Throughout the streets, the corpses of the recently murdered lay spilled like garbage from a torn Hefty bag. If he had his way, they would not stay dead for too long. They would come back and he would hide them away and try again to make a stronger, smarter vampire. Some of the ones he had hidden away had already proven themselves; they were more able to think and the survival rate for the first few days was promising.
There was something about coming back from the dead that left them dazed, as evidenced by the boys from the fraternity house. Only one day back from the dead and not a one of them seemed capable of even remembering his name.
Then again, he had doubts they could have remembered their names even if they were still alive. They had more money than brain cells.
He moved back toward his home. He had enough bodies for the caves and he would soon discover if the town of Black Stone Bay would know how to keep the newly dead from rising. For now, he was finished with the night and wanted to recover.
He spotted the detectives and their young charge as he was descending and decided to wait. They were aggravated, and they were determined to see him.
He wondered if they would die well and decided that it didn’t matter. He would kill them and they would rise and he would be fine with that.
In the distance he saw fire engines rolling toward the Cliff Walk. He knew who was driving them. He knew that they carried a lot of bodies. All the better.
He scanned the horizon as he descended and saw that three police cars were heading toward the finer homes as well.
“All right then. One last dance before I sleep.”
He waited for the players to be where he wanted them, and then he dropped from the sky and landed on the roof of his black home.
This would be interesting and, in the end, he knew how it would play out.
He’d been here before.
But it was always a fascinating place to be.
Chapter 23
I
The fire engines hauled ass down the road, their lights and sirens going full tilt. Boyd figured there might be something wrong when he couldn’t see the head of the driver in the first one. He knew for certain there was a little of the crazy stuff happening when the massive vehicle ran over the curb and clipped a fire hydrant. The resulting geyser shot up at an angle and started watering the closest lawn with a torrential downpour.
“You seeing this shit?” Boyd stepped back as the next engine came around the corner and skidded to a halt.
“What the hell?” Danny was looking at the first of the giant red trucks. It rolled to a stop and the driver’s side door opened.
A dead kid climbed out, grinning ear to ear. “That was so cool!” He looked at the new water fountain and jumped up and down, waving his hands like a monkey on fire.
A woman climbed out of the second vehicle, dressed only in a nightgown. The third driver climbed out without putting the fire engine in park and watched as the red truck rolled into a tree. He had a small frown on his face. “I was sort of hoping it would hit the house. Never liked that house . . .”
Boyd recognized all of the Tripp family when he saw them. “You fucken kidding me or what?”
The kid turned and looked at the detectives, but didn’t seem very impressed until he saw the girl with them. “Jayce!”
“Avery?” Her voice was very small.
Avery Tripp started toward her with an eager smile, his eyes flaring with their own light. Aside from the fangs, the glowing eyes, and the pasty white skin, the kid looked healthy and happy.
“Happy Halloween!” He started walking toward the little girl and Boyd took careful aim at the boy’s head.
Avery Tripp ignored him completely, heading straight for Jayce. For her part, Jayce slid in closer to Danny, who was eyeing the Tripp boy suspiciously.
“Oh, come on now, Richie. He’s a kid! What the hell am I supposed to do here?”
“You could try non-lethal force, I guess . . .”
Danny nodded and flipped the shotgun in his hand around so that the butt was held in front of him. “Stop, kid. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Both of the Tripp parents were smiling, amused by their son’s dilemma. “Come on, Detective. He just wants to say hello to Jayce, isn’t that right, Avery?”
Jayce was shaking her head, her dark eyes as round as plates. “You stay away from me, Avery.”
“Why wouldn’t you open the window when I knocked, Jayce? I wanted to see you.” His voice was light and sweet and his face was pure venom. He didn’t walk toward her anymore; he stalked her instead.
“Danny . . .”
“I mean it, kid. One more step and I’m gonna clock you.” Danny hefted the weapon and set himself up for taking a game-winning swing with his makeshift bat.
Boyd saw the motion before anything could go wrong. Alan Tripp came at him like a runaway train, moving with the deadly speed and precision of a guided missile.
He took aim and fired, and missed: the sonuvabitch dodged to the side and the bullet blew a hole in the yard behind where he had been a second earlier. Before he could try to get a bead a second time, Alan Tripp ran into him.
