The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

sharp intake of breath and
muttered two words. ‘Use it...’
    ‘Use it for what?’
    He took another short breath. As
he exhaled he coughed up a few more words. ‘Use it to…’
    ‘To what? Use it to what?’
    ‘Use it to…’ He couldn’t muster
up the rest of the sentence. Instead he exhaled one last time and then his head
slid to one side. Kacy squeezed his cheeks and turned his head to face her.
    ‘Use it to what?’ she pleaded.
‘What’s it for?’
    Vanity didn’t respond.
    ‘What’s it for?’ she repeated.
‘Vanity! Vanity! Use it for what?’
    It was no use. Vanity was no
longer breathing. He was dead. Who or what had killed him she wasn’t entirely
sure, but she had neither the time nor the patience to stop and worry about it.
Instead she climbed to her feet and hurried over to the stairs that led down to
the lower floor and the Egyptian Mummy’s Tomb.
    As she made her way down the
stairs, she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and
checked the display.
    NEW TEXT MESSAGE
    She opened the message. It was
from the Bourbon Kid. It was only four words long, but it was exactly what Kacy
needed to hear.
    I’m on my way.
    She breathed a sigh of relief.
The feeling of respite, however, lasted only momentarily. When she reached the
bottom of the stairs she saw Rameses Gaius. He was stood with his back to her
in the middle of the giant hall. In front of him were four vampires from the
Black Plague clan, dressed from head to toe in black ninja style outfits. On
the floor in the middle of them was Dante. It was clear that he was either
unconscious or dead. The ninjas had managed to wrap him in bandages from his
feet up to his waist. His clothes had been stripped off and thrown to the floor
by the tomb entrance. Vanity had been right, they were preparing to bury him
alive, all bandaged up like a mummy.
    None of them had seen her arrive
and she quickly concealed herself behind a large statue of Napoleon Bonaparte.
She had to decide what to do quickly. Was there time to wait for the Bourbon
Kid? What could she do on her own? As she was mulling over her options she
heard the voice of Rameses Gaius. He hadn’t even looked around, but he’d become
aware of her presence.
    ‘Miss Fellangi, how good of you
to join us!’ he called out to her.
    She pretended not to hear him
and stayed concealed behind the statue. The four ninja vampires looked around.
None of them spotted Kacy spying on them from her spot behind the statue.
    Gaius called out again. ‘Please
come out from behind Napoleon.’
    The game was clearly up. Kacy stepped
out from her hiding place behind the statue. Her only option was to try and
stall Gaius long enough for the Bourbon Kid to arrive and hopefully fix things.
    ‘Is Dante alive?’ she asked.
    Gaius turned around slowly and
faced her. He took off his dark sunglasses and tucked them into the breast
pocket on his silver suit jacket. Kacy got a good look at his right eye. In its
socket was the Eye of the Moon. So much for taking it out to have it polished.
While she stared at his eye, Gaius raised his right arm. The palm on his hand
was glowing a bright blue colour and it was aimed at her. She sensed something
bad was coming her way and darted back behind the statue.
    A blue laser bolt from Gaius’s
palm blasted into the floor right where she had been standing. After striking
the ground, it ricocheted up and disappeared out of sight up the staircase
behind her. His face showed signs of irritation. He redirected his aim,
pointing his hand at the statue of Napoleon. Another laser bolt flew from his
palm and crashed into the head of the statue. The sheer force of the bolt
knocked it off its concrete stand. The statue tumbled down onto Kacy. She tried
to dive out of the way but Napoleon’s hat butted her on the side of the head,
knocking her to the floor.
    As she lay dazed and
disorientated underneath Napoleon, she heard Gaius speak out again. He wasn’t
talking to her this time. He was addressing the four vampires he had brought
with him.
    ‘Go get her,’ he ordered. ‘Wrap
her up and throw her in the tomb with her idiot boyfriend.’
    ‘Yes sir,’ one of the vampires
replied.
    She felt a pair of cold hands
haul her up from the floor. Her cell phone fell from her pocket and clattered
onto the floor. She was still seeing stars so she had no idea where it landed.
As she was dragged across the floor by one of the ninjas, she heard one of the
others speak