Author's Note:
I'm not intending this story to be anything close to what Kim releases in The Undead Pool, but I do want to see how the vamp political tensions play themselves out in my own little sandbox Cincy. Also, I followed in true KH fashion and titled this story after a spaghetti western (though not a Clint Eastwood one regrettably)
This story is also available on Archive of Our Own under the same name.
The soft sound of smooth-soled boots pounding across thin carpet pulsed in time with my slowly-climbing heart rate. Arms swinging tightly, I clenched my trusty red splat gun in a tight fist, my finger carefully wrapped away from the trigger. My breath puffed out in controlled bursts. Even if my mark started vamping out, I would be able to down him in a few controlled bursts of splat-fire.
Tagging was second nature to me.
I couldn't help the sly grin that seemed to be plastered across my face as I rounded another corner. The vamp was taking us through the office building my spell had tracked him to in a rather clear cut path. Ivy's precise map annotations stood out in my mind, even as Jenks loudly reminded me that we only had two more open-floor rooms before he would reach the confined staircase.
"I've got this, Jenks," I grunted with a nod even as I kicked my speed up a notch. My legs sailed across the blah-brown patterns of tiled carpet squares and Jenks' wings clacked harshly as his pace began to outstrip me.
He gave me a signal, directing me to cut left and dart straight, bringing me closer to the slim hall that led to the next room. The vamp was still taking the long way, keeping plenty of dividers and half-dead houseplants between my splat balls and him. His supernatural speed would give him the advantage, but I was hoping that I still had a few tricks he wouldn't be expecting.
Crossing the last yard of space, I twisted and pushed myself to turn where he was coming from. My splat gun was raised and I pumped off three quick rounds. I watched as they sailed through the air, hissing by the living vamp to harmlessly burst against the wall. "Give it up, Thomson!" I cried out even as my own momentum forced me into the slim cubical "wall". I lost precious seconds in scrambling to stand up, but Jenks was on the vamp, his dust an exhilarated orange-red.
I swung my splat gun wide and plugged twice more at the vamp while he batted harmlessly at Jenks. My pixy backup was expecting him, having avoided more than a few swats from Ivy in the past. I watched in rueful disappointment as the balls burst on his shirt only to puff out in a useless blue smoke. Mother puss bucket, he was wearing anti-charm gear. My expectation of the "easy" tag went up a few notches, even as my aggravation ticked sharply higher.
"Bastard's got deep pockets," I hissed, forcing myself to keep after on his heels. My splat gun seemed a dead weight now, but there was always the chance that I could get his bare skin. The red plastic was cool against my grip, threatening to slip out if I loosened my frantic grip.
There was only that one last cubical-strewn room where I could make my tag before the vamp would have his best shot of getting away. I cursed as I pounded into the room. The stupid dividers were taller in this room and the son of a bastard had already darted into the rat-race maze of taupe walls. "Which way, Jenks?" I spat, choosing to go straight while he flew up to scout.
"Next left, then right at the fern!" he called back. I dutifully followed his instruction, risking a look down to check the hopper of my splat gun. Three charms left. Lovely. Gritting my teeth, I reached out with my mind and found a nearby ley line.
The raw power of the line seared through my mind, following pathways that had long dulled to the pain of having raw ever-after drawn through them. I cut off the flow, spindling the energy with a breath of the word "Tulpa" barely escaping my lips. If I couldn't bring down the vampire with my earth charms, then he would learn the hard way what it was like to be downed with the white-hot fury of the energy of ley lines.
I could feel my legs burning, and I knew I was approaching the now-or-never phase of this tag. If I couldn't slap this vamp down, he would be down that staircase and lost unless someone had come to back me up. Having been contracted by the ever-questionable IS, I didn't have a ton of confidence for the supernatural police force to actually work to help me with the capture. Though they wanted Thomson caught and penned, it would be no skin off their nose to let me take the fall for a botched run.
I spotted the vamp's dark hair bobbing around a corner. I didn't bother to try to soften my footsteps or breathe any softer. His hearing was good enough to have known how Jenks was breathing, never mind a lunker like myself. Instead I leaned over and charged straight ahead, my shoulder braced and my hand gripping a growing ball of gold and black tinged ever after.
He ducked, taking my charge and twisting to force my body to slam hard against an actual solid wall. My spell crackled and died as my concentration lapsed. I forced my eyes to focus as he straightened his stature. "Well, that was hardly difficult," he sneered. The vampire's eyes were black, hungry and excited at the thrill of the chase. That he was pumping out delicious pheromones into the air wasn't helping my case, even as I shoved the sensations away with practiced ease.
"Some demon you are, Morgan," he hissed, moving with eerie quickness to grip my throat with one hand. I swung my arm up, intending to smash him with my splat gun and damn it all if I got the crushed charms on me too. He batted it away with a smooth motion and I cringed as his iron grip tightened. My fingers slipped open and dropped the weapon.
Where was Jenks? I took a rages gasp of air as his fingers loosened a hair's breadth, a sick reward for disarming myself. I glared daggers at the living vamp even as I was grateful that all he could do was make everything smell delicious. If he had been undead, this would have been a very different situation, involving a hell of a lot worse than warm tingles running from my hidden vampire bites down to pool in my stomach.
His mouth split in a toothy grin and I felt my face pale. "Let's see if I can't knock the terrifying demon witch Rachel Morgan down on her knees where she should be," he growled. I could feel his predatory stare even more than I could see it and I tensed as he began to move his mouth towards my neck. I pulled on the line, my fingers twitching with the energy that surged along my skin. Just a moment moreā¦
"I do believe that's mine," a low voice drawled from behind Thomson. My eyes, which I hadn't even realized had slammed shut, tore open. Impossibly close behind the living vamp was a green coated, glasses-toting man, looking ever the image of a British lord. Only his bright red eyes, slitted like a goat, broke the illusion of humanity. Extending a white-gloved hand with an almost casual motion, the demon ripped the vampire away, tossing him through a flimsy partition to lay crumpled against a metal desk.
"Al," I breathed, taking the free moment to suck in a gasp of air. I tried to ignore the slight whistle to my voice. "I see you couldn't just stay in the damn car like I asked." I pushed away from the wall, stooping to gather up my splat gun before things turned on their head again. Or before Al could get all finicky and insisted I prep a healing curse.
I strode over to the crossed eyed vamp, still recovering from having his skull blasted through particle board and smashed against a steel desk. "You have the right to shut the hell up and die in whatever hole you crawled out of," I spat, pressing my splat gun against his neck. Squeezing the trigger twice, two charms burst on his exposed skin. I wasn't taking any chances on slippery folk like this.
His eyes rolled fully back and the vamp slumped, spelled to sleep until someone doused him in saltwater. I rocked back on my heels, looking over my shoulder. Jenks had reappeared, warbling through the air as one wing hummed out of sync with the other. "You good?" I asked, deliberately ignoring my demon teacher. Okay, it wasn't the smartest idea, but I was miffed that he had stepped in when I had been prepped to rip the full force of a beautifully clear ley line through the vamp's smug face.
Jenks nodded fitfully. "Tink blasted vamp nicked my wing," he moaned. "It's going to take all night to let it heal." I made a face, chagrined. It was a messy tag. We both were sloppier than usual, too many skin-on-our-teeth tests of sanity lately and too few white-bread runs. I moved my hair back, out of the way so he could land on my shoulder and take a rest. He merely wobbled over and sat on a partition, his green eyes locked on Al over my shoulder.
Unable to ignore him any longer, I turned and looked at the red-eyed demon. He was standing innocuously with his hands clasped behind his back, whistling something in a god-awful harsh toned key. "Well?" I asked, gesturing with the hand that had my splat gun. "I'm still waiting for my answer."
The demon in front of me chuckled, his blocky white teeth bared in a grin. "Why my itchy witch, can't I just drop in and see how your workday is going?" he seemed to purr. I rolled my eyes and stuffed my splat gun back into my belt. If he was calling me "itchy witch" and standing still, there was a chance that he was just bored rather than conniving.
"Oh shut up," I growled, but there was no fire in my protest. "I need to drag this sorry lunker," I kicked the vamp with my thick boots, "back downstairs. Preferably by his Tink-blasted feet and letting him appreciate each and every stair."
Ugg, how had my life gotten to this point? Taking runs for the IS and barely flinching when big Al, scary demon from the Ever After, was jumping in to act as backup. It had been an interesting few days, now that I thought of it, but I wouldn't have thought they would have led to this particular result.
