Poe yanked the grip of flesh around her arm until the day vamp’s head wrenched forward. Angrily he pulled back and uncoiled his tongue for some slack.
Reaching behind with her free hand, she extracted Rambo’s Own from her back sheath and sliced off his tongue in one stroke.
She shrugged off a five-pound lump of tongue and threw it in his face. Black ooze poured from his mouth.
His animated eyes flashed with a mix of fear and undiluted loathing as he backed away and tripped on Sister Ann’s shotguns. Desperate to end the ghastly moment, Poe picked up her weapons and shot the vampire in the head and heart. The garlic-oiled bullets destroyed his vampiric immune system. Nazi man died a very painful second death, which suited Poe just fine.
“Sorry, Sister. I gotta find Goss,” she told the unconscious nun. Left with little choice, Poe sped downstairs in search of her friend.
The blood farm was too quiet.
“If they have another day vamp then we’re really screwed,” Poe muttered quietly.
She found him taped flat upon the cot with his extensive legs dangling to the floor. The noise the bed made while he struggled against some very steadfast duct tape was loud enough to wake the sleeping vampires in the basement. Two leeches lay dead by the 36
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door, no doubt stabbed to death by her friend. Goss’
janitor informants blinked at her from the ground not far from where the murdered bodies lay. They were likewise duct taped around the wrist and ankles and gagged.
“Quiet, Goss,” she said, peeling the tape from his mouth. “I’m here now.” With a few strokes of her blade, Goss sat up and unpeeled his bonds, wincing as his body hairs stuck to the tape. He gave Poe a powerful whack on the back and collected his weapons. He quickly freed the janitors who emptied bedpans, fed cattle, and cleaned up after tweaker leeches.
“I’ll make it to your birthday yet,” he said, shaken at being caught and bound. “Where’s Sis?”
“Upstairs. She’s unconscious but alive.”
“What about the daywalker with the tongue?”
“I killed him.”
“Good on you, kid,” he grinned. “I’m very proud.
Now we gotta take out the vamps downstairs then get Sister. Javier and Reuben, look in on Sister, will ya?
And get all the kids up and ready to skedaddle from this hell hole.”
Pull yourself together! Poe berated silently. She followed the yoga breathing exercises Sister Ann had taught her, breathing as deeply as she could, holding her breath, exhaling slowly through her teeth while they made their way to the basement.
“You first, Poe,” Goss instructed after she put on her headlamp.
Poe hated wearing it because in all of the vampire movies she had seen, no Dracula killers ever wore nerdy mining torches on their foreheads. Remember, they’re hard to wake up.
As soon as Goss stretched his on, the two moved inside with weapons ready to fire. Three vampires were 37
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reposing on queen-size beds. Poe quickly claimed sleeping beauty, the closest to the door, by pointing the nozzle of her silencer to the woman’s chest and pulling the trigger. The undead’s longlashed eyes fluttered open in mute annoyance until true death descended.
Goss passed by a corpse that was so hairy, he looked more like the Wolf Man. From his pack, he took out an axe that quickly descended on the hairball’s neck.
“Hurry up so we can get out of here.” He took out the big flashlight slung in his belt and double-checked closets and niches. “Head’s up,” he said, tossing a six-inch stake at Poe.
Poe spiked the heart of what would have been Sister Ann’s kill with a weapon the nun would have used.
“I don’t have to recite the Lord’s Prayer, do I?”
she asked, confounded. “Cause I’m stumped after
‘…who art in heaven...’”
“Nope.” He hewed the head of Poe’s kill just in case. He smirked at the sound of head hitting the floor.
“Just make sure to hack off my head if one of these bastards ever bites me.”
The two doused the basement with holy water until the place stunk like garlic marinade.
The execution took less than five minutes. Typical vampires needed considerable effort to waken during the day. It made killing them a cinch in the daytime.
The partners made their way to the first floor and were greeted by a ragtag group of cattle in hospital gowns ready to follow a groggy Sister Ann who had taped up the mouths and hands of two very nervous leeches found hiding in the attic. Two