Richard Laymon - The Traveling Vampire Show

Someone called out, “Go get her, Rusty!”

Another, “Nail her!”

“Give them titties a squeeze for me!”

And worse.

Suddenly, near the bottom of the bleachers, our way was blocked by half a dozen black-shirted members of Stryker’s crew.

“READY TO TAKE ON VALERIA?” Stryker asked.

“Excuse me,” Lee said, and tried to keep going.

“YOU BET,” Rusty said.

The man directly in front of Lee shook his head and spread out his arms.

“Let us through,” Lee said.

“You’ll just have to wait your turn, miss.”

“Down in front!”

“Hey, sit down!”

“That kid can’t fight Valeria,” Lee said.

“Sure, he can.”

“He’s underage.”

The man smirked. “Big deal.”

“Outa the way, for cry-sake!”

“I’m his mother and I forbid…”

“BEST OF LUCK, RUSTY!”

“His mother, my ass.”

“THANK YOU, MR. STRYKER.”

A thin, tough-looking woman beside the guy said, “We don’t want any trouble here.”

“Then don’t let Rusty fight!”

“Move yer asses!”

“Down in front!”

The woman shook her head. “Why don’t you both return to your seats and enjoy the show?”

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET THE CONTEST BEGIN!”

Another harsh flash of lightning.

“You can’t do this!” Lee shouted.

“Hell we can’t. Sit down or we’ll have you removed from the premises.”

The crowd roared.

So did the thunder.

The fight had started. We didn’t stand much chance of stopping it, now. I wanted to watch. And so did a dozen or so people whose views we were blocking.

Apparently, so did Lee. “Okay, okay,” she said.

Though there were empty spaces down low, Lee raced halfway up the stairs before moving toward the center, squeezing past half a dozen spectators and taking a seat. If she couldn’t stop the fight, at least she wanted a good vantage point for watching it. Breathless, I sat beside her.

The black-shirted crew watched us for a few more seconds, then spread out and seemed to vanish.

From the look of things in the cage, we hadn’t missed much. Rusty and Valeria were both hunched over, arms out, circling each other slowly.

Which seemed to be the standard way to begin such contests.

I felt scared for Rusty. But I also envied him. There he was, face to face with Valeria, probably one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the earth—three or four feet away from that amazing face and those incredible, naked breasts.

It seemed like madness.

Glorious madness.

This must’ve been like a dream come true for Rusty.

He was sure to pay dearly for it, but it might be worth the payment.

Valeria seemed in no hurry to attack. Neither did Rusty—not with the kind of view he had. But I knew him. What he really wanted, now, was to reach out and feel those breasts.

He had to get his hands on them.

Even in front of an audience brimming with people who knew him and his parents?

You bet, I thought. He won’t let a little thing like that stop him.

I could just see him grin and hear him say, Hey, man, by the time someone tells on me, it’ll be over. What’re my folks gonna do, ground me? They can’t make it not’ve happened,

know what I mean? And he would be showing me his hands as if they were trophies.

He went for her.

Rushed forward, ducking and reaching out with both hands. I thought he was going for her breasts, but then he dived and grabbed the sides of her leather skirt. His weight tore the skirt from her hips.

As Rusty fell, Valeria stumbled backward until the skirt tripped her. She landed on her back. The impact jolted her entire body, bounced her head off the dirt floor and jarred her breasts.

The audience exploded with delight.

The night exploded with lightning.

On his knees, Rusty snatched Valeria’s skirt off her boots. The spurs seemed to give him trouble for a moment. Then the skirt pulled free and he flung it out of reach.

Thunder pounded through the air.

Valeria was now naked except for the crimson boots that reached almost to her knees.

She just lay there, sprawled out and limp, staring at the sky… either knocked into a stupor by the blow to her head or faking it.

I figured she had to be faking. Vampire or not, she’d out-matched much tougher men than Rusty tonight.

“Get away from her!” I shouted.

He probably couldn’t hear me through the tumult of the crowd.

Lee joined my shouts. In unison, we yelled, “Get away from her, Rusty!”

If Valeria really was stunned or unconscious, Rusty actually stood a chance of winning the contest. Five hundred bucks was a ton of money for a guy who forever spent his allowance the day he got it. But he needed to keep his distance….

Instead of getting away from her, he scooted forward on his knees, sliding his hands up her bare legs.

The audience cheered him on.

“Rusty!” I yelled. “No!”

But the lure must’ve been irresistable. I knew him well. He claimed he’d never seen a naked woman in real life, much less touched one. And he’d never seen a woman as beautiful as Valeria.

These were probably the most fabulous moments of his entire life.

“Is he nuts?” Lee asked.

As his hands traveled up Valeria’s thighs, the crowd roared with delight and advice.

Lee yelled, “ Rusty , watch out! She’s playing ’possum! Get away from her!”

Rusty spread Valeria’s legs apart. Either that, or she spread them herself. I missed who did it. I just suddenly realized her thighs were wider apart than a moment earlier.

“It’s a trick!” Lee shouted. “Get away from her! Run!”

On his knees between her legs, Rusty leaned forward and put a hand on each of her breasts. He rubbed them slowly as if she’d asked him to spread suntan oil on them. They wobbled around under the motions of his hands. When he squeezed them, they seemed springy.

Valeria just lay there, not reacting.

Maybe she isn’t faking, I thought.

If she’s hurt, shouldn’t Stryker put a stop to this? Was he planning to just let Rusty spend the rest of the five minutes feeling her up?

Rusty hunkered down and put his mouth on Valeria’s right breast. He seemed to be kissing or sucking its nipple. Then his head was moving all around. I didn’t know what he was doing at first, then realized he was licking her breast.

A dagger of lightning stabbed down from the sky, roaring, and struck the top of one of the light poles. It was just behind the other bleachers. The bank of stadium lights exploded… along with the top of the pole.

All the lights surrounding the grandstands suddenly died.

We were plunged into darkness… except for a fluttering yellow-orange glow of firelight. It came from the blazing top of the pole that the lightning had struck.

Suddenly, warm rain was pouring down.

The blazing pole loomed over the bleachers like a giant torch, dimmed by the rain but still on fire.

All around us, people began leaping to their feet.

They wanted out.

As they shoved and bumped us in their rush to escape, Lee and I stood up. We climbed onto our seats and looked down. On both sides of the arena, people were fleeing through the downpour. Some were falling. Others were fighting. But I didn’t care what was happening to them.

I turned my eyes toward the cage in the center of the arena. By then, the fiery light post had nearly been extinguished. Through the heavy rain, I could barely make out the shapes of Rusty and Valeria.