A Girl's Guide to Guns and Monsters - Martin Harry Greenberg [66]
It hit old Ugly-Stinky right between the eyes, rocking him back.
Hah! I reached for another rock.
“Kaaaate . . .”
I’d forgotten the corpse.
It had floated down behind me and grabbed my uplifted hand, pulling me off balance. The stench was eye-watering and I gasped in an effort to breathe.
The corpse reached for the necklace.
“KATE!” Wan screamed, but he was too far away and too small to do much of anything.
Two of the girls darted toward me, their blades out.
I turned, grabbing at the thing’s hair, trying to yank its head back and away from me. But the monster chuckled and jerked me around, forcing my arm up into my back. I cried out, my nerveless hand dropping the rock. Now it had my hair, pulling my head back, exposing my neck. I could feel its thick black nails on my skin.
“So sweet,” it hissed into my ear. “You will taste so sweet. I will lick your blood from the jade and—”
Three girls ran up dressed in colors of peach, green, and daffodil. Their faces were lovely, but their eyes were like steel. “Release the Wise One,” Peach chirped.
“Or face our blades, vampire.” Wan said, standing on Daffodil’s shoulder.
Vampire? Oh, fu—
Shards of lightning lanced the air around us, making my skin tingle. The thing holding me screamed in rage and pain. Suddenly I was free, and to my complete mortification, I slid to the ground like a limp sock.
I barely managed to stiffen my arms, and lifted my head to find myself surrounded by pastel colors. The girls had surrounded me, protecting me from that thing.
Lightning was still flashing, and I could hear someone—hopefully the vampire—screaming in pain.
The girls swirled about me, a living moving shield, but I could see glimpses. The Doctor was driving that thing off, back toward the fence, using lightning like a scalpel. Further and further, until it finally screamed defiance and vanished up into the clouds.
The possum was still on the fence post waving its walking stick, but I couldn’t have cared less. My vision was going with my strength, and I let it. They could handle the possum without me. I sagged down into the grass and let the darkness take me.
The poor doctor ended up hauling me into the house. I woke to find myself in his arms, being settled on the sofa. He knelt next to me, taking my pulse. “Coffee?” he asked as my eyes opened.
Bleh. Not for a while. “Jack Daniels,” I said, trying to clear my throat. “Bookcase.”
“A woman after my own heart,” he said as he moved off.
I struggled to sit up, only to find myself facing two rows of girls kneeling before me.
“Wise one,” they bowed, and then knocked their foreheads to the floor three times in quick succession.
“What the hell—”
“They kowtow in respect. Befits your position as elder.” Wan was perched by my head, wiping his blade with part of a paper napkin.
Elder. Hell. I put my head back against the cushion. The necklace was a warm comforting weight on my shoulders. The jade was warm and—
There was a tinkle of ice, and the doctor thrust a glass in my hand, filled with Jack. “Here. I think you are going to need this.”
I closed my fingers on the cold wet wonderful glass, and took a huge gulp. “What was that thing?”
“Jiang Shi.” Wan said. “A vampire.”
“That wasn’t a vampire,” I said. “Vampires are—”
“A Chinese vampire,” Wan corrected. “From our folklore. They are created when a person’s soul refuses to leave their body.”
“Powerful,” Doc said with a grimace.
“Yes,” Wan said. “This one is very old and very powerful. It could move its arms freely, and it was dressed in the armor of the Qin Dynasty.”
“You beat it off.” I looked over at the doctor.
He shrugged. “I took it by surprise. Not sure what would happen if it caught me that way.”
“Lovely,” I took another gulp and realized that all the girls were staring at me. I dropped my voice to a whisper, and hid my lips behind the glass. “Er . . . Wan . . . where did the girls come from?”
Wan sheathed his sword, and gave me a wide-eyed innocent look. “Ah. Perhaps I neglected to mention your guardianship over