The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

home.’
    Flake poked him playfully in the
stomach. ‘They need you in there,’ she said, pointing to the museum. ‘Go be a
hero again. Good luck.’

 
    Fifty-Six

 
    Kacy’s head hadn’t cleared. She
felt nauseous and totally dazed from the impact of being hit on the head by
Napoleon’s concrete bicorn hat. Her eyesight had temporarily deserted her too.
But she could hear voices. They were the voices of the ninja vampires who had
dragged her over to the tomb where Dante was laid out on the floor in an even
worse state than her.
    ‘Yo! Save some bandages for us.
We’ve got to do the girl.’
    ‘Just strip her off. We’ll
bandage her up.’
    ‘Why do you get to
bandage her up?’
    ‘Because I’ve got the bandages,
numbnuts.’
    A third voice butted in. ‘I’ll
help you strip her.’
    ‘Okay. Hold her up while I take
her pants down.’  
    ‘All right, but hurry up. She
looks like she’s getting her wits back.’
    On hearing that she was about to
have her pants pulled down, Kacy was indeed trying her best to clear her head
and get her wits back. She felt a pair of hands slide under her armpits and
haul her up from the floor. Another figure bent down in front of her and began
unbuttoning her jeans. He got to work pretty quick too. Her jeans were tugged
down past her knees with ease.
    ‘Fuck me, look at those legs.’
    Kacy blinked a few times and
slowly began to get her sight back, albeit somewhat blurred. Her jeans had been
pulled down to her ankles. The ninja who was bent down in front of her was in
the process of frantically pulling her sneakers off.
    As her sight was returning, the
guy who was holding her up from behind reached down and grabbed the bottom of
her sweatshirt. He yanked it up over her head, where it got stuck and smothered
her face, blinding her again. She was now being twisted in all directions by
two vampires who couldn’t care less how it made her feel. Even if she hadn’t
been totally dazed it would have been difficult to put up much of a struggle.
    She felt her sneakers come off
and heard them being tossed aside. Moments later her jeans were tugged hard and
came off completely. She felt the touch of the vampire’s cold, bony hands
making their way up her legs towards her underwear (a pair of tiny pink panties
Dante had bought for her with the words FREE ENTRY sewn into the back in black
lettering). Behind her, the other ninja was still fighting hard to get her
sweatshirt over her head.
    As she felt the cold vampire
fingers tug at her panties, she heard a loud crack. The grip of the vampire’s
fingers on her underwear loosened, then his hands fell away, leaving her
underwear in place, albeit only just.
    The guy behind her stopped
tugging at her sweatshirt. ‘What the fuck?’ he said, sounding puzzled.
    BANG!
    Kacy’s felt the whoosh of a
bullet speeding past her head. The guy behind her immediately relinquished his
grip on her and she fell backwards, her head crashing down hard on the floor.
She lay there on her back feeling even more dazed than before, wondering what
had happened. After a brief moment wincing at the pain of yet another blow to
the head, she came to her senses and remembered her predicament. She grabbed at
her sweatshirt and set about pulling it back over her head to cover at least
part of her modesty.
    The blast of the gunshot was
still ringing in her ears. As she wrestled with her sweatshirt she heard two
further shots, followed by the sound of two more bodies dropping to the floor.
A few moments of quiet were followed by the sound of Rameses Gaius’s
distinctive booming voice.
    ‘Show yourself, you cowardly
sonofabitch!’ he yelled.
    Kacy finally managed to poke her
head back through the top of her sweatshirt. She took a deep breath and looked
around. Her vision was still blurred but at least was able to get an idea of
her bearings. Dante was laid out on the floor a few yards away. She expected to
see the Bourbon Kid somewhere too. He was definitely in the hall because the
results of his handiwork were in evidence. She could see a pair of dead
vampires on the floor either side of Dante. Both of them had suffered fatal
head wounds courtesy of the Bourbon Kid’s deadly aim with a gun. Two others
were on the floor, not far from her. One had a broken neck, the other one only
had half a head.
    As Kacy continued to survey the
carnage around her, a flash of bright blue light suddenly dazzled her. She saw
the source of it. Gaius was firing off blue