Read Dance on Fire Page 26


  ***

  Michael was still speaking when he heard the door slam. He turned and swore under his breath. He needed to get the chief out of here, quickly, and needed more help if there was to be any escape from the vampire in his house and his city.

  But the chief was not the kind of help he needed.

  “Lopez, I want to know who that is and I want to know it now!” He gripped his weapon and began to remove it before Michael stopped him.

  “Don’t do that, sir.” Michael had his hands upon his boss once again, attempting to get him out of harm’s way.

  “Why not? And take your hands off of me!”

  “Chief,” he began. “This is a family matter. I will take care of it.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?”

  “I don’t know,” Michael said flatly. His thoughts were crashing into each other now as the pain from getting up continued to pound against the inside of his skull. He was in no shape to be standing up right now, much less try and convince his chief to leave him and his family alone. With each passing moment, he was afraid of what more might happen to him and his family. So, he braced himself and got tough. “And right now I don’t really give a shit!”

  “What?”

  “You heard me!” he said, taking the man by the arm again. This time, however, he did not allow the man to get free. He pulled him along the rest of his walkway amid protestations and led him down the length of the driveway. He did not let him go until he had him by the sidewalk. Many of those in uniform and robe alike turned and watched this new spectacle while the fire was nearly put out.

  “Lopez?” the chief protested further as he turned on his heels after being shoved into the street by his employee. “What’s gotten into you?”

  Michael did not answer. He simply turned and jogged back to the house.

  “Lopez?”

  Michael had half thought that he might find his way to the house barred, but the door came easily open and his access was not impeded. Vincent was waiting for him in the dining room, however. He did not appear to be pleased.

  “Did you get rid of him?” Vincent growled.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Your family is still alive, but we leave immediately. I am putting my faith in you and your wife’s trustworthiness. Should I decide that I can no longer count on that, I will shred the entire clan and leave the pieces behind. As head of your household,” the vampire said, raising a solitary finger and pointing it at him. “I will kill you last!”

  “May I ask you a question?” Michael leaned against the dining room furniture now because had he very little strength.

  “What is it?”

  As if taking note of Michael’s vulnerability and wanting to taunt him, Vincent turned and walked into the living room, forcing him to follow and exert further energy that he did not have.

  “Why are you doing this?” Michael asked as he entered the room.

  Using his peripheral vision, he could see diaper bags stacked in the hallway. Barbara came in, holding Rebekah. Behind her, Jerod held Robbie. The babies were awake and appeared perfectly fine with being up at this early and ungodly hour. Tiffany followed at the rear.

  “I am here because I have been searching for Nathaniel. At last I have found him in your fair city and, since he refuses to come home, I mean to have my revenge for an abandonment done to me so long ago.”

  “That’s not true!” Barbara said suddenly. “You killed his parents and turned him into a vampire, just like you! He may have escaped you, but there was no abandonment!”

  “All true,” Vincent sighed.

  “Besides,” Michael added. “He’s dead!”

  “Is he?” Vincent said absently.

  The vampire looked in the direction of the sliding glass door. It was obscured by the slightly billowing curtains. Now he turned and looked toward Michael. He appeared displeased by some new occurrence.

  “Is this your doing?” he asked.

  “What?”

  The vampire flashed a grin but it was neither from pleasure nor from sarcasm. It was from someplace ugly and vile and rotten. He moved forward suddenly and took hold of the table that Michael had knocked over earlier, snapping one of the legs off with very little effort. Michael flinched. Faster than they could follow, Vincent was standing before the curtains. With his left hand, he reached through them and took hold of something, pulling it forward. It was the chief. Vincent had him by his thinning salt and pepper-colored hair. With his right hand, he ran him through with the wooden leg, burying it deep inside his belly.

  Oh my God! No! Barbara turned and put herself between the horror and the eyes of her eldest son.

  “What happened, Mom?” Jerod asked, his voice elevating with each subsequent word. “What happened?”

  “Ssh!” She attempted to console her son while her eyes filled with anguish. Michael swallowed; there was nothing he wanted more than to spare his family this horror.

  “I won’t lie to you, baby,” she told him, looking deeply into his young eyes as tears sat there, cued at the precipice and preparing to crest. “Please don’t look. It’s too terrible.”

  Michael stood immobile. What had taken place was exactly what he had feared would happen. He buried his face in his hands and shuddered. A scream rose in his throat, but it was not out of fear. It was from anger. Yet he knew that he was quite powerless to do anything at the moment but obey, and wait.

  Chief O’Donnell stared at the vampire at first, and then glanced down at the object that had pierced him as if in unbelief.

  “I had already invited you inside, remember?” Vincent said through clenched teeth, still holding the man by the graying hair. “So come in!” With that, the vampire let go of the dying man, allowing him to fall inside. Chief O’Donnell landed face first into the carpet, driving the table leg deeper into him and forcing it further out on the other side. The sound of it was awful—all wet and tearing flesh. Vincent turned and left him there.

  “Come. We leave now.”

  Michael moved past the vampire toward his chief. Vincent eyed him as he did so, but seemed unconcerned. It took him some time to get to the man.

  “Chief,” he whispered, losing his voice now at the sight of the leg and the blood and the pasty face of the man who had done much for him and his career. The man looked up at him. “I’m so sorry. I tried to get you to safety, damnit! Why didn’t you just leave us alone?” Tears were coming now.

  “Hoping to help,” was all that Michael could hear though the chief’s lips seemed to be saying much more.

  “I know it,” Michael grimaced, fighting to hold on to his voice. “I know it.” And then he took note of the exact moment when the life left the chief. Though the man had not the power to close his own eyes, from behind them it was as if a television had just been silenced for the night.

  “Come or I leave you with him to share the same fate.”

  Vincent was at the kitchen door which led to the garage. Tiffany was holding it for everyone as the family was being led away. Where they were headed was unknown to all except perhaps Vincent. He seemed to be operating slightly off plan, but all that Michael could surmise was that they were about to be herded into Barbara’s Saturn Outlook Sport Utility Vehicle.

  Michael took one last look at his chief as he stood very slowly. He did not trust his balance. He said a quick prayer under his breath, something that he had not done in a very long while. Even from his living room, Michael could see patrol cars from the different parts of the valley. With the street light across the street and the glow of the fire yet to be completely put out, it looked like the dawn. When he hesitated to follow, Vincent moved through the doorway and allowed the door to slam before Michael.