Chapter Thirty-Seven: Leaps of Faith
DANIEL drove slowly down the block, past a long row of small, suburban houses. The street was dark, lit intermittently by street lamps, with only the occasional light showing in any of the windows. He reflected that there was some advantage to having started their adventure so late in the evening, since most of the residents were probably deeply asleep. He shook his head slightly as he reflected that only three hours ago, he had lived in a sane, rational universe where he worked the night shift, had to pay taxes and rent, and worried if his truck needed gas; now he was driving in Oakland in the middle of the night, 40 miles away from home, hunting a vampire after a corpse woke up and told him who had killed it. Daniel honestly didn’t think his day could get any more bizarre.
“There it is,” Nikki murmured into his ear, pointing across the street. He could hear her tension and barely restrained excitement.
“Are you sure?”
The delirious urgency which had been driving her had fallen away when Daniel had put the truck in gear and started speeding down the freeway toward the Easy Bay, toward Oakland and the terminus of her...dream. She still seemed calm and self possessed -- the polar opposite of the woman she had been in the Medical Examiner's office after the corpse had grabbed her.
Hell, he thought, I’d have pissed myself and worse if it had grabbed me.
Unperturbed by his expressed doubt, she nodded, “Yeah -- I recognize the lawn flamingo and the bright red mailbox. I think it used to have a Snoopy on it, but some of the neighborhood kids stole him.”
Daniel glanced at her uncertainly, wondering if she was just making that up to tease him. He was disturbed by her calm certainty.
“Okay. It looks like we might be able to get through on the other side as well, though we might have to cut through a neighbor’s yard if it comes to that.”
Nikki hesitated, “Why don’t we just...you know...go!”
He glanced over his shoulder as he smiled grimly, “Odds are, we’re all going to be doing a nickel apiece at Soledad for first degree burglary come this time tomorrow, but I’d like to slant the field away from that a little bit. That starts with knowing how we’re going in, how we’re getting out, and some idea of our plan of attack.”
Nicolette nodded slowly, “Okay. What do you want me to do?” Her voice was subdued as she spoke. She had been contemplating fighting the (vampire!) girl’s attacker since Daniel had begun their drive to Oakland, fearful of the violence and the potential harm that could come from such a fight; she had never even paused to consider the consequences of their actions. She shook her head in disgust. Nicolette had already served one prison term for first degree burglary -- and gotten off fairly lightly, all things considered! She doubted that a second such conviction would end as well. She felt nauseous at the thought of another lengthy prison term, of losing her privacy and newly won freedom. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d jumped into a dangerous situation without stopping to evaluate personal cost, but she had hoped she might have learned at least a little sense.
She snorted in disgust, shaking her head, Still thinking two steps ahead, with no thought about where you are now.
Daniel circled the block, then drove an extra block further, before pulling over to the side.
“I think we should go in the front and sweep from front to back; Nikki can be waiting in the truck on the other side. We’ll have to hop the neighbor’s back fence, but I didn’t see any hint of dogs or barbed wire. If we get lucky, we can be on the way out before anyone calls the police. Tommy? Any thoughts?”
Tommy’s brow briefly furrowed, then he shrugged after a moment’s consideration, “S’a small shotgun single.”
Daniel nodded thoughtfully; the home looked to be small and rectangular, with the short side facing the street. If the house had been bigger or multistoried, clearing it would have taken an unacceptably long time, possibly necessitating more equipment and a more sophisticated plan. But, like most of the homes on that city block, it wasn’t big or multistoried. It had only a modest bit of decorative landscaping; a small square of grass, a couple trees, some patchy flowering bushes and little else. He wouldn’t have minded owning it...though he doubted it would ever be in his price range...especially if he was going to be spending the next five years stamping license plates.
Next time, browse Google Maps, he thought. Start reconning the place en route instead of five minutes before going in. It never even occurred to him to wonder at the unconscious inclusion of “next time”.
He turned to Nikki, “Can you drive my truck?”
She hesitated, then nodded; it was an automatic, thankfully, though bigger than anything she had learned on. Her biggest worry was taking responsibility for his truck when he clearly had so much investment in it.
After moment’s pause, he unclipped his seat belt and hopped down to the pavement while Nikki climbed over the center console and settled in the driver’s seat. The wheel and pedals seemed impossibly far away, and she struggled a moment with the seat, bringing it closer to the dash. She could still feel the warmth where Daniel had been sitting a moment before, taking comfort from the fantasy proximity. Even when things were so hopelessly messed up between them, she still found comfort in his presence. She watched expressionlessly as he pulled himself into the passenger’s seat, though she noticed he didn’t bother to use his seatbelt.
He pulled the door closed, “Circle the block one last time, then drop us at the corner. We’re going to try and go over the fence through the neighbor’s yard on the way out, so find a place to wait on the other side. You know where?”
She nodded tensely, remembering where the neighbor’s driveway came out on the other side of the block. As she approached the intersection, she felt her heart accelerating; suddenly this had gone from something contemplated in the abstract to something dangerously real and immediate. She could feel Daniel's impatience as she drove at little more than a fast walk, then braked sharply, watching as Daniel reached out and caught himself on the dash. She braced herself for a sharp comment or an indirect rebuke, but he was focused and intent, staring out into the darkened suburban streets.
She wondered how he could be so calm; she was just going to be sitting in the truck, doing little more than waiting and she was almost shaking with terror. Her earlier resolve had been shaken at the realization that this might be the last time she would see Daniel alive. Her throat ached at the prospect. She wanted to say something, to explain her feelings, in case... She pushed the thought from her mind, knowing it was sapping her courage. She focused on finding something to say while she still could.
Unaware of Nicolette’s internal struggle, Daniel quickly surveyed the quiet neighborhood. He wished it was darker and that there was better hard cover, but the situation wasn’t too bad.
“Give us, say, 10 minutes. If we’re not out by then, bail. Same if you start to hear sirens. But Nikki...” he hesitated, knowing she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say next, “Stay in the truck. You’re already on legal thin ice, what with you being on probation. We’ve already had you trespassing, the last thing we need is for you to leave any forensic behind. I’m guessing it won’t take much to get you in serious trouble...”
He watched as she bristled, starting to say something biting, but something in his tone brought her up short. He watched as she relaxed, then visibly forced herself to nod, “No, not much.”
She took a deep breath, then nodded again, meeting his eyes as she said, “Be careful.”
He smiled tightly, then threw a quizzical glance at Tommy in the back seat; Tommy just nodded, favoring Daniel with a small, amused smile; as far as Daniel could tell, Tommy wasn’t even nervous. He glanced one more time at Nicolette, “Leave the window open while you wait.”
“Daniel...”
He turned, waiting for her to speak. Though her face was partly in shadow, he could see her throat working as she tried to speak. On impulse, he reached out, lightly cupping her cheek, “I might.
..I definitely owe you an apology. When I get back, we’ll talk.”
She heard the emphasis on when, then nodded, suddenly finding her voice deserting her.
He withdrew his hand, his voice becoming businesslike, “Ten minutes. And leave the window open.”
This is fucking nuts! he thought, feeling the preliminary adrenaline dump as he pulled open the door and stepped onto the pavement, aware of Tommy stepping down beside him. They both eased their doors shut, then began walking along the block, heading toward the small grey house near the other end of the block as Nicolette pulled away from the curb, then signaled a left. Daniel pulled out a pair of rubber medical gloves from his pocket, pulling them on with ease that spoke of long habit. Wordlessly, Tommy held out the sharpened wooden dowel until Daniel took it and pressed the 7 inch length of sharpened wood against this forearm, hiding it from anyone that might chance to observe them walking down the street. Tommy pulled on a pair of dark purple rubber gloves as well.
He glanced at Tommy, his cool facade and Mona Lisa smile making Daniel aware of the prickle of sweat that had broken across his forehead despite the relative coolness of the night. Disconcerting as his equitable acceptance was, Daniel found it reassuring that the thought of breaking into a stranger’s house on suspicion of -- he almost couldn’t suppress a smile at the thought -- undead, and then subsequently fighting said undead didn’t seem to phase him. He felt reassured that his wingman was steady; years of friendship had given them a measure of rapport and trust, but it wasn’t often that friendships were tested under such insane circumstances.
They approached the end of the block, passing a pink stucco house, its yard busy with plants and lawn decorations, the faint rush of the freeway subtly filing the air around them. He half turned to Tommy, murmuring quietly, “I’m not going to wait. There’s no security screen, so I’m just going to go straight up the steps and kick in the front door.”
Tommy nodded, “Won’t have much time after.”
Daniel nodded back, “I know -- but if we move fast enough, we might get lucky.”
Tommy snorted, making his disdain for reliance on luck clear. They passed the low fence of the pink stucco house, coming abreast of the grey house. The facade facing the street was split between bay windows in a convex curve toward the street, and a square arch with a recessed front porch on the other half. He could see a window in the front porch facing the street; the front door was perpendicular to the front steps, opening into the room fronted by the bay windows. As they walked up the short path though a front yard of red lava rocks and desert succulents, Daniel’s mind automatically noted the front door probably opened into the living room while the window probably was a bedroom. They passed into the shadow of the house’s peaked roof, climbing the three steps into the front porch. Daniel was gratified when the steps barely made any noise at all.
He was on the left edge of the steps opposite the front door, moving slightly ahead of Tommy. He spared one glance at Tommy, then picked up speed as he climbed. Years of practice searching hooches (homes, his mind autocorrected) allowed him to time his approach perfectly, capturing his momentum as he raised his foot and threw every bit of his nearly 200 pounds into a point two inches beyond the door’s lock plate. The door exploded back with a heavy, splintery thud, the frame shattering into splinters. The door smashed back against the wall with a smaller secondary thud. Daniel used his forward momentum to carry him through the doorway into a spacious living room. He was aware of Tommy following him, almost at his heels.
Nicolette rounded the corner, watching Daniel and Tommy walking down the darkened suburban street toward the grey house near the end of the block. How they managed to look so calm, knowing that they were about to face down a monster... She doubted she would be so collected...as if that hadn’t just been unambiguously proven not two hours ago at the Medical Examiner's office. She desperately wanted to shower and change her clothes, hating the way they clung damply to her body, hating the way they made her feel. She wrinkled her nose in discomfort as she rounded the corner and began heading up the block, looking for a place to park the Ford while she waited. She wished it wasn’t so loud or so...big. It made her feel obvious and exposed. What would she say if a peace officer showed up, asking questions?
Gee officer, I know I’m an ex-con 40 miles from home sitting in a truck that I don’t own, hanging out with the engine idling, acting as though I’m the getaway driver for a felony which is likely in progress, but I, um, couldn’t sleep. And went for a drive. In someone else’s truck. Are there any weapons in the back? It’s not my truck, so I have no idea, but, I’m gonna go with....’No’?
Nicolette had always possessed mediocre parking karma, but she murmured a fervent prayer of thanks to whomever might be listening that it was in tonight as she found a shady bit of curb which was almost directly across from the driveway where she expected (hoped!) they would come out. She deliberated a moment, then turned off the engine, knowing that the heavy throb it made could be heard from a long distance. She wanted to be ready to drive away at a moment’s notice, but didn’t want to attract undue attention. She stared intently down the driveway, waiting for even the slightest hint of movement. She traced the line of rooftops on the other side of the block until she found the one she thought was the Haverford’s home, just barely visible over the fence at the far end of the driveway across the street.
How many ways am I in violation of my parole tonight? I already got one count of trespassing; I’m willing to bet there are weapons in Daniel's truck which aren’t locked up; knowing that Daniel and Tommy are going to commit a crime puts me in conspiracy territory, and since I’m driving the darned getaway vehicle probably makes me an accomplice. Not bad for 4 hours of effort, doofus.
Abruptly she was angry, snarling at herself and her burgeoning self pity. She smacked her palm against the steering wheel, imagining she was swatting away her self-doubt.
You know you’re right; I would gladly do the time if it means a six year old gets a chance to escape from a monster, maybe even to grow up and mean something. You got a cruddy hand; deal with it, because right now you -- and by extension Daniel and Tommy -- are all she’s got!
Daniel's words came back to her, driving thoughts of parole and self-pity out of her mind. She frantically thumbed the switch to roll the window down. Cold, night air filled the truck, bringing with it the smell of damp air and the heavy perfume of a gardenia bush flowering nearby.
Did I miss anything...?, she wondered, holding her breath in an effort to pierce the gloom and silence, broken only by the distant rush of the freeway.
A minute passed, then two as she strained to hear anything -- sirens or any noises that might be signifying. As she sat, listening, eyes wide, she was filled with a sudden certainty that things were happening just out of the range of perception. She found herself imagining all of the terrible things that might be going on, helpless to stop herself from playing out all the various scenarios. As she waited, feeling more and more certain that things were going sideways, her imagination supplied her with an exceptionally vivid tableau.
She sat, heart hammering at the prospect she imagined, until the sound of breaking glass startled her out of her momentary paralysis. She swore vehemently as she jerked the truck’s door open, then hit the pavement running, unmindful of the soft dinging Daniel's truck made as it tried to warn whomever was listening that the door was open with the keys still in the steering column...
Clock’s ticking, he thought, time for the real work to begin.
He and Tommy crouched at one end of the living room, the silence deafening after the thunderous crash of the door being kicked open. Somewhere in the house, a clock ticked away the seconds as they waited for a response.
The house remained silent. As his eyes adjusted to the deeper gloom of the interior of the house, Daniel saw a couch along the left wall of the room, a fireplace and an entertainment cabinet directly across from the couch. Deeper in th
e gloom, he could see a dining table surrounded by chairs, with what he suspected was the kitchen beyond. On the far side of the couch, Daniel saw a doorway which probably opened onto a short hallway which led to the bedrooms and the bathroom.
He drew in his breath sharply as he realized that someone was sitting on the couch...or reclining on it. The light wasn’t good enough for him to be sure. He and Tommy began edging forward, weapons up.
Seriously, Daniel? You’ve been trained to use the most modern high tech weapon available to any army in the world, and when you kick down a door intent on doing violence....you do it while clutching a toothpick in your fist...?
The figure on the couch was a woman, but there was no doubt she was dead. Standing over her, he could smell blood and other things that she’d done while she died. He reached out to check her pulse...but hesitated as he realized there was nowhere to put his fingers -- even in the gloom he could see ragged flesh where her throat should have been. He checked her wrist, but immediately withdrew his hand; her flesh was cold and hard. There was nothing he could do for her.
He quickly moved on, moving deeper into the house. Only his breathing and the clock ticking to itself off to his right broke the silence. He hesitated, listening. Certainty that the house wasn't empty stole over him. He shied away from the source of that certainty even as he embraced the knowledge.
Time for metaphysics later, he admonished himself.
He glanced over his shoulder, meeting Tommy’s eyes, then signaling with his head toward the dining area and the kitchen. They both began moving quietly toward the back of the house. Daniel was acutely aware of the corpse at his back, his imagination juxtaposing the mutilated woman with the memory of Mr. Haverford sitting up. He suppressed a shudder as he felt a cold sweat prickling along the back of his neck.
He resisted the temptation to keep checking her after conceding the point exactly once, seeing only the top her head, her hair hanging limply over the arm of the couch, where it fell into shadow. He paused next to the doorway into the other half of the house, while Tommy leapfrogged him to check the kitchen, clutching the stake in his right hand, a knife held point down in his left. Daniel nodded approvingly, wishing he’d thought to bring along his utility knife.
Jesus we did this half assed!, he thought acerbically.
He studied the darkened hallway beyond the door, waiting for Tommy to finish his check. The short hallway was one of only two or three spaces in the small house that didn’t have any windows, the velvety darkness almost a physical presence. He waited, listening, trying to size up the evolving tactical situation based on the noises he could hear. A quiet shuffle from the kitchen drew his attention as Tommy leaned back around the door arch that separated the living room from the kitchen. Daniel raised his eyebrows questioningly, silently querying. Tommy shook his head slightly, then hesitated.
Tommy’s widening eyes were the only warning he got.
An orange flicker and a blur of movement caught the corner of his eye, but he was already rolling to one side as something heavy whickered through the space he had just vacated. A splinter stung his hand as the axe buried itself up to the haft in the wooden flooring with a thunderous crash, making the dining room table jump. Daniel, crouched almost on top of Tommy’s feet, spun and lunged, aiming the point of his shoulder at the shadowy form that had detached itself from the deeper shadow of the hallway.
Just lost your weapon, shithead!, he thought, as the figure had one instant to struggle with the axe before Daniel's shoulder smashed into it, at least one of its ribs breaking with a muted meaty pop. The hit drove the figure back into the hallway before it could pull the axe free of the flooring. Surprised at the resistance he felt, Daniel continued driving his opponent backward, taking advantage of the man’s hunched over position to drive the stake home once deeply, then a second time less so as blood slicked the surface of the smooth wood.
Abruptly, the man dipped lower than Daniel and tried to grab him in a bear hug; Daniel used his opponent’s shoulder for leverage, hoping to push him to the ground and stab him again. That was when Daniel noticed his eyes; they were glowing an unmistakable orange in the gloom, causing Daniel to momentarily hesitate. That was all the man -- the vampire, Daniel's unconscious mind finally conceded -- needed as the momentary loss of pressure allowed it to hook Daniel's knee with its arm, using his other arm to wrap Daniel's waist. Daniel threw his weight onto the monster’s head, pushing toward the ground, fully expecting a momentary stalemate which might let him stab it again. He hoped that perhaps Tommy might get a shot in, but Daniel was blocking the doorway, his body between Tommy and the vampire.
Daniel was shocked when the vampire lifted him off the ground and slammed him into Tommy, driving the smaller man sideways as it charged into the dining room, using Daniel's hips and lower back as a battering ram, scattering chairs and upending the dining room table with a deafening crash. Daniel was only dimly aware of the agony blossoming in his lower back as the dining room table nearly severed his spine just above his hips. Knowing he had a second before he was crushed against the wall opposite the hallway, Daniel threw his weight to the side, almost as if he was trying to slam his head into the floor. The vampire wasn’t expecting that, stumbling to the side even as he tried to hold his victim upright so he could crush it against the window frame. They both went down, rolling on the dining room floor, ending with Daniel almost sitting on the vampire’s head.
He immediately wrapped his legs around the vampire’s head, catching one of its arms as Daniel locked his ankles and arched his back. He didn’t have the leverage to break its neck, but it was momentarily pinioned face up. Tommy was there in an instant as the vampire began thrashing about, its physical strength tremendous, the effort to hold it exhausting. Tommy stabbed viciously downward with the wooden stake, looking as though it was going to strike through the monster’s chest, but a sudden thrash to the side caused Tommy’s stroke to land in its shoulder, just above the collar bone, almost in Daniel's knee.
The vampire shrieked, a sound like tearing sheet metal, multiplied by the vampire’s malice and hatred. Tommy’s biceps and arm bulged as he dragged the blade in his left hand across the vampire’s throat, nearly slicing open Daniel's thigh, ending its terrifying shriek with a loud buzzing gurgle. Daniel swore as he felt the warm rush of blood from the vampire’s ruined throat soaking his jeans. Tommy raised the stake to try for another stab, but the vampire twisted to the side, twisting its spine at an almost impossible angle to deflect the stab with the sole of its shoe, causing the wooden stake to splinter inches from Daniel's hip against the hardwood floor. Daniel tried to wrench it to the side, hoping to give Tommy a stab though the side of its ribcage like a slaughterhouse pig, but it used its free hand to grab to dining room table to anchor itself.
In the instant after Tommy’s stake splintered against the floor, he was momentarily overextended and off balance; the vampire’s foot caught Tommy square in the chest, lofting him into the air, hips first through the window, glass exploding into the yard like a bomb. A detached part of Daniel's mind hoped it was safety glass as he watched Tommy land in the middle of the window frame, broken glass likely stabbing up through this thighs as he settled half in, half out. Daniel lost track of Tommy as the vampire let go of the dining room table and began using its blood slicked hand to twist into the gap of Daniel's thighs, giving it leverage to break his lock with its unbelievable strength.
Just. Fucking. Die!, he thought, as he fought exhaustion and frustrated rage. Daniel redoubled his efforts, feeling every muscle in his lower body quivering with effort, but the vampire freed enough space to twist its head to the side. He saw fangs, and realized almost an instant too late that it was going to bite the inside of his left thigh. With a surprised yell, Daniel yanked back on its hair, holding its head back as he unclasped his ankles, then clumsily rolled to his feet in a knife fighter’s crouch. They stood, momentarily in stalemate in the ruins of the Haverford family’s living room, s
hattered furniture and glass scattered across the floor, massive blood stains smeared and spattered across the hardwood flooring and walls.
That same detached part of his mind wondered how much of that blood was Daniel's...he suspected very little of it. If the vampire had been a man, he and Tommy had probably killed it four or five times over; but as a vampire...it seemed pretty fucking lively as it crouched, snarling wetly, gurgling hideously in its throat with its back to the darkened hallway. Its strange luminescent eyes, lit from within by the vampire’s malevolent animus, flicked back and forth between Tommy and Daniel. Tommy, having levered himself out of the window frame, stood between it and the front door Daniel had kicked in, holding his stake point up in his right hand, his bloodied knife point down in his off hand. Daniel stood blocking the kitchen, still clutching his blood-slicked stake.
Daniel felt a predatory grin begin to spread across his face as he realized in some unconscious, subliminal way that the balance of power had shifted.
It doesn’t think it can beat us anymore, he realized, studying the vampire. It’s afraid.
Daniel felt his grin widen, knowing that unless the vampire could see in the dark, the whiteness of his teeth was probably the most visible thing about him in the dim interior of the house.
“Tommy,” he panted hoarsely, “let’s stake this motherfucker.”
The vampire bared its teeth (fangs!) at them, gurgled a challenge, then abruptly lunged into the dark corridor behind it. Daniel and Tommy lunged after it, momentarily getting in each other’s way as Daniel realized an instant too late that it was making for the back door in the kitchen into the yard. He snarled with frustration as he shouldered Tommy aside, annoyed that he hadn’t just gone into the kitchen through the dining area and intercepted it.
It’s going to escape!, he realized, as it lunged ahead of them toward the back door; Daniel had no illusions that he could outrun the monster in his current exhausted and likely injured state.
The post-adrenaline hangover is going to suck.
The stray thought was quickly pushed aside as he pounded through the hallway, Tommy on his heels. Daniel snarled as the vampire threw open the back door...
...and pulled back in surprise when it found the back door blocked. It stared down at a girl he didn’t recognize, her pale skin cyanotic from the fluorescent light over the doorway. Aware that its pursuers had pulled up short behind it, it raised its fist, intending to shatter her skull for impeding its progress.
Daniel’s lungs froze with horror as he helplessly watched the vampire draw its fist back, its muscles bunch as it prepared to plow through her. Daniel inhaled to shout a warning that he knew would be useless, but abruptly stopped short, his shout unvoiced. Above and behind Nicolette, he saw a recurrence of the blinding silver-white glowing orb, filaments spread around it, as if two wings stretched to either side, the ends of that network of nacreous filaments curling around her. Two of the filaments had wrapped around her head, appearing to bloodlessly penetrate the skin of her temples, two more filaments similarly penetrating her throat. As he watched, a pulse of silvery white light traveled down the filaments in her neck; they reached her skin, then passed through, momentarily lighting up her voice box as she spoke a single word:
“Wait.”
Nicolette stood on the back porch, still panting from the effort of climbing the back fence. She did track and field in high school and had never fully stopped running or exercising -- even when she had been in prison, she had never fully allowed her level of fitness to completely desert her. It had been an awkward endeavor dressed in her work clothes, but her sense of urgency had impelled her to make the running jump and pull herself up enough to throw a leg over the top of the fence after a short but fierce scramble. She knew with absolute certainty that she needed to get to the back door first.
She had arrived on the back doorstep just as the door was flung open, coming face to face with a horror; a cadaverous man, his cheeks sunken and blackening with decay, fangs almost as long as her thumbs bared at her, the scent of freshly turned earth and the coppery sent of blood saturating the air around her. Its glowing orange eyes fell on her as it pulled its wrinkled cyanotic lips back in surprise, the horrible red gash it its throat bubbling with a froth of blood as it snarled, the gash momentarily widening as its head tilted back.
Later, the moment would fill her nightmares with all of the things the monster could have done to her, but at that moment, she felt nothing, only an absolute certainty that it would obey her command. She watched as it drew back its fist, intending to knock her out of its way so it could escape.
“Wait,” she commanded, instinctively knowing that it would obey. She watched as it hesitated, eyes going wide as it stumbled back a step, staring fearfully at something above her head.
Daniel watched as the vampire stumbled back a step, raised fist momentarily forgotten in its confusion. Daniel lurched forward, guiding the stake with his left hand, his right hand braced against the back to keep it from slipping through his hands again. He watched as the vampire stiffened when it heard his pounding tread on the kitchen floor. Daniel threw his whole body into the stab, tried to focus every advantage of momentum, weight, and training into the point of the stake as he drove it through the vampire’s back, feeling the stake punch through the shoulder blade, the point raising the skin just under the vampire’s collarbone on the other side.
It spun to meet his attack, tearing the stake from his blood slicked grip, trying to raise its elbow as it turned, probably for a strike to Daniel's temple. The stake impeded its movement, causing the elbow to barely graze his chin. Even so, it spun his head halfway around, sending a painful shock through his jaw as stars exploded across his vision. Half stunned, Daniel bounced back, catching the vampire’s other arm as it continued to spin. He attempted to lock the arm, but the vampire was too strong.
A second too late, it realized that Daniel didn’t want to lock the arm, he wanted to halt its spin, facing Tommy, arms thrown wide. It roared -- Gurgled? Rurgled? -- As Tommy lunged forward, imitating Daniel as he guided the stake with his left hand, bracing it with his right as the dulled point slammed into the left side of its chest. Daniel would never forget the wet, percussive tearing sound as the point pierced flesh.
The baleful light in the vampire’s eyes winked out, the muscles in its body going slack, Daniel’s arm lock causing a loud, wet pop as its shoulder was violently torn from its socket. He watched as Nicolette winced at the sound, then stepped back as the cadaver collapsed to the ground, the sudden stench of corruption filling the air.
The three of them stood, panting, staring down at the pile of bones and flesh that had collapsed half in, half out of the house. The sweet, nauseating stench of putrefaction filled the air. Daniel panted, beginning to feel his injuries and exhaustion as the tail end of his adrenaline dump began to fade. Nicolette stood, covering her mouth in fascinated horror and disgust.
“Was that...?”
Daniel, bracing his hands on his knees as he sank forward, nodded, “The vampire.” He felt too exhausted to speak.
He watched as her gaze fell on his blood soaked clothes, her already pale skin blanching further.
Daniel shook his head, “Mostly...” he hesitated, “its...I think.”
His eyes rose to meet hers, relief and delayed reaction to fear causing her eyes to fill with tears of relief and release. For one, brief instant, he considered enfolding her in his arms, seeking comfort as much as wanting to give it as the blanket of coldness over his emotions fell away.
Before he could make up his mind, her eyes widened in sudden startlement, “The girl!”
Then she was past him, heading deeper into the house, the moment gone.