Night Prayers (31 page)

"And the Lord said, 'Suffer not a witch to live.'" Closing his eyes, Mica clasped his hands together and listened to the sound of his own words as the Vampires left. "Whatever happens to this body I now wear is nothing to compare with the rewards that shall be mine in Heaven.

"I am Mica, the Lord's Own Stone, and I shall crack the bones of those who go against His Word and Will. I shall tear away the black cloak of darkness and let in the cleansing rays of God's Own Divine Light! The Lord will guide my hand so that I may drive them back into the void of endless pain from where they came!"

Mica opened his eyes and glared at the closed door. He was alone.

"And the Lord will cover me with Everlasting Glory."

You sanctimonious asshole.

Allison's voice floated back to him through the layers of wallboard, brick and steel bars that separated them. She sounded so close his cock twitched.

Stop boasting. Remember what happens to pride…

Mica stood up when the guard returned and followed him back to the holding cell without unclasping his hands.

Pride goeth before a fall. A warning? From a Vampire?

Impossible.

"Please let it be impossible, Lord," Mica whispered. "I
need
things to be in black and white. I need Your narrow line to follow."

"Amen to
that
, brother," a thick voice slurred as the cell door clanged shut. "We all gotta toe the line."

Mica pressed his back against the bars and closed his eyes. It wasn't much of a Sign… but he took it as one anyway.

Allison.

"Gee, that was fun," Allison said as the three of them crossed the Police Station's sodium-drenched parking lot. "What'd you want to do now? Drown a couple of newborn puppies?"

She kicked out at a car tire and was startled at the sudden
whoosh
of air as it deflated.

SHIT! I want to go home!

Luci stopped between a shiny black Porche and a fifteen year old station wagon, and turned around.

"Home's a million miles away,
Dorothy
. And unless you didn't figure it out already, we haven't been in Kansas for a
long
time." Luci brushed the hair out of her eyes and nodded Gypsy to her side. "And if you're finished having a hissie fit, why don't you just shut the fuck up and listen… maybe you'll finally
learn
something.

"Okay, Watcher, what's the procedure with the Preacher-boy?"

The Watcher glanced back at the station house and hawked a glop of spit toward it.

"He's Murder One, that's hot property and the boys in blue are going to play it real close to the bone with him. God help them if word slips out they have a Vampire killer in there." Gypsy smiled
— his teeth a pale pee-green under the crime light. "But I know the Public Defenders in this town. If he doesn't already have a half-dozen lean and hungry young lawyers fighting over him I'll shave my legs and join you up in the spotlight."

Luci chuckled but Allison could tell it was just for show. Hell, she'd laughed at enough men's idea of wit to know when someone was being polite.

"So he's got a lawyer? Then what?" Luci looked over at Allison and winked. "I don't stay in nights watching all those cops-n-robber shows."

Hah hah.

"Well, with a headline hungry lawyer and the way he did the old broad, my guess would be the psycho ward over at Queen of the Angels." The Watcher pulled a fat cigar out of his vest pocket and stuck it between his back molars. "I know back from my wilder days that the individual precinct stations usually run the preliminary evaluation right on the premises, but it'll be a real quick 'shit 'n git' kind a check out."

A wide grin spread around the stogie. "… Hollywood's always been a different kind of place. If they tried to really evaluate crazies here, they'd never get anything else done."

Allison watched Luci nod, taking it all in, then frown.

"We're going to have to get him out before that happens." Luci suddenly spun and clawed the Porche
— cutting the paint job fight down to the bare metal. "God damned old
bitch
! I sucked her so dry she should have attacked him the minute he walked in."

That was the
second
time Allison could remember Luci sounding… "worried".

"I don't see what the big deal is," Allison said. "I mean, you just said yourself that the police think he's crazy
— right? So why are we still here?"

Luci's head turned slowly beneath the shimmering curtain of pale hair. It had
to be the piss yellow lights playing optical tricks —
had
to be… because the creature staring at her was no more Luci than the Watcher was.

Behind the smooth, tight skin and flowing hair was
another
Luci — one whose loose flesh hung down from the yellowed, almost bald head. Only the eyes…
Luci's green emerald eyes
glaring out from the bruised, sunken sockets… remained the same.

"We're still here because the Preacher-boy's still here," Luci said and the image of the crone disappeared. "We're safe at the moment
because
they think he's crazy. Vampires? They'll laugh themselves sick and tighten his straight jacket up another notch."

"Then I don't understand why —"

"That's just
it
, Alley-cat," Luci snarled, "
you
don't understand. I've been on this side long enough to know that eventually… though maybe not today or even next month… it'll happen. Somebody'll stop laughing and start listening. And then things, like unsolved murder cases and disappearances
— even if we weren't responsible — might suddenly begin to make sense.

"Try to remember what it was like to be a Breather, Alley-cat. The real world is so big and indifferent you'll grab at
anything
that will make it less frightening. Even something straight out of the movies."

"Three little bites, baby… and you won't ever have to worry about gettin' old anymore."

Seth's words. Right out of the movies.

"It's like an epidemic when that happens," Luci said. "One infects another until we're up to out asses in Hunters. I lost a real good Watcher the last time. They hung him from a tree and set him on fire while he was still alive. And once it starts there's no stopping until we're gone. One way or the other."

Allison had begun to shake her head long before Luci finished her little tale of terror.

"You can stop the bullshit, Luci. I may not be as…
experienced at
this as you are, but I think I would have heard something about roaming bands of vampire hunters. On the Ten o'clock News, if nowhere else."

Luci walked over to Gypsy and pressed up into his arms — a little girl wanting her daddy to comfort her. And
that
frightened Allison more than the verbal tripe Luci was trying to force feed her at the moment.

"You were a Breather back then," Luci said — as if that explained everything. "If stakings are reported at all it's always as something else… suicide, hit-and-runs…
accidents
. Gina was right about one thing, Alley-cat, it is mote dangerous for us to be in groups."

Then she smiled and patted the Watcher's belly.

"But I've always
lived
for danger, haven't I, Gypsy?"

"Far as I know."

Allison walked past them and looked back at the squat stucco building. Even the back of the station had flood-lit palm
trees
.

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"We break the Preacher-boy out," Luci said, coming up and throwing an arm over her shoulder.

"Then what?"

"Then it's up to him," she said. "He's always talking so much about choices, well we're going to give him a beaut. The best of both worlds… Death or Life Everlasting. We're going to see just how strong his fucking faith really is."

Allison heard the anger in Luci's voice echoed by a drunk that three policemen were hustling up the back stairs into the station. The man didn't want to go but he didn't have any choice.

Just like her.

Just like Mica.

Allison rubbed her hands over her arms and watched the man disappear behind the frosted glass doors.

Why bother
? she asked.

Luci slipped her hand off Allison's shoulder and onto her right breast.

"Same reason, Alley-cat," she said.
Because I still WANT to
. "Why do we ever do anything?"

Yeah, Allison thought. Why?