The Cure

by Loren Schechter

  “Don’t put too much trust in Vendetta. When he was with the Mafia as Joey V, he killed a lot of people. He even killed people just to play his violin at their funerals. Watch that Bunny doesn’t play him against you.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “You do that.” He reached out and gripped her hand. “But if things go wrong, you run. Don’t risk your life for me again. Whatever happens, I need to know that you’re alive, that I wasn’t the cause of your death or your becoming one of them.”

  “I can’t agree to that unless you promise to do the same.”

  “Oh.” He withdrew his hand. “Sure.” The lie came easily to him. “I promise not to sacrifice myself again. And you?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Her tone lacked conviction.

  “You didn’t say – ” Hector twisted around on the gurney as the door banged open. Blinding light made him shut his eyes.

  “Kathy! You got to come quick!” Lionel’s voice. “Jesus, Hector, you look awful.”

  “Hector?” Kathy gasped. “Oh my God. What have they done to you?”

  Blinking convulsively against the bright light, Hector tried to spread the johnny over more of the angry welts and bruises that covered his body. There was no way to hide his swollen jaw. “Where the hell is Arvin? I told him no lights.”

  “Lionel told me to put them on,” said Arvin from the doorway. “He said it was an emergency.”

  Kathy’s lips twisted downward, her eyebrows converged. “With packing?”

  “No, no,” said Lionel. “Soo is back.”

  “But she flew back to Korea with her mother.” Kathy sounded shocked into disbelief.

  Hector shook his head. “It makes no sense. Why would she come back to the hellhole she’d just escaped?”

  “Don’t tell me she wanted to save us,” said Kathy.

  “I was so stunned, I didn’t know what to say to her.” Lionel looked close to tears. “Guys, Soo’s been turned!”

  Kathy gasped. “A vampire?”

  “Yes. And she wants to see you.”

  12

  Soo

  With clenched fists and an ache in the back of her throat, Kathy raced through the sub-basement and up two flights of steps to the Admissions Office. Images of her Korean friend flashed through her mind: Soo, shy and fearful on the first morning of school; weeks later, sitting tight-lipped at a library table, struggling to diagram English sentences; Soo crying into her pillow after learning the vampires had taken her mother prisoner; then resolute and fearless in taking on Baneful’s enforcer as he tried to kill them during their escape.

  It was that very same enforcer, school custodian Arthur Bulch, who now lounged against the wall opposite the closed door of the Admissions Office. Bulch was wearing jeans and a black tee shirt which displayed the red and gold emblem of the Satanic Legion over his heart. The vampire’s nose had been flattened and his left ear torn from his head years before he’d been turned, so the large fangs in his smile did not detract that much from his pre-vampire appearance. Kathy had often thought that Bulch’s face looked like a cruder, bleached-out version of the fanged devil that glared from the pentagram of the Legion’s emblem. She slowed to a walk as she approached him.

  “She’s one of us, now,” Bulch gloated.

  Kathy stopped well out of his reach. “Did you turn her?”

  “I wish. She would’ve been a tasty little nip.”

  “What’s happening in there?” Kathy indicated the closed door.

  “Don’t go in. The committee’s deciding whether to admit her.”

  “But she was here this term. She’s been gone for only two weeks.”

  Bulch detached himself from the wall. “Yeah, but she’s a vampire now. Her scholarship was based on her being a warmblood. We don’t know if her parents are willing to pay the full freight.”

  “For God’s sake! You guys locked up her mother and bled her for months until you turned her. Isn’t that enough?”

  Bulch shook his head. “Not enough to qualify for financial aid.”

  “If it’s an Admissions meeting, why are you involved?”

  “Do I look like I’m involved? If she gets a provisional acceptance, I’ll escort her to her physical. Dr. Baneful examines all the newvees.” He pointed toward the door. “This one’s going to get a real thorough exam.”

  Kathy didn’t try to hide her disgust. “She won’t want you guys even touching her.”

  “You think I care what she wants? That little twit fooled me once with her taekwando bullshit; she won’t do it again. Dr. Baneful will clip her wings.”

  “What do you mean? I thought vampires heal quickly from injuries.”

  “We do. But we can’t create new body parts. Otherwise, I’d have another ear.”

  “New body parts?” She almost gagged at what he was implying. “By ‘clip her wings,’ you mean amputation? The Council wouldn’t let you do that.”

  “Once we take over, smart-ass, we’ll make the rules. But how well can vampires without limbs serve Satan? Dr. Baneful has a much better way to deal with rebellious students. He just doesn’t let them hunt. No one here can overrule a medical decision.” Bulch took a step toward her, leaned forward and lowered his voice as if confiding a secret. “Do you know the hell addicts go through when they’re deprived of their drug? All we have to do is keep our little Soo in school for two months straight and she’ll be hurting so bad that she’ll beg to be my house girl for a doggie bag of blood.”

  “You’re disgusting!” Kathy put a hand against the wall for support. Clearly, Soo had to get away from these sadists, but to where? She was in a foreign country, in a state that was anti-immigrant, anti-gay — it would certainly be anti-vampire. Why hadn’t Soo’s mother taken her back to Korea?

  The door opened and Edna LittleHawk emerged in her beaded buckskins, followed by Portia Underlude and two other faculty members. Bulch backed away but Edna came right to Kathy.

  “She’s having a very hard time with it,” said LittleHawk. “Most newvees do. Go in and talk with her. I’ll tell Isadore, and he’ll come up and see her when you’re done.” She looked at Bulch. “The medical exam is postponed. The girl hasn’t committed to the school yet.”

  Bulch shrugged. “Where else can she go? Doc Baneful and I have plenty of time. Let me know when she’s admitted.” He lifted his middle finger in farewell and sauntered away.

  “Beast,” muttered LittleHawk.

  “How did Soo find her way back here?” asked Kathy.

  “She was smart. She went back to the vampire hospital in Boise where her mother was held. We get a weekly delivery from their blood bank to subsidize our free lunch program for students who are poor hunters. Soo hitched a ride in the delivery van. She told the driver she was a newvee student, so he called ahead for an extra mule.”

  “I’ll go talk to her.” Kathy headed for the door.

  “I’ll send Isadore,” said LittleHawk. “He’s seen hundreds of kids go through this.”

  Kathy entered the large office and closed the door quietly behind her.

  “You won’t find a school with more scenic hunting grounds,” Rupert Graves was saying from behind his mahogany desk. The Director of Admissions was so into his pitch that he didn’t shift his gaze from Soo, who sat slumped in one of the baroque chairs in front of him. Short and bald, Graves compensated with a dark moustache and goatee, as well as a raised desk chair from which he held forth.

  Kathy lingered at the door, uncertain whether to interrupt him.

  “Eternity magazine called us ‘the charter school of the future,’” said Graves. “And the Vampire Times rated us the number one preparatory school for undead life in North America. Only a hundred and sixteen students, no more than eight in any class –you can’t ask for more than that. There certainly isn’t anything comparable in Asia. You people are at least a half-century behind. And you, Miss Jung, have the advantage of knowing our faculty, and of having used our excellent facilities. All you need to do to re
-enroll is to call one of your parents to get their credit card information.”

  “I don’t want to be a vampire,” Soo said softly.

  “Oh, Soo…” Kathy murmured, moving toward her.

  “Kathy!” Soo sprang from her chair into Kathy’s arms. “I am so sorry.” A single sob escaped her, then it was as if Soo’s body was a dam breaking, with convulsive heaves and a cascade of tears.

  “Soo… Soo…” Her body’s so cold. “You’ve done nothing wrong. They turned you. It’s not your fault.” Kathy looked over Soo’s shoulder. Graves offered her a smile that expressed limited tolerance.

  ”Please, I’d like to talk with her alone,” said Kathy. “We won’t take long.”

  “Why not?” Graves got up and came out from behind his desk. “Maybe you can convince her that dropping out of school would be a big mistake.”

  As Graves left the room, Kathy eased Soo over to a sofa and sat beside her. Soo’s eyes were bloodshot and tearful, her cheeks wet and much paler than before. Her face was still thin, her nose short and flat. Angry bruises surrounded puncture marks on her neck. Even more shocking were the glistening fangs that could be seen through her parted lips.

  “Oh, Soo.” Kathy threw her arms around her friend as if a loving embrace could warm her. “I’m so sorry. What happened? What did they do to you?”

  Soo heaved a deep breath. Freeing an arm, she pulled a lace handkerchief from her jeans and wiped her face. “It was my mother,” she murmured.

  “Your mother?”

  Soo nodded. “We had to stay one night in Boise before we flew to L.A. She was hungry. So hungry, she wanted to go out of the hotel to kill. I told her killing was not right, that she could get blood from the vampire hospital where she was prisoner. But she was afraid.” Soo swallowed a sob. “She said they were like the secret police in North Korea. They would lock her up again; we would miss our flight home. But she was so hungry she could not rest. I had fear she would go out when I was sleeping.”

  “Oh, God.” Kathy covered her own face with her hands. “You offered yourself up.”

  “I knew you had given a little blood to Arvin in exchange for the door code so we could escape, and you had not become a vampire.”

  Kathy’s hands came away as she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have told you.”

  “It is not your fault. I said to my mother, ‘I will give you a little, but do not turn me into a creature like you have become.’ She said she would be careful, but once she tasted me — ”

  “Jesus! Couldn’t you push her off?”

  “She was too strong. I didn’t understand the strength that being turned gave her – even more, the power of a blood craving.” Tears leaked from Soo’s eyes. “Even now, when you hold me close, I cannot help but crave your blood.”

  Kathy stiffened.

  Soo’s hand rose to shake off any possibility of betrayal. “No, I would never give in like my mother did. She said she didn’t realize how much she drank until I stopped fighting because I was almost dead. Then she felt she had to save my life by injecting her own blood into me.”

  “You believe her?” Kathy asked.

  Pressing her fists against her chest, Soo hunched over. Her voice came from a deeper place. “My heart is torn, but I do not believe what she told me — my own mother. I have thought about it much since it happened. I tell myself maybe she did not know the truth.”

  “What truth?” asked Kathy.

  “That she was angry because she was a vampire and I was not. And that she felt it was my duty to repay a sacrifice.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  With a sigh, Soo lowered her fists and met Kathy’s gaze. “I believe she feared going to the North alone but knew she could not stay with my father and brothers in South Korea. She had sacrificed her life for me, in leaving them to bring me here so I could get a good education. That sacrifice grew much larger as she now must leave her entire family forever.” Soo’s lips tightened and her facial muscles bulged as she held back more tears. “I was to be her vampire companion in exile. But she never asked me if I was willing. I think my love for her would have been strong enough to make that sacrifice. But she did not trust me to decide my own path. She betrayed me. And she betrayed herself. I could not go home with her.”

  “You told her all this?”

  Soo nodded. “The next morning. We argued. I was angry and disrespectful. I was still half-crazy from being turned. She left me money to go home. She said there was no other place I belonged. I would not be accepted or feel comfortable with Caucasians, not even with Caucasian vampires. I said that you and Lionel and Hector would still be my friends. Race matters little among best friends. She said she is older and wiser. Perhaps we would live long enough to see it become unimportant, but not for a thousand years.”

  “You’re right; she’s wrong,” said Kathy. “But you can’t stay here. Arthur Bulch and Dr. Baneful will make your undead life miserable. You’ll come home with me. My father’s away most of the time, and my mother won’t mind, once she gets to know you. She’ll love having another ‘do-good, feel-good’ project.”

  “But I will need blood.”

  “Arvin manages to get it without hunting. We’ll figure something out for you.”

  “We can leave today?”

  “No. We have to save Hector.” She took Soo’s hand. Her friend’s nails had grown long and needle-sharp. “I need you with me.”

  “You have found him alive? Forgive me. I have not asked about Hector.”

  They both jumped as the door banged open. Bunny stood on the threshold.

  “Come on, princess,” said Bunny. “We have to get going.”

  “You have to go?” Soo asked.

  Kathy stood up. “Bunny, this is Soo. She was just turned a few days ago.”

  Soo rose and nodded.

  Bunny barely spared her a glance. “My condolences, kid. Let’s go, Kathy. Vendetta and your friend Lionel are outside already.”

  Kathy took a deep breath. “Soo’s coming with us.”

  “The hell she is!”

  “Otherwise I won’t go.”

  “You said you would, and you’re going — even if I have to carry you across the country in a body bag.”

  Kathy tried to keep her voice steady. “You can take me, you can turn me, and you can certainly kill me, but the thing you can’t get me to do is to make friends with Rose Blood — unless I want to.”

  “I hate teenagers.” Bunny’s tone was icy. “You especially. So remember the options you just gave me. I’m sure I’ll need one before we’re done.” She looked at Soo. “Get your pack, Doll-Face. You have a mule to catch.”

  13

  Getting Started

  Bunny had checked the teens’ backpacks and their mules and had been the last to mount up. She’d been polite to Vendetta but made it clear that she was in charge by goading both mules and riders to move faster along the treacherous path down the mountain. Now, as she led her companions through a grove of trees, she glimpsed sunlight reflected off metal. Thirty yards downhill, a silver SUV was parked on a weedy cut-out beside a dirt road.

  Right where it’s supposed to be, she thought. But they’d be easy targets once they stepped out on the road. Even if Bart still couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a shotgun, some of his Idaho boys could undoubtedly shoot straight.

  She raised her hand as a stop signal, quickly reined in her mule and dismounted. Moving fast and comfortably in her old military fatigues, she tethered her mule to a tree. The layers of sunblock on her hands and face felt less greasy than camouflage paint she’d worn in combat. But leading untrained kids on a mission that could change the world was a whole different ballgame. How would these kids react in a crisis? Well, their safety was Vendetta’s concern, not hers. She’d kill any or all of them rather than let their mistakes scuttle the mission.

  “Why don’t we ride down and unload?” asked Arvin from behind her. “Then I’ll take the mules back.”

 
; “No. We leave the mules here and carry our packs down,” said Bunny. She turned to the foursome who’d reined up behind Arvin. “We’re not going to show ourselves together on the road. I’ll scout it out. Wait for my signal and come down to the car one at a time.”

  Arvin and Soo dismounted, but Kathy leaned forward on her mule. “You expect trouble?”

  Bunny pulled a sawed-off shotgun from her pack. “I always expect trouble.”

  “Hikers rarely come through here,” said Arvin. “That’s why we chose it.” He gathered in the reins of Bunny’s animal.

  Vendetta spoke from the rear of the column. “When the enemy knows where you’re going, he has a big advantage.”

  Bunny noticed how agile Vendetta was in his dismount, how lightly his steel-toed boots touched the ground. In his Joey V persona, he looked fit and forty, not three centuries old. He’d replaced his powdered wig and antique clothes with black jeans, dark shirt and leather jacket. His hair was slicked back like a gangster from a black and white movie. Even without the benefit of fangs, his gaunt face and dead eyes would’ve made most vampires back away.

  Not Edna LittleHawk, thought Bunny. Vendetta had come because of her. What hold did she have over him? An 18th century musician turned hit man couldn’t have much in common with a Shoshone teacher of Ethics. How did she convince him to come?

  She watched Vendetta help Lionel dismount, position both of them between their mules, and scan the tree-covered terrain.

  Bunny frowned. She’d have to watch her back with him. Take him out first if she decided to celebrate a successful mission by bleeding Kathy and the black kid. “If Bart’s going to try to stop us, his best chance is now, before we start out,” she told Vendetta.

  “His child soldiers have no military training,” said the hit man. “He will either plant a bomb or betray us to the authorities.”