Page 90 of Good Vampires Go to Heaven

“God might give us guns, but we have to supply the ammunition.”

“Puh-leeze,” Regina begged.

“You might want to toss out a few of your witchy curses while you’re at it, Regina,” Vikar added with a grin.

Regina needed to learn that it was a mistake to call attention to herself. It was a lesson he’d learned early on in Lucipire 101. Invisibility wherever possible.

“I’d especially like to see a few Lucies go back to Hell with their cocks tied in a knot and their tails up their arses,” Vikar said, thus proving Zeb’s invisibility theory.

“This is what you’ve done to me,” she hissed at Zeb. “No one takes my curses seriously anymore.”

Oh, that was unfair!

Regina murmured something under her breath about what Vikar could do with his own appendage.

Vikar just grinned and continued, “In any case, we’ll storm the castle at twelve hundred hours on the dot. Once we’ve breached the entries, expect a mad rush of Lucies to come out all at once. Most of the fight will take place outside. I expect a field of slime by this evening. By the way, Zeb, do dead demons leave slime in their wake, too?”

“Nope. Just a lot of stink.”

They all checked their watches. It was already ten hundred hours and they had to get to their assigned assault and defensive positions. “Aside from destroying every single Lucipire we encounter, we’ve got to be on the lookout for the captive vangels who were taken the last few days. Their safety and return to Transylvania or the hospital on Grand Key Island, if they’re injured, is paramount. They’ll have to be led, or litter lifted, or carried over our shoulders till we’re outside the castle perimeter for teletransport.”

Everyone nodded grimly. Many of these were close friends, who were being held as prisoners. And God only knew their condition if Jasper and his minions had begun torture.

“Let us pray,” Vikar said then.

All heads bowed, and they took each other’s hands, raising them.

“May the Lord be at our backs, and may St. Michael guide our sword arms, as we begin this battle of good against evil. Death to all Lucipires!”

“Amen!” everyone replied. “Death to all Lucipires!”

Svein dropped Zeb’s left hand. Zeb squeezed Regina’s right hand before releasing it.

“Remember, Jasper is mine,” Vikar said for about the dozenth time since they’d arrived, and he ended the meeting.

Zeb didn’t argue but he had every intention of being the one to end Jasper’s days as a demon vampire. He had an ace in the hole that would ensure he gained that access. It wasn’t just the satisfaction of being the victor that Zeb craved, but there were a few things he had to say to the king of the Lucipires before he met his final reward. Questions that needed answering.

Just then, he noticed Regina staring at him oddly, especially at his clenched fists. The woman saw too much. He unclenched his fists and smiled at her.

She didn’t smile back. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing,” he lied. “We better go find Jogeir.” He and Regina had been assigned to Jogeir’s team once again. Their assignment was to enter the castle through the dungeon corridors, the way Regina and the witches had rescued him not so long ago. Well, Jogeir and Regina didn’t know it yet, but he wouldn’t be with them. Not the whole time, anyway.

He put an arm around her shoulders as they followed the others out of the building and on to their various assigned posts. Everywhere he looked he saw vangels swinging their fur-lined capes back over their shoulders, exposing swords or guns or lances, even twin-bladed battle-axes. And in Regina’s case, knives.

And, oddly, or perhaps thankfully, many of them appeared to have hazy blue fog at their backs. Would this be the day that some vangels earned their wings? Would he still be a vangel at the end of this day?

“Just in case things don’t go well today—” Regina started to say.

He put his fingertips to her lips. “Stop.”

She kissed his fingertips and shoved them aside. “I have to say this. Just in case things don’t go well today, I want you to know that I have . . . that I have . . . come to love you and I probably wouldn’t mind if we are lifemates.”

“Regina, not now.”

He could tell she was disappointed that he didn’t reciprocate her declaration. In truth, he wasn’t sure how he felt. Oh, there was a bond between them. Lust, for sure. And something else. Whatever it was, would it still be there when the fever of war receded?

Suddenly a group of vangels marching off to their respective assault positions separated them, and Zeb knew he had to take this opportunity to launch his own secret plans. “Later,” he yelled to her, but she probably didn’t hear him.