99 Coffins (Laura Caxton 2) by Wellington David

Author:Wellington, David [Wellington, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-05-20T18:44:27+00:00

Page 82

44.

The vampire wore a gentleman’s suit of clothes, & had a tarboosh upon his head worked with golden threads. His eyes burned with the light of the fire. His face was clean shaven & his white skin radiant in the darkness.

“You wished to speak with me?” he asked. Slowly, Simonon stood up from his camp table, & approached.

“I wish to beg your help,” the Ranger said. He was no coward, that man, I’ll say as much. “Jeff Davis wishes the pleasure of your company.”

“You’d sign me up,” the vampire chuckled. “You’d make me one of your privates. Or an officer, perhaps? I don’t relish the prospect of taking orders.”

“Then be a partisan like myself,” Simonon offered. “Choose your own targets, it will be allowed.”

“Really?” the vampire did not move at all, nor make any flourish of his hands. Yet we could see his muscles bunch, loose under skin that barely seemed to fit him. He was like a catamount about to spring on a deer. “& if I choose you?”

He lashed out then, with both hands, & his teeth fastened on Simonon’s shoulder. The Ranger screamed as flesh & bone parted ways & hot blood splashed the vampire’s mouth & cheeks. Our surprise was matched only by the uproar amongst the Rebs below. Some raised weapons, & I saw sabers being drawn, but none rushed to aid their leader. He was dead already, & all present knew it. The vampire having finished his feast, he dropped his victim to the ground as a man might cast away the bones of a cooked and eaten chicken. Then he turned to look at the cavalry troopers who surrounded him.

“I am the master of this house, & have invited none of you to be my guest! You go back to Jeff Davis & tell him I’ll serve no man, nor God, nor the Devil himself. You go & tell him!”

—THE STATEMENT OFALVAGRIEST

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