by Megan Hawke
I wanted to say, "Get over it." But that might've been taken poorly by my mother and father. So I marched out the door and down the stairs. I placed the couch in the truck and headed back up. To my amazement, the men were all carrying furniture down, too. I never expected them to help me. Family.
Together, we got the truck loaded up well before one in the morning. I used my clothes to protect the dishes. Yvette commented on that, wondering aloud why would I even need dishes. My answer: I bought them, so they are mine. Enough said.
"Don't even try to follow me." I gave Dane a hard look. "I'll know. If I have to, I'll abandon the truck and everything I own and find alternate means of getting home."
Dane hit me with the sexiest, dark smile. "I'm good. You wouldn't know."
"Not that good."
"How would you know?"
I laughed. It was a bitter laugh. "I've learned vampires have talents no one ever told us about. If I'd known half of what a vampire is capable of, I'd never have taken up hunting them. They scare me even more now than before. So believe me, I would know if you followed me." I looked at Sabrina and Brad. "I'm trying to protect you. Please do not try to follow me, or find me."
"They won't," Daddy said.
I poured my bowl of M&Ms into a zip lock freezer bag, then took both as I headed for the door. I had enough of family for now. I think most of them had enough of me. At least Momma and Yvette did.
They followed me back down to the truck. There was an awkward moment, when no one knew if we should embrace or throw rocks at each other. I got into the truck and headed out before anyone could offer up anything else that might depress me.
I headed west on 14th Street, and took it up to Greenville Avenue. I could feel Dane, and after a few miles I could tell he wasn't coming after me. I didn't have a link with any of my family, so I kept a close eye out for any of them. It soon became obvious no one followed me, so I headed toward home.
Turning on my cell phone, I dialed Yuri's number. He answered on the second ring.
"Hello, Yuri Dummyov." Hey, I needed to amuse myself. "Having a nice night?"
"I knew you would call again, Sable Hart."
"How is Darcy doing?"
He was silent a moment. "What do you mean?"
"I saw her last night in Deep Ellum. I would've said hello, but I was busy."
"Busy?" He sounded suspicious. I grinned.
"Yep. I was busy seducing Hector Lopez. You know Don Hector Lopez, don't you? Yep, he was a great lover, but in the end I stole his heart."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I said. I stole his heart after making passionate love to him. I don't recall where I left it. Hmm, oh yeah, I left his heart atop the next building over, on the roof. I hope the sun didn't get it."
"You black-hearted bitch."
"Hmm, you calling me black-hearted is the pot calling the kettle black."
I hung up and turned off the phone. I felt much better, and I would feel even better once I had all my furniture unloaded and my house started looking like a home.
Chapter 17
I awoke to a furnished home the next night. It felt good. I still didn't have a coffin, but the basement was light tight. The box springs and mattress for a twin-sized bed fit perfectly inside the basement closet, so that became my bedroom.
I put an old refrigerator in the basement, where I kept my blood. The fridge in the kitchen held ordinary food and condiments, for show. You never knew when the neighbors might come over for a visit. I had to keep up appearances.
After a very bloody breakfast, I performed my evening toilet. I still needed to shave my legs and underarms. God forbid I escape that chore with death. Also, I still had to go to the potty, even on an all blood diet. I could get cleaner simply by transforming into a bat or wolf, which left me perfectly clean, but I enjoyed the familiar routine of bathing.
After I was bathed and my face was presentable it was time to get dressed for vampire battle. What to wear? Normally, I would wear disposable old clothes. I was disposing of a lot of clothes lately. So I decided to take a different path, and vamp myself up instead. In latex. I could hose off the latex and be pristine again.
I chose a black PVC catsuit that used to be Dominique's. I didn’t want the fetishwear I bought, that actually fit well, to be damaged in a fight. I could fit into about half of her stolen wardrobe and that outfit was perfectly suited for my needs. It was one piece, long sleeved and high necked. I was sheathed in rubber from chin to ankles and wrists. For rubber, it was rather easy to get into and out of, due to the one long zipper that went from neck down to my crotch, and up under to the small of my back, with zippers on both ends. Okay, it was fetishwear. I would use it for violence.
Sexy black lace-up ankle boots and black latex gloves finished out my outfit.
When I stepped out the front door I discovered some of my neighbors were outside enjoying the late summer Sunday night. Don't you know I made an impression. Hispanic families lived to either side of me, with an African-American family across the street, a white family to one side of them and a Vietnamese family on the other side. They were all outside, with children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers. The mothers and teenagers perked up the most and the fastest when I stepped outside. For different reasons.
"Oops." I managed to refrain from saying, There goes the neighborhood. Somehow I didn't think they would've found that amusing. So I waved with a cheery, "Hello."
They didn't say anything, but the teenage boys looked excited. The teen girls, not so much.
"I'm going clubbing in Deep Ellum." Okay, I was embarrassed. What they must think of me. "I'll go now."
They watched me the whole time. Scoffed at me with real distain. I had to walk down the sidewalk to the driveway, then open the big wooden gates. That done, I opened the garage and started up my Mustang. I drove it halfway down the drive, got out and went back to close the garage and gates. I hope they enjoyed the show.
I headed for Deep Ellum. I needed to go the other way to get to Clive's house, but I'd already said I was going to Deep Ellum. Oh well, it wasn't that far out of the way. So I drove through Deep Ellum and back up to North Central, then north to Royal Lane, and finally west down Royal to Harry Hines. I headed south down Harry Hines looking for Boney.
I found him close to Northwest Highway.
"Sable. Looking good, girl. Vampirism becomes you."
"Perv." I laughed. I looked myself over and grinned. "It's certainly affected my fashion sense."
We hugged and kissed. Really kissed.
I stepped back when he started to feel me up. If I wasn't careful I'd spend the whole night in the backseat of his car, and enjoy every second of it, too. I had loftier goals – doom and despair, death and destruction.
"Tell me everything you know about Clive Honeywell and his family of vamps."
"Why?"
"I know where they live, and I'm going to kill them."
"Oh, bad idea. Counting Clive, there are three vampires over five hundred years old! They'll pulverize you, girl. Are you crazy?"
"Yep. Crazy like a fox."
"You watch too much TV."
"I thought it was funny."
"It isn't," he said, grim-faced. "I like you a lot, Sable. I don't want you to go off and get killed on me."
"Too late. Yuri killed me over a week ago."
"You know what I mean. Why are you so intent on killing vampires? You are a vampire now. Learn to accept that and live with it."
"That's not the issue. Vampire or not, I still feel much the same way about vampires as I did before the Change. At least about rogue vampires. I understand now that not all vampires are necessarily evil, but some, like Clive and Yuri and their followers, are evil incarnate. They have to be stopped, and I am uniquely qualified for fighting them on their own turf."
"You are a baby vampire compared to them. A toddler."
"I'm still more than human, and I'm not as crazy as I sound. Not exactly."
> "Obviously you don't understand how crazy you sound."
"I understand better than you think, Boney." I held up a large manila envelope. Opening it up, I pulled out a stack of pictures. "I spent a couple hours surfing the web last night. I didn't find much about them, but I did get some pictures. I need you to fill in the blanks. Maybe, just maybe, you can convince me it is suicidal and I won't try it."
"Really?"
I grinned. "Not likely, but worth a try."
"I'm going to miss you, Sable." I handed him the first picture. The vampire was tall and blonde, and pretty good looking. He was Changed in his mid-thirties, but looked older. "Ah, the man himself. Clive Honeywell. He is reputed to be six hundred twelve, which means he was born almost a hundred years before Columbus discovered America."
"Wow." I hadn't thought of it in those terms. "That's older than Yuri by a good fifty years or more."
"I heard that Clive Changed Yuri," Boney said. "That was like five hundred years ago, so it was Clive that molded Yuri into the murderous vampire that he is now. There still seems to be some loyalty to his old master. A lot of very old vampires continue to follow Clive long after they are strong enough to break free."
"So there's more to him than just vampire magic." Good to know. "Does he have any special powers I should know about?"
"Nothing special that I’ve heard about, but be careful."
I handed him the next picture. This one looked to be in his fifties, with a severe face, hard brown eyes, and graying hair.
"Miles Evans. Clive's most loyal follower and right hand man," he said. "He's as big a sour puss as he looks. He's only about twenty years younger than Clive. Very powerful, but not known as a fighter. He's still the consummate man servant, but he's a vampire close to six hundred years old."
"Thanks." I handed him the next picture. She was a dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty. I judged her to be about twenty-eight. "Ophelia."
"Ah, the only one I have actually met. Lady Ophelia Rowe. She comes off as a very proper lady, but she has a taste for prostitutes. You should ask Desiree about her. Or Vicki. She's spent some time with both of them. Pays well, but she's kinky to the extreme. I suspect she would make Dominique blush."
"Wow. I'll try to avoid her then. Dominique scares me. I understand she is over five hundred?"
"Five twenty-five What a beauty. Umm."
"Whoa, boy, rein in the testosterone." I handed him another picture. "Sarah Brentworst. What do you know about her?"
Sarah wasn't as beautiful as Ophelia, but she was still pretty. Brunette. Slim and petite looking, but that was deceiving. She was reputed to be Clive's most savage follower.
"She's only one hundred forty-three, but very loyal to Clive even though he didn't Change her."
"Really? Is she the only one he didn't Change?"
"Yes, that I know about. Miles, Ophelia, and Sarah follow Clive of their own freewill. They are all very powerful vampires. In fact, Sarah is said to be more powerful that Ophelia."
"Kind of an uber vamp?"
"Yes. One day she might be more powerful than Clive." Boney handed the picture back and accepted the next. "Be very careful around her. Who is this? Maria Teresa or Vera?"
"That's Vera Vasquez," I said, double checking my notes. The Spanish vampire was a gorgeous green-eyed blonde, who looked barely eighteen. Hell, she looked sixteen, but I knew she'd been Changed on her eighteenth birthday by Clive. "The internet indicated she is stronger than Maria Teresa Lopez."
"That’s not saying much, I hear," he said. He took Maria Teresa's picture from me and held them both up next to each other. "Since she is still Clive's bound servant after three hundred years, then Vera can't be too powerful. The same with Maria Teresa. Rumor has it they are both more sex toys than soldiers. Clive has little use for mortal lovers."
Maria Teresa Lopez was a black-haired, black-eyed Spaniard.
"I know a bit about Maria Teresa and her husband, Hector," Boney said. "They are said to have searched out Clive, and then asked to be Changed. He obliged them nicely, and they've served him loyally ever since. Hector is a much more powerful vampire than Maria Teresa. Where's his picture?"
"I didn't bother with it. I killed him already."
"You what?"
Bone Daddy did a double-take. His eyes widened. I did more than surprise him. I shocked him. I smiled smugly. I hoped Clive and the vampire leaders of Dallas reacted the same way when they learned his fate.
"I killed him the night after I brought Desiree home from Deep Ellum. He fell pretty easily, so I'm not too concerned with the vampires beneath him in the pecking order."
Boney looked at me as if for the first time. "Are you some kind of uber vamp, too?"
"You think?" I hadn't considered it before. "That’d be nice, because there are a whole lot of vampires that need killing."
He looked hard at me, then looked all around me. Was he looking at my aura? Judging my supernatural strength and power?
"You're a scary woman, Sable. Very scary."
"I would never hurt you or your girls, Boney. I'd miss you too much."
"Reassuring." I handed him the next picture. "Is this Dominique? No, her sister, Angelique de Saussay! What a beauty. Like her sister, a former Paris model, prostitute, and dominatrix. I understand Clive and Yuri hired them both one night, and Changed them that very night. Clive kept Angelique and Yuri kept Dominique. Word is that if you know one sister, you know the other."
"I'm not surprised." I handed him another picture. "That's Lawrence Burdett. Not a very impressive looking man."
Lawrence was short and starting to gray at the temples. He had an everyman kind of face.
"I know nothing about him, except he's acting as the go between for Clive and the city's vampire leaders. I think he was a lawyer or something when he was Changed. Not particularly powerful as a vampire, either."
"Yes, his bio said he was a barrister. I think that is a lawyer or judge or something legal over in England." I handed him the last picture, "What about her? All I have on Cynthia Simmons is she was Changed about sixty years ago, right after World War II. She was the wife of some member of Parliament or something."
"Pretty. I've heard her name, but know almost nothing about her," Boney said, admiring her picture a moment. "I heard she’s really just cock candy for Miles, who is the one that actually Changed her. Like Vera and Maria Teresa are for Clive, but I don't know for sure."
"Cock candy? How crude!" I punched him in the arm, but not too hard. After all, I liked that skanky pimp. "Don’t ever say that again."
He laughed at my reaction. I glowered at him until he stopped laughing.
"What's the matter? Lose your sense of humor?"
"Yes. I was Yuri's 'cock candy' for a short while. I kinda feel sorry for her, Maria Teresa, and Vera. It sucks to be a woman sometimes, whether mortal or immortal."
"I suppose, but I can relate. The vampire that Changed me calls me to her bed two, three times a week. Does that make me pussy candy? Cunt candy?"
"Oh, please. Don't use the C-word around me. I hate hate hate that word."
"Prude." He reached over and took hold of my zipper. The catsuit's collar was wide and held closed by two straps that buckled. The zipper was right below it. Boney pulled it down to below my navel. My heart rate ramped up and it became hard to breathe. "Nice outfit. You want me to bone you until I own you one more time before you go commit suicide?"
Bone me until he owned me? He liked that phrase too much.
"I want to, you sentimentally-challenged bastard, but I don't have time." I zipped back up. "Sorry."
He looked worried. "If you survive this attack, come to me afterwards."
"So you can 'bone me until you own me?'"
"Yes… and so I’ll know you are all right. I’m scared. I don't think I'll ever see you again."
“You could come with me. You're strong and fast; I bet you could kill twice as many vampires as me.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that.�
� He looked horrified at the prospect. “I’m a lover, not a fighter. Remember, I’m a pimp.”
“Don’t remind me. It’s disgusting.” Frowning, I looked at him a long moment and tried to figure out why I liked him so much. Maybe it was the fact he was Changed against his will, and his current occupation was forced upon him via Compulsion. I could relate. It had to be more than he was just that good in bed. It had to be. “Okay, I can accept that. Though, I always heard that pimps were vicious fighters.”
“I can be, especially if someone tries to hurt one of my girls.” He looked me in the eye. “You’re changing the subject. Promise me you’ll come back to me after the attack. I mean it.”
He did. I’ve never seen him so intent. I was flattered.
"I promise to come to you after I finish with Clive and his minions." I grinned wickedly. "But I'll expect you to outdo yourself. Staking vamps makes me horny."
"Oh, I will," he said. "I never disappoint."
After a deep, three minute good-bye kiss, I was on the road again. I was following my link with Gabe. He felt close.
Won't he be surprised when I show up.
I'd been counting on Gabe being at his new armory on Harry Hines. If he wasn't, I would've been seriously pressed for decent weaponry. There were pistols, a small crossbow, and three javelins in my trunk. I need some shock and awe to go up against Clive. Gabe was just the man to provide it.
I followed my mental link to Gabe, straight to an abandoned tire store with four bays. It was more than twice as big at the last armory, with bricked up windows. His bullet-riddled Chevy pickup parked out front helped.
I could sense Gabe inside. Gabe was excited about something. Horny excited. I wondered if he knew I was coming. I walked over to the pickup which reeked of Gabe's scent. Musky. Sweaty. Man scent. No perfumed bathroom products for Gabe.
I gently checked each bay door and the front door. All were locked. Gabe’s physical/emotional condition hadn’t changed at all, so I doubted I was the cause. Shame. So I jumped up on the roof.
First time I'd ever done that. It was only a one story building, though taller than most single story structures.
The a/c units were on the flat, tar and gravel roof. The service hatch wasn't locked. I opened it, glanced down to ensure there was nothing on the floor to trip me up, and jumped in feet first. Took less than five seconds. No hesitation. There was a steel ladder up the wall. I didn’t need it.