by R. E. Carr
“Tell me, child, how much do you know about vampires?”
“I know there are four laws, and number one means that I can’t kill him, no matter how much I want to and how convenient it is for you, sheriff.”
The sheriff walked over and inspected Dr. Antonova. The vampire sniffed the comatose woman, then bared her fangs. “She tried drinking from Kevin, foolish woman. Bondsmen come in two varieties—those that can only tolerate one strain of blood, and those that can drink from anyone. The former variety is far more useful, but they are quite delicate if they get poisoned like this. It’s going to be painful for her, you know.”
“What do you want, sheriff?”
The elder vampire sauntered over to Gail and then sniffed her as she had the doctor. Gail somehow found the chutzpah to look the sheriff straight in the eyes.
“You know, when Mina said she took in a stray to help Javier, I initially thought nothing of it. My sister collects all the weak and wounded animals and brings them inside. It’s simply her nature. When she formally made you her ward, I first thought it was a move to piss me off since you were one of my tools but now I’m beginning to wonder if you have some other significance, some importance I haven’t quite put my finger on.”
“Javier liked me and wanted me to have a chance in life.”
“Javier left you at the mercy of me and my idiotic minions. Now, I am sure you have your reasons for keeping things from me, and I don’t think they concern me yet. At some point, however, you need to consider what your true nature is and where you belong. As Gail Harker, your lady is expecting you to protect life at all costs, even the life of someone as loathsome as Kevin Vasquez—the monster who has done so much, not only to you, but to your precious friends.”
Gail froze. She looked at the oozing mess on bed number two with disdain. The sheriff paced around her. “Now, my family takes a more scientific approach. We would study this weapon and the effect it had on these poor people, save them if it was useful, but not move heaven and earth to save them, if you know what I mean. My younger brother’s family is remarkably like mine, now that they no longer have the annoying conscience of the former Lady Pendragon holding them back. Think about it. Then again, you’ve heard all the stories, haven’t you?’
The sheriff walked to the door and smiled. “Take a moment and think. I’m going to get a drink and finally sit down after a very long day. Oh yes, there is a family that would consider this whole scenario rather ridiculous. One can only imagine what a Jaeger would do to someone who wronged them so, or to a servant that failed in her duties. I’ll see you soon, child.”
Gail looked at Kevin lying helpless and shuddering in his bed. Once alone, she walked to the drawers and pulled out a tube of antibiotic ointment. “This . . . is going to be fun,” she said as she approached his bedside.
19
“Could you please repeat your findings, Mr. Sugar?” the sheriff asked. The Harker contingent sat awkwardly in one half of lab two, while a shivering, sunken-eyed Bernard sat in bandages and a bathrobe on the other side, flanked by Jonathan and Nadia. The other werewolves remained absent, along with Maria and the baby. The door to the lab slid open, and Steve looked between Mina and Gail, and the sheriff and Mr. Sugar. He shuffled awkwardly around and took a seat next to Gail, prompting a sly smile from Mina.
“Isn’t that cute?” Gail could just hear from the Harker contingent.
“As I said, Kevin was exposed to a toxic explosion of parmesan cheese, my lady, specifically this Insane Value discount variety,” Mr. Sugar said gravely. “Apparently, this particular brand has been reported for having higher-than-average percentages of fillers, including sawdust and pure cellulose.”
“So, that’s why it felt like we were breathing acid,” Gail said, wide-eyed. Steve leaned over, prompting more titters.
“Bernard had better hope Maria never hears exactly how bad that stuff was.”
“This is what ignited? Tell me, did you make it into a vampire-killing bomb, werewolf?” the sheriff asked Bernard. “Did you create the weapon that ultimately led to my servant’s death?”
Nadia spoke up. “The room was full of parmesan cheese. It was an Italian restaurant. It’s not our fault that your servant did not take into account that there was cheese in the room when he tried to blow us up.”
“You want me to believe that Kevin . . . blew himself up?” the sheriff asked incredulously. “I make no grand claims as to his intelligence level, but even for him, that seems rather idiotic.”
“You can ask Bernard. He is the only one awake who was there,” Nadia replied. “Do you honestly think we would keep explosives in our own lair with innocent humans and our pregnant friend?” She wrapped her hand firmly around the werewolf’s collarbone.
Without his massive beard and long hair, Bernard looked like he was about twelve years old. His rosy cheeks, sunken as they were, further projected an aura of youth and innocence. He lowered his big brown eyes and said sadly, “He’s the crazy dude who wanted to blow people up. I just stacked the cheese. Is that stuff really dangerous?”
Jonathan stepped in front of Bernard. “If my guy says that Kevin blew himself up, then I believe him. I’m sure that no one in our pack would risk the lives of others, just to kill one vampire. I mean, he barely got out of there alive himself, and he doesn’t have a death wish.”
The sheriff rolled her eyes. “Very well, I will rule this matter a suicide. However, if I start seeing large quantities of this poison building up in your lairs again, I may just reopen the investigation. It’s a terrible day when one of our kind passes, no matter who it may be.”
“Kevin didn’t make it?” Steve hissed.
Gail fought to keep the corners of her mouth from going up. “No, no, he did not. It was a terrible way to die too. Sadly, Dr. Antonova hasn’t woken up yet either. The swelling in her brain combined with her weakness from not having any vampire blood seems to be too much.”
“Paige and Williams are still fighting. I wonder if Ma will question them when they wake up . . .”
Gail locked eyes with the sheriff and slipped her the tiniest of grins. She leaned over to Steve. “I think the matter resolved itself in exactly the way she wanted.”
“Nashville has become too much a center of attention for our liking. Despite our best efforts, there have been uncomfortable questions and too many favors to count handed out.”
“Good, then the vampires can leave us alone, and we will stay here,” Nadia replied. Jonathan and Bernard nodded in agreement.
“No, that is not acceptable. My brother is asking questions, and I will have to answer them. I cannot leave a danger in a city with this much exposure and potential revenue. You will leave as soon as possible, preferably to someplace where I won’t hear from any of you for the rest of your natural lives. I will even pay for it.”
“Well then, sounds like a plan. I vote Texas,” Jonathan chimed in.
“You get Canada. Mina has graciously accepted you lot as her problem. Well—she has accepted most of you. Vampires won’t be allowed in her little wildlife preserve, so I’m afraid that leaves you out, Mr. Dean.”
“What?” Jonathan asked, a bit of British accent creeping into his voice.
Mina stood up and took to the center of the room. “I am offering full protection for these last few remaining werewolves—a home where our kind will never find them nor bother them. A sanctuary, if you will. I will give my oath to keep them safe, but the more of our kind that know of the existence of werewolves, the more dangerous it will be for us all. I propose, then, to go back to the peace of the last two centuries. Let werewolves return to being figments of the imagination. We have the perfect stage already set, after all.”
Jonathan eyed Mina warily. Bernard, however, spoke up. “Canada sounds nice.”
“What do you mean by stage, Mina?” Jonathan asked.
“It’s simple, really. There have been all these explosions in town. We cover them up for the humans as expected, but
others of our kind will ask. We simply explain it away as a last daring attempt to rid the world of a menace. Naturally, I tried to stop it—”
“Naturally,” the sheriff added with a sigh.
“And you are the great hero, Ma?” Steve asked. The sheriff shook her head.
“It’s always better when a cause has a martyr, don’t you think?” Mina asked. “While we lost one of our own, his sacrifice does not have to be in vain. Kevin Vasquez will be remembered as a hero who sacrificed himself to save us all.”
“And not a misogynist asshole who blew himself up with parmesan cheese,” Gail added bitterly under her breath.
“So, you are going to promise to keep them safe? What’s the catch?” Jonathan asked.
“Like we said, werewolves get their sanctuary, and the world thinks they are all dead. We can make it very convincing, but our kind must be kept far away from any potential contact with the last few berserkers. Humans and werewolves only, just like the Okinawa accord. None of them can leave, and none of us can enter. The sheriff has offered up one watchman, as have I. However, there is one problem, dear Jonathan.”
“I’m both,” he said, shoulders slumping.
“I’ll allow one vampire and one vampire only into the sanctuary. You can choose who it will be—but I would hate to separate the infant from his mother.”
“Damn it, Mina!”
“Listen, I am willing to let my own child go, so he can live a life of safety. If he chooses to leave, you can take his place, but I’m sorry, my heart isn’t magnanimous enough to suffer alone. If I can’t have him—”
“So, if you have to suffer, I have to suffer too. Is that it?” Jonathan asked flatly.
“Poetic, isn’t it? I will give you three days to decide. That’s the amount of time in which your doctor said he could determine whether Paige will live or whether she will die.”
“And what happens if we don’t go?” Nadia asked, an edge to her voice.
“Lord Pendragon was sent a tape of Paige confessing to the murders of multiple vampires. I’ve been given orders to hunt all of your kind down and kill you,” the sheriff replied flatly. “I made an oath to protect one of your kind, so I made this deal with my sister. You can take your chances with her, or you can take your chances with me. Either way, I will be back in three days.”
“Hey! What about me? You want me to just let my family go?” Steve asked, rising to his feet.
“If you truly care about them . . . yes, yes, I do. You need to remember once and for all who your real family is,” the sheriff said, before storming out of the lab.
Mina walked over to Jonathan, but he shoved her away. “Not now,” he growled. “I’ll deal with you later.”
“Of course,” Mina said softly. “There is someone you really should see.”
Jonathan brushed past her. The other werewolves followed, surprisingly quickly considering Bernard’s wounds. Mina then turned her attention to Gail and Steve. “As long as there are werewolves, our kind will hunt them. The sheriff can be cruel in her phrasing, but in this case, she really is right, you know. If you truly love them, let them go, Steven.”
“Spare me,” he said as he took Gail’s hand and dragged her towards the door. Mina raised a brow.
“Is there something I should know about you two?” Mina asked, bemused.
“Yeah, we both think bloodsuckers are assholes,” Gail replied. “See you in three days, Lady Harker.”
Once they were alone in the hall, Gail tugged on Steve’s hand. “Wait a sec, OK. Please tell me that we aren’t going to take some deal with a big, bad vampire because lord knows that never ends well.”
“It’s not our deal to take or not take, Pumpkin. Something Jonathan said, though, it kinda hit a nerve. I need to think a while. I need to have a good, long think . . . and a fifth of something really alcoholic. Care to join me?”
“Is drinking your solution to everything, Steve?”
He looked to the right, then looked to the left. Finally, he shrugged. “I guess it is.”
They wandered into the empty breakroom, snagging blood and cups like regulars. Steve sneered at the clear plastic and the stark corporate surroundings. “Not to your liking?” Gail asked as she poured him a shot of O-negative.
“Is this really to anybody’s liking?” he asked incredulously. “Who goes, ‘you know what we really need? More putty-colored furniture, and lavender and grey rolled-pile carpeting. Why, hell—let’s add some chipped plastic everywhere and these damn flickering lights that make everyone washed out while we’re at it! Then, once we have the stage set, let’s force people to stay here for nine hours at least, day in and day out, until their souls break.’ Sure, we had offices back in my day, but they had a hell of a lot more style.”
“I never really thought about it. I guess to me, this is comforting and familiar.”
“You poor soul.” Steve pulled a flask out of his pocket and spiked his drink. He offered it over to Gail who dumped an equal measure of bourbon into her cup. Once she was done, he took it back and thinned his blood even further, so that it was more tawny brown than sanguine red. “You know, I used to live in a swanky penthouse . . . drive Ferraris whenever I pleased . . . Hell, I even had a private jet. Now, my life, well . . . it’s this.”
“Do you want me to cry for you or what?” Gail asked flatly. “Boo-hoo?”
Steve tossed back his drink. Gail raised a brow. “Your mom is right. You really do drink too fast,” she sighed as he slammed down his empty cup.
“I’d give it all up forever if it could bring her back. Damn it, that sounds like such corny bullshit, doesn’t it? That’s what I am, though. I’m a drunken mess of corny bullshit, and I can’t do anything—”
“Newsflash, soldier boy—no one can do anything, so get over yourself. If there is one thing I’ve learned in my tiny tenure as a vampire, it’s that nothing really changes but the diet and just how long you have to get screwed over by those who got a head start on you.”
Steve sat back in his seat and just stared at her, blinking rapidly. “And people say I’m a downer.” He went for a refill, this one even lighter on the plasma.
Gail flopped in her seat. She leaned over the table and tugged at her hair. “You said you were inspired by something Jonathan said? What could possibly inspire you that isn’t at least eighty-proof?”
Steve smirked, which was rather disconcerting with his angular face. For the briefest of moments his eyes darkened from green to brown. Gail leaned over to push the hair off his forehead and found a curl mixed in among the stick-straight locks. “Hey, a little bit of you is peeking out.”
“Are you OK? I mean really OK? You always look like you’ve seen a ghost or something, Pumpkin.”
“Is it a vampire talent to change subjects, Steve? Is it something I get to look forward to in a few decades? Also, you’re going to fucking insist on calling me that? Really?” she asked. “And no, I didn’t see a ghost, more like . . . a monster. The sheriff . . . she asked me what kind of vampire I felt I should be. It reminded me of something you said once . . . God, it seems like an eternity ago now. You once told Georgia that you never knew what you were capable of doing—unless you were backed into a corner, when you had nothing left. It’s at that moment—”
“You know who you really are,” Steve finished, his eyes now totally brown. He stared intently at her. “I know that when it was a choice between me and my friends . . . I chose myself. I killed, so I could live.”
Gail returned the stare. “Yes, but would you do the same to someone who was helpless? Would you lash out, just to get revenge?”
Steve looked away. Gail buried her face again. She stiffened as she felt a cool hand on her shoulder. “And here you are . . . worried that you can’t handle the powers you have. I . . . I felt—”
“Gail—”
She finally looked up to face him. “I felt nothing, Steve. No guilt, no remorse, nothing.”
“Don’t say anything else.”
<
br /> “But—”
“You say too much, and we have laws to worry about. Damn these laws!”
“Yeah, they seem to work for everyone but us, huh?” Gail asked. “I’m getting to the point where I just want to say to hell with them, but I can’t say that, can I?”
“Neither of us can. We are trapped. Oh, to hell with it all, right? We’re vampires, aren’t we? We are goddamn bloodsuckers and creatures of the night! Maybe we should start acting like it. Maybe revenge and spite are all we are capable of, right, Pumpkin?”
“What exactly do you propose, Honey Bunny?”
20
“Paige . . . Paige please, if you can hear me, just keep fighting. Keep fighting in there and come back to us. Please . . . just . . . please . . .”
“Where am I?” Paige whimpered as she fluttered open her eyelids. Fairy lights twinkled in the distance and a warm, humid breeze tickled her cheeks and blew the curls off her forehead. Tiny droplets condensed on the glass of cold chardonnay in her hand and trickled down over her fingers. She closed her eyes again and listened to the cicadas and the faint sounds of dishes clinking. Jasmine, smoke, and distant motor oil mixed in her nose creating the damp, heady aroma of a southern barbeque party. Tears welled in her eyes.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? How life can boil down to moments,” a familiar English accent asked. Paige zeroed in on a faded bench in the dark recesses at the edge of the landscaping. Her sandals trampled the grass and she then felt the edge of her seat pushing through the thin fabric of her dress. She smoothed down the sunshiny fabric and turned her attention to the shadows in the yard.
“I know you’re out there.”
“I’m always here,” Lorcan said as he stepped into the light. The wind and moisture had tousled his dark hair and his eyes all but glowed in the moonlight. Paige focused on the Celtic cross earring, the long pale lines of his face, and the intensity of his stare.