The Traveling Vampire Show

Chapter Sixty-one

“I’ll make you a deal!” Stryker shouted.

Lee whirled, drawing back the bowstring.

I saw a dark shape hunkered by the front door of the bus.

“That him?” Lee asked.

“Not sure.”

Lee called out, “What sort of deal?”

“We’ll let you and the kids live if…”

Her arrow flew, hissing through the rain.

“Fuck!” Stryker yelled.

The arrow must’ve come close, but it missed him. Lee shook her head, then turned and handed the bow to me. “You’d better do the shooting.”

As I got ready with the arrow I’d plucked from Valeria, Stryker shouted, “Don’t do that again or I’ll have you writhing on lances, screaming your lungs out. ”

Lee yelled, “Chuck you, Farley!”

“Just listen to my offer! Do you want to die in that cage? Do you want the kids to die?”

Kids? He meant me, of course, but who else? Rusty and Slim? Bitsy?

Though I took aim at the shape that was probably Stryker, I didn’t release the arrow. At this distance, I’d be lucky to hit him. So I lowered the bow.

“You said you’d let Rusty go if I went up against Valeria,” Lee shouted. “So where is he?”

“You weren’t supposed to KILL her.”

“Fortunes of war, buddy. ”

“Here’s the new offer.”

“You didn’t keep the OLD offer. Screw you. ”

“Would you like a demonstration?”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

Suddenly, Stryker blew his whistle. It shrilled through the night like the sound of an angry track coach.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then spears were flying out of the darkness toward our cage. Lee threw me to the ground and shielded me with her body. I heard a clamor as if something had struck a bar and bounced off. Then came the wet thunking sounds of spears punching into the mud.

Lee climbed off me. Raising my head, I saw six or seven spears sticking out of the ground. They formed a rough circle around us.

We got to our feet. I still held the bow, but it didn’t seem like much of a weapon after the storm of spears. And I’d lost the arrow.

“Next time I blow the whistle, ” Stryker yelled, “they won’t miss. Interested in hearing my offer?”

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“You killed our sole attraction.”

“Not me, ” Lee said.

“You, your friends, it’s all the same. Valeria’s dead. We’re out of business unless we replace her. I want YOU to be her replacement. Agree to surrender and come with us as our vampire, and I’ll let the kids go home. ”

“Why me?” Lee asked.

“You’re perfect. You’re brave and strong… and luscious. ”

“I’m not a vampire. ”

“No problem. All you need to do is travel with our show and take on all comers in the cage. ”

“For how long?” Lee asked.

“You can’t!” I blurted at her.

“For as long as I say. ”

“And you’ll let everyone else go?”

“Certainly. I would HAVE to, wouldn’t I? If I don’t release them, you won’t keep your side of the bargain. ”

“You’re right about that.”

“How about it?”

“Give me a few minutes to think it over. ”

“Of course.”

We turned away from Stryker and faced each other. “You can’t do it,” I said.

“What other choices do we have?”

“Fight.”

“They’ll kill us easily.”

“Maybe, maybe not. At least maybe we can take some of them with us.”

“I don’t want you to get killed, Dwight. Or me, for that matter. Not to mention Slim and Rusty. For all we know, maybe they’ve even got Bitsy. We might all die if I don’t take his offer.”

“You can’t!”

“I’ve got to.”

“What about Danny?” I asked.

At the mention of my brother’s name, her chin started shaking. In a voice that trembled, she said, “Tell him that I love him. This… this is something I had to do. Tell him I’ll always love him. And I’ll come back to him if I can.”

I started bawling again. This time, I didn’t feel embarrassed about it. I was in too much anguish for embarrassment.

“I have to do this, honey. It’s the right thing to do. You know it and I know it.”

“No!”

“Let me have the bow,” she said, her voice gentle and sad.

Though I blurted, “NO!” I didn’t resist when she pulled it from my hand. Nor when she removed the quiver from my back. “I thought we were gonna fight,” I protested.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

She carried the bow and the quiver of arrows to the side of the cage, reached through a space in the bars, and let them fall to the ground.

Turning toward Stryker, she raised her arms in surrender and called, “It’s a deal!”

“Very good. You won’t be sorry. ”

He stood up, stepped in front of the bus and made some gestures with his hands. All around us, black-garbed men and women came out of the darkness. Some appeared from behind the bus and truck. Others climbed out from under bleachers. I didn’t count, but got the impression there must’ve been fourteen or fifteen of them. About half of them carried spears.

They all walked toward our cage.

A few paces from the bars, they stopped. One of them bent down and picked up the bow and quiver. All of them gazed at the body of Valeria. Some were scowling. Many shook their heads and looked dismayed. Others appeared to be weeping.

Stryker stepped up to the cage door.

Looking around at his crew, he said in a loud voice, “This has been a terrible night.” Heads nodded in agreement. “I know how much Valeria meant to all of you… and to me. She was a very special lady. Very special. We’ll all miss her terribly.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “However, the show must go on. To that end, let me introduce the woman who will take over Valeria’s role… our new vampire, Lee Thompson.”

Murmurs and quiet applause came from the crew.

Stryker stepped forward, bent over slightly in front of the door and turned the dial of the combination lock. A few seconds later, he removed the lock and swung the door open.

Lee moved toward it, but Stryker entered. Taking her by the shoulders, he guided her backward toward the middle of the cage. “You’re already in part of the outfit,” he said. “Let’s see how you look in the rest of it.”

The crew applauded again, this time with some eagerness.

Standing rigid in the middle of the cage like a proud soldier, Lee removed her sleeveless chambray shirt. She stood there in the rain, naked except for the very short skirt of red leather.

Stryker picked up Valeria’s red, bralike top.

Lee stood motionless while he slipped the straps up her arms, cupped her breasts inside its stiff leather, and stepped behind her to fasten its back.

Vivian entered the cage, carrying the black cape.

Stryker took the cape and swept it over Lee’s shoulders.

As he backed away from her, she spread the cape wide open, swept it high like bat wings and called out, “I AM LEN-ORA THE VAMPIRE!”

Stryker’s black-shirted gang of thugs went crazy, cheering and clapping and shouting.

I thought to myself, Holy shit. What’s this?

With all eyes fixed on Lee and with so much noisy appreciation coming from the crew of The Traveling Vampire Show, nobody seemed to notice the hearse.

Including me.

Not until it came roaring through the rainy night, headlights off. At the last moment, half a dozen of Stryker’s people turned and yelled and tried to jump out of the way.

They didn’t make it.

The hearse, probably doing sixty, roared between the side of the cage and the bleachers (the stands under which Slim had disappeared), ramming through everyone there. They bounced off the grill and hood and roof. They did cartwheels through the rain. A few spears, along with Slim’s bow and quiver of arrows, leaped from hands and flew off into the night.

Stryker gaped at the mayhem.

I whirled around, crouched and snatched an arrow out of the mud—the arrow I’d struggled so hard to pluck from Valeria’s breast.

I’d dropped it when Lee threw me to the ground during the storm of spears.

Leaping up, I spun around and drove its razor-sharp point into the side of Stryker’s neck so hard it popped out the other side.

His eyes bugged out.

I grabbed Lee’s arm. “Let’s go!” I yelled. I jerked her arm.

She looked at me, a frenzy in her eyes, then flung off the vampire cape and let out something that sounded the way I always imagined one of those “rebel yells” from the Civil War must’ve been like… an ear-splitting cry full of rage and wild joy.

On our way toward the cage door, we each jerked a spear out of the mud.

We were just outside the cage when the hearse skidded to a stop near the rear of the bus.

We ran for it.

It started backing toward us.

I had a pretty good idea who must be behind the wheel.

A few spears flew past us, but missed.

Somebody leaped out of the bus door and confronted us with a machete. Before he could swing it, Lee shoved her spear into his mouth and I plunged mine into his stomach.

Leaving the spears in him, we sprinted for the hearse.

It slid to a halt. I was first to reach its passenger door. I grabbed the handle and jerked it open.

“In!” I yelled at Lee. “Jump in!”

She dived in and I scurried in after her.

Slim turned her head. “I’m back,” she said.

She stepped on the gas. The hearse lurched forward, its passenger door slamming shut without any help from me.

I figured we should finish the escape, but Slim had different plans. She made a high-speed pass along the other side of the cage. This time, she didn’t have quite the same element of surprise working for her. She only managed to mow down one of Stryker’s people.

“Can we go now?” I asked.

“Sure.”

With that, Slim steered around the end of the bleachers, put on the headlights and sped across Janks Field. The hearse shuddered and shook over the rough muddy ground. We bounced and swayed.

I saw the crippled Cadillac sitting abandoned. And Lee’s pickup truck. And two or three other cars that had been left behind.

“Want me to drop you off at your pickup?” Slim asked.

“No thanks,” Lee said. “Just get us out of here.”

“You sure? I’d be glad to.”

“I lost my keys.”

“We’ll go back to my car,” Slim said, and sped toward the dirt road that would return us to Route 3.