocked her, eyes distant. He wasn't seeing this room. He'd gone somewhere deep inside. Someplace better. I hoped.
I went for the door. I didn't have to see this. Watching St. John rock his wife's body was not part of my job description. Honest.
I sat down on the stairs where I could see the door, the hallway, and the stairs as far as the landing. St. John started singing in a strange, broken voice. It took me a few minutes to figure out what he was singing. It was "You Are So Beautiful." I got up and went for the outer door. Larry and Wallace were just limping up onto the porch.
I just shook my head and kept walking. I was almost to the driveway before I couldn't hear the singing. I stood there taking deep breaths, letting them out slowly. I concentrated on my breathing, concentrated on the sound of frogs and wind. I concentrated on anything but the sound that was building in my throat. I stood there in the dark, in the open, knowing it was dangerous, and not sure I cared. I stood there until I was sure I wasn't going to start screaming. Then I turned and went back to the house.
It was the bravest thing I'd done all night.
Chapter 16
Detective Freemont sat on one end of the Quinlans' couch and I perched on the other. We were as far away from each other as we could get and share it. Only pride kept me from taking a chair. I wouldn't flinch under her cool cop eyes. So I stayed nailed to my end of the couch, but it was an effort.
Her voice was low and careful, every word enunciated, as if she thought she might yell if she rushed the words. "Why didn't you call and tell me you had a second vampire kill?"
"Sheriff St. John called the state cops. I assumed you'd be told."
"Well, I wasn't."
I stared up into her cool eyes. "You're twenty minutes away with a crime scene unit looking into a possible vampire kill. Why wouldn't they send you over to a second vampire scene?"
Freemont's eyes shifted to one side, then back to me. Her cool cop eyes had melted just a little. It was hard to read for sure, but she looked uneasy. Maybe even scared.
"You haven't told them it was a vampire kill, have you?"
Her eyes flinched.
"Shit, Freemont. I know you don't want the Feds to steal your case, but withholding information from your own people... Bet your superiors aren't happy with you."
"That's my business."
"Fine. Whatever plan you've got, more power to you, but why are you pissed at me?"
She took a deep, shaking breath and blew it out like a runner trying to get that extra kick. "How sure are you the vampire used a sword?"
"You saw the body," I said.
She nodded. "A vampire could have ripped the neck apart."
"I saw a blade, Freemont."
"The ME will either back you up, or not."
"Why don't you want this to be vampires?"
She smiled. "I thought I had this case all solved. Thought I'd make an arrest this morning. I didn't think it was vampires."
I stared at her. I wasn't smiling. "If it wasn't vamps, then what was it?"