“Come on,” I said, “there’s no point in staying.”
I led her out the front door. She followed in a faltering shuffle.
We got back to the 4Runner. Phaedra opened the door and reached for her water bottle. She dug the meds from her slicker. Her trembling hands rattled the bottles. She took a tiny blue pill and a red-and-yellow capsule and downed them with a gulp of water. Her right eye kept blinking and she pressed her hand over it.
“You better?” I asked.
Phaedra lowered her hand. Her eyes became hard as marbles with a look that accused me of causing her troubles.
The echo began.
I covered my ears and locked my legs to keep from stumbling. “Goddamn it,” I yelled, “stop that.”
The echo crashed like it rang from enormous bronze bells. The vibration shot from my brain and down my spine. My hips gave out and I sank to my knees. “What do you want from me?” I screamed.
The echo quit. I blinked, grateful that my head was quiet and clear. The front of my trousers were soaked from kneeling in the mud.
Phaedra looked down at me. Rain dripped from her slicker. “Don’t ever patronize me. Don’t take me for granted.”
“I haven’t. I won’t. What gave you that idea?”
Phaedra propped the Toyota’s front door open, sat inside, and waited. “So we understand each other, okay?”
Yeah, we understood each other. I had my duty to perform. I straightened upright. “Okay. Sure.” My wet trousers pressed against my knees.
“You know who the others are, don’t you?” Phaedra asked.
“I do.”
Phaedra pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and cleaned her nose. “This is all a big secret, isn’t it? You as a vampire. The others.”
“It is.”
“Why?”
“There’s a world parallel to the human one. You’ve discovered a way into it.” Mud had splashed on the slide of the pistol. I used my cuff to buff away the smudges. “This world is full of vampires and other supernatural creatures.”
“Why is it a secret?”
“Because we can’t trust humans.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Humans are the most treacherous and cruel of all creatures.” Add to that equation Phaedra with her mental mojo. “They wouldn’t hesitate to destroy us.”
“How can humans be worse than the ones who killed Gino?”
“I’m not going to debate that right now.” I racked the slide and caught an ejected cartridge in the palm of my left hand. The gun should fire, no problem. “What’s important is that we have a strict rule about revealing the existence of the supernatural world.”
“What’s the rule?” Phaedra asked.
“If a human finds out about the existence of vampires”-I pointed the pistol at her-“I’m supposed to kill them. Like I have to kill you.”
CHAPTER 22
If the echo started, blam, Phaedra would eat a.45 slug.
No echo. Only her eyes looking back at me. Red and puffy like a pair of bruised welts. They said: Go ahead.
I already had enough guilt over killing one girl. I didn’t need more from killing another.
Where would I go from here? Now that I’ve confirmed the zombie attacks, I was sure I could find them on my own. I no longer needed Phaedra.
The Araneum had ordered me to find the source of the psychic signals. I hadn’t been told what to do next.
But Phaedra knew too much about vampires and the supernatural world. Then again, every human she had shared this information with-her doctors, therapists, family-all thought she was nuts. No one would believe these stories.
I’d use this as wiggle room around the rule.
I lowered the pistol.
Phaedra’s lips crooked in triumph. “Every rule has an exception, right?”
“Always.” I slipped the.45 into its holster.
“I thought so.” Phaedra slammed her door closed.
The rule had only one exception that allowed humans to live with the knowledge of vampires. Those humans must be chalices, sworn to never reveal the Great Secret or else get killed.
Phaedra wasn’t a chalice. I couldn’t bring myself to drink her blood.
The other way would be to turn her into a vampire, a request she’d already made. But she was only sixteen and I’d already decided not to fang her. I haven’t turned anyone yet and I had no plans to, especially a young woman like her.
Every time I dwelled on Phaedra, my thoughts curved back to the memory of the Iraqi girl. In my mind, Phaedra and the Iraqi girl were practically conjoined. I had already killed one, I wouldn’t harm the survivor.
I got in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Phaedra asked, “Who are the others? What kind of monsters are they?”
“You gotta make a promise.” I drove from Gino’s house. “You have to keep this a secret.”
“And if I don’t?”
I stepped on the brake. “It’s not my rule, okay? You violate this rule, we both die. It’s that simple.”
She gave a petulant sneer.
My talons extended, quick as wasp stingers. My arms were about to snap at her and I fought to keep them close to my side, my hands quaking from the effort.
Terror sparked in Phaedra’s eyes. For a moment she made no motion other than to let out a nervous exhale. Her right eye started that nervous tic. She gulped and said, “Hurt me if that’s what makes you feel better. I won’t stop you.” Her expression hardened in contempt. “You might even like it.”
The words sounded practiced. Evil. I had the image of sadistic uncles and cousins whipping her naked back and ass with belts to punish her for their sins.
I wasn’t one of them, but Phaedra had to know the consequences to both of us.
My talons withdrew and I slowly and carefully put my hand on her knee. “You talk, we die. For me, I know it won’t be pleasant. Understand?”
Phaedra’s eyes said: so what?
“You don’t understand.” I let go of her knee and settled into the driver’s seat. “I’m scared of what could happen. Me. A vampire. Think about that.”
“Scared of what?”
“Other vampires. The ones in charge of keeping us a secret.”
“What would they do?”
“Skin me alive. To a human? Something worse.”
“How many vampires?” she asked.
“Thousands at least.”
She folded her hands on her lap, not in surrender but to bide time. “All right. I’ll do as you tell me.”
Good. I smoothed my coat. I drove the Toyota toward the county road. I felt relieved for two reasons. First, Phaedra understood what was at stake. Second, I’d gotten the point across that her psychic powers couldn’t always protect her.
She put a hand to her blinking eye to keep it still. “You were going to explain about the others.”
Might as well tell her. I was miles past the line I was never supposed to cross. “Zombies.”
Her eyes moved in a searching pattern. She gave a tiny chuckle. “This is all crazy.”
She shut her eyes tight, so tight that her eyelids seemed glued together. “Maybe this is a hallucination.”
“Phaedra,” I said, “open your eyes and deal with this. You wanted to know. Here it is. Gino’s dead. So is Stanley. Zombies killed them. And you wouldn’t have recognized Barrett. None of this is a hallucination. You could be next.”
Phaedra kept silent and stared out the windshield.
We trekked north, down the canyon.
“What are they like?” she asked. “The zombies?”
“Disgusting. Revolting.”
“How are you better than them?”
I laughed. “Don’t put me in the same category. They’re walking bags of septic waste. Besides, Gino asked me for help, right? I’m the good guy in this story, aren’t I?”
“Are you?”
“For your sake, you better hope I am.”
“And
your job is to wipe them out?” she asked.
“As extinct as possible.”
“Does the government know about them?”
“Our government knows a lot of stuff.” The feds certainly knew about aliens and UFOs. “But zombies? I don’t think so.”
I better be right. Otherwise our government had their greedy, scheming hands on the supernatural. We’d be enslaved and destroyed.
The rain lifted. The clouds parted and sunbeams bore down from the sky. Where they touched, they illuminated the ground with a searing brilliance. The autumn colors-the yellow aspens, the red cottonwoods, the orange gooseberries and currants-made the landscape as brilliant and lively as a fresh oil painting. My eyes stung from the intense light and I put on my sunglasses.
The clouds dissolved, and when the road turned level and the land flattened into planted fields, the sky was an azure blue.
Phaedra turned off the heater and unzipped her slicker. She squirmed in her seat. Her breasts, round as apples, filled the front of her sweat top. The shoulder belt lay snug between her breasts and emphasized the swell of each firm boob. B-cups for sure. Maybe Cs. The yellow stripe on her sweatpants followed the curve of a shapely thigh. She looked as fertile as the moist farmland.
Her scents-from the damp hair, shampoo, soap, her perspiration-made Phaedra a smorgasbord of temptation.
Bloodsucking pussy hound that I am, I had scruples. Regarding sex, I don’t go where I’m not invited. In Phaedra’s case, I wouldn’t consider an invitation.
“You’re quiet,” she said, not pulling her eyes from the road.
“There’s a lot on my mind.”
“About Gino?” She arched her back and those fine titties pushed against the sweat top. “Or something else?”
That “something else” hovered in the air for longer than I should’ve let it. Minutes ago, Phaedra was buried in sorrow. Now she teased. Was this hot-cold emotional routine a family trait? Maybe growing up around career criminals had taught her how to flip between feelings as easily as turning a page in a book.
I had to change the subject. “How much do you know about your family business?”
“Is that important?”
I let my foot off the gas. “Here’s another rule. I ask a question, you give a straight and complete answer. If I ask, consider it important.”
She put those brown eyes on me and they were stormy with resentment. “I’m not supposed to talk about what I know or don’t know. In our family business, silence is golden. Anything less than golden is…” Phaedra pantomimed putting a gun to her head. “Even for me.”
I pressed the gas. The Toyota lurched forward and we rocked against our seats.
“Your family and the business have new priorities. You saw what happened to Gino. Unless I stop the zombies, keeping the family secrets is going to be easy because all of you will be dead.”
Phaedra’s face softened, then hardened, her eyes moving left and right as thoughts jumbled in her head.
I could use hypnosis but I wanted Phaedra to make the decision to trust me. “What do you know about the family business? Is it drugs?”
“Mostly. What they don’t handle directly, they collect a tax from anyone smuggling through this area.”
“Tax? Protection money?”
Phaedra’s eyes said: Of course. Don’t play stupid.
“Anyone who?” I asked.
“Mules. Mexicans. Some Russians. Mostly people from out of state going east-west, north and south. Oklahoma. Nebraska. Wyoming. Illinois. Of course California and Texas.” She paused to breathe. “But I wasn’t really paying attention when the subject came up.”
“Some of them might object to paying this ‘tax’?”
“Probably.”
“Who then?” I asked.
“I just gave you a list. Take your pick.”
“What kind of drugs?”
“Pretty much everything that’s illegal or stolen from a pharmacy.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Running hijacked merchandise. Farm machinery. Lot of cars.”
“So you know more than you let on?”
“I got ears.”
“And the family talks around you?”
“I’m invisible except when the men get all horny and want to take off my pants.” Phaedra said this too casually.
I remembered the bills that had fallen from her pocket. “Is that where the money comes from?”
Her face reddened like I’d squeezed her neck with giant pliers. “Is that what you think I am? A whore?”
“A few minutes ago you were all but bragging.”
Her right eye fluttered like the wings of a wounded moth. “Quit staring at my eye.”
She covered both her eyes. “Quit staring at me. Stop it. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
The shame washed from her to me. I put my arm on her shoulder. She rubbed her nose across the cuff of my coat. I slid my arm free and opened the center console. I took out a tissue and gave it to her.
She wiped her nose. “Let’s pretend we didn’t talk about that.”
“Sure.”
My fingertips and ears itched with a warning.
I checked the rearview. A red pickup truck gained on us. I looked to the front. On the right, a black pickup shot from behind the fence along the power relay station.
I didn’t need Phaedra to tell me who these trucks were after.
CHAPTER 23
As a vampire I have supernatural powers. The Toyota doesn’t. The two vehicles ahead were closing the trap. If I whipped around, at this speed the Toyota would flip over. I’d survive, but I couldn’t risk injuring Phaedra.
I reached for the H&K.
Phaedra grabbed my arm. “Stay cool. Stay cool.”
The black pickup bore at us suicide-bomber style. I couldn’t swerve out of the way and slammed the brakes to keep from colliding. My Toyota skidded on the wet asphalt, the tires screeching when they burned through to dry pavement.
The front end of the red pickup following me dipped as the driver rode his brakes.
The two pickups boxed me in.
Each of the pickups had a driver and passenger. I didn’t need a program to know they intended to knock me around. Four of them, one of me. Even without the H&K, the odds were in my favor-if I fought as a vampire. Phaedra’s presence complicated the situation. If I revealed myself as a vampire to these goons, no problem, as I would kill them. But Phaedra, what if she was caught in the cross fire?
As soon as the vehicles stopped, we were all out in a flurry of opening doors and starting the showdown. The black mouths of three shotguns and a pistol gaped at me.
I fixed each shooter in my mind. I could snatch my pistol and drop each one with bullets to spare. Those I didn’t kill outright I would finish off with my fangs.
Phaedra bolted from her seat in the Toyota. She moved so fast I didn’t realize what she was doing. Phaedra grasped a wiper arm on the Toyota, set a boot against the front tire, and hoisted herself on the hood.
Phaedra stood erect between the guns and me. She balled her fists and screamed hysterically. “Stop it. Stop it.”
The men drew back and lowered their guns, acting unexpectedly concerned about shooting her. Vinny, Gino’s friend who I met yesterday, waited by the door of the red pickup.
One man didn’t lower his pistol. The driver of the black pickup. His eyes burned with venom. Like me, his Mexican roots were obvious in his indio face. He had the lean hungry physique of a Tijuana alleycat. His neck appeared withered like his body had been drained of everything good and decent. Go to a crowd of a thousand people, look for the psychopath, and this was the man you’d pick.
A third vehicle-a blue Chevy Blazer-came straight at us from the direction of the hospital. The Blazer fishtailed and straddled the road, its front tires rolling into the weeds along the shoulder. A kid with a ponytail hopped from the Blazer and shielded himself behind the opened driver’s door. He drew a be
ad on me with his pistol.
A man with a thick face like the front end of a battering ram came out the front passenger’s side. Loose striped shirttails flapped from under the bottom of his jacket.
“Phaedra,” he shouted. His big chest heaved from exertion. He hustled between my Toyota and the black pickup. He carried himself like the man in charge. Two of the men clustered around him, psycho at his left.
“Uncle Sal,” she yelled.
Sal? Had to be Sal Cavagnolo.
He waved his hands in a downward motion. Pistols disappeared under jackets. Shotguns fell across car seats.
Everyone relaxed a bit except for the psycho, who kept a snarl in his eyes.
Phaedra climbed down over the front bumper of the 4Runner. She kept repeating, “Gino’s dead.”
“How do you know?”
“We were at his place. There was blood everywhere.”
Cavagnolo glared at me like I was responsible for the bad news. “What were you doing there?”
She raised an arm in my direction. “We were looking…”
“I was talking to him.” He turned up the heat in his glare, thinking-wrongly, of course-that I’d wilt. “What’s your business here?”
“That’s between Gino and me.”
Cavagnolo’s eyes simmered with insult. He approached me. His men reached for their guns.
“Was he there?”
“No. Like Phaedra said…”
Cavagnolo cut me off. “I only asked if he was there. Otherwise keep your mouth shut.”
My fists balled up, ready to bash Cavagnolo’s meaty face.
“Uncle Sal”-Phaedra moved between him and me-“don’t be stupid.”
His lips screwed together in a way that told me she was one of the few-maybe the only one-who could speak to him like this.
“So you couldn’t find Gino. That doesn’t mean anything,” Cavagnolo said.
“Maybe he’s in Saguache visiting what’s her name,” Vinny chimed. “That chick Dirty Tina.”
I stepped from the 4Runner toward Cavagnolo. I kept my hands open and above my waist. Phaedra moved to stay in front of me.
Cavagnolo’s expression turned acid. “My nephew Gino had shit for brains for talking to you. Your name is Felix Gomez, right?”
Jailbait Zombie fg-4 Page 9