Free Maggie Get Your Gun by Kate Danley Page B

in a sprint, totally creeped out that my entire
life depended upon one little light bulb attached to a helmet.  Without it, I'd
be lost, but with it, I was practically ringing the vampire dinner bell that
lunch was served.  I reached the end of the tunnel and the cliff face leading
to Killian.  I tugged on the rope.
    “Is this elevator going up?” I called.
    “Are you safe?” asked Killian.
    “Safe, but I would prefer if I could take the express to
the top.”
    I attached the rope to my waist and started the climb. 
Fortunately, the miners hadn’t seen a reason to polish the walls to a high
gloss shine, so it wasn’t too tough going.  And it felt like Killian was gonna
haul me all the way up if I gave him half a chance.
    Finally, I reached the lip of the upper path and Killian’s
hand was there to catch me.  I bent over at the waist and rested my hands on my
thighs.
    “Fuck, I am out of shape,” I said, wiping the sweat from my
brow.
    “Did you find the object?” asked Killian.
    I pulled the comb out of my pocket and held it up for him. 
Killian shone the light upon it and nodded, “That is a comb.”
    “It is zapping me good, so I know we got the right one.”  I
grabbed my bag and hooked my head towards the direction of out, “We need to
go.”
    “Any trouble?”
    “Yep,” I replied.
    We both broke into a trot.
    “What happened?”
    “Vampires.”
    “How many?”
    “Just one.”
    “That is not unmanageable.”
    “There are more.”
    “That is problematic.”
    We broke into a run.
    "Oh, and this comb doesn't seem to need life force,
because it worked really well for the vampire," I said.
    "Such an object would make a vampire fairly
powerful," remarked Killian.
    "Yep."
    "His clan would most likely be extremely interested in
regaining it."
    "Yep."
    We doubled our pace.
    The sky was totally dark by the time we got out.
    “How long were we down there?!?” I groaned.
    “Let us continue this conversation while we travel,
Maggie,” Killian urged.
    The moon was really bright and the sky was clear.  I guess
it was nice that we’d at least get to see what was attacking us.  I flipped off
my headlight as we walked.  Killian did the same.
    “This was fun,” I said.  “We should come hiking here
again.”
    I cut off my words midsentence.  A shadow was moving.  I
took Killian’s hand and dragged him behind a rock.  Killian looked at me with
concern.  I pointed at the hills.  The shadow moved again, but this time it was
a little closer.  Killian became as still as a cat, watching the vampire as he
picked his way down the hill.
    Killian grabbed my wrist.  He didn't need to ask me twice. 
We ran along the gully, then up the slope of the dry riverbed.
    We popped out in the far end of historic Calico.  There was
an old school in front of us.  We sprinted to the door and I rattled the
handle.  It was locked.  I froze as another shadow moved on the other side of
the school.  I pushed Killian down behind the white wooden steps, and we
crouched, trying hard not to breathe as footsteps passed by so flipping close. 
I had no idea why the vampires hadn't smelled us yet.  All I could guess was
that the silver ore was dulling their senses, which then made me wonder if
there was such thing as silver perfume because that'd be awesome to walk around
with an invisible cloak of unsniffability.
    The first vampire was now in the wash.  The one by the
school house slid down the hill and met him, and then a third guy came in off
the historic Main Street.  They huddled together like an offensive team
figuring out the next play and then broke to march towards the mine.  If we had
been just a few minutes later, we would have been trapped in that hill like
prairie dogs in game of Wack-a-Mole. 
    “Interesting,” Killian whispered.  “How many more vampires do
you believe are below?”
    “One is too many.  I should not have to worry about
vampires out in the middle of the desert,” I hissed.