The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

get the fuck out of
here!’
    Flake stepped back over the
clown and slapped Sanchez across the face. Quite hard too. Rather uncalled for,
in his opinion.
    ‘Man up, Sanchez, for goodness’
sake,’ she barked. ‘We’ve got a chance to kill Jessica. She’s a vampire and by
the sounds of it, she’s the worst one of all. If we can play a part in helping
the Bourbon Kid to kill her then I think it would be pretty silly not to.’
    ‘Kind of dangerous, though,
isn’t it?’ said Sanchez. ‘Job for the police, I figure.’
    ‘We are the police, you
idiot!’
    ‘Damn.’
    Flake headed back down the corridor
again. ‘Come on, hurry up,’ she called back. ‘You’re either coming with me, or
you can take your chances with the thousands of vampires and zombies outside.’
    She had a point, and more
importantly, Sanchez noted, she had The Book With No Name. And that fucking
thing killed vampires. Wherever that book was going, he was going too.
    He followed her along the
corridor, occasionally stepping over the remains of a dead vampire or werewolf.
Flake seemed to be following the trail of corpses. She led the way up a flight
of stairs to the next floor. It was similar to the previous floor, all bloody
corridors and corpses. This was not a fun place to be. Flake continued to dash
around, opening doors, peering around them and then closing them again. She
didn’t seem to know exactly where she was going, and although Sanchez was
tempted to point this out, he had a feeling she’d snap at him again, or worse
still slap him around the chops again.
    After seeming to check every
single room on the second floor they headed up another flight of stairs that
was strewn with dead bodies. By now Sanchez was breathing heavily. It was bad
enough dashing around everywhere, but hurdling dead bodies and piles of
smouldering ash was making it even more testing. This was a lot more exercise
than he was used to. Fortunately the next floor up was totally different. There
were no more corridors, for starters. At the top of the stairs was a small
landing and a huge set of large wooden double doors with a pair of hideous
statues of naked men on either side.
    ‘This’ll be it!’ said Flake
pointing at the doors.
    ‘How can you be so sure?’
Sanchez asked.
    ‘There’s no more dead bodies.
And these are the only doors on this floor by the looks of it. This must be the
end of the trail. Follow me, and remember, you’re my prisoner.’
    Sanchez sighed. ‘I can’t see how
this is going to be believable,’ he moaned. ‘You’d never be able to take me
prisoner.’
    ‘A Sunflower Girl could
take you prisoner. And I look like a vampire, remember,’ said Flake, shaking
her head. ‘Now shut up and just play along!’
    She carefully turned the handle
on one of the doors and pulled it open. It creaked slightly as she pulled it
out towards her. Sanchez peered over her shoulder and around the door. There
was a huge hall on the other side. But it was extremely dark. Someone had
obviously forgotten to turn on the lights.
    ‘Looks like no one’s here,’ said
Sanchez. ‘Maybe we should go home?’
    Flake grabbed his arm and pulled
him into the huge hall with her. She pulled the door shut behind them, making
it even darker than before. Sanchez groped around on the wall inside the doors
to see if he could find any lights. His hand quickly settled on some switches
and he flicked them all at once. The room lit up brightly. Several sets of
chandeliers hanging from the ceiling breathed light into the room. And it
immediately became evident that they weren’t alone. Coming down a wide flight
of stairs at the other end of the hall was Jessica and a big soldier guy that
Sanchez recognised as Razor, one of four military guys who had dropped by the
Tapioca on Halloween. Razor had a firm grasp on a rather distraught looking
lady in a blue dress. Sanchez recognised her too. It was Mental Beth.
    Flake grabbed Sanchez by the arm
again and pulled him away from the light switches then she shoved him forward
towards the centre of the hall. She really was treating him like a prisoner. “How
degrading,” he thought. He was about to tell her to ease up on the shoving
when Jessica called out to them from the far end of the hall.
    ‘Is that The Book of Death
you’ve got there?’
    Flake nodded. ‘Yeah. This guy
brought it with him.’
    Jessica reached the bottom of
the stairs and stepped onto the marble floor. She hissed at Sanchez. ‘So, you
found my