Scary Dead Things - 02

by Rick Gualtieri

  She stiffened in surprise, but I didn't let go. I held on to her and steered us towards a little alley that we had been walking past. Once I was sure that we were out of sight of Sheila and her asshole date, I let Sally go. She had a look of utter shock on her face. I figured it was best to break the ice before things got even more awkward, so I went with my norm, meaning something smart-ass. “Sorry about that. I know you usually charge guys in advance for that sort of thing.”

  That snapped her out of it, and within a moment she was back to being Sally again. She replied, “Great. Now I'm gonna need a rabies shot.” Having gotten out a quip at my expense, reality quickly sank back in and she took a step back and eyed me warily.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “Sorry. I saw someone I know and kind of panicked.”

  “Not that! You. You...changed,” she said in a small voice.

  Guess I hadn't imagined it. I looked down at my hands; they were back to normal. Likewise, I could feel that all the other vampiric stuff had receded as well. That was good. I had been starting to feel scary there for a second or two. I shrugged back at Sally. “No idea. But looks like whatever it was is over.”

  I slunk over to the edge of the alley and peered around. Sheila and Harry were still seated. She hadn't seen me after all. That was good. I would never want her to ever see me like that. Sorry for all you fairy-tale love story junkies, but I just don't believe in bullshit like Beauty and the Beast.

  A few seconds later, I could feel Sally peering over my shoulder. “What are you looking at?”

  “Never you mind.”

  “Come on. Tell me,” she said.

  “No.”

  “Tell me, or I'll make a scene,” she insisted. “I brought my rape whistle.”

  I sighed. Yeah, things were back to normal. “I'm looking at Sheila,” I admitted.

  “What's a Sheila?”

  I pointed her out to Sally. She stepped out of the alley to get a closer look, at which point I immediately grabbed her arm and dragged her back.

  “Do you want her to see you!?” I snapped.

  “So what if she does?” she pointed out. “I don't know her.” Damn, sometimes I hate logic.

  “Yeah, well I do,” I hissed defensively. A little too defensively as realization dawned in Sally's eyes.

  She gave me a big, wide grin. “You like this girl.” When I didn't answer, she added, “No. You really like this girl.”

  “I just...know her,” I stammered back unconvincingly.

  She took another look around the corner. “She's kind of cute...I guess,” she sniffed. There was that female pissiness rearing its ugly head again. Men had the whole band of brothers thing going on. Women...well, without us around to stop them, I'm pretty sure they'd all happily claw each others' eyes out. Unfortunately, though, I had too much of my own pissiness going on at the moment to worry about that.

  “She is not kind of cute!” I snapped. “She is absolutely beautiful.” OK, maybe that wasn't exactly as subtle as I had meant it to be. I saw the look Sally was giving me back. “Fine. Maybe I do sort of like her a bit.”

  “No shit, Romeo,” she replied, looking again. “Who's the guy she's with?”

  “Some asshole VP from my company.”

  “He's not exactly hard on the eyes,” she purred.

  “You're not helping.”

  “Good for her, though. Climbing the old corporate ladder.”

  “Really not helping!” I hissed.

  “OK, OK, sorry,” she said, backing off. “So what are we doing standing here?”

  “I'm trying to think of what to do,” I said, peering back around the corner again. I looked hard at Decker and could feel that rage starting to build up inside of me again.

  “What do you mean?”

  “About him.”

  “What about him?” she asked.

  “I think we need to kill him,” I said flatly.

  “Excuse me?” she said, a tone of surprise in her voice.

  “You heard me,” I growled, continuing to look. I could feel that my fangs had extended again. “You have your cell on you?”

  There was no answer, so I continued. “Give the coven a call. Get a few of them over here. Actually, call in Dread Stalker and Victor. They love this kind of shit. Those two will tear him apart limb by fucking limb before they let him die. I can dig that.”

  The only response was silence for a moment, followed by a sound behind me, a familiar sound. I turned, and there stood Sally about three paces back, giving me a slow clap with her hands.

  “Congratulations,” she said with no emotion.

  “On what?”

  “You're finally one of us.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

  “That guy. His only transgression is that he's dating a girl you like, and you just condemned him to death without a second thought. That's very vampiric of you,” she said in that same flat tone, and again gave me a slow clap.

  There was a pause just long enough for a heartbeat, if I still had one, and then her words sank in. Oh God! She was right. All this time, I had been looking down my nose at the other vampires, thinking that they were little more than well coiffed animals. The truth was they were, but I was kidding myself that I was any better than them. I had become the thing that preys on the weak and hides under little kids’ beds at night. I was no better than some rabid dog. I was a monster.

  My knees buckled, and I leaned back against the wall. I took several deep breaths to clear my head. When I felt like I was in control of myself again, I looked back around the corner one last time. Sheila and Harry had gotten up and were leaving the bistro together.

  All I ever really wanted for her was that she be happy. I had hoped it would be with me; however, I saw now that whatever future we might have shared had been irrevocably altered on the day I was made into this thing that I was. If Harry was the one who gave her the happiness that I could not, then so be it. I wouldn't stand between that. I couldn't live with myself if I did.

  I sighed and turned back towards Sally, my eyes damp. “Let him go,” I said softly.

  Sally actually walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. It was by far the most tender thing I had ever seen her do. “Keep your humanity for a little while longer, Bill,” she said. “It's one of your more endearing traits.”

  Our eyes met, and we shared what was probably our first genuine moment.

  And that's when a voice from above spoke to us. “Yes. It is endearing. That is why I will kill him for you.”

  * * *

  Both our heads immediately shot up towards the voice. There, about twelve feet above us, standing on a fire escape, was Gan.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, still trying to process this latest development.

  “Following you, my beloved.”

  “You were supposed to stay with Starlight,” shot Sally.

  “Ah yes, the simple one. I quickly grew tired of her.”

  “What did you do to Starlight, Gan?” I said, a note of warning in my voice. I was still pretty screwed up in the head and in no mood for this shit.

  “Do not worry, my love. She is unharmed. She wished to play this silly game with me...what did she call it...hide and seek. While she stood there counting into her arms for whatever reason, I left.”

  “How did you find us?” I asked.

  “I have your scent. I can find you anywhere,” she replied, tugging at the sleeve of her shirt. Before heading to the loft, I had given Gan one of my old T-shirts and a pair of shorts that no longer fit me. She was absolutely swimming in the outfit, but a little creative cinching had made it passable until we could get her some new clothes. I saw now that it had been a mistake. Sally had once alluded to me that vampires could sense other vampires, but it was something I hadn't given much thought to before now, mainly because I didn't seem to be able to do it very well. I hadn't considered that Gan, being several hundred years older than I, might be bot
h a lot more experienced and sensitive to these things than I was. Shit! I so didn't need this right now.

  “Gan, you need to go back to the loft,” Sally said.

  “I need do nothing you tell me,” Gan replied in a tone that suggested her statement was a mandate handed down by the heavens.

  “How about if I ask you to do this...for me?” Ugh! I could almost feel the smirk that must be trying to escape from Sally's face at that one. Safe to say, our moment was over.

  “No. I heard the things you said. I believe you need for me to do this.”

  “Gan...” I started, but she interrupted me.

  “His life shall be my gift to you. Perhaps then you shall consider kissing me with as much passion as you kissed the whore.”

  Now it was Sally's turn to start fuming. I could practically feel it coming off her. I turned to say something to her, but it was a mistake. There was a flash of movement in the periphery of my vision, and I looked up to see that Gan was no longer there. All I saw was a quick flash of T-shirt disappearing over the rooftop of the building. Fuck me, but she was fast.

  “We need to stop her,” I said to Sally.

  “Define we. I'm not entirely sure that the whore is interested in having anything to do with little Ms. Muffett right now.”

  “Come on, Sally. Don't do this. Didn't you just give me the whole ‘don't lose your humanity’ spiel?”

  “Yeah, that was you. If I get my hands on that little bitch right now, I'm going to do some decisively non-human things to her.” She bent down to pick up her shopping bags and started walking in the direction of the loft. “Have fun finding your fiancé. If you have to kill her to stop her...oh well.”

  *sigh* Bitch...no, make that two bitches!

  The Scent of a Woman

  I had absolutely no chance of catching Gan. She was too fast. It also wasn't helping that Sally had conveniently left the game system bag behind for me (and no, I wasn't leaving that!). My best bet was to try to catch up with Sheila and Harry before Gan did. She wouldn't hesitate to tear him apart like a paper bag and then bring me his heart as a trophy. On second thought, maybe I didn't need to hurry that much. No! Those were bad thoughts. Needed to keep them out of my head...no matter how tempting they might be.

  Gan had a huge edge in speed, but the home turf advantage was definitely mine. I set out in the direction that the couple (ugh, that word tasted awful even in my brain) had, in the hopes of tracking them down before Gan did. I could use a little bit of my vampiric speed to help me along, but not much. The streets were far too crowded for me to go full out without being noticed; however, that was also another advantage in my favor.

  Despite Gan's insistence on being a little murder monkey on my behalf, she no doubt knew the rules. Hell, I imagine she had it fully ingrained into her head that she couldn't exactly announce her existence to the world. Her father was one of the Draculas, and as far as I had been told, one of their edicts was that the general public couldn't know about us. Yeah, yeah, I know I've broken that rule all to hell a couple of times already...but then I don't have a father sitting on the board of directors for the infernal hellions of the world. So give me a break. Considering the rigid world she came from, I had little doubt that Gan couldn't help but have a bit more respect for these things than I did. She'd wait for them to be relatively alone before striking...hopefully.

  The only problem was, where the hell were they? If they had ducked into another establishment, I would never find them; however, I also didn't see them anywhere on the street. Jeez, they didn't have that big of a lead on me. However, this was the city. Everyone who walked its streets was more or less a rat in a maze, and considering the size of the maze, it wasn't too hard to get lost.

  I started ducking down less crowded side streets so as to make better time, but it still didn't appear to be helping. It wasn't like I wouldn't notice her, even in a crowd. I knew what she looked like. I knew how she walked. I knew how she dressed (hmm, now that I think of it, this sounds a bit creepy, even to me). I knew what perfume she...that was it! She always wore the same scent, the same heavenly scent...err, sorry. Easy to get distracted by thoughts like that. Anyway, if one vampire could track another by smell, then maybe I could use my enhanced senses to find her. Hey, it works in the comics for Wolverine.

  I moved out of the crowd and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath through my nose and concentrated on the smell of her perfume. Nothing. I needed to try harder, block out everything else around me. Gah! This was hard. Even on my best days, I'm not exactly known for a Zen-like state of concentration. Right now, my entire being was in turmoil. How was I supposed to focus when my main reason for doing so was to save some douchebag I had no interest in helping cross the street, much less rescuing? And that was when a thought hit me. What was to stop Gan from killing Sheila after she was finished with Harry? Nothing, really. She didn't have any feelings towards humans. What was one more sheep to the slaughter for her? In fact, if she had really overheard everything I said, she might consider doing it just to remove the competition. Oh shit! That did it. The girl of my dreams in potential danger gave me the focus I needed. I concentrated. I imagined her scent. I breathed deep once, twice...and there it was! Faint, but I got a sense of the direction to go in. Thank you, vampire powers!

  Wasting no time, I immediately bolted from my spot. I raced down a few side streets and then finally turned a corner I sensed she had gone down and...and of course, I collided head-on with another fast-moving figure.

  * * *

  We both went down in a tangle of arms, legs, and shopping bags. Considering the speed I had been moving at, if I had collided with a normal person there would definitely have been the accompanying sounds of breaking bones. As there was not, I had to conclude that my personal tackling dummy was thus not human. Great! Just my fucking luck to run into the Khan's assassins when I'm trying to do the right thing.

  However, as I untangled myself I realized that the Khan's assassins probably never looked this good, not even on their best day. I stood up and found myself face-to-face with Starlight, a look of surprise on her face that was quickly giving way to abject terror.

  “Oh my God, Bill!” she shrieked.

  “Star,” I replied, dusting myself off.

  “I'm so sorry, Bill. She got away. Gan, I mean. I turned my back for one second, and she was gone. I'm trying to find her. Please, please, don't be mad,” she rambled. There was more, but it was increasingly becoming a panicky blur of sound. One of these days, I really needed to undo the fear of God I had instilled into her months back. For now, though, there was no time. I held up my hand, and she immediately stopped talking. Sometimes it's good to be king.

  “Enough, Starlight. I know. I'm not mad. But I need to find Gan, too. If I don't, someone is going to die who doesn't deserve to (mostly, I guess). Can you help me?”

  She nodded. “I've been tracking her.”

  “Good,” I replied in as patient of a voice as I had, which wasn't very. “I'm tracking her intended victim. Let's split up (and get hacked to death by Michael Myers...oh wait, wrong story) and hope one of us gets there before it's too late.”

  She again nodded, the panic slowly starting to seep out of her face as she saw that I wasn't going to chew her any new orifices (figurative or literally).

  “I appreciate the help. Now get going.”

  She didn't hesitate. She took off again, hot on Gan's trail I hoped. She apparently had no qualms about going full out, speed-wise. Guess that makes sense for her. I doubt too many New Yorkers would be all that big on giving the police a report on a super-model running through the streets at a gallop that would make a race horse weep.

  I resumed my concentration and attempted to pick up Sheila's perfume again. It was easier this time, as she had probably only passed this place a few moments before Starlight and I collided. Good thing she hadn’t been around to see us...that would have just looked embarrassing.

  * * *

  Finally! I turned
another corner and spotted them further down the street. This was a residential neighborhood, and considering the time of night, it was a lot emptier than where I had chased them from. I also happened to know from...ahem...some research that Sheila lived pretty close by. The question was, was Decker walking her home, or had she invited him up? That latter thought again brought the outer twinges of blinding anger back into my brain. I needed to cut this crap out; otherwise, I'd wind up cheering Gan on instead of stopping her. I tried to focus on the saving aspect of things and not so much on any possible sweaty aftermaths of their date...grrrr, I'm doing it again! Focus, stupid! Unfortunately, my little mental back and forth cost me precious seconds. I was closing in on them, but as it turns out, so was Gan.