“Piss off.”
“Quit squabbling!” Pamphrock commands. “We need to find a way out of here.”
He pulls his mobile phone from his pocket, hitting a number on speed dial. By the sounds of it whoever he calls doesn’t answer. He hits another number and this time someone does answer, so he begins giving orders down the line, explaining what happened and telling the person on the other end to get a squad of slayers to Finn’s street immediately.
Finn picks up the toaster and throws it at the window, but instead of smashing the glass it bounces right off
it like rubber.
Rita starts trying a whole range of spells, but none of them work. Pamphrock’s angry eyes cut into me. “You should never have involved that woman. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“I know and I’m so fucking sorry, believe me, but you need to calm down. I don’t think Emilia wants to harm Rebecca. She’s clearly just infatuated with her. Her daughter ran away when she was a teenager and now Emilia wants a second chance at motherhood. She’s taken Rebecca because she reminds her so much of her real daughter.”
Pamphrock runs a hand over his face. He looks exhausted. “Fine. If that’s the case then she must have taken her to the Petrovsky manor. I’m going to send another squadron of men over there right away.” He begins hitting buttons on his phone and then he’s making more calls.
About five minutes later there’s a DOH guy standing at the back door with a crowbar. The spell must only work from the inside, because he manages to break through within seconds. We all run out of the house and around to the front garden.
There’s another slayer lying by the doorstep, unconscious. Emilia must have taken him down with a spell on her way out while he was standing guard.
Pamphrock jumps into one of the two DOH vans that have just arrived, ordering, “We need to get to the Petrovsky manor as quickly as we can.”
Having heard all of the commotion, Noreen, Alvie and Gabriel emerge from the RV, asking what’s going on. Across the street I see Ethan, Lucas and Delilah have come out also. It appears that Finn told Pamphrock about our vampire allies, because he doesn’t seem at all surprised to see them.
I walk out onto the road, glancing back and forth, but it’s obvious that Emilia is long gone. The street Finn lives on consists of two parallel rows of houses that go on for nearly a mile. It’s dark out now, with the street lamps lighting up the area. As I stare into the distance, my eyes latch onto what looks like a bunch of people marching our way about a half a mile down the road. That’s when I realise we have a much more urgent matter on our hands than chasing after Emilia.
There’s about twenty of them, all walking in a straight line, filling the street from one side to the other. But the most important thing? Their strides are frighteningly recognisable. Vampires. Vampires are on the north side of the city, marching down the road directly towards us.
Unable to speak, I grab Finn and simply point.
“Oh…fuck,” he curses loudly.
“Vampires!” shouts one of Pamphrock’s slayers somewhere behind us. “A fuckload of them are headed this way.”
“What the blazes!” Pamphrock exclaims, before going straight into action mode. “Men!” he calls. “Arm yourselves. We are under attack.”
The ten or so slayers present begin grabbing for their weapons, a selection of stakes, knives and guns. Finn rushes inside his house, emerging moments later with his bow and arrow and a bunch of stakes that he throws to Gabriel, Alvie and Noreen. He must have deducted that Rita and I will be able to defend ourselves with our magic. All the same, I pull out the razor he gave me. For some reason I haven’t gone without having it on my person since he gifted it to me. Perhaps I was subconsciously expecting this moment.
I glance behind me then and have to do a double take, because there are more vampires approaching from that side. They have us fenced in. Pamphrock orders half his men to line up facing one end of the street and the other half facing the other end. There aren’t enough of us though, especially going up against more than twenty vampires. I can hear a slayer speaking through a radio, calling for all active squadrons to get to Finn’s house ASAP.
I should have known this was coming, especially after Eliza sent her blood donor here to scope the place out. Now I’m regretting that Rita didn’t poison the bastard when she’d had the chance.
Perhaps Ethan’s wrong in assuming they’re here to drive him from the city. Maybe they’re here for me. Ethan did say that Eliza holds a strong grudge, so I’m guessing that if she wants me dead then she’s going to do her damnedest to kill me. Well, she’s going to have a fight on her hands.
I hadn’t noticed Ethan, Lucas and Delilah leave us, but when I glance over at their house I see them coming back out with their own weapons. Both Lucas and Ethan have swords, but Delilah’s carrying some strange projectile that seems to be loaded up with stakes.
Ira is with her; I hadn’t even realised he was around. He doesn’t have a weapon, but a second later I know why as his body vanishes, his clothes drop to the ground and an animal emerges. Now, I know I’ve always referred to Wolf as a dog, but he’s so much more than that. He’s a huge animal with razor sharp teeth. Perfect for sinking into vampires.
Speaking of razors, I flick mine out effortlessly. Finn gives me a wry smile as he lifts his ultra modern steel bow and arrow to his shoulder. The vampires are close enough for me to be able to make them out now. At the head of the group in front of us are Whitfield and Eliza. Eliza’s actually wearing heels and a dress, which is disconcerting, but vampires don’t really feel the cold and perhaps they’re good at fighting no matter their attire. All I’m saying is, I’m happy to be wearing my jeans and boots right now.
Whitfield isn’t much better in his fancy three-piece suit. He swings a sword similar to Ethan’s at his side. It seems that swords are the weapon of choice for the really old vamps, maybe because it’s what they started out fighting with. It’s what’s in Eliza’s hand that frightens me most though. A gun. A gun that if aimed at me could kill me as soon as the bullet hits.
The fighting has already started behind us, as I hear Pamphrock shouting orders and the sound of guns firing. Bullets won’t kill vampires, but they’ll slow them down long enough for you to stick a stake in them. I think Finn might have told me that at some point over recent weeks. That man’s knowledge is really beginning to rub off on me.
Whitfield and Eliza’s group stop a good distance away from us, with Eliza stepping to the forefront. “Hand over the girl and we can avoid any further fighting,” she calls, her caramel coloured eyes landing on me with cat-like slowness. Damn, I was right about her coming here for me rather than Ethan. Within the golden depths of her eyes I can see the many fantasies she’s had about my death. By the looks of it she’s salivating at the prospect of being the one to serve it to me on a silver platter.
“What girl?” Finn shouts, getting ready to let loose an arrow at any second.
“That one,” Eliza answers with a hiss, pointing a long, red fingernail in my direction.