Tainted Blood

by Martin Sharlow

  “Leave us.” Jason barked, and the litter of teenage girls booed and whined, but surprisingly they left for another part of the room.

  Brian watched as they stood clustered together, looking time from time at the two of them sitting there.

  “Fans?” Brian decided to break the ice, rather than just sit and have the man stare at him.

  “Ever since Twilight and all its assorted clones,” the man spoke dismissively, “we can't get rid of them.”

  “How do they even know you're a vampire?” Brian asked, actually curious.

  “I told them.” Jason picked up a mug and took a drink. “They are tiresome, but they do have their uses. Now, let's get down to business. You are here to kill me, but the last I checked, I still have your girlfriend, so what could you possibly want?”

  “I want Heather, of course.” Brian said irritably. “Just hand her over and I'll be out of your life.”

  “Then we shall live happily ever after?” Jason smiled at him. “Please, the company doesn't just give up. You're only one of their many failed attempts.”

  “No, I don't work for the company, Jason. They were just trying to force me to do their dirty work. I told them no.”

  “You expect me to believe that?” Jason looked into Brian's eyes very intently. He wasn't sure, but it almost felt like the guy was trying to move things around inside his head. There was the distinct impression of tumblers spinning inside there, but before Brain could say anything Jason snorted and slammed his coffee back onto the table. ”You are just like me! What did they offer you, to kill one of your own?”

  “Nothing, and yes I'm a vampire like you, I just want my girlfriend.”

  Jason sat there and stared at him for what seemed like hours. Brian matched him stare for stare. He felt that if he were to turn away for a moment, that it would have been a sign of weakness, and something bad would happen next.

  “I'm sorry, but I don't believe you.” Jason said finally, and then turned his eyes away to look into his coffee.

  “So what, that’s it?” Brian asked as he stood up. “I'm just supposed to say 'too bad', and leave, forgetting Heather for the rest of my life, so you can feel safe?”

  Jason shook his head. “No, as I don't think that it would keep you at bay very long. Sooner or later you will just find some other toy, and then what am I going to do? Kidnap that one as well?”

  “Then what? If you're not going to give her to me?”

  Jason shrugged. “I'll just have to dispose of you and her, at least that will serve me until the next idiots they send.”

  “Then why take her, or for that matter, let me in here?” Brian shouted.

  “Isn't it obvious?” Jason shrugged again. “To get you down here where you would be trapped.”

  Brian noticed for the first time that the room had gone quiet. He looked up and saw the entire cafe had armed themselves with clubs and knives and were slowly moving in his direction.

  “Those things can't kill a vampire.” Brian bluffed, as he really had no idea what could.

  “You're right,” Jason said, as he stood up, “but it sure can incapacitate him after being hit over the head a million times.” He smiled and spread his arms apart. “What can I say? We'll take care of the dirty work after you’ve been beaten unconscious.

  This is about to get ugly... Brian couldn't help but think, I knew this was a bad idea.

  11

  He never was very squeamish about killing. Not if he had the right incentive.

  Of course, he didn't like killing for no reason. As he'd said before, he was no monster, he liked to think of himself as a modern equivalent for a vampire. He didn't hunt and kill like vampires of myth. He was civilized and so he drank blood that was willingly harvested by blood banks. That ideal served him well throughout Brian’s young life, and with only a few exceptions, like in recent times when he was defending Heather from the men in black, he had adhered to these principles with great success.

  Still, he had little qualms killing if he needed to.

  This, however did very little to ease his conscience as he smashed one man's skull while snapping another man's arm in two. Once the crowd of controlled people's master said to attack, the entire cafe of employees and clients leaped at him with abandon. These were no mindless automatons that would move around like stupid zombies. No, this group moved with the speed and thought of living people intent on killing him. It took all of Brian’s speed and strength to avoid clubs swinging by his head and then steal what many of the people were trying to stab him with.

  He would have liked to have avoided bloodshed if he could, but the cramped space made it near impossible to use his speed to any great advantage. The only good news was that there were fewer people trying to hurt him, now that he realized he had no choice in the matter. Well that wasn't entirely true. He did have one other choice, but that would most likely lead to his as well as Heathers death. No, he was just being realistic. These people were not that different from the agents he had killed six months before, the only difference was perhaps the agent weren’t suggested by a blood thirsty vampire.

  Three more went down in the time he had finished those thoughts, at least two of them were not mortally wounded. If he could keep this up then things really might not be that bad. He would just need to get his hands on that cowardly vampire, force him to take him to Heather, and then get the hell out of the place. Oh, and he forgot one other detail, he still had to kill the jerk.

  If everything the guy did wasn’t bad enough, now he had to add all the deaths he was causing to list. Yeah, at this point, Jenn didn't even have to ask me to kill this guy. I'm going to do it just because he's really starting to piss me off!

  “You're doing well so far.” He heard the jerk say. “In fact a little too good, I think I'm going to have to even the odds.”

  Brian looked up to see what Jason intended on doing now. The barrel of a very large gun was pointing at him when he did. The flash from its barrel was all the warning he had as Jason began firing indiscriminately into the crowed that was attacking Brian.

  The first few bullets missed him thanks to Brain's speed. Two of Jason’s minions were not so lucky as Brian watched them collapse to the ground still reaching for him. It had to end now, he realized. Sooner or later the guy was going to get lucky and hit Brian, then what? I have to take the fight to him. A third round whizzed by Brian’s face, leaving a trail along his cheek as as it did.

  It's now or never.

  With all the speed and power he could muster, Brian dashed right through the crowed of minions that were in his way. All those that stood in his path flew from him when he impacted into them. He thought he heard the crunching of bones from more than one of them as they were tossed away by his enhanced strength.

  Brian grabbed the barrel of the weapon and ripped the gun from Jason’s hand. The man looked wholly stunned as he did so, and Brian was equally surprised at how easy the gun came from Jason’s hand. He would have expected an older vampire to have greater strength than he had. All the shows he'd ever seen made a big deal of age.

  Perhaps this was one instance that myth did not reflect true life.

  “How the hell--” Jason began to shout, just as a pain ripped through Brian’s chest, somewhere near his heart. A quick glance down to his chest showed the point of what looked like a knife protruding from inside of him. Jason's shock turned to a smile from surprise as he also saw the blade tip sticking out.

  “Well, isn't that something?” Jason laughed as Brian turned to see who had stabbed him.

  His eyes fell on one of the young teen girls who had been hanging around Jason when he had arrived. Brian wasn't sure what he was going to do. He knew he should hit her and knock her away from him, but somehow he couldn't. It just didn't seem right to him. Stars exploded inside his head as a table leg crashed across his skull. Another one of Jason's minions took advantage of his stunned reaction. Before Brian’s sight could clear, several more blows crashed down on hi
m. He could feel the cold touch of metal stinging through his body as either the same girl or others were now stabbing him in the back as he crashed down to the floor. Through the haze that now filled his sight, he could see blood covering the floor underneath him.

  My blood he thought. It looked as if he were about to find out if he were immortal.

  A part of him wondered, if he did die, would he come back like a traditional vampire? Or would he just be dead?

  “Hit him some more.” he could still hear Jason’s voice above the ringing in his head and ears. “The damned boy won't go down. Someone's been eating their spinach.”

  Then Jason was next to him. He knew it was Jason, because he could smell him. Jason's blood, his heartbeat, all of it was different from the rest of the crowd and yet somehow the same. He never really noticed before that he could hear people's hearts or smell their blood so acutely that he bet he could hazard a guess on what blood type they were.

  Maybe it was the fact that he was damn near unconscious that allowed him to notice, or perhaps it was the blood loss that was starting to drive his hunger. He wasn't sure which one it was, all he really knew was that he was hungry, and they all smelled wonderful.

  The smell of so many humans in close proximity was overwhelming. The beat of their hearts drowned out the impact of their clubs to such a degree that he was not even entirely aware at the moment as why or if they were still beating on him. A part of himself was screaming inside his head, but he wasn't sure why any part of himself would want to restrain from such a lovely, wide selection for harvest. It really didn't matter, and it wasn't like he was going to listen to it. In the end, he decided his choice by the rarity of the flavor.

  There was only one person in the room that gave off that scent, so he was easily picked out. With a shrug of his shoulders, and a wave of his arms, the crowd of humanity was thrown off of him.

  Brian’s fangs sunk into the stunned man as he tasted the sweetest blood in the room. He lifted the man from off the floor, completely holding the man's entire body up high enough so that he could drink the sweet nectar that now burned into his body without resistance. His wounds even now closed and sealed themselves as he drained the man of his life giving blood.

  “This is impossible!” He could hear Jason shouting from a short distance away. “No one should still be conscious after what I did to you! How are your wounds healing?”

  Brian’s mind cleared as he finished the last of the man's blood. The madness that so easily gripped him left just as quickly, as his strength returned.

  “This is your fault, Jason!” Brian shouted as he dropped the body and pointed at all the wounded people. “Your arrogance has brought this on you!”

  “You're not a vampire!” Jason shouted, “you're one of them!”

  “What are you talking about?” Brian asked. Of course he was vampire. Hadn't he survived all the knife wounds? Didn't Jason see him drink the man's blood? What else could he be?

  Brian almost asked the man exactly that, except for the fact that Jason ran back to his table and pulled out a small black carrying case, which he flipped open and grabbed what looked like sand, as it was falling out the sides of his hand everywhere.

  “Where's Heather!” Brian shouted at him. Whatever he was planning on doing with that handful of sand, Brian could care less. He was tired of messing with the guy. Enough was enough. If he had to, he would rip the guy in two and then tear the place apart stone by stone until he found Heather.

  “Tell me where she is now or--” Was all he got out before Jason threw the sand in his direction, and shouted what sounded like Latin. Glowing red symbols like triangles inside a circles appeared all over the cloud of sand he threw. The entire scene was surreal, and even as Brain was dragged outside the building and deposited on the sidewalk by the sand, his mind refused to believe what had happened to him.

  In a rage, Brian jumped up and began to beat on the open doorway barrier as he shouted for Jason to let him in. Eventually, Jason walked up to the entry way and smiled at him, chuckling. “Aren't you full of surprises?”

  “Give me Heather!”

  “I think not. Especially not after what I've learned about you today .”

  “What are you talking about? I'm a vampire just like you!” Brian waved his fist at him. “Stop with all your word games!”

  “Like me? No, Brian, I became a vampire the old fashioned way. By drinking blood. I dare say you were born, and that makes you an abomination, neither vampire nor human.”

  “What?” Brian stared, abruptly sidelined. Where had that come from?

  “Now, run away Nephilim. I've taken the liberty of calling the local police. I don't think you're going to want to explain the mess you made in here.” With that, he shut the door. Brian was too stunned to do anything but stare.

  From the moment he arrived to now, he wasn't sure what had happened. Too many things were said and happened, and none of it made sense to him. Like that cloud of sand. What the hell was that? If he didn't know better, that had been the closest thing he'd ever seen that might be magic. Not fake magic, but real magic.

  That couldn't be. There was no such thing.

  Sirens echoed in the distance: Jason hadn't been lying after all. He needed to go. Still, he wasn't giving up. His goals were still the same, just a few things were different now...like whatever magic crap Jason had. He was going to need a way around that.

  Also, he couldn't do it alone, it was time for some help, and there was only one person he could think to ask that of.

  It took some time for him to get his rattled nerves calm enough for him to dream walk again. He wanted with all his might to go see Heather again, and he would, once he was finished.

  The cab of Bobby's truck was still familiar from the last time he had seen it over six months ago, though from his dream state he could see that there were some changes made. Like, for instance, it looked like doodads now hung from the roof of the cab almost everywhere. He had no idea why Bobby would start filling his place up with junk, but hey, who knew what got into that truckers mind. From what he could make out through the windshield, Bobby was on the road.

  Brian never liked trying to wake up in a moving vehicle. Something about it was just unnerving.

  He supposed he was being stupid, as he never did have a single accident doing it, and besides didn't he just survive being stabbed a hundred times? What’s falling to the ground at seventy miles an hour going to do to him compared to that?

  “Well, it's now or never.” Brain mumbled.

  Placing himself into the passenger seat, he tried to make himself as comfortable as possible so that he would appear right where he was now. Then, closing his eyes, Brian concentrated on going to sleep. The cab around him began to shimmer and waver. Once or twice it began to come in focus, and then blurred back to the grayness of dream land.

  “What the hell?” He frowned, glancing around the dream-cab again.

  This is weird he thought. I never had this much trouble before. I must be more nervous than I thought. Brian closed his eyes again and then concentrated even more. He called back old memories of his prior rides with Bobby, when Heather was there as well. He could hear Bobby's gruff voice telling a joke, and Heather giggling at it.

  A thin layer of 'skin' stretched across his conciseness and then ripped and tore.

  The next thing he saw were headlights as the truck swerved into oncoming traffic. Bobby began to swear loudly as he struggled to wrestle the truck back into the proper lane. Horns honked, and Brian was slammed into the door and then into Bobby as the entire cab thrashed back and forth.

  “What in the nine hells are you trying to do kid? Get us both killed!” Bobby finally got out of his mouth. Well, what was coherent between all the trucker swearing.

  “Need your help, Bobby.” Brian said, as the trucker pulled off the road into a nearby parking lot.

  “What is it this time? Are we going to storm a military base?” Bobby snorted as he reached into his s
hirt, and then pulled out the biggest cross with a little Jesus hanging on it that Brain thought he had ever seen tucked into a shirt. “HAH! Take that!” Bobby yelled as he stuck it in Brian’s face.

  Brian brushed Bobby's hand out of the way so he could see the old man's face.

  “No, it's Heather, she needs your help.” After a moment, Brian began to realize what all the junk was that hung from the ceiling. “What...is all this junk Bobby?” He asked, as he pointed at all the various religious paraphernalia, such as dream catchers, pentagrams, crosses, stars of David, and so many things that Brian had never even seen before.