Eliza’s partner moved first, drawing his Glock and clicking the after-market safety off as quietly as possible. It seemed to have no effect on the couple. The woman giggled again, and the other form, certainly a tall man, though Eliza couldn’t see his face because it was turned away from them, let out a low moan. If this was anything other than a Vampire attack or a murder in progress, she and Sergio were going to have a lot of explaining to do for intruding. In fairness, if they really wanted privacy, maybe they could’ve found some place other than a public alley.
Eliza also took out her weapon, readied it, and then followed along behind Sergio, giving him enough space so that, if it was a Vampire and it charged him, she could be the next line of defense. A stirring sensation in her stomach heightened as she drew closer, and it became clearer that one of these two was undead.
The Vampire sensed them, too. Only it wasn’t the man, as Eliza had suspected. Instead, the woman, whose fangs were bared as she leaned toward his neck, spun her ugly head around and roared at them, pushing her would-be lover aside and dodging at Sergio. He fired as the man on the ground screamed in surprise. His bullet went wide, ricocheting off of the brick as the Vampire leapt up into the air and grabbed the bottom rung of the fire escape, pulling herself up to the steps with little effort.
“You go around that way, I’ll follow her!” Eliza shouted as the monster climbed the stairwell on all fours like some sort of an animal. Eliza easily leapt up to the first landing. As soon as she landed, she took careful aim and fired, but the Vampire was too quick and was already several floors above her.
Holstering her Glock, Eliza gave chase, hoping she could corner her on the rooftop. It didn’t look as if the creature was pausing long enough to consider trying any of the windows, so hopefully, she wouldn’t dart inside where people might get in the way. Even with the firing of two bullets, not a single light inside of the building had come on, which didn’t surprise Eliza considering the neighborhood they were in.
The woman reached the roof when Eliza was about to the twentieth floor, at least ten levels below her. She stood at the top for a moment, gazing down, her long blonde hair loose and blowing in the wind. She was dressed like a prostitute, her lips red, her heavy eyeshadow dark blue, and her fangs promising more than a little hickey to anyone who wanted a nibble on the neck. It appeared to Eliza as if she were smiling as she turned and ran away.
Continuing to climb up from one floor to the next as quickly as possible, Eliza tried not to worry too much about what that smile might mean. She also didn’t dwell on the fact that if she had received a second dose of Transformation serum, the way many of her KC area colleagues had, she would’ve already caught the bitch. She reached the rooftop and pulled herself over the top, hopeful there were no adjoining buildings and no places to hide.
The woman wasn’t trying to hide, and neither were the other six Vampires who were roused from their hiding places. Eliza stood on the edge of the wall that ran around the top of the building watching as the seven of them took up a formation about twenty yards away from her.
All shapes and sizes, older, younger, tall, short, male, female, they reminded her a little of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video when the dead come out to play. Except instead of hanging flesh and stuttered steps, these suckers would be fast. And they all had fangs.
She didn’t wait to open fire on them. She shot the prostitute first and then peppered the rest of them with bullets. One of the smaller figures, a pre-teen boy, she thought, fell back slightly. The others didn’t slow at all.
Eliza had heard about this sort of Vampire, the kind that didn’t die from regular silver bullets. Not even the titanium had done too much to stop them when other areas had faced them. She’d been under the impression that should all end when Holland died, but not a single whiff of ash emanated from the six Vampires who continued in her direction, telling her that this was not her mother’s breed of Vampire.
“Sergio, I have a problem.”
“I see.” He had been watching through her IAC. “Maybe you should come back down.”
“And just leave them here? I can’t do that.” They were getting closer. Eliza tried shooting them again, and though there was smoke this time, none of them slowed their pace.
“Why not? We’ll get the rest of the team over here and try again. Mila’s headed this way now.”
Eliza didn’t have time to respond. She needed to move, or she’d end up on the pavement below her. Falling thirty stories didn’t sound like a lot of fun, even if it wouldn’t kill her, and since there wasn’t a Healer anywhere in the city, it wouldn’t feel great either.
Just as the prostitute was about to reach her, Eliza leapt up into the air and did a front flip, flying over the top of all of them and landing behind them. She had a silver tipped knife in her pocket, which she drew out, glad she’d taken that advice from Mila before she left the office earlier. It might not be practical to take a knife to a Vampire show, but it had to do better than the gun, which she stuck back in its holster.
The two that hit her first were an older man with a bald head wearing a ratty suit and a woman who looked like she probably wasn’t much older than Eliza, dressed like a waitress. Eliza kicked the man backward into his friends, knocking several of them to the ground as she jabbed her knife into the woman’s throat. The Vampire sputtered, ash flying everywhere, as Eliza twisted it and then pulled it out, sending her onto her back with a quick shove as the young boy flung himself at her.
She caught him, though he pushed her backward several feet. Since she’d already made a hole in his shoulder, she went there first, sinking in the knife and pulling it straight down. It didn’t take long before he exploded in a puff of ash. But the Guardian didn’t have time to rejoice in her victory. The suit was up again, and he was joined by two others who looked like they may have been homeless before they were turned.
