That Which Bites

chapter 12–A TOUCH OF IRON

“ROPE LADDERS?” POE MUTTERED and pushed the last of the mouthguards across her teeth. Her life was one long funeral. “Figures.”

Flimsy ladders of the homemade variety hung limply on the side of the train, slapped around by the night wind. They were for suckers who couldn’t fly.

Like Poe. She shoved the goggles into place.

“You just can’t let it go,” Poe berated herself for listening to a dodgy voice in her head that could very well be a precursor to a schizoid meltdown. She took hold of the nearest ladder and swung her left foot on the first rung. The jiggly, unstable cords of rope assured that she was a step away from a pebbly grave. I ought to turn back, knock on the conductor’s door, and beg him to let me in.

It seemed like hours to climb halfway up the shivering ropes. Cattle eyes watched her lumbering moves like ho-hum spectators of a turtle race. “What’re you staring at, dunderhead?” she asked an especially vapid cow whose window she banged against.

By then Poe itched to bash her against the metal exterior of the train. Her back and ankle felt as if twenty gargantuan acupuncture needles were deeply embedded in the skin.

“Just my luck,” Poe cried. “The drugs are wearing off.”

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Her ears clung to the sound of vampire flesh colliding with its own kind. From the corner of her eye, she saw bodies plummet down the side of the train.

Another rung and she would have made it to the top, if only the train hadn’t chugged back to life and started moving. All Poe could do was hold onto the unsteady rope ladder swinging with the air stream.

“Oh, c’mon! This day just won’t quit.” She closed her eyes and silently cursed the vampires who cleared the roadblock for doing such a quick job of it. “And that voice I hear, the one that says ‘now’ a second before I pull the trigger. It wants me dead.”

Even though it pained her like nothing else, Poe yelled out, “Sainvire, Joseph, I’m kinda in trouble and need a hand.”

It took three repetitions of their names before a hand snaked out to cover her arm and heave her up onto the roof.

The green halo effect from her goggles was disquieting. Lime-colored Joseph had fished her out of the predicament.

“Nice of you to stop by, Poe. Hold onto this vent.

We’re a little busy at the moment.” The tattooed vampire ruffled her hair then quickly joined Sainvire, Maple, and Georgette in staving off some seven undead, three of which were Ancients. She crouched by a ventilation shaft and held on.

Movies with fighting on top of trains are bullshit!

No human could throw a punch when a train was moving at 80 to 100 miles per hour. This train was not even traveling anywhere near that fast, and Poe was on all fours, holding on for dear life. With trembling fingers she adjusted her eye gear.

Poe watched Sainvire square off with a Schwarzenegger-of-a-cop who could out-fly the master vampire in every way and was at least ten stones 344

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heavier. The ballistic vest covering his barrel chest added to his hulky appearance.

Joseph, whose quirk was to appear and disappear in a flash, snuck up behind a fierce but achingly slow Ancient with a sword having it out with Maple, the bludgeon-armed undead. Garlic marinated weapons weren’t needed if a blade decapitated a vampire. Poe watched the tattooed Pinoy busily lending his assistance to his comrades.

“Need help?” Joseph asked. Before Maple could answer, he snapped the Ancient’s neck by lifting the creature from the knees and pile driving her head.

Downed, Joseph punched her twice in the chest until her heart burst. Her limp body wafted away in the wind.

“You are a traitor to your own kind, Sainvire,” the boulder in uniform said, swinging a metal club with six knives welded to it. “You’ve lost what little respect I had for you, you greedy bastard.”

“Think what you will, Marvin,” Sainvire said, inching back to avoid the deadly morning star weapon.

“Bottom line, wrong is wrong. No one deserves the life of cattle.”

Poe could imagine the club cutting her down as Sainvire inched back closer to where she crouched.

“What the hell are you doing, Sainvire? Go the other way!”

“Isn’t it a little too late to start having a conscience?” Marvin laughed acidly, swinging his weapon wider. “About how many people have you eaten since turning? A hundred? A thousand? Four thousand?”

Without looking at her, Sainvire stopped where Poe cowered and slowly bent his knees. “I’ve had plenty. But I think the operative idea here is that it’s never too late to quit.”

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As quick as a powerful master vampire could be, Sainvire hunkered down and lifted one of Poe’s sidearms. He aimed the Astra at Marvin’s face.

Sainvire had fired three shots before Poe knew what had happened. Marvin’s Kevlared body tipped backward and rolled off the train, taking his vicious contraption with him.

“Thanks for the loaner,” he said with a wink. He resheathed her gun. “But you don’t belong up here.”

Before Poe could say anything, Sainvire fought against the wind currents to pry a female officer from Joseph’s back. He stabbed her in the heart with one elongated talon.

Georgette, covered in chain mail, swung at the dead that came her way with a spear whose tip was oiled with garlic essence.

Everyone but Poe had a task to do; namely, to check for hanger-ons. Sainvire once again approached the girl, his face deadly serious. Poe’s presence unnerved everyone on the roof. She was a definite liability.

Sainvire landed noiselessly, grabbing hold of her arm. The undead wasn’t in the mood to negotiate, and Poe knew it.

“You better climb back down, Poe,” Sainvire ordered with barely concealed impatience. His face was grim with tension.

“Can’t.” Poe tightened her hold on the air vent, her mouth drooling from the mouthguard. “If you haven’t noticed yet, the train’s moving!” There was no way she could make it down and climb inside a window. She was human, after all, and was subject to the forces of wind and inertia.

“I’m tossing you through a window if I have to,”

he stated in a steely voice, tightening his hold on her arm.

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“Forget it!” shouted Poe, twisting her arm from his grasp. Stay firm and stay on the roof, urged the internal voice. The movement nearly led to a very nasty fall if the Master Vampire hadn’t righted her in time.

“Poe!” Sainvire thundered after she had taken a more tenacious grip on the crown-shaped air vent. “I can’t promise to protect you.”

“Who’s asking you?” Poe threw back, trying to forget the feeling of vertigo with a touch of bladder pain from her near fall. How dare he make it seem like he’s protected me all this time? I saved my own skin 99

percent of the time. She impatiently tucked stray hair that thrashed wildly in the wind back into her ponytail.

“Get rid of that girl, Kaleb, or I will,” threatened the vampiric Gimli. “She’s a distraction. I heard she got Goss and Sister Ann killed.”

“Shame on you, Georgette! You ought to know better not to trust everything you hear,” Maple reprimanded.

“Poe is a lot of things, but Goss and Sister were family to her,” added an offended Joseph. “She’s just trying to help–” Before he could further defend the girl, Joseph’s eyes grew as large as tires. He pointed at bird-like figures in the sky. “Dark spots on the horizon.

They’re coming!”

The pairs of eyes turned to the shadowy specks in the darkening violet skies. A squadron of Council reinforcements headed their way by air, and on the ground, those who couldn’t fly sprinted. Two of the sprinters were master vampires with bones to pick. Poe could almost smell the dread wafting from dead pores.

Not many on the train had the ability of flight. Poe looked away and took a deep breath. She did not want to focus on her imminent bloody death at the moment.

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“There’s no time. Brace yourself and get that rifle ready!” Sainvire ordered. His free hand cutting the circulation from her arm loosened. “Let’s see that skill of yours in action.”

Joseph added, “Sis, this is the time to do it. We’re done for if that many flyers catch up to us. Only six of us can fly, and I ain’t one of ’em.”

“Okay,” Poe sighed, feeling pressured. Georgette and three others with long-range rifles began firing.

Out of twenty or so who fired bullets, only one hit a vampire.

Poe took a deep breath and aimed. Within ten seconds, Poe downed five of their fifteen . It’s just like Duck Hunt, only the trigger’s better.

The calming voice gently guided her to cut the enemy into a manageable size. She hit two more before running out of bullets.

“Here,” said Georgette who handed the girl her own Springfield. “Don’t put stock in what I said before. Everyone here knows I have a nasty mouth on me.”

Poe took the rifle from the vampire and nodded grimly. Lady, if you only knew how right you are.

Crouching, she aimed and hit a few more pesky birds flying hither-thither to dodge her bullets. She allowed herself a grin when only four remained on the course.

“Go eviscerate them, sis!” Joseph yelled, dancing a jig on the roof.

“Oh no. I think I see Gruman himself,” cried Maple.

The fun ended when three fallen vamps rejoined the flock. “Um, chain mail woman, are these blessed bullets?” asked Poe.

“It’s Georgette, dear,” the older vampire shook her head. “I can’t be sure. I picked the gun up at the station ’cause it looked pretty.”

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Poe sprayed the two remaining bullets with her squirt gun, reloaded, and aimed. She hit one in the leg and another in the head.

Poe inhaled like there was poison in the air. Then she exhaled shakily, saying sayonara to the last of the bullets. “Now what, Voice? Can I get killed now?”

“Georgette, get the others ready,” Sainvire ordered. “Gruman is a good ol’ boy and hard as flint to erase.”

Sainvire gazed at the unmistakable sight of running and airborne vampires looming closer by the second in solemn search of their food source. Vampires from Sainvire’s camp climbed out from the windows to the thin rope ladders leading to the roof in expectation of the fight to come. Those assigned to guard the cattle inside the cars rechecked their weapons as the hoards gained momentum.

The train drove Poe crazy. It chugged to life then slowed down to a snail pace intermittently. A mile ahead were uprooted palm trees and tin drums filled with cement. Anyone that did not conclude that the whole situation was an ambush was either addled or cattle. The palm trees had been uprooted from far away and strategically placed to block the tracks. The approaching figures and the slowing train proved to be a real dampener and setback to the cattle robbery.

“I can’t help but think there’s a mole here somewhere,” Sainvire said dispassionately.

“The slugs are crawling in,” Joseph said with uncharacteristic vehemence as he stared down the group of runners trying to infiltrate the train. “I’m going inside.” The barefoot vampire swung his legs through a window, landing safely in the aisle and showering cattle with glass. Winking at startled humans, Joseph used his extraordinary speed to run through the three separate train cars, punching 349

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vampires that crawled in through the windows before they knew what hit them.

“They’re here! The f*ckers are here!” he yelled, rallying the white bandanas to kill faster as more and more windows were shattered by the infiltrators.

“Don’t give an inch. Do not lose any cattle. Just bust their balls!”

Then it was all over.

Two purple-haired vampires landed on terrified cattle, the impact of their steel-toe shoes crushing delicate bones and eliciting the most god-awful screams from a sixty-year-old. They had two directives, to murder everyone that got in their way and overtake the train.

“Geroff my train, you lughead!” Joseph hollered, wielding a short-handled machete at a vamp halfway inside the train. With two slashes, the vamp’s lower half fell off the window.

“You split me, man!” complained the undead who resembled Brad Pitt, but shrimpier.

“Well say hi to your legs for me,” Joseph said, gleeful as he pushed the rest of the sundead out the window.

He didn’t see them coming. A nightstick whacked the machete out of Joseph’s hand, crunching bones in the process while another blow landed on his skull, the impact of which cracked his pony-tailed head. To add to the insult, the legendary grinner was hurled to the back of the train. Like Poe, Joseph narrowly missed getting dunked in the putrid toilet bowl. “Just barely,”

he muttered, quickly recovering on his feet.

He would’ve been A-okay but for a faint-happy cattle who tripped him on her way down.

“This is the infamous Joseph?” A third attacker joined the fun and howled. The mustached cop with a thick neck and cheek piercings jabbed a baton outfitted 350

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with a four-inch spearhead into Joseph’s side to keep him down. “What a Nancy! This ninety-year-old cow could kick his butt. Huh, old cow?” he asked the trembling woman nearest him, knocking on her nearly bald scalp.

“You know something, officer? I have yet to meet a cop with honor. Goodness knows how many times I’ve been profiled driving under the speed limit,”

Joseph said flippantly as he was impaled once more with a nightstick rigged with a pointy blade.

“Well I ain’t ever met a brown homey I trusted either, so I guess that makes us even, you bean.”

“End this,” one of the purpleheads ordered.

“We’ve got Sainvire and Maple to off.”

“Bean?” Joseph coughed. The crack on his skull was leaking fluids. “If you’re going to insult me then at least get it right. I’m Filipino, ass cruds!”

“So I’ll call you a dog eater,” the hulking cop said and stabbed him twice more in the chest area. With the help of the purpleheads, he lifted Joseph’s twitching body horizontally. They tossed him out the window into the rocky fields below. They knew Joseph couldn’t fly.

Clinging to the mushroom vent and uselessly watching the fighting heat up around her, Poe noticed a body tumble into the rocky ground from one of the side windows of the train. It took her a few seconds to recognize the corpse.

“Joseph? No!” Poe choked, pushing up her goggles. She was half-hidden behind a fallen body that looked suspiciously like Rodney Dangerfield.

Adrenaline coursed through her system and overpowered mawkish emotions. F*ck my back and my goddamn aches. No more excuses! Assuming a 1980s Charles Bronson vigilante stance, something potent pumped into her spine.

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“That was my brother somebody tossed out the window,” she bellowed, tightly gripping the Calico.

She shot two of Trench’s vampires in the back. Their uniforms and shiny badges made them easy targets.

“You buncha Gestapos!” Poe cried. She aimed for the flying rats swooping in like hawks in the night sky.

Joseph was the type of guy who made the very worst day seem like a field trip. Shouldn’t’ve shot his crotch.

The nasty way he bit the bullet proved too much for her. She lurched forward, banging her knees on the metal roof.

“Georgette! Duck!” she ordered the veteran fighter who quickly followed instructions and squatted low. With clear access to the ill-looking fanged one with nicotine-stained teeth, Poe fired by the vent. The bullet hit the vampire through the ear, and the vampire rolled off the roof.

“Thanks, young’n,” a grinning Georgette said before flying off to the last train car. “I was wrong about you.”

Poe aimed for a three-nostril, cross-eyed baby crawling on the roof like it was playtime. Its black hooked nails scraped the metal roof, putting Poe’s teeth on edge.

“That’s quite enough, young lady,” a rumbling voice told her.

Before she could shoot the creature, the gun was pried away from her hand. Poe found herself kneeling before Gruman Raspair, the Council Chairman himself.

The aristocrat of bloodsuckers wore a burgundy smoking jacket and gloves, protecting him from her marinated skin. Clearing his throat, the top honcho fired at Sainvire twice before the gun clicked empty then bent the pistol nozzle with his hand.

“Sainvire!” Poe yelled, crawling skittishly toward the downed vampire. She pulled out a 9mm Browning.

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“How I despise guns,” he sighed, twisting her gun away and pulling the girl to her feet. “So vulgar. That’s quite a load you have on you, Julia,” he shook his head, tugging off sundries like her whistle and rosary hanging about her neck. He tossed them overboard.

Her pistols and clips tucked in holsters and belt followed. “I really ought to order a strip search for I will not put it past you to stash an armada under those redolent clothes of yours.”

“Just try it, pops,” she gritted. “You’re overdue for retirement.”

Before Poe could say more, the gray-haired vampire guffawed at her asinine comments, indicating with flair the newly arrived. Six ancient vampires that jumped up, landed, or flew down on the roof silenced her. Walrus teeth shone even in the early evening.

They were surrounded and outnumbered.

“Crap,” she said defeatedly.

There were only Maple, Georgette, Sainvire, and a handful of their co-conspirators in striking distance.

The rest were busy fighting inside the train or spread out on the roof of three train cars. Many had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Poe accepted that Sainvire was the only viable match against Raspair and his old world tricks, but her guy didn’t look so hot. He’d been hit near the heart and kidney before halving a swollen-faced undead. The bullet wounds fused achingly slow.

The fool had given his Kevlar away. His martyr complex sickened her.

Maple bludgeoned fatally away with her forearms, catching chests and heads with calculated viciousness.

Though fierce and thorough, the vampire lacked the gift of flight. She would’ve been crushed if she were to come to blows with Raspair. Georgette may have put up a nasty fight with the head of the Council, but she lacked accuracy. She fought like a madwoman, 353

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slashing wildly here and there in hope of catching flesh between her blades. Unfortunately she slashed air more than bodies, scattering her foes between the three train cars. For someone as cool-headed and methodical as Gruman Raspair, she would have been easy prey.

From the corner of her eye, she saw thin arms clutching a wind-whipped rope ladder. The wiry limbs belonged to a vampire named Ed she’d seen clearing the rails. He’d abandoned the other lifters to clear tracks to lend a hand. Though small and unassuming, the little fellow could toss uprooted trees as easily as chucking celery stalk. His wimpy appearance seemed feeble next to the substantial girth of the ancient undead who resembled Bib Fortuna.

He’s the reinforcement? Poe swallowed, more than a little discomfited. I can barely shoot with all the dancing going on. Then there’s the wind factor. The little guy’s all they can spare? And he isn’t carrying a weapon!

Her eyes watered from frustration. There was her unfortunate self, a human with a limp and lower back problems. She was left with only a six-shooter boot gun and a plastic water pistol tucked in her left pocket.

The old coot didn’t have time to put down her stash properly. The last puny knife holstered in her right wrist sheath was not discovered either. With such paltry weapons, she was a quarter of a soldier, but a soldier all the same.

In the distance, she could see an outline of about seven latecomers, and none of them was Trench. The yellow livered cretin! The weasel was shirking his responsibility. Thank goodness for small favors. The vampires that flew erratically their way were truly horrid flyers.

“Did I not say that I would personally hunt you down if this girl kills any more of our people?” Raspair 354

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asked a very solemn Sainvire who was on one knee, doubled over with pain. The master vampire had given up the pretense that he was the bulwark of strength. “I personally witnessed her shoot five vampires.”

“Maybe you weren’t looking closely enough. I shot ten plus two more before that. And I don’t know if those little mini-freaks count for something, but I shot a whole playground of them in the tunnels,” Poe interjected, turning up the smartass at the wrong time.

She was scared shitless, but she thought she could bide Sainvire more time to heal.

Raspair tightened his hold on Poe’s upper arm, digging his gloved finger in the healing bullet wound from days before until blood trickled like sap again.

“Interrupt me once more, I will gladly tear your jugular then toss your dead, inconsequential carcass in front of this worthless train.”

Poe made a face and debated whether to say something snooty. Sainvire’s pained look of warning made her feel tortured and helpless.

“Since I’m going to become flapjack anyway,”

she said, yanking her arm imprisoned still in the vampire’s grip, “I might as well tell you about a few more folks I killed.”

“Poe, be quiet!” Maple pleaded harshly, fending off two Ancients at the rear of the first car. She received a baton blow in the cheek for the distraction.

“No, Miss Maple. Let her speak,” Raspair encouraged. “It is apparent that she thinks nothing of vampire lives, including those of your friends.” His eyes rested on Sainvire who met the accusation stoically.

Poe caught Sainvire’s blazing eyes with her night vision goggles. It was the only thing she could do to avoid thinking about the leaden thumb burrowing into her wound. She had to buy Sainvire some more time.

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Her arm felt like it was getting stabbed by pointy glass chopsticks. If only he didn’t have those gloves on!

“You’ll need to appoint a new councilmember, because I killed Gwendolyn.” She inhaled sharply from the pressure. She was going to tear up and possibly cry within the next few seconds.

The train stopped altogether. Did the Council’s men take over the railway? She couldn’t help but say a prayer for the poor Pacific Islander driver she had intimidated earlier.

“That’s enough, Poe,” said Sainvire hoarsely, holding on to his chest. He looked into the dark lenses of her goggles and silently implored that she keep her trap shut. Poe looked away. Her chest constricted with guilt. Kaleb Sainvire was her first real love outside of John Cusack, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen. She knew his strength improved with every second.

From the corner of her eye, the little Latino guy named Ed quietly injected hope back into her heart. In his unassuming way, the debris hauler began a cleanup of his own on the roof. Without any weapons save from his hands that were smaller and more delicate than Poe’s, he received every blow from taller opponents only to pounce on them with enough force to puncture holes through their chests and stomachs.

He brandished an easy Mona Lisa smile.

Go, Ed! she silently rooted.

A solitary figure landed on the roof, swathed in an old-fashioned cloak. Poe’s heart rejoiced. It was a feeling so foreign and devoid the past few days that she was at a loss. They weren’t alone anymore. She thanked the stars that Raspair’s back was turned and he couldn’t see the intruder. Vampires are seriously defective, Poe thought bitterly.

“And I flattened your butler, too.” Poe swallowed, continuing her cockamamie story until she felt brash.

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“He’s in the tunnels butlering hungry babies. Some I’m sure are your very own spawn.”

For the insolence, the Council Chairman cuffed her across the temple. The blow nearly obliterated her sight.

“As I was saying, Sainvire,” Raspair continued, “I will strike permanent death to you and those who insist on continuing their allegiance to the proliferation of Plasmacore. Did I not declare that you would pay for every vampire this girl has killed? Isn’t that so, Rodrigo?” he said without turning around. He knew that Rodrigo Jacopo was there.

“Yes, sir.” Rodrigo answered. “I believe we’ve done that twice over this night.”

For the traitorous act, Georgette quickly swung two babies off of her so she could hold a spear tip against Rodrigo’s heart. “Son of a bitch! You’re the one that blocked the tracks–”

“And did I also not say that Sainvire would die if we ever found a trace of Plasmacore anywhere near downtown?” said Raspair as if Georgette hadn’t spoken.

“Yes, you did,” Rodrigo stated boldly, staring down Georgette who looked upon him with disgust, the tip of her sword inches from his heart.

“That’s beside the point now, isn’t it? Cattle theft is a drawn-and-quarter offense at the very least.”

“I’ve always known you were crooked,”

Georgette accused.

“Georgette, you think everyone’s crooked.”

Jacopo flashed a smug smile.

“But you, I’m sure about,” she laughed bitterly.

“You set us up.”

“Hush, woman,” said the Council Chairman.

“This entire charade reeks of greed. You and a handful of idiots want to herd our food source.” He turned 357

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around to look at Rodrigo and then found Sainvire’s eyes, “So, Rodrigo Jacopo, councilman in these parts, what do you think we should do with a turncoat drug trafficker, vampire killer, and cattle thief in our midst?”

Every pair of eyes looked expectantly at Rodrigo.

“Councilman, that is a very difficult question.”

Rodrigo quelled Poe’s disbelieving look with a smile and rested his green gaze on Sainvire. Ancient undead surrounded the downed vampire. “But I believe death by impalement would suffice – from mouth to orifice.”

In a blur, Rodrigo broke the spear aimed at his heart and stabbed the jagged edged handle into Georgette’s chest. The force penetrated the rusty chain mail easily.

“Georgette!” exclaimed Sainvire, attempting to stand. The pain in his chest was still too great. The bullet was inches away from his heart.

The vampire, who looked like she had fought the bloody Crusades, collapsed instantly and was borne by the wind to fall on the rocky ground below. Full of good tidings, Rodrigo walked to the Council Chairman and patted him on the back.

Poe tried to pry away Raspair’s hand, muttering the most terrible epithets she could remember directly at Rodrigo. She didn’t care that her arm wound began bleeding again. “You pinche cocksucking roach!”

“Poe, enough!” Sainvire ordered. “It’s alright. I imagined a worse death for myself. Be patient and wait.”

He wants me to stall for more time. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, counting to three in Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, and English. Only then did she find hope in what Sainvire had said. His wounds must be mended. It just has to be!

The yoga breathing exercises didn’t quite work when she stood face to face with a very smug Rodrigo.

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But she did place certain perplexing pieces together.

Like a bright bulb flickering to life, she understood.

She had to play this right.

Just say it, the inimitable voice instructed in her head. She shivered. There was no way she could be wrong.

She shook her head at Rodrigo. “You’re a pathetic, simpering, lovestruck blowhard. Megan will never love you, especially if you off her uncle.”

Rodrigo Jacopo’s smile vanished, and he yanked the girl’s shirt. Raspair relinquished the girl to Jacopo, saying, “She killed Gwendolyn and your son, Milfred.”

“The loony slut I could care less about, but a loyal son like Milfred...” Jacopo backhanded her face. She would have rolled off the train if he hadn’t kept his hand clamped on her shirt. His hand sizzled from Poe’s marinated skin, but he did not notice.

Poe licked the blood from her lip in fear that Rodrigo might get hungry. With a grateful sigh, she thanked providence for her mouthguard. She whispered something in the wind, meant for Rodrigo’s ears only.

With fury, Jacopo grabbed her much abused hair and prepared to toss her overboard.

Their pursuers were catching up quickly. Tense fighters on the roof of the three cars could almost smell them coming. “And Megan, too,” Poe added. “Shot her in the head myself. She was honing in on Sainvire and me.”

Like adding lemon juice to an open wound, Poe continued to talk, taunting anyone who could hear.

“And I gutted Megan, chopped off her luscious candy corn hair. Didn’t you see her headless corpse at the station?”

Before she caught Sainvire’s gaze, she received another punch in the mouth, opening up old cuts and tearing new ones. Not the teeth again! Crawling on the 359

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roof, blood leaking on rusted metal, Poe looked up at Sainvire.

“None broken,” she said with relief about her teeth. It was a pain to get the six-shooter out of her ankle holster without looking suspicious. She itched to blast these vampires who wanted to beat the shit out of her and her friends. But Sainvire wasn’t ready yet.

A young woman getting beat to kill time on his account wasn’t an easy feat to take. While she was on all fours a few feet from where he kneeled, Sainvire flashed a look that said get ready.

“You do that again, Jacopo, and I’ll annihilate you,” Maple warned, blocking his resonant kick with her mallet arm. Maple, quiet by nature, was something to behold when angry. Even Rodrigo took a step back.

For her effrontery, Ancients and young vampires alike surrounded Maple. Like a domino effect, Sainvire’s people rallied to protect their own. The tense situation boiled over.

No fewer than six limbs splintered, and two heads rolled to the ground. The latter, courtesy of Sainvire.

He could fight once more.

To this melee, Rodrigo was deaf and blind. The councilman shook from the urge to hurt the human who had dared kill his beloved, his reason for the ultimate betrayal. He had been looking forward to a new life with Megan without the domineering presence of Kaleb Sainvire. But all this plotting and planning was for naught. The person he most wanted was dead .

And all he could think about was killing the human crawling on all fours in front of him. The pest had even killed his only full-grown son. With renewed fury, he lashed at Poe.

“What are you saying?” Rodrigo bellowed, clutching her vest.

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Poe slapped his hand away and cussed him out in a whisper.

If she hadn’t been wearing her night vision goggles, Poe would not have seen Rodrigo’s eye vein plump up. He raised his hands to prove that he wouldn’t touch her.

“Megan squealed and begged like a dumb mule.

And rest assured, you were the one who tipped me off about her.” Jacopo was upon her. Luckily Poe had rehearsed beforehand what he might do to her.

“F*ckin’ sick, digging her uncle that way!”

She exposed only her left arm. Rodrigo grabbed it and yanked her up, unaware that Poe’s skin was erasing his fingerprints. He’s too angry to feel the holy water!

Before Rodrigo could do any more damage to Poe, Sainvire appeared from behind and perforated his lungs with his talons. The councilman dropped to the roof with a look of blind hatred on his face. “You killed the woman I love,” he hissed at Poe.

Poe retrieved the pink plastic turtle water gun from her pocket and said, “I lied. She’s one of my best friends. I’d never harm her.” With a harrumph, she squirted concentrated holy water into his mouth.

Jacopo’s face sunk in like rotten grapefruit. Slipping a four-inch knife from her wrist, Poe sliced his neck from ear to ear.

“He’s dead, Poe,” said Sainvire, helping her to her feet. “Can I leave you alone?”

“I’ve taken care of myself since I was eight, Sainvire,” she said, insulted. “Go do your thing.”

As soon as Sainvire flew to the next train to lend a hand, an Ancient advanced near her, walrus teeth drooling. Oh shit, she thought. Before she could consider running, Ed went to her rescue, grabbing the marble-skin Ancient by the ankle and swinging him 361

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around like the sling that cut down Goliath. The little man pounded fist-size holes on his back.

“Domo arigato, man!”

“No prob,” said the taciturn man to a grateful Poe.

Breathing rapidly, Poe reached down to her ankle to retrieve the sole remaining gun.

Despite her conversation with Sainvire, she kept as close to Sainvire as she could. No one would have guessed that he had just been seriously injured. He turned a circle, slicing off the tips of the spears of the Ancients that surrounded him. Such old-fashioned buffoons, Poe thought. Spears and swords instead of guns? Sainvire damaged a breastbone and hacked off a shoulder before getting Poe out of the way of a short sword meant to disembowel her.

Maple fought like an executioner, back to back with Sainvire, pounding heads with her lethal, swollen arms. The middle-aged vampire looked fierce and positively dribbled with hate. She was a real warrior when it came to an all-out brawl.

A new flock landed, and the group of vampires seemed to multiply.

That was when Sainvire’s vampires assigned to guard cattle inside the train climbed out the windows with sabers, guns, wooden stakes, and other hardware cutaways in their hands.

“Make way for the black folks,” said one red bereted warrior as he fired his Astra at every cop he saw. Maple picked up a fallen axe from the rooftop before it clunked off the train, her hardened forearms ready to make mincemeat out of anyone who got in her way.

Ed, slight though he looked, snapped vampire heads like his favorite munchy – Butterfinger candy bars.

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“Helluva time to discover I have an equilibrium problem, eh?”

“That’s alright, Ed. Let’s just spot each other,”

said Maple.

Poe glimpsed two vampires from Sainvire’s camp duking it out with the Council’s warriors. On the ground, a shirtless and shoeless vampire was taking care of three undead with a combination of martial arts and undead savvy. Two of the dead were master vampires who dressed like they were going to a club.

Each fist he threw destroyed bones and hearts. He was so amazing that Poe lost all caution and looked down again.

“Joseph?”

Poe couldn’t help it. She whooped happily. To give her friend the upper hand, she aimed her turtle squirt gun at his foes and fired. She sprayed all four, but Joseph didn’t seem to be affected by the garlic water.

When the three black clad fighters paused to wipe at their hissing faces, Poe shot one in the neck and let Joseph finish off the other two. He raised his hand to her.

“Thanks, sis,” grinned Joseph, saluting the kneeling figure of Poe on the roof.

Not too far away, Gruman Raspair, the unrepentant Euro-supremacist, was having the fight of his life. Ironically the two rustlers he clashed with turned out to be a gay woman and a Latino man. Maple nearly succeeded in throwing him off the train with her magnificent bludgeoning skills by catching him in the stomach. Ed, the slow but pouncing jackhammer, had broken more than a few enemy ribs. If it hadn’t been for Raspair’s ability to fly, he would have been pulped long ago. He had weaknesses like everybody else.

Gruman Raspair flew away until traffic subsided on the 363

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train roof. Cursing, he patted the small gun tucked inside his robes. “It would seem that I must resort to using you tonight, little uncivilized thing. Ah well. I am surrounded by louts. It would be fitting.”

Like a bird of prey, Raspair’s eyes rested on Poe who was busy gushing over Joseph’s recovery. The stream of water coming out of her ridiculous pink plastic gun made him shiver. He was going to kill her face to face, but he did not want to risk getting disfigured. “That pain in the ass!” he muttered as he plunged back down to the train when the spray gun finally squeezed empty.

Only, Sainvire, drenched with black blood, saw what was about to happen.

“Sorry, Poe,” Sainvire said as he promptly kicked Poe in the back and barked for Joseph to catch her. A moment later, Raspair’s shot struck Sainvire in the arm. Once again, the master vampire collapsed on the roof.

“Finish the son-of-a-bitch!” Raspair ordered the flaxen haired-twins who turned their sights on Kaleb Sainvire.

By the looks of it, the day was a victory for Raspair’s people. They outnumbered Sainvire’s forces two to one. Gruman took to the air, thinking his work finished. He was now a spectator to a death match.

As soon as one of the shockingly ethereal vampires positioned close enough to plug a bullet in his skull, Sainvire elongated a thumbnail and impaled the woman. The brother fired a clumsy shot while retreating to the sky, but Sainvire was on his tail, having extracted the bullet from his stomach. The long mane of hair became the undoing of the vampire with a Seraphim’s face. Easily side-stepping the man’s scythe, Sainvire was presented with a fistful of hair. He 364

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yanked it back until the neck was exposed, and Sainvire sliced off the head.

“It would be simplest if you’d just expire, Sainvire,” Raspair sighed tiredly, cocking and firing his antiquated four-inch woman’s purse gun.

With a sudden glide to the left, Sainvire avoided the bullet now lodged in the metal rooftop. “I’m waiting for you to go first,” smiled Sainvire, flying.

“You’ve always asserted that guns are pedestrian, Gruman. With that gun in your hand, that makes you a hypocrite.”

Airborne, Raspair pulled his sword and slashed errantly at the much younger vampire. The councilman was clearly unnerved. It had been a few centuries since Gruman actually had had the chance to kill using a sword or his hands. Being Council Chairman did not require much skill, for his name alone intimidated all.

So when Sainvire went after Gruman Raspair, it was a shock to know how easily the top vampire of Los Angeles was felled. Like everything in the new world, older did not necessarily mean more power. Ed, the recently turned vampire, had more power in his little pinky than half of the Council.

Sainvire caught Raspair by the thin wisps of his hair and stabbed him in the throat, eyes, and in the heart. The easy kill was a letdown. He carried the corpse like a bride and paraded it where the fighting was heaviest.

When the Council loyalists saw that their leader was dead, these misguided vampires lost heart and turned tail.

(((

By five o’clock in the morning, the train reached its final destination somewhere in the California 365

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Central Valley. The journey would have been quicker, but the train had to stop sporadically to dispatch the cleaning crew to remove debris from the tracks. They also had to tediously disassemble tracks to avoid detection. Windows had to be tarped into darkness for the sun-allergic who took up a freight car of their own.

Despite what Sainvire’s people had endured, the hopeful colors of dusk lightened hearts somewhat. The fresh country air helped iron out the tensions and tiredness of the group. The comforting presence of gently smiling freed cattle that waited up for the newly arrived made the transition much easier.

The bone-weary humans, no longer anyone’s cattle, skittishly surrendered to the designs of calming ranch hands. Too many people and vampires had been dealt permanent deaths that night. Very few congratulated each other for a job well done. Turkeys, pigs, horses, goats, and cows – real cows – that wandered around the farm created just the distraction so desperately needed.

Perhaps the most amazing sight was the sleepy children rubbing their eyes at the nearly three hundred new arrivals. The children, still wearing their pajamas, woke up at the commotion and stepped outside. The sight brought lumps to many a throat.

Poe could see her breath and hear the animals cooing and clucking to each other. The smell was indescribably perfect. Grassy with a hint of manure.

“Look at the lady. She’s got blood all over,” said a tyke, one of the many kids who had formed a circle around her.

“And look at her face,” said another, pointing to her scar.

A woman in a homemade sweater took one look at Poe and quickly shooed the children away. “Kids, don’t go near.”

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Perhaps it was her youth and the violence of her appearance. Maybe her scar was to blame or the swollen bruises on her face, but Poe did not get the warm reception cattle and other fighters received. It dawned on her that aside from her old partners, people, vamps, and children avoided her company altogether.

After everything she’d been through, the lack of courtesy didn’t sit right. Sleepy children were instructed to take survivors and cattle by the hand and lead them to the tented picnic tables hidden behind the orchards. The little girl in a potato sack dress waved to Poe as a host mother ushered her inside the ranch house. The acknowledgement made Poe feel a little better.

“You’re not feeling sorry for yourself, are you?”

said Joseph who’d been watching his friend.

“No. It’s just sad that they fear me.”

“They’re kids, Poe. What do they know?”

“What about their parents? They act like I have the bubonic plague.”

Joseph draped an arm around her shoulder.

“They’ll change their tune soon enough once they get to experience your winning personality.”

“Afraid that won’t happen,” said Poe, smiling for the first time. “I’m leaving with Ed after breakfast. I heard he’s going back to the outskirts of downtown.”

“Are you crazy?” said Joseph, shaking his head.

“He’s going to scout. Very dangerous job.”

“I’m just hitching a ride. I need to go back for my dog.”

Lacking social skills to win people over and far too weary to kiss ass, Poe turned away from the sight of kids in PJs and watched a group of sun-immune vampires removing tracks from the ground. She hardly listened to Joseph’s protestations. After breakfast, she would be returning as close to downtown as possible.

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The notion gave her the chills, but she had Penny to think about.

(((

Nobody could understand Poe’s reasoning, and that was okay with her. She gave Morales a hug and kiss, and she reminded him to chuck the Magnum.

“And change your aftershave while you’re at it.”

As for Joseph, she punched him thuggishly in the stomach and followed up with a hug. The rest she shook hands with. Sainvire was nowhere to be found.

Megan walked her down to the tracks where a small cargo train waited. Ed, the tiny wonder, waved at them. Unlike the others, he was full of spark and energy as if he were hooked on nothing but battery acid. He was snapping tracks for the freight car. A mile ahead of him was a flying sun vamp that laid out yet more tracks. The vampire was supposed to drop the tracks and take them off like Gromit in The Wrong Trousers. The little man gave them their privacy. Poe looked away from her friend’s tired eyes lined with decade-long uncertainty.

“You’re not leaving because of me, are you?”

Megan asked, her voice breaking. “Because if you are, I won’t be able to sleep a wink for the rest of my life.”

“No, Megan. I’m going back for my dog,” Poe assured, patting her friend on the back. “I promised her I would. I owe Goss. It’s the least I can do.”

Megan kissed Poe’s dusty, swollen face and gave her one more hug.

Poe couldn’t help herself. She had to ask.

“Megan, did Rodrigo hurt you when you stayed with him?”

She was startled by the question, and her first impulse was to trace the bite marks on her neck. “No.

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Rodrigo didn’t really hurt me. It was mostly Gwendolyn,” she said, her eyes taking on a haunted, vacant look. “She couldn’t stand his affection for me.

They had a thing going fifty years back. She couldn’t cope, so she bit me proper to make me cattle after he’d rescued me from Trench. The worst I suffered was being trapped inside my body while those frosty-skinned bastards took advantage of me.”

Poe kissed her friend’s cheek and apologized for prying. Megan shrugged and said it was all in the past.

She watched Ed boost Poe up the train car. She stood there until the little train disappeared from sight.

Poe’s chest felt like a giant was sitting on it. To think, she had believed there were only a few people left in the whole world. And who would have known that some vampires could be good? And that she could be in love with one?

He didn’t even say goodbye to her. Not that they could really have had any sort of relationship with Megan sharing the same feelings for him. And he was so busy. His people would always come first.

Alone in the back of the open-air freight train with only her replenished pack and weapons, Poe wept for everyone she’d left behind. She knew that it would be next to a miracle if she ever saw them again. There was no need to return to the Central Valley. She would never fit in. “Nope. Me and Penny are heading for Sawtelle and Santa Monica,” she muttered. She had a longing to find her parents’ house and gaze at old photos. It would have to do.

She sniffed.

She searched for a tissue inside her pack and could only come up with an empty plastic container.

Then she was handed a linen handkerchief.

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“Thanks,” Poe said, blowing her nose. She only thought to look after her nose had been thoroughly expunged.

“Oh shit!” Poe coughed, and she pulled out a gun.

Behind her sat Sainvire, cross-legged. His black shirt and dark blue Dickies blended well in the shadows.

“What’s this I hear about you leaving?” he asked while playing with bits of alfalfa.

“Um. Yeah,” Poe answered. “I’m getting my dog.”

“We could get her for you in a few days.” He stretched out his long legs.

“No need.” She put up her hand. “I’ll get her.”

Suddenly she was pissed. Here she was in love for the first time with a vampire who could care less about this scarred, jag-haired, clip-eared girl, and she had nothing but resentment in her heart.

“I can’t blame you for being angry with me,” he said slowly. “I deserve whatever I get.”

Poe nodded. He was going to let her go.

“But I want you to know that I–”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Poe ordered briskly. “A lot of people are dead instead of me, but all turned out for the best. Now please get off this train so I can take a nap.”

He blinked. His hypnotic eyes were sorrowful. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” she said, standing up, and the effort brought tiny beads of perspiration on the tip of her nose.

“I’m sorry, Poe.” He stood in one fluid movement. “I have responsibilities. I can never, in good conscience, leave my people again.”

“Me, too,” she whispered, not trusting her voice.

“Penny.”

“You can stay with me.”

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“No.”

“Then let’s at least shake.” He extended his hands.

Sighing, Poe held out hers, pretending to still be annoyed. In reality, she wanted to beg the master vampire to send one of his men to get Penny and have them live together until he tired of her. But she didn’t.

She took the man’s large hand and shook it as firmly as her mom had taught her.

She hoped that he would ignore the scratches on her hands and the dirt under her fingernails. But he never noticed because he was too intent on memorizing her face. Then he stared at the dark pools of her bruised eyes until Poe became weak at the knees.

For a second there, Poe thought that Sainvire was going to kiss her. Instead, he hugged her tightly, saying in a rough, aggrieved voice, “Till next we meet, Julia.”

He wiped her sweaty nose with an index finger then jumped out of the train with the feel of his cold hands still imprinted in hers.

Fin.