by Justin Sloan
“It was a different time, and honestly, a different Valerie.” Sandra turned back to staring out the window, where ahead she could see the bright yellow and purple lights of Capital Square in the distance. “Back then, none of us knew what being a vampire truly meant. A lot of us thought they really were creatures of evil, like the legends say. It was only after being with her for a couple of years that I began to see the softer side of her, the side that wasn’t torn apart by being separated from her old, human life. The side that took me in as a friend and… maybe more.”
“You’re saying you two were lovers?” Peterson looked to Wallace. “She did just imply that, right?”
“No, jackass,” Sandra flicked his ear again, and Wallace laughed. “I’m saying, the feeding, it was like a bond we held, linking us together in this beautiful, non-sexual, sort of way. Although…”
“Yes?” Peterson looked back, waiting anxiously.
“We might’ve kissed once.”
“Ah, I knew it!” Peterson laughed, beaming with a wide smile in Wallace’s direction.
“Why does that make you happy?” Sandra asked, completely bewildered.
“It’s hot, right?” Peterson laughed. “Come on, the idea of you and her, lips pressed together, and—”
Now it was Wallace’s turn to flick Peterson in the ear, and he did it, hard.
“Ow!” Peterson held his ear, the smile gone. “The hell was that for?”
“Um, you do realize you’re basically having a sexual fantasy about Sandra, who is sitting right there, and Valerie, who not only has a thing going with Jackson, but is kind of like our boss? It’s wrong on so many levels, man.”
“Oh…” Peterson’s face went pale and he turned back to Sandra. “Shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
She just laughed. “Hey, you can sexually fantasize about me all day long, I couldn't give a rat’s ass. But just remember that it’s not going to happen for one, and that Diego’s my man and happens to be a Were who could kick your butt into next Tuesday.”
“Where the hell’d you learn all these American sayings anyway?” Wallace asked, clearly trying to change the subject. “I mean, rat’s ass, kick your butt into next Tuesday… those aren’t things people say in France, are they?”
She shrugged. “Well now we’re moving on to that? Tell you what, get us back to HQ, this is a bust. I’ll tell you all about it on the way. But the simple answer—more reading. There aren’t really books anymore, except some children’s book I found lying around, but there’s the papers people write and…” She blushed at the next part.
Peterson was turning the pod around and making it rise higher in the air, but he turned around. “What?”
“I might have come across some letters a woman from here had been writing to a captain of one of those trading blimps. Love letters.”
“You learned American idioms from someone’s love letters? And that included rat’s ass?”
She laughed. “I never said they had a perfect relationship… at least, from what I could gather from the notes.”
Peterson laughed, but then Wallace said, “WATCH OUT!” and Peterson stopped abruptly so that he could steer the pod away from slamming into one of the buildings.
“Let’s save the stories until we’re safely away from this guy’s driving,” Wallace said.
“Agreed,” Sandra said, and returned to staring out the window in silence, watching the buildings with their bright lights passing below, wondering about the rest of the world with its lack of power. With so much here, it was amazing they hadn’t figured out a way to spread it back out to those in need yet.
But then again, there were much larger problems than a little extra light at night.
The ride back went smoothly, and soon they were back in the pod bay. She exited just as another pod pulled in, and when Cammie got out they compared notes. It turned out that no one else had spotted anything from the air.
“Same here,” Diego said as he approached, the metal doors sliding shut behind him. “We went out on the ground, but nada. Only… a few blocks away we found blood. Picked them up with my enhanced smell to find it the first time. I tried to pick up more, like a lingering scent of vampire, perhaps, but no such luck.”
“The blood, was it human?” Sandra asked.
He shrugged. “Valerie’s great at making that differentiation, but not me. I can tell it’s blood, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was her doing though. Actually, I’d bet that it was. That close to here, right after the bombing? And it was fresh.”
“So she got them,” Sandra said, and nodded to Wallace and Peterson as they headed back in.
“We’re going to report on this to the Colonel,” Wallace said.
“Not Commander?” Diego asked.
“We decided that title had too much affiliation with Strake,” Wallace said. “Nixed it.”
“Speaking of Strake,” Diego said, a worried expression creasing his face. “Looks like some of his Enforcers broke out.”
“What?” Sandra spun on him. “When?”
“While we were gone. Royland told me about it on the way up here. He’d just woken up to prepare for the night, and heard an alarm going off. He’s with Karl, and they think Anderson had something to do with it.”
“Dammit,” Wallace said. “Maybe I should’ve had his head instead of just kicking him out.”
“You might get your chance,” Diego said. “But you better get up there to chat with the Colonel and figure it all out.”
Peterson waved a hand, “Just another enemy we’ll have to deal with,” he said with a sigh.
They left, and Cammie followed them. Sandra and Diego found themselves alone in the pod bay.
He came over and wrapped an arm around her before kissing her on the forehead. “You holding up okay without her?”
“She only just left,” Sandra said. She rolled her eyes, but was glad he asked and was even gladder to have his arm around her. “We can keep this place running just fine, I’m sure.”
“And she’ll be fine,” he added.
“You know what’s crazy?” She leaned into him, one hand playing with his fingers as she looked out over the rows of police pods. The hanger door was still open, so she was happy to have his warmth against her to counteract the chill wind. “It seems like just yesterday Valerie was basically a pampered vampire princess in training. Within a matter of days, she went from there to defender of New York, a Justice Enforcer appointed by Michael, the vampire of legends. I can’t help but worry that it’s too much too fast.”
“Maybe we should take your mind off of it,” Diego said and his lips moved to her neck, his free hand to her hips.
She pushed him away, gently. “Not the right time, Romeo.”
“You don’t need the distraction?”
“It’s more that I’m not exactly in the mood for that kind of distraction.” She smiled at the way his eyes showed how letdown he was. “Listen, the night is young. But with everything going on, you gotta realize the right times, okay?”
“For you, anything.” He smiled and kissed her hand. “As long as you realize that, in the world we live, there might never really be a right time.”
She started to chuckle but it stopped, then she frowned. “That’s damn depressing.”
“Okay, well how’s this then?” He pulled her toward the door as he said, “I’ve been thinking about ways we can pull this city together. We need more than just medical supplies and peace patrols, and a strong city defense for the outside. We need an intel network, Weres and vampires using their enhanced hearing and other senses to work the streets, find out everything we can about the CEOs and where they might have gone, or—”
“Whether they’re still operating in the city,” she said, getting into it. “Ooh, this is exciting!”
He jumped as she slapped his butt, and she winked.
“I thought you weren’t in the mood?” he asked with a smirk.
“You’re apparently re
ally good at pushing my buttons. Let’s talk more about this, and see where it leads us, if you know what I mean.”
He bit his lip and smiled.
Just then, the doors opened and it was Duran, the Were. “Good, there you are.”
“What’s up?” Sandra asked, trying to hide the smile.
“A blimp from Europe with supplies,” Duran said. “Says Strake used to handle all this, and when I came to Cammie, she said to ask you.”
“She thinks that because I’m human I’m—”
“Sorry, no, not you.” he pointed to her side, “Diego.”
“I’ve been setting up a niche for myself,” Diego said with a proud smile. “Figure I could use my head for something too, and numbers have always been kind of my thing. Though I didn’t expect this.”
“Yeah, so, you got it?” Duran asked.
Diego looked like an idea had just hit him, but he just nodded and said, “Lead the way.”
“I’ll be in my room,” Sandra said, and then added with a playful wink, “Don’t take too long.”
She hadn’t meant for Duran to see it, but he did and said, “Gross, guys. God.”
Diego laughed and blew her a kiss, then disappeared with Duran, leaving Sandra to think about all of the possibilities setting up an intel network came with. True to her word, she headed up to her room, and slipped out of her clothes.
To keep herself in the mood, she found some paper and a pen in the desk, then laid on the bed and started sketching out a city map, plotting areas that they hadn’t yet spent much time on, or knew to be more dangerous than the others.
When he’d mentioned the idea to her, she doubted he had any idea of the beast he was unleashing. The thought of it made her laugh to herself, and she found herself in a conflicted state of hoping he’d hurry up, and being equally happy if he took as much time as he needed.
She was in her zone.
CHAPTER NINE
The Grave Yard
Valerie’s trek through the city made her wonder about the choice of setting off alone. It wasn’t that she was worried about her safety by any means, but each time she came across another dark patch where there was no electricity, or a building that looked uninhabitable but had the sound of babies crying, she wanted someone to talk to about it. She needed to make plans, to set up a system where all this would be fixed.
This world had fallen apart somewhere along the way. She didn’t know why she felt such an urge to fix it, but more than anything, she wanted to help people.
Nobody should have to suffer. Innocent children didn’t deserve to die. Men and women should be able to worry about starting a family, not about whether they’d have enough food to avoid starvation.
Somehow, she meant to change all that.
But while the CEOs and men and women like them still existed in this world, there could never be peace and joy. Not in the way she envisioned it.
And then there was a whole other level of evil in the world, those like the Duke, the man she called father, because he had created her. He and his plan for world conquest would be met by the legendary vampire, Michael, and be cast down.
She remembered hearing the legends from an elderly priest in Old Paris once, talking to her and her kind before they killed him. He’d said there were once vampires in this world that did good. Told them about religious tales, how the archangel Michael had cast Satan from the heavens.
On that day, he’d told them a dark savior would return, one that would cast them all down, rid the world of their kind, so the pure vampires could rule as they should. To call him a priest was misleading—he’d been a priest of the Nocturnal Order, an old group of vampire worshipers that had risen up after the fall of civilization.
At the time she had thought it was a bunch of bull, but now she wondered. Was she one of these pure vampires now, here for the very purpose he’d spoken of? Or was it all just some big coincidence. She didn’t feel ‘pure,’ by any sense of the word. What she felt was compelled. Compelled by a sense of guilt over what she’d done and witnessed in her past, and by a sense of love for those around her.
Whatever the reasons for her actions, she was damn sure committed to seeing justice return to this world, and ensuring that a sense of Honor be associated with her kind.
A quick look around showed the tall buildings mostly behind her now, what had once been Central Park spread out before her. At the far end, patches of ground glowed a faint green, where she guessed old remnants of chemical waste and who knows what had been dumped, or come to rest, over the years. Far to the west, she could just barely see the outline of Urvant Headquarters, where she and the others had rescued Diego, along with Royland and the rest of the vampires who had been drained of their blood so that the CEOs could stay young.
She walked among withered trees and a field of dirt where she imagined young couples had once walked hand-in-hand for a romantic night stroll, but now had become a place to stash bodies or, if you had money enough to splurge for a headstone, went farther north and made it official.
The Cat’s Eye, the hotdog vendor had said.
She considered running back and getting her whole crew out looking for this place, but that would only get people talking. A bunch of badass looking Weres roaming the city might be suspicious. One lady trying to get a drink? Less so.
The park was quiet, almost peaceful if it weren’t so damn depressing. The air was cool, still damp from the rain earlier, and she even paused long enough to look up at the stars. Where the clouds had cleared, the stars shone brightly. It wasn’t like in the dead cities in the outskirts of Old France, where you could look into the sky and be astounded by the myriad stars gleaming down at you, but here it had its own beauty. Like when the clouds weren’t in the way, or the city lights were surrounding you, making the stars harder to see, you’d get a sneak peek and it was rare, so it was majestic.
She wondered if Jackson and Sandra were back at HQ looking at these same stars now, and laughed at herself. Had falling for this guy really made her as corny as that?
No, she realized, remembering nights spent holding Sandra, staring up at the stars together. She had always been appreciative of the world they lived in, curious about what else was out there.
If she’d known then what she knew now, that not only did aliens exist, but were somehow supposedly responsible for who she was now and what she could do, she wondered if she’d have felt differently back then. Maybe more afraid.
It kind of terrified her even more now that she thought about it. Here she was, a woman who could probably take on any challenge thrown her way, but there was intelligent life out there in outer space, possibly ready to wipe them out at any moment.
And Bethany Anne might be out there too, she considered. A comforting thought. If she was out there still defending Earth, and now Michael had returned, there was hope after all. If the two of them ever got together again, maybe with Akio and Yuko at their side, and hell, maybe even Valerie? That would be a force to be reckoned with.
She laughed at the thought of her out there fighting aliens alongside the vampire legends of her youth.
A woman could dream, right?
Something caught her eye and she stopped walking. A shadow moving, and then another. She ducked down, close to the ground to avoid her silhouette being spotted, and ran forward at a crouch. The ground was uneven, hard to see far across, but soon she found a shallow ravine she could duck into.
Focusing her hearing, she heard voices, whispering. No one would be able to hear them, as far as they knew. But they didn’t know a vampire was nearby, and probably didn’t know vampires had enhanced hearing.
But one thing was for sure—they knew about vampires.
This was clear because she heard one say, “When I get that vamp blood in me, shit, I’m going over to Elena’s and going all night.”
“It don’t do that,” the other voice said in a hiss. “Just makes you younger.”
“And helps with healing, I hear. And the way I
see it, it probably does so by moving your blood around, rejuvenating it or something, adding extra life to it, which means—”
“Don’t say it.”
“All night loooong, baby.” The first voice laughed. “Come on, super vampire blood up in my—”
“I said shut up. This shit’s for my dad, as we discussed, right? He’s lying on his deathbed, and we can change that, but you’re talking about how it’s going to help you get your jollies with some chick who can’t even stand to look at you? God, shut your trap.”
There was a long moment of silence, then a barely audible, “Fuck yourself,” followed by a fist to a face, followed by more cursing and the sound of a knife being drawn.
Valerie decided she wasn’t going to sit here and let these two jack-holes kill each other before showing her where the bar was. And at this point, she had no doubt they at least had some idea of how to find it.
She jumped up and saw them, thirty yards away one lunging for the other. With a quick sprint she was on them, taking the knife-wielding wrist and snapping it so that it broke and the knife dropped, and then kicking out the other’s knee so that they both fell to the ground in agony.
“The hell?!” one shouted.
“The Cat’s Eye,” she said, pulling her sword and shutting them both up real fast. “I don’t care what you two do from here, but you’re going to tell me where it is, or your dying dad won’t see his son again.” She looked between the two, frowning. “I mean, that’s noble and all, I get that, but which of you wanted vampire blood to fuel your man stick?”
The one with the broken wrist pointed to the other guy, who was glaring at her in a hate-filled, lustful way.
“You’re disgusting,” she said, and then kicked him in the face so that his nose cracked and blood went spewing. “Suck up that blood and see what it does for you, jackass.” She turned back to the other. “I’m waiting for my answer.”
“You… you’re crazy.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t change our situation one bit. In fact, it should make you that much more interested in giving me an answer. NOW!”