Turquoise eyes ignited on both sides of the road. How many of the damn things were there?
Desandra pointed up. Thirty feet above us a glass iceberg thrust to form an almost horizontal ledge. Derek grabbed me and hurled me up. I caught the ledge and pulled myself on it. He took a running start and jumped at the lowest part of the ledge. Desandra followed, slipped, and Derek caught her hand and muscled her up. Ascanio jumped straight up, like he had springs, and hoisted himself on the glass next to me.
Less than a hundred feet until the vamps reached us.
Robert ran to the nearly sheer glass wall, scrambled up, quick and silent, as if his hands had glue on them, and slid in place next to us. We lay flat on the glass, just close enough to the edge to look down. If the bloodsuckers looked up, they would see the outlines of our bodies through the glass.
Two emaciated, hard creatures loped into view directly below us. A man and a woman in their former life. The male still retained some semblance of humanity in his face and his body didn’t seem as dry, but the female was older. She must’ve been dark-skinned in life, and undeath gave her skin an unnatural bluish tint. She crouched on her haunches and raised her head, looking around. The Immortuus pathogen leached all fat and softness from its victims, atrophying their internal organs. Her breasts hung on her chest like two empty pockets of skin. Cords of muscle stood out on her neck.
“It was here,” a young male voice said from the female vampire’s mouth. I could identify all of the Masters of the Dead in Atlanta by sound. I didn’t recognize him, so he had to be a journeyman or someone new. Perhaps one of Hugh’s imports.
“There’s nothing here,” another male voice answered.
That’s right, there is nothing here. Move along, because we don’t have time for this. We had to get to Robert’s scout and the clock was ticking.
“I’m telling you, I felt a blood vector,” the first navigator said.
The male bloodsucker raised his arms. “Where is it, Jeff? I don’t feel anything.”
Nope. Definitely journeymen. Not highly ranked either.
The female vamp moved around and slid on the damp patch of dark blood. “Look. What the hell is this?”
“Whatever it is, it has no hemoglobin in it, because my boy isn’t pulling at his leash. Maybe it’s vomit. Maybe one of those twisted things that lives here came over and puked all over the glass and now you’re sliding around in it. Do you want me to call down and get some sawdust for you to deodorize her with when we bring them back?”
Journeymen. Always a pleasure.
The female vamp twisted its face, trying to mimic Jeff’s expression. “Very funny, Leonard. You’re a fucking comedian.”
“We had a route mapped out, but no, you had to go off the reservation because you smelled some phantom blood somewhere.”
“We’re supposed to patrol. I’m patrolling because it’s our job, Leonard. If you don’t want to patrol, you can go up to that bigwig and tell him that. Just let me know in advance so I can take pictures when he tears off your nuts and makes you eat them.”
“Alright, alright, calm down.” The male vamp peered into the gloom. “Suppose we do find the shapeshifters. Do we go to Ghastek or do we go to d’Ambray with it?”
“To Ghastek,” Jeff said.
“Yeah, but d’Ambray is higher on the food chain. You can tell Ghastek’s pissed, but he keeps his mouth shut. You know. We could get ahead.”
“And what happens when d’Ambray leaves and Ghastek’s back in charge?” Jeff said.
Get out of here. Go on. Shoo.
“No guts, no glory.” Leonard must’ve shrugged, because his vampire raised his shoulders in a jerky movement.
“We cover our asses and follow the chain of command. Nobody ever went wrong by following the chain of command,” Jeff said.
Something clopped in the shadows. Oh no.
The vamps tensed, like two mutated cats getting ready to pounce.
Cuddles emerged into the open. I had completely forgotten she was there.
Robert put his hand over his face. Desandra rolled her eyes.
“What the hell is that?” Jeff said.
Why me? Why?
“It’s a horse,” Leonard said.
“Are you blind? How is that thing a horse? Its ears are two feet tall.”
“Then it’s a mule.”
“It’s not a mule. The neck’s wrong and the tail . . .”
“What about the tail?”
“Mules have horse tails. He’s got a donkey tail. Like a cow. It looks like a donkey, but the damn thing is at least sixteen hands tall. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a mule. It’s got a saddle on it, so someone was riding it.”
The male vamp moved forward.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to catch it and see who it belongs to.”
Argh.
Cuddles put her ears forward.
“It doesn’t look friendly,” Jeff observed.
“It’s fine. If she had her ears back, you’d have to watch out. It’s all in the voice. Watch and learn. Come ’ere, girl. Come ’ere . . . Who is a good freaky mule? You are.”
The male vamp inched forward. Cuddles stood just a little bit straighter.
“That’s a good girl.”
The vamp reached for the reins. Its fingers fastened about the leather.
Cuddles screamed. It wasn’t a braying noise, it was an ear-slapping shriek of pure donkey outrage, like someone got hold of a foghorn and tried to strangle it.
“Whoa . . .” Leonard started.
Cuddles reared and tossed her head. The vamp slid on the glass and she dragged him left.
“Whoa . . .”
She dragged him right.
“Come on!”
Cuddles kept turning and rearing, her huge body going up and down, jerking the undead to and fro like a cheerleader with a pompom.
“Oh, you idiot,” the female vamp snickered in Jeff’s voice.
I saw the precise moment Cuddles realized that something was behind her and that something was the same unnatural thing that clung to her reins. Her eyes went big, and she planted her front legs down and kicked. The female vampire flew about twenty feet and smashed into a glass iceberg. Ouch.
The male vamp finally let go, fell, and slid down the glass. Cuddles backed up and braced herself. The male vamp rolled to his feet and gathered itself for a leap.
“Stop!” Jeff moved the female vampire between Leonard’s undead and the donkey.
“I’m going to kill that dumb animal.”
If he touched my donkey, I’d take his vamp apart.
“No, you’re not. It belongs to someone and if you harm it, we’ll have to pay restitution. I don’t feel like having my paycheck docked.”
“The bitch kicked us!” Leonard snarled.
“You put your hands on her. She was defending herself. Come on, the damage is minor. We’ll feed them tonight and nobody will be the wiser. But if some hick shows up claiming we injured his donkey, there will be an inquiry. Ghastek’s walking around like he’s ready to explode. I don’t want to be in his blast area.”
Leonard’s vamp twisted his face into a horrifying grimace.
“We need to move on anyway,” Jeff said. “In five minutes Rowena’s going to come down that hallway for check-in. I don’t want to explain to her that we’ve been playing with what may or may not be a giant donkey instead of sweeping the perimeter.”
The male vamp shook its head and circled around Cuddles, and the two undead took off into the glass labyrinth. We lay still for another five minutes, until they were a mile and a half away.