The scent of sleepy-time was still strong beneath the rot, and because Eli didn’t have the gas masks we had used in the past, we stood guard at the door and waited for the gas to clear, which seemed to take forever. When Eli gave the word, I rushed inside and slammed my back against the wall, with Eli on the other side of the door opening.
Instantly I moved left, the M4 in both hands, held close. The room took up the entire front half of the structure and was lit by low-wattage bulbs in wall sconces. It had once been a tavern, and a tarnished copper bar ran nearly the length of the back wall, with a blackened mirror over it. Someone had graffitied unimaginative erotica on it, mostly oversized sex organs and fangs. It looked like something I might see in a redneck vamp-biker bar.
The sunlight revealed abused hardwood floors; dark-painted walls, maybe navy; and broken furniture. There was a three-legged pool table propped up on a trash can, a sagging couch, a door laid out on sawhorses as a table, and a few chairs. And humans lay everywhere, some looking as if they’d fallen just now, others as if they’d been there quite a while. There were body fluids puddled under some of them and quivering movement over their flesh. Maggots. I hate maggots. I could hear the buzz of flies depositing more eggs, and as I crossed the room, they flew up, disturbed. Yuck.
I counted eight humans in the old bar, all dead except one, and she was nearly so. Eli pointed to the narrow hallway in back. It ran along the outside of the building, and the iron-covered windows had been boarded over, then painted a hideous shade of violet over the chair rail and an even more hideous shade of mustard below. I took point. Two doors opened into the hallway, and Eli positioned himself to cover me. If a sleeping vamp was using it as a lair, I’d be toast. If humans were hiding there, they probably wouldn’t have inhaled enough sleepy-time to be out.
I opened the door. The room on the other side had once been the men’s toilet, but the plumbing had stopped working recently and no one had bothered to fix it. I made a face at the stink and the mess and closed the door. Quickly. Shuffling silently, I slid my back down to the next. It was the women’s toilet. And it was where the vamps kept their snacks.
Three naked women were handcuffed to the exposed pipes, and all showed crusted wounds at every major pulse point, blackened eyes, and bodies covered in pustules, evidence of the vamp plague. One cradled a broken arm. Her eyelids fluttered open and she started to whimper, stinking of pain sweat and fear pheromones. I wanted to curse, but I placed a finger over my lips to silence her. Her eyes went wide and she started to cry, realizing that help had arrived. Five minutes, I mouthed to her, showing her my open fingers.
She nodded hard and fast, and mouthed back, Don’t leave us.
I nodded and closed the door. Like I’d ever leave someone prisoner. I held up three fingers to Eli so he knew what I’d seen, and moved on down the hallway. The door at the end hung crazily by one hinge. I ducked my head out and back fast, letting my brain make sense of what I’d seen. Another large room, part storeroom, part kitchen, with a large walk-in refrigerator taking up one corner. Debris and busted furniture covered the floor, but no bodies. Eli joined me at the doorway, still covering our backs, and I moved into the room, checking to make sure I’d missed nothing, no hiding places for a blood-slave with a weapon, no vamp lying in wait for fresh food. I approached the refrigerator. Its door was open and it was empty except for a large white circle painted on the floor. I’d seen one once before and closed the door, making sure it wouldn’t open from the inside. Eli looked curious, but said nothing.
I pointed to the side of the fridge and waggled two crooked fingers, miming climbing stairs, before I stepped over parts of a chair and put my back against the wall. Air flow was moving slowly along the steps, with cooler air moving downstairs near the floor and warmer air near the ceiling rising to the second story, mixing and commingling right where I was breathing. I dropped to one knee and opened my mouth, drawing in air from above over my tongue and the roof of my mouth.
There was the usual herbal smell—sage, grass, and a faint undertang of pine—and there was the fermented smell, slightly beery, I’d come to associate with Naturaleza. But beneath it, like the odd bottom note of a really weird cologne, was a dry, musty, limy scent, like cement dust and roaches. I tried to remember if I’d smelled this particular stink when the vamps attacked Eli and me in the woods, but I hadn’t noticed it. The air had been open and moving there. Here the vamp reek was concentrated, and it smelled dry and scaly, like Francis in Esmee’s garage.
I stayed where I was, kneeling, parsing the scents until I was certain. Upstairs were at least two, maybe three vamps. I held up two fingers, made a waffling motion with my hand, and held up three fingers. Eli bent and looked up the stairs quickly, pulled back, and nodded. He pointed to the flashbangs on his belt. I hesitated and then shook my head. I couldn’t explain it, but the place felt open and large. Flashbangs worked best in enclosed spaces and small rooms.
He shrugged and gave me a thumbs-up. I rose, readied my shotgun, and peeked up the stairs into the pitch-dark. Eli didn’t have his low-light equipment with him. He would be blind. I pulled on Beast’s night vision and speed, taking the steps two at a time, not bothering with stealth, my boots pounding on the treads. My vision expanded into sharp focus, blues and greens and silvers. The upstairs was one large room, exposed rafters, wood floor, low furniture, the ceiling held up with columns. The first vamp charged as I cleared the stairs. I swiveled the M4, squeezed the trigger, and took off his head. He fell as the boom reverberated, and I lost hearing. I raced inside and felt the vamp more than saw her as she leaped at me. From across the room.
I missed the head shot, my round taking her in the shoulder, spinning her off course enough for me to drop the shotgun on its sling as I drew the vamp-killer. She landed with a bounce on her injured side, and screamed the high-pitched squeal of the dying or severely injured vamp. It was loud enough to hurt even above the shotgun-induced deafness. I raised the blade and brought it down with my weight behind it, grunting hard.
The strike cut through the side of her neck and buried the blade in the floor. She stopped moving on one side, so I’d done some spinal damage, but she clawed at me with her other hand. I glanced around, making sure I wasn’t under attack by the remaining vamp, and put a foot on her chest, yanking to free the blade. The fast healing of the Naturaleza half-sealed the cut. She was screaming and brought up her hand to grab the blade. I kicked her hand and brought down the blade again, taking her head with a whack that jarred my arm. Her head rolled free; blood gushed. The usual gore, but this time with the odd stink I’d noticed. Spidey-vamp stink.
I raced to the center of the room, hearing Eli shouting, “Lights!” I whirled, seeing nothing, then stopped and closed my eyes. Electric light flooded the place. And the last vamp rammed Eli, taking him to the ground. She was fleshy and powerful, dressed in what might have once been a white dress but was now covered with dried blood and filth. Her dark hair streamed out behind her like a whip as the two impacted.
With my left hand I pulled a silver stake, knowing that the silver wouldn’t be deadly even if I hit her heart but all the other weapons might injure Eli. The Ranger rolled, lifting her over his body, ramming her into the wall. I sprinted across the room, bringing my left arm over my head. She rebounded from the wall and landed on Eli before he could find his feet, her momentum bowling them both over. I timed my steps and brought my arm down, piercing her dress, back, and internal organs. Not feeling the heart give, knowing I’d missed. And made her mad.