Stake

by Kevin J. Anderson

  She pushed him away and squirmed to one side. She raised herself on her hands just as Blair crawled to the side of the bed.

  Helsing’s mouth opened and closed, and blood trickled out of both corners of his lips. A big red hole in his chest bubbled, blood mixed with foaming air.

  She leaned over him, hating him, but she saw that his eyes were fixed on her neck, a smooth neck with no vampire bites. And the dangling gold chain, the delicate cross she wore because of her promise to her parents.

  He gurgled, ‘You’re …’

  ‘I’m not a vampire. You. Were. Wrong.’ She pounded each word like a nail in his coffin. In disgust she shoved his bleeding body off the bed, and he tumbled with a thud to the floor.

  Blair managed to haul himself back to his feet, swaying.

  Though exhausted and terrified, Lexi managed to say, ‘You saved me. Thank you!’

  ‘I love you too.’ He collapsed on to the bed beside her, groaning. ‘Is it all right if I just stay here for a while? You were there for me after Cesar. My turn to comfort you.’

  ‘Let’s not keep score.’ First things first, she dialed 911, called for an ambulance and the police, then turned to Blair. ‘Just stay put. The paramedics will be here in a few minutes.’ While they waited, she wrapped her arms around her friend.

  FIFTY-FIVE

  When the ambulance arrived, the EMTs examined Blair’s head injury, complimenting him on his thick skull. Though Lexi was a wreck herself, she hovered beside them as they worked, desperate to help and trying not to get in the way. ‘Will he be all right?’

  Lexi was surprised that the lead EMT was a woman named MaryJane Stricklin – one of the potential targets on Helsing’s list. She was all business. ‘We’ll take care of Mr September. Severe concussion, no doubt about it, but he’s responsive. When we get him to the hospital they’ll run a lot more tests.’ If Stricklin made a connection between her patient and the vampire killer who had targeted her, she didn’t show it.

  ‘First Cesar and now this,’ Blair groaned as the EMTs wheeled the gurney to the front door. ‘Lex, I’ve been battered more times since meeting you, than in my entire life.’

  ‘Let’s not make a habit of it, OK? We’re done now.’ Lexi clasped his hand, and Stricklin gave them a moment, though she was anxious to get him out to the ambulance. ‘Thank you, Blair. Best friend in the world.’

  ‘Shucks, it was nothing. I’d do it again in a second.’

  ‘No you won’t,’ Stricklin said. ‘Time to go.’

  They wheeled him out the door and down the driveway to the ambulance. Lexi followed beside Blair, who was conscious enough to remark that one of the male paramedics was particularly cute.

  Before going, the EMTs had checked her over for injuries and wrapped her in a blanket. The Taser had left no lasting damage, though she felt as if she’d been run over by a truck.

  Detective Carrow arrived before they left, looking worse than she did, still dressed in his suit from Zelm’s gala the night before. He was covered in dirt, shoes muddy, hair disheveled, face scratched. ‘We chased him all through the night in the pitch-black forest, and the whole time he was coming for you.’ He sounded relieved, even happy. ‘Crap almighty, I could have just waited here!’

  After all she’d been through, Lexi was not in a mood to celebrate. ‘I wish you had been here. I was attacked, my housemate was severely injured, and I had to kill a man. I could have used some help.’

  Carrow grew serious. ‘I understand. Sorry. You did manage to stop a serial killer. Think of the lives you saved.’

  She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and heard the ambulance depart. She told herself that Blair was in good hands. ‘Right now, what I think of is how he broke into my house and tried to drive a stake through my heart … and how it felt to pull the trigger and feel the weight of a dying man on top of me.’ Her voice went hoarse, and she shivered at the recollection.

  ‘I’ll take your full statement a little later, if that’s OK.’

  The coroner entered through the front door, accompanied by an army of evidence technicians. Carrow sat beside Lexi on the sofa, awkwardly asking her basic questions, as Dr Watson reviewed the crime scene in the bedroom, studied the body on the floor. Displaced but with nowhere else to go, Lexi went into the kitchen, trying to ignore the bustle around her. Oddly, she thought of Holly Smith, how wounded she must have felt, how lost even after being rescued.

  She found the French press and determined to make the good coffee herself so she would know how to do it for Blair during his recovery.

  Watson came out of the bedroom, her curly hair a mess. She pulled down the paper mask from her mouth and nose. ‘Not much question about the crime, the victim, or the perpetrator. You’ll fill me in on the details, Detective?’

  ‘Once I get the full story,’ he said. ‘I know most of it already, just a few loose ends.’

  ‘And it’s all wrapped up before the election.’ The coroner was actually smiling. ‘That’s good.’

  Lexi slowly pressed the plunger in the French press, watched the hot water swirl around the aromatic coffee grounds. She closed her eyes, inhaled, blocked out the other sounds in the house and blanked the images in her head. She just breathed the coffee, in for a long breath, out for a long breath.

  Processing the scene took hours even after the coroner hauled off Helsing’s body. The evidence techs finished their work, and Detective Carrow hurried them along so Lexi could have a little privacy.

  He had encouraged her to go to a hotel, but she stubbornly insisted on staying. ‘It’s my home. We know Helsing is no longer a threat.’ She ran her hands through her hair. ‘I just want something to be normal for a little while.’

  The detective conceded, though she suspected he was bending a few rules by letting her stay there. By the time everyone else finally left, it was mid-afternoon. Carrow stood at the door, ready to leave. ‘We’ve got the evidence we need. You can relax, Miss Tarada. I’m going to need to talk with you more, but we can do that later. I’ll take care of everything I can.’

  ‘Thanks, Detective.’

  After he left, she went around the house and opened all the curtains, letting the sunshine in on a mess she couldn’t face cleaning up. The bloody sheets and comforter from the bed had been taken away as evidence, not that she ever wanted them back. She was going to sleep on the sofa for the next few nights, or maybe in Blair’s bed, since he would be in the hospital. Or maybe she would spend some nights there with him. She had slept in uncomfortable chairs before.

  Right now she just wanted a hot shower, to let the steam open her pores and rinse out all the shadows and bad memories.

  As she enjoyed the pounding spray and breathed the warm, thick air, she suddenly pictured herself as Janet Leigh in Psycho standing oblivious in a similar shower until Norman Bates yanked back the curtain to hack her with a butcher knife. Lexi climbed out of the shower, ran to the bathroom door, locked it, then went back to enjoy the warm spray again.

  She had spent too much time chasing down crazy stories, monster sightings, bizarre theories. What she really needed to believe in were her friends. Blair had been her knight in shining armor, just as she’d been there when he needed her. That was all the faith she needed to have. She thought Teresa would approve.

  She had fostered the doubts and fears of gullible people, making them want to believe. Some people were disturbed, and did not want their beliefs challenged. Lexi had needed a sense of wonder in her life, but maybe it was more important to foster a sense of reality. Sometimes the answer really was a stuck keyboard and random letters on a screen.

  She decided to tell Detective Carrow everything, even explain about Lucius and the Bastion, though she was sure their camp would be long gone by now, moved to some other wilderness hiding place.

  As she tried to wrap up the case in her own mind, she switched off the shower and let the warm water run down the drain. Lexi admitted to herself that there never was any evidence of rea
l vampires. Only a blind fanatic would believe an impossible explanation when there were simpler, more rational reasons. The actual monster stalking Colorado Springs had not been a bloodsucking fiend, but a crazy man who thought he was killing vampires. With Simon Helsing gone, there was one less monster in the world.

  Lexi dried herself off, dressed in comfortable sweats, and sat down in front of the desktop computer in her room. Her laptop, damaged when Blair bashed Simon Helsing in the head, had been taken away as evidence.

  After phoning the hospital to get an update on Blair, Lexi called up HideTruth and began composing a new essay to post on the home page. It felt like a confession as she wrote out the details of recent events, telling the whole story. She posted her fears and suspicions, how much she had wanted to believe in vampires, how convincing Helsing’s evidence had seemed. Then she confessed that she, Alexis Tarada, had simply been duped because she wanted reality to be something it wasn’t, something more.

  She knew she would receive a firestorm of comments from outraged believers. They would think she had betrayed them. They would rail at her, claim that she was part of the problem, not the solution. She might lose many of her regular supporters.

  But she didn’t care. After what she’d been through, Lexi had to take a different stand now. There was no hiding the truth.

  FIFTY-SIX

  Lexi called her parents when she was ready, but they had already seen the news. The crazed vampire killer had become more than a local story, and Lexi expected to get more coverage and exposure than she wanted. People would read, and mock, HideTruth, but she was used to that. She had faced and defeated a serial killer who believed in vampires. Trolls were nothing in comparison.

  ‘First off, I’m all right,’ she said as soon as her parents answered.

  Sharon and Perry talked over each other in their excitement, but they said essentially the same thing, glad to hear from her, relieved she was safe.

  ‘It’s a long story. I’m not sure I want to tell all of it, but I’m OK. That’s the important part.’

  ‘We’ve been worried sick about you, dear,’ her mother said. ‘Your father was ready to get in the car and just drive straight out there. If it would help, we can come and stay with you for as long as you need us.’

  Lexi appreciated the offer, but their visit would cause an entirely different kind of stress. ‘I just need some peace and quiet. I’ll rest here.’ She suddenly realized how empty her house was.

  As if picking up on her thoughts, her father asked, ‘But your roommate – how badly was he hurt? Is he going to recover?’

  ‘Blair saved me,’ Lexi said. ‘I talked to him this morning, and I’ll visit him in the hospital today. The doctors say he should be all right.’

  ‘I’m so glad he was there to help,’ her mother said, ‘though I’m still not sure what your relationship is to him.’

  ‘Or if we want to know,’ her father added cautiously.

  ‘You don’t want to know. I’m not dating him, but there’s no better friend in the world.’ She meant that with all her heart. Her voice cracked as she repeated, reassuring herself as much as her parents, ‘He’ll be all right.’

  She told them the bare bones of the story about Helsing, enough to satisfy their curiosity, downplaying the violence. As she talked, she fingered the delicate gold cross around her neck.

  ‘Just hearing about that dangerous man sickens me! We’ve told you—’ Sharon’s tone changed as she began a lecture.

  Lexi braced herself, but her father cut in. ‘Speaking of being sick, we got an unexpected report yesterday. We were going to call, but then we saw the news.’

  ‘Perry, now isn’t the time!’

  He continued anyway. ‘Your mother had more tests. The oncologist says that the combination of the chemo and radiation worked on her breast cancer. It’s in remission.’

  The news came as a complete surprise. ‘That’s great! I wish we had more surprises like that.’

  ‘With cancer, you can never be sure it’s completely gone,’ her mother said. ‘I’ll still have to go in for tests every six months.’

  ‘But it’s gone for now.’ Her father sounded happy and proud.

  Lexi found herself smiling. Yes, she liked that kind of news.

  Her mother didn’t stay derailed from her lecture for long. ‘I’ll say it again, Alexis, and maybe this time you’ll listen. You should come home. We still have your room. You can live with us.’

  Perry jumped in. ‘Rent free for now. It’s dangerous out there in the world. You’ve seen it yourself.’ His voice became stern, as if he were laying down curfew hours. ‘Time to come home.’

  Lexi drew a deep breath and spoke into the phone, clear and confident. ‘There are dangers out in the world, no matter where you look. But I see wonders too, and mysteries. I have everything I need here. I am home.’

  Her parents heard something in her voice and decided not to argue.

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  When she arrived at the hospital to see Blair, Lexi brought more roses than she had ever carried before. Six red ones, six yellow, six white, six peach.

  Seeing her at the door, Blair sat up in bed so quickly that he winced in pain. ‘Lex, they’re beautiful! Nobody brings me flowers.’

  ‘Are you calling me a nobody?’ She chuckled, but couldn’t cover her dismay at seeing his bandage-wrapped head. ‘I didn’t know which rose color signifies “thanks for saving me from a serial killer”.’

  ‘You’ve conveyed the message perfectly. They’re adorable, and you’re adorable.’

  She flushed, turned away while pretending to look for a place to set the bouquet. ‘And I’m alive, thanks to you.’

  ‘I was just in the right place at the right time. Take most of the credit for yourself.’

  She cleared the countertop near his sink and arranged the roses in their vase. ‘Are they taking good care of you?’

  Blair lay back, his head propped on a stack of pillows and the bed tilted so that he could ignore the muted talk show on the wall TV. An IV bag hung from a metal tree beside the bed. ‘Well enough, though not like the way you take care of me. I can’t wait to get home.’ He pushed his bed tray aside, shunning the half-eaten food on it. ‘The meals here are abysmal. You could make better Jell-O than these people.’

  ‘I’m from Iowa. Of course I know how to make good Jell-O,’ Lexi said. ‘And as an extra special treat for you, I’ll even add canned fruit cocktail and Cool Whip.’ Blair grimaced. She leaned close to kiss him on the cheek. ‘I miss you. Get better. Come home soon.’

  ‘If you keep hanging around with serial killers, I may have to find a different place to rent. Too much drama.’

  She grew serious. ‘I would never want a different housemate, Blair. Please don’t leave me.’

  ‘If you put it that way …’ He sighed and became serious. ‘I need you too. Can you help me with the paperwork here? The hospital is asking a lot of questions, and I like to keep my records as bare bones as possible.’

  Lexi remembered he liked to keep his information private, which had posed difficulties when he’d first rented with her. He had insisted that all the bills and records be in her name, so that he could keep himself off ‘lists’. She smiled. ‘I’ll answer what I can, but you’ve never told me why you keep so many secrets. Even from me.’

  ‘There’s a difference between secrets and privacy, my dear. You never know what somebody might do with that information. I don’t share what they don’t need.’

  She clucked her tongue. ‘The hospital will need to bill your insurance.’

  ‘I have a well-funded medical savings plan that will cover the bill. I don’t want my records exposed and available for any hacker to steal my identity. No social security number, no scanned signature, no online bank accounts. I’ve gotten along fine so far.’

  ‘Until you got whacked on the head by a mass murderer,’ she said. She leaned on the bed next to him. ‘Of course I’ll help. If you do have a deep, dark past,
I don’t want to hear about it. I know what kind of person you are, and I know I don’t ever want to lose you as a friend.’ He clasped her hand.

  Detective Carrow appeared in the doorway, shattering the moment. He wore his everyday gray sport jacket, which looked about the same as the good suit he had worn for Hugo Zelm’s formal gala.

  Lexi squeezed Blair’s hand one more time and straightened, turning to the detective. ‘I’m surprised to see you here.’ She suspected he had more questions for them.

  Blair frowned at the man. ‘You’re empty-handed. At least Lex brought me flowers.’

  ‘I brought you my sunny presence,’ Carrow said. He looked relieved and was actually smiling. ‘I was here visiting Officer Amber and his wife, showing my support, you know. Prognosis is good. He’s showing significantly improved brain activity. Doctors are keeping him in a medically induced coma, but the damage isn’t as bad as they feared. Won’t promise a full recovery but they’re optimistic.’

  ‘Optimism is good,’ Lexi said.

  He nodded slowly, still standing in the doorway. ‘I’ll be optimistic for your sake, too, Miss Tarada. We won’t be filing any charges, just in case you were concerned. There’ll be paperwork and a hearing, but I’ll vouch for you. When you shot Grundy, you were clearly acting in self-defense.’

  ‘I can second that,’ Blair said.

  ‘You did help us out, even if you didn’t exactly have an orthodox approach.’ Carrow scratched the stubble on one of his cheeks. ‘Maybe if I’d been a little more unorthodox myself, I could have put the pieces together faster.’

  ‘I completely agree,’ Lexi said. ‘But then you wouldn’t have needed me.’

  ‘You make that sound like a bad thing.’

  She shook her head, drove back the weight from the terror of the previous morning, of fighting Helsing, feeling the sharp point of the stake on her chest … pulling the trigger.

  Blair shifted on the bed. ‘You are not invited to go along with us to the next upscale party. Lex’s dress is ruined, and I’ll never be able to return it.’