Before I could answer, Murdoch suddenly broke free of the vampires surrounding him with a mighty burst of speed and force. His snarling face was visible to me an instant before he disappeared in a blur. Cops started yelling, and flashlights went on as they searched the area.
I was aghast. “Did he just get loose?”
Dan was equally horrified. “Oh no. Someone’s going to die. Who knows where he went?”
High-pitched screams and the frantic honking of a horn in the direction of the parking lot gave me the idea Murdoch hadn’t gone far. I ‘ported there lickety split, and sure enough the mindless hungry zombie was attacking the news van. Amy Hoskins shrieked as he pounded and pulled on her door.
I looked for something to pull energy from in a hurry, hoping to manifest enough strength to help my former school chum. A couple of police cars were running, and I saw Dan already at one, becoming more solid as he drew power. Great minds think alike.
Amy’s cameraman had an even better idea. He’d finally gotten past enough of his panic to crank up the van. Unfortunately, he’d come to his senses too late. As the engine spluttered to life, Murdoch ripped Amy’s door off the van and reached in to grab the terrified reporter.
His hands closed on the collar of her business jacket, and his mouth opened wide as he pulled her towards him. Nothing I’d do would save Amy now. I screamed along with her as she was drawn towards her death.
A flash of gray and white shot down from the heavens to strike Murdoch. The flash stilled, solidified, and became Tristan in his designer gray suit. Holding one end of a thick tree branch, the other end of which had erupted through Murdoch’s chest, Tristan yanked the zombie away from Amy. Then he drove the wooden spike into the ground, pinning Murdoch face down.
Tristan snatched Amy from the van, cradling the shocked woman in his arms. He yelled at the driver, “Get this thing clear so they can light him up! Hurry before he breaks loose!”
The van’s gears ground into reverse, and the vehicle roared backwards. The driver didn’t stop in time and put its rear end right into the marsh. The driver bailed out, took one look at Murdoch who was grimly backing himself off the limb, and ran down the road leading back to the main highway. Moron.
Meanwhile, the fire brigade with its flamethrowers was thundering into range. The deadly intent on the faces behind their protective masks told me they had no intention of Murdoch getting away again.
Knowing he couldn’t hear me but unable to keep from yelling useless advice anyway, I screamed, “Tristan, get out of there, you idiot!”
Before I’d finished my shout, Tristan flew into the air with Amy still in his arms. She squealed a little and wrapped her arms around his neck in a grip that would have left him injured if he wasn’t a vampire.
That dry hiss that I remembered far too well from this morning filled the night as the flamethrowers went into action. As Murdoch’s body went up like a pile of dry leaves, I heard Amy yell, “Put me down, Mr. Keith! I have to get this on camera!”
Murdoch, being a vampire, was going up so fast he didn’t have time to scream. It still wasn’t pleasant to watch, so instead I turned my attention to Tristan flying Amy to the news van. Its back axles had sunk pretty far into the muck at the edge of the marsh, but the front end remained on solid ground. Amy ducked into the passenger side where no door existed any longer, and after only a few seconds she charged back out with a big camera. She ran at the silent circle of official types surrounding the burning huddled lump. What had been Murdoch no longer looked like something that had ever lived. Tristan kept close to Amy throughout, as if playing the part of a bodyguard.
“Wow,” Dan breathed.
“Yeah.”
“Tristan stopped Murdoch and saved that reporter. I guess that makes him a hero.”
I snorted. “We’ll never hear the end of it.”
Releasing tomorrow!
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