by D C Young
“She fed on him. He didn’t deserve to die like that,” I blurted, tried to keep from crying in front of Julia.
“Samantha, that is what a vampire typically is. You, as you’ve been told by many, are a rare breed. It is your unique destiny to be this way but you can’t stop the nature of others. Neither can you blame yourself for it.”
“I’ve felt that draw…. Strongly… coming for deep inside me from the being that possesses me. I struggle everyday to keep her contained and restrained.”
“Resist it as long as you will, but understand that you are responsible only for your own actions and what was done to William Forrester is a natural part of what our species is.” She paused and sipped from her glass of warm red hemoglobin as if to punctuate her point. “For now, you need to get back out there and get back to work. We will be talking about this… and other matters later on.”
“Of course we will,” I muttered as I rose from my place on the leather sofa in Julia’s extravagant home. I knew when I’d been dismissed and I didn’t care to linger.
***
Tammy was in the shower and I was sitting at the kitchen table still moping from my meeting with Julia. I knew there was going to be fall out and I also knew what she said about my vampire nature was true. I was going to have to face it one day, but I just wasn’t quite ready. I wanted to be… My thoughts were interrupted by a sound, which had become all too familiar around my house lately.
The throaty rumble of tuned Harley Davidson pipes pulling up in my driveway. Smiling, I got up from the table and started toward the door. I opened it and stood there waiting for the big man to lumber up to the front step.
“Hey, you damned bikers stay the hell off my lawn!” I called out.
He froze in place and started to turn away. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry to bother you this morning.”
“Hey, where you going?”
“I’m going to move my bike out off of your driveway, ma’am.”
“Get your giant butt back here. You know I’m just messing with you.”
He turned and came to the step. “I sure hope so,” he growled. “I know what kind of bad ass chick you are.”
I ushered Sledge into the house and we took the usual seats at the kitchen table. It was strange that I was thinking of them as usual spots. I pushed the odd thought out of my head and asked a question.
“How are things with Taz and Caroline?”
Sledge sighed. “I’m not sure whether Taylor’s abduction or what they’re going through now is harder.”
“I’ve thought that too.” The scene at the Sullivan’s and the later scene when Taylor was reintroduced to her real parents were extremely painful for me. I could only imagine what Taz and Caroline might have been going through. It was quiet while each of us replayed those scenes in our own minds.
“Did we do the right thing?”
“You know damned well that we did, Sam.”
“I guess you’re right. There’s a lot of aftermath to face on this one.”
“Where evil strikes, it leaves scars,” Sledge growled. “We never talked about a fee for your services.”
“Sledge, I don’t…”
“You’ve got bills to pay and you need to be paid for what you do.” He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a folded check and slid it across the table toward me.
“Hey, Sledge, what you doing here? I thought you’d solved the case,” Tammy said, bouncing into the kitchen.
“What? I can’t come by for a visit?” Sledge grumbled as Tammy wrapped her arms partway around his large frame and squeezed.
“Let me guess,” she said. “There’s some problem on that wreck out there which you need me to take a look at?”
“Aint a damned thing wrong with that bike and you know it, partner.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she retorted. “Come on, let’s take it for a whirl, huh? Maybe go by Amber’s house?”
“Are you bossing me around?”
“Yep.”
Sledge shrugged, looked at me and winked as he got up and followed her to the door. I trailed along right behind him.
“Sledge. Thanks,” I said.
He turned and looked at me. “Sam, I’m the one who should be thanking you. I came to you for your help, remember?”
“Not the case,” I said and nodded toward Tammy.
“She’s a good kid,” he grunted and started out the door. “Maybe when Analisa comes to live with me we’ll hang out some more.”
“Sure.”
As he walked away, I opened the folded check in my hands and gasped.
“Sledge,” I called out. “That is an awful lot of money.”
He called over his shoulder. “I sell an awful lot of insurance.”
The End
The Chronicles of the Immortal Council returns in:
Vampire Spirit
Return to the Table of Contents
VAMPIRE SPIRIT
The Chronicles of the Immortal Council #8
A Vampire for Hire story
by
D.C. Young
Foreward
by J.R. Rain
Hi there and welcome!
J.R. Rain here, and I’m so excited to introduce you to my “Vampire for Hire World”! As you might have guessed, these are written by writers other than me. Fair warning, these stories are non-canon (as in, unofficial) but they’re still a ton of fun. I’m excited to see the Samantha Moon world grow, and I’m equally excited to see all these wonderful writers exploring her world with me.
So, sit back and enjoy Vampire Spirit!
—J.R.
Vampire Spirit
Chapter One
Another year was passing Sam by as quickly as a bird.
Already, the start of another school year for Tammy and Anthony had passed.
Homecoming was a recent memory and the Fall festivities had every weekend fully booked straight up to Thanksgiving and I was looking forward to all of it. With the holidays fast approaching, Sam knew she’d soon be trudging around mall after mall in search of Christmas gifts, winter clothes, holiday decorations as well as school and sport equipment for Spring semester; and she was looking forward to all of it!
After the Christmas and summer they’d had this past year, they all could use some normal and a few weeks of continuous reveling in retail therapy. It sounded like ambrosia to Sam.
Not a ghost, sea witch, kidnapping or insurance selling biker in sight.
Sam was contemplating all this as she struggled to sew the logo back down on the front pocket of Anthony’s school jacket. It had come loose at the dry cleaner. On the TV, Judge Judy was in her courtroom lying in to an entitled twenty-something, who apparently had no idea how much trouble she was in.
Something Judy said made Sam laugh suddenly and the needle missed its mark. The steel point sped into the tip of her left index finger and snapped. Instinctively, she shut her eyes; a reflex fueled by what remained of her humanity. As Sam’s eyelids closed, she saw slender fingers reach out and snatch the shard of steel out of mid air.
“Really, Mom!” Tammy chided as she placed the broken piece of needle on the table beside Sam. “You are such a weirdo.”
“Me? A weirdo?” Sam countered. “Who just caught that needle mid flight as it targeted my eyeballs?”
Tammy laughed. She smiled so beautifully, especially when she was kidding around and having fun. “Oh, please! It probably would have bounced off your eye and broken into a million pieces.”
They both burst out laughing at that visual and Tammy sat down beside Sam on the couch. As she tied off the thread from the broken needle, Tammy threaded a new one and handed it to her. Sam wondered silently why she wasn’t more concerned about what Tammy had just done and then immediately answered herself. As her kids had embarked on their journey through puberty, things had gotten increasingly weird around the house.
It seemed that as soon as Sam had gotten her vampire-inspired craziness under some kind of contr
ol, her children had ironically come into their own unique brands of the stuff.
Anthony was incredibly strong and getting stronger every year. She’d fostered a love of boxing in him with the help of her trainer which had then blossomed into an obsession with mixed martial arts. An old sparring rival, Desmond, had been a real help at the gym teaching Anthony everything he knew about Krav Maga.
“You been enjoying the school activities so far?”
“You know it.”
“You’re just overjoyed to be showing off that jacket Sledge gave you.” Sam was teasing her but she knew how Tammy felt about the memento. It had been an honor to receive the black Harley-Davidson motorcycle jacket that boasted the BACA motorcycle club rockers along with the rank tag of ‘PROSPECT’ on the back. Tammy wore it everywhere; it was a wonder she took it off to shower or sleep.
She opened her mouth as if to protest then looked straight at me and said, “Yeah! I kinda am!”
Tammy couldn’t help but laugh again. Sam kept at the sewing, watching the final minutes of the TV show. Tammy waited patiently until Judge Judy said her closing words on the final case, stood up from her chair and walked out of the courtroom before she snatched up the remote and changed the channel. To CNN of all things!
The screen lit up with footage of protesters, many looked like Native Americans; some were even wearing traditional feathered headdresses. “What’s this about?” Sam asked as she reached for the discarded remote and turned up the volume.
“Kind of an extra credit thing, really. No big deal.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question, Missy.”
“Well, if I turn in a research paper at the start of the year for my Social Studies in world current events class, I could get enough extra credit to guarantee me a spot in the continuance class for the year.”
“Wow! I didn’t know you were so interested in current affairs, Tammy.”
“I really am. If I get the chance to take all three modules this year, I’ll be a shoo-in for the Government and Political Sciences courses junior and senior years.”
“I can’t even pretend that I’m not impressed right now.”
“Mrs. Lauren at school helped me figure out which were the best subjects for me to focus on if I wanted to get into law school.”
“Oh, honey!” Sam exclaimed as she hugged Tammy tightly. She couldn’t believe it, her daughter was following in her parents footsteps… of course, her dad had been the lawyer but that was close enough to law enforcement to make Sam immensely proud. “That’s such good news! Why haven’t you said something to me about it before?”
As Tammy opened her mouth to respond, the door bell rang.
“Oh, new client. Totally forgot about that.”
Instinctively, Tammy rolled her eyes.
“Hey, missy, don’t you go rolling your eyes. Your new best friend, Mr. Sledge was once on the other side of that door doing the same thing. My work keeps things going around here.”
“Yeah Mom,” Tammy said jokingly, as she headed to her room to give her mother some professional privacy. “It keeps things going in the direction of weird at all times.”
It was Sam’s turn to roll her eyes, laughing. She waited until Tammy’s bedroom door closed firmly before she unlocked the door and swung it open.
“Ummm, Mr. White Eagle?”
“Yes. Miss Moon?”
“Indeed, welcome. Come in, please.” Sam stepped aside and gestured for the tall, well-built man to step into the entryway. “Would you follow me please?”
They made their way to Sam’s office and she proudly invited him to take a seat in one of her brand new guest chairs.
“May I offer you something to drink?”
“Water?”
Sam poured her new potential client a glass of cool water from the pitcher on her credenza and placed it on the desk. “How may I be of assistance to you, Mr. White Eagle?” she asked when she was settled across the desk from him.
“Just White Eagle is fine, no ‘mister’ is necessary.”
“Okay, White Eagle, how can I help?”
“Well, I’m sure by now you must have seen something on the news regarding the Dakota Access pipeline. Are you familiar with the goings on up there?”
“It was just on the news as a matter of fact. I can’t say I have all the details but I am aware of the project and the ongoing protests.”
“Good,” he replied, taking a sip from his glass. “Miss Moon…”
“Sam, just Sam. Please.”
“Sam… you might be surprised to learn that even though our tribe leaders are facing a vigorous legal battle with the pipeline, we really don’t know much about their organization or its true goals. I mean honestly, anyone looking at the situation must have, by now, come to the same realizations that we have and asked the same question. Which is: why not just put it somewhere else?”
“I must agree with your sentiment. I believe the whole world may have wondered that very thing.”
“Well, we’ve decided it’s important we know the reason so I’ve been asked by the temporary council sitting at Sacred Stone to hire you to find out. We need as much as you can unearth about the company and its subsidiaries and what exactly they’re up to.”
“Okay.” She was furiously jotting down notes as White Eagle spoke; the wheels already turning in her head. “What if it turns out they just want to be stubborn… or cheap?”
“Then so be it, but we refuse to leave any of this to chance. I believe someone once said that one should know both their enemy and themselves.”
“Sun Tzu in the Art of War.”
“So it was.”
“You’re familiar with my fee structure?”
White Eagle smiled. He stood up, placed a sealed envelope on the desk in front of her and replied, “I believe that should cover the usual retainer as well as some mobilization costs. It’s a bit of a way to Standing Rock.”
Sam stood and walked around the desk. “Thank you, White Eagle. I’ll see what I can do to help.”
At the door, they shook hands and Sam watched as the tall Lakota man got back into a waiting cab and drove away from the curb outside her house. It was a pretty summer afternoon just a few days from the start of the new school year and here she was getting ready to pack a suitcase again.
She sighed.
“I guess I better put Mary Lou on alert.”
Chapter Two
“Aren’t we a bit too old to need a baby sitter?” Anthony asked.
“Not in my book, mister,” Sam replied quickly. “You’d be lucky if I don’t send you off to college with one.”
Anthony’s eyes widened at the thought. “C’mon, Mom! Seriously? I’m not that disturbed.”
She reached over and pulled him in with one arm, ruffling his too-long hair. “I can’t even get you to cut your hair, how can I trust you to read books and pass exams, huh?”
Anthony smiled. He was growing his hair out so he could wear it in a top knot like his favorite MMA fighter did. “I’m getting it cut next week before school starts.”
“You know full well what you have planned is not my idea of a ‘haircut’,” Sam retorted. “But I do admit you’ll look cute.”
“See? I’ll take that for the win, thanks.”
Where did I get such funny, beautiful children? she wondered.
Sam heard Mary Lou’s car door slam and her footsteps approaching the door. Smiling she opened it just as her sister was reaching for the doorbell. “I don’t know why I even think that’s a thing around here anymore,” Mary Lou scoffed lowering her outstretched finger.
“Force of habit?”
“Yeah. That and the dull reality that everyone else in my little world is quite boring and normal.”
The two hugged ferociously and then parted to allow Anthony in on the action.
“Aunt Mary!” Tammy shouted from her bedroom and came barreling down the hall towards them.
“Hey, girl! How you been?”
�
��Been good. How about you and the fam?”
“The ‘fam’,” Sam asked incredulously. Tammy rolled her eyes and Mary Lou just kept on laughing as they made their way to her car to get her luggage.
Once their aunt’s bags were unloaded from the car the kids made their way back up the walkway to the front door. As she scanned the green lawn that rolled down to the curb, Tammy spotted something sticking out of a nearby shrub. She stopped dead in her tracks, staring at it. The gardenia bush was covered in its signature ruffled white flowers but it seemed to shimmer in the sunlight… a silver aura surrounded it.
She put the carry on sized suitcase down by her feet and shaded her eyes to get a better look. Nope. It wasn’t a mirage effect; the bush had an aura!
“Mom? Is there anything weird about that bush?”
“What bush, hun?” Sam called back from the doorway.
“That gardenia,” Tammy replied, pointing.
Sam looked out across the lawn, trying to see what Tammy was talking about.
“No, dear. Just that they need a good trimming back.”
“Oh, okay.”
Sam and Mary Lou went inside and left Tammy standing on the walkway. Determined to find out what she was seeing, she made her way over to the shrub. It did need trimming but she was also right about what she’d seen.
In the middle of the plant, sticking out ever so slightly was a perfect white feather; a big one. She reached out for it and as she touched the tip of the white plume, Tammy heard a sigh in her ear and a single word on the breath… Ishta.
Startled, she plucked it from the bush, ran back to the walkway and grabbed up the suitcase. She looked back but the aura surrounding the plant was gone. Relieved, Tammy took a deep breath and went inside.