The Tome of Bill (Book 7): The Wicked Dead by Rick Gualtieri Page A

zero progress in my argument.
    It was time to take a stand.
    I steeled my voice, imagining myself as the tough guy in the room. For all intents and purposes, I was the leader of this ragtag group. It was time to act it. “I’m serious about what I said. I don’t want either of you coming along. That’s final.”
    Christy turned toward me, almost as if noticing me for the first time. “Final, eh?” she asked with a hint of amusement. “And how do you plan to enforce that?”
    “I’m a vampire, the scourge of the night.”
    “You can’t even decide which woman you want to be with.”
    “Wait, what do you mean by that?” Ed asked, suddenly showing a lot more interest in the conversation than at any time in the past ten minutes.
    “Ixnay,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “We’re talking about keeping you safe. Don’t change the subject.”
    “Fine. So once again I ask how you plan to make me stay here.”
    Oh, fuck this shit. I channeled my inner Dr. Death – figuratively, of course. “A couple of broken legs can be marvelous motivation.”
    “Hold on,” Tom said, stepping up to Christy. “You can’t threaten to break my woman’s legs. That’s not cool.”
    “If it helps, I meant yours.”
    “Oh, well then ... wait, that would hurt.”
    “Bill’s not breaking anyone’s legs,” Christy said dismissively.
    Okay, now she was starting to tick me off. It was bad enough I got dissed by just about every evil entity out there. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to take any smack talk from a chick who’d soon be waist deep in shitty diapers and breast milk.
    Fuck Kelvin Lightblade. I imagined myself as Conan facing off against Thulsa Doom. No way was I gonna end up on the motherfucking tree of woe in this standoff.
    My eyes blackened as I said, “If I have to make you hate me to save your life, I’ll do it. It’s the end of the world. Hard choices are gonna need to be made.”
    Silence met my proclamation. Holy shit, was I actually winning this one?
    “Hard choices. You mean like refusing to help you tame Dr. Death?”
    “What?”
    “Or maybe I could stop trying to chip away the wall in Sally’s brain.”
    My threats had been idle, but something told me hers weren’t. “You can’t stop that.”
    “The hell I can’t.”
    “She’s your friend too.”
    Christy took a step back and placed her hands upon her hips. “I know that, but don’t you dare think for a second I wouldn’t sacrifice either of you. I would kill every vampire, every Icon, every single decent person on this planet if it meant saving my baby. I will see this monster in Boston dead. I will make sure that the White Mother’s heresies are laid to rest. I will sacrifice everyone and everything I hold dear to make sure this prophecy doesn’t come to pass.”
    Oh shit.
    I turned and caught Tom’s gaze. I expected to see the same iron there, but instead, his face held a look of worry that said he was sure she meant him too if it came down to it.
    That was this argument’s game, set, and match ... and none of it in my favor.
     

The Telephone Game
    The next few hours were spent helping Christy shore up her wards on the exits of the building. She also added a few extras to the thresholds of both her and my apartments. As much as I hoped they would be wasted efforts, even I had to admit there was no point in taking chances where loose ends like my gaming group were concerned.
    For the most part, they stayed put and settled in for the night. When I went to check on them, I found Dave running them all through a premade Call of Cthulhu module. They asked if I wanted to join, but I figured I had lost my share of sanity points already this day.
    Sheila and Sally still hadn’t returned, which had me increasingly worried, but Christy kept reassuring me they could take care of themselves.
    “They’ll be fine,” she said, glowing softly as she inspected some sigils that had been etched into her apartment door. It was like some sort of