The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

night?’
    ‘Only one way to find out. Let’s
go see him.’
    Kacy looked at her watch. ‘It’s
well past four o’clock,’ she said. ‘Do we need to worry about the sun coming
up?’
    ‘No. The sun always comes up,
doesn’t it?’
    ‘That’s not what I meant you
idiot. I mean, if we’re outside when the sun comes up are we going to melt or
something like that?’
    ‘I have no idea.’
    ‘Then let’s get a move on!’
    They hurried back up the stairs
to the reception area. It was still eerily quiet up there and thankfully still
dark outside. As they sidestepped their way through the blood and mess on the
floor on their way out, a face appeared at the glass double doors at the
entrance. It was the terrified face of a young boy, no more than eight years
old. He banged hard on the glass doors and appeared to scream something like “ Help
me!”
    Before either Dante or Kacy
could react, a second figure appeared behind the boy, swooping out of the
darkness. It grabbed him around the waist and dragged him back away from the
doors. A second later the boy and his much larger assailant had vanished.
    ‘Fuck me,’ said Dante. ‘Did that
really just happen?’
    Kacy tried to process the image
in her head. It had happened so fast. ‘Did you see who that was that grabbed
the boy?’ she asked.
    Dante nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s some
fucked up shit. I guess we’re not the only vampires out at this time of night.’
    ‘Have you seen that guy before?’
    ‘Yeah, but only with you, and he
wasn’t a vampire then.’

 
    Two

 
    Beth woke from her gentle slumber.
Her bed was warm and cosy. Warmer than usual because she had shared it with JD,
finally reunited after eighteen years apart. She couldn’t remember ever waking
up feeling so happy. She had allowed him to fall asleep before her simply
because she had been so happy to just stare at him, knowing that it was real
that he had come back to her. She rubbed her eyes and rolled over to look at
him again. The duvet on the other side of the bed had been pulled back.
      JD was gone.
    Her
heart missed a beat. Had it all been a dream? Had he really reappeared at the
end of the pier where she was waiting? Where she’d waited every Halloween night
all those years?
    She
thought hard. Her head felt fuzzy and she was still coming to terms with waking
up so early. The curtains were drawn and it was still dark outside. She reached
over and felt the bed where the duvet had been pulled back. It was still warm.
She decided she couldn’t have dreamt it. It wasn’t possible. The whole thing
had been so real, right down to the moment when she had fallen asleep in his
arms.
    She
spied a small piece of brown cloth resting on the pillow on the other side of
the bed. She grabbed it and held it up in front of her face to get a good look
at it. Sewn into the centre of it was a dark red heart. In the centre of the
heart in blue letters were the initials JD. It was a relief to know she wasn’t
going crazy. This was the proof she needed to confirm that the previous night
hadn’t been a dream. But what was the significance of the cloth? Did it mean
he’d left? Was it a goodbye note of some kind?
    In one swift move she jumped up
from the bed, wrapping herself in the duvet as she did so. Her bedroom suddenly
seemed cold and empty where it had felt warm and full of life only moments
earlier. She scurried around the bed and opened the bedroom door. Peering out
into the poky living room in her one bedroom apartment she saw no sign of anyone.
Just as she was beginning to panic, dreading the thought that she might be all
alone again, the door to the apartment opened. In walked JD.   He was wearing the same jeans, black
T-shirt and black leather jacket as he had when he’d turned up near the pier
the night before. He saw the worried look on her face and calmed her instantly
with a gentle smile.
    ‘Sorry, did I wake you?’ he asked.
    Beth breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I
thought you’d gone.’
    ‘Just went outside for some fresh
air. I couldn’t sleep.’
    He took off his jacket and threw
it on to the back of her green two-seater sofa, then plonked himself down on
one side of it, facing the TV. He picked up the remote and flicked the TV on. A
late night action movie came on.
    Beth shuffled over to the sofa, holding
the duvet close to keep herself warm. She sat down next to him and kissed him
on the cheek. ‘I thought for a horrible minute that I’d dreamt last night.’
    ‘Maybe