B008IFNJZM EBOK (53 page)

             
“Why did they stop there?”

             
“They know they are out of range of anything we could do with our weapons.”

             
Eric went over to the old Taurus and tore the trunk hood off and threw it on the lawn.  He smiled up at the house as he lit a stick of dynamite and dropped it into the exposed trunk.  The Jeep took off toward the house followed by the Taurus being driven in reverse.

             
“What are they doing?”

             
“They are going to try and blow a hole in a wall!  Get ready!  We may have to retreat to the study or farther back into the house!”

             
Everyone braced ready for the attack as they watched the jeep go to the side of the house outside the study.  The Taurus came straight back and plowed into the front entrance stairs and close to the front door.  Everyone ran back to the study and closed the double doors.  The two passengers of the Taurus jumped out.  That was followed by two quick explosions, the dynamite and the gas tank.  The twin double doors blew into the hall smashing an entrance table, the grandfather clock and the first few steps leading upstairs as well as all the light fixtures as the entrance way above the frame was now on fire.  The big pickup truck ran past the front of the house and under the windows of the upstairs bedrooms.  Meanwhile, the Jeep on the other side had connected a chain to the iron work of the windows of the study.  Elizabeth and Tom fired and killed one of the werewolves attaching the chains.  Carl fired and blew the head off of the driver as the vehicle lunged forward and tore the protective grill work off the study’s windows.

             
On the other side of the house, Eric stood on the roof of the white pickup and attached a chain to the grill work on Chelsea’s bedroom window.  Eric dropped down into the bed of the truck as it backed up and pulled that protective grill work off.  When the first creature came through the front, Crosley fired and the head of the beast burst into flames as most of the head flew back toward the remains of the double doors.  He heard the bars pull off of the room holding the caskets of the girls and fired several times as he relocated to the base of the stairs and took cover under one of the front doors.  Another one was killed trying to rush the study.  Crosley was determined to reload and make it up the portion of the stairs that still remained even though part of it was on fire.

             
With the grill work gone from Chelsea’s window, the white pickup moved back ramming the wrought iron decorative grill work between the front of the truck and the wall of the mansion.  He jumped up on to the hood and then on to the cab’s roof.  Once there he jumped up and grabbed on to the window frame.  Two more were ready to come up right behind him.   Once inside, one of his men threw him the two iron spears.   Eric went inside to examine the coffins as the other pair came up.  Eric went to the door and returned fire toward the study.  He didn’t notice Crosley reloading on the steps below.  He went inside and relocked the door.

             
One of Eric’s men sniffed down the side of the coffin while the other sniffed along the top edge.

Both stopped and Erick drew a mental picture of where the two strongest scents crossed.  He jammed one of the spears through the coffin until it came out the bottom.  As his men went over to the other coffin and repeated the procedure, Eric smiled as he watched blood run out the bottom along the spear.  His men stopped sniffing along the sides and stopped again.  Erick raised the second metal spears.

             
“No more will you ladies spy on us!”

             
He rammed the spear through the second coffin and again a stream of blood ran down the shaft and on to the floor below.  Eric was about to try to break the seal and unlock one of the caskets to insure that they had found the mark on the pair of hearts as Crosley kicked in the door.  Eric fired back pulling a casket with him to the window.  Crosley killed one of the two men as the other fired hitting Crosley in the arm.  Crosley fired back blowing the head off the second and Eric jumped out the window.  His mission to kill the women was complete.  Crosley went to the window and emptied his clip into the cab roof of the truck but it kicked up the grass and glancing off the side of the garage kept going back around to the front.
             

             
Crosley lay on the upstairs landing.  He crawled to the edge and set up a cross fire with Tom and Carl as Tierra and Elizabeth kept shooting at Eric’s men outside of the study window.  Elizabeth yelled out to the others.

             
“We got six!”

             
Carl fired and watched a charging werewolf turn into dust outside the study doors.

             
“We got six now too.”

             
Elizabeth had only one shell left as she ejected the pair of empties from the smoking shot gun.  She stood with her back to the window and Eric jumped up and pulled her out the window.  No one could fire.  Carl and Tom were at the window drawing a bead down on Eric. 

             
“You fire and I’ll kill her right now.  You have no choice now.”

             
Tom and Carl along with Tierra did not fire and watched Elizabeth struggle to free herself but couldn’t.

             
Eric kept dragging her around to the front of the jeep.

             
“You may have destroyed my pack but now I’ll make a new one.  I think this time I will only recruit females.  If you ever see this woman again, she will be one of us.  Oh, and by the way, you won’t have the help of those vampire women to find us.”

             
No one inside the damaged study knew what to do.  If they fired, Eric would slit her throat and if they let him leave, she would become as Eric stated, one of his new pack.  Just then, a shotgun blast blew the head off of Eric.  Everyone inside looked out as Elizabeth hugged the shooter crying.  It was old Doctor Decker the veterinarian.  They looked out and saw Margaret at a safe distance with her arms crossed.  She had brought him back to the estate.

             
“Would someone come out here and burn up this man’s head before he starts talking again”

             
Carl went out the window and Tom handed him one of the thermite trash cans.  Elizabeth came back in.

             
‘Where is Crosley?”

             
Elizabeth and Tom went to search for him and found him weak and wounded on the upstairs landing.  Elizabeth got her bag and started to treat him.  Crosley just continued to cry without saying a word.  Carl reloaded and started to sweep the upstairs to insure they had them all.  Tierra reloaded in the study and then went outside to watch the flame consume Eric’s head and then the body turned to ash and dissolved in the wind like the others. 

             
“Should I call 911?  The front of your house is fire and it is spreading.”

             
Carl came out through a hole in the wall in front.

             
“Tierra, come with me and we will sweep their vehicles first.”

             
Doc Decker reloaded his gun. 

             
“Margaret, you call 911.  Carl I want you to do something and Tierra and I will check the RV.

             
“What do you want me to do?”

***

             
The first one on the scene was the Chief of the Fire Department.  As he drove up and saw a scorched Taurus in burnt sections in front of the house, he immediately called the police.  By three in the afternoon the fire was under control and the fire department personnel were folding up the equipment as Detective Wiggins leaned on his car taking statements from everyone.

             
Wiggins shook his head in disbelief after the story he was fed.  He knew it made sense and at the same time didn’t.

             
“So you are telling me that these four or five guys must have saw Margaret leave and thought the house was empty.  Then, even though the limo was here, they must have decided to rob it?”

             
“My father has a safe in the study and a valuable collection of guns.”

             
“Yeah that would explain the damage to the study window and even the destruction to the front door but what about the upstairs bedroom?”

             
“I guess they thought the two women might have something of value up there.”

             
“Yeah, the two casket salespersons… where are the two women?”

             
“I don’t know.  I haven’t seen them all day.”

             
“And then after this gun battle and they realized you were all armed, they fled in the limo?”

             
“I guess so.”

             
An officer came up and tugged on the detective’s shoulder.

             
“What?”

             
“We found the limo about a mile down the road.  It is abandoned.”

             
That was the good doctor’s plan.  He had told Carl to use gloves and move it out to make it look like the attackers used it to get away.

             
“Have the boys run it for finger prints.”

             
The officer did not leave.

             
“What else?”

             
“Every vehicle they had used was reported stolen including the RV.”

             
The detective turned to Doctor Deckard.

             
“And again, what brought you out here Doctor?”

             
“Margaret… She saw the vehicles coming in as she left.”

             
Wiggins shook his head.

             
“I know you are all feeding me a pile of manure… There has to be at least a dozen guns lying around this place.  Your four or five attackers had to be heavily armed almost to the point they couldn’t carry any more guns or ammo.  And you are telling me that the only one shot was Crosley?”

             
“We think so Detective.  We can’t say for sure.”

             
“I should run you all in but I suppose none of you would want to take a lie detector test would you?”

             
He looked at Crosley with his arm in a sling as he shook his head no.  The others did the same.

             
“If you have our statements Detective, we have one hell of a mess to begin cleaning up.”

             
“I am done with all of you for now, but if I find just one piece of evidence pointing to something other than this fantastic line of cow droppings, I will be back to run all of you in!”

             
The detective kept his men searching the crime scene and coming up with more questions like the melted garbage can by the jeep.  The thermite cans not used were hidden before the police arrived.  He walked still talking to Tierra.

             
“So tell me again what brought you out here?”

             
“They offered me a job.  I am their new maid.”

             
“I am sorry about the death of your grandfather.  They are ruling it a suicide.”

             
“Thank you Detective.  I do miss him so.”

             
By sundown the frustrated detective and his men left as the others were busy cleaning up the mess.  Elizabeth had put through a call to Mr. Talbot indicating the estate was in need of some major repairs.  Uncle Joe was called and given an update.  Also the insurance adjuster promised to be back out again.  The estate’s insurance policy was now hanging by a thread.  The police towed away all the vehicles and the group sat on the wet steps eating sandwiches and watching the sun to go down.  Tom looked over at Tierra.

             
“Tonight you will leave for Australia from Black Mountain so that you can begin the cure.”

             
“But who will take me?”

             
Chelsea and Iolana came out of the shattered door frame smiling.

             
“We will.”

             
“But I thought they killed the two of you?”

             
“We weren’t in the caskets.  We were in the storm cellar on our day rolls.”

             
Chelsea smiled.

             
“Did you really think we would retire in our coffins and lock them from the outside?”