The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

it. He headed
over to the black car and grabbed the door handle on the driver’s side. Kacy
followed on behind, checking to see if anyone had noticed them, knowing full
well that Dante would have the door open in a matter of seconds. Sure enough he
did. He climbed in and reached over to the passenger door, unlocking it. Kacy
opened it and climbed in to find he was already in the process of hot-wiring
the car.
    ‘Why are you starting the car?’
she asked.
    ‘If we can hide his car from him
he can’t jump in and drive off without us.’
    ‘Would he do that?’
    ‘Let’s just say his track record
ain’t good.’
    ‘What if he comes back and
catches you?’
    ‘He’ll be okay about it. I
think.’
    Kacy pulled the car door shut.
The snow outside was still falling hard. Had she not been a vampire she
suspected she would be feeling the cold. ‘Hurry up will you?’ she urged. ‘I
don’t wanna get caught.’
    A second later the car’s engine
burst into life. ‘Listen to that,’ said Dante. ‘This is a fuckin’ beautiful
car.’
    A figure appeared at Dante’s
window. The driver side door swung open.
    Kacy screamed. ‘LOOK OUT!’
    Dante turned to see who had
opened the door. Before he could speak, a large hand grabbed him by the hair
and dragged him out of the car. Kacy opened her door again and jumped back out
into the street. She raced around the car and found Dante on his backside on
the sidewalk, at the feet of the man who had dragged him out of the car.
    Dante looked up at her. ‘Kace,
this is the Bourbon Kid.’
    The Kid ignored Kacy and instead
grabbed Dante’s hand. ‘What the fuck are you doin’ tryin’ to steal my ride?’ he
asked, hauling him up from the sidewalk.
    ‘We been kinda looking for you,
man,’ said Dante dusting himself off.
    ‘Why? What do you want?’ The Kid
took a step back and took a long hard look at both Dante and Kacy. ‘And when in
the fuck did you become a vampire?’ he asked.
    ‘Last night,’ Dante replied.
‘Right after you ditched me and drove off.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘I got bit by a fuckin’ vampire.
You were supposed to come with me to rescue Kacy from the fuckin’ Secret
Service guys, remember?’
    The Kid shrugged. ‘Sorry, man. I
had other places to be.’
    ‘Yeah, well we’re both stuck as
fucking vampires now. Unless we can get the Eye of the Moon back from this
Rameses Gaius guy.’
    ‘Rameses Gaius?’
    ‘Yeah, some kinda mummy. He’s
running the show around here now. He’s planning to take over the city, then the
world. He’s amassing a huge undead army.’
    ‘How do you know all this?’
    ‘We were summoned to the Casa de
Ville this morning. That’s where he’s staging all this from.’
    ‘The Casa de Ville?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Fuck. And there’s a whole army
of vampires there?’
    ‘Yeah. And they’re getting the
werewolves in on it too.’
    The Kid looked rattled. ‘Didn’t
I kill all the fucking vampires yesterday?’
    ‘Evidently not. You got most of
the Shades, Pigs and Dreads, but there’s fucking loads of these Pandas and
Black Plague dudes around.’
    ‘I fucking hate Pandas.’
    Kacy butted in, hopeful of an
answer to Dante’s earlier question. ‘So can you help us get the Eye of the Moon
back from Gaius?’
    The Kid frowned. ‘How the fuck
did a Mummy get his hands on the Eye of the Moon?’
    ‘They got it from Peto,’ said
Dante.
    ‘The monk?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘And where’s he now?’
    ‘They cut his head off.’
    ‘Good,’ said the Kid. ‘That monk
was a cunt anyway.’
    Kacy asked again. ‘Can you help
us or not?’
    ‘I got problems of my own. My
girlfriend is either dead or about to be dead. If she is alive, she’s at the
Casa de Ville,’ he started moving towards his car then added, ‘and from what
you’ve just told me, the place is gonna be a fucking fortress.’
    Dante stepped aside to allow the
Kid to get to his vehicle. ‘It’s a bitch when someone’s holding your girlfriend
hostage, ain’t it?’ he remarked.
    ‘Guess it is.’ The Kid climbed
into the driver’s side of his car and reached out to the pull the door shut.
Dante grabbed a hold of it.
    ‘Hold on a minute,’ he said.
‘You want a hand rescuing your girlfriend?’
    ‘No.’
    Kacy stepped forward and leaned
into the car. ‘If we help you, can you help us get the Eye of the Moon back
from this mummy?’
    The Kid looked up at them both
and was obviously pondering their offer. After a few seconds he spoke up.