Wit couldn't tell which hurt more: the head butt, the knee to the groin, or the realization that he was about to be rendered unconscious for the second time in less than a week. His spine slammed into the edge of the door jamb as he was tossed aside. He crumpled to the floor, folded in half, limp like a discarded marionette. He raised his head long enough to see black scrubs topped by a head draped in long blonde hair. His vision blurred into blackness as he resumed the posture of a lifeless stringed puppet. Joey jumped to shield him and was immediately pinned against the door frame by a lightning-fast forearm.
"What the hell was that for?" Joey pried himself from beneath the assailant's appendage and stood over the limp pile of Wit. "You nearly destroyed him the first time! How about showing a little restraint?"
"I nearly destroyed him? I believe it was your arterial implant that siphoned his fangs dry!"
"You had it set too high! I told you to set it lower, but no, 'It doesn't extract fast enough at the lower setting'. Jeez, you always have to do it your way. You never listen to me!"
"You never listen to me!" Jayne mocked in a whiny, sing-song voice.
Joey glared back, his black pupils widening as the tips of his fangs began to drop.
"Whoa, little one! Keep those things in your head!" Jayne placed her index finger under Joey's chin and eased his mouth shut.
DeLeon stepped over the pair of legs blocking the doorway and between the feuding siblings. "Now, kiddies, play nice. Why must the two of you do this every time you get together?" He put his arms around each of them and pulled them close.
Joey wriggled away. "I'll tell you why. We wouldn't be in this rat fuck, excuse my French, if it weren't for her asshole boyfriend! Sorry if I've been just a little miffed since he tried to kill me back at the pet shop!"
"He has a point, Jaynie," DeLeon agreed.
"You two never gave him a chance! I loved him, and you went and tore his head in half! Totally uncalled for, by the way." Jayne wagged a finger at her younger brother.
"Really? What was I supposed to do? Slap his hand and say 'Bad Zombie'? The moron fucked up everything!" Joey's was gradually getting louder.
"Joseph. Language." DeLeon cautioned.
"So, you're not still pissed at her? She set you back twenty-five years, her and her idiot boyfriend."
Joey paused a moment to assess DeLeon's ire. Sensing that it wasn't at the proper level of intensity, he rolled Wit onto his side and dug deep into his pocket. He tossed the shiny metal oval to DeLeon. "She managed to leave this behind."
DeLeon glanced briefly at the serpent bracelet, polished it on his robe, and tossed it to Jayne. "You were right."
"What do you mean she was right?" Joey was confused.
"She said that if she left the bracelet as bait, it would lure you back here."
"You didn't think the fact that my friend, a vampire, who was overpowered by a tall blonde named Jayne, would have been a big enough clue to what had happened?"
"No. We knew you would know immediately what had happened. We provided an excuse to get Sleeping Beauty over there to take a road trip. The Ouroboros was the perfect link."
"I don't know why you have to make this so difficult. Danny would have given me the venom, no questions asked."
"Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't willing to risk having to wait another twenty-five-year cycle. As it is, we are very fortunate that his hybrid venom will work. I wanted him here in case we needed more venom."
"Good luck with that! Your precious little princess milked him dry! He isn't even a vampire anymore!" Joey instantly regretted the last sentence.
"As it turns out, it doesn't matter. We have an ample supply of venom. Slightly diluted but still the same basic make-up." He winked at Jayne. She winked back.
"That's impossible! Danny's unique. The only other one that could be remotely similar to him would be . . . ."
Joey's eyes instantly blackened with sheer rage. He lunged at DeLeon with fangs fully extended, but was clotheslined once again by Jayne's cat-like reflexes. His fangs sank deep into her forearm and pierced through the opposite side. Jayne swung her arm wide, slamming his forehead into the wall, leaving a softball-sized crater in the plaster. The anti-freeze that acted as Jayne's blood splattered across the wall's surface and seared into the corners of Joey's mouth, causing both of them to bubble and crack. Joey jammed his shoulder into Jayne's armpit and spun halfway around, flipping her back through the doorway and into the gallery. He threw himself at her as she regained her footing. His shoulder connected with her abdomen, and they tumbled over the top of the sofa. The handle from the dagger, still embedded in the cushions, raked across Jayne's spine and dug deep into the lower back just above her kidney. She grasped blindly for the weapon and carried it with her to the floor.
Joey hit the hardwood with a force that would have knocked the air out of him if he still drew breath. He arched his back and sprang to his feet. Using the shelves as a ladder, he quickly climbed to the top of the bookcase. He dove at Jayne, hoping to overwhelm her before she regained composure. She raised the arm holding the knife, the blade running parallel with her mauled forearm, to block his advance. As he lunged, his open mouth was unexpectedly filled with green ooze and razor-sharp steel. Jayne thrust her arm forward as the blade met the back of Joey's throat, dislocating his jaw and separating his skull from his spinal column. As the top half of Joey's head flipped through the air, it watched everything that was once his body collapse onto Jayne.
"Aw, shit!" jumped from synapse to synapse as the uppermost part of Joey slammed into the baseboard on the opposite wall.
Jayne rolled out from under her brother's motionless torso. She stood upright and examined the damage to her arm. She wiped the knife's blade clean on her scrub top and tossed it onto the sofa, then squeegeed a wad of green spew from her hair, pulling it between her fingers. The gob coated her palm and began to slide toward her wrist. A quick flick spattered the goo onto Joey's chest.
"Well, that was a bit extreme. What do you have to say for yourself?" DeLeon sighed in disgust.
Jayne raised her shoulders unapologetically. "Oops."
"You'll have to deal with this mess later. Pile the pieces of your brother over there and drag our friend, Mr. Witmoore, into the gallery. They'll have to stay here until we have time to properly dispose of them. Then clean yourself up. Once you've taken care of all that, you can bring the breastplate to the grotto." He stepped back over Wit's ragdoll body and disappeared down the hallway.
Jayne grabbed Joey's torso by the front of his shirt, dragged it across the room, and propped it in front of the koi tank. She retrieved his skull and held it at arm's length in front of her.
"Alas, poor Joseph, I knew him well," Jayne laughed, in her most Shakespearean voice, as she tossed the head into the corpse's arms as if they were playing catch. It bounced off the chest and landed on the floor.
"Close enough," Jayne said to herself. She grabbed Wit by the feet and dragged him next to Joey's body.
"Sleep sweet," she said as she kissed her fingers and then touched them to Wit's forehead. She glanced back at her brother's remains. Feeling a wave of remorse, she placed his head neatly in his lap and straightened his shirt. A rumbling of gears followed a few touches on the keypad as the doors closed behind her.