Three Burning Red Runaway Brides

by Kevin James Breaux

  “Is there trouble? Is it the Tainted?”

  Dunyasha did not answer. She just stood and scanned the street end to end.

  “I sense Cade.”

  Dunyasha’s full body twitched. “I don’t.”

  “Well, there’s definitely another vampire here, Duny. Nothing more.”

  “Nothing more…” Dunyasha repeated.

  Amber reached in her jean’s pocket and pulled out a tiny bottle of perfume. She sprayed it on each wrist, then down the V-neck of her shirt. “Yuck. Do you smell that? It’s terrible. How does she wear this shit?”

  “I only smell death.”

  “Lucky you.” Amber widened her tired eyes. “Okay, which place is his? Point me to it, so I can get this damn deal done.”

  “I should have known…”

  Amber fanned her nose. “Yeah, I thought the California smog was bad, but this perfume is killing me.”

  She tried to walk past Dunyasha but was halted when the elder vampire clasped her cold hand around her wrist.

  “Be ready for anything, fairy.”

  “Duny, seriously, I’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks. I do this…do him…” she said with a point toward Cade’s home. “And then I can finally take out that Raion prick. You guys just don’t know how hard it is to go from fighting on my feet to lying on my back. I need a good kill—you know, one where I feel my enemy’s blood splatter across my face and chest. You know what I mean. I know you know.”

  Dunyasha’s eyes flicked from side to side.

  She’s being more paranoid than ever. I know this is important to her too. Maybe she’s afraid I’ll fail.

  “Don’t worry, Duny. I got this.” Amber pulled her wrist free and then pushed her breasts up. “Chi chi’s up, as they say.”

  Amber began to walk to Cade’s door.

  “This place—”

  “You rest, Duny. I’ll be out in ten, fifteen minutes.” Amber smirked. “Maybe more, if I’m enjoying myself.” She stopped and twisted around. “Hey, I never asked. You and Cade ever…you know? He any good? I mean, do I believe all the hype or not?”

  “Know that, for my kin, there is little distinction between fucking and killing. Tread carefully, copycat.”

  Amber nodded and then walked to the door. Without hesitation, she pushed it open and stepped inside. Within, she was greeted with a blast of stale air so strong she nearly staggered backward.

  “Oh, that’s horrible. Worse than this—my perfume. Fuck. Someone open a window and light a Yankee candle. Gah.”

  She stepped farther into the dimly lit townhouse and gazed about the front room. It looked as Sabrina had described. A large Confederate flag hung above an old couch, and a coffee table sat cluttered with old photo albums. Next to the door was a large wooden barrel with a spray-painted label.

  “Gunpowder.” Amber laughed softly. “Cade? Oh, Cade? I know you can smell me—my perfume…my wet pussy as it gets wetter. Cade? Baby? Don’t you want to come out and see me? Don’t you want to bend your ex-girlfriend over one of these barrels? Little bang-bang-boom? Come on. Dunyasha brought me to you. She’s convinced me to take you back. Give true love one more—”

  “Dunyasha?” a voice steeped in a Russian accent called out from the back room. “Dunyasha is here?”

  “Cade?” Amber said, although she now felt certain that was not him.

  Out of the shadows walked a large Russian man wearing a heavy overcoat. He looked like he had stepped right out of a Steven Spielberg movie or, better yet, a History Channel documentary.

  “Nico?”

  “Da.”

  “Fuck, Nico. What are you doing hiding here in Cade’s place?” Amber was doing her best impersonation of Sabrina. “Where’s Cade?”

  Nico stepped forward. He moved like a big bear, shuffling his feet. He did not look like he was going to stop, so Amber took a step back.

  “Nico?”

  Sabrina had not told Amber much about the big guy other than that he was, for the most part, harmless. However, his size, combined with her uncertainty of his motives scared her.

  As he stepped closer and closer, Amber backed into one of the powder kegs. “Nico?”

  He was nearly close enough to touch her. It was then that Amber heard Sabrina’s words ring in her head. Do not let a vampire bite you; they’ll know your blood. And once they know your blood, they know you.

  “Sabrina.”

  Nico reached his arms out and wrapped them around Amber in a tight embrace. Amber unleashed her wings but did not intensify or ignite them. “Don’t bite me.”

  Nico kissed her on the right and then left cheek. “It has been too long, tovarisch[5].”

  Amber tried to imagine how Sabrina would react—what she would say in this moment—but was lost. She had no idea what to do. Finally, she said, “Careful, you’ll burn your coat.”

  Nico let her go, his coat only slightly singed. It looked to Amber like it had seen better days long, long ago.

  “No worries,” he said as he patted his sleeves. “Like new.”

  “Nico, where’s Cade?”

  “Dunyasha?”

  “No.” Amber enunciated the word and then repeated it: “Kay-aid. Cade.” She felt a change in air pressure behind her, as someone stepped into the room, and considering Nico’s reaction, she knew who it was.

  Pinned against the barrel, with Nico only a foot in front of her and Dunyasha behind her, Amber wondered if this was all a trap.

  What have I done? Am I so stupid to think this powerful vampire was on our-my side? Did I just step into a trap long planned out by her…or by Sabrina?

  “Nicodemus, my childe’s childe. Where is your sire?” Dunyasha asked.

  “Gone.”

  “What is gone?” Dunyasha asked.

  Amber could hear the frustration in her voice.

  “Explain. Now.”

  “Moselle—the cursed undead—his friend. She woke us. Asked for our help. She wanted Cade to introduce her to another like her. But when he got here, she and the other, they attacked.”

  “She—she would dare to attack me? Attack us?”

  “Nyet.” Nico lifted his hands as he spoke. “They attacked everyone else. Killed everyone else here at this complex.”

  “What?” Amber gasped.

  “It was…a slaughter.”

  “Why?” Amber asked. “Where are they now?”

  “Not sure. Cade tried to protect the otherworldlies who live in this neighborhood. Such chaos. When it was over, he was—”

  “Gone,” Amber finished for him. “Same as the-the mummies.”

  “Da.”

  “Duny, what do you think happened here?” Amber asked.

  “Death happened.”

  Amber gazed out the door. She wanted to be outside, away from this tight space more than ever now. “Maybe we should search the other homes, make sure—.”

  “Told you, Cade is gone,” Nico said surely.

  “Well, I’m gonna check anyway. I swear there’s someone-something else here.” Amber pushed past Nico and walked out. “I’ll search next door. You guys…I don’t know. Do whatever.”

  “Be careful, Sabrina.” Nico nodded.

  She smiled. “I was born careful.”

  As she reached the neighbor’s door she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

  You wanted this. You wanted a fight. Here’s your chance. No matter what you find in here, no one will question you if you kill it. You’re weapons free, Amber. Weapons free.

  She drew in another deep breath and nearly choked this time. “Fucking perfume. Not gonna sneak up on anyone smelling like this.”

  Amber withdrew her wings but pulsed them first, hoping to burn off some of the terrible smell.

  Once the door was open to Cade’s next-door neighbor’s townhouse, she snapped her fingers and created a small flame. No larger than a match, the fire burned with only that much light.

  “Hello?”

  There was no response. A ne
w thought pushed away her fear, and Amber smirked. I fooled another one. Even if Cade is here, even if he sees me and believes me or not, I can kill him now. No one would think twice. They already think he’s gone.

  “Anyone here?” With him dead, there would be no concern for retaliation. “No need to look back when all your foes are in the front,” Amber said, quoting Vampire scripture. “You know, I always liked that saying.”

  This home was unlike Cade’s. It was clean and organized. It looked like it belonged to an older bachelor and was decorated with classic movie memorabilia. Amber did not recognize most of it, not until she saw the Jaws movie poster.

  “I hated that movie,” she said with a shake of her head and a long shiver. “Get outta the fucking water…”

  Amber suddenly sensed something, a being that she would have considered almost too lowly to notice, but now, being on high alert, she considered all races a danger to her and her mission.

  “Come out, lesserling.”

  “Oh, how I fucking hate being called that, especially from one of you…prissy fairy-kind. Born with all the looks and all the height. If I were only tall like you, you’d have to look me in the eye when you insulted me.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Yo, right here. Look down, sugar tits.”

  Amber looked down, and at her feet was a yellow puddle of ooze.

  “Freaking slime?”

  “Hey, yo, watch it. It’s me, Joe. Remember? Cade’s best friend.”

  “Joe?”

  “Hold up, let me show you.”

  The puddle of slime vibrated a few seconds and then, with a flash of light, took the shape of a rat.

  “See?” the rat said. “Do I look more familiar now? I mean maybe you remember me as the dog, but there ain’t enough on me to mimic that big right now. Shrinkage, you know. Right?”

  Amber recalled Sabrina’s story of the battle against Pollution outside Moselle’s home. She knew all the key players, and Joe here, he was there, but not really a standout star.

  “Hey, Joe.”

  “Hey there, blondie.” Joe stood up on his back feet and cleaned his whiskers at her. “Been a while since I laid eyes on you. Woof! Woof! Shit. Dang it. There I go, forgetting I’m not shaped like a dog again. Man, I gotta get this right. Um, what does a rat say?”

  Amber played along. “You like what you see, Joe?”

  “Do I? Hey! Few look as good as you, Sabrina. Like I was just saying to Cade the other day…when we were riding here on his motorcycle, I was saying, Cade, buddy, while you’re awake…you should pay Sabrina a visit. You know, pay her a long, hard visit. A couple of long, hard visits even, right?”

  Amber purred, “Oh yeah? Sounds good to me, Joe. But wait…what would you do? Would you just sit at the end of the bed and watch while your best friend fucks me?”

  “Honey, if I had my way, I’d be the vibrator he uses to warm you up, then, then I’d be the condom he puts on his prick right before he fucks the pink frilly shit out of youse.”

  “Don’t get me all juicy, Joe. Or you’ll be consumed by the fire burning between my legs.”

  “Oh, baby, you’re wilder than I remember.”

  “The wildest.”

  Joe cocked his tiny rat head at her. “Wait. Why you here? I’m not complaining. I could stare up them long legs of yours all day.”

  “I came looking for Cade, of course.”

  “Damn girl, you missed him.”

  “Gone, huh?”

  “I mean, yeah. Well. I guess. See, there was an incident here. A real ugly one. See, Moselle and the guy who ran this place…yeah, as soon as they met, they turned all batshit crazy. Like those Strucker kids on that old X-Men TV show. Moselle and this other mummy guy touched and Whammo! ”

  “Whammo?”

  “Like in a video game. I mean, it looked to me like they needed to power up. You know? Drain all the life out of these things that lived here, power up, so they could…I don’t know, go conquer Egypt or some shit like that. I have no idea what they wanted or where they were going. To be honest, the shit hit the fan and I dove out of Cade’s jacket the moment he came in this place to get his other friend.”

  “Other friend?”

  “The gargoyle.”

  “H.B.?”

  “What? You remember that guy right away, but you got me transforming to spark your memory. That’s cold, yo.”

  “Oh, are you cold, Joe?” Amber smiled. “You want me to warm you up?”

  “Sweetie cakes, I can’t think of anything better.”

  “Then come here.”

  Amber bent over and scooped Joe up into her arms. But as soon as she held Joe to her chest, he began to squirm.

  “Hey-yo-hey…you ain’t her,” Joe whined. “You ain’t her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You—you ain’t Sabrina London. I know those tits. I dream of them almost every night. Yeah, no…you ain’t her. I know her scent and what her skin feels like. You darling, you just ain’t her.”

  “No?” Amber remained calm.

  “No.” Joe wiggled his tiny rat nose and then squeaked. “Who the hell are you and why do you look like her?”

  Amber dropped Joe to the ground. “’Cause I am her, you weirdo.”

  “No. You ain’t her.” Joe pointed a paw. “You can’t fool a fooler. I mean, you can’t trick a trickster, baby.”

  Amber sneered. It pissed her off that he did not believe her, especially since he was a member of the Tainted. One word from him, to the others, could ruin everything.

  “Look.” Amber bent over and whispered. “I got my nose fixed. That’s all. Okay?”

  “Fuck your nose!” Joe grumbled. “I mimicked one of her pink string bikinis once. Long ago. Ages ago. I was on assignment. Long story. But I know what it feels like to be pressed to that amazing bosom. Real. Supple. Tits. You—you ain’t her, faker!”

  “What do you want, slime?”

  “What do I want? What do you want?”

  “I want to make sure you don’t tell all your slimy little friends that you think I’m not the real Sabrina.”

  “Yo, maybe I already have. Huh? You think of that?”

  Amber began to lose her patience. Her calm quickly waned, and panic waxed in its place. But then she remembered something vital. “If you had told them, Pollution would be here already. No, you haven’t told anyone anything yet.”

  “Maybe not. But I can,” Joe said as he backpedaled. “I can spill the beans, your beans, at any moment.”

  “So, what do you want, Joe? Money?”

  “Money?” Joe laughed. “Where would I keep it, huh? Ain’t got no pockets, faker.”

  “Then what do you want?” Amber asked. “What did you want from me before?”

  “Before?”

  “Long ago. Ages ago. When you were on assignment. Don’t be shy. I know what everyone wants from Sabrina London. They all want to fu—”

  Amber was interrupted by Nico, who stomped into the apartment behind her.

  “Good, you found Joe.”

  “Yo, Nico, pal, that ain’t—” Before Joe could say anymore, Amber kicked him across the room with the tip of her sneaker.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Like you haven’t wanted to?”

  Nico nodded in agreement. “I have but not for a while now. Joe is friend now.”

  “Friend?” Amber shook her head and groaned. “You need better friends.”

  Nico stared a moment and then answered flatly. “Dunyasha, she gathers the dead outside.”

  “And?”

  Nico turned to the side and motioned to the door. “She wants you outside too.”

  Amber did not move. “Okay…”

  “Now.”

  “Fine.”

  Amber looked to where she’d seen Joe land. He could not survive or the entire ruse, the entire plan, would be jeopardized. So she snapped her fingers and dropped one small living flame to the ground and then another.

&n
bsp; “Okay, Nico, let’s go.”

  “Not without Joe.”

  Amber held her breath as Nico marched by her and stomped out her tiny flames before they had a chance to ignite and become elementals.

  “Joe?” Nico called out. “Friend?”

  “Over here.”

  Amber watched Nico pick Joe off the ground. Her head was full of ideas, but she was unsure which was the right one. Dunyasha will know what to do. And she’s waiting for me. Yeah, she’ll know what to do.

  Outside, she was stunned by the sight of at least a dozen dead bodies in a pile in the middle of the road. Dunyasha was a blur. She disappeared and reappeared a moment later with another body, that of an old woman, who she then threw on the top of the pile.

  “Fuck…is that a harpy?”

  Dunyasha nodded and then pointed to the pile. “Two gnomes, two elves, a ghoul…” Her head moved with a tic as she looked to the one building. “There is a brood of pixies inside. Thirty or more.”

  “Pixies?” Amber’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Filthy trash-eating things,” Dunyasha said before she raced off and returned in a blink. “I never liked them before…or after…”

  “I’ve never…” Amber paused when she was overcome with the scent of death and more. “Fuck, that’s horrible.”

  Several second later, Dunyasha returned again. This time she had seven dead pixies clutched to her chest. To Amber, they looked like dolls. Amber never had any dolls growing up, but always wished she did.

  “What smells like—”

  “Rotten eggs. The harpy’s home was filled with them.”

  “Fucking disgusting!” Amber tried to get her mind off it. “I—I’ve never seen a pixie before.”

  “Here.” Dunyasha pitched one of the dead ones to Amber. “I told you death was here.”

  Amber side-stepped the dead pixie and moved closer to the pile of bodies. They were all otherworldlies, some of them races she’d only read about.

  “Moselle and some other mummy guy did all this?” Amber asked.

  “Da.” Nico approached with Joe in his left hand. He bent over, scooped up the dead pixie, and threw it into the pile before he finished. “I watched.”

  “Yo, me too!” Joe squeaked. “Kinda. I mean, I saw some of it. But what do you care, faker? Why are you even here? Who is this broad, Nico?”