Blood and Needles

by Billy Lyon

  “That’s no fair! How am I supposed to play a joke on you when you’re always one step ahead of me?”

  “I guess you’ll just have to try harder,” Anna Marie said, her eyes twinkling. “So what did you get up to while you were away?”

  Anna Marie’s face fell as he told her about his father.

  “Oh, Steven, I’m so sorry,” Anna Marie said. Are you okay?”

  “Believe it or not, I am. Not at first, but I had some time to think about it on the way home, and now I believe things turned out for the best. Everyone ended up where they want to be. I just wish I’d been able to let him see that I’m finally successful at something worthwhile. It would have been nice to be able to spend some time with him away from the craziness of addiction.”

  “I know. One of the few drawbacks of immortality is that you’re forced to let go of those who don’t possess it. It sucks, but you learn to deal with it over time. Is there anything that I can do to make you feel better?”

  Steven drew her close. “Just being here with you is more than enough.”

  “Why don’t you take a shower and get something to eat before the meeting? While you do that I’ll order a crew out to your house and have your dad’s body brought here. We can bury him next to your mom. Once we’re finished with our mission we’ll have some really nice tombstones made. That way, your parents will have a resting place worthy of their name.”

  “Thanks. Can I make one more request, since I am the mate of the Vampire Queen?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Put off the orders a few more minutes and join me in the shower.”

  “Steven, what am I going to do with you?”

  He took her into the bathroom and showed her.

  24

  “So what’s this meeting all about, anyway?” Steven asked Anna Marie once they had washed away the remnants of their lovemaking and were getting dressed. “I keep hearing allusions to some mysterious mission.”

  “When you come down to it,” Anna Marie replied while slipping on a pair of ruby-encrusted earrings, “the mission’s really not all that mysterious. It’s just part of day to day life in the clan. You’ll find out all about it soon enough.” She poured some dope out onto the sink top and they indulged before leaving.

  A couple of minutes later they arrived at the conference room and entered. Seated around the conference table were Teresa, Joseph, Samantha, and the large vampire named Hasi that Steven recognized from his initiation ceremony. Each of the vampires rose as Anna Marie entered, but she quickly motioned for them to be seated.

  Anna Marie turned to Steven. “I think you know everyone here except for Hasi.” The massive vampire stood and offered his hand.

  “Good to finally meet you in person, Steven.” Hasi said warmly. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you from Teresa.”

  Steven turned to Teresa and noticed that her hair was now colored bright orange. She also wore a blue chiffon dress that in no way matched either the color of her hair or her black combat boots, but somehow the crazy ensemble was appealing, nonetheless. “Teresa is a very good teacher. It’s good to meet you, too, Hasi.”

  Once everyone was seated, the door opened and two acolytes entered, carrying trays of refreshments. There were large vials of Dilaudid, a pound or so of cocaine, and several pitchers of blood.

  A few minutes later they settled down to the business at hand. Anna Marie picked up the goblet beside her and took a sip of blood before speaking. “Thank you all for coming. Before I turn things over to Teresa and Hasi I want to let you know that all efforts to locate Eric have failed. Our best trackers have scoured all outlying areas but so far have had no luck. I feel sure that Eric has been making plans to leave for quite some time, and as smart as he is it would probably be a waste of our resources to keep searching for him, so I’m calling off the search.”

  Teresa lit a cigarette and blew smoke before speaking. “You’ve made more than a reasonable effort to find him, Anna Marie. Eric is over three hundred years old now, and he needs to finally grow up and learn to deal with disappointment just like any other vampire. He’s shown no appreciation for the fact that you recognized his talents at such a young age and advanced him to the council before he had been with us for even a year. Steven has been here less than a week and already he acts a thousand times more mature than Eric.”

  “Well, it’s frustrating to say the least,” Anna Marie said, “but I still have hopes that he’ll come home soon.” She looked down at her notes. “That’s all I wanted to say, so if no one has anything else, I’ll turn things over to Hasi and Teresa.”

  Hasi rose and walked up to the podium, which he dwarfed. Teresa stood beside him and turned on a projector that was connected to a laptop. Steven wondered briefly if Teresa and Hasi were lovers, and chuckled softly. If so, they would have to be the most physically mismatched pair in history.

  The lights dimmed, and a large building appeared on the screen. It looked to be about a hundred thousand square feet in size and was painted a dull gray. Whatever was kept inside must be extremely valuable, since the building had no windows and the entire property was surrounded by a tall security fence topped with razor wire.

  “Tomorrow’s target is Theegun Laboratories,” Hasi said, “the Western Hemisphere’s largest manufacturer and distributor of synthetic opiates.”

  “I wondered where all the clinical-grade dope around here comes from,” Steven said.

  “Well, here’s your answer,” Hasi said, smiling. “We steal it. But usually we target much smaller facilities than Theegun, ones that don’t have nearly as much security in place.”

  “But why make such a big deal out of robbing the place at all?” Steven asked. “I mean, even if they have the best security systems in the world we’re still vampires, aren’t we? Why couldn’t we could just go in, take what we want, and wipe out any human resistance we meet?”

  “It’s a good question,” Hasi said. “It would indeed be easy to do just that, but I’ll bet if you think about it for a few seconds you can tell us why we wouldn’t want to.”

  Steven felt stupid when the answer finally came to him. “If we went there and caused a massive bloodbath it would raise human suspicions,” he said. “We wouldn’t appear on their cameras since we don’t cast reflections, and when the cops reviewed the security tapes they would see an invisible army killing everyone in sight. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that something supernatural was going on.”

  “Exactly,” Hasi said. “We always want to avoid detection whenever possible, because it’s important for us that humans continue to believe we’re only fictional characters. Of course there are some that know the truth, but the neat thing about those humans is that as soon as they try to convince others of what they know, they’re almost always thought of as kooks. As long as we maintain the status quo the villagers aren’t storming the gates and we can pretty much do what we want. That’s one reason why we put so much effort into the planning and execution of these raids.”

  Samantha jumped into the conversation at that point. “Also, Steven, the tactics you learn in these missions will teach you skills that will serve you well, if and when we go to war. It’s something that doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the battles are prolonged and bloody. Many vampires die in them, so you need to be prepared. The other clans think we’re just a bunch of junkies who do nothing but sit around all night and get high. They may be right, but when threatened, we become serious in a hurry. In every war that has ever taken place the opposing clan’s casualties have vastly outnumbered our own. The main reason for this is that we train regularly and they don’t.”

  All this fascinated Steven. “So how do the clan members who don’t belong to the council train for battle? Do they participate in the raids?”

  Joseph answered this time. “Yes. Each council member takes a turn leading missions and is responsible for the training of a certain number of clan members. Teresa and Hasi are in charge of the m
ilitary arm of the clan as a whole and oversee every mission. Anna Marie retains ultimate control, of course. You might say she’s our Commander in Chief.”

  Hasi directed their attention back to the screen. “Like I said, pretty much every hospital in our part of the world gets their higher-strength painkillers from Theegun Labs. I’m talking about the good stuff: morphine, Dilaudid, Fentanyl, and even IV cocaine. We’ve never hit them before because their usual MO is to deliver several small shipments at different times. Our intelligence tells us, however, that this policy has recently changed due to their new efforts at reducing transportation costs.

  The end result of this change is that tomorrow Theegun is going to load many tons of drugs into ten semis that will make one giant delivery to the country’s largest hospitals. Their goal is to supply each hospital with enough medication to treat patients for six months. Ours is to steal it, and if we’re successful we’ll have enough party favors to last well into next year.”

  Teresa clicked a button on the laptop and a smaller building appeared. It was located just to the left of the main facility and was open in the front and back, like an airplane hangar.

  “This is the loading bay that sits alongside the main building,” Hasi said, “and it’s where the drugs will be loaded onto the semis. The trucks will be filled during the day, but I’ve learned that they won’t be leaving the facility until midnight. This makes things just about perfect for us.”

  “How are we going to get the trucks out?” Steven asked. “I know that I can’t drive a tractor trailer. And what about finding a place to keep all the stuff once we steal it? There’s nowhere in the mansion big enough to hold that much dope.”

  “Patience, young grasshopper,” Hasi said. “All good things come to those who wait.” He nodded to Teresa, who changed slides again. The corporate logo for Williams Trucking Corporation appeared on the screen. “Normally, Theegun doesn’t use tractor trailers for their deliveries, so they’ve hired Williams Trucking to supply the trucks and the drivers.

  For this shipment, each semi will have a crew of two drivers. A meeting is scheduled for all the drivers inside the main building at 11PM, during which time they will receive their final instructions. Our plan is to sneak into the meeting and take command of their minds.

  Once we’ve done this, we’ll command the drivers to take their trucks to a location twenty-five miles from the mansion instead of their intended destinations. The clan has purchased a hundred acres of land out in the boonies just for this purpose. Once the trucks get there, the drivers will unload the drugs and then go to a location far from Orlando. We decided on Georgia, didn’t we Teresa?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Once the drivers arrive in Georgia, each one will get a hotel room and commit suicide. This will eliminate the possibility of any witnesses, and the dope will be safe and secure in the middle of our hundred-acre plot for us to use at our leisure.”

  Simple, yet impressive, Steven thought. If they could carry it off it would be one hell of a coup. No one had any questions at that point, so Hasi suggested they take a thirty-minute break. The group split up and Steven walked to the table that contained the refreshments. He drew ten milligrams of Dilaudid into a syringe and was just trying off his arm when Teresa sidled up beside him.

  “Hey, Handsome,” she said in a friendly voice. “Go easy on that stuff.”

  Steven smiled. “The reason I became a vampire is so that I wouldn’t have to go easy.” He drew back on the plunger, saw that he was in a vein, and pushed the drug into his body. “Happiness, thy name is hydromorphone.”

  “Ha-ha,” Teresa said as she prepared her own shot. Steven waited until she had injected and enjoyed her rush before he spoke again.

  “I really love the plan you and Hasi came up with. It’s ingenious.”

  “Thanks. I’ll make sure to tell him that you said so. How are things with you and Anna Marie?”

  “Things are perfect. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and I’m pretty sure she feels the same way. I’ve also been feeling really sorry about what happened to Elaine. Do you feel like talking about her? If you don’t just tell me to shut up and mind my own business.”

  “I don’t mind talking about Elaine. We were very happy together, until the day she cremated herself, that is.”

  Steven placed his hand over Teresa’s. “I’m so sorry. Do you have any idea why she did it??”

  Teresa reached for another vial of dope with shaking hands and began preparing a second shot. “One or two hundred years after being brought over, every vampire goes through a period of deep depression. It’s kind of like the mid-life crisis some humans have, I guess. The clan gives vampires special attention during this period and they usually come out of their funk okay but Elaine didn’t, and became suicidal.”

  “I’m sorry,” Steven said again. “I can tell from the sound of your voice that you loved her a lot.”

  “Thank you, Steven. Your compassion and sympathy mean a lot.”

  “You’re welcome,” Steven replied, and then looked at the clock. I believe it’s time to get started again.”

  This time it was Teresa who was in charge of the proceedings and Hasi who manned the projector. “There’s not much left, guys,” Teresa said, “so I’ll try and make it quick.”

  Hasi brought up another picture of the lab. This one showed not only the main building but the surrounding acreage.

  “It’s good for us that Theegun decided to build their primary facility way out in the boonies of Seminole County, because there’s not much out that way except for cows, gators, and brush.” Teresa picked up a laser pointer and pointed it toward a spot just outside the woods that bordered the lab to the east.

  “We’ll meet here at 10PM sharp. Anna Marie will set up a mobile command post and watch over everything that happens, intervening only if anyone should run into trouble. Everyone here except for Steven will be a team leader, and each team will be comprised of three vampires. I’ve sent the names of your team members to each of your phones. After this meeting you’re responsible for finding them and briefing them on tomorrow’s activities. Hasi and I will be the only exception and will go alone except for Steven, who will tag along and watch since this is his first rodeo.”

  Steven did the math. There would be a total of ten of them taking part in the raid. He guessed it would be more than enough. After all, they were vampires.

  “Now, here’s where things get a little bit complicated.” Hasi changed slides and a floor plan of the main building appeared. “This is the first floor. If all goes as planned we won’t have to go to the second or third floors but I want you to familiarize yourselves with them anyway. These floor plans should also be in your phones by now. Hasi will position himself inside this room, which is the lounge where the drivers are supposed to meet before heading out to their trucks. His job is to take control of the humans and implant our instructions. Steven and I will wait outside and stop anyone who might try and interfere.”

  Teresa paused and took a sip of blood. “That leaves Joseph and Samantha. Once the humans leave the building Joseph’s team will shadow them while they walk to the trucks.” She traced a path with the laser pointer from the conference room to the large open-air building where the trucks would be waiting. “Samantha’s team will be waiting at the departure area and will have made sure the trucks are ready to go. Anna Marie will join us then, and we’ll all fly alongside the trucks until they arrive safely at our land out in the country.

  By the time the trucks are unloaded it should be getting pretty close to dawn, so we’ll put the humans to sleep inside their trucks until the next night. Once the sun sets the following evening, we’ll rejoin the humans and escort them just north of the Florida-Georgia line, where they’ll rent rooms and kill themselves. After that the only thing left for us to do will be to fly back home and enjoy our ill-gotten gains.”

  Once again there were no questions, so the meeting ended. Steven walked with Anna Mar
ie to their coffins, kissed her, and climbed into his coffin.

  25

  Steven found it impossible to sleep despite the fact that Lisa had just injected him with a large dose of Fentanyl, so he pushed the button that summoned Lisa. She opened the coffin’s lid almost immediately.

  “I can’t sleep,” Steven said anxiously. “Do we have anything stronger than the Fentanyl you gave me?”

  “Of course, Steven. I’ll be right back,” Lisa said, and disappeared. “She returned a few minutes later, carrying a syringe filled with a chalky, white liquid. “This should do the trick,” she said. “It’s Propofol, but in the hospital where I used to work they called it Milk of Amnesia.”

  I can see why Michael Jackson loved this stuff so much, Steven thought in the couple of seconds it took for the anesthetic to knock him out completely.

  At sundown Steven woke to find Anna Marie waiting. They greeted each other affectionately and walked to the basement to get breakfast, which consisted of two teenage runaways who had been lured to the mansion by false promises of sex and drugs. Once these preliminaries had been taken care of they walked to the front entrance and waited for the others to arrive.

  By the time everyone was present and accounted for there were only thirty minutes left before departure time. Steven introduced himself to those members of the party he hadn’t met up to that point. Everyone was pleasant enough, but he could sense a strong current of determination running through the group. There would be no fun and games until everyone had returned safely.

  Hasi stepped forward and went over the agenda and everyone’s responsibilities one last time. When he finished fifteen minutes remained until they had to leave, and they passed the time by shooting up. Not much later ten very stoned and battle-ready vampires held hands while Anna Marie whisked them off to their destination.