“We look out for this town and all of you. All we ask is a measly seven percent cut. Tell me, what kind of low-life piece of shit–covered toilet paper can’t give up seven percent to the town that’s given them more in return?”
“Boo!”
“Greedy pigs!”
“Assholes!”
I rested my head on the frame, slightly stunned with awe. No, unease.
Actually, both.
Gran sheltered us from so much. Protecting us from a world where a twenty-one-year-old and his friends can admit to extortion and have his victims rail against the ones who dared to say no.
Did Gran pay the community fee? The Bedlam Boys were younger then. Maybe too young to face down a sixty-year-old woman who kept a shotgun in the umbrella stand.
“—those against the community, are out of the community,” Cairo bellowed.
I straightened, tensing as Cairo converged on Cavendish.
This is it. It’s now.
Raising the bow, my arms were rigid sticks. I couldn’t bend my elbow to pull back. Couldn’t stop trembling to do the single thing I perfected at eleven years old.
Take aim.
You can do this, Rainey. You have to do this.
Mayam did what she had to do against the Men of Honor. Surely I could summon half as much courage to save an innocent girl who needed me. A girl made helpless by a soulless man who cared only about what he could take, even if it was more than she could give.
If anyone knew what it was to be a girl like that, it was me.
I notched the arrow, tears dripping down my face.
No one saved me, but I can save Jennifer.
Cairo and his torch closed the distance. I steadied my aim between his eyes, took a breath, and let go.
The arrow clattered on the rotting floor, and me beside it.
I cried great, heaving sobs as wherever she was, Jennifer suffered alone and afraid in the dark.
“I c-can’t do it. I’m sorry.”
“It’s Bedlam now! It’s Bedlam forever!” Cairo shouted below.
“I’m so sorry.”
***
Cairo
“It’s Bedlam now. It’s Bedlam forever. And if you don’t get on-fucking-board, it’s—”
“Fucking hell, you can go on.”
I fell silent. The voice ripped through the Drumlins estate, silencing everyone.
Lowering my torch, its light fell on a tall guy with hair that glinted emerald green. He stood apart from everyone for the simple fact he sported a cawing raven on his neck, and the clothes. Long dark coat, spiked boots, pants, and silk shirt such a dark blue, they appeared black.
The guy broke from the crowd, microphone in hand, and parted the way for more of them to pour out. All dressed like Van Helsing’s idiot brother, Dan.
“We came all this way to join the infamous Ruckus Royale. See the even more notorious Bedlam Boys in action, and this is all you got?” He laughed uproariously. “Tie them to a bunch of posts while the naked hicks holler and call them mwean names? Boo hoo.”
Roan, Legend, Arsenio, and Jacques moved slow, falling in around me. I felt the air shift as it did right before I did something I wouldn’t regret.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, voice calm.
“We’ll get to that soon enough.” He circled Valdez, and the edge of the well. “Stories of you five have reached the other towns. Warnings not to cross you. Warnings not to cross the line into Bedlam at all. This fuckhole is crazy, and the inmates hold the key to the city.
“Unsurprisingly, it’s all a load of bullshit.” He spat in the well to punctuate his point. “If we were in charge, none of these bitches would get a light show for daring to threaten me, or coming up short!”
He punched Valdez in the crotch. The professor's jaw cracked in a silent scream.
“The Bedlam Boys are going soft! You need a lesson on how to handle disrespect!”
The shout was a call to action. The other vampire hunters ran at the sacrifices—shaking their posts, pummeling them, snatching a paint gun and spraying Kimball in his open, screaming mouth. One of them pounced on the still and silent Cavendish and ripped a knife from his coat. He buried the blade in his thigh.
“Argh!” Agony contorted his features. “Filthy, worthless cunt! I’ll kill you,” he roared, showering him with spittle. “I’ll kill you!”
Screaming, gasping, pleas, shouts of horrors, and my new green-haired friend rose above it all, laughing himself sick.
I observed the scene, and Cavendish, eyes narrowing. Neither one of us made a move.
“When we run this town,” Dan said, stalking toward me. “No one will fucking dare stand against us. Least of all y—”
I punched him dead in the throat, popping his eyes out of his skull. Hands flying to his neck, he dropped, wheezing and gurgling to amuse me. Or because he couldn’t breathe.
It was funny either way.
“Stupid fuck!” The vampire band rushed us.
We whipped out our torches, skidding them to a halt. Wide eyes glared through the flames.