Where there had previously stood three vampires in the street, now there were only piles of ash, slowly blowing away in the gathering breeze.
“Where is she now?” Hollister asked.
“I don’t know,” Chee said. “It happened so fast, I almost missed it. She had a big knife of some kind. She didn’t… they weren’t
…” Chee looked over his shoulder. He wanted to keep his voice down, fearing news of the woman’s appearance would needlessly alarm the women and children. He leaned in close to Hollister.
“What I’m saying is, she didn’t cut off their heads or anything. She just stabbed them and they turned to dust. It happened so fast they didn’t have time to react. She ran up on the roof. It’s quiet up there now. I bet she got the two up there as well.”
Hollister thought for a moment, trying to recall anything about stabbing vampires like regular folks that he might have read in Van Helsing’s journals. Nothing came to him.
“We’ll have to figure it out later. Maybe we can exchange notes if we ever get a chance to ask her-”
He was interrupted by a shout.
“Billy, no!” One of the women screamed. Spinning around, Hollister saw that one of the boys, maybe eight or ten years old, had worked his way close to the door while no one was paying attention. Now he was throwing up the wooden latch and tearing it open.
Hollister was about six feet away and leapt after him, but the kid was small and quick and had the door open. He dashed through it into the darkened street.
“Get back here, kid!” Hollister yelled after him. The boy was fast and he ran across the walkway in front of the jail and down the street. He was about to run after him when from directly above him the man who had jumped on the roof, still wearing his ridiculous top hat, landed on the ground in front of him. Apparently, the mystery woman had missed one of the creatures on the roof. Or she had been killed herself. The thought gave him momentary pause as he tried to scramble backward into the jail, but the creature’s hands shot out and grabbed him around the neck.
He couldn’t breathe. It felt like his neck had been clapped in irons. His feet started to leave the ground as the creature lifted him up in the air. Hollister was only vaguely aware of the shouts and screams of the women and children in the open doorway behind him. He tried to choke out words, but he could not get any air in his lungs.