The Tome of Bill (Book 6): Half A Prayer (13 page)

“Is the war effort going so badly that you’re stepping down and becoming a bartender?”

“No. Now, can you just do as I fucking ask before I rip your bottom jaw off and pour this shit down your throat?”

“You and your pillow talk,” I quipped, walking over.

She handed the pitcher to me.

“Care to split it? I’m not that hungry,” I said.

“I’ll pass.”

I lifted the container to my lips, but hesitated. “You’re not trying to poison me, are you?”

She tapped her foot impatiently.

“Did you spit in this?”

She raised her hand in a fist and cocked it back.

“Okay, okay; jeez...” I took a sip. It tasted...much like any other blood, pretty damn good. I was actually kinda digging the extra body whipping it up had added. Blood smoothies. I’d have to remember...”
Urk
!”

I almost dropped the pitcher as what felt like a small nuclear explosion went off in my stomach. Heat spread through my body and my muscles tightened. The smells in the room grew bolder, and my ears tingled as I began to pick up conversations happening on the floor beneath us. No wonder she hadn’t wanted a sip.

“So?” she asked.

I tilted my head, listening. “I think Brock is hitting on Kara.”

“Is that so? Well, then he’s definitely a part of this hunting party now. I meant the blood, by the way.”

“This is vampire blood,” I said.

“Give the man a cigar.” She held out her hands expectantly and I took the clue, handing her back the pitcher.

“You’re not going to drink that, right? Because you know what happens when...”

“I know.” She turned and put it down on top of the freezer again. “I just didn’t want any spilling.”

“Why?”

“Because of this.” She spun back toward me, eyes blackened and fangs descended. With no hesitation whatsoever, she lunged, the claws on her fingers extending into wicked talons. I didn’t know why she was doing it, but her target was painfully obvious.

She meant to tear out my throat.

* * *

I sidestepped at the last moment, her claws missing me by bare inches. She spun and threw a backhand, which I managed to parry.

“What the fuck, you crazy...”

She wasn’t interested in talking, though. In the time it took for me to open my mouth, her foot was coming up - aimed squarely at the spot where a guy my age formed his happiest memories.

Shit!

I brought down an arm to block her and slammed it into her knee. I’d only meant to stop her from crushing my nuts, but the crack of bone told me I’d hit home harder than I was trying to. If I thought that was the end of it, though, I was mistaken.

Putting all of her weight on her good leg, she came at me again, throwing a right cross. I saw it coming a mile away. I realized the blood had amped me up by a decent amount, empowering me far beyond a vamp of her age and ability. She might as well have been coming at me in slow motion. I caught her by the wrist and spun her around, bringing her arm up behind her in a hammerlock. I brought my other arm around her, pinning her to me lest she try anything else.

“That’s enough!” I growled. I didn’t want to hurt her, but if she didn’t regain control, I’d have no choice but to clonk some sense into her.

Almost at once, the fight went out of her and she stopped struggling. In fact, her posture became almost relaxed. Maybe my voice had more authority in it than I realized.

“That was better than I expected.” Her voice had a tone of admiration to it.

“Huh?”

“You can let go of me now.”

“Not until you...”

“And can you
please
get your erection out of my ass?”

Oh, shit. It was only then that I realized I was still sporting wood. Not too surprising, now that I thought of it. Sally’s tight body was pressed up against me and my left arm was around both of her breasts. This was how some pornos started. Even so... “That’s...just a pen in my pocket.”

“Mighty small pen.”

“Fuck you,” I said, releasing her. “It’s perfectly average...um, never mind that. What the hell is up with you? Any reason why you chose to go completely psycho?”

Sally limped over to a chair and eased herself down. Straightening her hurt leg with a wince, she began to massage it. “Didn’t expect you to crack my femur so easily.”

I’d used the moment to readjust my pants. No point in being obvious about things. I pointed an accusing finger. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“The blood.” She nodded her head in the direction of the pitcher.

“What about it?”

“What did you think?”

“It’s vampire blood. I’ve had it before.”

“You’ve had it like that?”

“Well, yeah...I’ve had a lot stronger too. What was the donor - eighty, maybe a hundred years old?”

“Not even close. Oh and it’s
donors
.”

“What?”

“You heard me. That was a mixture of the blood of five coven vampires, all of them youngsters - none more than a few months old.”

“That can’t be right, I...”

“Kicked my ass?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Thus proving my theory and giving us a shot in hell of actually getting back to the surface alive.”

“Whoa, hold on a bit.” I put up my hands. “Back up. I’m still not sure what you’re talking about.”

She sighed, her way of opining that her opinion of me was once more dropping a notch. “We know you can drink vampire blood, right?”

“Of course. It makes me stronger for a while.”

“How so?”

“Duh. I gain the power of whatever vamp I happen to use as a sippy cup.”

“
Gain
being the operational word there. I suspected it first way back when you took on Jeff. You managed to overpower him.”

“He was bleeding pretty badly at the time.”

“Doesn’t matter. You were slightly stronger. You’ve even said it yourself in the past: you add their powers to yours. It gives you an edge, even if just a tiny one.”

“So you were thinking...”

“Exactly. You’ve just never tried it before with multiple vampires.”

“I’m usually lucky if I can get the bite on one.”

“That’s the point. Up until now, you’ve mostly used it as a defensive power.”

That wasn’t entirely true. I thought back to Sheila’s boyfriend. What I did to him would probably be considered pretty damn offensive.

“But now,” she continued, “with us in need of some brute force with nary an ancient vamp in sight, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to run an experiment. If you only got the strength from one of them or if maybe their blood canceled each other out...” She trailed off, then snapped her fingers. “But what you did back there says otherwise. I’m not ashamed to admit you took me out way too easily - even with all the training I’ve been putting your ass through. It worked. You currently have the power of five other vamps coursing through you. On their own, they’re pretty pathetic...no real threat. Together, though, well, I’d say you probably have the power to take on a vampire twice my age.”

I considered this, and it actually made sense. “So what you’re telling me is that by drinking the blood of multiple vamps, basically they combine to form Voltron inside of me?”

“No, I’m really not saying that at all.”

“Same general concept, though.” Goddamn, why hadn’t I thought to try that before? Well, the answer was pretty obvious - the lack of willing donors. As Sally had said, I’d used it more as a defensive weapon than anything. Back when I’d ruled over Village Coven, I’d never thought of asking the various assembled vamps to line up and let me bite them all in succession. Even if I had, chances were most of them would have told me to go take a flying fuck off the Statue of Liberty. “I get what you’re saying, but I’d never really considered it. I mean, I’ve usually been happy just to be strong enough to beat off any bad guys who were kicking my ass.”

She raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Beat off?”

“Poor choice of words.”

“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

“Bite me,” I said, but with no real rancor. I was too busy considering the possibilities. Past a certain point, my body normally couldn’t handle the power and it could trigger my change into Dr. Death. The thing was, he currently wasn’t an issue. In theory, with the right slushie made from the blood of potent donors, there wasn’t any limit to what I could do.

Sally stood up and placed some weight on her leg, grimacing. It obviously wasn’t fully healed yet, but it was good enough to support her weight. She hobbled over. Almost as if reading my mind, she said, “It does open the door to possibilities, doesn’t it?”

To my surprise, I found myself grinning at the prospect. “And then some.”

Despite my earlier optimism, I realized Sally’s plan had some potential snags. For starters, the blood may have had a cumulative effect on my powers, but as it turned out, it didn’t do anything to extend the duration the boost offered. My body still seemed to metabolize it at the same rate. Thus, while it would be good for a fight or a quick escape, it still wasn’t ideal for a prolonged operation. I could get the benefit from a small sip, but there was still only a finite amount I could carry with me on a journey that would last God knew how long.

There was also the fact that Pandora Coven was a relatively young group these days. I’d picked up hints from Sally that the previous master had a few centuries under her belt, but she was no longer amongst the present and accounted for. Sally was now the oldest vamp in the building. Steve and a few others had a couple of decades on their side as well, but there were none that could be considered even remotely ancient among our number.

In short, this was far from being a done deal. Even so, I could have kissed Sally for giving us as much hope as she had. A snowball’s chance in Hell was better than none and, hey, we were in Vegas after all. Playing the odds was practically an unwritten law here.

Once our plan of action was confirmed, Sally and Steve set to work prepping things with brutal efficiency. Sally ordered mandatory blood donation from any vampires over two years in age, herself included. I was taken aback by the amount she drained from each not-so-warm body. Needless to say, if any sane blood drive had tried to do the same, they’d have been locked up for attempted murder.

To compensate, any vampire heading down with me received free access to our human blood reserves. After all, it wouldn’t do to load up for battle only to have everyone around me get all woozy and faint.

While Sally went upstairs, presumably to mix up the blood cocktails, Steve took charge assembling the strike team. His original plan called for a six-man crew: me, three other vampires, and two mages. Unfortunately, we ran into a bit of a problem with that latter part. Being part of a vampire coven meant that the concept of volunteering was more or less a bad joke. The Magi weren’t vampires, though. Technically, we could’ve tried compelling them, but I for one didn’t want to be walking into danger and suddenly have a pissed off wizard come to their senses around us. They’d been helping us for the purpose of mutual defense, but it was entirely of their own free will.

Steve tried to use the logic about the best defense being a good offense to persuade them, but one of the mages who’d helped us defend Pandora’s Box - a wizard by the ridiculous stage name of Fontaine the Astounding - pointed out there was a fair bit of difference between the patrols they helped out with and making a stab directly into the heart of the enemy.

I had to admit the risk-reward ratio on this one was kind of slim. I tried to use the argument that there must’ve been a reason the Jahabich kidnapped Ed rather than just biting his face off, but it was a dubious affair, as there was no guarantee the end would justify the means. The bottom line was this was a rescue mission because Ed was my friend. Painting it any other way was the equivalent of offering everyone a shit salad for lunch and asking them to close their eyes and dig in.

Much to my surprise, though, the truth was all we needed. We were just about to ixnay our plans for magical backup when a volunteer stepped forward - a witch by the name of Miranda. I didn’t know her too well, but I’d heard that she and her husband had been performers at a small club off the Strip. The scuttlebutt around the club was they’d been active in the community, doing what they could to help Vegas’s large population of homeless. Their generosity had proven their undoing. At some point in the weeks prior to my arrival in this city, they’d been handing out sandwiches when one of those freak supernatural storms had hit and a pair of the Jahabich in disguise had waylaid them. She’d gotten away, but he hadn’t been so lucky. Ever since then, she’d been a mainstay in our patrol schedule.

I was still surprised to hear her volunteer. In my few brushes with her, I’d gotten the impression she didn’t much like vampires. She wasn’t overly hostile toward any of us, but I definitely got the vibe that she considered us lower life forms. We were simply the lesser of evils and a means for revenge against the monsters who’d killed her mate. I didn’t figure her for the type to join us on what was probably a suicide mission. Maybe the possibility of getting some revenge in the Jahabich’s main lair was too tempting. Either way, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The plan called for six, but we could deal with five.

It turned out Sally hadn’t been joking earlier. Brock was assigned to the team, although whether it was because of his martial skills or his desire to get into Kara’s pants I didn’t know - or ask. Speaking of Kara, she actually asked to join too. She knew Ed from our days of living in New York - when I’d still possessed a heartbeat - and had been on neutral terms with him. I think it was more out of loyalty to her big brother than anything else. Regardless, Steve vetoed that quickly, assigning Vlad - not his real name, obviously - to the team. He’d served as one of the club’s bouncers back in the days when it was still entertaining clientele.

Steve put himself down as the final member of our little expedition, which made my opinion of him climb a notch. It also made me feel a bit better. I didn’t necessarily like the guy much, but he was competent.