Bad Moon Rising (Pine Deep 3)

The Dead Heads were all locked up safe and sound. The vampires who couldn’t pass for human were in the nests. Ruger’s orders for the evening were simple: “Nobody hunts, nobody dies. ”

Not tonight; not on Mischief Night.

Tomorrow was Halloween and that was when the killing would begin again. Yeah, Ruger thought as he walked hand in hand with Lois, that’s when the real party starts.

Chapter 31

Midnight

1

Crow and Val sat on opposite sides of Weinstock’s bed. They were dressed in clean hospital scrubs—a loan from one of the many doctors they’d gotten to know during their recent stays. Their own soiled clothes were in a plastic bag.

“They say you’re going to be fine,” Crow said. “They don’t think the rotator cuff’s torn. ”

Weinstock looked at him for a moment and then turned away. “What does it matter?”

Crow frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I was bitten!” he said in a tortured voice.

“Saul…”

Weinstock turned sharply, eyes flaring. “Don’t you understand? I was bitten by a vampire!”

“He just bit you, Saul,” said Val. “He didn’t kill you. ”

“I’m going to die! I’m going to come back as…as…”

“No you’re not!” she snapped.

“I’m damned! Don’t you get it? I’m going to die and then I’m going to come back as a freaking vampire and—”

Val bent forward and stared at Weinstock until he stopped talking. She bent and kissed him on the tip of the nose. “You are not damned, you dope! Jonatha told us that you have to die by a vampire’s bite and then either be forced to drink blood or drink it when you revive. Neither of those things happened. This is just a wound. Right now you’re hurt and you’re scared. We’re all scared. ” Her smiling mouth started to tremble. “Mark only bit you. He didn’t drain your blood, he didn’t kill you, and he didn’t make you drink his blood. You’re not going to turn into what he was. ”

Weinstock stared at her for a long moment, then he wrapped his uninjured arm around her and pulled her close. After a moment she sat back on the bed and fished for a tissue in her pocket, didn’t find one; Crow held one out without comment. He handed a second one to Weinstock.

The TV was on and they all pretended to watch ABC’s coverage of the town’s Mischief Night festivities. After a minute Weinstock said, “I need to call Rachel. I need to get her and the kids out of town. ”

“It’s the middle of the night, Saul…” Val began, but let it go. She understood, and she sat with him while he made the call, listening as Saul concocted a complete piece of nonsense about an outbreak of avian flu that was just discovered. Saul pleaded, he cajoled, he even yelled, but in the end he convinced her. When he hung up he looked ten years older, but greatly relieved.

Later, Crow said, “We have to decide what to do about Connie. ”

Without looking at him Val replied, “I want her cremated. I’ll call the Murphy Brothers tomorrow; they can come for her and take care of it. Mark, too. Jonatha says fire will work, so let’s end it with that. ”

There was a light knock on the door and Ferro came in with a cardboard carrier heavy with Starbucks cups. He looked like five miles of bad road, and Crow told him as much. Ferro’s attempt at a smile was ghastly.

“You okay?” he asked Val, offering her a cup.

She waggled her hand back and forth. “Where’s Vince?” she asked, taking the coffee.

“Throwing up,” Ferro said. “Again. He said he might go to the hospital chapel for a while. ”

Val nodded.

Ferro cleared his throat. “Look, Crow, Val…as soon as Vince is fit to travel we’re heading back to Philly. No, no, don’t look at me like that—we’re not jumping ship. We talked it over and the bottom line is that we all got hurt in there because we were underprepared. No way am I letting that happen again, so we’re heading back to the city to get some more reliable armament. Kevlar vests, ammunition, the works. I figure we tweak Crow’s shotgun-shell idea and put a drop of garlic oil in the tips of hollow-point rounds and seal them somehow. ”

“I have plenty of sealing wax at my store,” Crow said