Page 138 of Hoofin’ It

I somehow stayed on her back, though I suspected that had more to do with her than any skill on my part. It took several strides to adapt to her canter, which rolled as she flowed up the steps, each hoof placed with the precision gained only with practice. I believed she could’ve found her way even blindfolded, running with a confidence I envied.

We burst through the barrier into chaos, bodies, and carnage. The dead or dying barred our way, assuming the kirin refused to trample anyone. Bai Bao Chen jumped, soared, and crashed down on a man’s back, who was swinging at my father from behind; I only recognized Dad from his size.

Blood dripped from his fur, masking its color.

“Well, isn’t this interesting.” The kirin kept all four hooves on her prey as she took stock of the battle. Dad whirled, his claws lifted to strike.

“Hey, Dad. Fancy meeting you here.” I lifted my new dagger in salute.

Gold roiled in my father’s eyes, and he bared his teeth at me. “Boy. I’m tanning your hide later.”

“Okay.” The group Dad fought seemed to like his back, and without missing a beat, I whipped out my Ruger, aimed, and fired. I didn’t remember the man being in the Babylonian’s files but decided I didn’t care who he was.

Another attacker approached, and without bothering to turn, Dad kicked out, catching him with his clawed feet. Blood splashed, and Bai Bao Chen whinnied her approval. Snarling curses my father whipped around and slashed, grabbing hold of his victim’s arm and yanking. “My turn to go clubbing,” he announced, before wading into battle with his new weapon.

“Have I ever told you my father’s armed and dangerous?”

“No,” the kirin replied. “You had not.”

“He is. I’m quite proud of him, just don’t tell him that.”

“As you should be. It was a very skilled disarming of his opponent.”

“Do you think we should give him a hand?”

Bai Bao Chen made a thoughtful noise in her throat, shifted her weight, and bucked, kicking her hind legs out. I twisted in time to watch a head fly into the canal while the man’s body dropped lifeless to the sidewalk. “No, I think he is ahead of the game thus far, but should he need our aid, we will give him a leg up.”

Having adjusted to the lack of peripheral vision on my right side, I was startled by a flash of movement. I brought my blade up, catching a vampire in the hand, her fingers curled into claws and her fangs bared. Cold fear trickled through me at the memory of Ernesto’s bite.

Instead of shooting her with my Ruger like a smart man, I smashed it into her teeth before jamming the barrel into her mouth. I fired twice.

Cursing at the waste of a perfectly good bullet, I ripped the weapon free and sliced the dagger across her throat. She’d drank recently; blood sprayed from my slice, and her scream ended in a gurgle. She slashed her hands at me, her nails sharpened to dangerous little points. Kicking someone was hard without stirrups, so I reversed my dagger and smashed the pommel down on the top of her head.

She withstood the first three hits, and tired of wasting time on her, I drove the business end through the top of her skull. Bai Bao Chen snorted, twisted her head around, and grabbed the vampire’s arm in her teeth. Bracing her legs, the kirin shook like a massive dog, whipping the undead woman’s body side to side. Only when the gurgling screams fell silent did the kirin release the vampire, prancing over the fresh corpse.

“That was a lot harder than I expected,” I confessed.

“She was old, but she was old and stupid.” Plowing forward, the kirin shunted aside several Babylonians, their reflective panels larger and divided by gold rather than silver. I suspected the gold marked them as being from a different hive. She followed Dad, who shoved his makeshift club down a vampire’s throat.

I’d seen Dad fight, but I’d never seen him engage in such blatant brutality. At first, I didn’t understand what he was doing, but then he ripped his club out of the back of the vampire’s head and resumed beating his victim with it.

The vampire, despite half its head being gone was still alive.

“That’s totally unfair. I fall off a balcony and essentially die, and that thing takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.” With three bullets already gone, I didn’t want to waste a round on a vampire who wouldn’t die from it anyway. “There’s gotta be a better way of killing these damned things.”

“Decapitation works well.” Bai Bao Chen closed the distance between Dad and his prey, lowered her head, and stabbed with the horn protruding from her jaw. With a great heave of her hind quarters, the kirin tossed the vampire in the air.

“That one was mine,” Dad complained.

I waited for the vampire to fall. Instead of obeying the laws of gravity, it reached the zenith of its flight and hung there while I frowned at it. Bai Bao Chen chuckled. “Shedu. We should move.” The kirin tossed her nose to the alley between Michietti’s and the neighboring building.

Dad bounded over, pausing to slash his claws at someone stupid enough to get in his way. The kirin followed, and the instant we were out of the way, something slammed the vampire down on the sidewalk.

The stone cracked under the force of the impact.

I didn’t catch a glimpse of the shedu, and I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or relieved. “Where’s Mom?”

“She fell.”