by Jasmine Walt
This should have been my first clue.
The woman snapped, "That's it! You don't have to go. We're outta here. Now!" She pointed at the door.
"Make me!" the kid challenged, swiveling his head back to her.
Okay, it was now or never. Cell phone ready, I braced myself and hit the record button.
"Ohhh nooo!" JoAnn shouted.
I slipped and one foot landed in the toilet with a splash. I jerked it out, glaring at my new Eddie Bauer sandal dripping pissy water.
"There's no toilet paper in here," JoAnn whined. "Can you pass me some?"
"I've about had it with you kid!" the woman yelled.
Tootles started barking.
I placed my wet sandal on the metal toilet paper holder and leaned against the wall.
JoAnn scooped up the dog and placed her in the purse. She began digging around under Tootles. "I know I have a Burger King napkin in here somewhere."
I peered over the wall and pointed my cell phone into the handicapped stall, hands shaking.
The woman jerked her head up to look at me. "What the hell do you want? Get back into your own stall old lady, 'cause this is none of your business!"
I looked at my cell. Her angry face filled the screen. I shuddered with excitement.
"Susan, stop being such a pain and pass me some toilet paper."
The boy's chest rumbled and the woman turned back to him. I adjusted my feet, pointing the phone directly at them.
"Look, you little pain in my ass," the woman snapped. "I don't like this anymore than you do. It's not my fault Dorius had business to take care of. I'll be glad to hand you over, buddy, as soon as he gets his ass back here to pick you up. So, if you have to piss, get on with it!"
"Are you trying to make me mad?" JoAnn asked. "Can you please hand me some toilet paper?"
To shut her up, I grabbed a handful of toilet paper and tossed it over the wall. Tootles jumped from the purse and began to wrestle her for it.
"I don't need to be told when to urinate, bitch," the cute little fella hissed, followed by an intake of breath from my sister's stall.
"That's it!" JoAnn announced, flushing the toilet. "We're getting out of here!"
Totally committed, I ignored my sister and whipped the phone in the kid's direction. He looked up at me, licking his lips. His eyes turned black with rage.
"Do you want to die, too?" the boy asked me. "Because if you don't leave right now, you'll wish you had."
That should have been my second clue.
"Shut that damn phone and leave us the hell alone," the woman yelled.
JoAnn went ape-shit. "Susan, are you filming them? You better not be! Why can't you act your age, for heaven's sake?"
Like a woman possessed, I slammed my brows together and, with hooded eyes, filmed like mad.
JoAnn just wouldn't let up. "Tootles is scared and all you can think about is your stupid website!"
Tootles yelped and hit the floor. She skittered into my stall, yapping like crazy, her pink taffeta skirt askew, toilet paper hanging from her mouth.
"Tootles get back over here!" JoAnn yelled. "We're leaving right now!"
I was leaning over the stall, camera running, when the kid reached up and slapped the phone out of my hand. It landed on the floor against the far wall. The little red light was on, still recording them. Now I was pissed. The whole event was worthless if I didn't get my damn phone back.
JoAnn's head popped out from under her stall, glaring up at me. "What in God's name are you doing up there? Get down before you fall and break something."
"I dropped my frigging phone," I lied.
"So you think you can just climb over the wall and get it? You're a senior citizen for heaven's sake! Get down, now!"
"Not without my phone." Like an idiot, I climbed up on the toilet paper holder, swung one leg over the wall, riding the stall in a very uncomfortable position.
With spittle flying from her mouth, in a guttural voice, JoAnn enunciated every word, "Why-can't-you-just-ask-for-it?"
I winced, trying to get comfortable; my crotch hurt like hell. "If you had a Retriever instead of that ball of-"
The kid grabbed my foot, yanked me over the wall, and ended the argument. I rolled off the changing table and landed on the floor beside the woman in an ass-cracking smack.
That should have been my third clue.
I rubbed my butt, and with shaky legs, got up, leaned against the wall, and edged toward my cell, eyeing the woman and kid.
The little guy grabbed the woman by the chest, hissing loud enough to make me think the next thing I'd see would be his cherubic little head turning a full circle. The theme song to The Exorcist played in my head.
I leaned slowly toward my cell, holding my aching back.
The kid snarled, lifted the woman off her feet and tossed her into the corner of the stall as if she were a rag doll. Her head hit the tile wall and exploded like a dropped melon. I froze in horror. A red streak of blood trailed down the tile wall as she slid to the floor with a thump. Her mouth flopped open, emitting a long breath that fluttered the floating toilet tissue in front of her face.
JoAnn let out a blood-curdling scream. "Did you just hit that woman? I'm not going to jail for you, Susan! You know I'm on a special diet."
Tootles started yelping. I felt nauseous.
I reached down and plucked the cell off the floor, punching in 911. The phone beeped and a message on the screen told me there was no signal. Shit!
The kid smiled at me.
"That woman needs an ambulance!" JoAnn instructed, her head peeking under the stall I was no longer in.
The boy's nostrils flared. His head jerked in the direction of my sister's voice.
I leaned low on the floor and my eyes met JoAnn's. Her eyebrows slammed together on her forehead.
Snapping my phone shut, I slid it across the tiled floor, hoping it would hit my sister in the chest. No such luck. It stopped six inches from her nose.
Tootles scampered out of the stall.
"Tootles! Get back here, right now!" JoAnn's head jerked in the dog's direction.
"Go outside and call the police. There's no signal in here, JoAnn."
She reluctantly grabbed the phone, wiggled back into her stall and scrambled to her feet. "Tootles! Do not go out that door! Stay! Stay! Sit!"
Suddenly, the whole scene came into focus as I watched JoAnn's feet heading for the exit. I was in a bathroom stall with a dead woman and a homicidal child in serious need of some Ritalin.
With my heart skipping every few beats, I got to my feet, wincing in pain, and sidled toward the door, my eyes never leaving the kid.
He opened his mouth and hissed at me.
I stumbled back a step, chin several inches from my chest, and the little shit projectile vomited blood into my face, mouth and eyes. I felt the coppery taste on my tongue, swallowed like and idiot, and a large lump of glutinous blood slid down my throat. I back-pedaled, gagged, wiped my mouth off on my sleeve, and sucked in short, shallow breaths in an effort not to vomit.
I moved against the far wall opposite him, turned to the woman on the floor, and noticed two circular wounds on her neck. What the…
The boy studied me with black eyes that were no longer human. They followed me to the door and when I looked back at him, he grinned.
I gagged, bile climbing the back of my throat, and shuddered, revisiting the taste of blood in my mouth.
I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, trying to wrap my cranium around it as the bloody lipped child slyly contemplated me and my only exit.
That's when I noticed his teeth. No, they were fangs. Mesmerized, I watched them slide from his mouth in a classic vampire image. Come on! Let's not even go there. I'm seeing things.
He leaped off the changing table and strutted toward me.
I pushed against the wall, slipped on the puked blood, and landed on the floor. With dry heaves, I watched him take another step toward me.
> This is stupid. He's what, three feet tall? I could take him. Just kick the little shit and run for it. As if he heard my thoughts, he hissed and was on me in a heartbeat.
In a flash, he yanked me by the hair, pulled my neck to his lips, and sharp fangs slid into my skin. He started sucking; I became paralyzed as the little shit's life passed through my mind like a black cloud on a stormy night.
…He is in an alley, five men tossing him from one to the other, all with fangs gleaming in the moonlight, all begging for a turn at the boy’s throat as the child screams out in horror.
…One of the men bites his wrist, offering it to the boy, all of them laughing.
The vision changed and another whirled through my mind.
…A tall dark haired man, his fangs flashing in anger, chases the five men through alleys until finally a battle ensues. The child cowers, watching, fangs hanging from his little mouth as his wicked family is slain before his eyes.
Just as fast as one scene swept my mind another came rushing in, playing in a vivid flash of color and diction.
…The child and the dark haired man are on a city street in front of a topless bar.
"Following this titty-dancer around is not my idea of a fun time, Dorius," the child says. "It pisses me off. I don't see why I can't join the rest of the Rogue Hunters."
"Christopher, she's a suitable mate. I cannot overlook that. And you're not fighting rogues. We've been over this a million times. You'd be too much of a distraction."
Christopher, the child's name is Christopher.
"I need the goddamn distraction!" Christopher yells. "You know I want a woman, and you taunt me with yours. You try walking around looking like a goddamned joke. Fuck you, Dorius."
"It's not always all about you, Christopher."
"Fuck you, man."
I groaned while Christopher suckled slowly, his chest rumbling softly as the scene dissolved, replaced with another.
Christopher, Dorius, and the dead woman stand in front of the restroom. The restroom I am now dying in, next to the woman that is already dead.
"Angelina, do you believe in fairy tales?" Dorius asks.
"It's Angel darlin' and all I believe in's shakin' my ass to pay my bills. Believe me baby, I've heard it all."
"No Angel, you haven't."
My head was reeling, the boy's anger crystal clear as he bit my throat harder.
"What if I told you that you could live forever, stay young, and never have to work another day in your life?"
"Yeah, sure sweetie - a real nice little fairytale - but-"
"Angel, I've got a surprise for you. Something very special."
"Darlin', I love surprises."
Dorius bends toward the woman's throat. Ringing - I hear a phone ringing. He hesitates and pulls away, cussing.
The boy's lips smiled against my neck. I listened to a garbled conversation somewhere. It sounded like the dark immortal, Dorius. But he isn't in the restroom, is he? His voice echoed over and over like an old scratched record, "Don't let any harm come to her, Christopher… Don't let any harm come to her… Don't let any…"
I felt teeth pull from my skin. I think my eyes were open, but it felt like a dream as I watched the child drag the body of Angelina out of the stall, a red trail following them across the bathroom and out the door of the restroom.
Holding my stomach, I retched. My body trembled with pain. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall, panting. Darkness enveloped me, until I heard a gasp that reverberated off the walls.
My eyes popped open. JoAnn stood dead still in the doorway of the restroom. She let out a screech, hand grasping her chest as she speed-walked toward me, sidestepping the blood on the floor.
"Oh, my gracious Lord in thy kingdom of eternal bliss, help me. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph give me divine strength to carry on. It looks like a massacre in here!" JoAnn's nonsensical biblical yammering bounced off the bathroom walls like a pack of Ping-Pong balls, one after the other, giving her words momentum. My ears were ringing.
"The darn cell phone doesn't work and the telephone booth across the street is out of order." She squatted beside me and yelped, "Oh, sweet mother of God, they slit your throat! There's blood all over your face, too. I hope it's yours." JoAnn leaned over my neck wound.
My mouth salivated.
She moved in a little closer, her cheek in front of my face. "Are you-"
I slowly pivoted my head until our noses touched. My gums tingled.
JoAnn backed up a bit, fanning her hand in front of her face. "You smell like road kill. And where did the kid and the woman go?"
My skin started to prickle. My stomach clenched.
"I don't know," I whispered, pulling my eyes away from JoAnn's throat. I wrapped my arms around my aching stomach and rocked back and forth. "If I had one of my guns I'd have shot that kid." I ran my tongue over my upper gums. They felt numb.
"Let's not get started on your gun fetish, Susan! You have bad karma; shooting poor innocent deer and dragging them home all the time!"
I felt sharp little points pushing out in front of my old worn-out canines as I half-listened to my sister's ranting.
"And don't give me that crap about meat for the freezer. We have grocery stores you know."
Maybe I have a subdural hematoma. Maybe I'm hallucinating.
JoAnn hooked an arm around me, grimacing at the blood on my chest, and begrudgingly helped me to my feet. "Come on. That's it; I'm taking you directly to the hospital."
"Damn it, JoAnn, will you ever shut up?" Christ, I can hear her pulse. I can smell her blood! I was in a panic as we headed for the bathroom door.
"Don't you cuss at me!"
This can't be happening!
"This is all your fault, certainly not mine, and living with a bunch of dead carcasses hanging on our walls doesn't set a good example for poor Tootles! It frightens her."
She pulled me toward my Jeep Wrangler. I moaned in pain, my eyes riveted on her neck as we stumbled along.
In the Jeep, I leaned against the window in the backseat, my stomach cramping, my throat dry, my gums burning.
JoAnn put the Jeep in gear. Tootles began to bark and jump around on the console. "Poor little Toot-Toots, Mommy's going to give you a big dish of baked chicken as soon as we get home."
My mouth salivated as I locked my eyes on the dog. I smelled her blood and, with an uncanny clarity, heard Tootles rapid heartbeat enticing me, pulling at me as the car sped through the parking lot.
A loud rumble started in my chest and fangs ripped through my upper gums. Two worn-out canines dropped onto my lap. I stared at them, my body vibrating, and my skin felt like it was burning, stretching. My eyes jerked to my sister's reflection in the rearview mirror, and then back to the dog. A growl moved up my throat and out my mouth.
JoAnn's eyes jumped to the mirror. She screeched and turned around in her seat. "You… you… you have big teeth! What the? And… and… your skin is stretching… you look so… Oh my Go-"
The car plowed into a light pole so hard everybody shot forward. The airbags deployed and bounced Tootles into the back seat where she landed right in my lap. I looked down at the dog, saliva dripping down my chin, sharp pains in my stomach, my head pounding with each pulse of the dog's blood.
Tootles whimpered. I pulled her close to my chest, placing my nose in her curly fur as I stroked her. "Ith othay, I got ya now." My words of comfort sounded funny over my fangs.
JoAnn hysterically wrestled the airbag, guttural moans coming from her mouth. She opened the car door and the interior light came on, giving her a picture perfect view of the horrendous scene in the back seat.
"Stop biting Tootles!" she screeched. "For God sake, are you crazy? Do you have mad cow disease?" JoAnn stared at me with a look of horror on her face.
I shook my head, dropped Tootles, and my fangs slipped back into my gums. I gagged, trying to clear my throat, and hacked up a bloody hairball that hit JoAnn right between the eyes. She yelped, fra
ntically wiping her face.
I looked down at Tootles dead in my lap, and began to shake violently. What have I done? I stared at my sister. My baby sister! "I… I think I'm a vampire, JoAnn! Do something!"
2
Dorius picked up his cell for the fifth time, punched in Angelina's number, and heard the same message, "The party you wish to speak to is no longer available."
"Oh for the love of blood." He broke the connection, quickly punching in another number. This time he got a pre-recorded voice message with the snappy tune, 'Werewolf in London' in the background, "Not available to take your call. Probably out in the woods. Leave a message after the howl."
"Son of a bitch! The only link to finding my wanna-be-mate is out howling at the moon."
Dorius left a message after the howl. "Paul, call me back immediately. We have an issue to resolve." He looked at his watch. "It's ten o'clock." He closed the cell and tossed it on the dashboard.
"The Gods be damned! I hate waiting!" He ran his hands through his long black hair and tugged at the leather bolo around his neck, unbuttoning the first two buttons of his burgundy silk shirt. His square jaw cracked as he ground his teeth and smoothed out his black goatee, while peering at his deep blue eyes in the rearview mirror.
His fangs dropped with an angry growl. He yanked open the door of his black Mercedes SUV, stepped out and immediately began to pace. His dark jeans scraped softly over his black, pointy-toed boots, the silver tips shining in the glare of the street lamps.
"Where the hell are they, damn it?" Dorius slapped the hood of his car, putting a small smudge on the shiny black surface. "If Christopher fucked this up, the little bastard will die a second time."
He glared at the greasy print for a few seconds, then buffed it with his elbow, while he contemplated whether he should just drive to the park and find out for himself.
Why the hell did I have to go join the others in the hunt? Shit, what a mess.
He slid back into the SUV and slammed his fist against the steering wheel. "Damn it! Damn it all to hell!"