Blackjack

by Kristopher Norris

  Willy on my drink choice. “Here you are.” He handed me my drink.

  Fast service, bravo. “Terry?”

  “I’ll just have a beer.”

  “Americans.” Willy definitely had the snobby upper class attitude. Goodspeed just laughed, apparently he enjoyed getting on Willy’s

  nerves and I could understand and appreciate that.

  “You wanna break?” I shook my head. He could break he was

  already standing there. William came back with his brandy and

  Terry’s beer. I could see the look of annoyance when he had to stand

  there for a minute holding the beer while Goodspeed broke. The

  pool balls flew away from one another with a loud crack. “Thanks.”

  Taking the offered bottle of beer from William.

  William didn’t respond, he grabbed one of the thousands of books

  from the shelves and took a seat in a large leather reading chair. It

  was still an open table and my shot. Carefully I lined up and sent the

  “two” ball into the corner pocket.

  Shot after shot went by in silence. Time ticked by very slowly. The

  game, which only lasted a few minutes, seemed to go on for hours. It

  seemed the whole house was dead. There was no noise from

  anywhere else, the only sounds where that of the pool balls cracking

  against one another and William, rustling the pages of his book. No

  one was saying anything. I suppose they expected me to have a

  million questions, if so they were right, I did. I just had no idea where

  to begin. Terry tapped the side pocket calling his shot. Then put the

  “eight” ball right where he wanted it.

  “You lied.” I said.

  “Huh?” he looked up at me.

  “You said that you weren’t any good.” I began retrieving the balls

  from the pockets to rack another game.

  “Yeah, so did you.”

  He was right. We’d both lied. Neither of us were what you might

  call professionals, well… anyway we could hold our own. “So…?” I really didn’t know where I was going with the question,

  just trying to fill the empty air; try to place something into that

  silence. Normally I didn’t mind silence, most of the time I prefer it.

  This was not one of those times.

  “Yes?” William asked placing his book on the reading table next

  to him.

  Great he wanted me to finish the question.

  “So,” ah hell I winged it. “This is all real?”

  “Yep.” Goodspeed tossed me the queue ball. “Yep, it’s all real,

  every bit of it. They are evil wicked bastards and we kill them. It’s real

  Black, we’re not sure about Williams accent though.” He gave one of

  his little chuckles.

  “Oh push off,” Willy said as he stood up. “Yes Mr. Black

  vampires, the hunters and The Guild all very real.”

  Neither of them said anything for a moment. I had nothing to add

  so I took the opportunity to break.

  “No one knows how long these bastards have plagued the earth,

  what became The Guild started tracking and recording them around

  1000 B.C. Organized hunts began soon thereafter.”

  I took out a cigarette and placed it in between my lips. “Yeah,” I

  sparked my Zippo and lit the smoke. “I read that.” He gave me a

  puzzled look for a moment. “In the Amun file William gave me.” “Really.” His voice went cold and flat. He turned to glare at Willy.

  “Amun?”

  At that point I realized that I’d just tossed a big stinky pile of shit

  into the fan. The dilemma that faced me was; do I interject and save

  William’s ass from one very pissed off cold-blooded killer, or do I sit

  back and enjoy the show? Damn right, sit back and enjoy the show. “Now Terry…”

  Whatever the ‘Now Terry’ was I’d never know. “He’s not

  anywhere close to ready.” Goodspeed quickly cut him off. “You

  introduce him to vamps and give him Amun. He’s helped on one

  vampire kill.” His voice never raised; it stayed cold and flat. I wanted

  to stand up for myself, but I couldn’t. He was right; I’d seen one

  vampire. Other than silver bullets through the heart, I hadn’t the first

  clue on how to kill a vampire. “I agree he would be a valuable asset

  and I want him on the crew but he is not ready for Amun.” I hate

  when people talk about me like I’m not there. Oh well, what can you

  do?

  I thought that I should put out the fire that I had started. “You

  know, he’s right,” They both turned and looked at me. “Well, if this

  Amun guy is as big and bad as you are making him out to be. And, I

  don’t know shit about killing a vampire; I don’t think I should just

  jump right in on him either.”

  “Amun was chosen to be your primary target. Not your only

  target.”

  “You know William I haven’t even accepted the job yet.” “True,” he sighed, “you have not.” He took a large drink of his

  brandy. “I should be off to bed. I’ll let you two talk; one huntsman to

  another.” I didn’t think he meant it to sound insulting. With that he

  set his glass down and left. I think that he felt a bit ganged up on

  between Goodspeed and me. I really didn’t mean to insult him. God

  damn it! Why do people take this shit so personally?

  Terry leaned over and took the shot that had been waiting for him

  the past few moments. “Don’t worry about him.”

  “I’m not.” A little lie, but I didn’t know why I cared.

  “They must think very highly of you.” I took my shot. “They want

  you to go after the master vampire of Ra. You must have one hell of

  a set of balls on you.” I didn’t respond to that. I never talked about

  the kills that I’ve made. Maybe it’s that I’ve taken so many lives that I

  myself cannot keep track of them anymore, and even if I could I

  don’t think I’d want to admit the number. I pull the trigger and they

  die. No more, no less. It’s not romantic it’s not heroic, it’s just a

  fucking job, my fucking job and I’m damn good at it.

  I didn’t want to talk about that. I had questions, a lot of them, so I

  changed subjects. “How did you know that biker was a vampire?” “Body temp.” He began walking toward the bar. “You need

  another?”

  I looked down at the empty glass in front of me. “Please,” I said

  as I passed him the glass. “What do you mean body temp?” “Carmen checked the room for body temperatures that didn’t

  range correctly.” He began to mix my drink. “Average human body temp is 98.5 degrees. A vampire, even one that has recently feed, is

  rarely much different than the temperature around them.” “Cold blooded?”

  “Well kinda,” he handed me my drink. “They don’t really use their

  circulatory systems. We have teams of scientists working on learning

  all we can about their anatomy. Most of what we have is ancient crap.

  Modern technology has been quite helpful. But there are still

  countless mysteries to them. It’s hard to keep them alive to study,

  without the risk of a lot of people dying. And you saw what happens

  when they die. It’s hard to study dust.” He paused to take a drink of

  his fresh beer. I hadn’t touched mine. I was too busy taking in the

  information Terry was presenting to me. He let out a de
ep sigh

  before continuing. “They can be killed with wood or silver through

  the heart, cutting off their heads, or burning them.”

  “Sun light?”

  “Turns um extra crispy.”

  “What about crosses? All that religious shit?”

  He chuckled. “If you tried to hold up a crucifix to a vampire he’d

  shove it through your eye.” I didn’t like the thought of that. Doesn’t

  sound like a fun time for a Saturday night to me. “The coffins aren’t

  really common any more. Most keep a well protected crypt of some

  kind for day hiding.”

  “So,” I huffed as collected my thoughts, “Amun is the leader of

  this group called Ra. Are there many of these groups of vampires?” I

  was trying to make intelligent questions. Didn’t want to sound too

  much like an idiot.

  “A few,” He said, “they are called covens.”

  “So why go after this one?”

  “The Guild sees them as the biggest threat.” He said. “They are at

  war with The Council.”

  That was new. “What is The Council?”

  “The Council is the head coven of vampires. The government if

  you will. They enforce laws and keep control of the other covens.” “Except Ra, right?”

  “Yep.” He sat on one of the leather chairs. “The Guild sees this

  war as a bad thing. We don’t want change. The Council keeps

  vampires regulated and out of the public’s eye. If Amun and his band

  of vamps take over no one has any clue what will happen. Vampires

  might end up taking over the whole damned world.” There was a

  moment of silence as Terry collected his train of thought. “Amun has

  been a major player in the vampire world since we’ve been keeping

  track of him.” He continued. “And let me tell you he is one hard

  mother fucker to keep tabs on. Only recently has he reemerged. He’s

  been underground for the better part of a century. The past year he

  has started up this war again. Killing off as many followers of The

  Council as he can.”

  “Why doesn’t The Guild want to go after the big boys?” I took a

  drink. “Why not just try to take out the whole lot of them?” “For the same reason we don’t want Ra to have their way. We

  want order in the vampire world ‘til we are in control and are ready for the aftermath of the fall. The older a vamp is the stronger and more powerful it is. If the older ones are killed first, the young will wreak havoc. We can’t have that.” Of course we can’t. How stupid of me. He cleared his throat before continuing. “The Guild has an agenda just as any company does. Ours is to rid the world of

  vampires and we have a plan to do it.”

  All this about vampire culture was fascinating. However I was

  beginning to wonder about The Guild itself. “Where does The Guild

  come from?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “How long has it existed?”

  Still nothing. He looked like he was trying to think about how to

  answer a question he didn’t know the answer to. Since he wasn’t

  talking about the organization he worked for, that made me a bit

  concerned. After a brief moment of silence he answered. “I don’t

  know for sure.”

  I didn’t like that answer. I did not like it one bit. There was

  starting to be too much damn mystery to all this shit. Other than how

  to kill one of these fuckers there seemed to be no straight answers. I

  like facts, they keep things simple and black and white none of this

  gray shit. “How can you work for someone or something that you

  don’t understand?” I asked him.

  “It’s a pay check.” I had to appreciate his honesty, but that’s not

  all he had to say. The pause in his voice told me there was more.

  Soon he continued. “You know what we are Black. We are killers. Hunting people just lost its touch. There is no longer a challenge to it any more. Now taking out a vamp, that’s another story. Watching one of those fucks burn is intoxicating. Like the way you feel when you kill some low life mobster. You know we don’t take a contract for the pay we take it for the kill.” I agreed there is a thrill to it, or at least there was once upon a time. But not any more, not for me. Did he have a point? Was killing just too easy for me? Had it become so commonplace to me that I was becoming bored with taking lives? Fuck I didn’t like that idea! I wasn’t a monster, I didn’t think. People die it’s just part of life, I’m just one of the causes. “Back to your question about The Guild. Most people think that the Vatican started it at some point. And those that do know aren’t gonna say. The Catholics don’t care for vampires much. They believe they are some

  kind of devil.”

  “And you what do you think they are?” I interrupted. “Just another animal to hunt.”

  Just an animal? “Aren’t vampires human?” I realized how dumb

  that must have sounded. But I was new at this shit I was allowed a

  dumb question or two, right? “Kinda human anyway?”

  He hesitated. Yep I thought it was a dumb question too. “Kinda.

  They were at one point. Humans are turned into vampires. But aren’t

  humans just another animal that we hunt?” Good point I thought.

  Well I was a little right I guess. “If you join us not all of your

  questions will be answered Black. I promise you that. We simply just

  don’t know all the answers.” I just nodded. I still didn’t know if I wanted to help them or if I trusted them, too many secrets. “If you want to you can stay here for the night. I’ll show you to a room.” I knew I didn’t trust them that much. I wasn’t sleeping in this place. “Or I can have someone drive you home.” I think he caught that I

  didn’t want to stay.

  “That’d be good.” I’d take the ride home. I had a lot to ponder

  and wanted to be alone to do it.

  “Alright.” He stood up. “I’ll go find someone to drive you home.”

  He stopped just before he left the room. “It was good to meet you

  Black. I hope to work with you again.”

  “You too, Goodspeed.” Wow, emotion from two cold-hearted

  bastards. That was different and kind of weird. After spending the

  evening with Terry Goodspeed I believed him to be a man of

  principals, different from society’s principals but principals none-theless, and who was I to throw stones at him for that. He was very

  smart and knew how to get a job done. For the first time ever, I

  enjoyed working with someone. I truly would have liked to work with

  him again but that was yet to be seen. The same went for Carmen,

  whose last name I didn’t catch. She seemed to have the same drive as

  Goodspeed did.

  A few moments later the same driver from earlier came into the

  room. “Mr. Black I was told that you need a ride back to your

  estate?”

  “Yeah.”

  That was the last we spoke. I think he tried to wish me a good night or something when he dropped me off but I didn’t pay any attention. There was just too much on my mind to worry about civilities.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Vampires, covens, guilds, and I thought that I had a weird life before. This shit was just too odd. I woke the next day very early, too much on my mind to sleep. I half expected that William would be sitting somewhere in my house waiting for me. But he wasn’t. I didn’t hear from The Guild at all that day or the day after or the next. My life had gone back to normal. I went back to playing cards and waiting for contracts. I didn’t get a phone call, e-mail, or any t
ype of contact for a week. No one had given me a way to contact them. Save for knowing where their office was, and I wasn’t about to drive in to just say hi. So it became a waiting game on my part. I started to believe that they had changed their minds about me. This actually began to upset me. I didn’t know if I wanted to help them, but I did know I wanted a change in life.

  About the time I’d stopped looking over my shoulder for Guild members was the point when they contacted me. One uneventful Friday morning after coming home from the casino I got a message. Taped to my door was a pale yellow envelope. On the front in very elegant writing it read “Mr. Black” without opening it I figured it was from Willy. Not only was it that The Guild members are the only people that call me Mr. Black but also the dark fountain pen writing on the heavy paper just seemed like William. Once inside I opened the letter and pulled out a single piece of paper, the same kind that the envelope was made of.

  Mr. Black,

  I am pleased to inform you that I have received permission to bring you onto our team. If you are interested please prepare your luggage for a trip to London. A car will come to your estate at 9 a.m. I apologize for the early time and short notice but time is never on our side. I know that you are a resourceful man and should have no trouble preparing.

  ~William

  P.S. Bring all of your amenities for a hunting trip.

  9 a.m. damn that is early, early for someone that goes to sleep around 8. Preparing would be no trouble, I always have bags packed, in my line of work it’s always good to be prepared, I never know when I might have to leave town in a hurry. But I wanted sleep, oh well. I hoped there would be time to sleep on the plane. I put on a pot of coffee and began to collect my things clothes, hygiene stuff, guns and ammo, knives all the things one must have for a trip to London.

  It was 7 o’clock when I got home, with fresh coffee the time passed quickly. Before I knew it the same Rolls Royce I’d been picked up in originally had pulled up to the gate. The driver’s voice, a different man, crackled over the intercom “Mr. Black?”

  I pressed the talk button. “Come on up.” I responded and hit the actuators to open the gates. He did as I asked and pulled up to the house. He got out and opened the trunk, what a good driver; he even helped with my bags. “What time is the flight?”

  “Whenever we get there, sir.” He closed the trunk. “You’ll be flying in the company jet.”

  The company jet. Now ain’t that just too fancy? I wondered if Goodspeed and Carmen would be coming on this trip. I had to admit I was very excited to get underway, despite all the weird shit going on.