American Vampire #9

"Devil in the Sand," Conclusion
written by Scott Snyder
art by Rafael Albuquerque and Mateus Santolouco

On the same day he learns about the existence of vampires, Cashel McCogan also discovers that his adoptive father, the lawman who raised him from childhood and whose death he so recently mourned, is actually a vampire and alive, from an ancient race of Irish vampires invaded and genocidally slaughtered by other European species.  Strigus Gaelic-Prime, presumed extinct.  Having lived most of his 700-year life as a respectable man, a faithful lover, and a devoted father, sincerely belonging to a community and killing no one as a predator, Gus is a foil to Sweet, a vampire lawman and perhaps one whom Jim Book could have emulated should he have given himself a chance.  He blurs the lines between human and monster and confuses the mission of the fanatical Vassals of the Morning Star.  That is, until his recent murder spree.

As revenge for his clan's extermination and to prevent the European vampires from setting up permanently in Las Vegas, Gus McCogan murdered their human puppets to lure them, successfully, to the burgeoning desert city and into his cross-hairs.  None of his victims are particularly palatable or innocent, least of all the vampires themselves, but they are human, for the most part, despite being dishonest and ruthless businessmen.  And this discrepancy puts newly enlightened Cashel in a particularly troublesome position, though it becomes less so when the rest of the vampires show up. 

Vampire McCogan's alliance with Skinner Sweet against their common enemy, although at this point not entirely unexpected, is unsurprisingly ill-advised.  The motivations for Sweet's back-stabbing—if he has any beyond sheer contrariness, a deep-seated disrespect for institutions of authority, and, in his words, the fact that he's "always, always got to be the last man standing" (American Vampire, Volume 2: 88 [9: 14])—are entirely opaque.  Nevertheless, Sweet's perverse creativity for retribution leads him to Cashel's pregnant wife with a hypodermic full of blood, leaving McCogan a widower after a violent (but unseen) delivery and a vampire baby.

As for Felicia Book, recently informed of the weaknesses of American vampires, the young hunter takes the opportunity, it seems, to test their effectiveness.  She has some success.  Gold, apparently and figuratively, poisons them.  Sweet may be able to dig out the bullets before they do too much harm, but he's now vulnerable to those who would have him dead.

[January 2011]

As collected in American Vampire, Volume 2 (ISBN 978-1401230692)