"What the hell are you doing up there?I mean—why are you here?"
"It's a long story," I yelled.
"She thought she'd be a hero," Tamara screamed.
"Damn it, Stacey!"Vic snarled.He gestured at one of the vampires near him, and then practically leaped up to the second floor, grasping at the edge of the escalator."You don't make things easy on yourself, do you?"
"Is this the time?"I asked.
He pulled himself up, gasping, and then flopped over the railing.
"I don't know why I try using my vampire strength," he muttered."I'm just as clumsy as I used to be.I figured out what's going on.I've seen Brutes like that before."
He got to his feet and gestured at the thing Nagi was locked around.
"Well?Where?"
"There's only one line of Necromancy that can give birth to things like that," Vic said."My old mentor knew it.William Corcoran."
I blinked.
"What?That guy we read about in the note?At Tremblay Manor?I thought he died."
"I don't have time to explain," Vic said."Long story short—we fucked up.Get yourself hidden.This is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better."
Vic cut himself, splashing blood in a wide circle around him.He muttered, put his hands together, and then fell to his knees.A huge phantasm crawled up from the ground, moaning, and soared off.It picked up pieces of scaffolding with it as it went.
"Go!"he screamed.
Tamara and I got swept up in the crowd of running people.Down the escalator, we went out and through the crowd of vampires in mobster outfits, out into a packed school bus that smelled of spaghetti sauce.I stared out the window.Debris fell all around us.A little kid was crying somewhere else on the bus.
"I can't just stay here," I said.
"Girl—you can't do anything," Tamara said.
I watched them struggle.From the ground, this looked terrifying.I watched the giant rip Nagi off his face and slam him through an apartment building.The axels on the bus groaned and rocked.The phantasm swung with the scaffolding, trying to pierce deep into the giant's hide—and then Nagi recoiled again, leaping up and down again, tearing putrid flesh.
Something glittered in the night sky, and Nagi sank in deep, gnashing with his serpentine fangs.Something dangling protruded from the wound, and Nagi pulled, exposing what looked like nerves, but there was a cracking sound—the giant reached up with a third hand and seized on Nagi's neck and arms, and then pulled with a roar.
There was a flash—a goutof flame—and then the Grand Dragon Cross was gone, and three tattered bodies fell from the air like stones.Then the phantasm struck deep—the scaffolding piercing the ganglion like a rapier, and with a great shuddering gasp, the giant fell, dissolving into black slime as it fell against the pavement.
"Drive!"Tamara screamed.
The vampire at the wheel jerked his head up, turning the engine over.But it was too late.The wash of putrescence hit us and carried us along, a tidal wave of gore, and the whole bus teetered.The kid screamed louder—and I was screaming.
Wheels screeched over chunks, and we made our way to pavement.The bus driver was speeding.And I didn't blame him.
Out there, in that toxic pool of slime, a brave vampire was now floating, possibly lifeless.My heart broke in two as I stared out the window.
"Nagisa," I said.
I was crying.I hadn't known him long, but he was a hero in my book.
11.
We arrived at Hartshome.Vic's men came sometime after.They escorted Nagi's body in reverential silence, long after the humans were escorted off the bus.
Brother Al made a holy symbol over his corpse and then nodded his head.
