“Eddie?”It hit Sonya in the gut, so hard she almost fell back. “Eddie? How? But, I saw you...in Marion’s chair...completely...you were dead, drained.”
He winked at her. “Your turn to misjudge.”
Her breath caught in her throat. How could she have gotten it so wrong? But clarity struck her. Of course, he was empty of blood and dead.He was a vampire after all.He’d killed and disposed of Marion. That part was easy. But this also explained the empty coffin. She’d stashed his body away, but it would have been all too easy for him to simply crawl out.
“All this time...it was you.”
He roared with laughter that filled the air, leaving an acrid smell in its wake. Suddenly he jumped, turned to Dr.Ang and grabbed his sword with one hand and the doctor’s throat with the other. Letting out a victorious shout, he leaned in to bite him.
April jumped up on Zwick’s desk and came up behind Eddie, driving her sword through his chest.
Eddie looked down at the protruding sword with little more than mild annoyance. He looked back at April and grinned. “Nice try, little girl. But I’m of the ancient world. A world where little tricks like that don’t work. Nothing can kill me.”
“Nothing?”April said. “I beg to differ.”
“Oh,” he said with a gritty snarl as he released his hold of Dr.Ang. “Silver. Ah, yes. That ever elusive silver. Silver that cannot be found here, dear.”
“But can be found where, pray tell?”
“You think yourself smart, little girl. But unless the silver stems from the Emperor’s personal collection...China’s Emperor, there is nothing you can do to get rid of me.”
April pulled the sword out of his belly and raised it high above her head.
Eddie turned to her and laughed, an ugly and malefic laugh. “Silly girl.”
He reached out to grab her, but she stepped back. “Tell me this, Mr.Bat, do you feel weak yet? Can your flesh resist this sword forged of the silver jewelry once own by the Empress herself.”
Eddie frowned and looked down at the still bloodied wound in his belly, a wound that should have instantly closed up.
“That’s right,” April went on. “Empress Wanrong, generous soul that she was, donated her own personal jewelry so that she might help the people who’d lost their homes following the Yangtze River floods.”
Sonya gaped at her daughter. How had she known that? Where had she learned of this special silver that only she, as Empress, once had ownership of.
“Nice story, child,” Eddie said. But his eyes showed the concern that he refused to admit. “But story time is over.” He marched toward her, his hands reaching out to her.
“Why did you kill Zwick?”April said as Sonya closed in on Eddie.
“Why do you people care why I killed him?”he shouted in a fit of rage. “No one liked him. No one cares. The idiot was no longer of use to me. He’d blown his cover, and all because he couldn’t keep his pants on. The minute a good-looking woman came his way, he had to have her. He was more trouble than he was worth. I had to keep cleaning up after him; Detective Baker, Marion...” He stared blankly in front of him for a moment. “Somehow Yolanda got away, but that’s another issue.”
As he continued with his rant, Sonya inched closer.
He focused once again on April. “In exchange for all that, I barely got any useful information out of him. The man was a mess and I had to...”
Eddie’s eyes widened. He hadn’t seen her coming. Hadn’t seen Sonya reach for April’s sword. He’d been so absorbed with Zwick and the waste of time he’d turned out to be, that he hadn’t seen Sonya fly into the air, ready to come down on him with the silver sword.
She split him straight down the middle, leaving the two halves to fall on either side. April quickly pulled out her vial of Holy water and sprinkled both halves of him. His body was immediately engulfed in flames.
“It’s time to get out of here,” Dr.Ang said.
They left the burning office and as they ran through the cafeteria, they sprinkled as many vampires as they could along the way. They, in turn, ignited, adding to the flames that were already consuming the large building.
“This way,” Sonya called out as she led them through an emergency exit.
They ran outside, free from the flames, free from the Bat and his coven...a Hollywood film studio, of all things. Free to breathe more easily.
The three stood there, looking at the devastation, knowing that this was a new start.
