Free Dread Nemesis of Mine by John Corwin Page A

away from each other. Kneed the vampire in the
stomach, and finished her with a roundhouse to the face. Catwoman
went down in a ragdoll heap.
    Bella yelped as one of the vampires landed a
punch on her face. She wobbled but managed to keep her feet. Elyssa
snatched the staff from the ground. Whirling it, she cleared a path
back to Bella, clubbing vampires on the head with it. Though she'd
trained with a bo staff, it wasn't her specialty. True, she had the
katana Bella had given her, but even as mad as she was, Elyssa
couldn't bring herself to start slaughtering these stupid sheep
Maximus called followers. They were brainwashed. Not evil.
    Bella dodged a furious uppercut from the
vampire. Elyssa came up behind the man and swung the staff up hard,
nailing him in the crotch with the knobbed end of it. She pushed
the staff forward. Bella grabbed the rod. Twirled it. Crushed the
man in the balls with a fierce thrust. The vampire howled and fell
to the ground, clutching at his injured manhood.
    The two women exchanged fierce grins, and
dashed past the fallen attackers.
    The street dead-ended in two narrow alleys.
Elyssa cursed. "Check the left, and I'll check the right," she said
over her shoulder as she ran across the road. She reached the end
of the alley and looked both ways down a long, deserted street.
Bella emerged on the same street on the opposite side of a tall
red-brick building.
    "No!" Elyssa froze with indecision. Could the
woman with Justin have already gotten away? She ran back into the
alley and looked up the walls. It was at least three stories to the
top and too wide for her to brace against. Elyssa ran up the left
wall. About six feet up, she jumped the gap to the other wall. The
moment her foot touched the rough brick, she reversed momentum and
leapt back across. Within seconds, she reached the lip of the roof
and pulled herself up.
    The view here was better, but the crowded
buildings and snarled alleys hid too much. The only movements she
saw were still-fleeing pedestrians and the occasional car or truck
in the distance. Police had formed a blockade on one end of the
road, but not the other. The vampire with Justin must be headed
away from the blockade, but there were too many narrow passageways
and side streets for her to lose herself in. For all Elyssa knew, a
waiting vehicle had already picked her up and Justin was gone.
    "She went that way," Bella shouted from the
ground, pointing toward a glowing green line wending down an
alley.
    "You used a spell?"
    The other woman nodded. "We have to hurry.
The trail will fade."
    It'd take too long to get back down, Elyssa
realized. Reversing her ascent wasn't as easy as jumping down the
walls. She'd end up breaking her leg or worse, and the time
required to recover would be all the time the abductor needed to
get away. She looked at the street below. At the trail leading down
the alley. She backed up to the opposite edge of the roof. Sprinted
toward the ledge. Jumped.
    Bella shouted something unladylike from
below. Elyssa swung her arms to keep balanced. Already, gravity had
her in its clutches. She stretched her foot forward. It barely
caught the lip of the roof. Elyssa somehow kept her feet and
ran.
    "I'm following!" Bella shouted, her voice
echoing from the alley.
    Dodging right, Elyssa ran along the edge of
the roof. The buildings were closer on this side. She jumped each
gap without slowing. Ahead, a motor puttered to life. A tire
screeched. A tiny green car pulled out from a parking space at the
end of the alley. Elyssa saw Justin's limp form slumping in the
passenger seat.
    "It's him!" Elyssa shouted. She leapt across
the alley to a lower building. Vaulted another gap and dropped onto
a concrete wall below. Bella streaked past her as Elyssa made it to
the alley floor. By the time she reached the street, Bella had
pulled out her wand and was looking at the parked vehicles. Most of
them were rusted heaps. Something chrome twinkled in the
sunlight.
    A