Samson

by Barton, Kathi S

  “Yes, I do as well. It’s like a challenge.” Dad was quiet again, but not for long. He seemed to finally be getting to his point. “I know a couple of homeless people that hang out in one of the buildings near the pizza place. After the place closes down at night, they rummage through the trash to find them something to eat and drink. I’d like to do something about that.”

  “You want them run off, Dad? If you say yes, I’m going to be really disappointed in you.” Dad shook his head. “Then you have my full support in whatever you do. If you have a plan, I’m here to help you with that as well. I have plenty of time on my hands now, and I don’t want to get bored sitting around the house too long.”

  “Yes, when you get to be as old as we are, things are boring much faster. I want to see about putting in a soup kitchen. Your mom said she’d help out, but she don’t want to spend all day there cooking. I get that too. She missed a lot while she was gone.” Sampson put the little sapling in the dirt while his dad told him what he wanted to do. “That old building that used to be the high school. Do you think it’s for sale?”

  “I think it’s on the books as something that the city has been trying to get rid of for a few years now. What did you have in mind to do with that?” Dad told him. “Okay, that’s a very good idea, Dad. Changing out some of the rooms for a few bedrooms, and using the big kitchen to have meals served in. That’ll be a game changer for a lot of people, not just the homeless.”

  “I know we got us some money now, so I was thinking that we could have some kind of pot to put some in that we can share. There will be an inspection, I’m guessing before we can use it. After that, we’ll need a few beds and to hire someone to help out in the kitchen. I can make some soup, but not anything else all that well. You can cook, I know. So can the others.”

  “Did you think of asking for volunteers for help in that area? You’ll also need someone to clean up after people.” Dad sat down on the chair that Sampson had brought out here to sit on when he needed a break. “How much do you know about opening a place like this?”

  “Not much at all. I heard from a friend of mine who asked me if we had any shelter in place where he could send a couple of people over who had been released from prison. I didn’t rightly think that was something I wanted to get into, but he said they were old—the youngest was about seventy—and they didn’t know how to be in the public anymore. I don’t think that most people know how to be in public anymore either.” Sampson laughed with his dad. “Anyway, he was telling me about this place upstate that used to be an old school that they use. It has computers and things like that the people use to get a handle on things. Sort of a halfway house, I guess. But what you’re talking to me about, that seems like a great deal more work than he mentioned.”

  “I’d say so. That’s not even counting the things that will have to be done to open the doors to that sort of thing. Like putting beds together, getting the stuff to make them up. Then there is the food in the kitchen. Some people will want to help at first, but it’s doubtful that they’ll hang on for the duration. You know as well as I do how that would work. I’m not saying everyone will poop out on you, but we’ve seen it happen before.” Dad nodded. “Why don’t you help out those two men? Get them a place to stay that’s safe. A job maybe. And see how that works out for them. Dad, if you still want to do this despite me raining on your good idea, I’m more than willing to devote as much time to help you as it takes to make it work.”

  “I know that. All you boys would. But I’m thinking that I wanted a little bit of a job, and that one is too much for one man to take on. I’ll bring it up to your mom. I bet she knows a few people that she could put in charge of that so that it gets done. And we’ll help, but one person cannot take that on.” Sampson was glad to hear his dad say that. He didn’t want to miss his dad because he was spending every waking hour at a project that would wear him down. “I’ll do that. Talk to your mom. I’m betting before I tell her what idea I have, she’ll have fifty people working to make it happen. She gets something she likes going, and there ain’t no stopping her.”

  “That is true, Dad. Mom hits things head on when she has a good idea. Or you have one. Remember when she wanted that teacher fired? Oh crap, Dad, I thought she was going to be the one that got arrested the way she took care of her. I bet she never smacks a kid in the face again.”

  The teacher in question had hit Marcus in the face one day because he’d asked to go to the bathroom. Apparently, it had been something that she’d been doing to all the little boys in her class. Mom had found out that she didn’t like boys in her rooms because they were nasty. Well, she was out of a job after that and sent to prison when it was discovered that she’d killed a few of them too.

  When Dad left him, Sampson planted the last three trees. Even before he was out of sight of them, the faeries were already working on getting them ready for the colder months by giving them a little extra. The extra was making sure they had established roots to keep them healthy when the cold weather hit.

  Allie was in the house on her cell phone when he entered. The staff had started working a few days ago, and they seemed to be in the swing of things now. There was always something going on at their home, so having the others around to help out was coming in handy. Sampson knew she was on the phone with the jail when he noticed that she’d been crying.

  He sat down beside her while she brought him up to date after closing the call. “Howie again. He’s determined for me to find him an attorney. Tomorrow is the hearing, and he’s sent away each of the court appointed people that the system provided. The judge told me that if he keeps this up, they’ll have to delay his trial again. Because without an attorney to work with him, it could cause a mistrial, and that would set him free. Do you think that’s his plan now?”

  “I’d not thought of that. Do you think that he’s smart enough to have thought of that?” She said that she had a feeling that he was smarter than she’d realized. “I’m beginning to see that as well. With the things you’re finding out about their pack, the three of them, it sounds like they had every detail worked out to make sure that someone would be around to kill you. I still don’t understand that part of it. What have you ever done to him that he’d want to kill you too?”

  “I watched the recordings that I turned over to Able. I didn’t remember some of the things that he said to me. Or I simply blocked them out. Anyway, he said that he wished that I’d been there with him when he’d killed Mom and Dad. I would have been made to watch him do his work, then he would have killed me as well. So that I’d not have any cute stories to tell the newspaper when they were famous or dead. At least he realized that what he was doing would get him killed eventually.” Sampson asked her if she had any cute stories about Howie or the others. “Not a one that I want to think about. It makes what they did later in their lives seem so much more gruesome and horrific. I just don’t know how to get it into his head that I’m not going to help him.”

  “I can help you.” They both stood up when Kenny entered the room. He was a good looking man and had been staying in their sublevels with Morgan since they’d arrived. “I want to help you. After all you’ve done for us, not even counting the bar, I would like to repay you in some way.”

  “That’s not why we did it, Kenny. You know that, don’t you?” He said that he did, and asked if he might have a seat. Sampson smiled and told him to have a seat before he sat and continued. “Have you met with Shin about your place here?”

  “Most certainly. He’s a good faerie. And the queen has made it so that we don’t harm them while we’re here as well. Faeries and vampires are not a good thing to put together. But back to helping you out. I can see what he is thinking deeper than the faeries can. Also, I can put the fear of himself in his mind. I think that would make him see that he’s not such a good person at lying.” Sampson asked him how that would help. “You’d be surprised. We’ve done it before. The
re was a man once that had it in his head that killing vampires would make the world a better place. We showed him the error of his ways. Without us pouring money into places where we take up residency, their towns would fail big time. That one was easy. But some of them are not.”

  “What would you use?” Kenny explained it to Allie while Sampson listened in on it. “So you’d take his memories of the things that he’s done and play them back for him on a loop. That sounds like an excellent plan for most people, but I think that Howie enjoyed what he did too much to not like to see it in his mind all the time.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt to try it. I mean, the worst that might happen to him is that he’d get his rocks off on it so much that he’d die from too much pleasure.” It took him a second to get what Kenny was saying. He and Kenny explained it to Allie. “Anyway. I’d like to try something for you two.”

  “What if you simply put in his mind that he cannot fire his attorney? Then, if that doesn’t work, you can do anything you want with him. Especially if he gets out of this with a mistrial and is freed. That’s what worries me the most. The police and the judge are on to him, but it’s the unsuspecting people that he might encounter when he’s free that I worry about.”

  “Have you found the money yet?” Sampson and Allie knew about the money, but they’d had no luck in finding it as yet. “I know where it is. Howie thinks it’s funny that you’ve not found it. I’d not touch it if I were you, but let the police find it. Then you tell him about it. In the courtroom.”

  “It will show his true colors.” Kenny nodded at him. “I thought he’d already showed himself when Allie told him that she’d not help him out. Wasn’t that enough?”

  “It showed a very young boy depending on his big sister to bail him out, and she didn’t. I believe this has done more harm to Allie than it did to young Howard.” Sampson looked at Allie when she didn’t say anything. “She’s been experiencing some of this backlash too, haven’t you, Allie? You should have come to one of us. We would have helped you.”

  “What happened?” Allie told him that it wasn’t really a big deal. “You’re right, it’s not. I’ll just kill everyone in town so that I get the right person. I can and will do that. Tell me what happened to you, please. I promise you that I won’t fly too far off the handle.”

  “I went to the grocery store yesterday to pick up some apples. The ones on the tree have all been picked for jams and stuff, and I just wanted an apple.” Sampson was going to fly off the handle if this was going where he thought it was. “The store manager asked to speak to me, but before I could get to the office, several of his employees lined up to tell me that I wasn’t welcome in the store and that if I returned, they’d have to take care of me. I’m not sure what that meant, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have gone as far as they were hoping. I’m not stupid enough to return there until the trial is over.”

  “They threatened you?” He was more shocked than he thought he’d be when he actually heard her say the words. “Allie, you should have told me. I would have set them right.”

  “Yes, you would have gone there, been the big hero, and I would have been the little wife who told on them. I want to be able to go there and talk to these people. I want to be able to live in this town for the rest of their days and not have to worry if they’re really going to poison me or not.” He asked her if they had said that. “Yes, one of them did. Then I had to beg the manager not to fire him because it’s not their fault that my brother has led everyone down this path that makes me look like this horrible sister. Once things come out in the trial, then they’ll all understand. If it ever happens. It needs to be done so that I can move on. I need things to be normal.”

  She left them there, and Sampson looked at Kenny. “What else is going on that she’s not told me? I need her to be safe, Kenny. Surely you can understand that.”

  “I do. And it’s one of the reasons that I’ve done this today while you’re here. To make her talk.” Sampson thanked him. “No need for that. Morgan and I would do anything for her. She’s been our savior and friend for a very long time. If it takes me killing her brother—because I will—I’d do that and then face the sun if that was my punishment. However, I do think she’s right in what she’s said. This has to finish. And she has to do this on her own. No one will believe what Howie has done to her if you tell them. You’re a good man who loves his mate. You know as well as I do that it would only cripple her when she is in need of a friend.”

  “I guess. I don’t have to like it, but I get it now.” They both laughed. “Do what she asked of you, and then tell the police where the money is hidden. But do not get yourself or Morgan into any kind of trouble. I don’t want either of you to suffer needlessly.”

  “I can promise you that no one will know what we’ve done to help her, and her brother will meet an end that she needs. By our hand, and I include you in that, or by prison. He will not last long on the inside. I can make sure of that without her ever knowing.” Sampson wasn’t so sure about that part either, but he figured they could cross that bridge when they came to it. “I will go and see Howard now. Also, all of you should be calling him Howard and not the child’s version of it. Show that he’s a man in a child’s body by making people see him as something more than a boy. Howard Sheppard is insane, in the event you didn’t know that. The sooner he’s out of this world, the better things will be for you and Allie.”

  “I agree. She’s not been sleeping well. I’ve been putting her into a deeper rest so that she can cope better. I know what it is to be worried all the time, and not sleeping can make the worry seem twice as bad.” Kenny agreed with him. “The trial is tomorrow. If you could please do what she asked of you, then I think things will be all right. At least until the next thing comes up.”

  “That’s the way of the world, I think. Since I’ve been a vampire, I think I’ve seen things that would make most humans wet the bed at night. As I’m sure that you have as well.” Sampson agreed with him. “We’ll keep her safe. The bar is having an overhaul while we are here. I think it best that we remain here until after the trial. If that is all right with you.”

  “It is. We both love having you here.” Kenny stood up, and so did Sampson. “Thank you for helping me, as well. I would have made things worse if not for you. I cannot thank you enough for holding me back.”

  “It is my pleasure, I assure you. Morgan is much like you are—willing and ready to go full steam ahead and damn the consequences. I’m more of the sort of person that sits back, looks at all angles and plans.” Sampson asked him what sort of person he thought Allie was. “She’s calm when it’s necessary. Anger doesn’t do well for her. She will be pissy about something, then regret saying anything about it for days on end. Her heart is not into making others upset. Not that she can’t do it when essential, but she doesn’t find any joy in hurting others. Even if it’s justified.”

  “She’s very good at hiding that part of herself from others, too.” Kenny said that at times she was too good at that. “I can see that as well. Thank you for your help in all this, Kenny. I’m glad that you came to us and told me the rest. I’ll make sure that she’s all right.”

  “I know you will. You’re a good mate for her. She’s very lucky in that.” Sampson asked him what he would have done if he’d not been a good mate for her. “I’m very glad that it worked out so that we don’t have to test your immortality.”

  After Kenny left him, what he said kept circling around in his head. Would he really have done that to him? And against a vampire that was as old as these two, could they have tested his immortality to the point where he was dead or badly injured enough that he wished he was?

  Shivering, Sampson went to find Allie. He needed to hold her right now to scare away the things running around in his head. Thinking about hugs, he remembered something his dad had told him. It was that a good hug, if done properly, could make a person who was falling apart
feel like you were holding them together as you chased away the bad thoughts in their head. He said that if more people would hug just a little, there would be less anger in the world, and so much less suicide too. Sampson believed him on both accounts.

  Chapter 8

  Howie looked up to find a man standing in the cell with him. Not moving, Howie just stared at him. He knew that he wasn’t human, but what he was Howie didn’t know just yet. Leaning back on his cot, he moved the stuffed animals and shit that people had been bringing him to keep him company while he awaited his sister to get a clue.

  “People have been really nice to me since I had that meltdown at the courthouse the other day. I don’t think my dear sister is faring so well, do you?” No answer. Not that it bothered Howie, but he continued to talk as if he had. “I have more and more stuff coming to me daily. Even offers of them hiring me an attorney so that I can get off scot-free. I’m assuming that Allie sent you here.”

  “No, she did not. You’re a bigger monster than even Allie thinks you are, aren’t you?” Howie just smiled at him. “I’ve come here to tell you, once again, that Allie will not help you with your attorney.”

  “I know that now. But look at all the shit that is happening to her because she won’t just give in. I’m a monster, as you said, and things are getting really nasty for your little friend, don’t you think?” The man said that he could kill him right now and that would be the end of it. “Would it? For some reason, I don’t think so. But you go ahead and tell her that you’re going to end my life. Besides, I’m thinking that you’ll be in as much trouble as my sister if I were to suddenly be dead. What do you think?”

  When the man hissed at him, Howie knew him to be a vampire. He wasn’t afraid of him for the simple reasons that he’d just told him. Allie would get the blame even if she had nothing to do with any of it. Sitting up, he smiled again at the big vampire.