The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

shook her head. ‘I can
watch it on the monitors from here, thanks,’ she said.
    Tex pressed a button on his
control desk and a loud siren blared out in the courtyard outside. On the
monitors, Beth was able to see the hoards of vampires and werewolves react to
it. They began creeping out from their hiding places in the bushes and trees of
the courtyard. And there were lots of them. A hell of a lot. They began edging
towards the Bourbon Kid.
    Bull snapped at Tex. ‘Okay, now
turn on allthe lights.’
    Tex flicked a few switches on
and in an instant the whole courtyard lit up. Beth watched the situation unfold
on screen. Literally thousands of vampires and werewolves in the courtyard were
advancing on the Bourbon Kid, who no longer had a spotlight to himself. He
stood motionless facing down an entire army of the undead.
    ‘Get ready,’ said Bull. ‘Any second
now, he’s gonna do something.’
    ‘Like what?’ asked Razor.
    ‘I dunno, but be ready, because
when he does, they’ll rip him apart.’
      The vampires and werewolves continued to
edge closer to the Kid. He had obviously seen them, but he had not reacted. The
vampires at the front of the crowd eventually stopped just a few yards away
from him. The whole undead army stood as one, stretching the length of the
courtyard, waiting either for the Kid to make his move, or for a signal of
sorts from Bull.
    ‘We got about three thousand
guys down there,’ Bull said, smirking. ‘It hardly seems like a fair fight.’
    Beth stared at the monitors and
allowed herself a half smile. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘You’re gonna need waymore than three thousand for it to be a fair fight.’
    Bull ignored her and continued
staring out of the window.
    Although Beth wasn’t entirely
sure what they were seeing on screen, she heard a shout from Tex loud and
clear. ‘GRENADES!’ he shouted.
    From one of the other monitors A
huge ball of smoke blew up from the ground around the Bourbon Kid, obscuring
him from view completely.
    ‘Shit!’ Bull yelled. ‘They’re
smoke bombs!’
    Beth kept her eyes glued on the
screen, waiting to see what became of JD. The army of vampires and werewolves
began slowly forming a perimeter ring around the ball of smoke.
    ‘What’s he doing?’ Bull asked.
He sounded puzzled. ‘Why isn’t he shooting at them, or something? What the fuck
is he waiting for?’
    ‘Haven’t you figured it out
yet?’ said Beth, scornfully.
    Bull spun around. Everyone else
was staring hard at the bank of monitors. Tex and Razor were looking at one of
the monitors on the left. It showed the huge ball of smoke, but there was still
no sign of the Kid coming out of it.
    ‘He’s still in that ball of
smoke, right?’ said Bull.
    ‘Yep,’ said Tex, still squinting
at the screen.
    Beth cleared her throat to grab
their attention. ‘You’re looking at the wrong screen,’ she said.
    Bull looked over at her, failing
to mask the annoyance on his face. ‘What?’ he snapped.
    Beth pointed at a monitor on the
far right. ‘Look at that one,’ she said.
    All three of her captors looked
over at the other monitor. It was showing live footage of the grounds just
outside the front gates, so it had been of little interest to them once the Kid
had showed up inside the grounds.
    ‘What the fuck is that?’ Tex
said aloud on behalf of them all. He had the best view of the screen from his
spot at the desk. Bull raced over to his side, and Razor jumped up from the
sofa to join him. On the monitors it was evident that something hugewas
moving outside the gates. In fact there was a vast amount of movement. It was
coming from the woodland on the other side of the road like a tidal wave
surging towards the gates of the Casa de Ville. All three men watched aghast at
what they saw on the monitor.
    When what was happening began to
sink in, Bull spoke on behalf of everyone. ‘Oh sweet Jesus,’ he whispered. ‘God
have mercy on us all.’

 
    Forty-Three

 
    After fleeing from the Casa de
Ville’s reception area Sanchez had wandered into a large dining room. The place
was impressive, much nicer than his own dining room. It had probably been the
scene of many fine banquets over the years, or centuries. There was a long
varnished oak dining table in the centre of the room with posh high-backed chairs
lining the sides of it and a chair at either end. The walls on either side were
adorned with shelves of expensive looking ornaments, the likes of which would
be worth