Bullet Page 0,128

never lied to himself, but he did. He said he didn’t love them like children, and I knew in that moment that he did.

33

WE WERE OUT the door and going down the steps when my phone rang again, that peal of church bells. I said a little prayer and picked up. “Blake, here.”

“Check your email, Marshal.” It was Clayton.

“What did you send me?”

“A video. I do love these new gadgets, don’t you?” He hung up.

I sighed. “Go talk to your tigers. I’ve got to see what the bad guy sent me.”

“What bad guy?” Jake asked.

I shook my head and handed the phone to Nicky. “Help me play the video he sent me.”

“You know we do have spies in almost every major city, Anita. We have us in every major city.”

I turned and looked at him. “What are you offering?”

He glanced back at his tigers with their circle of our guards around them. “Tell me what’s happening, and I’ll tell you if we have anyone or anything that can help.”

“I’ve got it open, Anita,” Nicky cut in.

“Hold that thought,” I said to Jake, and turned to Nicky. He handed me the phone but stayed close so he could look over my shoulder. I didn’t complain. If I needed to pause it or run it back, I’d need his help anyway. I really had to learn to work this damn thing.

The screen was surprisingly clear, like a little TV. There was a figure in white crime scene scrubs top to bottom, even with a hood on, and a face mask. She was crawling on the ground in front of the camera. I knew it was a she, because she was crying out, “No, please, no!”

A decayed hand with bones showing through the putrid flesh reached past the camera. She screamed, scrambling faster on her arms and one good leg. The other leg was covered in blood, the coverall torn so we could see the spurt of blood timed to the beat of her heart in the back of her knee. Something had attacked her down in the crypt. The other vampires were alive and still crazed, and once daylight stopped they’d come out. Only their master could brave the daylight.

He grabbed her by her wounded leg and dragged her back to him, while she screamed. He sat on her waist, pinning her to the ground. She just screamed, one long ragged scream after another as he jerked her hood down, spilling long brown hair, and tore her mask off with his rotting hand so her face was bare to the camera. He wanted me to see how afraid she was.

I was whispering something under my breath over and over as he reached for her throat. He gripped the front of her throat and squeezed until her face turned dark, purplish with lack of air, and then he let her go. He let her breathe, and then he reached for her throat again.

“Don’t,” I whispered.

“He killed her before he sent this, Anita. It’s not happening now. You can’t save her,” Nicky said.

“How do you know?”

“He’d need both hands to send the video,” he said.

It was such a practical reason for the woman to be dead that it calmed me a little. It helped me watch, but he didn’t strangle her this time; he dug his thick, decaying fingers into the front of her throat and tore it out like you’d rip open a ripe piece of fruit. Blood gushed up and out. Her eyes rolled, and she made sounds, horrible, wet, choking sounds.

The camera stayed on her until her eyes glazed and the only movement was involuntary twitches. She was dead; she just hadn’t stopped moving yet.

He put the camera on his face so I could see the Halloween mask that was all he could have for a face in the daylight. Even the rotting vampires that could brave the light couldn’t pass for human in the day, but it didn’t matter now, because Clayton wasn’t trying to pass anymore. The face that stared back at me was a monster and happy with it.

“Come and get me, Anita Blake. Come and get me, because I and my vampires will kill as many as we can for as long as we can.” His cheek was collapsed on one side, and I could see his tongue working in his mouth. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. With everything he’d done, that sickened me. You never know what will push you over the edge