Chapter 30

by Carycomic

KING O' CLUBS,

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.

SEPT. 29, 1999 (1:10 A.M.)

"Now," said Daniel Verdugo. ". . .you're gonna see why they call me 'Razor Danny'."

Whereupon, he sprang to the attack! Wielding his machete-like razor blades, in a propellor-like arc, using a combination of devil-tiger kung fu and daab song mue (the dual sword style of krabi-krabong*) that he had learned from a Sino-Cuban Assamite of the Searing Wind Tong in Chinatown. And, initially, Duncan Shane was hard-pressed to parry any of the offensive blows with his katana. But, the Tenctonese stage magician had not risen to the rank of Project D.A.R.T.'s number two assassin for nothing.

When the running sword fight eventually reached a four-way intersection of corridors, Duncan Shane immediately used the expansion of close-quarters to his advantage.

In less time than it takes to tell, the Tenctonese assassin used his left hand to divest himself of his black-and red cape. He then spun one hundred eighty degrees, counterclockwise, in an apparent attempt to entangle Verdugo's legs at the knees. Similar to the wooden balls of an Argentine gaucho's bolas! Yet, as magicians are always the first to point out, appearances can be deceiving. For, even as Verdugo was leaping upward, to avoid that entanglement, Duncan Shane was thrusting his katana upward, at a right angle, hoping to impale the Sabbat crime lord!

Verdugo, however, used his momentum to avoid that thrust by somersaulting backward in mid-air. Landing just behind where the cape had landed.

"Nice try," grinned the vampire. "Pero, no cigaro!"

"Then, you should smoke it while you've got one," quipped a third voice.

Both the vampire and the Tentconese looked back down the hall they had just traversed. There, they saw another Tenctonese. A decidedly female Tenctonese! One wearing a leather unitard with a semi-exposed midriff that was so athletically well-toned it almost succeeded in distracting Verdugo from noticing her compound bow-and-arrows.

"Who the frig are you supposed to be, perra? Roberta Hood?"

"I prefer to be called. . . Ultra-Violet."

Whereupon, she nocked and fired three silver arrows. The heads of which had been dipped in a mixture of holy water and lighter fluid. Thereby enabling her to pyrokinetically ignite each one! And Verdugo only had time to make an instinctive three-syllable reference to sacred cow manure before winding up with each of those arrows. . . in his heart.

"ARRRRGH!" he screamed as the holy water started doing its work. Literally burning him from the inside out, just as the flames from the lighter fluid began their work from the outside in.

Meanwhile, at that same moment, down in the nightclub's main showroom, the insect-like humanoid known as Sil immediately grasped her bronze-colored skull in pain. Giving Preston Lennox (anti-terrorist bounty hunter) ample opportunity to get over his initial surprise and open up with his Steyr AUG. Unfortunately, rounds designed specifically to kill vampires bounced harmlessly off the insectoid. Forcing her to stagger backward only a foot or two, at most!

"Dart Six," ordered Lennox. "A little help here?"

"Leave her to me," interjected a new voice. "After all, it takes an alien to kill an alien."

It was the Newcomer called Alison Wonderland. Also known as The Slayer. . . and Dart One.

George Francisco had managed to get himself and his passengers to the King O' Clubs just ahead of Faith Lehane's motorcycle and Angel's black convertible.

"Next time," Sykes growled to Doyle. "_you_ can ride in the backseat while _I_ stay safely belted in the shotgun seat!"

Kate smirked. "And here I thought only Newcomers drove that fast."

"Focus, people!" snapped Angel. "We have a man-killing alien bug woman to slay!"

"Leave her to me," replied Alison. "The rest of you go in the back way while I draw everyone else's attention to me by going in the front."

So that was exactly what they did. Angel and Faith leading the way toward the rear entrance; Doyle and his trusty shillelagh acting as rear guard; and the more conventionally armed cops jogging in between. In the meantime, however, Russell Winters, Lindsey McDonald, and Prince Cyrus had managed to sneak into the kitchen despite the hail of gunfire that had been going on back in the showroom.

"OK, Your Highness," said the young attorney from Wolfram and Hart. "Just ten more feet to the back door and we're home free."

"Don't you mean 'head-free'?"

The three of them turned as one. . . and beheld Duncan Shane hanging upside down like a bat from an exhaust vent in the kitchen ceiling. The latter had used the distraction by Ultra-Violet to disappear into the ventilation system of the night club. Crawling through the ducts, and down to the kitchen, just in time to see Lindsey and his two vampiric clients sneak in from the showroom. Whereupon, he now relaxed the grip he had been maintaining with the lower half of his legs and dropped down to the ground. Subsequently landing upright, only to use the momentum of his fall to spring back upward and spin clockwise, one hundred eighty degrees. A move that brought his katana up to the base of Lindsey's throat which only had one chance to utter a horrified gasp. . . before Lindsey's head became terminally separated from his shoulders.

In the meantime, Alison Wonderland had finished using her battle axes to break through the night club's front doors. Following which, she followed the signs of gunfire into the main showroom. Arriving just in time to see Preston Lennox trying unsuccessfully to find a vulnerable spot, on Sil's exo-skeleton, that his bullets could penetrate. When the latter ordered Dart Six to join him, the Newcomer from Sunnydale chose that moment to declare that they should leave the chore of killing Sil to her.

"After all; it takes an alien to kill an alien."

Whereupon, she charged forward, yelling "Kiai!" (in a long, drawn-out fashion) at the top of her lungs. And Sil, like any true rival alpha female, counter-attacked with a bestial battle cry of her own.

It was at this juncture that the newly vampirized Frederick Dobbs hopped up on his one remaining good leg and sprang at William Harcourt! Only to be riddled from behind by the vampire-killing rounds in Dart Six's Steyr AUG. Thereby disintegrating Dobbs in mid-air. . . and, consequently, sparing his ex-colleague, Matt Sykes from ever learning that Dobbs had originally been ghouled by the Brujah Prince of Los Angeles as his own version of Julian Luna's associate, Sonny Toussaint. Meanwhile, just as Sil had gotten close enough to Alison to lash out with her radula, the erstwhile vengeance demon called Anyanka chose that ill-considered moment to materialize within the showroom.

Doing so directly in the path of Sil's razor-sharp tongue!

There was whooshing sound, followed by shrill scream of pain and horror. And the best that Alison could do, at that moment, was spring to her right and chop downward, with both axes, in a leftward motion. Slicing Sil's radula into unequal thirds! Sil, of course, responded by screaming even louder than the badly wounded Anyanka had. Whereupon, the former retreated toward the kitchen while simultaneously retracting her radula and holding her bleeding lower jaw closed. It was only when she burst through the double doors that she saw her next targets of interest. Namely, Russell Winters; Prince Cyrus; and Duncan Shane.

That particular trio, however, had their attention focused on the drawn handguns of Matt Sykes, Kate Lockley, and George Francisco. Not to mention the wooden stakes being held by Faith Lehane and Angel!

"Drop that Freudian frog-sticker, Shane!" yelled Sykes. "We've got you covered."

The Newcomer magician smiled. "Considering who I was hired to assassinate with it, perhaps you should let me carry out my contract. Who knows? I might even get a medal for performing a public service!"

{"Do not even think of attempting it!"} George replied in Tenctonese. {"Even you are not faster than a hail of speeding bullets."}

Sil, who had been following that part of the conversation telepathically, chuckled to herself. . . before resuming her Ratkin Abomination form.

"Why don't we test that theory?" she rasped aloud.

Following which, her eyes began glowing red as she commenced using the mind-control power her co-host had drained from that cascabel kamsa. Power she now used to try and get everyone else present in the kitchen to try and kill each other!

tbc

GLOSSARY

*Krabi-krabong: basically, the Burmese equivalent of muay thai. . . with weapons.

Cascabel kamsa: see chapter 27.