by D. M. Wicks
"Sit down and I'll tell you."
I didn't want to, but I planted myself on the couch and glared.
"Good. Now listen. Jeramy Alcott was a member of the Crew that died giving the police information concerning the Red Haze. We couldn't have solved the case without that information or at least we wouldn't know as much about it. Commander Drake has been in meetings with the head of the Crew, Alphonse Dimitri, all morning, discussing what to do with Patient X. One of the conditions for them to stay out of it was that we lay off the Alcott case. In turn they would lay off the girlfriend and child."
"What the hell am I supposed to tell his parents? I promised his father I would catch the man who killed his son."
"That's your own fault. You shouldn't make promises you can't keep."
"But … what … shit.”
"You could just call them. It might be better for everyone if you do it that way."
I nodded and stood. "I'll think about it."
"Oda, maybe you should just go home and get ready for the dinner party your sister was talking about. It will help you take your mind off things."
"Does it always end this way? I thought good triumphed."
"Only in comic books. This is the real world where adults make compromises to get even a little of what they need. Do you still want to be a cop?"
I looked at him; really looked at him good and saw the weariness behind his eyes. How long had he been doing this? How many compromises had he made that turned him into the man he was today? "I don't ever want to be like you, Declan. I don't think I would like myself very much."
He nodded. "Think about it then and give me your answer tomorrow, after the party."
When I made it home that night my sister had a bottle of wine and a pasta dish on the table. We ate together, sang in a drunken stupor, and fell asleep dehydrated. I woke with a hangover. She didn't. Then we got ready to see our mother.
Chapter Thirteen
Patient X
Patricia Xenia wasn't the least bit surprised when the men in masks and sealed clothes came for her. They were gentle guiding her out of the cage the police put her in and into the white van where she was surrounded by beady red eyes that glared hungrily at her. She knew what would happen next. It would be torture in the literal sense.
The Benefactor had told her this would happen should she fail to die at the designated time. He also told her not to worry, that he would take care of things should she find herself in such a situation. She was special after all. The van began to move and she smiled at the masked men. Suddenly one of the men pulled out a gun and shot her in the gut. Patricia was dragged to the ground where her head slammed down. She could taste blood in her mouth.
The van rocked as the men fought over her body until at some point they all had sunk their fangs into one piece or another. The pain in her gut was unbearable as well as the pain from the venom leaking into her system. It felt like acid in her veins. She may have screamed, but she wasn't sure. All she knew was consuming pain.
A fleeting thought entered her mind as her vision began to dim—how had her blood affected the men in sealed suits? The Benefactor must have prepared for the clothes to be tampered with in some way. He thought everything through, to the very minutiae of details. Fangs ripped into her throat and suddenly the pain was gone and she was a martyr. She was nothing more than an idea. Patient X was no more.
***
Jack was pissed. It had been a while since he was angry. He was a mild tempered man, but now he was furious. In the back seat of the van was the dead body of Patricia Xenia, completely drained of blood. He couldn't pull the van over in time to stop the feast and when Cato smelt the blood she immediately became useless and, in fact, had joined in. The bacterium didn't affect him for a few reasons, but that wasn't important right now. Now, he needed to figure out what he was supposed to do with the dead sample of one of the most dangerous bacterial infections created.
How in the hell had the suits not worked? They should have kept the smell of blood out. He dragged one of the men off the body and saw that there was a tiny slit in the back of the suit. As he dragged each person off the dead woman he noticed the small-scattered holes that littered certain areas of the suits.
By the time he reached Cato she was in a drunken stupor from too much blood. She hissed at him as he dragged her away from her meal. Jack pulled off the road into an abandoned parking lot to avoid unwelcome attention. He was glad he did because the men he had pulled out of the van were fighting each other for no reason other than the stupidity caused by overfeeding.
He held Cato up against the van and slapped her a few times. "Cato, snap out of it."
Her head lulled from side to side. He shook her and slapped her again. She pushed him away suddenly and fell to the ground and proceeded to throw up blood. Jack gave a deep breath and massaged his temples. After she stopped heaving he grabbed her again and stood her up.
"Are you with me now?"
"What the fuck, Jack?"
"Good, at least you've got your senses about you again."
"I feel sick."
"That's what overfeeding does to a person. Try not to do it in the future."
"Ha. Ha."
"We have a problem to which there is only one solution."
"What is that?"
"Patient X is dead. Not only dead, but completely drained of blood."
"Shit."
"The only solution is one you're not going to like very much."
She staggered, throwing her hands out to steady herself against the van. "What is it? Tell me."
"We need to round up everyone who took a bite and make them throw up the blood before it gets digested. We need to work fast so I'll need your help. Pull yourself together."
"Fine. Fine. I'm fine now," she said and punctuated it with a loud belch.
Jack sighed and began rounding up the men and women who were still fighting around the van. Once Cato was steady on her feet again she began to help and together they managed to manhandle everyone into the van in a few minutes. Jack got behind the wheel, while Cato sat in the back with a plastic bag that they found under the seat. Her job was to act as the puke bag should anyone decide to vomit up the blood samples they needed. The dead body of Patricia Xenia was shoved into the secret compartment in the back of the van.
They would have to dispose of it like it was bio waste, which meant precaution and procedure, neither of which were her forte. She planned to just leave that part to Jack. He was better at it.
They managed to reach their destination with only two accidents. One of which ended with Cato being covered in blood. Jack hurried everyone out of the van and into the building where a team of doctors and men in lab coats were waiting for them. The group settled down on the drive over, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. It meant that the blood was being digested.
Everyone was taken into a bathroom where there were buckets. Two men handed a substance in a paper cup to everyone, which made them throw up into the buckets.
Jack turned to Cato. "You're lucky you already threw up. I hear that drink taste like ass."
Cato cringed taking off her jacket. The men in lab coats handed her a change of clothes and asked her to undress. She did so quickly and dressed in scrubs.
Jack snagged a doctor who was leaving the room. "Hey, the body is in the trunk. You know where the compartment is, right? Go get it and use something to carry it in. I know only a few people drive by here, but just don't be stupid. I'm having a bad day. The last thing I need is a cop breathing down my neck."
The doctor nodded and, grabbing a few other people, took off. Cato turned to her mentor. "What will the House of Caeruleus do?"
"They just wanted the body. They were probably going to kill her anyway. We will just have to share some of the research from the tests we will run. I need to speak with Father about it, but I'm beginning to think we might benefit from their help."
"What do you mean?"
Jack caught himself
and shook his head. "Nothing, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. For now I want you to hang low for the next few days. It will probably be dangerous for red eyes to be on the streets."
"I can handle myself."
"I know you can, just don't draw attention to yourself."
"I never do."
"Keep it that way."
"What are you going to do?"
"I need to monitor these tests and report the results to Father as soon as possible. We only have a couple of hours before the dogs of the house sniff us out and demand the body back. They've been a step behind us this whole time, but now they've managed to catch up."
"I want to help. The last thing I want to be doing is sitting at home twiddling my thumbs until everything blows over."
Jack studied her then nodded. "Fine. Follow me around then. You might learn something, but everything you see or hear stays with you. I don't want to find out that you leaked what's going on here to anyone in the Crew. Their jobs are to clean up messes, but this one is a bit big for your inexperienced group, if you know what I mean."
"Hey, my group is good."
"I didn't say it wasn't. I just said that they need more experience."
"We've only been a group for a few months."
"My point exactly."
"Besides, I can keep a secret."
"I know you can, otherwise I wouldn't have let you follow me this far."
"Well, thank you then."
"You're welcome."
Cato watched as Jack typed a few things on a computer then turned to another human and started demanding information. She wasn't sure of Jack. There were a lot of things about him that made her worry, like the way he always said he would handle everything. This was also the first time she had ever seen him really angry. Usually, he was cool and collected, but she could tell that he hadn't been prepared for Patricia dying the way she did. His tone was clipped as he addressed everyone and Cato could see the permanent frown marring his brow.
It made her worry even more because he was obviously stressing out about something that she wasn't privy to. It probably had something to do with what he spoke to Father about. What did Jack mean when he mentioned asking the other house for help? To her understanding the two houses had never worked together on anything in the history of their creation.
They both had very different views of how vampires should participate in society and various methods of dealing with things. It was crazy to even think about red eyes and blue eyes working together. It was like thinking about a lamb and wolf having a cup of tea together and discussing the weather.
Cato followed Jack as he made his rounds around the hastily set up laboratory. He was beginning to calm down as he worked in his element. At least that reassured her a little. He was her mentor, but she didn't trust him. Though she supposed that if it came down to it she would trust him with her life because, despite not knowing him very well, she did know that he had her best interests in mind.
Jack was yelling at a woman in a lab coat who was yelling back. Cato was impressed that a human female had the guts to stand up to an angry vampire, but not all humans were the smartest of creatures. Cato turned in time to see the doctors from earlier carrying a black bag, which most likely had the body of Patient X in it, off into another part of the lab. Jack also noticed it and yelled for some other people to get their ass into gear and get him results.
Cato sighed. Today was turning out to be very interesting. Now all she had to look forward to would be it ending with a nice hot bath and a warm meal. It had been raining a lot lately and her hair didn't react well to it. She needed some girl time. All this time hanging out with the men of her Crew was making her forget her womanly needs and that was unacceptable. When she finally made it home tonight she was going to pamper herself. Then tomorrow she would deal with everything all over again. Tomorrow would be a better day. It just had to be.
Jack turned to her, cutting off her train of thought, "Would you like to help those idiots with the body? They are having some trouble with it."
Cato nodded. "Sure, why not?"
"Good, they are in the other room down the hall, to the left."
Cato nodded and left him. He had noticed Cato spacing out. She always was more of a doer than a watcher. Jack turned back to the human woman that he had been yelling at for the last couple of minutes.
"I need the results now. Not three hours from now," he said.
"My people are working as fast as they can. You're lucky I was even able to round up this many people at such short notice. We will do what we can in the time we have, but don't be expecting much."
"Why the hell do I even ask you for help? You're always more of a headache then you're worth.
"You asked me because I always deliver what I can, which is usually enough."
A young man interrupted them and handed them a printout. Jack read through it then sighed. "Good, this is what I needed. Anything from here on out will be extra. Get me as much as you can."
The woman nodded and went back to work. Cato appeared a few minutes later with a smile on her face. "Humans are funny."
Jack smiled. "You need to get out more."
"You seem to be in a better mood."
"Finally something has gone right today."
Cato was about to reply when a group of men and women all with glowing blue eyes entered the laboratory commanding all attention. Jack snorted and muttered under his breath, "The dogs have arrived." He then turned to greet them.
Chapter Fourteen
Oda
My mother was by no means a small woman nor was she tall. My sister and I were at least a head taller, but I suspected that was due to old age shrinking her. I rang the doorbell to the small suburban home about forty minutes from downtown where our apartment was. I waited, expecting an angry woman to answer the door. Somehow, I had managed to avoid her for the better part of four months and I now felt guilty and a little scared that she would exact her anger on me in some way. Our mother was for the most part a kind woman, but she liked things a certain way.
My sister and I were never to ask about our father. We were never to forget our manners, and we were to always put the family before any selfish desires. It was strange when we first moved out and had the freedom to do whatever we wanted to. That was why it was also very strange having to re-enter the house with a different mind-set.
I liked to remind my mom that we weren't children anymore, but she would always ignore it and simply do things the way she always had. When Kyoko Ko, my mother, answered the door she was all smiles. I think that greeting surprised me even more then had she been all frowns, which was her usual. Disapproving looks were her forte and I had grown accustomed to them.
"Setsuna, Oda, come in! Dinner is on the stove. I was just about to turn it off."
My sister and I looked at each other and frowned before entering the house and kicking off our shoes at the front door. We both put on the offered house slippers and were led to the kitchen.
"I made salmon, rice, and some sides of different vegetables. Sit down and I will serve you."
Setsuna said, "I'll help, Mom."
"Okay, honey. Please set the table. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet."
"Is there anything I can do?" I asked.
"Why don't you pour the water for everyone?"
I nodded and the kitchen was quiet as we went about our chores. Once the table was set and the food served we all sat and said our thanks for the food. Kyoko served the rice from the small cooker next to her, but besides the usual pleasantries the room was silent. This is how it always was. Impersonal. Cold. Awkward. Sometimes I found it hard to believe that we were even a real family with so little communication. Our mother was human to all intents and purposes, which either meant that our father was a blue eyes or at least one of them had the gene. Since we were never to ask about him I never found out the truth of the matter. Kyoko didn't look anything like us. Where we were of dark and cool colors she wa
s bright and warm. She was of slight build and tall for a woman of Asian heritage, which was thanks to our grandfather who was African American.
I decided to break the silence. "Sorry, Mom, for missing you the last few times you visited."
"Oh, no worries, Oda. I know you have been busy with work. Setsuna told me you had irregular hours."
"Still, I'm sorry."
"I'm just glad you were able to make it today."
Setsuna said, "How have you been, Mom? Since yesterday, I mean? You mentioned that you found a new dress that you were thinking about buying."
The conversation continued like that for the better part of the evening. It wasn't until we were about to leave that our mother asked the question.
"When are you two going to move back in with me?"
Setsuna and I shared a look before I answered, "Not anytime soon, Mom. I just moved out a while ago."
"Vampires should stick together. It's just not natural to break up a family like this."
I answered again before my sister could say anything. "Mom, I love you, but we aren't children anymore. Please try to understand that we need our space. You can visit us anytime, but we won't be moving back in with you. That's final. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
She was silent until we left; only making small talk. As soon as we climbed into the taxi—my car was still being fixed and my sister used public transportation—I turned to Setsuna. "What the hell was that all about?"
"What do you mean?"
"She was so nice and stuff besides the last part of the night."
"Our mother has never been mean."
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what do you mean?"
"I don't know. She's usually a little more forceful. At least that's what I remember."
Setsuna turned to look from the window to me. "You just haven't seen her in a while. The first time she visited and you weren't there I had the exact same reaction. She not a bad person though, Oda. You just need to get used to her again. That is, if you want to."