"I can't fight you all!" he sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Maybe if I knew some magic I could take one of you with me… but at least you're going to have to work for your kill!"
With that he tore loose from my grasp and swooped away.
His words stunned me so much I almost let him escape. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to call out to him.
"Hey, dummy! Nobody's trying to kill you!"
"Yeah, sure," he shouted back. "You're up here just for the fun of it."
He was starting to bank toward the street, and I knew I'd only have time for one more try.
"Look! Will you stop running if I quit chasing you? I think there's a major misunderstanding here."
He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that I was still where I was when we collided. Altering his course slightly, he flared his wings and landed on a carved gargoyle ornament jutting out from the side of the building.
"Why should you want to talk?" he called, wiping his face with one hand. "I thought nothing I could say would change your mind."
"You'd be surprised," I shouted back. "Say, do you mind if I land on that ledge near you? I feel pretty silly just hanging here."
He glanced at the indicated ledge, and I could see his wings flex nervously.
"C'mon," I urged. "I'll be further away from you there than I was when we started this chase back on the roof. You'll still have a clean shot at getting away if I try anything."
He hesitated, then nodded his consent.
Moving slowly so as not to alarm him, I maneuvered my way to my new perch. Truth to tell, I was glad to get something solid under my feet again. Even using magic, flying can take a lot out of you, and I was relieved to get a chance to rest. Now that I was closer, I could see that Vic was breathing heavily himself. Apparently his form of flying was no picnic either.
"All right," I said in a much more conversational tone. "Let's take this thing from the top. Who says we're trying to kill you?"
"Matt does," the vampire responded. "He's the one who filled me in on you and your pet demon. To be honest with you, I had never even heard of you until Matt explained whose home we had stumbled into."
"Matt?" I frowned.
Then I remembered. Of course. The third member of the fugitive party. Luanna's old con artist partner who nobody had been paying attention to at all. A germ of an idea began to form in my head.
"And he says we're out to kill you?"
"That's right. According to him nobody crosses the Great Skeeve or makes a fool of him and lives… and using your house as an escape route definitely qualifies."
The reputation thing again. I was beginning to realize why so many magicians preferred to lead the lives of recluses.
"That's crazy, Vic." I said. "If I tried to kill everybody who's made a fool of me, I'd be armpit-deep in corpses."
"Oh yeah?" he shot back. "Well. if you aren't out to kill me, why did you send your pet demon after us?"
Despite my resolve to settle this thing amicably, I was starting to get annoyed.
"First of all, he's not my pet demon. He's my partner and his name is Aahz. Secondly, I didn't send him. He knocked me out cold and came himself. Third and final, he was never out to kill you. He was trying to bring you and your cohorts back to Deva so we wouldn't get stuck paying off the people you swindled plus a hefty fine. Are you getting all this, or am I going too fast for you?"
"But I didn't swindle anybody," the vampire protested. "Those two offered me a job helping them sell magic charms. I didn't know they weren't genuine until Matt said the customers were mad and we had to run. I suggested we hide out here because it's the only place I know besides the Bazaar."
"Uh-huh," I said, studying the sky. "Next you'll be saying you didn't frame my partner or sound the alarm on us when we tried to spring him." Vic's wings dropped as he hung his head.
"That much I can't deny… but I was scared! I framed the demon because it was the only way I could think of to get him off our trail for a while. I really thought he could get loose on his own, and when I saw you at the Woof Writers', I knew he was going to get away. I sounded the alarm hoping you would all get caught and be detained long enough to give us a head start. Looking back on it, they were pretty ratty things to do, but what would you do if you had a pack of killer demons on your trail?"
Now that I could identify with. Chumley's words about Vic and I being alike echoed in my ears. I had had to improvise in some pretty hairy situations myself. "Wait a minute!" I growled. "Speaking of killer demons, what was that bit with you dangling Luanna over the edge of the building back there?"
"I was bluffing," the vampire shrugged. "Your friends were threatening to shoot me if I tried to fly away, and it was the only thing I could think of to try to get them to back off. I wouldn't deliberately hurt anyone… especially Luanna. She's sweet. That's why I was trying to help her escape with me after they caught Matt."
That brought me to the question that had been nagging at my mind since I started this wild chase.
"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you just change into mist and drift away? We could never have caught you then."
Vic gave a short, bitter laugh.
"Do you know how rough it is to turn into mist? Well, you're a magician. Maybe you do know. Anyway, you might as well know the truth. I'm not much in the magic department… in fact, I'm pretty much a bust as a vampire. I can't even change all the way into a bat! These wings are the best I've been able to do. That's why I was looking for a new life in the Bazaar. I'd rather be a first-class anything than a third-rate vampire. I mean, I don't even like blood!"
"You should meet my bodyguard." I grinned despite myself. "He's a gangster who's allergic to garlic."
"Garlic? I love garlic."
I opened my mouth to offer him Guido's job, then shut it rapidly. If this character was half as desperate as he sounded, he'd probably take the offer seriously and accept, and then where would I be? All we needed to complete our menagerie was a magic-poor vampire.
"Well," I said instead, "I guess that answers all my questions except one. Now that you know we aren't trying to kill you, are you ready to quit running and face the music?"
The vampire gnawed his lower lip as he thought.
"You're sure it will be all right?"
"I can't say for sure until I talk to my partner," I admitted, "but I'm pretty sure things will be amenable. The main problem is to get the murder charges against him dropped… which I think we've already accomplished. As for you, I think the only thing they could have against you is false arrest, and there's no way Aahz will press charges on that one."
"Why not?"
I gave him my best grin.
"Because if he did, we couldn't take you back to Deva to deal with the swindling charge. Believe me, if given a chance between revenge and saving money, you can trust Aahz to be forgiving every time."
Vic thought about it for a few more moments, then shrugged.
"Embarrassment I'm used to dealing with, and I think I can beat the swindling rap. C'mon, Skeeve. Let's get this thing over with."
Having finally reached a truce, however temporary, we descended together to face the waiting crowd.
Chapter Twenty
"There's no accounting for taste!"
"BUT Skeeve…"
BANG!
"…I told you before…"
BANG! BANG!
"… I could never abandon Matt…"
BANG!
"… he's my partner!"
BANG.'BANG!
"But Lu…"
BANG!
"… excuse me. HEY, PARTNER! COULD YOU KNOCK OFF THE HAMMERING FOR A MINUTE? I'M TRYING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION HERE!"