Dave Zeltserman - Blood Crimes Book One

More drivers were pulling over and the crowd was growing larger, maybe two dozen people. When they saw the two vampires moving on Jim with their swords, they started to back away. One of the bystanders took out a cell phone and pointed it at them. Again, Jim thought of running, but it wouldn’t do any good. He wouldn’t get far without one of the Harleys, and the limo and Serena’s gang stood between him and the bikes. He held his ground and waited for the two vampires brandishing swords to come closer. They were both grimacing, their movement becoming more sluggish with each step. Jim understood the reason for it. The sun was as poisonous to him as it was to them, but over the last three years he and Carol had moved around enough to where he had gotten used to it. He could deal with the pain. These two, along with the rest of Serena’s gang, had been living a sheltered life, probably going outside only after dark. The sun was now taking a toll on them.

Jim was still holding the. 45 he had taken off Zeke. He waved it towards the crowd causing them to scatter. He then shot several rounds at the shorter of the two vampires, aiming at the fingers wrapped around the sword handle. A small piece of the vampire’s finger blew off, and he dropped the sword and grasped his damaged hand.

Jim leveled the gun at the vampire’s face and squeezed off three more rounds, hitting him squarely in the forehead and sending him flying backwards and bouncing off the Lincoln’s front grill. The other vampire attacked, aiming a blow towards Jim’s middle. He rolled under it and grabbed the sword the smaller vampire had dropped. A quick glance showed that Zach and Wilfred were no longer amused, their faces more pinched than anything else. They also looked green around the gills, not handling the fading sun well.

There was another attack where the larger vampire tried a flying drop kick while he swung a blow at Jim’s head. The vampire didn’t elevate as much as he expected to, not accounting for the effect the sun was having on his muscles. Coming in as low as he did, Jim was able to step aside and take a clean swing at him. He hit the blow solidly, the blade sinking several inches into the vampire’s neck. The vampire dropped his own sword as he frantically tried to grab at the blade digging into his neck, but Jim swept his feet out from under him and kicked down on the sword until the vampire’s head was cut off and rolling away from the body.

Police sirens could be heard in the distance. Jim looked up. Zach and Wilfred were gone, both probably retreating into the safety of the limo and out of the late afternoon sun. The smaller vampire Jim had shot in the face looked unsteady as he struggled to get back to his feet. Jim couldn’t help showing a grim smile. Hopefully those three. 45 slugs to the forehead scrambled the vampire’s brains a little, or at least gave him a wicked migraine. Jim thought about finishing the job with him, but the sirens were getting louder. He couldn’t afford anything sidetracking him from finding Carol. He needed to just grab Pearce and get out of there. He looked over to where he had left Pearce and saw that the biker was gone. He looked around to see where the biker might’ve crawled off to, but he was nowhere. It didn’t make any sense…

Oomph.

Someone had jumped on his back. Jim nearly fell to the pavement, but somehow kept his balance. Long thin legs wrapped around his waist, legs that he recognized. Sharp nails scraped his face and inched their way to his eyes. He was still holding the sword and used it to try to poke Serena off him, but she kept ducking.

“Surprised to see us, James?” Serena whispered in his ear, then bit down hard trying to tear off the fleshy lower part of his earlobe. Jim poked again with the sword and she let go of her grip on his ear. His ear stung, but it still felt intact.

“It’s been a long time,” she said, her breath frigid against his skin.

‘Not long enough,” he grunted.

Zach and Wilfred emerged from the back of the limo, both brandishing swords. The vampire who had taken the. 45 slugs point blank in the face looked woozy but had recovered the sword that the dead vampire had dropped and was inching closer towards Jim. The police sirens were getting louder. The cell phone Jim had taken off Ash started ringing.

“Aren’t you going to answer that, James?” Serena asked, her claws again digging towards his eyes.

“The cops are going to be here in seconds,” Jim grunted as he tried to use the edge of the sword to move her away from his eyes.

She laughed, dodging his thrusts. “Let them,” she said. “Just means fresh blood for tonight.”

“Don’t you think Metcalf is going to be unhappy with you?”

“I couldn’t care less about Metcalf, Darling. You’re my only concern right now.”

“But I think you should care, Serena, Darling,” Jim said. “This spectacle you’ve created isn’t exactly the type of flying under the radar activity that Metcalf always used to demand. He’s going to be very unhappy with you.”

Her nails dug harder into his flesh.

“And what about you? Feeding out in the open where anyone could see you. Very careless of you, James.”

“But there’s a difference, Serena. Metcalf’s not my master.”

She let loose an angry string of profanities. The other three vampires had moved within striking distance, all with their swords raised. Serena bit hard against the side of Jim’s neck, trying to sever his jugular. Fuck, it hurt. He jumped forward, swinging out his blade in an arc hoping to catch one or more their legs. One of their blades went for his chest. He spun quickly and heard a sickening thud and then a high-pitched wail. In his mind’s eye he could see the blade sinking into Serena’s back. Her grip loosened and she fell away from him. He knew her injury wouldn’t be fatal-whatever internal organ had been damaged would regenerate, but he hoped it hurt like hell. He spun around again and caught Zach in the thigh, the blade sinking in halfway. The vampire howled like a wolf at the moon. Jim yanked the blade out and ran until he got to Ash’s bike. The vampire he had shot in the face was right behind him. Jim turned and raised Zeke’s. 45. The vampire stopped in his tracks.

“Don’t,” he pleaded, his eyes looking sick.

“Sorry,” Jim said.

He squeezed off two more rounds hitting the vampire directly in the mouth. This time the vampire went down hard and stayed down. Jim thought about slicing off his head, but he could see police cruisers off in the distance and coming fast. He jumped on the Harley, gunned the engine and drove in the opposite direction going the wrong way down a one-way street. He turned down an alleyway that was too narrow for the limo, then down a staircase until he reached another alleyway. He pulled the Harley over so he could think. Off in the distance he could hear orders being shouted, followed by gunfire, and then awful blood-curdling screams-the kind that only truly frightened men could make. It became eerily quiet. He imagined what had happened-two or more police cruisers descending on Serena, the cops pulling out their guns and firing as Serena and her crew disregarded their orders and instead approached them. He pictured the massacre that followed, knowing that they would all want fresh blood after their exposure to the sun. He wondered how Serena planned to get rid of the limo and all those dead bodies, both human and otherwise…

Ash’s cell phone started ringing again.

Jim flipped the phone open.

“Ash, what the fuck is going on?” It was Raze’s voice. “How come you didn’t answer before? And why ain’t Pearce and Chuck answering their phones? What the fuck’s going on?”

“Ash is dead,” Jim said. “All of them are dead. That was a stupid stunt you tried pulling.”