The coach, p.14
The Coach, page 14
Chris recovered his breath and got to his knees. He had lost the knife when Seth hurled him across the stage. He had to find the knife. It was the only thing that could save them. He scrambled through the pieces of canvas and wood that littered the stage, searching for the gleam of silver.
Seth gave a thin, wordless cry that caught Chris’s attention. The vampire stood stiffly, with his arms stretched out to the side and his clawed hands curled into trembling knots. Snakes of blue light twisted and smoked around him. The shining wounds caused by the bullets shrank quickly to brilliant pinpoints, then vanished.
Seth’s features were no longer an imitation of Chris’s. They were no longer even human. His nose was a twisted mass of purple flesh that made Chris think of a bat. His eyes were pits of red fire. “That hurt,” he said in a voice deep as thunder. His mouth was a twisted gash filled with curving needles for teeth. He stepped toward Chris on warped, twisted legs and reached for him with hands that were nests of curving blades.
A lean figure sprang onto the stage. “Over here,” Sky called.
The misshapen form turned, its gaping mouth forming a horrible parody of Seth’s usual smile. “Sky,” it rumbled. “You picked the wrong time to betray me.”
Without another word Sky leaped at him. Seth’s distorted arms went around her as the impact toppled him. The two figures rolled across the stage in a tangle of limbs. As the vampires fought, Chris kicked aside the debris at his feet. He turned up boards, nails, and yellowed scripts, but there was no sign of the lost knife.
With a howl of triumph Seth stood. His hands were tight around Sky’s neck, and he shook her like a rag. “You shouldn’t have tried it, little Sky,” he growled.
“Fifty years,” she choked out. “Fifty years of letting you bully me. That’s enough.”
Waves of pale light washed over Seth. With the passage of each wave he became more human, until he again looked like the young man Chris and Talli had met in the cemetery. “Fifty years,” he said thoughtfully. Like his face, his voice was back to normal. “Has it been that long?”
Sky nodded.
Seth smiled at his fellow vampire. “You’re right, Sky. That’s long enough.” He took his hands off her neck and moved them to her shoulders.
“You’re going to let me go?” she asked.
“Certainly,” Seth replied. “I’ll let you go.” He tilted his head to the side and looked at her with a tender smile. “I’ll let you go the moment you’re dead.”
There was a sharp crack as her shoulder bones broke under his grip. Sky screamed as Seth pressed even harder. Liquid light pulsed from her wounds and splashed onto the stage. Sky’s scream rose in pitch until Chris could no longer hear it. Sparks played along her teeth, and smoke curled out of her brown hair. Seth lifted her high over his head, gripping her feet with one hand and her neck with the other. With a sharp jerk he broke her back like a dry twig. Then he tossed her far out into the seats. “Good-bye, dear Sky,” he said. “It was a fine fifty years.”
He turned back to Chris, his maddening smile still firmly fixed on his face. “Now, where were we?”
Chris spotted the knife. He leaped for it, rolled behind the broken catwalk, and came up with the blade pointed at Seth. “We were about to kill you,” he said.
Seth threw back his head and laughed. “This is even more fun than I thought it would be.” Still chuckling, he started across the stage.
Chris looked up into the tangle of ropes and cables that hung down around the dangling catwalk. Most of the ropes were slack—in fact, only one still seemed to be attached to the upper end of the catwalk. Quickly, Chris traced its path up into the darkness, and back down to a tie off right at his elbow. Without even stopping to see where Seth was, Chris slashed at the rope with his knife.
The rope snapped at the first touch of the blade. Chris turned just in time to see thirty feet of planks, metal pipes, and sandbags come crashing down as the catwalk fell onto Seth. Chris walked toward the wreckage with his knife held ready. Nothing could be seen of Seth except one bare arm sticking out from under a pile of twisted metal. As Chris watched, the hand began to move, pushing aside pipes and broken boards. Chris knelt and raised the knife. Then he looked for Talli. If he struck now, she might be too far away for Seth’s death to help her. In fact, Chris didn’t know if Talli would be cured unless she was the one to deliver the killing blow. Chris opened his mouth to call for her.
Seth exploded out of the wreckage. A backhanded slap struck Chris’s forearm so hard that he heard the snap of his breaking bones. The knife dropped from his numb fingers.
Seth rose up over him. The vampire’s face was a ruin of tom flesh. There was exposed bone down the side of his face, and a gaping wound in his chest showed a curving length of gleaming rib. Dribbles of liquid light rolled around the wounds. His eyes were alive with rage.
“When are you going to give up and die, Chris?” he asked. His torn lips curled in an infuriating smile.
Chris glanced to his left. “Not quite yet,” he replied. He grabbed an electric cable from the ground and shoved its exposed end into the hole in Seth’s chest.
Seth screamed. Oily smoke poured from his open mouth. He reached to pull the cable from his chest, but before he could get a grip, the flesh withered from his arms, and he shrank to a skeleton wrapped in charred skin. The skeleton fell back against the stage with a sound that was almost musical.
“Silver. Salt water. All that talk about energy.” Chris did his best to imitate Seth’s smile and superior tone. “I had a hunch you wouldn’t care for electricity, Seth.”
He stood, swaying from sudden exhaustion, and staggered to where Donna lay. She was breathing. Chris closed his eyes and gave a silent moment of thanks. Donna was alive, and that was worth almost anything. He glanced out into the seats below and saw Talli looking up at him. Her eyes still looked glazed, and her expression was blank. Chris’s heart sank. He had acted to save his own life, but at the critical moment, he had forgotten Talli.
“Talli,” Chris said, “are you still—”
Hard fingers closed around Chris’s throat, cutting off his words and lifting him from his sister’s side. With deliberate slowness he was turned to face a blackened skull. “Not quite enough,” Seth said. His voice was like the hiss of dry leaves in December. “It was a good try, but not quite enough. Now I kill you.” The skull turned slightly, the empty eye sockets pointed over Chris’s shoulder. “On second thought,” Seth added, “I’ll let my new assistant do it.”
Talli McAlister stepped to Seth’s side. “You shouldn’t have tried to hurt him,” she said. “He’s important to me.”
“Talli,” Chris gasped. “I only wanted—” He choked as Seth tightened his bony grip.
Talli raised her hand, and Chris saw that she had the silver knife in her grip. Sparks trailed over her fingers, and the skin of her hand was blistered and red. “You shouldn’t have tried to hurt him,” she repeated.
Seth gave a dry laugh. “Killed with his own weapon,” he hissed. “How appropriate.”
Talli swung around and drove the silver knife completely through Seth’s thin neck. The blackened skull flew across the stage and shattered into a thousand fragments as it struck the boards. For a long moment the headless skeleton stood, its fleshless fingers still wrapped around Chris’s neck. Then the bones fell apart and crumbled into a shapeless pile.
“I told you you shouldn’t have hurt him,” Talli said. She threw down the knife, flung her arms around Chris, and pulled him into a painfully tight hug. “He’s very important to me.”
A distant humming sound began in the air over the stage. It rose quickly to an earsplitting shriek. Bolts of lightning shot down and left smoking pits in the boards. Then there was a flash as bright as a thousand lightbulbs. When Chris could see again, the lightning was gone, and so was all sign of Seth.
“I can’t see!” Talli cried.
“That flash was bright,” Chris said. “You’ll probably be okay in a second.”
Talli shook her head. “I can see,” she said. “I just can’t see. I mean, I can’t see the glow around you. Chris, I think I’m back to normal.” She squeezed him again.
Chris grinned. “I knew my theory would work.”
Talli looked puzzled. “What theory?”
“Never mind,” he said. “The important thing is, you’re okay. And if you’re okay . . .” He pulled away from Talli and ran to the edge of the stage. “Sky! Are you back to normal?”
He jumped down to the foot of the stage, and stumbled as his broken arm banged against his side, sending a searing jolt of pain all through his body. Then he ran up into the seats to where Seth had flung his rebellious companion.
Sky was crumpled on the floor. There didn’t seem to be an intact bone in her body. Even her skull was flat on one side from the force of her impact with the hard floor.
Chris’s voice caught in his throat. “Sky?” he croaked.
Her black eyes flickered open. “Is he dead?” she whispered.
He nodded. “He’s gone. Are you still a vampire?”
“Yes.” She started to sit up, but fell back hard against the floor. “Help me,” she groaned.
He knelt on the cold floor and took her hand. “How?”
“I need to feed,” she said. “I’ve got to have more energy to heal.”
“Take it from me,” Chris said.
She shook her head the tiniest bit. “I need too much. It would kill you.”
“Then take some from me, too.” Talli knelt down beside Chris. “You helped me,” she said. “Now it’s my turn.”
Sky looked at her for a long moment. “You’re a green again. You turned.”
Talli nodded.
Sky opened her mouth, then shut it again. “I guess I’m glad I’m not, because I’d probably be dead.”
A few minutes later Sky looked like herself again, and Chris felt even more exhausted. While Sky fed carefully from Talli, Chris went to the stage and sat down beside his sister. “Donna?” He shook her gently. “You in there?”
She rolled over and opened one eye. “Chris?” She propped herself up on an elbow and looked at him for a second. “You’re wearing that ratty old green sweater again.”
“Yeah,” Chris said. “Is that important right now?”
She grinned tiredly. “It is to me.”
Suddenly the auditorium was flooded with light as the banks of fixtures overhead snapped on. A door creaked at the rear of the rows of seats, and a thin figure loomed up out of the shadows. Chris looked around desperately, wondering what had become of the knife.
Officer Lansky stepped out into the light. “What the devil happened in here?” he asked.
Chapter Sixteen
“So it was Willard Pays who was driving your car?”
“That’s right,” Talli said.
Sergeant Lansky shut his notebook. “And Pays who kidnapped Donna Delany, and almost destroyed the school, and tried to shoot you, and shot up his own house. Is that right?”
“That’s pretty much it,” Chris said. He adjusted the sling around his arm. “Can we stop now? We’ve answered all your questions ten times.”
Lansky stood up. “Yes, you have,” he said, “and I don’t believe your answers any more now than I did the first time.” He shoved his pen into his shirt pocket. “But the chief believes them, and Sergeant McAlister believes them, and I suppose in this Podunk town that’s what matters.”
He picked up his coat. “So I’ll get out of your house, Mr. Delany. I expect this case will be closed quickly. We’ll let you know if we need anything more.” He turned and headed for the door.
“What about Casey Pays’s disappearance?” Chris called after him.
Lansky stopped. “Funny you should ask about that.” He turned slowly. “It seems that a young woman identified as Ms. Casey Leah Pays entered the Stroud City police station this morning.”
“That’s great!” Talli said.
“Is she coming home?” Chris asked.
“We don’t know,” Lansky said. “The young lady said she had left Westerberg to get away from her father. The officers attempted to retain her long enough for someone from Westerberg to talk to her, but she somehow managed to slip away.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chris said, “but I guess that means we’re not under investigation for Casey’s disappearance.”
“Yes,” he said. “I guess it does.” Lansky slammed the door on his way out.
Talli slid across the couch and put her arms around Chris. “It’s over,” she said.
He nodded. “I guess it is. I’m really sorry about Coach Pays. First he lost Casey, then Seth kills him, and now he’s taking the blame for everything. If I could figure out another way . . .”
“I’m sorry, too. But if he hadn’t been trying to kill us, he would never have gotten mixed up in this. It’s a miracle that more people aren’t dead,” Talli said. “Just be thankful things turned out the way they did.”
The doorbell rang. Chris winced. “The police may have closed the case, but it looks like we’re still Grand Central Station.”
“Stay here. I’ll get it.” Talli hurried to the door and found Sky standing on the doorstep.
“Are you going to ask me in?” she said. “Otherwise, I’m stuck.”
Talli smiled. “Get in here.”
Sky strolled past her into the living room. Already Talli could see something different in the way Sky moved. She was more confident, smoother. It was if Seth’s destruction was finally allowing Sky to grow up.
“Thanks for the favor this morning,” Chris said.
Sky bowed. “No problem. Casey Pays was tall. Playing her wasn’t as tough as it was being a pip-squeak like your sister.”
“I heard that!” came a voice from the next room. Donna popped through the door and waved a pencil at her. “You’re a height bigot,” she said. Then she marched back through the door.
Sky turned around. “I think she hears better than Seth did.”
“She’s a teacher,” Chris said. “All teachers have bionic ears.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in school,” Sky said, “but I seem to remember that.” She shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I guess I’ll be going.”
“Where will you go?” Talli asked.
Sky shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been so long since I made a decision on my own, I might go anywhere.”
“Why don’t you stay here for a while?” Chris asked. “You’re welcome to stay with us.”
Talli looked at him and frowned. “I’m not sure I like that idea too much. Not that I don’t like Sky. I’m just not sure I want you two in the same house.”
“Thanks for the offer,” Sky said, “but I don’t want to take the chance. Seth was telling the truth—we can live on just a little bit of energy from a lot of people. But it’s hard to keep it under control. I don’t want to be in Westerberg if things get out of hand.” She looked at Chris, then Talli. “There are people here I care about.”
Sky walked over and gave Chris a quick kiss that left him blinking in surprise. “You take care of Talli,” she said.
“I will.”
Then she walked over to Talli and wrapped her long arms around the smaller girl in a tight hug.
“Careful,” Talli said. “I’m not as strong as I used to be.”
Sky released her. “Watch out for this guy,” she said with a nod toward Chris. “He must be crazy to go as far as he did for you.”
“I know,” Talli said. “Is there anything we can do for you?”
A wide grin came to Sky’s face. “If you ever decide you don’t want Chris . . .”
“I don’t know,” Chris said. “I’ve never thought much about older women.”
Sky rolled her eyes. “While you’re watching out for him,” she said to Talli, “try to teach him some manners, okay?”
“I’ll try,” Talli said, “but it may be hopeless.”
“In the meantime,” Sky said, “I think I’ll see if I can find another vampire.”
“Why?” Chris asked.
“There are a lot of them out there just as nasty as Seth,” Sky said. “I think I’ll give your theory another try.”
“But I thought Seth made you,” Talli said. “Maybe I was cured only because Seth was the one that turned me. What if you kill one of them and it doesn’t work?”
“Then I’ll know. And at least the world will be rid of one more bad vampire.” Sky went to the door, gave a quick wave, and was gone.
Talli sat down on the couch beside Chris. For a long time they just leaned against each other and enjoyed the silence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M. C. Sumner lives out in the country, in a town even smaller than Westerberg. His house is perched precariously on the side of a hill, and he is the proud owner of one of the ugliest patches of woods in several states. Like many writers, he keeps a menagerie of animals, with current residents that include an iguana, a giant day gecko, an African house snake, a tank of fish, several mice, and one very spoiled golden retriever.
In addition to this trilogy and his previous book, Deadly Stranger, he has sold a number of short stories. His stories have appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, Tomorrow magazine, Dragon magazine, and in a number of anthologies. He was a first-place winner in the Writers of the Future Contest.
He is currently at work on a new crop of young adult thrillers.
M. C. Sumner, The Coach
