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“No,” he said, “no, they can’t get in. ” He hoped he wasn’t lying.
7
Crow pointed his shotgun directly at Ruger’s grinning face.
“Go ahead, hotshot—splatter me and you splatter junior here. ” Ruger gave the kid a fierce shake.
Beside Crow, LaMastra braced himself against the wall and aimed down the stairs at the four vampires who clustered at the lower landing. Five others milled hungrily behind Ruger. The trap was a good one and they had walked right into it.
“Well, well,” murmured Ruger, “this is a hoot. I’m so happy to see you I could shit daffodils. ”
The child, a thin boy of about nine, struggled against the white hands that held him, but he might as well have been trying to work loose from iron shackles. The killer kept one arm wrapped around the kid’s body, pinning his arms; with the other hand he traced little lines across the boy’s slender throat. The kid winced and wriggled helplessly.
“Let him go,” Crow said, twitching the barrel of the shotgun.
“Sure, I’ll get right on that. ”
“Let him go and then you can have me. ”
Ruger shook his head. “I already have you, asshole. Both of you. And soon as I’m done kicking your ass I’m going to go upstairs and take that broke-nose bitch of yours. Oh, don’t look surprised. You think I don’t know she’s here? I can smell that piece of farm-girl snatch a mile off. ”
“I’m going to kill you,” Crow said softly.
“What…again?” Everyone laughed at that except the living. “Unless you haven’t figured it out by now, dickweed, you can’t kill me. ”
“Third time’s the charm, Karl. Let the boy go, then you and me can dance a bit. ”
“Or,” Ruger said, enjoying this, “we could just tear your arms off and beat you with them. Really, no joke. We’ve already done that tonight. Twice. ”
“Three times, boss,” someone said, and they all cracked up again.
“Crow…” LaMastra said under his breath.
“Tell me something, Karl…what’s with all the fireworks and shit. What’s the point? This part of some bullshit evil master plan? You think tearing down a small town like this makes you—what, some kind of vampire king or some shit?”
Ruger pretended to be interested. “Actually we do have a master plan. And, funnily enough, it’s actually pretty darned evil. ”
“Oh? Like what? You take over Pine Deep and then you turn it into a vampire tourist trap?”
“No, dumbass, we take over Pine Deep and then we take over the whole shitting world. ”
Now it was Crow’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, right. And when the National Guard start dropping napalm on your ass, what then? You going to hide behind a kid then, too, you cowardly piece of shit?”
Ruger’s smile didn’t falter. “Don’t worry, boy, we have plans for that. The Man has plans for everything. ”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Put the kid down. ”
“Blow me. ” Ruger gave the kid’s throat a quick squeeze; the kid winced again, his face screwed up; he bared his teeth as he fought against the killer’s iron grip.
“Crow…” LaMastra said again.
“Don’t be a pussy, Karl. You’re supposed to be the übertough guy…put the kid down. ”
“Sorry, can’t do it. ”
Ruger pushed the kid forward and took a step down toward Crow. Below, the vampires moved up a couple of steps, smiling at how Ruger was playing this.
LaMastra flinched away from them so that he and Crow were tight back-to-back.
