Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1)
Page 3
I stepped back, realizing that fuzziness in my head was likewise gone. Good. The last thing I needed was a siesta. Muted power or not, it was unlikely the ruckus in my apartment had gone unnoticed.
Though I wasn’t about to call the cops, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be called. And then what?
I stepped back and considered this, leaning against my kitchen counter.
The world had seen some pretty messed up shit five years ago, during the final days of the war that had raged between the vampire nation and their ancient enemies – Bigfoot, of all things. Hell, nearly half the population of Boston had been erased from existence, turned into a primeval forest thanks to Sasquatch magic.
The press had even come up with a nickname for those dark times. They called it the Strange Days.
Yeah, I know, but I never said it was a good nickname.
For some time afterward, a lot of scrutiny was given to what had happened. There’d even been talk of Congress authorizing a new federal agency to investigate and regulate the paranormal. Yep, for a short moment in history, The X-Files was almost a real thing.
Problem was, following the conclusion of it all, there was no paranormal left to regulate. In one fell swoop, partially thanks to yours truly, the doors between worlds were closed, driving out the things that went bump in the night.
As time passed, with no weirdness in sight – save the typical craziness of the world – interest waned. Soon, people started turning to other more “rational” explanations for what had occurred – mass hallucinations caused by chemical warfare and other ludicrous shit like that. In short, anything that made more sense than magic, vampires, and murderous monsters.
For half a decade we’d lived in a world that was more mundane than ever before in history. Sure, not everyone wanted to forget what happened, but most did. There was enough denial out there to make it a fair bet that telling the authorities the truth would do little except get me locked up as a weirdo.
Forget magic. My living room currently looked like a meth lab gone wrong. Add in the contents of the boxes that Dave had sent me and it was as if someone had thrown a mad bukakke party for good measure.
Needless to say, there was little doubt that calling the cops would result in Tina being taken away by protective services. True, that might not be a bad thing if those vamps came after me again, but there was also her mother to think about. If Tina was removed from Christy’s care because of me, I would feel awful about it.
Also, not to be a petty dick, but if these strange magical outbreaks affected her, too, then I really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her bad mood. We were in a good place, she and I, and being vaporized would kind of mess that up.
Speaking of Christy, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Fucking A! The screen was cracked. Guess it was back to ruggedized cases. Luckily it still seemed to be working, at least well enough to tell me my call hadn’t been returned yet.
Where the hell was she?
That was something I’d have to figure out later. For now, I realized I needed to make Tina and myself scarce. If we could get out of the building before anyone noticed, we might be able to make this look like a case of breaking and entering. Then, later on, I could play dumb to the cops and hopefully this would blow over without an official investigation.
I let out a mirthless laugh. What a joke. Back in the day this shit would have been easy. The police, or at least the higher ups, used to have agreements with the vampire nation to sweep stuff like this under the rug. Now I had to do it the hard way.
“Did something funny happen, Uncle Bill?” Tina asked, looking at me wide-eyed.
“Life, Cat,” I replied. “Life is funny sometimes. Some days it keeps us on our toes. On others, it gives up all pretense and drops a bowling ball on them.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“This is yucky. I don’t like it.”
Oh, I was so fucking dead if Christy found out about this.
After surviving the near end of the world, I’d found myself in possession of more liquid assets than I knew what to do with – a gift from Sally. Much like the rest of the vampire nation, Village Coven – formerly of SoHo – had been flush with cash. But with no vamps anymore, those funds were left sitting around waiting for someone to claim. Considering Sally had been in charge of the coven’s finances, it wasn’t hard to guess who that someone had ended up being.
It wasn’t exactly hitting the Powerball, but it was more than enough to purchase the apartment building in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn that I’d called home throughout all the nonsense that had occurred. Some might have been pragmatic and moved far the fuck away, opting for a big house in the suburbs, but that had felt wrong.
This building, and the apartment on the top floor in particular, had been like a port in the storm, our fortress of solitude. It had been as much a part of things as I had. It didn’t seem right to casually abandon it just because I could afford to.
Mind you, it still kind of sucked to be a landlord. I mean, I didn’t know shit about fixing things. I mostly just called someone when something broke. But, there was one perk to the whole deal, a little something I’d had installed shortly after acquiring the building, paid in cash with a little extra thrown in to make sure there was no paperwork trail: a hidden subbasement exit which led to the sewers beneath.
It had been little more than a throwback to scarier times, one that I figured I’d never need to use. But I was now thankful for that little bit of paranoia, or I would be once we got out of the disease ridden hell we were trekking through. Thankfully, it was only a few short blocks to the nearest exit, a side tunnel that led to a subway maintenance stairwell.
Even so, with a young girl riding along piggyback, a few blocks in a filthy sewer tunnel was still pushing my luck. “What do you say we keep this a secret between us?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want your mother to worry.”
“But it’s gross.”
“Did I mention there might be a trip to Build-A-Bear in it for you?”
“Ooh! Can we go today?”
Say what you will about love, but bribery was the universal language as far as I was concerned.
Fortunately, our journey wasn’t a long one. Double fortunate that it had been dry the last several days, meaning the filth we tromped through was at least mostly dry filth. Underground adventures like these hadn’t been any more fun as a vampire, but at least back then I had the advantage of knowing I’d emerge without contracting the bubonic plague.
Speaking of vampires, how was I to know whether these weird magical ... pulses, for lack of a better term, were localized to my apartment? I’d taken Tina down below so as to escape scrutiny, just in case unfriendly eyes were watching the front door.
Problem was, the underground wasn’t exactly a safe place back during the Strange Days. Visions of monsters with bright orange eyes and mouths full of stalagmite teeth danced in my head as we traversed the last few hundred yards to the exit. I kept those thoughts to myself, not wanting to scare my godchild, but I’d have to be mindful of such things the next time we needed to beat a hasty exit.
In truth, I needed to face facts. The rules had suddenly changed and with no warning. I had no clue what was happening or why I was involved. But, most of all, I didn’t know how far it reached. And until Tina was safely back in her mother’s arms and far from harm’s way, I needed to at least try being less stupid.
And part of that probably meant not traipsing around with her in the fucking sewers of New York City.
♦ ♦ ♦
Thank goodness fate smiles upon small children because we managed to make it to the subway unmolested, if a bit dirtier than we’d started out. Oh well, it was a warm day, so it wasn’t like we’d be the most fragrant people sitting on the subway to Manhattan.
And, thankfully, weekend traffic was heavy enough so that I felt relatively secure in the crowd, just in case those two assholes had somehow followed us.
Looking down at the message, I smiled at my subconscious use of capital letters. Sure, it was an office. But it hadn’t been the Office in roughly five years. Nowadays it was the North American headquarters for the Pandora’s Light Foundation, a nonprofit humanitarian aid organization that Sally had founded – providing counseling, shelter, and all sorts of other services to the Tri-State area’s downtrodden.
Its purpose was a far cry from the bloody atrocities committed there when it had served as the prime hangout of Village Coven. Yet, now, with strange shit afoot, it somehow felt fitting to call the place by its old name ... at least until we could be certain these magical surges were nothing more than an aberrant quirk.
It wasn’t until we boarded the train and were underway that I realized I hadn’t given her any details as to why this meeting was important. I just naturally assumed she knew, having fallen into the old habit of thinking Sally had more of a clue than me, when it was more than possible the opposite was true in this case.
I wasn’t about to pretend this shit was like riding a bike. It wasn’t and, even if it was, I was no longer sporting the same equipment. I’d downgraded to a smaller, lighter, and far more squishy model. But perhaps it wasn’t all bad. When I’d first been turned into one of the undead roughly seven years ago, it had been easy to laugh at things, knowing I could take a punch if need be. Don’t get me wrong, I could still laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. But I was a bit older, maybe a smidgeon wiser, and a hell of a lot more killable now.
Go figure, but somehow that last one offered me a bit more clarity than I’d once had.
Hopefully it would even be enough to keep us alive.
OLD FACES, NEW PROBLEMS
My desire to meet Sally at the Office was only partially inspired by dumbass nostalgia. It was also because her foundation operated on the weekends, meaning there were bound to be a decent number of people around.
True, safety in numbers only mattered if the boogeymen had an aversion to tearing through those numbers. There was also the fact that anyone who knew where I lived would likely also know about the Office, but I still liked our chances better in a crowd than in another apartment where the only people we could rely on for help were ourselves.
Besides, as awesome as Tina had been back at my place, I didn’t want to hedge my bets on a five year old pulling my ass out of the fire again.
We signed in downstairs – improved building security was yet another change since the bad old days – and rode the elevator up. Tina had only known this as a good place, and I didn’t care to dissuade her of that notion, so I kept my memories to myself on the ride up.
So many things had happened here, probably even more so than at my apartment. I wondered if Sally had kept Pandora’s Light in this place for the same reason I’d bought my apartment building. Of course, it was also possible she had a really good lease stemming from the time when our negotiations were done by creatures who could rip a man’s spine out if they didn’t like the way talks were going. Sally was nothing if not pragmatic.
Fortunately, the ride up was quick, meaning my trip down memory lane didn’t last long. Good thing, too. There were some stops along the way I really didn’t want to relive ... like most of it.
Less fortunate was stepping out of the elevator and seeing that the place appeared to be dead, which was perhaps a particularly poor choice of words this day.
♦ ♦ ♦
Pandora’s Light was naturally less busy on the weekend, running with a smaller staff and shorter hours, but it was usually still pretty hopping. I’d been a volunteer long enough to know how it all worked and this was ... not typical.
My hopes fell even further as we reached the doors to the foundation. In years past these had been big, solid, and completely opaque ... mostly to hide the crimes against humanity being committed inside. Now they were your typical glass corporate doors, leaving me with a very good view of the reception area inside and the fact that it, too, was completely empty.
“Tina, stay behind me.”
She didn’t question – just fell back a step. Probably a good thing since I really didn’t have an answer as to what I would actually do to protect her in case things went south. I didn’t own a gun and I’d left the sword back at the apartment, not wanting to be arrested riding the NYC subway system with it.
I opened the door far more hesitantly than I wanted to and we stepped in. The office floor, usually alive with people, conversation, and muffled phone calls, was now quiet as the proverbial grave.
Disturbingly fitting in a way because, as I stepped closer to the receptionist desk, I caught sight of the body lying on the floor behind it, drenched in blood and viscera.
It was Sally. They’d gotten to her first.
We were too late.
♦ ♦ ♦
Just fucking with you! Gallows humor and all that shit. Guess the old memories really were coming back strong.
Anyway, my bullshit aside, Tina and I stood in the empty receptionist area looking around for maybe all of thirty seconds before the sound of approaching footsteps caught my ear, the accompanying click-clack noise telling me their owner was likely wearing heels.
Sure enough, a few moments later my former coven partner – once Sally Sunset, now known by the somewhat less ridiculous moniker of Sally Carlsbad – stepped around the corner.
She bent down and held out her arms, a big smile on her face, as she laid eyes on Tina.
My godchild, for her part, ran to her without hesitation and gave her a big hug.
What a difference half a decade could make. When I’d first met Sally she’d had the appearance of a femme fatale in her early twenties ... multi-hued blonde hair, hot as a fucking neutron star, and with an equally volatile attitude. Back then, she was far more likely to gut someone like a fish than hug them.
Now, though, she appeared her true age – mid-fifties with short, dirty blonde hair greying slightly at the edges, and a few more age lines on her face. She was still in fair shape – definitely a cougar if she had the inclination to be – but now she looked like she’d be more at home sitting in a board room than shaking her ass on a stripper pole.
I still wasn’t sure which look I preferred more ... okay, that wasn’t entirely true. Let’s be realistic here. I’m not quite as shallow as I was back then, but she’d been the proverbial piece of ass, even if she was just as likely to kick mine for saying it.
What hadn’t changed, though, was her sharp mind, always seemingly two steps ahead of me. It was that part I was really counting on.
Memories aside, she appeared at ease upon seeing us, which made me feel a bit better about the empty office, but only slightly. “Um, not to sound paranoid, but where the hell is everyone?”
Tina pulled back from Sally and gave her a serious look. “Uncle Bill’s been saying a lot of bad words today.”
Sally stood up straight and put one hand on her hip, somehow looking taller than her five foot nothing height. “Has he now?” She looked at me with a smirk that quickly fell away. “What happened to your face? Did you fall into a door?”
“More like one fell into me. Again, where is...”
“I gave everyone the rest of the afternoon off after I got your text. Was kind of a slow day, not much going on. Figured it would give us a chance to talk.”
Not good. That told me she either wasn’t aware what was going on or wasn’t concerned. “Shit! That’s not what I wanted you to...”
“Ooh, you said...”
“I know, Cat. Money in the swear jar when we get back. I promise. In fact, I might toss in an extra hundred the way this day’s going.”
Sally crossed her arms in front of her and narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t stu
pid by any means. No doubt she was beginning to come to the conclusion that something wasn’t kosher in my life. “What’s got you all frazzled? They cancel Comic Con this year?”
“Lock the door and let’s head back to your office.”
“Why?”
“Because my apartment looks like a freaking war zone right now thanks to two vampires who didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to be dead. ”
♦ ♦ ♦
Needless to say, that got her attention. She locked the doors, armed the security system, and led us back to her corner office – still in the same spot it had been when she was overseeing functions of a far more bloody nature.
One major change, however, was the small play area set up right outside of it.
Some of her volunteers occasionally brought their kids to the office, but I had a feeling it was mostly for Tina since it only became a thing once she was old enough to visit.
Sally gave her a juice box and snack then sent her to play so we could talk – the glass windows of her office allowing us to shut the door while also keeping an eye on her.
I was still debating where to start when I saw her step around a small pile of boxes stacked next to her desk, all of them stamped with the Immortalis insignia.
“He sent you some, too, eh?”
A look of confusion crossed her face for a moment, then she looked down and laughed. “I was meaning to ask you about that. Kindly tell your idiot friend we accept donations, but cash is a lot more preferable than boxes of shit.”
“Dave ... means well.”
She locked eyes with me for a moment.
“Okay, fine, he doesn’t. He’s supposed to be taping a live infomercial next week while he’s in town. He shipped me a bunch, too. Asked me to hand out samples to everyone I know like I was his personal sales monkey.”