The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

Even though he had no doubt
killed many people in order to survive as a vampire, Vanity seemed full of
remorse, not necessarily for the killings, but for the fact he had no chance to
go back to his old life.
    Kacy probed a little deeper. ‘If
you could go back to being human, would you do it? And go back to your wife?’
she asked intrusively.
    ‘In a heartbeat. I hate being a
vampire. I’d give absolutely anything to be human again.’
    Kacy took a deep breath then
blurted out what was on her mind. ‘Did you know the Eye of the Moon can make
you human again?’
    Vanity smiled. ‘Yeah, but
Rameses Gaius would never allow any of us to use it for that. Trust me, if I
could work out how to get the Eye of the Moon out of his head, I’d do it.
Problem is, he’d kill me before I got anywhere near it.’
    ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we
could get hold of the Eye though?’
    ‘Yeah, but seriously, forget
it.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘It’d be suicide.’
    ‘But if we could get it,
you could become human again and go back to your wife.’
    Vanity frowned and then looked back
over at the television. He stared for a second at the frozen frame picture of
him and his wife. Then he picked up the remote and switched the TV off.
    ‘Would you and Dante be willing
to risk it?’ he asked.
    Kacy shrugged. ‘If it was
possible, I’d want to try. Wouldn’t you?’
    Vanity sat staring at the blank
screen on the television for a while, deep in thought. Eventually he took a
deep breath and turned to Kacy. ‘You know what?’ he said. ‘I think I know a way
we can get hold of the Eye. It’s dangerous though.’
    Kacy was all ears. ‘Really?
How?’
    ‘I heard that Gaius is going to
the museum tonight. He’s planning on having the Eye cleaned by a special
diamond polishing machine they’ve got there. If we could somehow be there when
he removes the Eye from his head, we could snatch it away. The three of us,
you, me and Dante could pull this off, I think. It’ll be the only chance we’ll
ever get because he’s not gonna take that Eye out very often.’
    Kacy felt very excited. ‘Oh my
God. Do you really think we could do it?’
    Vanity nodded slowly, almost as
if he was convincing himself. ‘Actually, you know what? I really think we
could. Without the Eye he’s nothing. Not a threat to us at all. The three of us
would be more than a match for him.’
    Kacy jumped up from the sofa. ‘Oh
my God,’ she squealed. ‘I’ll go and wake Dante and tell him.’
    ‘Cool.’
    She raced back into the bedroom
to tell Dante the big news. As soon as she was out of sight, Vanity pulled his
cell phone from his pocket. He dialled the number for Rameses Gaius. Gaius
answered within one ring. His voice sounded as irritated as ever.
    ‘What do you want?’ he snapped.
    ‘It’s done,’ said Vanity. ‘I’ll
have them both at the museum tonight. You wouldn’t believe how easy it was.’

 
    Twenty-Seven

 
    Sanchez arrived at the library
just after nine o’clock and raced up the steps at the front of the building. He
reached the large wooden double doors at the entrance just as they were being
opened. Josh, the young lad who worked as assistant to the now deceased Ulrika
Price, pulled open the door on the right and was in the process of unbolting
the second door as Sanchez barged in. Josh winced as the cold air blew in
through the open door. His librarian uniform consisted only of a pair black
trousers and a thin white shirt so the fresh air would have raced right through
to the bone on the fresh faced teenager. He looked quite surprised to see
anyone arriving so early too, particularly someone like Sanchez who was not
exactly a regular bookworm.
    ‘Morning, Sanchez,’ he said, his
brown hair blowing up out of his face courtesy of a gust of wind from outside.
    ‘Good day to you, young man,’
said Sanchez with an air of officialdom in his voice. ‘It’s Detective Garcia to
you though. I’m here on official police business.’
    Josh looked surprised, but he
looked Sanchez up and down, no doubt admiring his uniform. Then he shrugged.
‘Sure thing, Detective. Is this about Ulrika Price?’
    ‘No. Why would it be?’
    ‘Well, she’s gone missing. I’m
not supposed to even be working here any more because she fired me yesterday
morning.’
    ‘What a bitch.’
    ‘Yeah. Apparently just a few
minutes after firing me she vanished off the face of the planet. I thought if
she’d been reported as a missing person I might be on