It took me a moment to realize the something that was so very wrong was light streaming through the window. I wasn't used to waking up while there was still daylight out. Much like the vampires I was about to hunt I preferred sleeping through the day with the help of blackout curtains.
I supposed they used coffins rather than blackout curtains, though blackout curtains seemed a lot more practical.
I blinked a few more times trying to chase the light away, but there the sun was happily streaming in through the window. Though that happiness didn't extend to yours truly.
I rolled over in my bed and realized something else was wrong. Something that was going to be wrong for the rest of my life. Rachel wasn't there next to me. She’d never be there ever again.
"Damn it," I breathed.
That was going to take some getting used to. The beginnings of a gnawing pain threatened to overwhelm me, but I pushed at it until it was gone. Or mostly gone. I didn't think the pain would ever go away completely.
Not when I'd been responsible for her death.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and frowned again. There was a pool of dried blood on the floor there. From Rachel.
That would be a real bitch coming out. I’d probably have to hire some of the ghouls who worked for the local crime scene cleaning company.
I’d seriously debated whether it was a good idea to come back to the house the night before. When I got here the front door was covered in police tape, but I'd taken one look at that and ripped it down.
I didn't give a fuck what my coworkers said about where I could and couldn't go.
It was my damn house, and I needed somewhere to sleep. Someplace familiar, even if that familiarity had been forever ripped from my life last night by a bunch of punk vampires who wanted to play at being fanged mafiosos trying to teach me a lesson.
Well I’d teach them a lesson. I’d make them regret the day they ever decided to take me on.
I didn't have anything to do so I pulled up the folder Anderson gave me earlier. Tried to ignore the change in my routine.
Usually I’d be getting up and taking care of Zoey in about an hour. Her evening routine was my morning routine and it was my favorite part of the day. I'd always looked forward to the day when I worked the day shift so I’d be able to take a more active part in her life, but now it was starting to look like that day might never come.
Again bleakness threatened to overtake me, and again I pushed it away with a practiced precision I'd honed fighting in places a hell of a lot nastier than where I was now.
I winced as I flipped through the file. I’d done some work creating makeshift weapons before getting some sleep. I was going to be overprepared when I went out to kick ass tonight, and part of that overpreparedness was research.
I looked through the file. They hadn’t been lying. There wasn't much. Just a couple of indications that the vampires had infiltrated the local underworld. At least what little local underworld there was in this college town.
Not that I was surprised. If I was an undead abomination, a creature of the night, I’d probably spend most of my time with underworld elements as well. People who were a lot less likely to call the cops if something went south.
I’d made sure to cultivate a relationship with some of those people. There might not be much of an organized criminal underworld in this town, at least nothing touched the college campus aside from the occasional drug dealer, but I figured anyone who was involved in breaking the law was someone I should get to know on the off chance they might be able to help me with some info someday.
Even if I couldn't exactly bring them in. That was more the purview of the city cops and not the local campus PD.
Well it looked like tonight “someday” was going to be today. I was very glad I’d bothered to cultivate those relationships without letting them know I knew what they were up to. Or at least we all maintained the pleasant fiction that none of us knew what the other was up to.
I smiled as I saw one name in particular. Ricky down at the Tap. The bar had a lewd name that was one hell of a lame double entendre. The sort of thing college kids would think was clever, and that they’d look back on with fondness years later thinking about their college days.
If the bloodsuckers had dealings with Ricky then I figured it would be easy to get some information. We had a cordial relationship, even if Ricky didn't exactly seem comfortable whenever a cop walked into his establishment.
Even if I was just a campus cop. Which we both pretended I wasn’t for the sake of maintaining our relationship.
Like the agents said, I wasn’t your typical campus cop. I scared myself looking in the mirror sometimes, and I couldn’t imagine what I must look like to some pissant criminal who made his money selling drugs both legal and illegal to a bunch of college kids.
I smiled and looked at the clock. I’d considered starting my investigating right after I got out of the police department earlier, but by the time I stepped out into the parking lot the sun was already starting to peek up over the horizon.
I figured the kind of people I was on the hunt for probably weren’t the kind of people who’d be out while the sun was over the horizon. So instead I went home to get some sleep.
It killed me to sleep when my daughter was still out there somewhere, but I also knew with what I was going to be doing today, tonight, I needed to be rested.
I didn't bother with my uniform.
No, anything I did tonight was strictly off the books. The last thing I needed was for people to run away because they saw a campus cop coming. The absolute last thing I needed was for some undead jackass to come after me because they recognized me as the campus cop who'd killed a couple of vampires.
After the way they’d reacted to me killing one of their own I had a feeling they weren't going to stop now that I'd killed a couple more.
I ate my breakfast and grabbed the folder. Pulled on my trusty black leather jacket. I looked at myself in the mirror and figured I didn't look too threatening. At least I was trying not to look threatening.
I wasn't sure how good a job I did. I pulled my jacket forward so it covered my gun. It wasn't necessarily cold enough to warrant the jacket, but I wanted to take advantage of the concealed part of local conceal carry laws tonight.
Then I stopped. I wanted to walk out the door, but there were things I did every night before heading out. Things that nagged at me even though there was no more Rachel to nag at me if I didn’t do them.
Maybe that more than anything was why I found myself going through the usual motions I always did before I headed out for a night on the town. At least the usual motions I could go through considering the munchkin wasn’t there for me to take care of.
So I went through what motions I could go through. I walked over to the massive reef tank in the “study” on the first floor. It was really mostly a room to store all the stuff I couldn’t bear to get rid of when I’d made the transition from single to married life.
Married life. I leaned against the tank and stared into the blinding LED lights that burned at wavelengths made to match the tropical sun down at the equator.
Good for the coral in my tank. Not so good for my eyes if I stared for too long. They weren’t quite the sun, but they were the next best thing here in my home office. I turned away and dropped some food into the tank then went back through the house.
Blood stains on the carpet in the bedroom. My eyes returned to that spot every time I stepped through the door. I was pretty sure no amount of peroxide was ever going to take care of it.
If I found Zoey then I might not ever come back to this place. Better to forget about it. Leave it behind and let the next owners take care of the problem.
Assuming I could sell the place when word got around someone had been murdered in here. I really hoped word didn’t get around that it had been vampires. That would play hell with the resale value.
I went into Zoey’s room and fixed the sheets. Everything was
still messed up. I’d been too tired when I got in to tidy anything up. I only did a halfassed job of it now. I was working on autopilot more than anything.
Finally everything was done. I stared down at my handiwork. Told myself I’d bring her home. She would see her room again, even if it was only briefly while we were packing things up to get the hell out of there.
I didn’t even realize I’d been squeezing my hands around a toy I’d picked up until I heard a snap followed by the sound of a squeaker gasping its last. I looked down and saw some stupid toy based on everyone’s favorite mouse branded property.
I tossed it to the side. I didn’t have time for that stuff right now. It was time to get out there and get to work.
“I’m going to get you back here baby,” I said to no one in particular.
The stuffed animals stared back at me. I knew I was imagining things, or maybe I was getting a touch of the PTSD after all, but it seemed like they were judging me. I wanted to turn away, but I forced myself to meet their beady soulless gazes.
It was almost like being stared at by a vampire. Might as well get used to it. I had a feeling I was going to see a lot of vampires before the night was through.
Oh well. It’s not like confronting a bunch of vampires was going to be much worse than some of the bullshit I’d faced in my time overseas playing in the sandbox.
These assholes had fangs instead of AKs, but at the end of the day all that meant was they had to close within melee range if they wanted to take me out.
I grinned. So far I hadn’t met a single person who didn’t regret closing in on me thinking they’d have an easier time in a hand to hand fight.
I turned and left the room. Didn’t even bother locking the door on my way out. What was the point? Traditional burglars weren’t really a thing in this neighborhood, and it’s not like locks had done a damn bit of good when the vampires came calling.
It was time to get to work. It was time to go back to my old life in the hopes I might be able to save some small scrap of the new life I’d been building for myself.
It was time to gather my handiwork that kept me from getting a full day’s sleep and head out to kick some undead ass.
23
The Hunt
Gravel crunched under my car’s tires as I pulled up to the Tap. There was a steady trickle of college kids heading in even this early in the evening.
On a normal night I might’ve looked at the crowd for any sign there were kids too young to go into the bar, but not tonight. I had far more pressing things on my mind. Like the fucking bloodsuckers who were out there somewhere with my daughter.
I would find them, and I would kill them. Or I’d stake them through the heart, at least. I supposed it would be difficult to kill something that was already dead.
On a normal night I’d barge up to the place and walk right through the front door, but tonight was anything but a normal night. I knew vampires and the supernatural existed now. I knew they were out there somewhere and they had it out for me.
That meant I needed to be cautious. Already I could feel myself settling into old habits. Habits I hadn’t thought about since I got back to the states. Habits that had kept me alive once upon a time.
Maybe they’d keep me alive now that I was fighting vampires. Maybe not. I didn’t really care if I lived or died as long as I saved my little girl.
That’s what really mattered.
I sat and watched the place long enough to know there wasn’t a point in sitting around and watching the place. There was no way I could tell if the people going in were vampires or not. It’s not like they wore name tags.
The only way to figure that out would be to go in there and use myself as bait. I figured if there were any bloodsuckers around they had my number and they wouldn’t be able to resist jumping yours truly. Sure it wasn’t the greatest plan in the world, but it was the best I had right now.
“You’re going to get yourself killed Blake,” I muttered.
Though to be perfectly honest getting myself killed would almost be preferable to living in a world where I was constantly reminded that I was responsible for my wife’s death. For my little girl being taken.
The fact that my girl was still out there somewhere was the only thing keeping me together right now. That and the white hot rage burning inside me every time I thought of that vampire killing my wife.
I stepped out of the car and pulled open the trunk. Looked at my toys. It took a good chunk of the morning putting these together and I was a little sleep deprived for my evening vampire rampage, but I figured they’d be worth it.
I had my gun, of course. That would be useful if I had to get up close and personal with the vampires. Even if it wasn’t going to kill them unless I got off a good shot.
Not likely in the middle of a firefight no matter what Hollywood told people about that sort of thing. Still, it could knock them back and that might be all I needed to win a fight.
Next I pulled out my pride and joy. A Louisville Slugger that had belonged to my dad. I kept it around the house because Rachel hadn’t been all that comfortable with guns but wanted something to make her feel safe in case someone broke into the house.
I never had the heart to tell her the thing wouldn’t do that much good against a determined home invader. It made her feel safe and that’s what really mattered.
I’d whittled the top to a fine point. My hand was still a little sore from the effort, but I had one hell of a tough stake that was pointed at the end while still being able to deliver blunt force trauma if I needed it.
I figured I’d need a hell of a lot of blunt force trauma by the time I was done with all this.
Finally I pulled out the crown jewel of my vampire fighting arsenal. An air powered pump action squirt gun from my childhood. Something that had been up in the attic gathering dust for years, but I’d tried it out and proved that it worked just as well today as it had when I was a kid.
Turns out you couldn’t get the good ones like this anymore. The ones that really got a lot of pressure going.
I felt ridiculous strapping a couple of plastic backup tanks to my very adult belt, but I figured they might be necessary by the end of the night.
The padre I’d talked to down at the local Catholic church had looked at me like I was crazy when I asked the guy to bless my squirt gun, but he’d been a good sport and gone along with it.
Probably more to get me out of the church than because he thought the weapon was going to be used to fight the undead, but I didn’t care what the guy thought as long as I got my holy water squirt gun.
Besides, having a priest bless the tanks was a hell of a lot more convenient than trying to steal that water like I’d seen in some old movies. I’d gotten ordained on the Internet as a backup, but let’s just say I was more comfortable relying on a real priest than the Internet.
“Right,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
I walked up to the bar entrance. There was no bouncer. There never was. They weren’t interested in keeping people out of this bar. There were always a few less than savory dudes in there willing to throw their weight around if Ricky decided he didn’t like someone causing trouble.
I’d been on a couple of calls out here regarding kids who got in over their heads with the bouncers. That was how I first made Ricky’s acquaintance. How we came to our understanding.
It was an understanding that started and ended with my fist breaking a couple of noses on his bouncers, but it was an understanding that held and they hadn’t roughed up any college kids since.
At least as far as I knew. I hadn’t gotten any calls about it, at least, and in an age when everyone had a cell phone I figured that meant old Ricky was playing nice.
Well it was time to get him to play nice again.
Music assaulted me when I stepped through the door. It was always loud. There was a dance floor in the middle full of hot young college things surrounded by guys who were hoping to get with them for the night, coll
ege guys and townies alike, but I ignored all of them.
No, I went straight for the bar. Ricky always liked to hang out in the open where he could get a look at all the pretty young things. He also liked getting into the sauce as he kept an eye on his shitty rundown kingdom.
I sat down at the bar and waited to be acknowledged. Sure I’d beat the shit out of a couple of Ricky’s enforcers, but I liked to let the small time crook pretend he was the one calling the shots.
The bouncers were the first to notice me. One moved to crack his knuckles as someone dared sit so close to Ricky, but stopped as soon as he realized exactly who’d taken a seat next to them.
Good. The assholes still remembered me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re…”
Ricky trailed off as he realized exactly who’d sat down next to him. He tried to recover, but it was obvious he was nervous. More nervous than he usually was when I stopped by for a visit. More nervous than could be accounted for by the simple fear of a small time criminal seeing the short arm of the campus law sitting next to him.
I was immediately on guard. That meant Ricky knew something. That meant he had to be connected to the undead underworld I’d so recently discovered.
That meant I had to be careful so as to not freak Ricky the fuck out and cause him to bolt.
“Don’t look so nervous Ricky,” I said. “We both know I’m a campus cop. That’s hardly the real thing.”
“Yeah,” Ricky said, downing a shot. “Tell that to my boys you busted up.”
“I told you that wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t tried to fuck with me Ricky,” I said. “I think we both know what happens to people who try to fuck with me, right?”
I locked eyes with the man. His eyes darted to the side but I made a point of not looking in that direction. Maybe there was another bouncer in that direction. Maybe there was a vampire out there.
Either way I’d take care of it if they came over here and made trouble. Right now I was more concerned with Ricky and what Ricky knew about what’d been going on around campus lately. Supernaturally speaking.
Blake Byron: Paranormal Investigator Page 13