Only I knew I wasn’t dealing with a mortal here. The vampires didn’t play by the rules when it came to injuries, and that meant I could be a lot more rough with this asshole than I’d be with a normal. The vamp’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as I heard something snap in his jaw and he fell to the ground. Out cold.
With anyone else that meant they were in need of a trip to the hospital. With a vampire it meant I had maybe five or ten minutes before the guy healed and was ready for another fight.
Or ready to sing. I fully intended to have some fun tricks waiting for the guy. Unfortunately none of the basement’s current occupants could see my bag of tricks.
I looked over at the girls.
“All the vampires upstairs are dead. You need to get the hell out of here and forget you ever saw any of this. Or me.”
They hesitated for the space of a breath and I wanted to scream. Didn’t they realize they were safe?
“Get out of here!” I barked in my best cop voice. The voice I usually reserved for drunk kids I really didn’t want to bring into the drunk tank.
That got through to them. They sprinted for the other side of the basement and the stairs. I really hoped there weren’t any other bloodsuckers waiting up there, but I also couldn’t afford to leave this guy alone when he might wake up and try to make an escape.
Besides, I saw the girls pulling out their phones as they ran. I figured it was even money as to whether the vampire reinforcements or my coworkers got here first, I’d put money on the vampires considering Kinsey would have to wake his fat ass up, but either way I didn’t have much time.
A pitched battle between vampires and my former coworkers might’ve been interesting to see, but I couldn’t hang around long enough to be caught in the middle of that Charlie Foxtrot.
So I threw the guy over my shoulder and sprinted after the girls. This way I could make sure they were okay and go somewhere a little more private where I wouldn’t have to worry about reinforcements, for the good guys or the bad guys, showing up and ruining my night.
27
Questions
A half hour later I was back at my house. The vampire was tied up to a sturdy chair I’d inherited from my grandmother. A chair my grandpa built with his own two hands. Strong. Not like the cheap stuff from overseas you got these days and were expected to put together based on plans that may or may not be written in passable English.
I reached down and slapped the vampire a couple of times. He’d been out for a lot longer than I would’ve expected. Maybe the old right hook was stronger than I remembered.
He groaned and started to come around, but it wasn’t working fast enough for me so I opened one of the reservoirs for my squirt gun, dabbed a bit of holy water on the tip of my finger, and pressed it against the vampire’s forehead.
I hoped this small drop wouldn’t be enough to vaporize the bastard. After all, it’d taken a surprisingly small amount to take the vamps out when I was throwing it around back at that house party.
That got the asshole’s attention. He cried out and his eyes went wide. He also didn’t immediately start dissolving like the ones back at the house party had.
Another experiment gone right. I could dab them with holy water, but get enough on the fuckers and it started a chain reaction that ended with them melted in a puddle of goo. Good to know.
“What the fuck?” the guy shouted.
He looked around and took in his surroundings. The confusion was obvious. The punch to the face must have knocked something loose even if he did ultimately recover. Finally his eyes came to rest on me.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
The vamp tried to get up but found himself pulling against a combination of cuffs and ropes that kept him right where I wanted him. When I tied a knot it didn’t go away until I was ready, even if the person tugging against it had superhuman strength.
“I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you’re going to seriously regret this man,” the vampire said.
I crossed my arms and regarded the vampire. The asshole had a lot of bravado, I’d give him that. It wasn’t going to do him a damn bit of good tonight, but he had a pair. Now it was time to break down some of that bravado.
“Are you sure you want to talk to me like that?” I asked.
“Talk to you like what? Do you have any idea who the fuck you’re dealing with?” the vampire asked.
He showed his fangs. It would’ve been very terrifying if I hadn’t seen the same damn thing at least a dozen times in the past couple of nights. At this point I’d killed enough vampires that the sight of fangs was starting to bore me rather than terrify.
Though it had been a pants-shitting experience the first time it happened. Pity for this guy it wasn’t my first time to the rodeo.
“Think this through,” I said. “I just killed everybody who was guarding your little house party, including your two buddies who looked like hired muscle. I knew where your party was. I’ve also killed three other vamps in the last two nights on top of the mass dusting I just pulled at your place.”
I leaned in closer. Close enough that I could smell the vamp’s disgusting breath. Apparently a diet of raw blood didn’t do wonders for oral hygiene.
“Think with whatever brains you have instead of that stupid bravado that isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. Ask yourself, am I really the sort of person you want to fuck with?”
The vampire finally deflated. Just a little. Just enough that I knew I’d have something to work with. Things were probably still going to get messy, but at least I might get what I was looking for in the end.
This asshole was going to get what was coming to him whether or not he talked, that was for damn sure. I had no intention of letting him in on that unpleasant fact, though. I’d learned that it tended to be counterproductive to questioning if the person being questioned knew they were going to get it in the end.
“What do you want?” the vampire asked.
His voice was suddenly subdued. As though he was starting to realize just how much trouble he was in. As though he was an apex predator who’d just realized he might not be quite as close to the top of the food chain as he’d thought.
“It’s simple,” I said. “You tell me where those girls were going and the name of everyone above you in your little trafficking organization and I might let you live. Undie. Whatever the hell it is that most accurately describes your current state of existing.”
I was going to have to get used to talking about creatures that were already dead. It was all too confusing. I wished I could go back to a simpler world where things that were dead stayed dead rather than reanimating and coming at me.
But wishing for it wasn’t going to make it so.
The vampire laughed, but if anything he looked more worried now than before. “You think I’m suicidal? I’m not giving you any of that information! They’ll kill me! I mean, I’m already dead, but you know what I mean!”
I smiled a thin smile. Good. I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with the descriptors when it came to talking death around a vampire. Not so good was the vampire’s reluctance to sing like a stool pigeon.
I’d set the vampire up in my home office. Right next to the fish tank. I figured I’d start with a little experiment that would double as some encouragement to get the guy to talk.
“You know I’ve always been a fan of reef tanks, but they’re really expensive. Not the sort of hobby I should go for on a cop’s salary, but my wife was always willing to indulge me before one of your asshole buddies killed her right in front of me upstairs,” I said. “I could tell she didn’t like having a massive reef tank in the front room, but we do funny things for love.”
I looked at the vampire and smiled as my hand hovered over the wide strips of custom LED lighting. It wasn’t a pleasant smile.
“I’m about to do one of those funny things now,” I said. “Though you might not appreciate the joke as much as I’m going to.”
I pulled out my smartphone. “Y’know it’s amazing what you can do with these things these days? My fish tank is connected to the Internet which means I can program the lights from anywhere on the planet as long as I have Internet access.”
The vampire was quiet. Quiet enough that it was obvious he realized he’d overstepped himself by messing with me. Too bad for him he’d learned that lesson a little too late. A lot of vampires had learned that lesson a little too late to save their pasty skins these past couple of nights.
I looked down at the app on my phone and slid one of the sliders up.
“For example that means I can target individual LEDs. Each one has its own spectrum that combines to mimic the sun down at the equator. The corals love it, but something tells me you’re not going to care for it as much.”
I slid up the master control and they all went up to a blinding intensity. The kind of light that would make a soft coral bleach if I did it for too long. It also had the added effect of causing the vampire to start smoking in a very satisfying way.
“Very good,” I said as the vampire threw his head back and let out a noise that was a combination of a hiss and a roar and a pathetic scream. “Now that we’ve determined all the lights turned up hurt you like a motherfucker it’s time for us to move onto the individual LEDs and see exactly which wavelengths fuck you up the most.”
I grinned. Again it wasn’t a pleasant grin. “You’re going to tell me where your boss is hiding by the time we’re done, but rest assured that the most interesting thing you’ll tell me tonight is which spectrum of light is best at hurting you assholes.”
I moved my thumb down to the red lights. I didn’t figure they’d do much, but I wanted to be thorough in my experiments.
28
The Factory
The Factory. I’d heard of the place, of course. Everyone in town had heard of the place. A club just off campus that had a reputation for getting a little rowdy sometimes.
All the places where townies and college kids got together had a reputation like that. Thankfully the place’s reputation had never been my problem considering it was on the other side of the line separating campus from the city proper.
It was sure as fuck my problem tonight though. The last thing the vampire had admitted before I turned the blue lights to full power was that The Factory was the heart of vampire power in Lee’s Mills and they were preparing for something big.
I didn’t like the sound of that. Something big might account for the sudden rise in vampire activity. Why a group of bloodsuckers who seemed happy to stay in the shadows was suddenly doing stupid things like attacking my family and being more bold and out in the open was beyond me, but I was more than happy to knock them down a few pegs.
I’d seen the same thing overseas. If you could see the bad guys preparing for something when they’d been quiet for a good long while that usually meant something big was in the offing. Something I wasn’t going to like.
I stepped out of my car and got a good look at the place. It was a large relic of the rust belt. A factory that had made car parts back before robots took all those jobs and turned the city into a wasteland of meth heads and, apparently, vampires.
The only thing this place had going for it was the campus, and the people who ran the new hipster incarnation of The Factory had realized that. I’d always wondered how a big club like this was able to stay in business considering how small this city was, and now I had my answer.
It was a front for fucking vampires. I was going to have to do something about that.
There was a long line going out the front entrance and wrapping around the side. I walked right past everyone waiting in line. I got a couple of dirty looks and at least one drunk college kid yelling at me, but I ignored all of them.
I was a man on a mission, after all, and I didn’t give a fuck what some drunk college kids thought of me cutting in line.
I did care what the bouncers at the front entrance thought though. If I didn’t miss my guess these assholes were bloodsuckers, and that meant I was going to have to introduce them to my fists or my baseball bat slung across my back.
The bouncer on the left took one look at me and frowned. “No weapons allowed in there, and you’re going to have to wait at the end of the line like everyone else.”
“I’m here to talk with the boss,” I said.
I wasn’t intimidated by these bouncers. They looked like hired vampire muscle just like the two guys I’d taken out at the house party. If they thought they were going to scare me off with some muscle then they had another thing coming.
“The boss?” the bouncer on the right asked, glancing to the line then back to me.
The meaning behind that glance was clear enough. He didn’t like having this conversation out in public.
Yeah, definite fucking vampire.
“You got a name for the boss asshole?” the bouncer on the left asked.
“No name,” I said. “But this skinny fucker at a house party who was supplying material for your boss told me I could find him here. Had a hell of a time getting that out of him. He screamed nice and good before he turned to dust.”
Their eyes went wide. I figured I was showing all my cards, but I wasn’t in the mood for subtlety tonight. I wouldn’t be in the mood for subtlety until I had Zoey back in my arms and knew she was safe and sound.
The crack about dusting some of their buddies finally got their attention. The one on the left frowned and pulled out his phone. Started tapping into it.
Good. Maybe something was finally going to happen. I looked down the line of people waiting to get into the club and almost thought about warning them about what they were getting into, but I figured they’d just think I was a crackpot who’d completely lost it.
After all, there were already a few people staring at me like I was crazy. No doubt they’d overheard our conversation and figured I was nuts.
Well they could think I was nuts. I’d go crazy if that meant saving Zoey. If it meant saving some of the other college kids around here who didn’t know what sort of danger they were in.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder and it took every bit of control not to whirl around and punch them in the face. After all, it might be one of those college kids I was supposed to protect.
Turns out it wasn’t. Two very well dressed men stood behind me. Both looked a little older. Both looked a little dangerous. At least they had the look that all men who think they’re dangerous had.
I wasn’t impressed.
“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” I asked.
“We hear you’re interested in talking to the boss,” one of them said. “We’re going to take you to your meeting, if you don’t mind.”
The other one, the one who wasn’t doing much talking, cracked his knuckles conspicuously. Both smiled in a way that was probably supposed to be both ingratiating and threatening at the same time.
I was so over being threatened it wasn’t even funny, but I couldn’t help but smile right back at them. This was the first time I’d run up against a vampire who didn’t look like a college kid who’d been recently turned or someone they’d obviously made a vamp because they were beefy and intimidating.
I figured that meant I’d gotten someone’s attention, at least. That was something.
“Fine,” I said. “Lead the way.”
The two guys stepped forward and made as though they were going to grab me. I pulled away. The last thing I wanted was to have a vampire touching me in a part of my body that would make my death conveniently look like a suicide if they slashed me with their claws.
“Do that and we’re going to have one hell of a mess to explain in front of a lot of witnesses with camera phones,” I said, my voice not rising one iota but the threat all the more intimidating for my quiet tone.
At least that’s what I was going for.
“Fine,” the talkative one said. “Follow me.”
So we settled into a funny little walk.
The talkative one went in front, but the silent beefy one walked behind me where he could presumably step in if I started any trouble.
I wondered if the bouncers told them about what I’d done at their little party house over on campus, or if some of the vampires who’d escaped had time to get reinforcements over there so they could see up close and personal what I could do when I was good and pissed off.
I hoped it was the latter. I wanted them to know I was not to be fucked with. Maybe then they’d give me my little girl and I could be done with all this.
Even if I knew deep in my heart that this might not be over even if I found my little girl. After all, they could still decide to come after me. After us if I found Zoey. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I left any vampires out there to continue threatening my family.
To continue threatening other families who were sending their kids to college under the assumption they’d be safe here.
I couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that, damn it.
The talkative one led me around the edge of the factory complex. We were past the end of the line, but only just and I could see people moving in from the parking lot. A mixture of townies hoping to maybe get with a college hottie mixed with the college hotties who kept this place in business.
Finally we turned into a little alley between the main factory and a smaller outbuilding. The alley was dimly lit and it looked and smelled like shit.
Obviously no one had bothered to clean this place up when the factory went out.
I was immediately on guard. It was nice and dark here. The perfect sort of place to take care of someone who was causing trouble, and do it nice and quiet.
“So is the entrance to your boss’s lair down here?”
“Something like that,” the talkative one said with the hint of a laugh on his lips.
Not good. For him. He’d given away their ruse, and I wasn’t in a mood to play any fucking games.
Blake Byron: Paranormal Investigator Page 16