But ever since Brone had come into power, he’d made the darkness—the shadows—that much murkier.
Brone had a plan, a plan that many vampires, Alexander included, believed was best for the future of the vampire race. More important, the Elder believed. Brone had been sent to Kansas to begin work. Alexander and his brother had gone with him. In order to keep the plan moving forward, they had to attract as little attention as possible.
Not an easy task in this hovel of a town the humans called Eudora.
Alexander had always preferred life in the more metropolitan areas of the world. In a big city like New York, London, or Paris, it was nothing to pull a human into a dark alley, feed, and then leave the body there in the filth and grime.
But a small town? Sure, there weren’t as many people to watch out for, but there was something about small populations that made people pay more attention to what was going on around them. Plus, there weren’t many out of the way places in which to drop a body. Not unless you wanted to cart it out into the middle of nowhere, of which there were plenty of in this part of the country.
So, rather than pull his food off the streets and take it out to the sticks, he instead found an isolated home and a lone occupant. Yet, he couldn’t just feed with reckless abandon. He’d found the human, but he’d needed to talk to Brone first. He needed permission. Which rankled him some, but he understood the need for caution.
Brone had allowed the feeding, asking only that Alexander clean up after himself. Thus the fire, nature’s cleanser.
A black van pulled into the drive of the old house. It moved slowly, but with purpose. Alexander made no move to conceal himself, he knew who was behind the wheel.
Thomas, his brother, had dropped him off here at the old house before leaving on a task of his own. A task given to him by Brone. Alexander had offered to share his food, but he’d known that Thomas would decline, which he had certainly done.
His brother, while needing the life-sustaining blood that only the human race could provide, preferred not to take it from its source. It was something akin to the aversion some humans have for eating chicken from the bone. Thomas found the humans unclean and did not care to touch them if it could be avoided. But then, Thomas had always been obsessed with staying clean, even back before they had been turned.
Thomas stepped from the van, a scowl on his face. Alexander tried to recall a time when his brother wasn’t scowling, and smiled when he found that he could not.
“A little extreme, don’t you think,” Thomas said and pulled a small metal flask from a pouch on the tactical gear he wore.
Thomas mirrored Alexander in dress. All black like a soldier from a special forces unit. Except neither of them carried weapons.
“Brone said to tidy up,” Alexander said.
Thomas only grunted as he drank from the flask. Alexander knew that it contained human blood, plus a chemical additive that kept it fresh, but more importantly, kept it from congealing.
“Did you complete your task?” Alexander asked.
“Of course,” Thomas said. “She’s in the van now.”
“She the right age this time?” Alexander asked.
“She is, and I will not be blamed for the last one. I took who Brone chose. If she was too old, that is his fault, not mine.”
“That is between you and Brone, brother,” Alexander said.
Thomas only grunted.
The two stood in silence for almost a full minute as the house burned.
“What are we going to do about Norman Oklahoma?” Thomas said.
“Nothing,” Alexander said. “You know Brone’s wishes.”
“Bertram Brone is nothing more than a bottom feeder who has had one good idea in a lifetime of bad decisions,” Thomas said. Then he spit. “I follow him only because the Elder has commanded it.”
“Brone’s plan should make you happy,” Alexander said. “If he succeeds, you will never have to feed off of another human again.”
“I said it was a good idea. That doesn’t make Brone fit to lead.”
“Regardless, he does lead,” Alexander said. “And he said that Oklahoma is not to be touched.”
“Oklahoma has no idea what we are doing in his town. He’s too busy dealing with this Brotherhood business. Now is the right time to strike, while his head is elsewhere.”
Alexander sighed. “I want Oklahoma dead as much as you, Thomas. But Brone—”
“Do you not feel ashamed?” Thomas interrupted. “Do you not feel the fire in your belly whenever you think of the way the human humiliated us? It’s happened twice now! We never would have let a filthy human get away with that.”
“Of course I feel ashamed,” Alexander raised his voice. “I have thought of nothing but bathing in his blood for two days. He will die by our hands, trust me on that one, brother. But only when Brone says.”
“Bah!” Thomas turned back to the van. “You shame yourself with this unconditional loyalty that you have for someone of such low caliber.”
“My loyalty is with the Elder, not Brone.”
Again there was silence between them.
“We don’t know where Oklahoma is,” Alexander said. “He’s off hunting the Brotherhood. How can we take advantage of his distraction if we don’t know where he is?”
“He will have to come back home eventually,” Thomas said. “Or his office. You can wait for him at the one, I at the other. When he arrives, he dies.”
“When is the appropriate word,” Alexander said.
“We will drop the girl off with Brone,” Thomas said. “After that, we will no longer be needed until tomorrow. If Oklahoma does not arrive by then, we will think of something else, but I will not allow that man to walk much longer on this earth if I can help it.”
“Fine,” Alexander said. “But we must do it in such a way that it does not get back to Brone. It would not do to have the Elder learn that we disobeyed.”
“Agreed.”
The house continued to burn. The two brothers watched the blaze in silence for nearly five minutes before Alexander asked:
“Did you tell Brone about Jenner? About what he is?”
“No,” Thomas said before taking another drink from his flask. “It has no impact on what Brone is trying to do. Besides, I felt it prudent not to embarras myself in front of him once again, not after he learned what Oklahoma had done to the two of us.”
Alexander didn’t respond.
“Why?” Thomas said. “Did you?”
“Of course not,” said Alexander. “You are right. He does not need to know. If, and when he does, I will tell him. Until then, it wouldn’t hurt to keep that little piece of information to ourselves. You never know when something like that could come in handy.”
“Quite,” Thomas replied.
The two went back to watching the house burn. The flames roared high and bright as the internal structure began to collapse in on itself, creating the kind of chaotic symphony one would expect to hear in Hell. So cacophonous was the sound that neither vampire, despite their enhanced senses, heard the car pull into the drive behind them.
Before the two had even an inkling of an idea that they were no longer alone, a woman ran past them. She headed straight for the burning house, stopping only when the heat grew too intense for her.
She turned back to Alexander and his brother. He could see tears in her eyes.
She stumbled up to them.
“What happened?” She said, the panic more than apparent in her voice. “Was he in there? Was my father in there?”
When neither of them answered, she did the unthinkable. She reached out and took Thomas by the shoulders and shook him.
“Answer me,” she screamed.
Thomas did not hesitate. He simply took her head in both hands, twisted, and broke her neck. He let go and she dropped to the ground.
Alexander, watching her drop, wondered for a moment where she had come from, then he turned in time to see the terrified face of a man behi
nd the wheel of an old minivan. The woman must have come with him.
Alexander watched as the man put the van into reverse and sped backwards from the driveway, kicking up rocks and dust. Once in the road, the van shot forward and out of sight beyond the trees that ringed the property.
“Yes,” Thomas said, a hint of a smile ghosting across his face. “You tidy up quite nicely.”
Alexander cursed and ran after the van.
A vampire had many attributes that make it superior to humans in every way. A vampire can’t be killed, except by silver. A vampire is ten times as strong, and they can run almost fifty miles an hour.
In other words, Alexander caught the van less than a half mile down the road. Running alongside the vehicle he could see the panicked driver inside. Alexander smiled at the man, showing his fangs.
The man screamed and the van shot forward. But before he could get away, Alexander rammed his shoulder into the side of the van. It rocked on its chassis, but it was enough to cause the driver to lose control.
The van spun and then flipped as the driver, attempting to get the boxy vehicle under control, over corrected. It landed on the driver’s side and slid off into the ditch.
Alexander jumped, landing on the sliding door of the passenger side. He looked in through the passenger side window at the man, still belted in, still conscious, but scrambling to try and free himself. He was too worked up, however. He didn’t seem to have a lot of control over his limbs as they flailed about, trying to work the seat belt release.
He looked up to see Alexander at the window and tried moving faster, though it did him little good.
Alexander pulled the door from the car and flung it aside. He reached in as the man tried to back away, but he had nowhere to go. Alexander grabbed the belt and yanked it from the van, tossing it out with the door. Then he grabbed up the human, pulled out by one arm, and sent him sailing through the air to meet the door and the seat belt.
The man hit the ground with a back breaking thud, and before he could move, Alexander was on top of him. Having just fed, he made the man’s end quick, breaking his neck like Thomas had done to his companion.
Then, throwing the man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, he walked back to join his brother at the burning house. Without a word he walked over, and into, the blaze with the body, and dumped him off near the center of the house.
By the time he returned, his clothes were nearly burned free from him.
“The girl?” Alexander asked.
Thomas pointed to the burning house and then said, “The minivan? Are you just going to leave it out there on the road?”
“We’re going to have to drag it over to the river and dump it in.”
“Then we drop of the girl and go kill Norman Oklahoma,” Thomas said.
“If things go our way,” Alexander said. “Oklahoma won’t live to see nightfall tomorrow.”
37
THE TASTE OF FEET
OZ’S TRACKING POTION WAS bubbling away in a small cauldron as I joined the wizard in his basement lab.
The basement looked as it had when Diana and I had been by earlier. You’d never have known that a passel of ornery goblins had been set upon the place, only to be burned into ash just hours ago.
Oz sat bent over a cutting board, slicing up some sort of fruit.
“How’s the brew coming along?” I asked. Steam rose from the small cauldron. It smelled of feet, which didn’t bode well for the taste.
“Just getting some oranges ready to add to the potion for flavor,” he said.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned kicking around this planet for the past hundred and fifty odd years is that magic potions are like medicine. It doesn’t matter how much fruit flavor you add, it’s still gonna taste like death.”
Oz looked from the orange slices to me, then back again.
“Well,” he said, sighing. “I suppose I am a bit peckish.”
He ate the orange slices.
“How’s this potion going to work?” I asked.
“Quite simple actually,” Oz said. He walked over to the boiling cauldron and stirred the concoction with a long, wooden spoon. “Once I add the lock of Maggie’s hair you gave me, which is the final step, the potion will lead you straight to her.”
“Right,” I said. “I get that. But how?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how? Like, am I gonna see a glowing yellow line that I follow to Maggie, or an arrow, or will a spirit animal guide the way? What can I expect?”
“Honestly,” Oz said, stroking his long beard. “I have no idea. I’ve never brewed this particular potion before.”
“Oh, well,” I said. “That’s comforting.”
“Sorry,” Oz just shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like it’s ready for the hair.”
“Not a phrase I like to hear before drinking something that smells like feet,” I said.
Oz tossed the lock of hair into the cauldron and the potion let out a little hiss, like the hair had angered it in some way. A thin column of blue smoke snaked from the cauldron and the stench magnified beyond feet and moved into the realm of hooves.
“It’s ready,” Oz said. He dipped a wooden ladle into the potion and filled a small glass with it.
The potion was brown. Then green. Then brown again. Then pink for a moment. Then back to brown.
“This will help me find Maggie?” I asked, taking the glass.
“That’s the idea,” Oz said. “Of course, that all depends on the hair.”
“What do you mean?” I gave the potion a sniff and immediately started to choke and cough.
Oz gave me a few slaps on the back, laughing. I never wanted to shoot a friend more than anything in my entire life.
“We’re going on the assumption that the hair you brought me belonged to the young lady you’re looking for,” Oz explained once the coughing fit had ended. “Do you know for a fact that it belonged to Maggie Keaton?”
“No,” I said. “But it was in her boyfriend’s hand. He’d been holding on to it like a life preserver. Who else’s could it be?”
“No, no, you’re correct. The logical assumption would be that the hair belonged to her. But if it didn’t…” He spread his hands.
“Okay, well,” I said. “Ain’t no reason to put this off any longer.”
I downed the potion in two quick gulps, followed quickly by a fight with my stomach not to bring it back up. I won, this time, and it wasn’t long before a tingle ran through me.
“Well?” Oz said.
“Just a minute. Something’s happening.”
The tingle traveled through my body. It began in my stomach, then set out for new territory. It crackled along my legs and down to my toes as it also worked its way up my torso to my arms, hands, and fingers. Then the tingling stopped and for a moment, I went numb in every corner. That was when I felt the pull.
“Well?” Oz said again, showing his impatience.
“I’m feeling a pull,” I said.
“A pull?”
“Yeah, like something’s pulling at me.”
“Pulling you where?”
“The south,” I said, pointing in that very direction.
“Then south is where you should go,” Oz said. “That’s where you will find young Maggie.”
“Thanks, Oz,” I said, offering him my hand. “Thanks for all your help.”
“You just go get that girl home safely,” Oz said, shaking my hand. “You do that and that’ll be all the thanks I’ll need.”
“Haven’t you gone yet?” Grace walked in with a large, brown, paper grocery bag in her hand.
“I was just leaving,” I said.
“Here,” she said, holding out the bag. “Thought I’d send some food along with you.”
“Thanks, Grace,” I said, taking the bag. “But I ain’t all that hungry.”
“The food is for the girl, numb-skull,” she said. “They could be starving her for
all we know.”
“Right,” I said. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking.”
“No you weren’t,” she said. “You go get that girl, Norman.
“Yes ma’am,” I said.
“And, Norman?” She said as I turned to leave.
“Ma’am?”
“If you gotta rough up them bastards that took her, then you just go ahead and do so,” she said.
“I plan to,” I said. Then I leaned down and kissed her on the check. “I most certainly plan to.”
Ten minutes later I was heading south down County Road Two Thousand. The pull grew stronger the further I went, and when I was just ten minutes out of town, the pull directed me to the right and an abandoned building that had been sitting there next to the highway since the late Seventies.
I ignored the pull and passed by, not an easy task when magic is at play. But if that empty building was where the Brotherhood was keeping Maggie, driving right up to the place would go a big step toward announcing my presence to anyone inside. Especially if they were watching, and they’d be stupid not to be.
I found a side road a half a mile down the highway. I took it, turning right.
Gravel crunched and popped out from under the tires as I looked for a good place to pull over. It’s one of the little things you have to think about before you storm what might be a fortress chock full of murderous zealots and one dark wizard: Where to park the car.
It wasn’t long before I came across an access road that one of the local farmers used to get their equipment in and out of the field to my left. Just beyond that was a small copse of trees. I parked behind those so the car wouldn’t be seen from the road.
The sun had begun to set. I would be dark soon, but I still had a couple of hours before midnight. I’d packed the essentials before going back to Oz’s place. I went around and opened up the back of the Scout to retrieve them.
First, I’d need ammunition. I always prefer to go into one of these little capers without firing a single bullet, but that’s rarely ever happened. It’s like the old saying goes: I’d rather bring along two guns and a few dozen shells and not need them then to come to face to face with a colony of goblins and not have anything to shoot them with. It’s a fairly common saying in my circles anyway.
The Adventures of Norman Oklahoma Volume One Page 21