Blood Talisman by J. P. Bowie

President, fangs bared,
    prepared to rip out his throat.
    Andorra was quicker. Her speed blurred everything in the room around her, putting
    time at a standstill for the microsecond that it took for her to place herself between the President and his attacker. Her tiny, steel-like fist lashed out and smashed into the vampire’s mouth, a devastating blow that broke his jaw and had him staggering back howling with pain. The agents, recovering from their momentary shock, sprang into action, guns spewing volleys of lead into the vampire’s body.
    The bullets could not kill him, but they had weakened him considerably. He fell to his
    knees, moaning and clutching at his jaw. Andorra knew he would heal in seconds and no
    doubt continue his attack. In that moment when he’d been temporarily disabled, she had
    www.total-e-bound.com
     
    BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 55
    read his mind. He had been programmed for this mission. There was no room for failure—
    for Krautman would accept nothing less than total success.
    Andorra stepped forwards and grasped the vampire by his hair. He snarled at her just
    before she broke his neck. A collective gasp went up from the Taliban members and without a word they hurried from the room. The President stayed the agents with a gesture. Some had been prepared to go after the terrorists.
    “Let them go. The meeting was useless anyway.” He looked down at the vampire’s
    body. “What do we do with him?” he asked Andorra. “Is he actually dead, or is he going to jump to his feet and have another shot at me?”
    Tony knelt by the vampire and prodded him with a finger. “He’s dead all right,” he
    said. “He must be fairly young, Andy. He’s not decaying.”
    Andorra nodded. “That is why he was so easy to overcome. He was recruited by
    Krautman.”
    “Perhaps he could’ve told us more if you hadn’t—uh—broken his neck,” Denise Harper
    said quietly.
    “He told me enough.” Andorra smiled at her. “Krautman is here with us in this room.”
    “What?” Metcalfe gaped at her, then at his Secret Service agents who stood surrounding
    them, guns still drawn, alert, ready.
    “She’s full of bullshit!” Henry Hollingsworth stepped forwards, his eyes cold, yet wary, and Andorra knew she was correct. The dying vampire’s last thought had betrayed the traitor. “How can you believe anything this vampire bitch says?”
    “Hey!” Tony grabbed Hollingsworth’s arm and pulled him away from Andorra. “I
    don’t care who you are, you don’t talk to Andy like that.”
    Hollingsworth jerked himself free. “And you,” he snarled at Tony, “what kind of man
    are you that lets a fucking vampire feed on him?”
    “That’s enough, Henry,” Metcalfe snapped. “What the hell’s got into you?”
    The smile that crossed Denise Harper’s expression was not warm or friendly as she
    turned away from Andorra and said to the President in a low voice, “I think the Lady
    Andorra is about to tell you something you never wanted to hear.”
    “She’s full of crap, I tell you,” Hollingsworth yelled, backing away.
    “Henry…” Metcalfe’s eyes widened with shock as he stared at his Secretary of Defence.
    “No…”
    www.total-e-bound.com
     
    BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 56
    Denise made a small gesture and two Secret Service agents closed in on Hollingsworth.
    “Take it easy, sir,” one said. “Don’t give us a reason to shoot you.”
     

     
    Later that night, Tommy sat on a bar stool in Andorra’s suite, his eyes wide, enthralled by the story she and Tony related to them.
    “Man, it sounds like something out of a movie,” he said, when Andorra paused to take
    a sip of her wine.
    Tony chuckled. “It kinda played out like one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy more
    thunderstruck than the President when Hollingsworth lost it. All that vitriol pouring out of the guy’s mouth about how he could do the job better, and how Metcalfe was so low in the polls because of his stupidity,