He had applied a bandage to the wound on her neck and the fact that he’d only had to change it once before the bleeding slowed and then stopped was another good sign. He checked it over again and it was then, as he lifted her head form the pillow and tilted her head towards him, that he understood the sort of trouble he might be in.
Did he care for her? Beyond the primitive lust that he felt for her, was there something deeper there? It was an absurd thought, as he could scarcely remember a time in his life when he had felt anything for a human other than contempt. But still, here it was; he had failed to chase after Leibald in order to stay with her and make sure she was safe. And now the thought of her in any sort of pain made him miserable.
Saul set her head back down upon the pillow and stared at her for a while. He was so taken by her in that moment that he didn’t notice the other presence in the room until it spoke to him.
“Is it bad?” Benali asked.
Saul turned towards his unexpected visitor and smiled weakly. “No. He barely got her.”
“Who was it?” Benali asked.
“Leibald Greely.”
It struck Saul as odd that Benali, a member of The Guard, didn’t know the identity of the vampire that was on the loose in Red Creek.
“Tell me what you know,” Saul demanded, the softness leaving his voice to be replaced by anger. “Leibald spoke about some plan to frame me. And while he didn’t come out and say as much, he made it sound as if The Guard would do very little to prevent it.”
“There are some things I cannot tell you,” Benali said. His spectral voice wavered with real sympathy. “But what you need to know is that he has his reasons…when it was brought to The Guard and we voted, it was not unanimous.”
“What was?”
“A plan to exterminate the smaller vampire families so that the wait between feeding times is shorter. The fewer families there are, the shorter the cycle.”
“So you could have told me about this when you first showed up? This could have been prevented?”
“I could not tell you. I was given my orders from the rest of The Guard. That is why I came to you. I wanted to warn you without actually letting you in on things.”
“So The Guard has actually allowed this to happen? They are in agreement with this plan?”
“Yes, sadly. If you think about it from the perspective of your whole species, it makes a certain sort of sense. The less of you there are, the less chance there is for public exposure. Also, less of you means that the feeding cycle is shortened. From what I gather, the Greely clan waited for the right moment to begin. That moment was your altercation with Lester Dobbs. That caused just enough turmoil in your private life to give them a starting point. Now, this thing with her,” he said, pointing to Nikki, “is just an added bonus for them.”
“This is bullshit,” Saul said.
“Yes, it is,” Benali agreed. “But there was only myself and another that did not agree with it. Personally, I have always admired your clan. The Bentons have always been strong and courageous… one of the first clans we can find record of. I thought it was only fair that I tried to do my part to see that your lineage was preserved, even if it is only you and your sister remaining.”
“How noble of you,” Saul said sarcastically, turning back to Nikki. It was hard to accept what Benali was telling him—that in the course of just a few days, the course of vampire history was going to be changed because of the greed of a few larger clans. And as a part of that, he was one of the prime targets. It made his entire existence seem trivial somehow.
Looking at Nikki’s unresponsive body was the only thing that kept him from lashing out at Benali.
“Speaking of your sister,” Benali said, “I think you should speak with her. While it would be harder for the plan to be carried out if you are separated, I do think you’d be a stronger force against your enemies if you could work together.”
“A pleasant thought,” Saul said, “but I don’t even know where she is. When she left after dad died, she cut off all communication. I haven’t spoken to her since.”
“The Guard knows where she is. We have always known. She’s still in the eastern US. I can pay her a visit and let her know what’s happening.”
Saul didn’t like the idea at all, but given all that had happened in the last few days, it made the most sense. Besides… who was to say that Leibald wouldn’t go after his sister next?
“Fine,” he said. “Do it. But I have one more question for you.”
“What?”
“What is the reasoning behind the other Guard members allowing this to happen? The protection angle makes sense, but this is almost a form of treason on their part.”
Benali looked away, ashamed. “Sadly, I am not at liberty to say.”
In disgust, Saul also averted his gaze from the specter.
“Of course not,” he said. “Just get the hell away from me and find my sister.”
When Saul turned back around, Benali was already gone.
3
Saul simply felt too helpless just sitting idly by and waiting for Nikki’s condition to improve. She was still extremely feverish at the end of the day and had yet to stir awake. After walking outside and sniffing at the air for any signs of Leibald, he felt certain the coast was clear. Leibald had moved on — perhaps back to whatever rotten hole the Greely clan inhabited to tell them of his defeat. And even if he was still close by, acting so soon after being defeated was beyond foolish.
Checking once more on Nikki and finding her in the same state, Saul left his cabin at dusk and headed into Red Creek. He had never felt anxious when traveling into town but something was different this time. Due to his relations with Nikki, he felt that he was exposed somehow; it was as if he felt that the entire town knew his identity now, not just Nikki.
Saul parked in front of the small drug store and quickly walked inside, wanting to be seen by as few people as possible. The bright fluorescent lights made him squint. He looked around the aisles, looking for anything that might help break Nikki’s fever. He picked up several boxes, unfamiliar with human medicine, and did his best in making a decision. Saul selected three different meds and took them to the counter.
As he placed the boxes on the counter and waited for the clerk to ring them up, he glanced around the drugstore. No one looked at him any differently than they normally did. By now, most of the rumors of Satanism had died out and had become just stupid stories that children shared in the dark when there was nothing better to do.
Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if anyone had ever broached the vampire topic. Anyone that was even the least bit observant would have noticed some similarities between his lifestyle and vampire folklore. He only came out when it was dark or near-dark. Also, while he wasn’t pale by any means he did have a sickly hue to his skin most of the time.
Regardless, the truth to his life also contradicted what most humans thought they knew about vampires. For instance, exposure to direct sunlight would not kill him, but he would become very ill when exposed to it for more than an hour or so. He also had no real aversion to garlic or crosses. And while a stake to the heart would kill him — as it would anyone, really — he could also be killed by decapitation.
In fact, decapitation had been what had killed his father. It was the main reason Saul had always assumed that there had been more to his father’s death than he had assumed. It was not something he had chosen to address with Benali during their recent conversations. Saul feared that even if Benali did give him the truth, it would still be lacking. But more than that, Saul feared that it would infuriate him to the point of vengeance. And he was already in enough trouble right now; it didn’t make much sense to dig up past troubles.
Saul paid for the medicine and left the store. As he walked the short distance between the door and his car, he sensed a heaviness to the air: A thick sort of weight, not too dissimilar from the muggy heat that often engulfed Red Creek in the summer. Saul knew the meaning of
such a feeling. Danger. There was something dangerous coming. He’d only felt it once before, several days before his father had been killed.
Saul looked up and down the street but nothing seemed out of place. With a sigh, he got into his car and sped back towards his cabin.
He found Nikki, still in bed and unmoving. Her fever was about the same and when Saul checked the wound under the bandage on her neck, it seemed to be healing cleanly. With a glass of water and a caring hand, Saul got her to swallow four pills, hoping that he had chosen wisely and that these medicines would help break her fever.
When he sat her head back down on the pillow, Nikki stirred the slightest bit but it was nothing substantial. She took a deep breath and then returned to her rest.
Saul sat on the edge of the bed as night came down upon Red Creek and did his best to come up with some sort of plan. Benali's confirmation of Leibald’s plans gave Saul the advantage of knowledge, but did nothing to help him prepare.
He lay down next to Nikki’s feverish body and stared at the ceiling. He realized that whatever Leibald had planned and whenever those plans might develop, he was going to do what he could to make sure Nikki made it out alive.
As far as Saul was concerned, that was the main priority.
And that scared him more than anything.
4
Kara Humphrey sat at the large desk in the office that belonged to Sheriff Morel. She had been working out of this office for nearly seven weeks now and it still didn’t feel like hers. She felt like she was trespassing or, on her worst days, like a little girl that was pretending to be something that she was not.
She looked at the phone on Morel’s desk for quite some time, going through an internal debate. With a reluctant sigh, she grabbed the receiver from the cradle and punched in Sheriff Morel’s home number.
He answered on the second ring. Hearing his voice made Kara feel a bit better, but not much. She only missed him because she did not want his job. He was fifteen years her senior and she had oddly thought of him as a father type when she had first started working for the police department.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hey Sheriff, it’s Kara.”
“Well hi. How are you?”
“I’ve been much better,” she said, not bothering to hide her funk. She knew that the receptionist was calling him on a daily basis at the end of the day, filling him in on what was going on in Red Creek. She’d come off as a fool if she tried to act like she was in control of everything.
“I guess so,” Morel said. “You’ve got a lot on your plate. Trust me…if I could, I’d be there tomorrow to take it all from you. By the doctor would string me up by my nuts if I went back to work so soon.”
“How’s the ticker?” she asked.
“Still ticking. I’m having to eat a lot of healthy crap that tastes like cardboard and grass. But other than that, it’s not so bad.”
“Well, the doctor wouldn’t tell you these things if—”
“Ooh, good try, Kara. But you’re not going to swerve the conversation that easily.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said with a laugh. “Now what’s up?”
“It’s just too overwhelming,” she admitted. “When I walked into Jason Eastman’s bedroom and saw all of that blood, I thought I was going to lose it. I don’t think I’m cut out for this, you know?”
“I do know. But you’re the only person in the department that I thought could handle the weight of it all.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“Two more weeks and I’ll be back behind that desk,” Morel said. “You’ve done a great job to this point.”
“Thanks.”
“Has there been any word on this guy you had to take a shot at today?”
“No sir. Not a trace. And still no clear reason as to why he was after Nikki Galimore. But then again, she is not exactly being very cooperative.”
“Give her a day or two and try again. Maybe she’s just in shock over the whole thing.”
“Sure,” she said. Behind that, she thought: Or pissed off that I’m onto whatever little fling she and Saul Benton have going on.
Before Morel could catch her extended pause and turn it into a pity party for her, Kara wrapped things up. “Well, thanks, Sheriff. I just wanted to call in and check on you.”
“Are you sure that’s it?”
“Yeah. I’ll be good. Only two more weeks, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay. Good night.”
“Goodnight,” Morel said with the smallest hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Kara hung up and wasted no time in shutting the lights out and leaving the station. It was nearly midnight. If she went home now, she’d have time for a long and much-needed bath and a few beers before managing five hours of sleep only to come out and handle all of Red Creek’s little dramas tomorrow.
She drove slowly down Main Street, taking in the dead little town. Why in the hell had she ended up out in Red Creek, Tennessee anyway? Sure, it was like another world and was far, far away from her ex-husband but so were a billion other places.
But what she hadn’t taken into consideration were the adverse effects the town would have on other areas of her life. Her fifteen-year-old son wanted nothing to do with her, staying mostly in New York with his father and visiting some rich and well-to-do neighborhood in Orlando to see his grandparents.
But not once had he been to Red Creek to visit. She had flown to New York twice in the last year to see him and he had barely spoken to her. She had then retreated back to Red Creek and let the dead end feel of the place obliterate the pain.
As she pulled into her driveway, her thoughts shifted to her ex-husband. They had divorced three years ago and in that time, she had slept with only two men—one of whom she had met during a drunken night out in Nashville that she barely remembered. Perhaps that was why she was so enamored with Saul Benton. Maybe she just wanted to roll around sans clothes with him a few times to feel like a woman again. More than that, maybe the thought of Nikki Galimore, a piss-ant nineteen-year-old getting the action that Kara was craving, was the cause of her depression and anger.
It was depressing to think that the root of her miserable state was in the fact that she couldn’t get laid. And it was getting to be a problem – hell, at this point she’d even take Morel, despite the age difference and his weak heart.
Inside, she ran a hot tub of water and cracked open a Rolling Rock. She stripped down, stepped into the tub and relaxed.
Almost instantly her thoughts turned to Saul Benton. She saw him as he had stood before her when she had questioned him about Lester Dobbs. She wondered what those massive arms would feel like wrapped around her, what his weight would feel like as he pinned her to her bed and ravaged her.
Her thoughts got carried away with her and she had to force herself out of the tub. She threw a robe on and readied for bed as she opened another beer. She glanced at her phone and considered calling Saul just to do it. Of course, being nearly 1:30 in the morning, such a call was certainly out of the question.
When she finally retired to bed, she felt incredibly lonely. She considered pleasuring herself to those images of Saul Benton but she was too tired for even that. She fell asleep, the second beer unfinished, with thoughts of him on her mind.
5
Nikki was dreaming again. She was in the same woods she had dreamed up in her dirty fantasies of Saul. Except it was not Saul before her this time, but her parents. They glared down at her with disappointment on their faces, tall in front of her seated form. Nikki realized that her mother was wearing the dress she had been buried in.
“Nikki, you could have died,” her mother was saying.
“And it would have served her right,” her father added. Nikki kept glancing at his fists as his voice rose. She knew that as his voice escalated, those fists could become dangerous.
“You have a fever,” her mother admonished. “And you are in great danger
. There are changes coming.”
“I know,” she said.
Her parents remained quiet for a moment. Nikki watched as a snake slithered between them, flicked its tongue out, and dissolved into the ground.
“How did it come to this?” her mother asked. “Did we drive you away to a life of darkness? Did we cause this?”
“Not you,” Nikki said, looking lovingly at her mother.
“Me, I suppose,” her father said. He walked closer to her and hunched down on his knees to look her in the face. “Little girl, you got everything you deserved—the good and the bad. Whatever happens to you after this is your fault. Not mine.”
He looked into her eyes and a forked snake tongue darted out of his lips and touched her on the cheek.
“Mom, this is what he was like after you died,” Nikki said. “He hit me and was just—”
But her mother was not there. Instead, Leibald stood in her place. His face was worse in the dream; he looked exactly like the demons Nikki had heard about in Sunday school as a little girl. Standing behind him, Jason stared blankly at a tree.
Jason turned to her and smiled. Blood poured from his mouth. “Look to the sky,” Jason said, his voice garbled with the blood. “The lights are going to come down.”
Leibald stepped forward. He cupped her face and Nikki was unable to move. “And you,” he said, “will be mine.”
“No,” she said.
Her father stood beside Leibald, laughing. “Yes,” her father said.
“Yes,” Leibald agreed. His hand them left her face and traveled down her neck. He tore away her shirt and pulled her close. He was freezing cold against her but, God help her, she wanted him.
His hand then traveled lower, to her waist. Below that, she was already naked. Leibald cupped her there and breathed into her ear.
“Yes,” he said. “You are mine. Soon everything Saul touches will be mine.”
She felt his fingers down there and all the while, her father still laughed.
Nikki screamed.
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