Digging Up the Dead

by Willie E. Dalton

  “I’m working on it, but it needs to happen soon. If we take him down before things get too serious, then the Quarter should go back to normal. If we wait, Rasputin’s will end up being viewed as a martyr and we might still have to face an uprising. I know the Quarter seems quiet, but I promise there’s a lot bubbling beneath the surface.” Boude’s face was genuinely concerned.

  “To kill a vampire in the underworld, you have to kill him in the above world too, right? I think I remember you telling me that,” I said.

  “Yes, that’s correct. And it will be much harder now that I’m no longer his confidant,” Boude sighed, rubbing his temples.

  “Are you sure he believes you’ve truly turned against him? There’s no way to get yourself back into his… good graces?” Andreas made a face of disgust as he spoke the last two words.

  “Perhaps he would believe that having to find my own way back across the wall would have shown me that I need him. I suppose I could meet with him and see where we stand. One of us…” Boude looked at the other two vampires, “must be able to go above and know his location, so we can take him down.”

  “Well I don’t think he would let one of us go,” Grace mumbled, and made eye contact with Andreas.

  “What about the vampires he’s made, the ones running the Assignment Hall—will they be OK when Rasputin is dead?” I asked.

  “They should be fine. It would be nice if we could restore the souls of the ones coerced into turning,” Boude mused.

  “That’s something we might be able to discuss with Margaret; she handles resolved files,” I suggested.

  “I don’t think it could be that easy. It’s not the same as changing the destination of a soul. The soul ceases to exist when you’re brought over,” said Andreas; he was leaned back in his chair now, examining his nails.

  I sighed. “Once Rasputin is dead and we stop them from changing files at the Assignment Hall, how do we get those souls back? We can’t leave them stuck where they don’t belong!” I exclaimed. “So many people die everyday—we’ll never find them all.” My voice changed from frustrated to defeated.

  Andreas reached across the table and patted my hand. It was such a strange gesture for him. I gave him a weary smile, trying to convey my appreciation that he cared.

  "Oh, Boude, that's a solid suggestion," I praised, a sliver of hope returning to my voice. "I will ask her about that."“One thing at a time,” said Boude. “Maybe you should ask Margaret to file all the new ones that come through in particular areas, where they’ll be easier to check when it’s time.”

  "Oh, Boude, that's a solid suggestion," I praised, a sliver of hope returning to my voice. "I will ask her about that."

  “I have an idea,” said Grace, who suddenly had a very intense look on her face.

  We all looked at her and nodded for her to go on.

  “Boude, what if I come with you see Rasputin? What if we tell him I’m convinced of the coming uprising from the humans too. Maybe I overheard something in the coffee shop or Boutique. That might give us both a way in,” she beamed at Boude, and watched the rest of us as we thought this over.

  I looked away. This was dangerous enough as it was, and Grace had already lost an eye to Rasputin. But it wasn’t my call to make. Grace had shown she could handle herself in tough situations; I couldn’t protect her. A sharp realization stung me: Maybe the way I feel about Grace’s roll in this is how Soren feels about me.

  Andreas seemed to agree. “It’s better than you going alone, Boude.”

  Boude smiled at Grace. “That might work, if you’re really willing,” he told her.

  “Of course I am.” She kissed him.

  “Well then, we need to pay him a visit.” Boude stood up, and Grace was right beside him.

  I was scared for her—for them. I hugged them both and whispered to Boude, “I’m glad you’re safe. Now stay that way, and keep her safe too.”

  He hugged me back, and I felt we had an understanding.

  They left, and it almost surprised me when I turned back to see Andreas still sitting at the table. I guess I had expected him to leave when the other vampires did.

  “You don’t trust him do you?” Andreas asked, and kicked his feet up on the table.

  I narrowed my eyes at him and he put his feet back on the floor. “I want to trust him; I don’t dislike him,” I said.

  “He couldn’t have prevented Grace losing her eye,” he said.

  “Yes, he could have. He could have told her she couldn’t come with the two of you,” I replied indignantly.

  Andreas gave me a “really?” look that said just how silly that was. “She was a newly turned vampire, experiencing more freedom and adventure than she had ever had. We didn’t know Rasputin would still have the strength to attack anything. But look at how well she’s handled her injury. You’ve got to admit, Hel, she’s a tough one.”

  I plopped back in my chair and looked at him. I couldn’t argue. If I was in trouble, she would be the first to do anything to help. “Fine,” I sighed.

  He smiled at me, feeling he had won the conversation.

  “What do we do now?” I asked him.

  “I guess we’re back to waiting. So I’m going to go see if Jeremy is free, and you should get in some time with Soren,” Andreas winked.

  “You know, I thought that I turned to sex a lot to get out of bad moods and to kill time… then, I met you.” I stared at him.

  He laughed a warm sensual laugh, “You have to take every pleasure you can get your hands on, as often as you can get your hands on it. What is there to live for besides joy and passion?”

  I questioned the “live for” remark, but knew what he meant. Andreas liked to stir up trouble, and seemed shallow at times, but dammit, today he was hard to argue with.

  “So you like Jeremy?” I asked.

  He gave a careless shrug. “He’s a fun way to pass the hours.”

  “That’s enough for you? You don’t want more—a deeper connection?” I had to ask.

  “I love myself, I comfort myself, I’m happy. I don’t need the validation of a full time lover.” He flicked his fingers like he was getting rid of a bug.

  Part of me immediately questioned if that was what Soren was to me: validation. Am I so uncomfortable with myself that I can’t stand to be alone? Then I thought of the times I had made him smile and of the comfort we brought to each other, the support we gave to one another. Maybe we weren’t as strong on our own as Andreas was by himself. But maybe Soren and I together were even stronger.

  Andreas eyed me as I was silently letting all these thoughts float through my brain. “You disagree? You think I just haven’t yet met ‘the one’?”

  I held my hands up in front of me. “You said you are happy and fulfilled. Who am I to say that’s not true?”

  He nodded approvingly.

  I knew what it was like to have my life and choices judged when I was alive working as a small town cemetery caretaker. A woman, living alone, doing a man’s job… how dare I!

  “Well I guess I’ll be off.” Andreas stood and smiled, thinking of the joke he could make with his statement. I watched it roll through his head, and wondered if he’d feel the need to say it out loud.

  “Guess I’ll be off, so I can go get off,” he winked.

  “You just couldn’t pass that one by, could you?” I laughed at him.

  He tossed his golden locks over his shoulder and blinked wide amber eyes at me. “Never.”

  After Andreas left, I contemplated what to do next. My already wonky work and rest schedule was more messed up than usual. I was exhausted, and felt like it had been days since I had worked or slept. I didn’t know whether or not to find Billy and ask if Margaret had learned anything, if I should go out and dig, or if I should sleep before the next shoe dropped.

  My heart seemed to be beating too rapidly and too hard. Knowing I was dead and still feeling my heart beat was so damn unnerving. I noticed my leg was shaking and looked down to see my
foot tapping on the floor like I’d had two pots of coffee. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it. Nervous energy, maybe?

  A tickle along the back of neck woke me up. “Shit,” I groaned at the pain running down the left side of my neck as I raised my head up from the table.

  “That didn’t look like a comfortable place to nap.” Soren’s voice was soft and held a lilt of amusement.

  “It wasn’t a planned nap,” I said with a yawn.

  “New updates?” He pulled out the chair next to mine and sat down.

  I filled him in on Boude’s return, and the details of his time MIA. Once he was up to speed he simply nodded.

  “Soren, I know you don’t like any of this, and you probably don’t even like hearing about it, but I appreciate you asking anyway and listening to me go on.” I put my hand over his.

  He sighed and shrugged his big shoulders. “Death shouldn’t be this hard. At some point we should get to rest.”

  I saw the tiredness in his eyes. He was always so matter of fact: a “jump in there and get things done with no complaints” kind of person. Seeing him so worn down, so worried—it was difficult. I leaned my body across the table, having to pull my feet up in the chair to give me more length, and kissed him.

  He smiled at me. “So what do you need to be doing right now?”

  “Hmm,” I pretended to think. “You.”

  His eyes took on their most wicked of looks and he stood up. He walked towards the bed and motioned for me to follow him.

  I walked over to him with a little hesitance; I knew that look. And while I had no doubt I would enjoy whatever devious little plans were running through his mind, it was just unnerving to have someone look at you like a lion looks at a gazelle.

  As I moved closer, I watched his cold eyes shine with delight. I was standing right in front of him, waiting for him to decide what we were doing next.

  “Take off your clothes and lie down,” he ordered.

  I did as he asked.

  He took the wide belt from my robe and crawled on top of me. I raised my head so he could tie the makeshift blindfold around my eyes. Suddenly, every sensation was more intense.

  He placed my arms over head and made them grip the sides of the pillow. “Keep them right there,” he said.

  I nodded.

  Soren kissed my mouth gently at first, and then passionately, nipping and biting at my lips while his tongue explored. When he pulled away, I had only a second to catch my breath while he kissed and licked his way down my body. We played this way for what seemed like an hour. Once my skin was so sensitive that his breath alone against it could make me cry out, I called “enough.”

  He removed my blindfold, and after I stopped blinking at the harsh light I saw him wearing the biggest smile I had ever seen. I sat up and kissed him, taking the belt from his hands. “Your turn.”

  His face went from “pleased with himself,” to a new look—of eagerness.

  I’m not sure how long I slept after our activities, but when I woke up, I was disappointed to find myself in an empty bed.

  I stretched out and then snuggled back around the pillow, before giving myself a firm mental lecture about why I needed to get up and shower.

  Once in the shower I had to force myself to wash my hair and body, and not just let the water run over me for ages. I knew once the ball started rolling that I would have to be sharper than this. I was certain Rasputin had many more tricks up his long creepy sleeve. We would need to be prepared.

  Finally, feeling a little cleaner after my shower and more awake after coffee, I made my way into the fields. Billy and Soren were digging alongside each other as usual. But unlike their usual conversations and banter, they were silent.

  “Hey, boys,” I called.

  They both looked up and gave me weak smiles. “Hey.”

  “You were tired,” Soren remarked.

  I yawned, “Still am.” Then I looked at Billy. “How’s Margaret?”

  He waved his hand back in forth in an “eh, so so” kind of gesture. “She’s doing fair, I guess. All this vampire stuff is making her nervous. She’s been checking the files like you asked, though, and all the souls that would have been coming here are getting changed right before their deaths—just like you thought.”

  “Thanks Billy; and tell Margaret thanks from us too. I hope we don’t have to keep involving her much longer. Could you ask her one more favor from us? We need her to store the new files someplace where they’ll be easy to go back through. Once this mess is straightened out, there will still be the matter trying to get these souls back to where they belong.”

  Billy looked at me; his eyes weren’t as joyful as usual. I knew it wasn’t really me causing his unhappiness, just the position we were putting his girlfriend in. “I sure hope this is over soon.”

  Soren patted Billy on the shoulder, and I said, “We all do.”

  I hugged both men goodbye and told them I was going into the city. I wondered why I hadn’t heard from the vampires yet. Enough time had passed that they should have already had their visit with Rasputin.

  I had to assure Soren and Billy that I would be as careful as I could possibly be, but we all knew that complete safety could never really be guaranteed, under the circumstances.

  I went into Andreas’s boutique, and he jumped up from where he sat behind the counter.

  “Have you seen them? Are they back?” He nearly ran to me.

  “I was just coming to ask you that.” I felt my shoulders slump: this wasn’t a good sign.

  Andreas put his hand to his head and rubbed his worried brow. “They should have been back by now.”

  Seeing Andreas this worried was a new one on me. No matter how bad things got, he was usually cool-headed.

  “Boude and Grace hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and they’ve been stressed. Do you think maybe they just wanted some alone time?” I asked.

  Andreas stopped to think about my words. “Yes, I’d say that is possible.”

  “Should we go look for them anyway?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm just in case they weren’t off in bed somewhere.

  “Yes, I suppose that would be wisest. I’ll need to close the boutique for a while. I’ve overworked Barbie,” he said, but didn’t move to do anything.

  “If you’re waiting for me to say I’ll go look for them myself, you can keep waiting. I hate going into the Quarter alone—I even hate going in there with another vampire.”

  “You know it would help if you didn’t insist on wearing such reaper-type attire. Let me pick something out so you’ll blend in a little better.” Andreas grinned at the thought of giving me a makeover.

  I was shaking my head no even before I spoke. “Even if different clothes helped me blend in, my eyes are a complete giveaway, and I have no fangs. And why is everyone so down on reapers? We’re the ones who dig the souls up! You couldn’t choose to be a vampire if we left your cold asses in the ground.”

  Andreas blinked his glimmering amber eyes at me and laughed, throwing his hands up. “Fine, fine. Let me put a sign on the door and we’ll go.”

  As he wrote a note and searched for tape, I browsed the racks of clothes, looking at my usual choices of jeans and t-shirts. I rolled my eyes at Andreas when I saw him grinning at me. If I let him dress me, I was sure I would end up in something lovely, and completely uncomfortable and impractical.

  I trailed behind Andreas as we made our way through the Quarter. My boots were mostly silent against the black brick underfoot, yet somehow my feet still made more noise than Andreas’s.

  “Are we going to Boude’s house first, or straight to Rasputin’s?” I asked.

  “We’ll stop by Boude’s first. There’s no point in going to the other place unless we have to.”

  I had been to Andreas’s home plenty, but somehow I had never been to Boude’s. We walked four blocks past the street with all of the shops, and turned down an alleyway where I had never been. The alley was clean, and lit by a smal
l golden lamp that hung at the far end where you were met with a tall black wall. It was a dead end.

  I noticed the glint of the door knocker before I even saw the door. Vampires apparently didn’t like to make the entrances to their homes stand out very much, but they did like their door knockers. I thought of the lion head on Andrea’s front door. Boude’s was a silver wolf with some kind of celtic design in its mouth as the knocker part.

  Andreas knocked several times and received no answer. “Hey lovebirds, if you’re in there, just yell so we’ll know you’re safe.”

  There was nothing.

  Andreas and I looked at each other and sighed in resignation. Off to Rasputin’s.

  We stood in front of the rundown mansion, neither of us wanting to take the first steps towards knocking.

  I took in a deep breath and forced my feet to start moving forward. This had to be done—might as well get it over with.

  The door opened before I could even press the doorbell. It was the man himself, his small black eyes sparkling with an inner evil and hatred. He smiled at us, making no effort to hide his fangs.

  “I wondered if the two of you would come calling,” he said. “I would invite you in, but I’m sure you can’t stay that long.”

  I risked a quick glance to Andreas, and saw him swallow; it only made my own knees more shaky.

  “Are Boude and Grace here?” I asked as dryly as I could manage.

  He gave a slight nod. “They are.”

  “Can we see them?”

  “So you can convince them I’m mad?” he asked, then continued. “I think not. Boude has come around to see that I was indeed right, as has Grace. They know if we don’t stand up for ourselves, the humans will take over and run us out.”

  Andreas spoke up, “Don’t I count? I am a vampire.”

  “You have fangs, but you live your life mostly outside the Quarter. You may join us if you swear your allegiance to me.” Rasputin stared a hole through Andreas as he waited for his response.

  I didn’t give Andreas the chance to answer before I asked Rasputin, “Why are you so certain you should be the leader?”