The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

but let’s hurry
up and get inside.’ He pushed at the black door at the front of the place. The
door opened easily. ‘There’s all kinds of creepy fuckers around this place
usually, so stay close to me,’ he added.
    ‘Great.’
    He led the way up several flights
of stairs. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Not one single creepy looking person.
Not even a Depeche Mode fan. It was as empty as the streets outside.
    ‘This place is dead,’ Kacy
whispered.
    ‘Weird,’ said Dante. ‘Last time I
came here there were vampires hanging around on the stairs doing all kinds of
shit. I wonder where they’ve all gone?’
    A voice from above answered him.
‘They’ve gone to the Casa de Ville.’
    They both stopped and looked
upwards. A vampire with shoulder length dark hair, wearing wraparound shades
and sporting a neatly trimmed goatee beard was staring down at them from the
landing a few floors up. Dante recognised him straight away.
    ‘Hey Vanity, how you doing?’ he
said, waving.
    Kacy recognised the outfit Vanity
was wearing. He had on the same black leather jacket that Dante had been given
when he had infiltrated the Shades clan of vampires a few days previously.
Underneath it he wore a plain black T-shirt, his outfit topped off with a pair
of black jeans and matching ankle boots.
    ‘Come on up!’ Vanity called down
to them. ‘I’ll get you some clean clothes. And you can tell me what the fuck
you’ve been doing all night.’
    Kacy grabbed hold of Dante’s hand
and followed him up to the landing where Vanity had been. By the time they
reached it he had moved into a large hall. It was a pool hall with numerous
tables scattered around and a long bar against one wall.
    ‘Through here,’ said Dante. ‘I’ve
been in here before. Had a fight with some clowns the other day.’
    ‘Why does that not surprise me?’
    Inside the pool hall Vanity stood
beside one of the pool tables in the centre of the room. He had tossed a couple
of black leather jackets on the table. The words “The Shades” were sewn into the
back in gold lettering. Tacky as hell, Kacy thought, but she kept her
opinion to herself out of politeness.
    Vanity took off his sunglasses.
His eyes were unlike anything Kacy had ever seen. They flickered between three
different colours. Like a rotating disco ball they flickered from gold to black
and then silver to black before repeating the routine. The image was
practically hypnotic. He stared at her for a moment before turning to Dante.
    ‘So who’s the girl?’ he asked.
    ‘She’s a babe I just picked up,’
Dante replied. Kacy let go of his hand and allowed him to walk up to Vanity and
slap hands with him. ‘She’s kinda cool. You’ll like her.’
    Vanity pursed his lips and
looked Kacy up and down. ‘What’s your name, honey?’ he asked.
    ‘Kacy.’
    ‘Kacy. Nice name,’ he said
looking her up and down again. ‘Fit too. She’ll go down well in the initiation
orgy. All the guys will love fucking her.’
    Kacy felt her blood run even
colder than when she had become a vampire hours earlier. ‘What?’ she
spluttered.
    Vanity grinned. ‘I’m kidding.’
    Kacy breathed a huge sigh of
relief. She saw Dante wipe a bead of sweat from his brow. He had obviously
fallen for Vanity’s dubious wisecrack too.
    ‘Here,’ said Vanity tossing a
leather jacket to Kacy. ‘Put this on. The three of us gotta haul ass. All
vampires have been summoned to the Casa de Ville by Rameses Gaius.’
    ‘What for?’ Dante asked.
    ‘You heard about all the shit
that’s gone down tonight, right?’ said Vanity.
    ‘Heard the Bourbon Kid killed a
lot of people,’ Kacy chimed in, saving Dante from having to reveal where he was
when it had all kicked off.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Vanity nodding.
‘Turns out Déjà Vu was the Bourbon Kid. Did you know that, Dante?’
    Dante was putting on one of the
leather jackets from the pool table. He pretended not to have heard Vanity’s
question for a few moments, dusting off the jacket as he considered his answer.
At this point it was hard to know whether or not Vanity knew that he knew this
information already and was testing him. Kacy jumped in and provided the answer
for him. ‘We heard the word on the street,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s talking about
it.’
    ‘No shit,’ said Vanity. ‘Did you
hear that they caught him though?’
    Dante answered immediately this
time. ‘Seriously? They caught the Bourbon Kid?’
    ‘Yeah. Some military guys that
Gaius hired