beak. Julia’s heart hammered so hard she saw spots.
Bracing her hands on the fountain seats and the gallon container, Julia rebuked herself out loud. “Bad time to lose it, Julia. Think of Ali. Think of–”
From the reflection of the swampy fountain water, she could see the garden wall where a row of ravens chattered and took it easy. The sun was almost down.
“I’ve changed my mind,” she whispered to the thin, wide-eyed girl staring back at her. “I can’t kill vampires. I’m not ready–”
She saw him on the watery reflection, eclipsing the image of the birds. She tried to blink him away, but the new image stayed. The immense creature opened his arms wide like he was going to scoop her from behind. Her only lasting memory was of her throat itching something powerful. The irritation triggered Max Schreck in her mind. Before the reflection touched her, she turned around quickly and whacked the looming vampire with the gallon of holy water, crying, “Die!”
6
Rono/That Which Bites
There was no acidic hiss upon contact. Unlike the holy water sprinkled on Christopher Lee, the damp vamp before her was neither melted nor singed. The voluminous undead from the reflection in the fountain water was quite manageable in size, only a few inches taller than her.
Pausing in disbelief, the creature looked from the scrawny girl and back to the fetid water on his coat.
“What the–” he began, wiping the swampy liquid off his black Mickey Spillane coat and Jesus and Mary Chain t-shirt, appalled for even daring to touch it. “You stupid kid. This shit is disgusting!”
Julia’s jaw dropped as the youthful undead wiped away the stagnant water from his person. Realizing that cleaning the coat was futile, he trained his eyes on her.
“You’re dead, kid. You know how hard it is to find a trench coat in this town? It’s on every dead’s list. The newly turned have claimed them all. I’ll to have to walk to the Americana in assfuck Glendale to scrounge up a new one!” Like most ordinary vampires, the young dead had the strength of three strong men and the inability to die the easy way. He, however, did not have the skills certain powerful vampires possessed, like the ability to fly or walk under the sunniest of skies without getting incinerated.
“Maybe you can w-wash it?” suggested the scrawny girl.
“I don’t do laundry,” the smallish, whacked-out version of a young Christopher Walken spat. “I’m a vampire.”
With wounded aplomb, the Walken look-alike took a predatory step toward her and bared his fangs.
She watched his incisors elongate into two-inch carvers. His hand reached behind her head before she had time to blink. With her eyes still focused on Cujo teeth, Julia dug for the stake from inside her jacket.
7
Rono/That Which Bites
Because the vampire was so close to her, she couldn’t hit anything other than the side of his neck. The stake plunged a few inches in his neck but the wood was too stout to lodge any deeper. Cartilage and vocal chords barred any further progression.
Enraged, the vampire slashed Julia’s face with his middle fingernail, the only one that grew long and solid as petrified wood. Poe hit her head on the side of the fountain from the impact and couldn’t quite get herself to stand up. She was dizzy, and blood oozed from the diagonal wound from her forehead to cheek.
From the feel of the scratch, the vampire must have scooped at least half an inch of flesh.
The smell of her blood and the darkening of the skies brought intense panic as she watched the vampire extract the stake from his neck. The infuriated undead fixed her with fevered eyes.
“We’ve been feeding on rationed refrigerated blood for years now ’cause there ain’t enough breathers to go around,” he gasped, holding on to his throat. “You’re going to be my first human kill, and believe me when I say you’re going to suffer for the privilege.”
“Mom and Dad, help me,” Julia whispered as the vampire lunged for her. Before he could lay a hand on her, the ninety-pound girl reached from behind and brandished the kitchen knife she’d brought. With a powerful sweep, Julia Ginsu-chopped most of his left hand’s fingers.
Ignoring the hair-raising scream that came out of his mouth despite his vocal chord damage, the girl lunged at the vampire, and he fell on his back.
“Quit moving around, asshole!” Julia screeched from atop him. She took advantage of his temporary shock at losing his fingers and pinned his good hand