“I know, Jill, but what will you do? What do you propose we do? Just run out into the night and attack without knowing what is going on?”
“It’s better than sitting here and waiting for all of the other families to bring their nifty little plan down on us, now isn’t it?”
“Jill…” Saul said, getting to his feet.
Saul saw that Nikki kept looking towards Jill. He tried to tell himself that there wasn’t envy in her expression but it was undeniable. Nikki was hanging on Jill’s every word; she wanted to get back out there and cause some damage. She wanted to inflict pain on anything having to do with Leibald Greely.
“Look,” Jill said, getting to her feet. “I’m going out. The sheriff lady hasn’t even called so maybe it’s not that bad. But I think this is the only way we can get information. This is the best way to stay informed. And I think we need to have all the knowledge we can if there is this huge plan against our family.”
“Fine,” Saul said. “You’re right. But I’m going…not you.”
“No deal,” Jill said. “If our enemies are here in town, they’ll be looking for you. No one even knows I’m here. It’s called the element of surprise. Weren’t you some big fierce hunter at one point? Damn bro, you should know this stuff.”
Nikki snickered at this but cut it short, trying to stay on Saul’s good side. “She has a point,” Nikki said.
“Women…,” Saul muttered and turned his back to both of them.
“If I’m not back in two hours, come looking for me,” Jill said. “But you know I can handle myself.”
“Yes, I know.”
Sensing that this was her only opportunity and that it might fade quickly if her brother changed her mind, Jill left. She closed the door softly behind her and walked out into the night.
“Will she be okay?” Nikki asked.
“Yes,” Saul said. “I have no doubt of that. It’s just that she’s very stubborn. And her stubbornness has gotten her into trouble before.”
“And what do you think? What are the chances that Red Creek will come out of this?”
“I don’t know. But if this plan against us is supported by The Guard, then I don’t think things look good.”
“I still don’t understand why a force so powerful would agree with something like this,” Nikki said. “From the way you explained The Guard to me, they’d do everything they could to prevent this.”
“I know,” Saul said. “But I guess their priorities and goals have changed.”
Nikki stood and walked over to him. She kissed him softly on the mouth and put her arms around him. “It sucks,” she said. “I don’t even know The Guard or what they’re all about and it pisses me off. They’re essentially being bullies.”
“I know.”
“I just don’t get it,” Nikki said. “I don’t understand.”
They hugged one another and as she pressed her face against his chest, she leaned hard into him. “There’s so much I don’t understand about this…about what I am now.”
“You’ll get used to it eventually.”
“I’m sure I will,” she said. “But most of it is just small stuff, really. For instance…I don’t understand why all I can think about is having sex with you while Red Creek is going to hell.”
“It’s just—” he started to say, but was interrupted by her hands.
Nikki undid his pants with a single deft motion and before he could even begin to protest, she was raising his shirt, kissing his chest and then his stomach. She moved expertly, somehow managing to remove her own shirt as she made her way down. By the time her kisses had gotten so low that she had to drop to her knees, Saul had given in. He leaned back against the wall, placed his hands atop her head, and let her have her way.
4
Kara knelt by Jason Eastman and did her best to convince herself that she was back home, in her bed, having some sort of unbearable nightmare. She looked down to Jason and saw that his eyes were open and blinking. He was taking in deep labored breaths, proving that he was indeed alive.
But Kara had seen the blood in his apartment…had seen the gore splashed everywhere. And now she saw his wounds as well, only they seemed to have started some sort of miraculous healing process. Judging from the matted scar along his neck, Jason had nearly been decapitated during his attack.
As she knelt by his body, her entire body trembling, she looked to Lester. He was standing a few feet away and had stopped walking. He looked at her, his skin just as white and colorless as Jason’s. The man behind him had also stopped and was looking at the scene with all the interest of a bad extra in a zombie flick.
Lester opened his mouth and spoke. “Bad…man,” he said. Lester sounded like there was mud in his throat. The quality of his voice made Kara go cold. “Is he…here?”
“Lester…what happened? What’s wrong with you?”
Lester closed his eyes and appeared to either be deep in thought or delving into meditation. Just as Kara was about to say his name again, his eyes opened. He looked directly at her and Kara’s fear diminished. He was gruesome and horrible in that moment, but his face was filled with sad confusion.
“The bad man…he killed me. Bit me. Thought he…was going to eat me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. But it’s not him…not him we need. He was our…our way out,” Lester said, pronouncing each word like a man that had just learned the English language. “But not anymore. Now there is another.”
Because Kara’s focus was on Lester, she shouted out when Jason reached up from his place on the road and grabbed her hand lightly.
“Nikki…Galimore,” he said. “You know her?”
“Yeah,” she said and then thought: God, why can I not get away from that girl lately?
“It’s her. We need to go to her.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. Just do. She was there…in the darkness with us…”
Kara looked around, glad that Red Creek was always dead after ten o’ clock at night. There was no traffic coming from either direction. The street was dead, meaning no one would see her in the midst of this bizarre scene.
“What happened to you?” Kara asked.
“Something…some monster at my window. Same thing…I saw…saw on….”
Even before he finished speaking, Kara thought she knew what he was going to say. The thing that had attacked him was the same creature she had seen on the footage she’d found on his computer. More than that, the intuition that she had come to trust as a police officer told her that the creature was Leibald Greely, the vampire that Nikki, Saul, and Jill had been discussing.
“Am I dead?” Jason asked.
Behind him, Lester chuckled at the question. It was a wretched sound.
“I don’t know what you are,” Kara answered. “But I think we need to find out very soon.”
5
Jill Benton felt like a ghost as she walked through the darkened streets of Red Creek. She’d known these streets well at one time, before her father had been murdered. And now she felt out of place, like an outsider than no one even knew had returned yet. It was surreal—and that was saying a lot considering her past.
Within five minutes of leaving the cabin, Jill had been able to sense that the violence had come to an end. Still, she smelled blood on the air and an unmistakable scent that resembled rot. There were vampires in Red Creek and from what she could detect from the scent, they were new. But now they seemed to have called it a night, as if they were all following orders from some other force. She looked back through her memories and her knowledge of her species, trying to remember any tribe that had powers that could control when and how a new vampire turned. The ability itself wasn’t too far-fetched, but she had never heard of such a thing.
She could smell these new vampires all around her. She was certain that they were in the woods, perhaps hiding much like Leibald had when Nikki had discovered him. She smirked when she realized that vampires were like cars,
in a sense; the new ones had a particular smell to them that was easily identifiable.
Nikki didn’t have that smell, though; Jill had noticed this right away and it was further proof that Leibald’s little love-bite hadn’t turned her completely. Thinking of Nikki gave Jill the stirrings of hope. She’d never seen her brother so involved in someone other than family. But even beyond that, Jill could tell that Nikki had a fierce streak in her. If the plan that Leibald and Benali had described to Saul really did come to pass, Nikki would be a great ally to have on their side.
The pleasant night air made it easy for the scents of the new vampires to reach Jill. It made her wonder if she would actually be able to destroy one of her own kind if she had to. She’d never even been any sort of confrontation with another vampire, as she had been raised to believe that all vampires were sacred.
But apparently The Guard had changed their tune in that regard. Jill felt betrayed and frightened. So, she supposed, she’d have no problem at all killing another vampire, despite the way she had been raised. The rules were different now and she had to get her pre-programmed mind to accept that.
Jill made her way into the central little thoroughfare of Red Creek, ready to head back and tell Saul what she had learned: the violence was over for now and while there were certainly other vampires in town, they were not members of any of the tribes they knew of and were very likely just the recently turned victims of Leibald.
With these thoughts in her head, she stepped out onto the sidewalk of the small and badly-in-need-of-repair Camber Street. Up ahead, a lone cop car sat in the road, its driver’s side door standing open. The headlights washed the street ahead with murky white light. In that light, Jill could see a female figure hunkered down by a fallen man. Further back, two other men walked towards her.
That’s when the smell hit Jill’s nostrils. Vampires…at least one of the men around the woman were vampires.
It was that alarming thought that snapped the scene into place. A cop car…and a woman. This was Kara, attending to someone in the road. It made no sense to Jill. Did Kara not realize the kind of danger she was in?
Jill took off with furious speed. She ran with the supernatural gifts she had been granted long ago, covering the space of one hundred yards in less than six seconds. When she reached Kara’s side, Kara let out a little shriek. When she realized that the blur of motion that had just come up beside her was Jill, she seemed both horrified and relieved at the same time.
Jill took in the situation as quickly as she could. She clenched her fists and felt her fangs slowly protruding from her gums.
“What is this?” she asked.
“This is Jason Eastman,” Kara said, nodding towards the fallen man. “And this other fellow is Lester Dobbs. I’m not sure who this third man is.”
Jill could tell by their scents that they were vampires…but there was something different about them. She smelled sickness on them, something that was nearly rotten.
“Are you hurt?” Jill asked, stepping between Jill and two vampires that were still standing.
“I’m fine,” Kara said, confused. “It’s they that appear to be hurt. They said some bad man killed them. Jason here said that they need to get to Nikki.”
Jill thought about this for a moment. She looked to the three recently turned men and wondered just what was wrong with them. She could tell now that they were not hostile. The fallen one, Jason, even appeared sad.
“Can you get them in your car?” Jill asked.
“I was just about to do that,” Kara said. “I didn’t know what else to do except take them to Nikki. I figured you or Saul would know what to do.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jill said, “but it’s the only thing we have right now. I have no idea what’s going on but Saul might. I hope so, anyway.”
With that, Jill and Kara helped Jason Eastman into the back of the car. Lester and the fisherman got in as well.
“You need a ride?” Kara asked as she closed the door.
“No, but I probably should,” Jill said. “Even if they don’t seem deadly now, you’ll need help if something weird happens between here and the cabin and they decide to turn completely.”
“Thanks,” Kara said. And then, taking a deep breath, she pushed the fear and fatigue away for the second time that night and got back into the patrol car.
6
With a gasp of pure exhaustion and lust, Nikki collapsed on top of Saul. Their naked bodies were intertwined even after sex, as if operating on some primal gear that neither of them could control. Already, Nikki’s hands wanted to explore Saul further, her sex pounding with more than just what he had done to it, but with the anticipation of having him again.
“That was…” Nikki said, gasping. “I used to read in those stupid girl magazines about how some orgasms could make your toes curl. That was one of them. I never came so hard in my life.”
Saul chuckled and looked to his feet. “Huh…look at that. My toes are curled.”
She nibbled at his neck and then rolled away. “Will it always be like this?” she asked. “Will I always have this crazy unquenchable need for sex?”
“No, not always. When a new vampire turns, lust becomes almost as strong an urge as our need for blood. It’s just another thing your body wants more of. It’s the same way you are still getting used to your senses.”
“So I got the supernatural sex drive but not the gross craving for blood?”
“Seems that way,” Saul said.
“Lucky you,” Nikki said with a smile.
They got dressed together, not sure when Jill would be returning. “Nikki,” Saul said, “Are you okay with all of this now? Do you understand, even the slightest little bit, why I got so upset earlier?”
“I do,” she said. “You have to understand how overwhelming this is for me, though.”
“Oh, I can imagine. It’s been a very long time since I went through what you are feeling, but I imagine it’s even harder for you.”
“It is hard,” she agreed. “I’m just glad I have you to help me through it. And not just for the sex part.”
“Yeah, I—”
He stopped there and cocked his head to the left. An expression of intense worry spread across his face as he slowly stepped towards the bedroom door.
“What is it?” Nikki asked.
Saul didn’t answer her right away. He was getting that feeling again—the feeling of being watched. But this time, it was much stronger than the moments before Benali had visited him the first time. This time it felt more pressing. Not only that, there was a sort of electrical smell in the air, a scent that reminded him of particularly violent thunderstorms.
“What is it?” Jill asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said. He opened the bedroom door and walked into the living room. He stopped, seemed to think for a moment, and then headed for the front door.
“Saul, what is it?” she asked. “I can tell, remember? Whatever it is you’re smelling, I smell it, too. It’s sweet, almost like rain on a hot day. But there’s something else…”
“It’s power,” he said. “Lots of it.”
Saul opened the front door and looked out into the darkness. He was so shocked at what he saw there that he took a step back. He collided with Nikki, also looking out of the door. Her eyes were wide with shock.
“What the hell is that?” she asked.
In the front yard, a grey mist had covered everything. Inside the mist, several forms were taking shape. They all looked human; one of them appeared to be the beginnings of a large male that was easily more than ten feet tall.
“Saul? What’s going on?” she asked, taking his hand.
“We’re being paid a visit,” Saul said. He took a breath and stepped out onto the front porch.
Saul pulled Nikki along with him and although she hesitated, she followed. She was part of this now, so there was no sense in keeping her away from it. Besides…if what he was seeing was true and not some sort of tricker
y, there was no escaping it.
“By whom?” she asked.
“The Guard.”
7
“Can you tell me what happened?” Jill asked, looking towards the three men in the back of Kara’s patrol car.
“He came right out of the trees,” Lester Dobbs said. “He was pale. Looked old. Bald son of a bitch. Went right for my neck.”
Jill considered this for a moment, trying to piece it all together. Lester had given a spot-on description of Leibald.
“But he didn’t kill you?”
“Don’t know…,” Jason said. His voice was weak and like that of a man talking in his sleep. “It was dark. He moved me. I was very aware that he was with me and I had this very deep longing to please him. I knew he was the only one able to get me out of that darkness.”
“Yeah,” the fisherman agreed. “He was on me and I think he broke my neck. But after that, it wasn’t death…it was just this sort of dark place. Like sleeping but knowing you were asleep. And although I was afraid of him, I felt like he was a dear friend.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jill said as understanding slowly came to her.
“What?” Kara asked as she sped through town.
“He wasn’t thinking of turning them at all,” Jill explained. “See, some tribes can create vampires to become part of their tribe. But they can also create slaves. These aren’t really meant to help them hunt or kill but to act as servants. Those servants have a very deep loyalty to the vampire that turns them.”
“But Leibald is dead now, right?”
“Yes,” Jill said. “And that’s why they want to get to Nikki. Nikki killed Leibald so their loyalty goes to her. It’s a very strange connection. And the reason they seem so out of it is because it wasn’t Leibald that commanded them to wake up; they woke up because their bodies realized that their connection to their master had been broken because of death. Until they find Nikki, they are, essentially, lost.”
“And what happens when we get to Nikki?” Kara asked.
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