by Jasmine Walt
"I can do that."
Dorius disconnected the call and hit another button on the phone.
"Yes, Mr. Morizzio?"
"Get Christopher in here.'
"Yes sir."
Dorius reached in his desk, pulling out his iPod. He scanned through several selections, finally choosing one. The weeping sound of a saxophone floated to his ears as a soulful woman whispered, 'Strangers in the Night'. Dorius closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair.
A few minutes later Christopher strutted into the office, leading a large German Shepherd by a short leash attached to the animal's studded black collar.
"Buster! Sit!" The dog immediately sat down at his feet, its head reaching to Christopher's shoulder.
"I've told you that dog belongs in the kennel. Not in the offices. Take him into the hall and I'll have Buffy pick him up immediately." Dorius shut off the iPod.
"Buster goes where I go. Don't worry, he's house broken." Christopher sat in the chair opposite Dorius. The dog followed. "Buster! Down!" The dog sat at the foot of the chair. Christopher pulled a pack of Virginia Slims out of his pocket and started to light one.
"Don't even think about it, Christopher." Dorius leaned over the desk, pulling it from his mouth when Christopher flicked his Bic lighter in defiance. Dorius tossed the unlit cigarette in the trashcan by the desk, glaring at Christopher.
"What do you want, Dorius? I got better things to do than listen to your shit." Christopher tried to cross his jean clad legs, gave up and scooted back in the chair placing the leash on his lap. Buster softly growled.
Dorius sneered at Christopher. "We found the immortal women. They don't seem to be acting like rogues. They're new, Christopher. Brand-new. Someone just turned them. Do you want to tell me what really happened?"
Christopher jumped from the chair, jerked the dog to attention and started toward the door. "I told you what happened."
"And it doesn't quite gel."
Christopher grinned and patted the dog's head. "Piss on you, Dorius."
Buster lifted his leg and drained his bladder on the chair leg.
Christopher smiled and walked out the door, Buster at his heals.
"Don't you walk out on me, you little shit!"
"Fuck you, Dorius."
15
Gibbie spotted Paul lying on the ground, knees bent, one arm tucked under his head, chewing on a piece of white clover. He flew in jerky, hummingbird motions, stopped abruptly an inch from Paul's nose and treaded air.
"I know that look, Gibbie. What don't you want to tell me?"
"I like them Paul… and basically they're all good women… well… maybe not JoAnn, but..."
"I'm listening." Paul tossed the clover on the grass beside him, sat up, and leaned back on his hands.
Gibbie landed on a cypress knee at the edge of the water a few feet away. "Well, it's a couple of things and Dorius can hang them on both of them. Damn it, and I gotta tell ya, the damn troll saw half of it. I dusted his hard ass. Probably won't even faze him but it was fun watching him rub his ugly eyes."
"I told you to leave the troll alone. Dorius will not be amused."
"I'm not worried about Dorius."
"Accomplices are not dealt with kindly. Remember that. Dorius has a lot of power."
"You gonna help me or not?" Gibbie placed one hand on his hip, the other held the hilt of a small, silver sword hanging from a sheath on his belt.
"Dorius wants me to introduce myself." Paul leaned with his elbow in the grass. "He ordered me to make it clear that the last warning letter is on its way. Then it won't matter what you know, will it? Because if they don't respond, he's flying here from Italy."
"You've got to help them, Paul!" Gibbie jerked up and down in the air, his wings buzzing.
"I don't have to do anything of the kind. Whatever they did, they did on their own."
"But they didn't ask for this," Gibbie squeaked out. He always sounded like he'd taken a hit off a helium balloon when he was excited. "They don't know what they're capable of."
Paul's chest rumbled.
"Alright… Alright…" Gibbie squawked. "Here's the deal. One of them - I think JoAnn - did I tell you I don't like her?"
"Yes. Several times, in several ways," Paul said through clenched teeth.
"Shit! You aren't going to believe this, but here it is - I think JoAnn turned a raccoon and the raccoon has made vamp-friends."
"I am not playing with you fairy," Paul warned.
"I told you it was hard to believe, but I saw the fangs. They're immortal, red eyes and all."
"That's not possible and you know it." Paul pulled a small flask from his pocket, shaking it between two fingers. "Tupelo honey. Fess up Fairy. I have more where this came from."
"Nanna's drinking from men and having sex with them," Gibbie rapid fired, eyeing the honey.
"Has she killed anyone?" Paul was on his feet, headed for the house.
"I'm not sure." Gibbie flew after him. "But she brought a mortal man home this morning. He left alive. In fact, the women rescued him from the vamp-animals. It might have been one of the animals that bit him."
"You don't lie well, Fairy." Paul lengthened his strides. Gibbie had no trouble keeping up.
"Just observe them. You'll see. Don't hurt them, Paul. Well, you can take a chunk out of JoAnn's ass. I'd bite her myself if I could."
"Dorius wants me to record them. I'm gonna need your help, so meet me after I huff and puff and blow their front door down." Paul ran toward his car, pulling off his cloths on the way.
Gibbie bolted for the house.
The minute we got Max out of the house - none the wiser, and on his way - I let Mom have it. "You can't go around sucking on mortals! And you sure as hell can't bring them to our home! Enough is enough! You're gonna have the cops at our door."
"I can't help it," Mom whined. "I need human blood or I get diarrhea, blurry vision, and the damn voices in my head drive me nuts. Sex keeps me from killing them."
Before I could knock the voices right out of her head, the doorbell rang.
JoAnn jumped up on top of the breakfast bar in one fluid movement. "The raccoon is back!"
Resi did an about-face and headed for the front door, Zaire two steps behind her.
"And you think he'd ring our doorbell?" Mom shook her head and slapped the picnic table as she sat down. "You're such an idiot."
"Don't change the subject, Mom! I 'm sick and tired-"
"May I help you?" Resi asked, loud enough to shut me up.
I shook my finger at my mother. "We're not done discussing this." She smiled and wiggled her fingers at me as I turned away.
"I'm from TransLine Express Delivery," a man's voice announced. "I have the five coffins you ordered."
"Are you kidding me?" Zaire said, as I came up behind her.
I noticed my mother wasn't following. "What coffins? We didn't order any coffins."
"Is this the Stech residence?" the man asked, reading his clipboard.
"Yes, but this must be a joke," I mumbled. "No one died here."
In the dining room, Jeni burst into laughter. I ignored her, waiting for the man to answer.
"But they were paid for with… hold on… let me look… here it is, Concetta Stech's credit card. And she paid for a rush delivery."
"There's been a lot of stolen identity shit going on," Mom yelled from the living room. "I see it on the news every day."
"I just love you, Nan." Jeni was still laughing.
"The order form states that … um… give me a minute… yes, that Graveyard Productions is making a movie and needs them for props?"
I sucked in air through my teeth. "Oh, the props… yes, sorry, that would be my… um… sister… um, well, she didn't inform us that they would be delivered to our home address. Can you put them in the garage?"
"Sure can, just show me the way."
As I walked out of the house, I noticed a large dog surveying us with angry blue eyes from a cluster of bush
es right near the front door. Coal black fur prickled on the back of its neck. Ears back against its head, it lowered its muzzle, a deep rumble in its chest.
"Does he bite?" the delivery man asked.
"I don't know. Let's just move slowly toward the garage."
The man scurried off, throwing glances back at the dog. The dog didn't move so I followed, making a mental note to check it out as soon as I got back.
After two men unloaded the caskets and drove away in the delivery truck, I bolted back to the front of the house, no dog in site. I opened the door, stepped into the foyer, and immediately saw my family standing in the living room in a circle, the big black dog snarling in the center.
"How the hell did he get in here?" I joined the circle.
"I thought he might be hungry," JoAnn said. "And since Tootles-"
The dog growled. I growled.
Zaire's fangs slipped out.
"Don't worry, fella, they don't bite." JoAnn held her hands at her stomach and leaned over the dog. "Are you hungry, sweetie? I bet you'd look cute all cleaned up with a nice dog collar. I'm gonna call you Buddy. Would you like that?"
I rolled my eyes so far up, I almost fell backwards.
Zaire grabbed the poker off the hearth and stepped forward. "Get over it, JoAnn. He smells like shit. He isn't staying."
"Don't hurt him." Jeni grabbed Zaire's arm. "Look at him, he's beautiful."
I glanced at the open door, thinking maybe we could shoo him out.
Zaire poked at him. "Go! Out! Scat!"
The dog backed around in circles, snarling at her. Then he began to vibrate.
We all stood, slack-jawed, as his body seemed to break and bend with horrendous speed; paws disappeared, hands and feet taking their place. His face shook violently as it turned from hair to skin. A nose appeared where a snout had been only seconds ago.
The dog was gone. A gorgeous six foot tall man with twinkling blue eyes stood before us, completely naked. Long black hair fell in waves over his smooth tan shoulders, and full lips displayed a cocky grin on a chiseled face.
"Holy shit! It's a werewolf!" Resi yelled.
"Will ya look at the size of that thing." Mom pointed at his manhood sticking straight up in the center of a mass of black curls.
Wolf-man looked at Mom with an amused smile. She walked up and ran her hand across the curls trailing down his chest as she gazed into his eyes. "Why don't you and I take a walk up to my bedroom before the doggy comes back."
"Mom, let go of the man's penis," JoAnn ordered.
Jeni pulled Mom away. "Nanna, sweetie, although he has all the right equipment, let's not forget he's a lycanthrope."
Damn, the girl's been reading.
He smiled at Jeni, looked at the dead animals on the walls and walked over to a wolf mounted over the fireplace. "You girls kill these animals?" He played his fingers across the wolfs teeth.
"I did… before… um..." For some reason I felt the need to explain myself. "…but we ate the meat."
"I've never eaten wolf meat," Zaire growled. "Yet."
"I'm willing to try wolf meat," Mom announced. "Just give me a few minutes alone with him. Maybe an hour? That's a lot of wolf to get down."
"Mother!" JoAnn yanked Mom closer.
Jeni snickered, "I prefer a good steak, well done. The rest of you seem to like it still kickin'."
Wolf-boy turned to Jeni, his eyes twinkling. "Ahhh, an honest one in the bunch, and with a sense of humor. You must be the one who ordered the caskets."
"No, I can't take the credit for that one, and you're sporting a pretty good… umm… sense of humor yourself." Jeni eyed the center of his masculinity.
He held out a hand to Jeni. "And you are?"
Jeni offered her hand readily. "Wondering what you're doing here. And you?"
His eyes locked on Jeni. "Holding the hand of a very lovely-"
"What the hell are you doing in my living room?" I finally spat.
He slowly kissed Jeni's knuckles, his eyes riveted to hers, let her hand go and his head pivoted in my direction. "I was sent by the… Otherworld council, because you are not responding to their requests to contact them. You will receive another welcome package in a couple of days. It will contain a book of rules, a DVD and a business card. I strongly suggest you call the number on the card, order containers of blood and make an appointment to meet the council. It seems you've committed several infractions."
"What Council? What infractions?" Zaire spat. "And where are your friggin' clothes?"
"Sorry if my nudity bothers you. I have no shame about the natural state of my body."
When no one said anything, he continued. "I presume you received the first welcome package and discarded it. That was a mistake."
"We never received a package." I was finding it hard to concentrate with Mr. Wolf's wanger dancing in such a lascivious way. I closed my mouth and swallowed the drool about to drip down my chin.
He looked straight at Mom. "You're drawing a lot of attention to yourselves and they can't have that."
"Like you're not?" Zaire just wouldn't let up.
"Hey, I didn't know we wouldn't need the caskets," Mom rebutted.
"What the hell did we do?" Resi glared at him. "Besides the casket thing?" She rolled her eyes at my mother.
"It seems you're making your own rules as you go along. That's not acceptable."
Jeni started giggling, picked up Dead Until Dark off the coffee table and sat in the recliner, flipping through the pages. I hissed at her.
"Look you piece of… of… wolf-bane… I don't know what the rules are," JoAnn said, with her extremely uneducated mind. "I haven't had time to finish reading all those books." She pointed at Jeni. Jeni covered her mouth and started turning pink.
He pulled two shiny black adorable brows together, gave the books on the coffee table a glance, then burst into laughter. "If you would have responded…" He ran a hand over his mouth, hiding a grin. "…to the phone calls, or the… the mail they sent-"
"Don't you fucking laugh at us, Alpo breath," Zaire said with curled back lips. "We never got shit from anyone. Not by mail. Not by phone. So, just take your flea ridden carcass back to whoever sent it here and tell them that."
He turned on Zaire with a loud menacing growl. "Well you're getting one now! And you'd better respond, make an appointment to meet with them and order containers of blood so you don't have to suck on anything you're not supposed to be sucking on."
I watched Zaire's facial expression go all, 'I'm going to rip your throat out', in seconds. "Who the fuck do you think-"
"I know who I am. Evidently you don't, and if you refuse to immediately respond this time, it won't be me on your doorstep with a cordial invitation."
"What did you say your name was?" JoAnn asked sweetly. I almost leapt at her.
"I didn't. It's Paul, Paul Forrest. There are a lot of questions about how you were brought into the immortal world, and your actions can be grounds for destruction."
"Screw that!" Resi said, moving closer to Zaire. "We were left to fend for ourselves when Mom got bit in that restroom."
His head jerked in my direction. "Who bit you?"
I snapped, "Some brat, and he killed a woman. I was just trying to help her."
"No you weren't. You were-"
"JoAnn, shut the hell up! The kid bit me and the next thing I knew, I was seeing this Dorius guy behind my eyelids!"
"Susan, you know you're lying through your teeth," JoAnn said. "You were-"
"You ran out of there like a bat out of hell!" I shot back.
Paul hooded his eyes.
"Screw the kid. What if we don't want to be part of some damn council?" Zaire snapped.
Paul didn't pull his eyes off me. "Unfortunately, you don't have the same liberty to stand alone as some of us do. Each species is ruled by a set of laws depending on the powers each individual group has, but we are all held accountable." He forced a smile, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end
.
"You're at the top of the food chain, so to speak," he continued. "Vampires are… extreme. You could run cities, ruin lives, mold mortal behaviors, and no one can be allowed that much power to do with as they see fit. I hope I've made your situation crystal clear."
"You didn't make shit clear!" Zaire yelled.
"Yeah, what exactly did we do?" Mom snapped.
He turned, bare butt swaying as he walked away from us. "Make the call." He strolled through the door, never looking back.
"How ya doin', ladies?" Jeni said with a smirk.
I turned on my mother. "What the hell did you order coffins for? And the damn werewolf saw them delivered. Christ, Mom, you're the one that's gonna get us killed!"
"Oh, lighten up. How was I to know we wouldn't need them?"
"You ordered five," I choked out.
Mom waived me off. "I knew we'd all be vampires before they arrived. Well, except Jeni."
"Hey, maybe I can dig up Tootles and put her in one." JoAnn tried to help.
"They're going back! They probably cost five grand a piece!" I snapped.
"No, I ordered them on the internet from Best Price Caskets," Mom informed me. "They were having a eighty and ninety-percent off sale. I got'em all for under seven thousand bucks, shipping included."
"Shit!"
"Hey, I could've jumped out of the box and ordered you an urn for much cheaper, but then I would have had to fry your ass," Mom said, eyebrow arching. She turned to JoAnn. "And you can do whatever you want with yours."
"I'm going to go pick one out for Tootles." JoAnn headed for the garage. "I hope there's a pink one."
"I got two pink ones, a red one for me, a black one for Susan and a silver one for Zaire. Have at it."
"I'm making a planter out of mine," Zaire said.
"I'm sleeping in mine," Mom said, following JoAnn. But Jeni held out a hand, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"If I were you guys, I'd be trying to figure out what infractions Paul was talking about and figuring out how to defend yourselves."
"Mom and her boy-toys are the reason they're after us." I tried to whip her into shape. Did it work? Hell no.
"What about the 'don't make other vampires' rule?" Mom whipped it right back at me. "That's a no-no in every book. You started all of this, Susan."