by Parker Blue
Yeah, wonderful. But with any luck, she’d hate me on sight, or take an aversion to Fang.
FAT CHANCE. LOOKS LIKE YOU AND I ARE GONNA HAVE A ROOMIE.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was hard to sleep the next morning, what with all the noise of people checking out. About noon, someone slammed a door in the next room over and I gave up. I’d only had a few hours of actual shuteye, but I didn’t need much.
The only problem was, I didn’t want to move. Fang had crawled under the sheet and was curled up next to me, as close as he could get without actually being on top of me. It was kind of adorable. His snarky attitude must be a façade.
YEAH, JUST KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT, SISTER.
But he licked my hand and snuggled even closer.
A short knock came at the door and it opened suddenly, surprising me.
Fang was out from under the sheet in a flash and growling at the Latina who stood in the doorway, holding towels.
She shrieked and slammed the door shut, letting loose with a stream of rapid-fire Spanish.
As my heartbeat tried to get back to normal, I said, “Geez, Fang, overreact much? It was just the maid.”
Since it was daylight—time for all good little vampires to be in bed—I hadn’t been worried. Anyone else I could handle.
WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT OUT THE “DO NOT DISTURB” SIGN?
Because I hadn’t thought of it. I didn’t spend much time in hotel rooms. “Why didn’t you?” I countered.
FLASH—NO HANDS, GENIUS.
Okay, he had a point, but he could have reminded me.
Oh well, no biggie—we were moving anyway, just as soon as I settled where we’d be living. I showered and dressed and let Fang out to do his thing. It was almost time to meet Dan’s sister and I’d already paid for one night in this flea trap—I wasn’t paying for any more. So, I tied my duffel on the back of the motorcycle, put Fang on the front, and left to meet Dan, grabbing burgers on the way for both of us. Fang liked burgers, too—go figure.
I’d just have to find a way to put Dan off until I could find a suitable place on my own. I wasn’t really against having a roommate, but it would be hard enough keeping my demon nature from my partner. The thought of also having to keep it hidden where I lived sounded like a real pain.
But when I pulled up to the place, my heart sank. It was about as far away from the hotel we’d stayed in last night as you could get. Centrally located, it looked fairly new, with rounded adobe architecture, well-kept grounds, a pool, gym, walking paths under big shady oak trees . . . just the kind of place I’d love to live.
FACE IT—YOU’RE TOAST.
Not yet. After all, this wasn’t the only place to live in San Antonio.
Dan waved me down and I parked where he indicated. He looked amused when I unzipped Fang from my vest. “Does he always ride there?”
“Yeah, but I’m thinking of getting a sidecar for him.” Just as soon as I could afford it.
GOOD PLAN. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS.
“Are these apartments or condos?” I asked.
“Townhouses—she’s renting one from the owner who had to move to another state. But the advantage is that most people own theirs so you get a more stable population here.”
“Oh.”
IT JUST SOUNDS BETTER AND BETTER.
“Well, come on and meet Gwen.”
Gwen opened the door. She didn’t look a lot like her brother. A couple of years younger than Dan, she had red hair cut short in a tousled ’do. She immediately dropped to a crouch to beam at Fang. “How cute. Can I pet him? Is he friendly?”
I looked down at the hellhound. Are you? I really didn’t know how he’d react to others.
In answer, he nudged Gwen’s hand with his nose, as if asking to be petted.
Shameless beggar. Why couldn’t you help me out here and growl at her?
As Gwen oohed and ahed over the dog, even saying his name was cute, Fang said, I LIKE TO BE PETTED. AND I LIKE HER.
Unfortunately, I liked her, too. She was outgoing and bubbly as she showed me around the place. The unit had two bedrooms, separated for privacy, two baths, and a kitchen that was way nicer than Mom’s. She had it decorated with a lot of bright colors and cool funky accessories. Plus it had a door that let out onto a nice patio and beyond to an open area where Fang could roam free if he wanted.
It was perfect. Damn. Trying to find a reason to turn it down, I said, “Great kitchen, but I don’t cook.”
“No biggie,” Gwen said cheerfully. “I do—and I’d love to cook for more than one. Plus I bake whenever I can. You’d just need to help clean up and pay for half the groceries. Oh, and provide your own furniture for your bedroom. I have everything else.”
That sounded reasonable, but I wasn’t looking for reasonable. I was looking for a reason to turn it down. “I work nights.”
“So do I,” Gwen said with a smile. “And this place is quiet in the daytime.”
“I don’t know if I can afford it.” It was way nicer than I’d expected.
“Your motorcycle is paid for and you’re too young to have any real debt,” Dan said. “I know what Ramirez will be paying you. Trust me, you can handle it—and still afford to buy the sidecar for Fang.”
Oh, great, there went that excuse. “Fang sheds a lot,” I said apologetically.
She waved that away as if it were inconsequential. “Oh, I’m used to dog hair. We always had it around the house growing up. I’ve just been so busy with school then my job that I haven’t had a chance to get a dog yet.” She glanced at Fang. “He seems very well-behaved. You can even get one of those dog doors to put in the patio door so he can go out when he wants.”
NOW WE’RE TALKING.
She smiled at me. “Please take it. We’ll have fun.”
How could I get out of this gracefully, without hurting anyone’s feelings? “I don’t know . . . .”
“Excuse us,” Dan said to his sister and pulled me outside onto the patio. He shut the door while Fang stayed inside with Gwen. “What’s your problem?” He sounded irritated.
I shrugged. “This is the first place I’ve seen. I just want to keep my options open.”
“Come on—you and I both know you won’t get a better deal. What’s your real beef? You got something against my sister?”
“Of course not.” To tell the truth, I envied the easy, loving relationship the two obviously had together.
“Then why? This place is perfect for you and you know it.”
Annoyed, I gave him part of the reason. “Yeah, it would be, if I didn’t suspect you were doing it to keep an eye on me. I don’t need a big brother, you know.”
He snorted. “Obviously. That’s not why I want you here.”
“Then why?”
“So you can keep an eye on Gwen for me. I worry about her. She works nights at the ER, and sees a lot of things she shouldn’t.”
“Like what?”
“Like fang marks on victims. She’s too damned stubborn to find another job, and doesn’t want to ask her big brother for help. I’d feel a whole lot better if she had someone living with her she could count on in case of trouble. Someone like you.”
Oh. He was asking me for a favor. Shoot, that put a whole new spin on things. After all, the guy had gotten me a job, not to mention a birthday cake. I owed him. And I did like the place . . . and Gwen. But could I live here and still keep my secret safe?
Fang scratched at the patio door and glared at me through the glass. The glass didn’t stop his thoughts, though. TAKE IT.
Well, shoot, I was outnumbered. And the thought of searching for another place—or living anywhere else—was depressing. Heck, why not? It would be nice to be able to tell Mom that I didn’t need her and that I’d found a job and a really nice place to live all on my own. Maybe even something resembling a family.
No—don’t go there. Accepting human-Val didn’t mean they’d accept demon-Val.
I opened the p
atio door so both Dan and Gwen could hear. “Okay, you got a deal.”
“Good,” Gwen said with a happy bounce. “It’ll be fun—and Dan lives close by so you can share a ride to work together.”
Close by? Had I just been conned? But when I raised an eyebrow at Dan, he muttered for my ears only, “Not close enough. My place is on the other side of the complex. It’s not like I can watch her place all night or anything.”
Okay, I could see that. Especially since he knew exactly what kind of things roamed the night streets of San Antonio.
I nodded and Gwen said, “Let’s go shopping!”
I grinned. I’d never had girlfriends to shop with, just Mom and Jen. It sounded like fun—another new adventure.
I left my duffel at Gwen’s, but Fang didn’t want to have anything to do with shopping, so he elected to stay and check out his new digs. Mom, Rick, and Jen were all working at the store, so Gwen and Dan helped me pick up my bedroom furniture, then Gwen—a serious shopper—insisted on helping me buy sheets, towels, and the dog door for Fang.
Even better, I found something cooler than a sidecar at the motorcycle shop. When I got back to the townhouse, I called Fang to try it out. They had a sheepskin-lined leather bucket seat sort of thing with a harness, and they’d attached it to the back of my Valkyrie for me. Fang jumped up into it and turned around a few times, scratching at the sheepskin, then settled in.
THIS’LL WORK, he said approvingly. BUT I WON’T NEED THE STRAPS.
“Here, I got you these, too.”
I slid a pair of brown leather goggles on his head. “These’ll keep the wind and grit out of your eyes.”
HOW DO I LOOK?
Cool. Very cool.
Dan laughed. “All he needs is a hood and a long scarf trailing behind him to look like Snoopy chasing the Red Baron.”
Fang pawed at the goggles. I DON’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE SOME STUPID CARTOON BEAGLE.
You don’t, I assured him. Besides, they’re practical. Out loud, I said, “Well, I think he looks cute. All the other dogs will be jealous and want one. Don’t you think so, Gwen?”
Gwen nodded. “Totally.”
Now that Gwen had agreed with me, Fang said, OKAY, I CAN LIVE WITH CUTE.
But it was now time to go to work and it made sense for the three of us to ride to work together in Dan’s SUV—a Toyota Highlander. It wasn’t as large as the SCU truck, but very roomy. At some point, I’d have to look at buying a car of my own. A motorcycle wasn’t always practical.
At the station, we got into the SCU truck after the shift briefing. It felt kind of weird to have a job other than at the bookstore, but I was more than ready for it. “So where do we start looking for this vein of vampires?”
Dan thought a minute and flipped through his notebook to check his notes. He was extremely thorough—I learned he had notes from all the previous shift briefings and worked after hours to cross-reference them and keep track of trends all over the city. “Let’s head south.”
As he put the vehicle in gear and headed in that direction, I asked, “What do you expect to find?”
“I don’t have any notes on multiple perps, except maybe in one area. Let’s check it out.”
He drove to a neighborhood most people would steer clear of this time of night. With all the graffiti on the buildings, it looked like gang territory. In defiance of the chilly weather, some guys, mostly Hispanic dudes wearing gang colors, were playing basketball in a schoolyard court.
Dan nodded toward them. “If anyone knows about a gang of vamps working the area, it’ll be another gang.”
“And what makes you think they’ll tell you anything?”
“I know a couple of these kids. Why don’t you stay here while I ask them a few questions?”
“Yeah, like you stayed when I asked you to. Not a chance.” I got out, but figured it was safer for Fang to stay in the truck. Though vampires were evil, they were a known quantity. Gangbangers could be psychotic, unpredictable.
NO CHALLENGE, Fang said, sounding bored, so I left him in the truck and followed Dan to the chain link fence.
“Heads up,” one of them said.
They all stopped playing and turned to give Dan stone-faced glares. It didn’t seem to faze him. “Hey, Julio,” he called through the fence.
One of the guys, a short wiry dark-skinned kid with a do-rag tied around his head, swaggered over. Julio looked me up and down, obviously liking what he saw. He rubbed his crotch and leered at me. “Nice piece—”
“I don’t think you want to finish that sentence,” Dan interrupted. “Val kicked the crap out of a guy twice her size the other day and all he did was look at her wrong. You don’t want to piss her off.”
Not strictly accurate, but I gave him points for trying. And Lola wasn’t even tempted.
Julio glanced at me and I tried to look like a gangsta from the ’hood, but when Fang gave a mental snort I could hear even from here, I realized I just couldn’t pull it off. I settled for giving him a predator’s smile and letting the demon flash in my eyes.
Good—that unsettled him. It always disturbed them when I showed no fear.
“Whatcha want?” Julio asked, swiftly covering his unease. “We ain’t done nothin’.”
I really doubted that, but Dan said, “All we want to do is ask you some questions.”
Julio glanced back at his friends as if for support and said, “We don’t know nothin’ neither.”
“Not even about a new gang moving in to your territory?” Dan asked.
“Don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no new gang. And iffen they come here, they won’t stay for long. We’ll take care of ’em.”
There was a chorus of agreement from behind him—idiot boys posturing for each other, parading their machismo.
“These are different. They kill people for no reason—three in this area last month. They leave marks like these.” Dan peeled back the collar of his shirt and showed them where the vamp had bitten him.
Julio was impassive, but one guy behind him said softly, “Them’s the same marks they found on Hector’s body.”
“You know who done that?” Julio asked Dan.
“Not yet. But we intend to find out. You know of any groups around here who might do something like that?”
Most of the boys shook their heads, but Julio looked thoughtful then nodded toward a notice taped to a pole. “How ‘bout them? That just went up an hour ago.”
The poster advertised a rally for the New Blood Movement. They invited all humans to come take part and meet real vampires, help them enter the mainstream. It was scheduled for the first day of Los Dias de los Muertes—the Days of the Dead—on the first of November, four days from now.
How . . . cute. During the Days of the Dead, it was supposed to be easier for the dead to visit the living, and the living used the time to honor their deceased loved ones. Having vampires co-opt the holiday for their own purpose just seemed wrong, even if it wasn’t my holiday. Then again, the way the poster was worded, it was unclear if they were for real . . . or just playacting.
“It’s worth a look-see,” I said.
Dan nodded and tore the poster off. “Thanks,” he said to Julio.
As we headed back to the truck, someone called out, “Take ’em down, man.”
Dan glanced back over his shoulder and gave them a casual wave. “Count on it.”
As we got back in the truck, he said, “So, are you going to tell me how you can, as they put it, take the vamps down so easily, or are you going to continue keeping me in the dark?”
“I’m not keeping you in the dark. We’ve talked about this,” I said warily, playing dumb.
“You know what I’m asking. Why are you unafraid to confront gangbangers . . . or fangbangers? Able to take down a guy twice your size? Having thirty vampire kills to your credit at only eighteen?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Not exactly your normal teenaged girl.”
DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS TO FIGURE THAT OUT.
I
knew he’d be suspicious. “Just a fluke of nature, I guess.” When he snorted, I decided to give him something a little more plausible. “You know my parents run a new age bookstore?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, we found this book on vampires that must have been written about real ones ’cause it explained a lot about their strengths and weaknesses. Plus, I’ve had a lot of practice—done a lot of training.” To keep him off balance, I said, “You could use some yourself.”
I expected that to piss him off, but instead, he said, “Yeah, I could.”
I glanced at him in surprise. “You think?” It seemed too easy.
“Yeah, well, Charlene was a wake-up call. I thought I could handle anything, but she showed me I can’t.”
Charlene? Oh yeah, the vamp who’d played tonsil-hockey with him.
He shifted uneasily, and I wondered if he was uncomfortable remembering the lust she’d brought to life in him.
Curious, I asked, “How long have you been doing this?”
“I’ve only been in the SCU for a few months. My former partner was training me, but he got . . . ” He trailed off, staring into the distance, his expression bleak.
FANGED TO DEATH? SUCKED DRY? BUTCHERED?
“Dead?” I asked, which sounded better than Fang’s alternatives.
“Yeah, he got dead—killed by one of those monsters.” The expression on his face was murderous. “No one should die like that. These things shouldn’t be allowed to exist, and I want to kill every last one of them.” He turned to me. “Can you help me do that, give me some pointers?”
Impressed by his willingness to be taught by a girl, I said, “Sure.” Then felt immediately uncertain. Could I do it okay? After all, I’d never taught anyone before. I’d always been taught, by martial arts teachers and Rick. That was it—I’d teach him the way Rick taught me.
“Good.”
The next few days fell into a kind of routine as I settled in to my new life. Fang and I slept until about noon, hung out with Gwen—who turned out to be a great cook—during the early afternoon, then trained with Dan during the late afternoon and hunted down other leads at night.
I taught Dan how to counter their superhuman speed with everything I could think of. Most martial arts took too long to master, so I didn’t try to teach him any, though I recommended he find a class in the relatively unknown swords form of Tai Chi for the future. Not only were the long pointy things great to keep your distance from the undead, but they came in quite handy for lopping heads off. That was, if you could find a way to carry them around without alarming the rest of the population.