by E G Bateman
“Okey-dokey. Forget I asked.” The man made his way carefully to the kitchen counter and sat on a barstool next to Lexi.
“Did you remember to ask him about the case?” she asked pointedly.
“Oh, that. Yes. He’ll find out what he can and try to get a copy of the documents from City Hall. I’m waiting for him to call back.”
Scott leaned forward. “I didn’t mean to insult you before—about your age. It’s really cool that you’ve met interesting people and lived through those times. I think vampires are an important link to our history. I only ever met one vampire, but he told me stories from hundreds of years ago.”
“Oh? Anyone I know?” Dick sounded more polite than interested.
“His name’s Dimitri. I met him in Dallas.”
“With long black hair, dresses like something from Interview with a Vampire?”
He nodded.
Dick and Lexi looked at each other and both rolled their eyes.
“What?” The young man looked from one to the other.
The vampire shook his head. “His name wasn’t Dimitri, it was Barry, and he wasn’t hundreds of years old, he was turned in the bathroom at a New Kids on The Block concert in 1989.”
“Was? What happened to him?” Scott asked.
Lexi gave him a little finger wave. “Me. I happened to him. I killed him about a year ago. Just before I met you.”
“You killed him? But he seemed like a nice enough guy.” He looked disappointed.
“He developed a taste for toddlers that was unacceptable to my former employers.”
“I thought you said vampires were ‘hard to kill.’” He made air-quotes.
“I guess that depends on how hard you’re trying. His predilections were also unacceptable to me. I took it personally.”
“You take everything personally,” Scott muttered.
Dick loosened his tie. “Barry’s behavior was bad news for all of us. It brought unwanted attention.”
“You have to be careful with vamps. No offense, Dick,” Lexi added. “Whatever they were like in life is intensified.”
“Take me, for example,” Dick interrupted and spoke over his shoulder as he refreshed the water in a vase of flowers. “In life, I was fabulous and handsome, so I became even more fabulous and handsome.” He appeared to be completely sincere.
She watched him as he pottered about the kitchen and smiled briefly at seeing him in a domestic setting before she continued her explanation. “Barry was an addict, always looking for his next hit. When you become a vampire, well, you know what the next hit is. Blood bags would never be enough,” she finished.
“What happened?” Scott asked.
“The Kindred hierarchy put out a call for support. A kid had been found dead and it was a vamp kill. A five-year-old boy was still missing. To be honest, no one expected to find him alive but in the end, he turned up in Austin with the kid. We were asked to help. I found them and I killed Barry.”
Dick looked at her. “You get around, don’t you? Which reminds me, when was the last time you went to New Orleans?”
“I’ve never been.” She shook her head.
“That’s interesting. I suppose you should know that the other job Leonard was supposed to be working on is you.”
“Me? I don’t understand.”
“He was trying to find out where you originally came from. Dolores asked me to find out. Obviously, I wasn’t really feeling the love, so I passed the work on to Leonard because I know he has a contact in Kindred. Last night, he said he’d found evidence you’d spent some time in New Orleans.”
“I don’t remember it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. What was this evidence?”
“I guess we’ll see when we meet up next. He’ll leave a message for me today. I’ll pick it up tonight and we’ll catch up with him tonight or tomorrow night.”
He rearranged the flowers in the vase, then yawned. “And that’s the end of story time for me, kiddies. I need to get some sleep, and you need to go shopping.”
“We do?” Lexi frowned in surprise.
“I’m not taking you to the fundraiser dressed like that. I have standards to maintain. My man will take you. I’ll pick you up from the fleapit tonight.”
“What about me?” Scott asked.
“You have homework.” Dick went to a cabinet and selected several DVDs. He handed them to Scott one by one, reading the names as he did so. “The Wild One with Marlon Brando, Suspicion with Cary Grant and Robin Hood with the dude in the photograph. Pay attention. I’ll be asking questions.”
“Jesús!” he shouted. A handsome young Mexican man appeared almost instantly. He was an interesting sight in a pair of tight short-shorts, a cropped t-shirt, a green scarf, no shoes, and a scrubbing brush.
“Yes, Mr. Levin?”
“Are we interrupting something?” Dick stared at the man.
Jesús waved the brush. “I was about to clean the pool.”
“Wearing my Givenchy scarf?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You have guests.” He gestured awkwardly at the side of his neck, which was covered by the scarf.
Lexi assumed Dick had snacked on him for breakfast, something that would have been unacceptable to her when she was a member of Kindred. Now? Well, a guy had to eat and his friend didn’t seem to mind.
The vampire picked the mail up from the end of the counter and leafed through it before he replaced the pile. “Any visitors or messages today?”
“Geoffrey’s back.” Jesús nodded in the direction of the front gate.
“Yes, I noticed that. Call the hospital and let them know they have one missing.” He turned to Lexi, who was listening to the exchange with a smirk. “It’s not funny. That man is the bane of my existence. Well, one of them.”
His focus on Jesús again, he added, “You can do the pool later. Take my acquaintances shopping for an evening dress—you know the stores to go to—and drop them at their shitty car.”
“Yes, Mr. Levin.” He walked to the dish on the end of the counter and picked the car keys up.
“And put some shoes on.”
“Yes, my flip-flops are there.” Jesús pointed and rolled his eyes.
Dick shuddered. “I despise flip-flops. Those little toe posts are so invasive.” Lexi grinned as his toes moved inside his deck shoes and she guessed he was curling them.
“Dude, you drink blood. That’s way more gross.” Scott screwed his face up.
“No, I’m very sure it’s not.” The vampire shuddered again.
“I’ll pick you up later, Lexi. Please don’t be dressed like Calamity Jane.”
“I won’t if you won’t,” she replied, her expression deadpan.
He stopped and scrutinized her for a moment. “My reputation will already be in tatters after I arrive with a woman. Let’s not make it any worse.”
His employee returned wearing sparkly flip-flops.
“Jesús, use my credit card. Is the gun in the car?” Dick asked.
“Yes, Mr. Levin.”
“Good. If she tries to go to Walmart, shoot her in the face.”
With that, he turned and left the room.
Chapter Four
“Say something. If you don’t open your mouth and say something, I’ll gut you.” Lexi looked from the mirror to Jesús and back. She turned this way and that in another little black dress.
He sighed and looked up from his fingernails. “Too slutty.”
She turned to face him fully. “You do understand I’m not kidding about gutting you? It’s kind of my job.”
“You asked me to say something, so I said something.” He was unfazed.
“All you’ve said up to now is, too slutty, too slutty, too Amish, and too slutty.” She twisted the ring around her middle finger, a nervous habit.
“They’re all too short except the Amish one, and that was as ugly as sin.” He screwed his face up and pointed. “This dress is nasty. You look like you’ll start twerking like a
girl from a rap video.” He began to twerk in the middle of the Alexander McQueen store, while the younger store assistants giggled and the older ones looked horrified.
“The dress has to be short. I might need to fight.”
Jesús narrowed his eyes. “You don’t go to many parties, do you?”
Scott wandered over to join them. “How’s it going here?”
“Horribly.” Lexi sighed inwardly at the defeat in her voice. Her mind wandered to the little glass vial, which she’d stupidly left in the motel room. She frowned at the material slung over his arm. “What have you got there?”
“Another one for you to try. I think it might work.” He handed it to her.
“It’s long.” She held the dress up.
“Give it a go anyway. I have a good feeling about it.”
“If someone attacks me in this, I’ll trip over my—” Her jaw dropped when she flipped the tag in her hand. “Have you seen the price of this?”
“Dick’s credit card.” Scott wiggled his eyebrows.
“Okay, I’ll try it. I’ve never even had a car that cost this much.” Lexi returned to the changing room.
She stepped out five minutes later, and Jesús whistled. “Holy shit! Tell my mama I’m going straight.”
The assistants moved closer, oohing and ahhing.
In front of the mirror, Lexi admired the navy dress. Tied with spaghetti straps at the shoulders, it had a daring neckline. The garment hugged her curves all the way to her thighs, where a slit from there to the bottom of her right leg provided ample room for a face-high reverse roundhouse kick if required.
“Scott, my man, you have the eye. Hello?” Jesús waved his hand in front of the other man’s face as he stared at Lexi with his mouth open.
“What’s wrong?” She noticed him gaping.
“Erm…erm…gloves. You need to cover your arm.” He walked away to speak to a sales assistant.
“What’s wrong with your arm?” Jesús leaned in to stare at both her arms.
“I’m sensitive about this scar.” She held her inner forearm out to him.
“But you can barely see it.” He shrugged. “You need a clutch.” He picked up a matching navy purse and passed it to her.
“What will I do with this?” She turned the small, sparkly purse over in her hands.
“I don’t know. Maybe you could fill it with quarters and hit someone with it,” he suggested with an exaggerated eye-roll.
Lexi tested the weight of it and nodded her approval.
Jesús touched the back of his hand to his forehead. “I’m getting a migraine.”
By the time they reached the register, she had a dress, a purse, gloves, and shoes and Dick’s credit card was over eight thousand dollars lighter.
It had been a good day, but she had begun to feel like she needed a little glass-vial-pick-me-up. Jesús dropped them at their car and drove away without a backward glance and they headed to the motel.
“Are you okay?” Scott asked as she drove. “You’re feeling a little off.”
“I think I need to eat.” The one thing she hated most about their empathetic connection was that he could sense her emotional state.
“We can stop for something to eat on the way to the motel.”
She cursed silently. Now, it would be even longer before she returned to the glass vial.
Lexi swung the car into the drive-thru and Scott looked at her. “We’re not going in?”
“I won’t leave those shopping bags in the car and I won’t take them out in this neighborhood.” She drew up to the window.
“Two McRibs, fries, and a Coke, please. What are you having, Scott?”
“Three Big Macs, large fries, and a vanilla shake,”
They parked with the food.
“You looked really nice in that dress.” He stared at his food.
“I imagine anyone would look nice in a five-thousand-dollar dress.” She shook her head. “I don’t get it, you know? Dick owns that amazing place, so he’s clearly rich. Why does he keep doing that shitty PI job?”
“Maybe he likes it. Eternity’s a long time, so he might as well keep busy.”
Lexi gazed out of the window. “I’ve never met a vamp who lived for eternity.”
“I guess if you’re rocking up at their front door, eternity probably won’t happen for them.”
“I have nothing against vamps, but if they hurt people…” She didn’t need to finish the sentence.
“Like Dimitri? I mean, Barry,” he asked through a mouthful of fries.
“Yes, like him.”
“What happened to him?”
“When I found him with one of the kids, he tried to turn me so I killed him.” She shrugged and bit into her burger.
“He tried to— Oh, yuk!” Scott pulled the slice of dill pickle from the bun and held it out of the window at arm’s length.
She gulped her food. “Now, I know you’re not about to drop that on the ground.”
“The birds will eat it.”
“The birds won’t get a chance because you’ll put it in the trash. It’s roasting in here anyway.” She pointed to a trash can ten feet ahead of the car. They both climbed out.
Lexi looked at the slice of pickle in his fingertips. “Why don’t you ask them to hold the pickle?”
“I don’t like the pickle itself but I like the taste of the burger where it was.”
“You are too fucking weird.” She sipped her Coke.
She leaned on the hood with her drink as Scott walked to the trash can and dropped the little slice of pickle in.
When he turned toward the car, his eyes widened and he dropped his burger. “Motherfucker!”
Lexi whirled to see that someone had crept to the back of the car and was taking the bags from the back seat. The kid looked up, realized he’d been seen, and bolted with their purchases. She put her cup carefully on the hood and stroked her finger down her scar.
Nothing.
Scott’s magic had dissipated and she shrugged and ran after the thief.
She was fast, fortunately—unusually fast for a dud legacy.
“Lexi, just—” Scott started, but she had already set off in pursuit.
In five strides, she caught up with the thief and launched herself at his back in the same moment that she sensed a release of power from Scott. The boy tripped over his own feet and fell. Unable to stop herself, she sailed over him and met the asphalt face and arms first. She could hear her friend’s sharp intake of breath from across the parking lot and raised her head as he winced at her hard fall.
Lexi staggered to her feet and walked to the young thief, who stared in disbelief at his feet. His laces were tied together. She picked the bags up and kicked him in the balls before she caught the young man by the back of his t-shirt and hauled him to the car.
Scott looked concerned. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll tie him to the back of the car and drag him around the parking lot a few times. Maybe up and down the street.” She passed the bags to her friend, who put them into the rear footwell.
“You can’t do that. He’s only a stupid kid.” He didn’t seem to know whether or not she was kidding.
“Hey!” the thief protested.
She flicked the wrist of her hand that held his collar, and his head bounced off the car’s bumper.
“Ow!”
“I could get Dick to turn him. Then I could legitimately kill him.”
“I thought we were trying to stay off Kindred’s radar.”
Lexi released a frustrated breath. She threw the thief down and kicked him in the balls again. The kid cried.
Scott walked around the car and made to open the door, but she had locked it. He looked at her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” She pointed. “Your burger is lying on the ground.”
He stamped to the front of the car, huffing like a grumpy teen, picked the burger up, and shoved it into the trash.
“I don’t think I’d hav
e liked explaining to Dick that we lost all that stuff he just paid for,” he muttered as he climbed into the car.
Lexi assessed the damage to her face in the vanity mirror. She had grazes on her cheek, her elbows, and on the palms of her hands.
“Let’s get back,” he told her. “I can heal those for you but I want to clean them first.”
She put the car into drive and they glided past the thief, who tried to undo his laces with one hand while he cradled his balls with the other.
For a while, they drove in silence. She was angry that she couldn’t seem to maintain a hold on the magic and that he had interfered.
“So, what exactly happened then, with Barry?” Scott asked.
Lexi was glad of the opportunity to talk about something to distract her from the rage she felt. “We traced him to an old factory. I separated from my group and he jumped me and knocked me out. When I came to, he was dripping blood into my mouth. I realized the fucker was planning to turn me. Seconds after the blood went in, it was like someone had switched on a light and I could see the whole place like it was daylight. It was useful in that moment but not a good sign for going back to Kindred, even though I experienced for the first time what those enhanced senses were like for the other legacies. I had a shuriken in my sleeve. I slid it up his middle and ran while he tried to stop his guts from falling out.”
“Was the kid okay? Or did you have to…” He left the sentence hanging.
“I ran to the next floor and toward the sound of crying. I heard the others coming in the front. If they had seen me then, they would have known I’d been exposed to vamp blood. I’d heard what happened to people who were contaminated. I had to get into the light, but the windows on that level were completely bricked up. I found the boy tied up and he looked unharmed. I was relieved that I might not have to kill him.
“I slapped an explosive charge on the bricks where the window had been, grabbed the kid, and ran into the hallway.
“After a hole was blown in the wall, I took him into the room. First, I forced my eyes open to the daylight. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I wanted to scream. Inside, I was screaming. At first, it was like my eyes were on fire. After a few seconds, I blinked and the worst was over.”