Dust Pile
by Stephen Tillman
Part 1 appears in this issue.
conclusion
Helene, the small vampire with the wicked nails, noticed Holly and started after her. Holly shrieked and began to run. As Helene passed an open doorway, the leopard sprang out, grasped her throat in his powerful jaws, and knocked her to the floor.
Helene could not bring her most formidable weapon, her teeth, to bear with the leopard gripping her throat, but she still managed to pound his body with arms like iron and puncture his skin with her nails. The leopard raked her right arm with his front claws and her left arm with his rear claws, trying to protect his body.
Holly darted toward the struggling pair and spoke over them in a grave and unintelligible dialect, her arms waving in the air. Helene went still.
“Hurry!” Holly gasped. “I can’t keep her like this for long.”
The leopard changed. Victor ran over and handed Bobby a stake. Breathing hard, Bobby teetered briefly. Then, using all his strength, he brought the stake down on the center of Helene’s chest. The stake penetrated her dermis but splintered against her sternum.
“Move slightly left!” Holly yelled. “Go between the ribs!”
Victor handed Bobby another stake. As he started to move left, Holly hissed, “No! The other left! Her left, not your left!”
Bobby quickly moved the stake the other way. This time he plunged the stake into Helene’s chest slightly to the left of the sternum, penetrating her heart. Helene gave a loud cry, withered, shrank, and finally turned to dust as a foul, musty smell filled the air.
“Movies got something right,” Holly said in a whisper.
“Dusted that bitch!” Victor gloated. “Two to go.” Then, turning to Holly, he asked, “How’d you know the vamps would separate?”
“I didn’t for sure,” she said, panting heavily. “But it was logical. They didn’t think we could handle even one of them, and they’re under a time constraint. If they want to eat us, they have to do it before the storm ends and more people start to arrive.”
Bobby and Holly lay on the floor in the dust, sucking in air. “I’m wiped out,” Holly wheezed. “I don’t think I can do this two more times. Probably not even one more. Casting spells takes a lot out of me. Bobby’s in no better shape, maybe worse. He’s bleeding from a couple of puncture wounds. Are you injured, Bobby?”
“My ribs are sore,” Bobby admitted. “The cuts are superficial. They won’t bother me. But you’re right about one thing. Changing saps my strength, and I just did it twice within minutes. Every time I do it, it weakens me more. However, we have no choice but to continue. Nobody from outside is going to get here for at least twelve hours. We can’t hide that long. Either we get them or they get us.”
“I have an idea,” Victor said. “Let’s head for the basement. If we can make it there before they see us again, we have a chance. There are things there that we can use to get ready for the next vamp. If the lore is correct, a stake through the heart isn’t the only way to kill them.”
“What about Stephanie?” Bobby asked. “We left her in that third-floor room.”
“She’ll be okay,” Holly said, while trying to get up. “They saw what happened when Siggy bit her. They don’t know why he turned to dust, and they’re unlikely to risk it happening to them, too. After all, they ate Malik, so they’re not starving.”
“I think we might need her,” Victor said. “I’m getting more ideas.”
“I’ll get her,” Bobby volunteered, some of his strength returning.
* * *
Victor and Holly managed to make it to the basement without being seen. While they waited anxiously for the other two, Victor assembled tools, including pails of gasoline, an acetylene torch, and a container of blood-red paint.
Finally, Bobby appeared, carrying Stephanie in his arms. “We had a couple of close calls. I think Claudia noticed us going down the stairs.”
“That might not be bad,” Victor said. “We need them to come to us.” He quickly explained his plan, and the others got into position.
It wasn’t long before Claudia descended the stairs and spotted Holly, who raced down a dimly lit aisle between two floor-to-ceiling shelves. Holly screamed when she reached the end of the aisle and found her way blocked by a load-bearing wall. Claudia exposed her fangs as she advanced on Holly.
Suddenly, the leopard jumped from a top shelf onto the vampire’s back, grasped the back of her neck with his powerful jaws, crushed the second and third cervical vertebrae, and compressed her spinal column. Claudia flopped to the floor, having lost control of her body below the neck. Then, to everyone’s horror, the vampire’s body immediately began to heal itself.
Holly tried to cast a spell to hold back the healing powers, calling out, “Hurry! My power is almost gone! I can’t hold her for more than a few seconds!”
The leopard let go of the neck. Claudia regained control of her arms and started to push herself up off the floor. Holly, using every last bit of her remaining strength, sent out a psychic blast which momentarily froze the vampire.
The leopard used his razor-sharp claws to rip through the skin on Claudia’s back above her heart, and then grasped her by the neck again.
Victor, who’d followed Claudia down the aisle, pushed a sharpened stake into the gaping hole in the vampire’s back, lifted up a sledgehammer, and pounded on the stake. It took three tries, but the stake finally penetrated the heart. Claudia gave a cry of despair and, once again, there was an explosion of dust.
The leopard and Holly lay sprawled on the floor, both breathing like asthmatics. Then came the sound of clapping hands. “Very well done, people,” Cecil said with a grin. “I applaud you. May I assume that you have dispatched Helene as efficiently as you did Claudia?”
“Yeah, we got that bloodsucker,” Victor said with a snarl. “You’re next!”
“I do not think so,” Cecil said, shaking his head. “Vampires increase in power with age. I am more than three hundred years old. None of the others were over a hundred.”
“You don’t seem too broken up about us whacking three of your kind,” Holly taunted, as she rose shakily to her feet.
“Oh, I will miss Claudia a little,” Cecil said with an evil smile. “She was nearly a hundred, and I created her. Maybe I will pick you as her replacement, Holly. It is always good to have a companion.”
“The hell you will!” Holly said.
“You will not have a choice,” Cecil said smugly. “I do not mind losing the others. They were both under fifty. Children. Cannon fodder. You may have done me a favor. They were too impetuous. Rash behavior calls attention to us.
“By the way, you are taking too much credit. You did not ‘whack’ Siggy, to use your terminology. He died after he bit Stephanie. If she is still alive, maybe I will keep her that way. I can have other vampires bite her to see what happens.”
“Okay, so we only killed two vamps,” Victor conceded. “There’s only one of you and there’s three of us. Can you beat us all?”
“Yes, I can,” Cecil said disdainfully, raising his eyebrows. An amused look crossed his pale face. “I am more powerful than the others combined. You could not make a stake penetrate my skin, even with a sledgehammer. I suppose the loathsome panther might have been able to hold me off for a while, if it had fresh energy, but not in its present condition.” Glancing around, Cecil added, “I do not see Bobby or Stephanie. I assume your kitty is one of them. Since it is obviously male, probably Bobby.”
The leopard got to his feet and growled. He bared his teeth, which were even more formidable than Cecil’s. Holly put her hand on the leopard’s back and murmured something, but he continued to growl.
“I have never seen a creature such as this,” Cecil said, sliding a deep purple tongue over his left fang. “I have had experience with werewolves, but your pussycat is different. It is under control and cooperating with the rest of you. The werewolves I have run across were mindless killing machines. There is no full moon tonight. From that, I surmise that the change in form is voluntary. Not the case with werewolves. But I suspect there are similarities as well.”
“What would they be?” Holly asked.
“Werewolves can be killed while in human form, and with silver in wolf form,” Cecil said, while taking out a knife. He clearly enjoyed lecturing. “I always carry a silver-tipped knife. Werewolves are rare, but you never know. I bet were-cats are susceptible to silver, also. Cuts I make with this will not heal quickly. Eventually, I will wear him down. It will be fairly quick, since he is already drained.”
“You won’t get us that easily,” Victor said, holding up a crucifix.
Cecil began to laugh, a deep, resonating sound that reverberated around the room. “That is one part of the legend that is not true,” he said, continuing to chuckle. “Many people have tried that. Why should a symbol from one religion repel us when symbols from another do not? That is a very parochial attitude.”
Cecil darted over, knocked the cross out of Victor’s hand, and in a flash was standing back where he’d been. “Let us get down to brass tacks,” he said. “This is a one-time offer I rarely make. I will give Holly and Victor a chance to survive. If you do not fight me, I will try to make you two vampires. It is reasonably likely that I will have success with at least one. He or she could live hundreds of years. The cat will have to die. I cannot drink werewolf blood, so I assume I cannot drink the blood of this one, either.”
“If you’re so powerful, why make that offer?” Holly asked.
“It is a matter of convenience,” Cecil said, shrugging. “I could use some help in cleaning up before the authorities arrive.”
“You can’t drink my blood either,” Stephanie said coming out of the shadows behind Cecil. “My blood is poisonous to most vampires by touch alone. This is a cup of my blood.”
Cecil turned to face Stephanie. As she spoke her last sentence, she threw a container of red paint into Cecil’s face. He screamed and shielded himself with his arms. With Cecil distracted, Holly dumped a pail of gasoline over him. Simultaneously, Victor used an acetylene torch to spray him with fire. The vampire shrieked in pain as fire enveloped his body.
Holly threw a steel wire garrote with a wooden handle over Cecil’s head. The leopard grasped the handle in his mouth and pulled with all his remaining strength. The wire cut through Cecil’s fire-weakened neck, severing his head from his body. As soon the body became headless, Cecil exploded into dust.
“That’s three vamps down,” Victor observed. “How many more left to go?”
Copyright © 2023 by Stephen Tillman
