They continued to walk as they giggled. John noticed a proper modern looking church to their right. He stopped and studied the sign, then looked at the crowded parking lot. It was positively packed. “There’s a service right now.” he said, thinking to himself out loud. He turned to Maggie. “Let's go inside. Check it out.”
“The Evangelical Church of Las Vegas?” she raised one eyebrow. “This date is getting really weird. Why do you want to go in there?”
John grinned sheepishly. “Evangelists have always piqued my interest. Look at it. It’s Tuesday and the parking lot is packed. On a Tuesday! I’ve seen them on television, with the whole congregation moaning, weeping, and crawling on the floors. I want to see if it’s real or is it all for the cameras.”
“You are really strange, you know that?” Maggie said.
“Yes.” John smiled, shrugged. “Come on. Five minutes and we’ll get out.”
“Five minutes.”
They walked to the large double doors of the church. There were other buildings off to the side. Most prominent was a long one story building to the side of the chapel with a number of doors. Maybe they were church offices or Sunday school rooms. At the door John pulled and the door swung outward. He motioned for Maggie to go first. She entered and John followed her into the atrium. It was furnished with only a large desk. Behind it sat a young man. “Hello, brother and sister, you’re pretty late. The sermon started at nine.” He looked at them closely. “Are you new? I don’t recognize you.”
“We were just curious. We were passing by and thought we’d pop in to take a look.” John said. He could hear a deep voice from within the church. The words were pounding thru the walls.
“All are welcome here.” The young man said his voice was imbued with kindness. “Come on in.” Something about the man was unnerving to John. His fanatical belief was apparent the same way men in the Crusades were fanatical. John wasn’t used to such ardor in his flock or even the other priests he knew.
The young man pulled open the large door to the chapel enough so John and Maggie could slip inside without disrupting the sermon. John understood the desire to enter quietly. They didn’t want to call attention to late comers. John always noticed when people showed up late to his sermons. The swing of the door and flood of daylight drew his eyes every time.
Inside the scene was overwhelming. John was not prepared for the sight and sounds before him. It assaulted his eyes and ears and forced him back against the door. The hall was filled with ecstatic people standing, sitting, kneeling up in front of the evangelist who commanded the crowd like a conductor of an orchestra. The voice which was muffled in the antechamber now boomed out of loudspeakers, rich and resonant, strong enough to almost make the very building shake. The words rolled over the audience and through John making him cower back in surprise and dismay. Effortlessly the evangelist pitched the crowd into a religious frenzy, then lulled them back to earth only to raise them up again. He was good, really good. John had rarely seen such an effective, effortless speaker on a pulpit. He felt a bit of professional jealousy. Catholics didn’t writhe on the floor because of his sermons. They sat reservedly listening to the word of God, more of an audience rather than active participants in their worship.
John struggled to keep his mind clear under the verbal onslaught of the preacher. Being a priest, he thought himself to be a very pious man. Listening to the preacher made him feel like the most craven sinner. Maggie stood next to him also enthralled by the presence of the man on stage. His charisma could be felt to the foundation of the church. John focused on a point on the wall. He concentrated to block out the overwhelming assault on his mind. When he had regained his wits, he turned his attention to the preacher. Ignoring his charismatic presence and paying attention only to the content of his words.
“I look out upon the congregation here tonight, and do you know what I see? I see a room full of godless sinners. I see adulterers, whoremongers, liars, and every other type of weak person who gives into the sins of the flesh.” The crowd cried out in pain and anguish. “When I look upon you my heart bleeds because I see your deaths; your shallow, sad, hopeless deaths. Nothing can save you. There are hundreds of leering skulls with empty eye sockets facing me. They are looking at me to save them from eternal damnation. They cry out until their voices nearly split my eardrums! ‘Malcolm,’ they cry, ‘Save us! Lead us to the Blood of the Lamb!’ Nothing exists on the outside. There is only Death awaiting with his reaper’s scythe. He will collect you all unless you repent. There is no salvation without blood. Nothing awaits but flame and torment. I can lead you away from that hideous fate. Only I can take you and show you the light.” The evangelist exclaimed. As the crowd roared its approval, he stood on the stage surveying his handiwork. He had the crowd in the palm of his hands like he had every night. This was power and it was intoxicating.
The rhetoric of the evangelist was similar to what John had heard on television, but there was something disguised, camouflaged in the words. It was unlike any sermon John had ever heard. It ranted and raved without having any real direction. It played upon people’s fear of death and damnation and offered only one hope to save them, the evangelist. There was no other power that could save them or lead them. Oddly the man used indirect references to God and Jesus. He rarely, if ever called them by name.
John scrutinized the man who stormed about the stage. He was tall and powerfully built. His face seemed ageless and scintillating eyes burned fiercely under his dark brow. His motions were like a great cat as he sauntered and slunk across the stage. He never rested for more than a moment in any one place.
Underneath the lights and the exertion, the man's makeup began to run off his face in tiny rivulets, staining his shirt collar. Pale, almost luminescent skin shone from under the makeup. John looked more closely at the man. All the blood drained from John’s face as he came to a horrifying realization. The man, the evangelist, the preacher charlatan who held such a thrall over the crowd, was a vampire. He cast his eyes about fearfully. He found what he was looking for in the last place he would ever look, a church!
John now noticed the church had no elaborate ornamentation. It was austere almost to the extreme. It had numerous pews though none had holders for hymnals or bibles. There were a number of stained glass windows, but they were non-descript; brightly colored shapes of glass which told no story. There was no cross or any religious symbols one would expect to see in a church. John looked at the throng of people closely. Among the warm, living crowd there were a few pale faces in the gathering. There was more than one vampire circling the electrified crowd like sharks in the ocean surrounding a school of fish. He had inadvertently stumbled into a coven of vampires using a church to attract victims. From what he saw around him it worked brilliantly. He looked at every pale face trying to memorize the features of each one if he ever saw them again.
The mortal worshipers, their faces fervent and tear stained, turned their eyes to the stage in piety. They believed the man in front of them. They sensed his power and charisma. They believed his message of salvation. He had to be anointed by God to be able to move them as he did. He was more than a simple man. What stalked the stage like a caged panther, shouting a pious message to people who desperately wanted to believe, was a creature of the night. They were not worshipping any deity, they worshipped a man. More than a man, a vampire in an immaculate suit, with impeccably coifed hair. He fed off the adulation as surely as he fed off the blood of the crowd.
They were using a perfect hiding place. A genius hiding place. Residing in a building and a belief, which was supposed to be an anathema to his kind. Even if someone were to believe in vampires, no one would think they’d be a pastor in a church preaching something which was supposedly harmful to them. What a keen mind to conceive of such a ruse. There was no reason to hunt. Victims sought them out.
John took Maggie by the arm, “We need to go.” He whispered in her ear firmly as he steered her out the double doors they had
come in. She reacted as if in a trance.
“Oh. Okay.” Maggie walked stiffly, muscles reluctant to obey her brain’s commands.
The young man at the desk stood up. “Leaving so soon?” Pastor Richards can go for another hour. He doesn’t really have a specific time frame for finishing. It just kind of happens when it happens."
“We must be getting home. It was interesting.” John said. Pastor Richards? Was he was the one speaking?”
“Malcolm Richards. He started this church about seven years ago.” The young man replied.
“Fascinating.” John propelled Maggie toward the exit. “Thanks for your time.” John said as they slipped out the door.
“Please come again!” The man cried after them.
They started walking briskly toward the restaurant. Maggie looked at John. “That was strange back there. I’ve flipped by preachers on TV, never really paid them much attention. The theatrics always made me change the channel. But tonight the theatrics was what held my attention. That man is very...” She paused for a moment looking for the right words. “Demanding. Charismatic. Compelling. It was like you were forced to listen to what he was saying.”
“I know what you mean,” John said. “He affected me in the same way. I’ve seen some great speakers, but this... It’s frightening how he cast a spell over the crowd.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way. You make it sound like he's brainwashing them." Maggie replied.
“Isn’t that what he's doing?”
“Isn’t that what all religions try to do?”
Maggie’s comment stopped him dead in his tracks. He stared at her in surprise. John had never thought of what he did in that way before. What the vampire was doing was luring people to his larder. Was Father Bryant doing the same thing? Was he luring people from Satan’s grasp over to God’s... grasp? One was far more beneficent than the other. Wasn’t he providing guidance for people’s lives without the microwave salvation offered by evangelists? This he found hard to answer. “I don't look at it that way,” he said curtly as he started walking again.
Maggie quickly caught up with him. “Well how do you look at it?”
“It would be difficult to explain.” John replied.
Maggie didn’t say anything more. She sensed his reticence to continue on the subject. Mercifully they arrived at Armando’s a minute or two later. She gave him the rest of the pages from her car. “Here’s the information. Sorry I’ve upset you.”
“It wasn’t you. It was that preacher back there. The whole scene disturbed me,” John replied. “Do me a favor. Don’t ever go back to that church. Never ever go back.” His voice was calm but urgent.
“I hadn’t planned on it. And I don’t frequent churches much anyway.” She regarded him with wondering eyes. “Like I said earlier, you’re a strange one.” Without warning she stepped up and placed her full lips on his. He was startled but didn’t pull away. Much to his surprise he began to kiss her back.
After a moment which seemed to last for hours, she pulled away. John blushed.
“Give me a call tomorrow. My number is on the top page.” Maggie got in her car and drove off leaving the bewildered priest behind.
John stared after her. The taillights of her car diminished and she then turned a corner. He looked down at the folder in his hand. He flipped it open and looked at her phone number. His mind was flustered by what just happened. He hadn’t kissed a woman with purpose for years. It was only a distant memory. The body still reacted with passion even if the mind was unprepared.
He opened the car door and got in. The file in his hand was useless now. He had found what he was looking for. Not only found one vampire but a number of them. No need to scour the research material. All he needed to do now was go destroy them. Simple. One against many. He was overwhelmed with fear and dread. How could he possibly survive? What a foolish thing to contemplate. As he sat in the car the urge to start it, drive to the airport, and catch a plane back to Colorado was growing. Leave Las Vegas to deal with a danger it couldn’t know or conceive. If the church had been around for seven years without calling attention to itself, it was careful. How many people had they killed? How many people had disappeared? The thought of their countless victims changed his mind. He wouldn’t leave. He would do something.
John pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car. He needed to think. He locked the car and walked towards the distraction of the Strip.
Chapter 6
Scotch with Ice
Father Bryant was disturbed. He had done it. He found vampires; stumbled onto them in fact. Not one single vampire, a loner preying upon people, but a group using a church as a cover. It was brilliant. Food would come to them. Food would gladly give them the money they needed to survive. Tithing as a business model. Very little risk involved for the vampires. But killing wouldn't be possible. A whole church with a rising number of congregants deaths? Do they slake their thirst just enough? Sean never said vampires didn't have to kill to feed. Though Sean's experience as a vampire was limited and he didn’t have much time to impart his knowledge. He said he was taught the bare minimum to survive. In all of John's research never was it mentioned that vampires might not need to kill to survive. His research into historical vampires was limited as they were generally seen as fictional monsters. They were creatures of myth and superstition. Authors of vampire novels fabricated their own vampire myths, or cherry picked what powers and abilities worked best for their story. The myths were unsubstantiated and the authors were creating vampires to suit their narratives. There were very few facts on the real creature because no one believed in vampires as being real.
John aimlessly walked the Las Vegas strip, his coat lapels pulled up against the October chill. His mind was also bothered by Maggie Collins. The doubts about his faith assailed him once again. She stirred something in him he thought long dead; a human desire for love, connection, and even sex. He didn't love her but he realized it was possible for him to love. He had not been completely anesthetized from feeling emotion by his many years as a priest. He was human, and she had awoken something in him.
While walking down the street Father Bryant saw someone he recognized from the church. A young man exited a casino and turned north on the Strip. There was something about the boyish appearance of the man which made John decide to follow him. Was he a vampire? He was pale and had the grace of a jungle predator. He glided through the crowded sidewalk without brushing clumsily into distracted people like a person might.
The man didn't know John, wouldn't recognized him. He could follow at a discreet distance without having it seem like he was following him. At stop lights he waited behind people but made sure to cross the streets on the same signal. He didn't want to lose the suspected vampire. What was his play, was John going to track it all night? Follow it back to its resting place? Where might the resting place be? The church had a number of buildings and seemed like a logical place for the vampires to sleep. John glanced at his watch. Dawn was at least eight hours away at least. Tracking someone all night was nothing he had anticipated. He couldn't confront it now, on a busy street. He had none of the weapons he prepared. He was defenseless, unprepared. In his mind he was never certain he would find vampires. It was a quest, a nebulous quest, St. George searching for a mythical dragon to slay. He’d found his dragon. Not just one dragon, a whole nest of dragons. All lethal in their ability to kill, all wanting to survive. He doubted they would embrace death as Sean had.
Ahead of him the man turned left into a small alley between two businesses. John hesitated a moment as he neared the alley. He knew something of the heightened senses of a vampire. The preternatural hearing which can hear the heartbeats of the humans around it; the keen vision can see in the dark as if it were daytime; the capability to smell blood like a shark in the ocean. Was it possible the man knew he was being followed? There should have been enough activity around to mask John’s presence and intent.
After what seemed to be
a reasonable time to wait, thirty seconds to a minute, John entered the alley. His heart beat faster than it should have. Fear gripped him. The prospect of meeting any potentially dangerous person in a dark alley was frightening enough. Meeting a vampire was previously unimaginable. John quickly scanned the long alley as he walked. It was a block long and at the far end he could see the neon sign of a bar and casino. There were dumpsters lining the alley near service doors to business entrances. There were puddles and trash in the center of the alley. What he didn't see was the silhouette of the man he'd been following. He stopped walking and looked around. He glanced at his watch. An honest gesture but also an affectation to seem like John had made a mistake if anyone was watching from some hidden position. Had the vampire ducked behind a dumpster or hid in a recessed doorway or run to the end of the alley and disappeared?
John calmed himself and started walking again. He traversed almost the entire length of the alley when a tall man stepped from the shadow of a doorway and barred John's passage. He regarded John with somber eyes. His face was heavily shadowed but his eyes burned brightly. The only light in the alley came from dim lamps of the service entrances. The lights from the street didn't penetrate into the alley. John didn't have to act startled because he truly was startled, though he didn't slow his measured pace.
"Shit. Sorry," John mumbled as he tried to step around him. The man seemed to slide in front of him to block his path once again. John looked at the man. "Excuse me."
The man stood silently, a blue halo was created by the neon pulsing behind him. "You were there tonight, weren't you?"
"What?"
"The Evangelical Church of Las Vegas. You were in the crowd, near the back. You showed up late with an attractive woman. You left after a few minutes." He said with great certainty.
Father Bryant was shaken but tried to remain calm. His heart beat faster belying his fear. Could the vampire hear it? "So?" John said calmly but with a hint of annoyance. "What's it to you?"
Blood Stakes Page 6