Page 98 of Kiss of Wrath

Miranda shook her head. “But Mordr said not to open the door to anyone.”

More ringing of the doorbell, followed by knocking, and a male voice saying, “Las Vegas Police Department. Open up, please.”

Darla opened the door slightly, leaving the chain in place. “Pass me your credentials.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The big black man in uniform handed through a leather folding case holding a LVPD badge on one side and a card identifying him as Sergeant Amos Doram on the other side. Through the partially open door she could see a police car parked at the curb with another cop inside.

Darla handed the credentials back and asked, “What’s the problem, Officer?”

“We had a report of a suspicious character lurking about this address. We have him down at the station right now for carrying a weapon without a license. He claims to know a Ms. Miranda Hart. Are you Ms. Hart? You need to come down to the station and see if you recognize him. I have a photograph here.”

Miranda and Darla exchanged glances and both said, “Roger” at the same time. Sure enough, the wallet-size picture the cop handed through was Roger in all his slimy glory, smiling at the camera in a police mug shot. The date stamp said it had been taken today.

Darla undid the chain and opened the door for the cop to come in.

Officer Doram smiled then. Their first clue that they might have made a mistake came when they noticed that he sported a gold-filled front tooth and diamond ear studs the size of peas. What kind of cop had gold teeth and earrings?

The second clue was when they saw that his smile wasn’t directed at them, but at Linda, who had come up from the basement and was watching them from the kitchen. “Come here, baby girl,” the pseudo cop crooned. The expression on his face was pure evil.

Darla began to raise her pistol, but Doram was quicker. He raised his own weapon and whacked Darla over the head, causing her to crumple to the floor.

“Aunt Mir!” Linda screamed, running into Miranda’s arms and hiding her face in her neck.

Doram grabbed Miranda by the upper arm and dragged her out of the house toward the waiting car, where the other “officer” was holding the door open.

“Daad-dy!” Linda shouted joyfully on seeing that the guy in police uniform was Roger.

Just then a bunch of things happened at once. Miranda and Linda were shoved into the backseat, where the doors automatically locked.

Another police cruiser pulled up behind them, and two other officers, a man and a woman, stepped out.

“George, Ginette, what the hell are you doin’ here? Are you followin’ me?” Doram bellowed.

“Your time is up, Clarence,” the woman said.

Clarence? Who’s Clarence? Miranda wondered. Oh. The cop’s real name must be Clarence.

“It’s come-to-Jesus time, Clarence. Or rather, come-to-Satan time. Ha, ha, ha!” the man said.

With those words, the most amazing, frightening thing happened. Before their very eyes, the couple transformed into these huge fanged beasts, with oozing scales, red eyes, and tails. Clarence shot several rounds at them, to no avail. The bullets just bounced off their leathery hides. The beasts . . . demon vampires like the ones Miranda had seen in the city with Mordr . . . immediately began to fang and gnaw at Clarence.

“Holy crap! Holy crap!” Roger exclaimed, as shaken as Miranda at what they were witnessing. He ran around to the driver’s side, putting the car in gear and zooming off. But he had to turn around at the cul-de-sac.

Miranda tucked a crying Linda into her chest, hiding her face, but Miranda glanced over on the return past her house to see the big black man being devoured and slowly dissolving. That was the only way she could describe it. When the beasts were done, they transformed back into their human forms, got back in the police car, and drove away, leaving behind Doram’s . . . or Clarence’s . . . cop clothes, a gun, and a pile of slime.

What would her neighbors think? Had any of them even seen what was happening?

Turning back to the wire screen between the backseat and the front seat, she asked, “What in God’s name have you gotten yourself involved in, Roger?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Roger seemed stunned. Well, who wouldn’t be, seeing two beasts devouring a man, even a bad man? Roger was driving erratically. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to be stopped by—oh, this was too bizarre—the cops.

“Where are we going, Roger?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you just take us back and we’ll forget this ever happened?”

“Can’t do that.”