The Traveling Vampire Show(149)

 

I started bawling again. This time, I didn’t feel embarrassed about it. I was in too much anguish for embarrassment.

 

“I have to do this, honey. It’s the right thing to do. You know it and I know it.”

 

“No!”

 

“Let me have the bow,” she said, her voice gentle and sad.

 

Though I blurted, “NO!” I didn’t resist when she pulled it from my hand. Nor when she removed the quiver from my back. “I thought we were gonna fight,” I protested.

 

“I’m sorry,” she said.

 

She carried the bow and the quiver of arrows to the side of the cage, reached through a space in the bars, and let them fall to the ground.

 

Turning toward Stryker, she raised her arms in surrender and called, “It’s a deal!”

 

“Very good. You won’t be sorry. ”

 

He stood up, stepped in front of the bus and made some gestures with his hands. All around us, black-garbed men and women came out of the darkness. Some appeared from behind the bus and truck. Others climbed out from under bleachers. I didn’t count, but got the impression there must’ve been fourteen or fifteen of them. About half of them carried spears.

 

They all walked toward our cage.

 

A few paces from the bars, they stopped. One of them bent down and picked up the bow and quiver. All of them gazed at the body of Valeria. Some were scowling. Many shook their heads and looked dismayed. Others appeared to be weeping.

 

Stryker stepped up to the cage door.

 

Looking around at his crew, he said in a loud voice, “This has been a terrible night.” Heads nodded in agreement. “I know how much Valeria meant to all of you... and to me. She was a very special lady. Very special. We’ll all miss her terribly.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “However, the show must go on. To that end, let me introduce the woman who will take over Valeria’s role... our new vampire, Lee Thompson.”

 

Murmurs and quiet applause came from the crew.

 

Stryker stepped forward, bent over slightly in front of the door and turned the dial of the combination lock. A few seconds later, he removed the lock and swung the door open.

 

Lee moved toward it, but Stryker entered. Taking her by the shoulders, he guided her backward toward the middle of the cage. “You’re already in part of the outfit,” he said. “Let’s see how you look in the rest of it.”

 

The crew applauded again, this time with some eagerness.

 

Standing rigid in the middle of the cage like a proud soldier, Lee removed her sleeveless chambray shirt. She stood there in the rain, naked except for the very short skirt of red leather.

 

Stryker picked up Valeria’s red, bralike top.

 

Lee stood motionless while he slipped the straps up her arms, cupped her breasts inside its stiff leather, and stepped behind her to fasten its back.

 

Vivian entered the cage, carrying the black cape.

 

Stryker took the cape and swept it over Lee’s shoulders.

 

As he backed away from her, she spread the cape wide open, swept it high like bat wings and called out, “I AM LEN-ORA THE VAMPIRE!”

 

Stryker’s black-shirted gang of thugs went crazy, cheering and clapping and shouting.

 

I thought to myself, Holy shit. What’s this?

 

With all eyes fixed on Lee and with so much noisy appreciation coming from the crew of The Traveling Vampire Show, nobody seemed to notice the hearse.

 

Including me.

 

Not until it came roaring through the rainy night, headlights off. At the last moment, half a dozen of Stryker’s people turned and yelled and tried to jump out of the way.

 

They didn’t make it.

 

The hearse, probably doing sixty, roared between the side of the cage and the bleachers (the stands under which Slim had disappeared), ramming through everyone there. They bounced off the grill and hood and roof. They did cartwheels through the rain. A few spears, along with Slim’s bow and quiver of arrows, leaped from hands and flew off into the night.

 

Stryker gaped at the mayhem.

 

I whirled around, crouched and snatched an arrow out of the mud—the arrow I’d struggled so hard to pluck from Valeria’s breast.

 

I’d dropped it when Lee threw me to the ground during the storm of spears.

 

Leaping up, I spun around and drove its razor-sharp point into the side of Stryker’s neck so hard it popped out the other side.

 

His eyes bugged out.

 

I grabbed Lee’s arm. “Let’s go!” I yelled. I jerked her arm.

 

She looked at me, a frenzy in her eyes, then flung off the vampire cape and let out something that sounded the way I always imagined one of those “rebel yells” from the Civil War must’ve been like ... an ear-splitting cry full of rage and wild joy.