Sainvire, helping her to her feet. “Can I leave you alone?”
“I’ve taken care of myself since I was eight, Sainvire,” she said, insulted. “Go do your thing.”
As soon as Sainvire flew to the next train to lend a hand, an Ancient advanced near her, walrus teeth drooling. Oh shit, she thought. Before she could consider running, Ed went to her rescue, grabbing the marble-skin Ancient by the ankle and swinging him 361
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around like the sling that cut down Goliath. The little man pounded fist-size holes on his back.
“Domo arigato, man!”
“No prob,” said the taciturn man to a grateful Poe.
Breathing rapidly, Poe reached down to her ankle to retrieve the sole remaining gun.
Despite her conversation with Sainvire, she kept as close to Sainvire as she could. No one would have guessed that he had just been seriously injured. He turned a circle, slicing off the tips of the spears of the Ancients that surrounded him. Such old-fashioned buffoons, Poe thought. Spears and swords instead of guns? Sainvire damaged a breastbone and hacked off a shoulder before getting Poe out of the way of a short sword meant to disembowel her.
Maple fought like an executioner, back to back with Sainvire, pounding heads with her lethal, swollen arms. The middle-aged vampire looked fierce and positively dribbled with hate. She was a real warrior when it came to an all-out brawl.
A new flock landed, and the group of vampires seemed to multiply.
That was when Sainvire’s vampires assigned to guard cattle inside the train climbed out the windows with sabers, guns, wooden stakes, and other hardware cutaways in their hands.
“Make way for the black folks,” said one red bereted warrior as he fired his Astra at every cop he saw. Maple picked up a fallen axe from the rooftop before it clunked off the train, her hardened forearms ready to make mincemeat out of anyone who got in her way.
Ed, slight though he looked, snapped vampire heads like his favorite munchy – Butterfinger candy bars.
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“Helluva time to discover I have an equilibrium problem, eh?”
“That’s alright, Ed. Let’s just spot each other,”
said Maple.
Poe glimpsed two vampires from Sainvire’s camp duking it out with the Council’s warriors. On the ground, a shirtless and shoeless vampire was taking care of three undead with a combination of martial arts and undead savvy. Two of the dead were master vampires who dressed like they were going to a club.
Each fist he threw destroyed bones and hearts. He was so amazing that Poe lost all caution and looked down again.
“Joseph?”
Poe couldn’t help it. She whooped happily. To give her friend the upper hand, she aimed her turtle squirt gun at his foes and fired. She sprayed all four, but Joseph didn’t seem to be affected by the garlic water.
When the three black clad fighters paused to wipe at their hissing faces, Poe shot one in the neck and let Joseph finish off the other two. He raised his hand to her.
“Thanks, sis,” grinned Joseph, saluting the kneeling figure of Poe on the roof.
Not too far away, Gruman Raspair, the unrepentant Euro-supremacist, was having the fight of his life. Ironically the two rustlers he clashed with turned out to be a gay woman and a Latino man. Maple nearly succeeded in throwing him off the train with her magnificent bludgeoning skills by catching him in the stomach. Ed, the slow but pouncing jackhammer, had broken more than a few enemy ribs. If it hadn’t been for Raspair’s ability to fly, he would have been pulped long ago. He had weaknesses like everybody else.
Gruman Raspair flew away until traffic subsided on the 363
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train roof. Cursing, he patted the small gun tucked inside his robes. “It would seem that I must resort to using you tonight, little uncivilized thing. Ah well. I am surrounded by louts. It would be fitting.”
Like a bird of prey, Raspair’s eyes rested on Poe who was busy gushing over Joseph’s recovery. The stream of water coming out of her ridiculous pink plastic gun made him shiver. He was going to kill her face to face, but he did not want to risk getting disfigured. “That pain in the ass!” he muttered as he plunged back down to the train when the spray gun finally squeezed empty.
Only, Sainvire, drenched with black blood, saw what was about to happen.
“Sorry, Poe,” Sainvire said as he promptly kicked Poe in the back and barked for Joseph to catch her. A moment later, Raspair’s shot struck Sainvire in