Blood and Needles

by Billy Lyon

  “Sure. Be ready to throw down at any moment.”

  “My man,” Teresa said.

  Steven looked at the huge lawn that lay in front of the mansion. It was lush despite the harsh Florida weather, and impeccably groomed. There’s a reason why there are as many landscaping companies in the Metropolitan Orlando area as there are attorneys in DC, he thought. If you want a nice lawn down here, you buy it. In the center of the lawn stood five wooden crates, varying in size from that of a shoe box to one about ten feet high and five feet wide.

  Steven and Teresa walked to the smallest crate. Teresa motioned for him to pick it up. He did, and looked into a tiny hole that had been drilled into the wood. Inside the crate was a squirrel, a big one with a fluffy tail that darted back and forth. He could hear the squirrel’s heart beating like a trip hammer. Steven had always liked animals a hell of a lot more than any human he’d ever met, so the sight of the squirrel locked up in the box bothered him just a little bit. “Don’t worry, little guy,” he whispered. “I’ll do my best to make sure that you get out of this in one piece.”

  “Okay,” Teresa said. “Pay attention. To be a successful hunter you must learn to use your prey’s scent to your advantage. The reason why so many police and rescue organizations use hounds almost exclusively is that their noses are ten thousand times stronger than any human’s. Well, ours are infinitely more powerful than that. A vampire’s sense of smell is the most important sense of all, because the scent of every living creature is unique. You feel me?”

  Steven hesitated. “Kind of, but keep going.”

  “Look at it this way. Let’s say you have twin sisters who are dressed exactly alike. It’s still possible to identify which one is which by considering such things as the type of perfume they’re wearing, the brand of shampoo they use, or even what they had for dinner. Once you learn to spot these differences, it’s almost impossible for any creature you’re hunting to get away.”

  “I think I get it,” Steven said. “The scent is kind of like a fingerprint.”

  “Anna Marie said you were smart,” Teresa replied. “Looks like she was actually right about something for a change. Okay, so the first task I’ve got for you is the easiest. Take the squirrel out of the crate and release it, but before you do, take a good, deep sniff and commit its scent to memory. There’s only one of them, so you won’t have to worry about its scent blending in with that of the other squirrels. Unless, that is, it’s able to make it far enough into the woods to meet up with some of his buddies. You’ll have to hurry, because after I let him go, he gets a head start until he reaches the tree line. I’ll give you ten minutes to catch the squirrel and bring it back to me. Are you ready?”

  “I think so.”

  “I didn’t ask what you think, I asked you if you’re ready.”

  “Yes, Drill Sergeant Teresa, I’m ready!” Steven shouted, a little bit pissed off.

  “Then GO!”

  Steven lifted the squirrel up to his face and took a deep whiff. He inhaled its musky odor and committed it to memory as best he could. Then he put the squirrel down and watched it take off towards the woods. Once the squirrel reached the tree line Steven changed into a bat and chased after it. By the time Steven had made it to the edge of the forest, the squirrel had gone so far into the woods that he could no longer see it.

  He did, however, remember that bats have sonar, a skill that would undoubtedly help with the task at hand, if he only knew how to use it. Fortunately, it turned out that no prior knowledge was required. As soon as he thought about sonar, a tiny red dot appeared in his mind’s eye, and he somehow understood that the dot represented the squirrel.

  Steven made some quick aerial turns and saw that the dot moved with him. If the squirrel moved right, the dot moved right, and vice versa. If it stopped, then so did the dot. The brightness of the dot told him how far away the squirrel was. The closer he came to the squirrel, the brighter the dot appeared. It seemed that all he had to do was keep the dot in the center of his field of vision and it would be possible for him to fly straight to the squirrel.

  This is too easy, Steven thought, just as the squirrel got sneaky and very nearly disappeared for good. It had moved about halfway up a pine tree, and Steven had assumed that it would be no problem for him to just pick it off the side of the tree and take it back to Teresa with time to spare. The little bastard was smarter than it looked, though, and just as Steven was getting ready to grab it, the squirrel darted into a small hole in the side of the tree. The tree was tall, partially rotten and mostly hollow inside, which gave it a shitload of room to hide. Steven tried the sonar but it didn’t work when the intended target was blocked by a solid object such as the front side of a tree.

  “Two minutes!” Teresa shouted.

  Fuck! What am I going to do? I don’t have time to wait for the damned thing to come back out. Steven cursed his overconfidence and felt victory slipping away before remembering what Teresa had said about the importance of scent. Quickly, before the squirrel had a chance to move from where it was, he changed into his vampire body and knelt. He sniffed deeply and immediately recognized the squirrel’s faint scent. As he pushed his nose up the tree, the smell became stronger. Steven stood and the smell disappeared altogether, so he went back onto his knees and tried again. He continued this process, moving up and down the side of the tree according to the strength of the odor, and soon found the point where the scent was strongest.

  “Thirty seconds left!”

  Steven punched a hole in the tree a foot or so above where the squirrel was hiding, reached inside, and grabbed it by the tail before it had time to react. Gotcha!

  “Ten…nine…eight…seven…”

  Steven sprinted back to Teresa and handed her the squirrel with only five seconds to spare. “It’s harder than it looks, isn’t it?”

  “It really is. If it hadn’t been for the smell it would have gotten away. Now I know what you mean about how important scent is.”

  “Good job, Steven,” Teresa said. “I’m really impressed. Very few vampires catch the squirrel on the first try.”

  Before Steven could thank Teresa for the compliment, the squirrel bit her on the hand. “Ouch!” Teresa shouted. “That hurt, you little shit!”

  “Wait!” Teresa gawked at Steven as he snatched the squirrel out of her hands. Steven walked a few steps in the opposite direction and then raised the squirrel up close to his face. “Thanks for helping me out, little guy. I promised that I’d try get you out of this alive, so here you go.” The squirrel scurried off into the woods without looking back.

  He walked back to Teresa, who was doubled over in laughter. “You’re such a fucking pussy…”

  “Hey, I promised I’d let him go!”

  “You’re still a pussy.”

  “Ha-ha. So what’s next?”

  “Do you want to keep going, or do you want a break?”

  “This is fun. Let’s keep going.”

  They continued the training, moving from the smallest crate upward. The difficulty of the lessons increased in proportion with the size of each wooden box. Steven hunted a rabbit that hid in a deep underground tunnel, tracked a seagull that evaded him by blending in with its flock, and killed a mountain lion, but not before it attacked him and left several deep gashes in his face.

  Finally they reached the largest of the crates, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that there was a human inside. Steven wondered if hunting homo sapiens would prove any more difficult than hunting the other animals.

  It’s time for your final exam.” Teresa walked to the remaining crate and placed her hand on top of it. “I picked up the human inside a couple of days ago for just this purpose.” She raised her right hand high into the air and smashed the crate to bits. Large pieces of wood fell the human, who raised her hands above her head in an attempt to shield herself.

  The young woman was Caucasian, slight of build, and looked to be around five foot four. Her stringy, shoulder length br
own hair was filthy and smelly. She wore a white Mickey Mouse t-shirt (its front was caked with yellow vomit), khaki shorts, brown sandals, and a cheap perfume that burned Steven’s nose. Her breath smelled of her last meal, which had been pepperoni pizza, French fries, and ugh, pistachio ice cream. Each of the smells blended together and formed a specific, albeit disgusting scent that was easy for Steven to commit to memory.

  The woman looked at the vampires. Her green eyes overflowed with tears.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” she cried. “I’ve got money! My parents are rich and I can get as much as you want. Just please let me go.”

  Steven bent down and smacked the girl hard. Blood exploded from her upper lip, a few drops landing on one of the nearby shards of wood. He dipped his finger into the liquid and raised it to his lips for a small taste. It invigorated him, and he wanted more.

  “Shut your filthy mouth,” Steven said to the human. “None one here gives a damn about your money, but if you keep quiet we might let you out of here alive once we’ve finished.” It was a blatant lie, but if the woman believed she would eventually be allowed to go back home to Mommy and Daddy, she might at least shut the hell up.

  Teresa smiled. “Catching her won’t be as easy as it was with the other animals, but I know you can do it.”

  “Catch me?” “What kind of sick and twisted game are you people playing?” She raised her hands to her face and sobbed into them.

  “Okay Steven,” Teresa said, ignoring the woman’s cries, “This last test will incorporate everything you’ve learned so far. I’m going to take our friend here somewhere very crowded. Let’s see. It’s about 1:30 in the morning, so Citywalk should be the perfect place. I’ll drop her off there, but first I’m going to insert some controls inside her mind. She won’t be allowed to speak to anyone or approach any of the security staff but she will be able to elude you as best as she can otherwise. Your job is simple. Bring her back to me without drawing any suspicion in ninety minutes or less. Do that and your grade for Vampire 101 will be an A+. Any questions?”

  “None,”

  “Give me thirty minutes to get her to Citywalk. You can leave here at 2AM, and you have to bring her back to me no later than 3:30. Good luck.” Without waiting for any response she lifted the woman by her hair and flew away into the night.

  18

  “So how’s it going?”

  Steven turned to see Anna Marie, who had appeared out of nowhere. “What are you doing here?” He asked as he ran to greet her.

  “I’ve been hiding in the shadows watching your progress. I thought you might like some company until it’s time for you to leave.”

  “Is that all?” Steven asked.

  “Well, I guess I missed you a little bit, too.”

  “How much?”

  “Oh, just this much,” Anna Marie said, and held her index finger and thumb an inch apart.

  “Just that much? I’ll bet you missed me more than that.” Steven ground his cock against Anna Marie’s crotch and gently lifted them into the air. As they rose, he held her tightly to his body with one hand and used the other to unzip his fly. Once he was sure she wasn’t going to fall out of his arms, he moved into position behind her, tore off her skirt and panties, and took her hard and fast. They climaxed while crossing through a thin layer of clouds ten thousand feet above the ground.

  “That was incredible,” Anna Marie said once they had floated back to earth.

  “Yeah! We made the mile-high club, two times over. That was just the tension breaker I needed before my final exam. Thanks for coming.”

  “You’re welcome. Since you’ve still got some work to do I’m going to head back inside, but I’ll see you soon. When you finish come back to our bedroom. I’ve got one more thing for us to do before we go to bed.”

  “I’ll bet you do.”

  “Not that! You have such a dirty mind.”

  “Only since I met you. Okay, I’ll meet you back in the house as soon as I’m done here.”

  “Thanks.” Anna Marie turned to leave, but stopped in mid-stride. “Oh, I almost forgot. I brought you this. I thought you could use a little pick me up.” She tossed a small plastic bag in his direction. Inside were several tiny little crystals that closely resembled shards of glass.

  “Is this…”

  “Just a little crystal meth to cut through all the dope and get your head straight for the job ahead. Happy hunting,” she said and vanished.

  Steven didn’t like meth very much at all. Why anyone would want to do a drug that made you paranoid as hell and keep you awake for days at a time was beyond him. Right now, though, it was just what he needed. He opened the bag, emptied the crystals onto his palm, and inhaled it all. His mind cleared instantly and everything around him became sharper, more in focus. A glance at his watch told him that it was 2:01AM, so he turned into a bat and took off for Citywalk.

  Steven liked being a bat. It made him feel unobtrusive and dangerous as he flew through the night sky, like a Stealth Bomber getting ready to blow the hell out of an enemy position. He looked down at the mansion. It was situated about five miles north of Heathrow, one of Orlando’s richest suburbs.

  Business executives, golf pros, and the more prominent doctors and attorneys called Heathrow home. Oddly enough, it wasn’t very far from the house Steven had lived in before he started doing drugs. His own neighborhood, Altamonte Springs, was nowhere near as exclusive as Heathrow. It was ostensibly called a city, but Steven had always thought of it as little more than a cramped collection of condominiums, apartment complexes, and strip malls.

  After a few minutes of flying he entered Orlando proper, and could pick out the tops of roller coasters peeking up through the tree line along with the shops, nightclubs, and restaurants that formed Citywalk and the adjoining Universal Studios theme park. It was time to get serious.

  Steven descended until he was flying only a few feet above the mob of people who were shuffling en masse through Citywalk’s main entrance.

  Okay, Steven, what would you do if you were the girl? Remember, she knows she’s being hunted, but isn’t able to ask anyone for help.

  Steven guessed that he would try and blend in with the crowd as much as possible. He thought about turning the sonar on, but soon abandoned the idea, knowing it wouldn’t work until he had a target to lock on to. Next he tried to pick up the woman’s scent, but still had no success. It seemed that a great many of the humans walking below him had recently dined on pizza and wore the same perfume as the woman.

  Steven continued to circle the mob with no results and quickly felt his optimism turn to despair. He was just about ready to admit defeat when the solution suddenly came to him. Pistachio ice cream! He seriously doubted that more than a handful of the humans could have recently eaten this particular frozen dessert. It was simply a matter of weeding them out until he found the one he wanted. He lowered his head and inhaled. Bingo! The scent of the ice cream came almost immediately, and he quickly spotted her not more than hundred yards in front of him.

  Steven swooped down until he was only about ten feet above the head of the tallest person in the crowd. A few people cried out in fear and surprise, but he darted so quickly between them they had no time to react. He got closer to her and began to move in for the kill before remembering he was currently in the shape of a bat. I can’t just pick her up and fly away, he thought, so he changed into a fine, almost invisible mist instead and floated nearby until an opportunity presented itself. He was watching her so closely that he didn’t recognize the familiar voices of the couple in front of him.

  “Ralph, I told you this place was too crowded! Look at all these people! It wouldn’t be this way at Disney, Ralph! Take me to Disney! I want to go to Disney!”

  Steven couldn’t believe his ears. It was Ralph and his wife, from Church Street, and things were the same as the last time he’d seen them, despite the change of scene. It seemed that no matter how hard Ralph tried, only Disney would be good enough for his
wife. Steven knew he had to get cracking on capturing the girl, but he couldn’t resist just a little bit of fun with his old friends. He sped up until he was floating right behind the wife’s ear.

  “Listen to me, Woman,” he shouted into her ear. “This is God!” Ralph’s wife screamed and looked all around.

  “Stop screaming, and listen to me. I’m sick and tired of the way you aggravate and annoy your husband every minute of the day. He works tirelessly to provide you with a nice home, plenty of food, and a yearly vacation, but you’re never satisfied. Instead of being thankful that you have a good man to share your life with, you aggravate him to the point of suicide because he won’t take you to Disney. Well, let me tell you something. Disney is evil. Don’t you listen to the Southern Baptists? Disney is evil, and I will never let you go. Instead of Disney, you’d do well to start going to church, or you’ll find yourself someplace a lot hotter than Orlando in the summertime. GO TO CHURCH!”

  Ralph’s wife grabbed Ralph by the arm and tugged. “Take me to church, Ralph! God says I have to go to church! Take me to church! I want to go to church!”

  Steven laughed so hard that he very nearly lost his concentration. He managed to maintain, however, and quickly became serious. Fortunately, the girl hadn’t managed to get far.

  She hadn’t spotted Steven, but kept nervously glancing backwards over her shoulder and looking up at the sky with terror-filled eyes. She passed through the turnstiles that led into Citywalk and made a beeline for the restrooms just ahead to the right.

  How could she be so stupid? Steven thought. Now she’s all alone.

  Steven floated into the ladies room, which was empty except for the two of them. The girl was hiding underneath one of the sinks, crouching in much the same way she’d been the first time Steven had seen her. He switched back into his vampire body and bent to grab her, but she bolted out the door with surprising speed. Once outside she crashed into a couple of twenty-something stoners and tried to push past them, but the couple saw that she was in some sort of trouble and stopped her. Silently Steven thanked them and moved forward to intervene.