Walking Shadows (39 page)

"I've got it under control, Mundy."

"That must be a refreshing change of direction for you, Hooper."

"Yeah. It is."

Mundy grinned savagely. "You've had blood in you tonight, boy."

Gary shifted tensely, then lifted his head. "It's none of your business, Mundy. I told you,
I've got it all under control. And while I'm at it, I don't do things for you anymore." A
muscle twitched in his cheek. "You can go to hell."

"Some would say that was already guaranteed."

"So are you going to shove off or not?"

An ugly, speculative gleam came into Mundy's eye. "I think… not."

And despite the fact that we had backed into the kitchen as far as we could go with Gary blocking
the way, Mundy lunged past the threshold, grabbed Evan by the shirtfront and hauled him outside.

Evan went down onto the concreted yard with a grunt of pain. Mundy was on him before he could
right himself. One-handed, Mundy lifted Evan up, propelling him across the yard until he thudded
into the trunk of the jacaranda tree.

Mundy pinned Evan there with fist and teeth, and bit down hard into Evan's throat.

Evan's shout died and his eyes were huge with terror and despair. For one panicked moment I was
rooted to the spot. Then I was through the door, aiming to pull Mundy off him with my bare hands.
Not that I thought it would work, but the only other option was to do nothing.

"Evan!" The angry cry came from above.

My way was suddenly barred by Abe's body hurtling to the yard from the rooftop. He staggered on
his wonky foot, righted himself and leapt onto Mundy's back like a crazed thing. Abe snaked an arm
around Mundy's throat and wrenched, forcing Mundy to release Evan and to scrabble at his assailant.

Evan fell to his knees, hand to the wound in his throat, trying to stem the bleeding. I ran to
him, angled his head to inspect the damage. A clean bite. Deep but not terminal. The bleeding slowed
as I watched.

While I examined his fangwork, Mundy had switched targets, twisting his body and using his stump
in an attempt to repel Abe. Abe, without another weapon to hand, tried to bite Mundy.

Mundy strained his head away from Abe's teeth. He staggered this way and that, Abe still clinging
to his torso, then gathered his strength and ground Abe against the tree trunk.

Mundy shoved his hand into the branches, wrapped his hand around one and wrested a short limb
free. Then, with a triumphant shout, he stabbed the jagged end of it into Abe's side.

Abe yelled, but did not let go.

"No!" Evan found his feet, lurched away from me and lunged at them both. He grabbed
Mundy by the stump-arm. He might as well have been pulling at a column of stone for all the
attention Mundy paid.

Gary charged into the fray, trying to force Mundy and Abe apart and failing utterly to make
headway. "No. Mundy.
Jeez.
It's under control. Let him go." Mundy refused to budge.
"Mundy, you're going to piss off my neighbours. They're going to call the cops if you
don't…"

Light spilled over the fence from the neighbour's back yard as a door opened. A young man's voice
called out, "Mr Hooper, is that you?"

Everything under the jacaranda tree stopped cold. Abe, hanging tight onto Mundy and grimacing in
pain, dug in his nails. Mundy held the makeshift stake motionless in his side. Evan and Gary hung on
to either side of Mundy, not letting go, not moving. Everybody cast a pensive look at the fence. The
police were the last thing any of us wanted.

"Um, yeah Jamie," said Gary into the incriminating silence, "it's me."

"What's going on over there?"

"Nothing really. I'm watching television."

"That's the television?"

"Um. Yes." Which would have sounded better without the hesitation and the upward
inflection. "I'll go turn it down now." Gary didn't move. Nor did anyone else.

"It doesn't sound like it's on TV," Jamie insisted. "Are you sure there isn't a
problem? It sounds like you're having all kinds of trouble over there."

Not half as much trouble as it
looks
like, from where I'm standing.
Any minute now,
Jamie was going to look over the fence and see a scene that simply could not be explained.

I knew Jamie, slightly. We nodded hello sometimes when I visited Gary. A little younger than me,
he'd grown up with Gary as his neighbour, and had developed a certain caution. Gary said they used
to talk more, until Jamie had twigged to the fact that Gary didn't get any older. Whatever
conclusions Jamie had reached on the subject were unknown. I was banking on him being like everybody
else in the world. Happy to take whatever half-arsed explanation on offer would give him an excuse
to not get involved with the weirdness. Not wanting to know provided a natural defence.

"Hi Jamie," I called out. "It's me, Lissa. We bought Gary a new sound system
today. We just finished working out how to set it up and thought we'd give it a run. Looks like it's
too loud."

"Oh, Lissa, hi," Jamie's tone was doubtful. "What are you watching?
Fight
Club
?"

"Yeah," I made myself laugh. "Realistic, isn't it?"

Jamie laughed too. "Bloody oath, it is."

Gary gave me a grateful nod. "We'll turn it down, Jamie."

"That'd be good. Only my mum's trying to get some sleep."

"Um. Sorry. Won't happen again."

"Ta, Mr Hooper."

"No worries."

We all held still a moment longer while Jamie's back door closed. The light clicked off. We were
left in darkness for one beat; two.

Then the struggle was on again, only this time silent and almost still. Abe hissed faintly in
pain, shifted his hands in an attempt to get at Mundy's eyes. Mundy bit the nearest hand, his eyes
gleaming, while he shoved the stake into Abe's ribs, trying to work it further in.

The interruption, however, had short-circuited my panic-attack and given me space to remember my
secret weapon.

Unslinging my satchel, I dumped its contents on the ground and scrabbled through the jumble for
the syringe I had almost forgotten was there. I seized it. Tore the cork off the tip of the needle
with my teeth. Leapt up with it in my hand and into the narrow gap between Evan, Gary and Abe.
Stabbed the needle into Mundy's shoulder and jammed the plunger home in a swift movement.

Mundy growled and convulsed as the drug entered his body, the violent motion knocking Evan aside.
In the next movement Mundy let go of the stake to lash out at me. His knuckles caught me in the
stomach. I crumpled, winded, to the concrete. Somewhere in the melee, Abe tumbled down as well.

I gulped for air and flinched as Mundy lunged at me. Blood streamed from his open mouth, strung
between his bared teeth, and I tried to cover my head with my arms before his body hammered into
mine.

It didn't, and I opened a cautious eye to see Mundy vanishing sideways under a blur of colour as
Gary block-tackled him to the ground. Evan, a darker, slower form, threw himself on top of the
struggling pile of vampires.

All of this, in near silence. Gary once told me what a terrible fighter he was, having been
picked on at school on a regular basis, back in the day. He hadn't learned a thing since then. He
sat on top of Mundy, swinging wild punches at Mundy's head and chest that rarely landed properly and
certainly caused little or no damage when they did. Only the fact that Mundy now had heroin screwing
with his metabolism gave Gary any advantage at all, but he had no idea how to use it.

Evan looked around the yard for a weapon. He snatched up a broom leaning against the wall, broke
it across his knee
- pausing to hiss a curse through his teeth at the pain - then wrapped his bony hands around one end
and jabbed it fiercely at Mundy.

Mundy heaved one way, then the other, to dodge the stake. In a frantic, last ditch effort, he
dislodged Gary and leapt for the roof. He landed, slipped, jammed his feet against the guttering,
his hand and stump into the roof tiles, got a better grip, stood and ran for his pathetic life.

It was beautiful to watch.

Gary, teeth bared, looked like he was going to give chase.

"Leave him," Evan said.

"Like hell," Gary began fiercely, then caught a glimpse of me being startled by his
teeth and rage, and the anger fell away. He looked, instead, dismayed and embarrassed.

"You okay?" he asked me.

"Winded, that's all. You?"

"Fine. Here," he held out his hand and helped me up.

A faint, suppressed whimper brought us back to Abe. Evan had returned to crouch at Abe's side.
Abe's hands were wrapped around the jacaranda branch as he tried to shove it further into the wound.
Each movement made Abe wince.

"Help, me." Push. Gasp. "It's stuck."

"No," the word a near-sob. "No."

Abe stopped struggling with it and laid a dead-white hand over Evan's limp, helpless ones.
"Please."

"It doesn't have to end here."

"No. And yet..." Abe's eyes were half closed and I thought I could see, for a moment,
the boy he used to be. "I have watched my family die, generation after generation, for 300
years, Evan. It will never end unless I end it."

"We could simply stop," Evan suggested miserably.

"And then what would I do?" Abe asked, his tone a peculiar mix of kindness and
acrimony, "What am I for, if not for this? I am a bringer of death, and if I am not death I
have no purpose. I can learn no other."

"Maybe we…"

"Please, Evan. It hurts. I want to stop. I have wanted to stop for so long. No-one would
ever let me. You said you might, one day. Make it today."

Evan nodded.

Gary fished a set of keys out of his pocket.

"Um, so, do you want to use the shed, then?" He glanced nervously at the fence.
"Before Jamie comes back out?"

For a moment I thought he was being callous, but his expression spoke nothing of revenge or
boredom or irritation. I wasn't sure what it looked like, but it was very, very far from not
caring.

The struggle with Mundy had happened in relative darkness. It would have been
easier to turn the light on now, but it didn't seem right. The thing we were about to do needed
shadows and silence.

Evan helped Abe to his feet, an arm slung across the boy's back. The branch protruding from Abe's
side made it difficult for them to walk. Nevertheless, they managed.

Gary's eyesight eased things. He led the way to the shed at the end of the yard and found the
padlock in the deeper darkness there. He unlocked it, waited for us to enter then he switched on the
light. A bare bulb on the end of a long cord hung from the middle of the tin roof.

I don't know what I expected. A chamber of horrors, probably. It was just a shed with a concrete
floor, lined with cupboards and workbenches. Evan lowered Abe to the ground and stood in the centre
of the room, absorbing the utterly suburban banality with the air of someone who was also surprised
at how ordinary it all was.

"You said you had things," he said.

Gary pointed at a box heaped with ancient camping gear. "Yeah. Um. My Dad and me, we used
tent pegs on Gunther. The guy who turned me."

"I know of Gunther," said Evan darkly. "I didn't know he was dead. Or that you
killed him."

Gary scratched his nose to hide his discomfort. "That was the deal. I got to put off dying,
he got to be properly dead. Anyway, the spikes are there. There's some kerosene too. And matches.
For after. You have to make sure he doesn't come back."

"I know how to do this," growled Evan.

"Yeah. I guess you do."

Tense silence followed while they regarded each other in not-quite-hostility. Gary shifted his
glance to Abe. Abe had his hands wrapped around the branch and was attempting to shove it further
into the wound again. "You're at the wrong angle for that," said Gary.

"It hurts."

"Hang on," Gary said. He crossed the short distance to the cupboards. He opened one and
transferred several items to the bench. A hacksaw. A glue gun. The chunky home maintenance book I
had seen in his house once before. The second last item was a strange, bulky appliance with a cord.
The last item was a large plastic box that rattled.

"Here," he said, turning to Evan, holding the contraption out to him. "It's a nail
gun. I use this around the house sometimes. It's pretty easy to operate. It's loaded up, you just
have to plug it in and, um, pull the trigger here." He demonstrated.

Wordlessly, Evan walked over to the bench.

"Where's the power point?" he asked.

Gary indicated a white extension cord that trailed around the space from an outlet near the wall.
Evan, staring at the gun, nodded.

"What is it?" Abe asked in a strained voice, showing morbid interest.

"It's fast," Gary expanded helpfully for him, "It should do the trick. Four or
five nails maybe."

"Good. Fast is good."

And everyone stood there, waiting for something else to happen.

Evan laid the nail gun back on the bench and returned to Abe. I thought he was going to try
dissuasion again. Instead, he helped Abe get more comfortable. Another glance up at Gary and me.

"If you don't mind.?"

Gary looked blank, so I took him by the sleeve. "We'll wait in the house," I said.

"Oh. Yeah." Gary closed the shed door carefully behind us, and we crossed the yard. In
the kitchen, I put on the kettle for something to do. There was only one cup, since Gary only ever
made tea for me. As though a cup of tea would be any use to Evan when he was done. I stood in front
of the kettle, watching it boil anyway.

Gary stood by the open door, staring broodily into the yard.

"Hey," I said, "are you all right?"

"Sure, I'm fine. I'm a vampire," he said, and I'd never heard him sound so defeated.
"I feel less every year."

I looped my arm through his. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not like Mundy. I'm not like any of them. All I wanted was a proper life and I can't
have one. I just have to make do with what I've got."